More than 300 people with lived experience of mental health services are ensuring patient voice remains at the heart of transformation at Essex Partnership University NHS Foundation Trust (EPUT).
This Co-Production Week (30 June to 4 July) and every week of the year, Lived Experience Ambassadors are working alongside staff at the Trust to shape improvement of the mental health, physical health and learning disability services it provides to 3.2 million people across Essex and beyond.
In the last three years the number of lived experience ambassadors at EPUT has increased fivefold, with many employed in specific roles to ensure patients have a voice, are supported throughout their care and that families and carers are fully involved in decisions about their loved ones’ treatment.
Among them are Peer Workers, who draw on their own experiences to walk side by side with patients through their care on mental health wards, offering hope to others through their own recovery via one-to-one and group support.
New Family and Carer Ambassador roles in place this year also see people with personal experience of mental health services support families through the care of their loved ones, ensuring the views of patients and carers are heard, any concerns are acted on, and aiding communication between clinicians and families.
Both roles have been recruited to as part of the Trust’s transformative Time to Care programme, designed to ensure patients receive personally tailored care to support them with their long-term recovery.
They form part of a new staffing model which broadens the range of skilled staff working on EPUT wards as a multi-disciplinary team ensuring that patients receive a rich and varied programme of treatment, activities and care every day and working towards planned, appropriate discharge support by the Trust’s community mental health teams.
This is just a small part of the picture and sits alongside co-production taking place every day to ensure that learning from lived experience is driving improvements across all areas at the Trust.
People with lived experience are also involved in staff training, helping ensure staff at EPUT have the skills and knowledge to provide compassionate and informed care, the design of new services, interview panels for managerial roles, and gathering feedback from patients and their families to help drive meaningful improvement.
Many take part in the Trust’s Buddy Scheme, which sees student mental health nurses paired with someone with experience of services to listen to their experiences and understand how they can improve the care they provide others. The Trust has also recruited Lived Experience Ambassadors who are autistic or have a learning disability to help deliver the Oliver McGowan training on learning disability and autism.
Matthew Sisto, Director of Patient Experience and Participation, said: “Working closely with people with lived experience of services and their families is enabling us to learn from their experiences to drive sustained change, ensuring that patient voice runs through the core of our organisation and that we champion the role of families and carers in the care, treatment and recovery of their loved ones.
“Lived experience ambassadors are a vital part of the team at EPUT and I’m proud to work alongside them to ensure we deliver compassionate and informed care to patients when they need it most.”