Group work with Care Opinion – there’s always strength in numbers

In Sheffield Tim and Andrew have been on the road with Care Opinion working with different user groups and individuals who use social care. One of these groups, Partners for Inclusion (PfI) offered to help run a service user engagement workshop at The Circle (PfI are a user led disability consultation group who work in partnership with the local authority and local health authorities in Sheffield).

We were also invited to attend a People’s Parliament event supported by Sheffield City Council and Sheffield Health & Social Care NHS Foundation Trust at the Town Hall. This event helped us to gather stories from people with a learning disability about their support providers. Whilst 20 individuals attended the PfI workshop, including those with a physical impairment, some with learning difficulties, those people with mental health problems and others with sensory impairment. Other people vital to social care are the estimated 50,000 + carers actively engaged in the care of a loved one in Sheffield and we were invited to a carers group meeting organised by Alzheimer's Society Sheffield.   

The stories from the People’s Parliament make up what many young people with learning difficulties feel are important aspects about their health and well-being and becoming and staying independent. Each story is not long or overly descriptive but each story is an important piece of information, demonstrating the role people with learning difficulties should play in developing the services they use to aid their independent living.

"There are good services out there, and sometimes people who support you need to help you find out what choices there are for people with a learning disability"                                                                                                                      People's Parliament Participant

The PfI event feedback included that from someone with visual impairment who spoke about the lack of training or skills in care homes for older people where, as someone with a sight impairment and Disability Equality Trainer (DET), they told the group, “One member of staff directed me to the elevator by saying it’s down there on the left”, instead of being guided there by a staff member who, given the group of clients she was working with, should have had training in how to escort people with visual impairment”. Many agreed that DET would help improve services.

The 9 family carers who attended the involvement event run by the Alzheimer’s Society Sheffield discussed the impact of bad health care on the health and well-being of people with dementia. The carers feedback included one carer's account about how distressing it had been to visit a relative who had dementia in hospital to find them in dirty wet clothes. Several carers agreed when someone talked about their concerns for the future, if they ever needed to go into hospital and what would happen to the person they cared for?   This was a significant worry for them. 

The group work concentrates on an interactive session to look at the way that Care Opinion works and how it can show feedback for social care providers. These are important events as they help to make sure that the new website and the feedback process works well for everyone – for providers but for social care users and their supporters.

Importantly, those disabled people who took part felt safe with the peer support environment and the way they could leave feedback and this helped them trust the Care Opinion website which also proved accessible and relatively easy to use.

We are not suggesting you put too many resources into collecting group feedback as ultimately Care Opinion and Patient Opinion is about empowering the individual and their own stand-alone story, but sometimes there are many for whom this group approach works and the peer support can be essential to their participation. With added benefits of creating closer ties with service users and creating public awareness about services. 

You also have to think carefully about resources you will need to support specific impairment groups, for example at the PfI event we were lucky to have the support of Healthwatch Sheffield to aid everyone's participation. Also, you can obtain laptops and tablets or have volunteers to help people write their stories on feedback leaflets.

Care Opinion suggests subscribers take every opportunity they can to carry out health and social care user engagement within a group setting. Be these groups of customers, service users, carers or whether they are conducted through community, faith or third sector groups. Why? Well, because there is always strength in numbers. 

If you want advice on running a group workshop then please contact Andrew or Tim at Care Opinion on 0114 281 6256 or info@careopinion.org.uk We will set up a small pack of resources for your group meeting date. It is best if stories can go directly onto the site during the workshop so much the better.  It shows people how easy it is for them to share their story publicly and anonymously.

After the group meeting you can collect all your stories together and send them to those that matter. Please do respond to our posting and let us know about your experiences and/or any top tips you may have for others thinking about hosting a group workshop. To get the best from your group work it is advised to do what you can to download the stories during the workshop.

After the group meeting you can collect all your stories together and send them to those that matter. Please do respond to our posting and let us know about your experiences and/or any top tips you may have for others thinking about hosting a group workshop.