Making a complaint

Making a complaint can be complicated. A mental health advocacy service may be able to help and support you in complaining. Alternatively, the Rethink National Advice Service can help you with the complaint itself and put you in touch with an advocacy service for support.
You can complain by talking to the member of staff concerned or you can write a letter setting out your complaint.

Ask the staff for a leaflet that explains their complaints procedure. Whatever you choose to do, take some time to think about what you want to say. Make sure you are clear about what is most important to you in your complaint and how you are going to explain it. If you plan what you want to say, you will be able to put your case more clearly.

Sometimes complaints from people with a history of mental health problems are not taken seriously. If you are not being listened to, insist that you want to complain and be heard. It is your right to complain and have your complaint investigated.

When should I complain?
It is best if you make your complaint as soon as possible, while the events are still clear to everyone.

There are rules about how long you have to make a complaint to the NHS (these dates will not apply if there is a good reason why you could not complain sooner) You should make your complaint:

Not more than 6 months after the events,
or
Not more than 6 months after you realise you need to complain but not more than one year after the events

However, it is up to the person dealing with the complaint to decide if it will be possible to investigate it. If they decide that it will not be possible, you should get advice from the Rethink National Advice Service.

Sometimes staff in the service dealing with your complaint might not be sure how to handle it and as a result there might be a delay in dealing with it. Once you have sent your complaint in, you should get a letter acknowledging it, saying what will happen next. If you do not hear from the Complaints Officer after a week, call their office to make sure they have started dealing with your complaint.

Who should I complain to?
It can be difficult to know who it is that you need to complain to. If you have been talking to a member of staff in the service about your complaint, they should tell you who you need to send your complaint to.

If you do not feel able to talk to them, you could ask the Patient Advice and Liaison Service (PALS) at the hospital or ring the Rethink National Advice Service for advice.

The mental health services that people use are usually provided by several organisations. The local social services department, your GP and the local community and hospital health services will all be involved. Sometimes there will be other organisations as well, for example, where a day centre is run by a voluntary organisation.

If there is more than one organisation involved in the event that you want to complain about, you will have to use the complaints procedures of both.

What should I include in the complaint?
There is no need to write a long, complicated letter, but you should include all the points that you want to complain about. The person dealing with the complaint will need to know:

  • Who or what it is that you are complaining about: If you are complaining about a person, say what they have done and why you want to complain about it - try to make it clear which are the most important points
  • When and where the event you are complaining about happened
  • What you have already done about your complaint and why you are not happy with the answers you received
  • What result you would like from an investigation of your complaint

Is there someone who can help me make a complaint?

Making a complaint can be a long process and you might find it useful to have someone with experience of the system to help you with it.

PALS staff (based in the Trust) can give general advice on complaints procedures and may be able to help you resolve less serious complaints. It is not an independent service. If PALS cannot help, they may refer you to the Independent Complaints Advocacy Service (ICAS).

ICAS helps individuals pursue complaints about NHS services. They will provide support, and help you find your way around the complaints procedure.

Independent Complaints Advocacy Service [www]

Many PALS and ICAS teams have limited experience in dealing with mental health issues. The problems that people with a severe mental health problem face in the NHS mental health services can be complicated and you might want to talk to someone with experience of them. Organisations such as Rethink and mental health advice and advocacy groups have exactly this expertise. Rethink's National Advice Service has experience of these issues and often helps people with making a complaint.

You may wish to speak to someone with experience of black and ethnic minority issues or would like to talk through your complaint with someone in a language other than English. In each of these cases an independent mental health advocacy service in your area may be able to help. PALS should be able to help you contact such an agency.