Last year we carried out a survey to ask our service users about their experience of using our services during the pandemic.

We know how difficult it has been for everyone during this period, especially if you're already receiving support.

We wanted to know about what's gone well, what hasn't gone so well and what we can improve on.

All staff working in the service were also contacted to listen to their experiences of providing care during this time had been.

We received 30 responses to the survey from people receiving support from our Specialist Psychotherapy Service's Mood Team, with lots of really helpful comments.

We would like to say a huge thank you to everyone who has taken part. Your feedback is really important to us and we have been considering it carefully.

Return to face-to-face appointments

You said you wanted to return to face-to-face appointments

We organised a rigorous risk assessment in order to re-open the building. In order to do be able to see clients safely it meant that our capacity of number of face-to-face appointments had to be reduced.

We reviewed all of our clients and prioritised those who needed the face-to-face support. This is under constant review in line with changing recommendations.

With the latest lockdown we had to review the situation. Each appointment was reviewed on a case-by-case basis to see if it was still appropriate and safe enough (for both the client and the clinician) to meet face-to-face. In some cases the decision was made to move some clients back to online appointments and we ensured that this was communicated to them via their key worker.

For those where we weren’t able to offer the face-to-face support we have been exploring better online options such as Attend Anywhere which has received positive feedback as an alternative to meeting in person.

We have also worked on ensuring that the face-to-face appointments are as beneficial as possible and have been exploring the use of ‘see through’ masks to help with communication.

Waiting list

You said you were waiting too long for your appointment. We have highlighted this as an area that we need to work on urgently.

It is the focus of our quality improvement meeting and some additional meetings have been set up specifically to review the waiting list.

The use of the website is being explored as a way of keeping those on the waiting list informed about what is going on and a source of useful information whilst you are waiting for your therapy.

Psychodynamic Therapy Group

You said you wanted to be able to attend the Psychodynamic Therapy Group in person. As a quick fix we arranged for some outdoor meetings to take place.

The feedback was that these weren’t suitable for various reasons. So, we found an alternative room at another site in order to meet safely. This was not at St Georges as the risk assessment showed there wasn’t enough space for groups to move around the building and meet safely.

Find out more

To find out more or to see the results in more detail please email the Quality Improvement Team qiteam@shsc.nhs.uk or speak to someone from the Mood Team.