MIL OSI – Source: Waikato District Health Board – Press Release/Statement
Headline: Understanding what matters in health care
This year Waikato District Health Board will join the international celebrations of Patient Experience Week. The week provides us with an opportunity to acknowledge and reflect on the challenges faced by our patients and service users. It’s also an opportunity to celebrate the many ways – no matter how small – that staff make a difference to a patient or service user’s experience.
In the lead-up to the week we will share patients’ stories about what factors made a difference to their care.
Karen McPake, mental health and addictions client, shares her incredible story for Patient Experience Week 2016. She describes how staff helped her cope.
“I had a few traumatic experiences that led me to abuse drugs as my coping mechanism. At this stage, though, I had given birth to a daughter, and the main reason I wanted to seek help was because I desperately wanted to be a good mother.
Karen McPake mental health and addictions client shares her incredible story for Patient Experience Week 2016
The community I was part of used the methadone programme and there was a lot of misinformation about it. I decided within myself I was going to use the programme to get clean. I set a goal to be off the programme within six years – I never wanted to be on it for life.
It took nine years, but as of December 31, 2015, I have been more than 90 days ‘clean and serene’.
In this time I learned a lot about coping mechanisms. I had a breakthrough moment with Sue, one of Waikato District Health Board’s case workers – she started to recognise in me the issues that I was going through, the particular type of help I needed, and she picked up on the little things that made me know she was listening.
Having the same people consistently part of my care was really valuable. It took a lot for me to open up about what was going on, and not moving from one person to another meant counsellors and case workers could break down those fronts and truly listen to me. Also when staff knew me, and my struggles, they could hear the smallest thing that I would say. They helped me start to let go of my past and deal with more than just drug addiction.
I am now a great mum, with a great relationship with my daughter. She is the driving force for me to constantly better myself.”
Patient Experience Week will run from Monday 25 April to Friday 29 April. Waikato DHB is encouraging by patients and staff to tell us either what made a difference to their care or how staff make a difference to patient’s care. You can follow all the stories on Instagram and Facebook by using #yourDHyourstory.
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