Information for patients and carers

The College Centre for Quality Improvement (CCQI) works with mental health services to assess and improve the quality of care they provide. As part of our process, we collect feedback from patients and carers who have accessed the services.

When we review a service, the reviewers like to find out from the patients and carers themselves what they think of the service and their views on the quality of care they are receiving.

The interview will be conducted by between one and three people, none of them linked to the service you access.

They might be a patient or carer who have previously accessed a similar service, a representative from the CCQI, or a professional (e.g. a psychiatrist, nurse or psychologist) from another service.

You also have the right to have an advocate present with you during the interview.

All patients or carers that wish to take part in the interview will either be interviewed as a group, or individually.

The reviewer(s) will ask you/the group a series of questions. This is a good opportunity for you to express what you like about the service and what could be improved.

No, we will only ask your views about the service so the reviewer will not be asking you any personal questions. The type of questions you will be asked will relate to (for example), what you think of the environment, whether you are involved in decisions about the care you are receiving and what you think about the service in general.

The typical interview takes around 15-20 minutes if held individually.

If the interview is held as a group, this might take up to an hour. Group interviews are usually scheduled in advance with the service being reviewed, so staff should be able to advise you of timings.

It’s fine if you change your mind before or during the interview. You can change your mind at any time without having to give a reason. This will not impact the care you receive from the service.  

Your answers will be confidential and added to other feedback received to preserve anonymity. We make sure we speak to enough patients and carers in order to keep your feedback anonymous.

Please be advised, however, that if you choose to disclose anything that we may think is a safeguarding issue then we have a duty to escalate this and investigate further.

Your comments will be used to inform a report that we write for the service. It will not contain your name but we will include your views and these can be used to help staff make improvements at the service in the future.

We have used patient and carer feedback to:

• improve the information and materials that patients and carers are provided with from services
• ensure patient and carers have a way of providing feedback about their experiences at a service
• improve access to accessible information, such as providing leaflets in different languages and the right to advocacy
• introduce including patients and carers on interview panels and in the delivery of staff training.

For confidential advice, support and information on health-related matters, please contact your local Patient Advice and Liaison Service (PALS).

For more information about what the College does and how to get immediate support, feel free to get in touch with us directly.