What Matters To You about the care and support you have?

What matters to you about the care and support you receive?

Being able to access appointments in the first place was really important:

"Being able to have a GP appointment at my surgery, not being asked to go to the outskirts of Sheffield instead", "Being able to get an appointment and be seen in a reasonable amount of time", "Being able to get appointments is really important. You have to be prepared to speak up for yourself to get the care you need. Communication can be a barrier."

Building trusted and ongoing relationships with professionals was important too:

"That they understand and remember what I require so I don't have to ask for every little thing, understand what im saying to them and why I'm saying it to them", "Having a GP that actually listens and cares. Having trust and confidence in the medical advice and explanation being given", "It's not he same because of culturual differences. I was surprised to be given medication without seeing a specialist. I don't trust it, you need to see a specialist and do a screening, you can't make a conclusion over the phone".

This links to person-centred care, and the need to be involved in decisions that are made about your support and treatment:

"That carers don't assume stuff, ploughing on doing stuff - ask me", "Being personalised, community-centred and holistic i.e., driven by the understanding that I’m individual made up of many parts that should/does belong to a wider community", "Having some control over decisions made but also knowing what to expect and why things are done in a certain way, "In primary care it feels more and more like you have to fit around their service and the needs of their system", "Being involved in my medication review - being there."