Reviews
Reviews
My son doesn’t engage with just anyone, though he feels 100% comfortable at The Brambles. For once he feels understood, and the staff are fantastic. Very caring, safe environment. I feel we are being listened to and that the staff are doing everything they can to help my son.
As a mother of a teenager with eating disorder I attended Parent Support Group run by Alison Oliver. The support I got was brilliant. All advices and tips how to cope with difficult situations were working. Attending group gave me confidence how to approach difficult situations and support anytime I felt down. Alison invited also other specialist so I was able to get more knowledge about what happening and how to act in best interest of my daughter. Now my dauhgter is much better and we could not get that progess without help and support of parents support group. Wanderful service, supportive, proffesional. Thank you Alison and all Team.
The contentious ongoing help and support we are receiving is definitely 5 stars.
All staff are extremely lovely, friendly and helpful.
Hearing other peoples perspectives and hearing they have similar experiences.
We were very appreciative of the prompt response once referral was accepted, and how seriously the service took our daughter's condition. Ongoing regular contact was good with us as a family, both in the initial crisis phase and during recovery. Our daughter has regained a full healthy weight and recognises the seriousness of her condition.
Thank you for all your help.
A very warm and welcoming environment with amazingly dedicated staff. We are very lucky to have this facility in our county. Thank you!
No practical information provided for how to specifically manage mealtimes, even after asking several times.
Information regularly asked for, promised and never sent.
Evidence of staff not reading our initial notes (i.e. asking questions about issues already provided and making statements of fact about things that were incorrect and had already been advised). This happened repeatedly which suggested they were not taking notes during/after meetings, or that there were not reading notes of prior meetings.
No minutes or any other follow up notes after official meetings (possibly linked to the issue above. (Some did arrive after chasing many times over several months and when they arrived they were factually incorrect).
No care plan created (see also above). When we eventually received the 'plan' it proved only to be a series of notes, there was no plan.
Meetings cancelled at short notice.
Meeting dates offered and then withdrawn.
Little coordination between staff members. - On one occasion a phone call was made to us due to a mix up between staff, the person calling was rude and insistent about an issue that had already been agreed - this led to them hanging up mid conversation. No apology was made, rather their line manager later was asked to be sympathetic as they had "felt unwell" that day.
Regularly asked to have sympathy for the issues facing the team, to the extent that it more often felt that we were the ones who should be in the role of sympathetic care provider.
Poorly managed review meetings which have been disorganised (ie. no agenda/notes supplied in advance for us to understand what was actually being reviewed). The meeting itself was disorganised and only consisted of being asked "Well, how do you think things are going?)
Passive-aggressive correspondence and comments during meetings (for instance, being told that staff had "to get home to see their families", even though we'd already agreed to meet when only it was convenient for staff).
Direct questions not being answered, rather an attitude of obfuscation.
After many months of asking, eventually being referred to a charity (rather than NHS) for advice only to read that the advice provided (ie therapy such as CBT) was something that the team said would not be effective (see below).
Constantly mis-referencing the Minnesota Starvation Experiment as a reason for not providing any level of therapeutic support, despite the recommended charity (BEAT) website advising that some types of therapy are relevant and helpful suitable. While understanding the limitations suggested by the Minnesota Starvation Experiment, I'm not convinced the team fully understand the context or wider academic reservations and qualifications about the blanket efficacy of the study.
Not answering any questions about how an approach to treating eating disorders might (or might not) change when the sufferer is autistic. This question has been asked repeatedly, the response is to ignore and hope we go away.
Thank you for your very detailed feedback, and I am very sorry that you feel let down. I have sent your comments to the head of service for response but in the meantime, you may wish to contact our patient advice and liaison service for a confidential chat on pals@nhft.nhs.uk. Best wishes, Hugh Jones, patient experience manager.
Very friendly as very easy to work with.
The Brambles has offered great support during our daughter’s illness. Always coming back to us and getting the necessary clinicians to contact us. Always kind and understanding.
When we first were referred to the Brambles we didn’t know what to expect but we were pleasantly surprised to find how welcoming and homely it felt. The people who work there are so friendly and helpful and we always felt at ease.