Volunteers are a key tool to achieving the next stage review - DARZI objectives, making the service provided to patients more Personalised, Fair, Effective and Safe.
Discussion paper on issues around volunteering and personalisation
Case studies
Personalised Care - The ‘V' Team in Maidstone, Kent
The ‘V' team is made up of a range of people aged 19 to 56 years old; 90% of whom have mental health difficulties of varying degrees. Over half the volunteers have depressive symptoms and a third describe them selves as having manic depression. Three have been in the care system. The ethos of the scheme is to give service users a sense of purpose and help integrate them back into their community.
Volunteers carry out small projects in their community for people with little income or resources, for example by gardening or decorating. People receiving this service also benefit. The majority are elderly or disabled people who require help with tasks such as moving furniture, do-it-yourself work and tiling, for example. This allows people to manage their homes and gardens so they may continue to live in and feel equal members of their local community. Each day different activities are carried out in all weathers and despite volunteers being diverse and with a range of personalities and skills, there is something to fit everyone, and all jobs are risk-assessed before they begin.
Team participants are mainly self-referred, usually after contacting the local Volunteer Bureau. Some are referred by Social Services, a Social Worker, a Community Psychiatric Nurse, a therapist or through another service.
Training is given on-the-job as each job requires a different level of skill and expertise. The Team Leader is generally responsible for training and works with groups of a maximum of three volunteers, but volunteers also share their knowledge and skills with each other.
The benefit of the scheme is that it is tailored made to suit the individual. As the volunteers have complex and long-term mental health issues, and are often in and out of health care, they enjoy the scheme as it offers flexibility and fits around their variable moods and circumstances, in a way that would be impossible in paid work. As a result of their volunteering, participants report that they have increased confidence and self-esteem.
For further information, please contact:
Jackie Preston
Maidstone Volunteer Bureau
Maidstone Community Support Centre
Marsham Street
Maidstone ME14 1HH
Tel: 01622 677337
Email: volunteers@mvb.org.uk
Fair - Rampton High Security Hospital, Nottinghamshire
Rampton Hospital has approximately 380 patients and prior to admission every patient must fulfill two criteria. First they must be detainable under the Mental Health Act 1983, under one of the following classifications:
- Learning disability
- Mental Illness
- Psychopathic disorder
Second, they must be considered to require a high security hospital placement. The high security available within Rampton Hospital is of such a kind and degree to detain patients who, if at large, would present a risk to others in the community and who could not be safely contained within the security at a Regional Secure Unit. The hospital operates within a secure perimeter and access must be authorised.
The majority of patients at Rampton are male, and 26% of patients are black or from ethnic minorities. The average length of stay at Rampton is seven years but many patients have been there for much longer. Patients who leave Rampton are unlikely to go straight into the community and usually go to a Regional Secure Unit within a general psychiatric hospital.
The two part-time Volunteer Co-ordinators at Rampton provide a befriending service to patients who have no friends (or other visitors). -This means recruiting, training, matching individual volunteers to patients and providing support to those volunteers when they make their monthly visits to the hospital. Volunteers are recruited by various routes, including word of mouth, and come from across the East Midlands. It is important to recruit volunteers who will match the patients, such as finding a befriender for a patient who only speaks Polish and the Volunteer Co-ordinators speaks to a range of groups, including black men’s groups and church groups, to recruit appropriately. There are currently 45 active volunteers each supporting at least one patient within Rampton. 25 are women and 20 men, 7 of whom are from ethnic minorities, and they provide a service across the range of diagnoses and ethnic minorities within Rampton. There are currently 16 volunteers being trained of whom 3 are from ethnic minorities.
Most patients are referred by Social Workers within Rampton, but there are some referrals from named nurses (key-workers) and self-referrals. Having met the patient, social worker and nurse the Volunteer Co-ordinator will propose the prospect of a befriending volunteer to the Clinical Team who will make the decision as to whether this would be appropriate for that particular patient.
In order to protect both the patients and the volunteers every patient receiving visits from a volunteer has to sign an agreement which rules out manipulative behaviour and also agrees that the volunteering relationship will end when the patient leaves Rampton. Obviously they may seek another befriending volunteer in another hospital, if that service is available. In many cases the fact that a patient is visited is part of their Care Plan, and for almost all patients their volunteer visitor is the only person they see who is not a paid professional. There are occasional cases where a patient may re-establish contact with their family but the befriending relationship would not be withdrawn in these circumstances.
All potential volunteers are CRB checked and attend a three day induction course. Once they have been allocated to a patient and start monthly visiting the Volunteer Co-ordinators would see them at least every third visit, and some volunteers are de-briefed after each visit. The Volunteer Co-ordinators also provide opportunities for group support, by organising ad hoc training sessions to inform volunteers about new services or practices within the hospital.
There is also a canine volunteer – a volunteer who brings a dog to befriend a patient with learning disabilities who finds it very hard to relate to people – and there is no doubt that this has had a positive effect on this patient and those around him.
For further Information please contact:
Janet Phillips and Val Strawson
Volunteer Co-ordinators
11 Galen Avenue
Rampton Hospital
Retford
DN22 0PD
( 01777-247571/247653
janet.phillips@nottshc.nhs.uk
valerie.strawson@nottshc.nhs.uk
Effective - Buggy Service at Northampton General Hospital
Northampton General Hospital is a typical large sprawling hospital and many out-patients find it hard to walk from one part of the hospital to another or from the hospital entrance to the clinic they need to attend. Wheelchairs are provided but can be difficult for relatives and carers to use.
Eighteen months ago the local Rotary Club raised £3,500 to buy an electric buggy to transport patients who have difficulty walking around the hospital, and in its first year 7,800 patient journeys were made within the hospital building. The service now has regulars who use it each week, and who say how it has made access to departments so much easier.
The buggy seats two people, plus a volunteer driver. There are thirteen volunteer drivers who cover morning and afternoon shifts to provide a service 9-4 Monday to Friday. The buggy volunteers carry a bleep and the buggy is called by volunteers at the hospital entrance information points, or by members of staff who want a patient to go to another part of the hospital (eg from an out-patient clinic to X-ray)
The Trust maintains the buggy and the hospital Security Manager provides training for the volunteer drivers. They then practice at times when the hospital is quieter, such as the evenings, and when they feel confident they are tested by the Security Manager before they start taking passengers.
There is a similar service at Reading Hospital and a number of other hospitals are looking at developing a similar service.
For Further information, Please contact
Sheila Baker
Voluntary Services Manager
Northampton General Hospital NHS Trust
Friends Of Northampton General
Cliftonville
Northampton
NN1 5BD
01604545802
FriendsofNGH@NGH.NHS.UK
Safe - Leicestershire, Northamptonshire And Rutland Cardiac Network
Some of the highest instances of coronary heart disease in England and Wales are in Corby and Leicester, and patients from Corby attend Kettering District General Hospital where a new Catheter Laboratory is due to open in June 2007. In the past patients from Corby and Kettering had had to travel to specialist heart services at different hospitals throughout the country, so had plenty of experience of different services and how they were delivered. Kettering Hospital decided in 2005 to set up a Cardiac Patient Council to support the business case for the new facilities, and involve patients in the design and development from the beginning.
Impact on services
Patients were involved in the design of the new building before work started, and commented on waiting areas, size of offices, space for private meetings with clinicians etc, based on their good and not so good experiences in other hospitals
As building work progresses Cardiac Patients Council members will be involved in planning and commenting on the internal design and signage, to ensure it’s easy for patients to find their way round and get to the right place
Patients have commented on information materials, and found an error in a document that had already been scrutinised by two professional committees and which was just about to go to print
Recruiting and supporting volunteers
The group was recruited through articles in the local paper, which led to a feature on the local radio station, as well as posters in libraries etc. The group met for the first time in September 2005 and now meets every two months, with eight core members and a similar number of corresponding members. Members of the groups come from the northern half of Northamptonshire and meet in a building in the town centre, with easy parking and travel access. Although they have all had a heart incident most people make a sufficient recovery so as not need any special support to participate in meetings. There is an ongoing programme to recruit new members by inviting then to join when they attend the education talks given at phase 3 of Cardiac Rehab programme, posters on the hospital information boards, and the ‘Discovery Interviews’ programme which is part of the evaluation process for all cardiac patients at Kettering Hospital.
The group has developed Terms of Reference and there is an induction pack which provides information for potential volunteers to participate. Once an individual has expressed interest in the group they receive the induction pack and then a follow up phone call before they attend their first meeting.
Future developments
Members of the Cardiac Patients Council are now starting to work with current patients, to assist them with a patient journal which is a helpful tool in evaluating and improving services. Individuals need to be CRB checked and undergo health screening before they can undertake this role with other patients.
There is a new group due to start meeting at Northampton Hospital in June and there are plans to develop similar a scheme at University Hospitals Leicester NHS Trust
For further details, please contact:
Ben Knight
LNR Cardiac Network
Service Development Team Manager
01536 493355
ben.knight@kgh.nhs.uk
www.improvement.nhs.uk
www.heart.nhs.uk
