Listening to and learning from feedback helps us to improve our services and provide high quality care and treatment to our patients.
If you've used our services we'd like to know what you think. You can talk directly to the team who provided your care or use one of the ways below to give us your views.
It may be a small detail that made a big difference to you, a member of staff who went the extra mile, or perhaps you weren’t happy with an aspect of your care. Hearing your views helps us carry on doing things that work and changing things that don’t.
We regularly ask patients and carers if they would recommend the service they receive to friends and family via our Sussex Experience Survey (previously known as the Friends and Family Test).
The survey is anonymous and provides immediate feedback to team leads, local managers and leadership teams, who use the results to help improve the service we provide.
We display 'you said we did' boards across our services to show what we are doing in response to what people tell us. The feedback is also used by the People Participation team to support participation activity across the Trust.
The survey is available in a number of formats and languages.
Text message
You may receive a text message with a link to our Sussex Experience Survey following your appointment. The message will come from 'SPFT Info' and look like this: 'Tell us about your recent experience of Sussex Partnership Services. If you would prefer not to receive these messages, please speak to your care co-ordinator.
Online
You can complete the survey online or via an app on your mobile phone - ask your service for the four digit code you need.
Search Sussex Partnership in the Google App Store on your mobile phone
If you are having trouble finding the four digit code or you need further information or assistance please contact participation@sussexpartnership.nhs.uk.
Our Patient Advice and Liaison Service (PALS) is an information and advice service for patients, relatives and the public to ensure your experience at Sussex Partnership is a positive one.
Our Participation team work to champion the voice of people with lived experience to help shape the design, development, delivery and evaluation of our services.
This includes acting on national priorities such as the development of peer support and integration of the recovery approach as well as creating opportunities for collaboration between staff, service users and their friends, family and carers.
There are a range of ways to get involved:
Working together groups - open forums where people with experience of using our services meet to share views and ideas to resolve issues and work with staff to make service improvements.
Expert by Experience Programme - workshops for people to gain skills to get involved in a range of participation activities.
The workshops are an opportunity to recognise and build upon your skills and knowledge in participation and involvement and cover recruitment, getting involved in meetings and quality visits to services. Participants are invited to join a database through which opportunities are listed.
Sessions are open to service users, past and present, as well as their family, friends and carers. The course explores how to communicate your personal experiences in a way that can create meaningful changes in services and supports you on your recovery journey. Find out more in this short video:
If you are interested in actively getting involved to help improve mental health services this could be the workshop for you.
Our volunteers participate in a range of non-clinical activities across the Trust to complement the work of healthcare professionals and enhance the experience of our service users. We welcome volunteers from all areas of our diverse community.
If you are interetsed in volunteering with us see our volunteer page.
Care Opinion is a website where you are invited to tell your story and make a difference. Everything you say is anonymous. The Care Opinion team let us know when they have received a story about our services so we can learn from it and respond.
Every year NHS mental health services across the country are asked to send a questionnaire to a random sample of 850 people who have used services in the previous year. The survey results are collected and published by the Care Quality Commission, the independent regulator of health and social care.
