Care Opinion Workshop

Cally and I, were delighted to meet up with Inclusion colleagues from different services in High Wycombe on April 24th for a positive and constructive workshop.  Positive about all that we have achieved so far, and some great ideas and discussions about moving forward.  Care Opinion committed to writing this blog, with a brief summary of the presentations and progress on the day. 

Between Cally and I, we covered both the landscape for Online Feedback, and also the exciting changes to the website, which as you can see has now been rebranded to Care Opinion.  Here is a summary of the most salient points:

• Rebranding to Care Opinion, means that we have one website which will capture and share feedback across a range of health and social care services.  Care Opinion, we feel is a name which will be simply more user friendly for your services.
• Vision- “We want people to be able to share their experiences of health and care in ways which are safe, simple, and lead to learning and change.”  We discussed how our moderation processes and the subscriber support we offer can help to support staff and users feel confident in  using the platform.  Our team are always ready to discuss any concerning postings or any aspect of using the site. 
• Posting Generation in each service was explored.  Different methods will suit each service but staff commitment to offering this choice is vital.  The team here are always ready to discuss what works for you and offer your volunteers and staff training via our Webinar facility.  Danny is ensuring that promotional resources are available in each service. 
• Site Developments were covered by Cally, towards the end of the workshop.  Please do contact us for details, but access to subscriber digests, visualisations, reporting and alerting were all demonstrated.
  
  

We used both positive and negative postings from other services to focus on how to respond to and learn from user feedback.  This was an extremely useful session, sometimes staff are apprehensive about responding on the site, do contact us for a more detailed look if you need support.    

There was also a brief session on how to use this positive commitment to transparency in a strategic way.  How to look good to your commissioners and other stakeholders!  Included here were some social media tips, tweeting out both positive and critical feedback stories and responses can only help your profile. 

All in all there was such a positive vibe from Inclusion and Care Opinion about moving forwards and upwards and a commitment to generating more postings and using this learning as part of your quality improvement strategies. 

Story of the Month-was one of the ideas that will be used to highlight great stories and responses that have come in over the last month. Here’s an example:

"Prescribed medication definitely helped me stabilise and hold down a job. The team are all sincere and passionate about recovery, especially my key worker who helped me through a difficult period last year, he was there offering support to me when I most needed it. I really believe 'meditation' is a great tool in recovery and I would like to see more sessions available. I have been using these services for many years now and 'Winchester Inclusion' is y far the best run service I have ever used."

Cally and I can’t stress enough our availability to discuss any aspect of the workshop for those there on the day and those not able to make it.

In Cally’s follow up e mail she also highlighted the “how to” sessions, which show you how to use the different site features, for information on how to sign up as well as the dates, times and themes for each session click here.

If you have anything you would like to add about the workshop, please feel free to comment below.