After reading Lydia’s article in The Bulletin, I contacted Lydia to ask for more information about the STARs group. Lydia very kindly shared the STARs Group resources and met with me to provide advice on how to structure the group.
I chose to run a trial group in an Oxleas specialist inpatient unit for older people with long term mental health needs such as Schizophrenia, Affective Disorders and Personality Disorders. Patients generally have complex physical health needs, as well as mental health needs, therefore they usually remain in the unit on a long-term basis. The ward receives psychiatric and specialist nursing input.
I discussed the group with the MDT and we chose three patients to attend. One patient is already known to SALT services and has a diagnosis of alcohol related dementia. The remaining two patients were suggested by staff as appropriate candidates for the group, they do not have a diagnosis of dementia, however they both have physical and mental health diagnoses.
We were given a quiet space and one member of staff to support the group each week. The group ran for 6 weeks and received positive feedback from both group members and staff. The group gave the patients and staff an opportunity to have a chat and get to know each other. We learnt lots of new information about each other, e.g. one patient described the time he learnt to race his motorbike on a racing track, another spoke about the projects she completed when at university. All patients were observed to use a range of vocabulary during the group tasks, e.g. undulating, strong, parliament, global. Staff members appreciated the opportunity to hear the group members’ life stories. Group members reported that they had enjoyed talking about past experiences and memorable events.
We plan to run the STARs group again and staff members have expressed an interest in being trained to run the group independently.
Laura Rigby
Highly Specialist Speech and Language Therapist
Mental Health Inpatient Service
Oxleas NHS Foundation Trust
Learning Disability Service
