Safwards

Have a question about Discharge Messages? Had some experience with using it that you could share and that might help others? Found a particularly effective way of adapting it to your hospital? Please post it here in this section of the forum.

See pictures of our tree below - it covers a whole wall in our activity room. It was draw by 3 of our service users and then painted by our OT staff and other service users. We took lots of pictures but I can't share some of them as they include pics of the patients.

All the staff feel so far that this is the best intervention. We've even got plans to extend this to our kitchen area and other walls on the ward - not necessarily doing a tree but some of the patients suggested a photo frame being drawn on the wall and then putting pictures and positive messages up inside it, or another one suggested a flower. We're still in the process of deciding. One of our patients today didn't want to leave the ward before she'd wirtten a postive note on a leaf to put up. All of the service users on the ward have took real pride in the tree and all senior management have been down to the ward to have a look.

We now have enough message leaves on our Discharge Message Tree to feel that it warrants a photo and submission to the forum! This has proved to be a particularly popular and effective intervention, and has been moving and humbling for us all. We felt that we wanted to use the Tree theme as has been used by other people, and worked through ideas about painting a tree on the wall, and had people suggesting and offering, but Rachel saw some tree stickers at IKEA, and we felt that this would be more in keeping with the modern décor and vibe of the ward, so she bought two of them, not knowing how big they would be! In the event they were plenty big enough, and all our patients got involved in sticking these on the walls, and decorating them initially. We have then proceeded to place a leaf into the Leaving Pack that patients have when they leave the ward, which includes their feedback questionnaire and so on. The plan is to change the colours of the leaves to represent the seasonal changes, and during the summer, we will put flowers and butterflies on the tree as well!. All patients who have left the ward have written their thoughts and messages on the leaves, and they have been returned to the ward, to be put on the tree - some completing it before leaving, others sending it back from their current ward. These messages have been moving, showing the progress that people make from admission, when they are in quite a dark place, to moving on from the PICU, either home, or to an open ward, and showing insight into their recovery, and the messages they leave for other clients are really powerful. Rachel bought two tree stickers, and while we placed the Discharge Message tree in the corridor for all patients and visitors to pass, the other tree is in the therapy/dining room. Visitors - particularly other professionals - have asked if they can put a message on the tree, so we're using the second tree for this purpose. Word has got around about the Discharge Message Tree, and people are coming from far and wide to see it! Llinos is the champion for this intervention, but more than any other, this intervention has got lots of people involved!

We now have enough message leaves on our Discharge Message Tree to feel that it warrants a photo and submission to the forum! This has proved to be a particularly popular and effective intervention, and has been moving and humbling for us all. We felt that we wanted to use the Tree theme as has been used by other people, and worked through ideas about painting a tree on the wall, and had people suggesting and offering, but Rachel saw some tree stickers at IKEA, and we felt that this would be more in keeping with the modern décor and vibe of the ward, so she bought two of them, not knowing how big they would be! In the event they were plenty big enough, and all our patients got involved in sticking these on the walls, and decorating them initially. We have then proceeded to place a leaf into the Leaving Pack that patients have when they leave the ward, which includes their feedback questionnaire and so on. The plan is to change the colours of the leaves to represent the seasonal changes, and during the summer, we will put flowers and butterflies on the tree as well!. All patients who have left the ward have written their thoughts and messages on the leaves, and they have been returned to the ward, to be put on the tree - some completing it before leaving, others sending it back from their current ward. These messages have been moving, showing the progress that people make from admission, when they are in quite a dark place, to moving on from the PICU, either home, or to an open ward, and showing insight into their recovery, and the messages they leave for other clients are really powerful. Rachel bought two tree stickers, and while we placed the Discharge Message tree in the corridor for all patients and visitors to pass, the other tree is in the therapy/dining room. Visitors - particularly other professionals - have asked if they can put a message on the tree, so we're using the second tree for this purpose. Word has got around about the Discharge Message Tree, and people are coming from far and wide to see it! Llinos is the champion for this intervention, but more than any other, this intervention has got lots of people involved!

These are beautiful, Really lovely.

Start with something big, prominent and visible when implementing Safewards. that was Nyreen's advice when she showed me their Discharge Messages Tree. I wish I had had time to read the contents in detail, but it looks very impressive and I am told they regularly have to take the leaves down as the tree gets full. Autumn comes rather regularly up in Salford then! I suggested they could mount all the ones they take down in a big photograph album or something similar, so that they messages would not be lost.