Catherine’s Story
“The A & E | All & Equal project was intensely personal for me and I’m incredibly proud of it – it seems to me a perfect example of real collaborative working to achieve something hugely positive. I had had a very bad experience at A & E, being misdiagnosed with a serious physical problem because the doctors assumed it was a psychiatric issue. I told this story to AdvoCard’s collective advocacy workers and discovered many other people had had experiences of being misunderstood or not listened to at A & E because of their mental health. A research project was conceived which has real life results to this day.
We were involved at all levels – interviewing other people with lived experience to hear their stories and then meeting with staff including senior management from the Emergency Department at the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh. I was amazed at the time they took to read our report, listened to all we had to say, and involved other members of staff, changing training, attitudes and approaches. The Emergency Card was one very practical outcome and in fact helped me in a later crisis – I’d come full circle!
If it helps one other person that’s good enough for me – though I hope it helps many. A powerful piece of work indeed.”
In 2015 – 2016, we ran a peer research project called A&E All & Equal, where we heard from people with lived experience of mental health issues about experiences they had had at the Emergency Departments at the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh (RIE) and St John’s Hospital, Livingston. This work was initiated by our Edinburgh Community Voices collective advocacy group and led by a team of 11 peer researchers – all people with lived experience who brought valuable understanding, empathy and expertise to the project.
One of the issues that came up was that people in distress or feeling anxious can find it difficult to communicate with the staff in the Emergency Department.
Since we completed the peer research, we have been working together with people with lived experience and staff from the Emergency Department at the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh. Together, we developed the Emergency Card – this is a card which you can use to help you get across your needs and wishes to the nurses, doctors and other staff if you ever need to go to the Emergency Department.
If you would like an Emergency Card, or would like to find out more about A&E All & Equal, please contact us at – advocacysupport@advocard.org.uk
View or Download the report here
