We regularly get feedback from people who use our services to find out how we are doing and where we could improve. Our latest survey revealed good rates of general satisfaction with the services we offer, but there are improvements to be made in terms of how easy to find and easy to access our services are. Here's a round-up of the key themes.
Overall satisfaction rates
Two questions in the survey give an indicator of overall satisfaction with West Sussex Mind and both of these are largely unchanged from the survey in February 2022.
Overall how satisfied are you with West Sussex Mind?
- 50 per cent of respondents said they were very satisfied.
- 28 per cent said they were satisfied (up one per cent on February 2022 survey)
If someone needed help with their mental health, would you recommend West Sussex Mind?
- 82 per cent said yes (up 1.5 per cent from February 2022 survey)
Accessibility
Do you experience any problems accessing our services?
- 20 per cent said yes, that they experienced problems accessing our services
- 67 per cent said no, that they didn’t encounter any problems
- and 13 per cent said they weren’t sure.
The responses revealed a key issue relating to accessibility – namely that services aren’t available at times when service users are available. 24 people responded to this question, with a further 15 comments (throughout the survey) relating to activities and appointments being needed outside the core 9am to 5pm hours. Comments included:
“More out of hours please, like evenings and weekends as I work 9-5"; “not during school drop-off and pick-up times"; and "it is understandable that the services are offered within a 9-5 working day, however it can feel that people who are in employment don’t need mental health support or are functioning too well to get support”.
We asked about access in terms of being able to afford to get to our services.
- six per cent reported that they can’t afford to travel to face-to-face services
- 11 per cent said that they don’t receive information about services.
Support experience
We asked about experiences of our service from the Help Point (first point of contact) through to one-to-one support, workshops and social activities.
Help Point
Comments included: “helpful operator”; “very helpful, really eased my worries as to how to get help”; “very helpful and efficient”. There were five comments about the time taken from initial contact to getting an appointment/support.
One-to-one sessions
Comments included: “had fantastic one-to-one support, nothing to improve, really clear and helped me reach my goal”; “wonderful”; “perfect”.
- eight people commented that they wanted more one-to-one appointments
- six people commented that they wanted a consistent, named worker or key worker
- five comments related to not knowing about the one-to-one support offer.
Workshops and social activities
It was obvious from responses that the distinction between the two isn’t clear (what constitutes a workshop vs a social activity).
Comments included: “what’s offered is good”; “can’t think of any improvement”; “these are great, keep them going”.
There were six comments relating to communications, in terms of ease of booking, relying on email, wanting more verbal information and posters and not knowing about the offer.
There were also a few comments about the use of space and offer in Littlehampton and a few about the arts classes in the Corner House. There was a very strong feeling from the comments that the get-togethers are valued.
Relationships with staff
All scores in this area have dropped slightly from our February 2022 survey.
In particular, in response to the statement, “staff are knowledgeable and tell me about other services”, the percentage that responded “always” has dropped eight per cent since February 2022. To the statement “staff are welcoming and friendly”, the percentage that responded “always” has dropped six per cent since February 2022.
However, there were some great comments, including: “always very considerate”; “the Mind staff and volunteers are the best”; "Mind gave me support and saved my life. I thank you all”; and “Mind helped me at a very low ebb, without them I’m not sure how I would have coped”.
Survey size
Total number of responses: 209 (compared to 258 responses in February 2022)
Percentage of our overall service users: 13 per cent response rate (compared to 22 per cent of our active service users in February 2022)