CIS recognised at HSJ Patient Safety Congress poster competition with Balint Group

Well done to CNWL’s Community Independence Service (CIS) in Kensington and Chelsea. Their poster, Balint Group, is being recognised for virtual display at the HSJ Patient Safety Congress, which is taking place in Manchester this week (20 -21 September). The poster will be displayed within the ‘protecting the workforce’ category.

Click here to see the poster.

The poster details the Balint Group wellbeing initiative, which was set up 18 months ago by OT colleagues Sophie Musgrave and Dagmar Clarke-Payton, for staff members working independently in the community and has continued throughout the Covid-19 pandemic.

“It’s really nice and we feel honoured,” say Sophie and Dagmar. “We are winners to have even got this far.”

Balint Groups provide a safe space for clinicians, allowing team members to have open discussions about difficult cases and areas of concern. Staff can debrief and support each other away from clinical or professional settings, and have conversations about their mental health and wellbeing.

Sophie and Dagmar saw potential for a Balint Group within their service due to the isolating nature of community work. Staff are often in situations where they are “taking their feelings home”, without an outlet to reflect on patient interactions. This increases the risk of fatigue, decreased productivity and burnout.

Sophie explains: “Rather than getting clinicians to hold all these feelings or worries, the group allows us to discuss them with a group of likeminded professionals and talk about what has gone on between going into a patient’s house and returning home. You look at it from the patient’s point of view, you look at it from the therapist’s points of view, and you look at it together.”

Initially they held hour-long groups each fortnight, but this increased to weekly throughout the pandemic. Sophie says: “That was hugely helpful for everybody. We actually had people in tears saying they were so grateful for a safe space where they could talk about their concerns, especially with Covid and increased levels of anxiety. People could talk about wearing PPE, seeing patients with Covid, and they were talking to people who really knew it. Unless you’re working on the ground, you don’t really know.”

The Balint Group has been well received across CIS in Kensington and Chelsea. They have conducted ongoing surveys, to find out how team members felt the group was going and to gain consistent feedback. The survey results show the group has helped to reduce staff sickness levels and boost work performance:

• After six months, 70% of the team reported that they have learnt new strategies for dealing with complex and difficult situations
• After six months 100% of the team reported regular Balint Groups were beneficial and wanted them to continue
• After seven months, the overall team sickness leave had reduced dramatically (see table below)

Sophie says: “We kept doing surveys every couple of months. Not only were people feeling better about work in terms of health and wellbeing, but the figures in sickness levels, absence and staff retention were amazing. We’ve had more or less the same team that we had 18 months ago. It feels like we are a true team where people can be vulnerable but also safe.

“It has helped our team enormously but it could go on to help so many other people. This is why we decided to submit the poster for the patient safety competition. It’s not just for OT’s and physiotherapists, it’s for nurses, doctors - it’s for the whole of the NHS. It’s applicable to any line of work that involves working with people.”

Find out more about the Community Independence Service (CIS) Balint Group, which includes a video about their work, here.