I was honoured, this week,
to attend another Cygnet Healthcare event: ‘Cygnet Nursing Conference: IsCo-production the answer to reducing restrictive practice?’
Being invited to
conferences, I like to make sure that I:
1. Understand the topic,
2. Have an interest in the
topic, and
3. It will be relevant to
readers.
When friends and family
were asking what the event was about, I simplified it (not to sound patronising
or condescending) with ‘talking about how working together can result in less
restraints and forced medications and
things(!).’ Number one? Check!
Co-production is the buzz
word of the mental health industry right now; professionals are all promoting
working alongside service users to create; a better experience of services, a
safer environment, and a better understanding.
My personal experience of mental health services (as a whole) has been
that staff would tell service users the rules and there were ‘punishments’ when
they weren’t 100% adhered to. As my mental health improved, I began to see that
what would be easier, is to work together; there could be no understanding
without equality. Number two? Check!
The conference was centred
around mental health. Number three? Check!
It was an early start - as
most events/conferences are – but refreshments in the registration room and Rafik(Raf) Hamaizia’s cheerful, and positive Welcome speech seemed to have everyone
eager for the day ahead!
Raf Hamaizia, Expert By
Experience for Cygnet Healthcare, chaired the entire event and gave his own
insight after each presentation from his personal experiences of mental health
services and crisis. Until lunchtime, he was joined by Doctor Geraldine Strathdee OBE, the National Clinical Director for Mental Health, NHS England;
who just so happened to also, give the first talk. Dr Strathdee ‘set the scene’
for the conference by discussing an overview of the current challenges and
opportunities in mental health. I particularly picked up on her piece about the
statistics surrounding adverse childhood experiences e.g. sexual, physical, and
emotional abuse etc being linked to those suffering from a mental health
illness in later life.
After Dr Strathdee’s
promotion of the NHS Choices website (the Mental Health part in particular) we
heard from Rosayln Mloyi, and Nick Horne; both Reducing Restrictive Practice
Leads at Cygnet Healthcare. Rosayln and Nick provided context on the current
national progress in restrictive practice, and talked about the impact the
Winterbourne Review had on this.
The next talk was one I’d been
greatly looking forward to since spotting it on the agenda; a fellow Expert By
Experience, Iris Benson, MBE, spoke about her own experiences of restrictive
practice and discussed why reducing such practice is so important and the
impact it will have on service users. Iris talked, openly, and emotionally,
about being in a mental health crisis and finding herself curled up in the
corner of a room, reverted to a childlike state as a result of her difficult childhood, and how unhelpful it had been to have staff 'go hands on.' She talked about how, in that moment, it was the worst thing a person could do to her, and how being aware that this was the case, would have stopped both her, and the staff, from going through such a dramatic restraint. When Iris finished I had tears rolling down my cheeks!
I hear it a lot when I
speak at events – that hearing from a service – or ex- service user, is usually
the most powerful and interesting presentations, but I’d never experienced it
as a member of the audience before.
After a refreshment break,
I found that I was sitting on the table with all of the speakers on, and so it
was nice to hear Geoff (but I insisted on calling him Geoffrey!) Brennan get up
and talk more about the ‘Star Wards’ programme that he’d briefly chatted to me
about. Geoff talked about the benefits of getting involved in ‘Star Wards,’ the
criteria that must be met to be awarded the title, and he also, read a few
statements from previous winners about how rewarding, and important it felt to
be named a ‘Star Ward.’ Geoff described the programme as ‘harnessing staff’s
creativity and skills to make changes to their particular circumstances and
patients.’ It was brilliant to hear that the Cygnet hospital I’d once been a
patient of (Cygnet Bierley) had two wards awarded the ‘Full Monty Award’ for
meeting all 75 of the ideas and suggested changes that Star Wards promote for
any Ward wanting to participate.
For the next half an hour,
Raf, Julie Kerry, Director of Nursing and Patient Experience for Cygnet
Healthcare, Nick Horne, and Wayne Saville, Independent Expert By Experience;
took over the stage. With a presentation on defining ‘co-production’ and
discussing how it can reduce restrictive practice, the team were able to
provide a practical example, using ‘Safe Wards’ – not to be confused with Star
Wards… Although they do support one another!
After lunch, we gathered
back in the conference room for an hour long discussion on ‘Real Life Examples
of Co-Production.’ We heard from Occupational Therapy staff; Neil Voakes, Lead
Occupational Therapist and Andy Clements, Involvement and Recovery College Lead,
at Cygnet Hospital Bierley; as well as an ex-service user from the same
Hospital. The three, as well as Patrick Bannon, Multi Media Tutor at Cygnet
Hospital Bierley; put together a three-piece video on co-production in
inpatient services. After their presentation, when they asked if there were any
questions, I told the audience how when I’d been an inpatient at Bierley the Occupational Therapy department were probably the most disliked in the entire
Hospital. Timetables of groups were seen as a punishment and it seemed like OT
staff were ‘banging their head against a brick wall’ in their battle to convince
service users otherwise. So it was great to see such creative and positive work
from them! And I thought that everyone at the event should know because for
them, they could just see the excellent work Bierley are doing, they had
nothing to compare it to so as to properly appreciate the work.
Finally! We hear from
Doctor Broadie Paterson, a registered mental health and learning disability
nurse with a background in challenging behaviours and degrees in Psychology,
Education, and Social Policy. He discussed the importance of co-produced
de-briefs following the use of Restrictive Practice and talked about how
perhaps it wasn’t just necessary for the staff involved, but also for the
service user and for other service users who may have witnessed the practice or
been affected by it in some way. 
I think that this event was
perhaps one of my favourites. It’s always great to travel to London and to work
with Cygnet Healthcare; I feel like they take such good care of me (I don’t
want to speak on behalf of others) and fully appreciate the work I do. The
event was interesting, very understandable, and full of lovely, friendly,
supportive people.
I hope that everyone in
attendance like this post! (Especially since it’s taken a lot of hard work to
put together after losing all of my notes from the event!)
