Being truly open and honest with bereaved families
Failure to answer legitimate questions can often prevent families cope and recover from their loss. It can leave them psychologically stuck, still grieving, unable to move on.
Failure to answer legitimate questions can often prevent families cope and recover from their loss. It can leave them psychologically stuck, still grieving, unable to move on.
Commentary over many years has described the importance of meaningful family engagement following a patient safety incident. Failing to effectively involve patients and families excludes their experiences from investigations and perpetuates feelings that their voices are not heard.
It is the role of the FLO to provide this support, create, manage and foster relationships, engender trust; facilitate communication and create links between any other professionals whose input is required and the families concerned facilitate communication and create links between any other professionals whose input is required and the families concerned.
Between four and ten women take their own lives each week in the UK because of domestic abuse. For families this is a dark, lonely and challenging place.
Many families report that they are afraid to raise concerns and complaints. They worry that doing so will have a negative impact on the support that their loved one receives, or that they will be further alienated from being involved in their loved ones lives. This has to change!
On 13 May 2019 the first of two Making Families Count training event was held by Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust (NSFT) to help staff work more compassionately and effectively with families whose loved ones have died or been seriously hurt while under the Trust’s care. Getting family engagement right, from the beginning, is key to ensuring NHS organisations learn from their mistakes, making sure they are never repeated, and save grieving families and staff from going through the ordeal of court action. The day also included lively group discussions, and tips and suggestions on what to do and …