Safewards intervention refresher: Mutual help meeting

Background 

•	The ward is a social community and a powerful engine to help patients, shape their behaviour and progress towards discharge
•	The help that patients give each other is highly valued 
•	The giving of help between patients offers the giver:
•	a socially valued role
•	the chance to make a meaningful contribution
•	the potential to improve their self-esteem 

Aims
•	Strengthen an existing mechanism highly valued by patients

•	Give patients a valued role and public recognition

•	Build patient self-esteem

•	Increase mutual support

•	Establish values, understanding and social skills
Task: Mutual help meeting in practice
What are the four agenda items?

Task: Mutual help meetings on our ward
•	What are the common things people have been thankful for?
•	What have been some common requests and offers?
•	How do people who have not attended the meeting get feedback?

Task: Past mutual help meetings
•	Have there been any meetings that didn’t go as well as planned?
•	What would you do different next time?
•	Describe some of the effective meetings you have attended 
•	Who follows up on the requests and offers?

Mutual help meeting – long-term implementation
•	Meetings should improve as staff become more skilled and experienced in guiding patients towards positive, mutually supportive behaviour
•	Critical to pass on skills and experience to new staff and students
•	Networking and sharing successes and failures can be helpful

Mutual help meeting fidelity

•	A forum for complaints and suggestions from patients about what the staff or hospital should do or for staff to give news to patients
•	Another group in the ward where staff quote Yalom and have a debrief while patients go back to bed