Personalised Care Training

With support from a dedicated team who know her story, Laura is now actively involved in decisions and discussions around managing her mental health – a change which she describes as ‘lifesaving’.  

‘’At my very lowest I was very serious about not wanting to be here anymore… Because the depression can be so bad, I just want to be asleep to get away from it.   

“When I moved to my current mental health service, I wasn’t in a good place and needed dedicated support to help me get better. For the first time, I received personalised care that was based on my own needs and experiences. I have been supported by my team to make decisions about treatment and have learnt to understand my mental health a lot better.  

“Whilst it’s important listen to healthcare professions, it’s also important to ask questions about your own health. Previously, I saw a different consultant every time, which meant I’d have to say my whole story again. They didn’t seem to read the notes, which was quite distressing, to have to start again every time. They would all suggest different treatments, different medications.  

‘’Recently, I’ve had very good care, which I’d say is very personalised care… They work together as a team and have discussions, so then we all know what is happening.  

‘’Together, my doctor and I weighed up different medication options and we created a personalised crisis plan for when I’m feeling low at home. It contains the phone numbers of friends, family and services who have helped me in the past. There’s also a plan of what to do when I can’t get out of bed – we figured out really specific steps that work for me.  

“When I’d felt low in the past, I contacted a crisis team for help and they ended up discharging me without my knowing. My depression sometimes makes me feel frozen, with even small tasks seeming impossible. That’s how I felt then. But I still had to fight for a follow up on my own care.   

“Now it’s a lot easier. I feel like I have a safety net, but I rarely actually call on professional help. I can now manage my own mental health because I understand it. Without personalised care, I could have got to a point of hurting myself and would have needed much more intensive support. Lots of people would have had to take care of me. My care has been lifesaving and it’s helped me get to the bottom of things a lot quicker, which actually saves more people being involved.”

Bryan Roland is a First Contact Physiotherapist working at Westongrove Partnership - a partnership of GP practices in Buckinghamshire. After completing BOB Personalised Care training, Bryan shares what the training meant for him, his work, and his patients.  

“The key thing I took from the training was the importance of prioritising meaningful conversations with patients. You can’t push patients through doors, it’s more about supporting them to walk through certain doors on their own. 

“I’m now a lot more aware of what patients are actually saying. Before the training, I could be quite assertive in my conversations. But I now use motivational interviewing tools, leaving space and time for patients to reflect on what they want to achieve and how they want to achieve it.  

“I recently saw someone with arthritis. Normally, the initial conversations for arthritis can be lengthy. But by asking the right questions at the start of the appointment, we were able to get to the bottom of their concerns quite quickly. We then had more time to focus on what was important for the patient in the rest of the session. 

“Using these tools doesn’t make conversations any longer, I think it actually saves time. But it does mean getting more out of the time we have. I am definitely pausing more, giving patients time to think and reflect. Since doing this, my patients seem more reassured and satisfied in their appointments.  

“Communication is perhaps the biggest skill that we have as healthcare professionals. Conversations can be really complex in our work and that’s why I’d encourage everybody to upskill themselves with conversation tools - so we can have a positive impact in all the conversations we have with patients.’’