Substance Misuse Report 2018

Summary

We worked in partnership with NECA a local drug, alcohol, gambling addiction charity to understand their service users experiences when receiving support from local mental health services. We conducted two focus groups and services users shared their views.

We try to call the
Mental Health Crisis
Team and no one
answers the
phone!

Service user, Darlington

Findings

A summary of our key findings:

The most important concern that has emerged from this work has been the lack of support that service users are receiving from local mental health services. There seems to be a number of barriers in the way when accessing care and treatment especially more complex therapies which is usually for the most vulnerable patients.
Service users are regularly experiencing early discharge from services due to life factors out of their control. Due to leading what’s deemed as an erratic lifestyle, these factors can have an impact on how patients engage with services. Service users feel these factors are not considered and they often find themselves discharged from services.
Some service users are unable to receive the treatment they need due to the complexities of their needs and these needs are not being addressed. We have found frequently throughout our work that service users seem to have negative experiences when dealing with the Mental Health Crisis team. There has been a particular noticeable trend in the amount of service users that feel the crisis team don’t always answer the phone and if they do they are not much help.
Our service users have regularly mentioned the frustrations at the lack of information and communication they receive from local mental health services. They are often unsure how to navigate the health care system. They don’t know where to go for help and are not aware of other provisions in place across Darlington.
We have been told by a number of service users throughout this report they did not know they had a care plan or in fact should have one.
They have regularly expressed the feeling that they are not listened too, and decisions are often made without their input. This has highlighted concerns about staff attitudes within local NHS services. Service users feel they are treated differently because of their addiction.

Next Steps & Acknowledgments

The report was shared with Public Health and Tees, Esk & Wear Valley NHS Foundation Trust (TEWV). We would like to thank those service users who shared their 'real-life' experiences with Healthwatch Darlington.

The report provides an insight into the complex nature of treatment and recovery
and the experiences of individuals who are experiencing addiction in Darlington and
the difficulties that they face in their recovery journey. The report will help inform
the work we do with the current provider in improving the current services locally
but also will inform the design and tendering of these services by the authority in
the future.

Public Health

Healthwatch Darlington continued to work in partnership with NECA, TEWV and service users following on from this report. We facilitated further focus groups so that service users could co-produce an easy read leaflet. Service users felt that information sharing was over whelming and they wanted something that was brief, easy to understand and provides them with the information they really needed to know so they could use mental health services confidently.

This information gathered during the focus groups was then summarised and shared with Tees, Esk & Wear Valley NHS Foundation Trust. The co-produced information leaflet is now being given to dual-diagnosis patients across County Durham & Darlington and be found on the Trusts website.

Find out more here