This isn’t the message that’s usually out there, for a whole bunch of reasons including the reputational legacy of the asylums and dissatisfied patients being more actively vocal than the very content majority. But despite regrettable inconsistencies in quality of care across the country, there’s no question that good inpatient mental health care is safe, therapeutic and gentle.
Is it only us that say that? Well, in 2009 Care Quality Commission survey of mental health inpatients, 73% of patients said it was excellent, very good or good, 12% said it was poor.
But these are particularly tough times on mental health wards, with service re-organisation, cuts in staffing and resources and patients’ stress levels being greatly exacerbated by the benefits’ cuts programme.
Wardipedia is designed to help!
Mental health inpatient staff have generously shared their best practice ideas so that others can adopt and adapt these and have flung in some other information and examples.
We’ve collected together:
Almost 1,000 examples of great practice on wards 200 articles, papers and other docs of research evidence and examples from and beyond inpatient care
Links to useful resources, information and services
A few gags (eg Reflective practice.)
Opinions – unsolicited and occasionally deviating from the (current….) evidence base Revelations – (such as our founder sharing her hospital admissions with a fluffy rabbit.)
Mini-campaigns – eg abolishing ward rounds Stuff that’s simply fun eg celebrating National Talk Like a Pirate Day “We could do that.”
We are regularly told by staff that when they read ways in which other wards are tackling problems or creating new opportunities for patients, this is their response.
Wardipedia is a giant exercise in enabling ward staff to feel inspired and informed so that they can do that, or most often, do their own variation of it.
And we DO help you make a difference. Try us. You'll like what you see! http://www.wardipedia.org/