Pictured: East Lancashire Hospital Chaplain, Reverend David Anderson
Work led by a hospital chaplain from East Lancashire at improving the experience of patients affected by mental health issues has achieved national recognition.
East Lancashire Hospital NHS Trust Chaplain David Anderson, who is also a registered psychotherapist, clinical research paper into this topic was published by Nursing Times in February and created a great deal of interest.
David was subsequently contacted by Dr Sarah Wollaston MP, Chair of the Health and Social Care Committee, asking for further information about the progress of his work and its impact on patient experience at East Lancashire Hospitals NHS Trust. Dr Wollaston recently chaired the government’s national enquiry into suicide prevention, arguing that suicide is never inevitable.
In 2017, the Trust had over 1,700 patients attend its emergency department due to feelings of self-harm and suicide and David’s work aims to ensure the Trust offers all these patients safe, personal and effective care.
So far over 150 ELHT staff have received reflective training, led by David, about how to support patients affected by suicidal thoughts and feelings of self-harm, with staff giving excellent feedback.
Training has been given in a wide range of settlings to enable staff to attend, including 30 minute sessions on wards to small groups, and further staff are due to experience the training in the coming months.
At the heart of the training is an opportunity to hear from the patients themselves speaking about their experience of our care on our wards, both good and bad.