A Volunteer's Experience with Healthwatch Barnet

Healthwatch Barnet is here to help local people get the best out of their health and social care services. Their vision is that Barnet residents can contribute to the development of quality health and social care services in Barnet.

Healthwatch Barnet has an Engagement Group of volunteers. The Group are made up of volunteers, who actively contribute to developing Healthwatch Barnet’s work plan and activities. They help deliver Healthwatch activities and explore and advise on priorities for Healthwatch.

The funding for Healthwatch comes from the Department of Health to each local council. Barnet Council carried out a tendering process and selected CommUNITY Barnet, a registered charity and company limited by guarantee, to deliver the Healthwatch contract. Healthwatch Barnet staff are employed by CommUNITY Barnet.

In order to gain an insight into volunteering with Healthwatch Barnet, the role of one of their volunteers, who possesses a vast amount of experience, will be discussed. Alison Wright has been a volunteer of Healthwatch Barnet for about six months and explains her story below.

“So far, I have visited three residential homes for elderly people and taken part in a project at Barnet General Hospital to look at patients’ views on the meals service and whether they have the support they need to eat. I have been part of a team of four for the residential homes, and of two for the hospital wards. The activities include: interviewing clients/patients, relatives and care workers using a sheet of suggested questions. In the hospital, we used a questionnaire for each patient.

The team worked in pairs in the residential homes, especially with the care manager. However, after the first visit, I did my interviews individually with everyone else.

After the visits, we return to Barnet House, where we are given a sandwich lunch with cake and fruit. We pool our information and highlight any issues that have arisen regarding the quality of care the residents are receiving.

It is the team leader’s responsibility to pull it all together and produce the report, although I am asked to comment on the content of the draft report to say if I think it needs any amendments. Before I actually started the work, I undertook three lots of training. This included: the basic volunteer training, then a workshop specifically on dementia, and also a safeguarding course targeted at vulnerable adults in residential care. I also did some training to prepare for the hospital meals project.

I volunteered for Healthwatch because I have had extensive involvement with health and care services for the elderly in relation to a succession of elderly family members. Also, I have been an inpatient myself on two occasions fairly recently and found some of the care I received in the hospital to be less than I expected. I have a son, who also uses health services frequently and have had some poor experiences with him.

I thought that joining Healthwatch would be an ideal opportunity to help improve the services. I felt particularly strongly about how the elderly are treated both in hospital and in care homes.

I understand that Healthwatch has made a number of recommendations that have been taken up by the institutions they have been observing. For example, the hospital has changed the meal times to times that are more in keeping with patients’ preferences. I think that Healthwatch can expose poor practices in both hospitals and residential services, and this will be a catalyst for change. Also, Healthwatch can highlight poor practice, which will be helpful to others to inspire positive changes. Actually, the residential homes that I have seen so far have been much better than I expected. It may be a coincidence, but the three I have seen are all charitable trusts and they have, I would say, been good – excellent. I wonder whether is because they are not trying to make a profit.

I enjoy learning about new issues with different client groups. I have been a social worker for nearly 40 years, but my client group has been children and families. I am interested to find out more about the issues for the elderly and I am enjoying learning about things, such as dementia and deprivation of liberty. It is a challenge to interview clients with dementia and memory problems, and to do this sensitively. It is good to work as a team, and I have found everyone I have worked with so far very friendly and committed, and they feel like colleagues.”

In the past, Healthwatch Barnet has hosted a variety of events, such as Listening and Responding, Free Breast Awareness Workshops for Community Groups and Organisations, and Health Awareness Day. The Silver Host Coffee Morning, a day to celebrate the value and knowledge that older people contribute to our communities, will be arranged for the following month.

In addition, Healthwatch Barnet conducted a mystery shopping survey of 50 dental practices, where they found that over half of practices (53%) were not accepting new NHS adult patients and just under half (47%) were not accepting new children as patients. It was discovered that NHS Dentistry within the Borough still requires substantial improvements.

Healthwatch Barnet previously held a meeting, where they introduced changes to Adult Social Care in over 60 years and how these social care services are delivered. During the meeting, attendees were given the opportunity to ask questions and furthermore, to comment on how Barnet Council plans to implement the Act.

There are a number of exciting opportunities to volunteer with Healthwatch Barnet and to get recognised for your efforts. For example, Sue Blain and Stewart Block, local champions for improvements in GP appointment systems, who were nominated for a Barnet Civic Award.

Ambassador roles are available for those with an interest in promoting Healthwatch and helping them to engage with the community. A passion for communicating with the public and good listening skills are necessities for these particular roles. Additionally, there may be the opportunity to learn more about community research and community engagement and development.

For more information on Healthwatch Barnet, and to get in touch with your questions, please visit their website at http://www.healthwatchbarnet.co.uk/.

Healthwatch Barnet looks forward to hearing your views.