EMA hosts successful mental health learning event
A learning event focusing on ‘Caring Together – Improving Safety Through Experiences’ brought together over 80 delegates from across the region at the Trent Conference Centre in Nottingham.
Colleagues from across the six provider organisations, patients, members of the public, Experts by Experience and people with a keen interest in improving mental health services attended the interactive event in March, hosted in partnership with Health Innovation East Midlands.
Vivienne McVey, Chief Executive at St Andrew’s Healthcare led a thought-provoking keynote on patient safety. This was followed by a presentation from Gill Gookey, Medicines and Safety Lead Pharmacist at Health Innovation East Midlands, who gave an informative update on the Reviewing Mechanical Restraint use in high secure services. 
This was followed by presentations led by the three Communities of Practice (CoPs) on improving sexual safety, reducing restrictive practice and preventing suicide and self-harm. Their presentations showcased the excellent work of the CoPs and the valuable contribution from our Experts by Experience demonstrated the importance of the programme aims.
Feedback from the event suggested 100% of the attendees felt the event had provided them with an opportunity to improve their knowledge and skills and the event had given them an opportunity to think about improvements they could make in their work/practice.
When asked to write down one thing they would take back to their services, some feedback from delegates included:
“How impactful compassionate conversation around suicide/self-harm can be”
“The lived experience workshops made me appreciate how important it is to remember empathy, taking time to listen and validate.”
“It is a shared goal to reduce blame from incidents. Good communication is needed to learn from incidents.”
All the outputs and insights from this important event will be used by the CoPs across the East Midlands to continue to drive forward the improvement programme.