#LYPFTrecovery – a social media experiment in an NHS Trust

#LYPFTrecovery – a social media experiment in an NHS Trust

by | Jun 9, 2013 | mental health, NHS stuff, social media | 1 comment

Sometimes it’s good to experiment – play about with an idea, try something out, take a bit of a risk and see what happens. I’ve followed with interest when some NHS Trusts have experimented with live-tweeting from A&E and been keen to try something similar. But we weren’t entirely sure about doing the equivalent from our crisis services – the risk of getting it wrong when people are connecting with the NHS at their most distressed, didn’t feel quite right. However, getting conversations going around some of our strategic priorities did seem a better fit. We’re doing a lot of thinking in our NHS Trust about the notion of ‘recovery’ – to what extent it is a useful a concept in mental health, and how we can embed principles of hope, optimism and control so that people who use our services have a positive experience and get the right support to achieve their goals, whatever they may be. At the moment these conversations are mostly taking place between practitioners, in services and with people using our services through surveys and in involvement groups. So we wondered about how we could expand that conversation by stimulating chats in different social media spaces. Like many ideas, this emerged from a natter with a few colleagues at the end of a long day before we set off home. It’s been brewing ever since. So this week we’ve got a calendar of online and offline events and activities to start conversations on various social media platforms about recovery. We’ll be kicking off with a blog post by one of our new peer support workers who shares...

Blog yourself well – why mental health services should support citizen journalism

by | Mar 24, 2012 | mental health | 1 comment

Last week saw the launch of Leeds’ first blog about mental health and wellbeing in Leeds. It is called Leeds Wellbeing Web: your voice on keeping well in Leeds. The purpose of the blog is to provide a space where people can contribute information, stories, pictures or films about places and activities in Leeds which help maintain their wellbeing. The blog aims to encourage us to think more positively and proactively about mental health and wellbeing. It’s about giving people a voice to tell their own stories, and the story of their city, through their own eyes. It an open resource which anyone with mental health difficulties can contribute to. The idea for the blog was conceived by Katie Brown and then supported and developed by a number of individuals and organisations in Leeds who were committed to the idea of creating a space where people can share information and ideas about mental health and wellbeing in the city. The idea of citizen journalism isn’t a new one. Its principles include open participation and communal evaluation. A blog is just a starting point. Each post is refined and developed through subsequent comments. Knowledge is produced collectively and collaboratively. There is generally a social motivation rather than a commercial one. Alex Bruns in his book Blogs, Wikipedia. Second life, and Beyond: From Production to Produsage (2008) has an interesting chapter on citizen journalism that’s worth a read. He introduces the notion of produsage where the line between production and consumption is blurred. Bruns argues that citizen journalism represents a shift from mainstream commercial news journalism where the article tends to...

Social media – an essential item in the mental health care toolbox?

by | Feb 16, 2012 | mental health | 5 comments

What’s social media got to do with mental health care? A recent article by Stephanie Pappas summarises recent studies that suggest Facebook can be bad for our mental health. Reading other people’s status updates can make us feel worse about our own lives and make us negatively compare ourselves with others. 354 friends is the cut-off point for when participants in one study started to feel bad about viewing status updates. This raises some interesting questions for me about use of social media for all of us, and in particular for people experiencing mental health problems. To what extent can social media be a positive tool in a person’s recovery or an alienating one that exacerbates distress? What is the role of mental health professionals in helping people navigate social media so they can use it positively and avoid pitfalls? Should professionals be getting involved anyway? And if so, what do they need to know and understand themselves? There are various documents out there guiding healthcare professionals about how to use social media appropriately and in line with professional codes of conduct, for example, the Nursing and Midwifery Council guidance and the British Medical Association guidance. They quite rightly focus on the importance of upholding professional reputation and the potential serious consequences of breaches for registration. What they do not focus on is the extent to which professionals could/should help people navigate social media so they can use it as part of their recovery journey. As use of social networking continues to increase, is it the responsibility of mental health professionals to keep up-to-date with social media as a...