How do I speak my mind?
One of your basic rights in hospital is to express your views in relation to your care and treatment. We provide you with some tips and advice on how to self-advocate.
One of your basic rights in hospital is to express your views about:
- your care and treatment
- how it is delivered
- how effective you think it is.
Speaking up for yourself and what you want in this way is called self-advocacy. However, you might find speaking up for yourself difficult. You might not feel confident about what to say, especially if you are afraid of how others will hear it.
Tips to help you be clear and confident in what you are saying
Here are a few things that you can do to help you be clear and confident in what you are saying, even when you feel that others may think differently and have different views to you.
- Plan what you want to say and write it down. This will help you to get things clear with yourself so you can be clear with others. The clearer you are with other people, the more involved and influential you will be in decisions about your life.
- Practise or rehearse what you want to say. Then you will feel more prepared and confident when meeting with people.
- Prepare for how others are likely to respond to what you have to say. This includes your psychiatrist, your parent(s) or guardian, and other adults involved in your life. Think about how you can best deal with how they might react.
- Talk to other people that have experience of advocating for themselves. They might be able to support you to do so yourself.
- Be assertive If you think you are not being heard, then, as best you can, calmly repeat yourself until you feel acknowledged.
- Write things down and keep records as much as you can. This means you can be sure of what is being said or agreed rather than having to remember it all and you can refer back to it if you need to.
- Take your time Remember you don’t have to answer questions straight away. If you feel under pressure, say “I need time to think about it” and that should be respected.
Do not worry if you find speaking up for yourself too difficult. There are lots of other ways to get your views and wishes across. You might like to have someone that you trust support you when meeting with your doctor or care team. This person is called an advocate.
- providing support during meetings to help you feel more confident in expressing your opinions to your doctor or care team.
- representing you and your views to your doctor or care team when you do not feel like you can or you are unable to.
Who can be my advocate?
Anyone can be your advocate. This includes:
- a family member, or
- a legal guardian, or
- a member of your care team that you trust, or
- any other person that you feel you can talk to and trust.
Sometimes you might want an independent person to advocate for you. This is someone separate from your family, the hospital, and social services. They can help you express your opinion to those involved in your treatment.
Independent advocates are committed to representing your views and no one else’s. This means they can always be a good source of impartial information and support. You can ask your key worker or any member of your care team if an independent advocate is available in your hospital.
What can I do if I’m not happy with something?
Making a complaint
If you are unhappy about something that happened during your hospital stay and you think it is not right or is unfair, it is important to let people know so that they can help. In some cases, you may even want to make a complaint. It is important to remember that you have a right to complain and to have your complaint fully heard.
There are lots of different ways for you to make a complaint. The hospital you are in should have information in a leaflet, admission booklet or on display about how to do this. But some of the best ways to make a complaint are explained below. You can also use Support Tool 8 to help you.
Informal complaint - Talk to your care team
Sometimes a conversation can help sort the problem or complaint and reassure you.
It might help to talk to someone on your care team about the issue and ask for their help to sort it out. This could be your key worker or a nurse. This is usually a good place to start. But you may not feel comfortable talking to someone on your care team, so you could look for help to sort out the issue from another trusted person like a family member, guardian, or an independent advocate.
To help you prepare for this conversation, you could think about:
- what happened and how it has affected you.
- what you think should have happened differently.
By explaining what you would have preferred to happen, it can help the person you are talking to really understand what is bothering you. When preparing for this conversation, it can also help to think about what you would like to happen next to make the issue better.
Formal complaint - Contacting your complaints officer
If you feel like the issue cannot be or was not sorted by talking to your care team, you might want to make a formal complaint. One way to do this is by contacting your complaints officer.
Each hospital has a designated Complaints Officer. You usually contact them in writing, either by email or by letter.
Useful tips to help you write your complaint:
- Be as specific as you can with the information.
- Try to include important dates and names of people you have tried speaking to about the issue.
- If you are finding it hard to write, get a trusted friend or adult to write it with you or read it through.
- Include any relevant copies of letters or emails you have received about the issue you are complaining about.
- It can feel upsetting writing down what’s happened – it is important to be kind to yourself and take a break if you need to.
Formal complaint - Contacting the Health Service Executive (HSE) Complaints Service
Another way to make a formal complaint is by using the HSE’s complaints service called ‘Your Service, Your Say’ You can email yoursay@hse.ie
You can also call the HSE directly on freephone 1800 700 700.
Remember that your hospital must be a public, HSE-run hospital to make a complaint this way.
Other ways to make a complaint
Ombudsman for Children: If you are unhappy with how your complaint has been dealt with by your care team or complaints officer, you can also contact the Ombudsman for Children’s Office. You will find their contact
details below:
- Freephone: 1800 20 20 40
- Email: ococomplaint@oco.ie
- Be patient as complaints can take time to be investigated while people check with others before making a judgement (decision).
- Remember that sometimes when you are not happy about the way things are, they may not be able to be changed (for example it is a law) or you may have misunderstood something. You still have a right to express your view on this and to speak up if something is not right for you.
- Remember that by speaking up, it may improve, not only your care, but also the care of other young people in your hospital.
All contact details are available at the link
Note: Please note that you can also contact the Mental Health Commission. The Mental Health Commission regulates inpatient mental health services but it does not have the power to investigate or resolve individual complaints. However, if you have a specific concern about the health, wellbeing or safety of a person in hospital you can email concerns@mhcirl.ie. Even if the Mental Health Commission does not have the power to investigate your concerns, it will give you guidance on how best to get the support, advice or information you need. The Mental Health Commission logs all concerns received. Where it is appropriate, the concerns are raised with the hospital when it is inspected. If the inspector or assistant inspectors from the Mental Health Commission are visiting the hospital where you are receiving treatment, you have a right to talk to them and they will ask if you would like to speak to them. You can access the information at the webpage Get in Touch
