Mental health services in Cumbria have improved patients' experiences over the past year.
The Care Quality Commission have published the results of an annual survey.
The services were awarded a 7 out of 10 by patients for the overall experience they received.
In Cumbria, the results also show that there have been some clear areas of improvement since last year’s survey:
Service users were asked if they know who is in charge of organising their care - the Trust scored 8.4 out of 10 for this, compared to 6.4 in 2014.
Those who know who is in charge of their care were asked if they were able to contact that person if they had any concerns. The Trust scored 9.7 out of 10 compared with 8.5 last year.
Last year the Trust scored just 5.5 out of 10 when service users were asked if they had a formal care review meeting to discuss how their care is working in the last 12 months. Now that score has increased to 8.0 out of 10.
When service users were asked to rate their overall experience of using community mental health services, the Trust scored 7.0 out of 10, which is the same as last year.
Nichola Sanderson, Associate Director of Nursing for Cumbria Partnership NHS Foundation Trust said:
“We are very keen that the voice of the service user and carer is listened to at every opportunity and the community mental health survey is a really important part of us understanding and listening to the their views. We are pleased that we are performing in line with national standards, and have made some significant improvements to patient experience in the past year. For example we have implemented clearer pathways for patients who require urgent mental healthcare to ensure that they can access support sooner in which we have involved carers and service users to ensure we are meeting the needs of all. We have also launched our carer’s strategy this year.
However, there is much more to do and we are working to develop our services so that they are more focussed on supporting people with mental health problems to recover and living as independently as possible.”