Community Mental Health Survey

We will soon be carrying out a survey to understand what you think about your care.

This is a national survey and last year we heard the views of nearly 15,000 people. The results are crucial to improving the quality of care and people’s mental health care experiences.

Participation is voluntary and all answers are confidential.

If you do not wish to take part, it will not affect the care you receive from the NHS. You can decide not to take part, or if you do not want to answer some of the questions, you can do so without giving a reason.
 

If you do not wish to take part, or for your details to be shared with researchers so you can be sent a questionnaire, or if you have any questions then please let us know by the end of May using the contact details below.

You may be sent a letter inviting you to take part in this important survey in a few months’ time because you have used community mental health services recently. 

If you are invited to take part, your name, phone number, and postal address will only be used by researchers to carry out the survey. Your information will not be shared with anyone else, and all published data is anonymised.

The survey is being carried out by researchers from this NHS Trust, the Care Quality Commission and the Survey Coordination centre at Picker.

The results will be published on CQC’s website when they are available.

View the results from previous surveys.

The information you give us will be held securely and will be treated in strict confidence in accordance with the General Data Protection Regulation. Personal data about your involvement in this survey is not used for any other purpose and is deleted once the survey process is complete. Your answers to the survey are not linked to your name or full address, but researchers analysing the results of the survey will use your postcode to undertake geographical analysis of overall results.

Last year the Community Mental Health Survey was conducted from August 2023 to December 2023 and was sent to around 5000 people who had used our community mental health service between 1 April and 31 May 2023.

A total of 1022 of our service users responded to the survey. Our response rate was 21%.

We have started to develop a co-produced action plan based on the results of this survey.

In 2023 our plans focussed on improved access to mental health support and services in Sussex and clearer information about the services we provide. We also launched Staying Well mental health service in Sussex to enhance the support available to people who need help in a crisis.

Our plans for 2024 include further developments to Staying Well, including walk-in or same day support services. We will continue to work with GPs and other professionals about the services available and how they can signpost or refer patients to the right support.

We have also updated our Sussex Experience Survey to include some additional questions about care reviews and care plans so we can hear regularly from you about your experience of being involved in making decisions about your care or the care of your friend or family member.

If you have any questions or comments about the survey, please contact the Participation Team: