Safewards intervention refresher: 
Know each other

Background

•	Good therapeutic relationships between staff and patients are the foundation of effective care.
•	Gives patients and staff information about each other so they can find common areas of interest
•	Provides topics for conversation 
•	Shares information within the team to help engage the patient

Aims

•	Build stronger relationships between patients and between patients and staff
•	Enhance patients’ coping skills
•	Improve difficult behaviour
•	Help patients feel comfortable and reassured and increase social interaction
•	Nurture equality while maintaining safety
…making conflict less likely 

Task: Know each other in practice
What are some of the great know each other examples you have seen on your ward?
How have you seen this intervention be effective? 
Task: Guess who
Task: What two things you don’t know about me
Task: Alleviating concerns about this intervention
•	What could assist in alleviating people’s concerns about this intervention?
•	What adjustments could we make to the know each other form?
•	What new questions could we add and what could we remove?

Know each other – long-term implementation
•	Ensure new staff contribute and the folders are maintained 
•	Continuous input of new patients and their information renews this intervention
•	If this becomes routine for staff, they could be asked to contribute a new information sheet containing facts not previously shared
Know each other fidelity

•	Staff sharing personal information with staff, or giving information to patients to emphasise power differences and unbalanced relationships.
•	Staff showing who they are to each other in front of patients