More users of community mental health services in Lincolnshire have said the service they receive is ‘excellent’ than at any other Mental Health Trust in the East Midlands, according to the results of a new survey carried out by the Healthcare Commission.

The survey questioned users of Lincolnshire Partnership NHS Trust’s services and 36 per cent of people rated the care they receive as ‘excellent’. This figure places the Trust highest in the whole of the East Midlands and well above the national average of 26 per cent of people saying their Trust was ‘excellent’.

A further 49 per cent of those surveyed said their care was ‘very good’ or ‘good’.

The Trust also leads the way in providing contact information to service users. 80 per cent of people said that they had been provided with the telephone number of somebody from the Trust that they could contact out of hours. Response times were excellent as well, with almost three quarters of people saying that they were able to speak to someone immediately.

Almost 16,000 service users from across England were interviewed for the Healthcare Commission’s survey. The survey aimed to find out about the experiences of people using mental health services in the community and was carried out in Spring 2007.

Providing information to families of service users was also scored highly. 82 per cent of people said that the Trust had provided information about mental health to members of their families or someone else close to them. 79 per cent of those surveyed felt that the Trust offered good support to their family and friends.

Chris Slavin, Chief Executive of Lincolnshire Partnership NHS Trust, said: “Understanding what patients think about the care and service that they receive is vital in helping us continue to improve our services. These figures are testament to the hard work and dedication of our community care staff whose enthusiasm and passion for their jobs help us to continue to offer a very good service for patients.

“We are confident that we will continue to meet the needs of our service users. Helping us to do this will be our move to Foundation Trust status, which will give service users, as well as carers, staff and members of the public, another way to have their say in what services we provide and how we offer them.”

The central plank of community mental health services is the Care Programme Approach (CPA). Under the CPA, service users should have a care plan to identify their needs and explain their care.

81 per cent of those surveyed said that they have been given a copy a written or printed copy of their care plan. 94 per cent of people said that they felt they were able to contact their Care Co-ordinator if they had a problem that needed resolving.

The Trust came out on top in the East Midlands when it came to letting service users know about who their Care Co-ordinator is. 93 per cent of patients said the Trust had told them who the person responsible for designing and overseeing their care plan was. This figure was way ahead anyone else in the region and the national average of 71 per cent.

The Trust’s staff have also been commended for assisting service users in finding out what benefits are available to them. Almost 4 out of 5 people said the Trust had helped them with information about benefits at some point in the past 12 months.