The results of Talking Point's User Survey are in...

[KatherineW]

Each year, we ask Talking Point users to give us feedback on their experience of the service, via an online survey.

This year’s survey was completed by 472 Talking Point users (including members and guests). Thanks very much to all of you who took the time to share your views with us.

I'm delighted to say that the survey results are very positive overall: we have maintained - and in several cases improved upon - our previous high rates of user satisfaction.

Key results include:

- 90% of respondents agreed or strongly agreed that Talking Point was a good source of information about dementia. (This figure was also 90% last year)

- 92% of respondents said they would be likely or very likely to recommend the service to others. (This figure was 90% last year)

- 89% of respondents agreed or strongly agreed that they found Talking Point helpful. (This figure was 87% last year)

- 79% of respondents agreed or strongly agreed that Talking Point helped them to feel less isolated. (This figure was 78% last year)

The full survey report is attached to this post, for anyone who is interested in reading more.

If anyone has any further comments or questions about the survey results, it'd be great to hear from you. The best way to contact the team is by emailing talkingpoint@alzheimers.org.uk.

Thanks,

 

[CeliaW]

Thank you Katherine - it's very good to hear about the results of surveys. (by the way, the pdf file doesn't show on the app / tablet so I had to go to the Web page)

I think TP is an excellent resource but I do wish more professionals were aware of it. This needs promoting to Social Workers, Care Home Staff, Medical, Nursing staff etc to increase understanding and awareness generally as well as inform people of the resource - please also add politicians to that group! I often think it should be required reading for some groups.

Maybe a feature in their professional magazines / websites etc or some Alz Society staff joining other forums, Facebook pages etc?

An ex colleague went to work for the Alz Society about two and a half years ago and when we met up after about six months - I mentioned TP. She knew nothing about it and it didn't seem to have been (noticeably) covered or highlighted in her induction etc.

Keep up the great work, even if I don't always agree with all decisions (smiles) you all do a valuable job - staff and volunteers. Thank you. ☺

 

[Miss Merlot]

I am 33 - I am in the 1%!

Feeling a bit special now

 

[Kevinl]

I'm not with CeliaW on this one, part of the charm of this site is that the people on here are or have actually experienced the same thing as you in their lives not learned it in some hypothetical way in a classroom.
I don't object to "professionals" being on here but the I wonder how many posts would be professionals offering platitudes to your problems not real people offering something much more sincere, sympathy and advise from the heart. They may be the professionals but the people on here are the real experts.
This figure was a bit disappointing:
83.5% of respondents are female; 16.5% are male.
(Last year, 80% of respondents were female, and 20% were male).
A near decline of 20% in men's membership as a proportion of the whole number of members.
K

 

[nitram]

I don't object to "professionals" being on here but the I wonder how many posts would be professionals offering platitudes to your problems not real people offering something much more sincere, sympathy and advise from the heart.

I took CeliaW's post to mean that if more professionals knew about TP and read the threads they would be more likely to emphasise with their clients.

 

[CeliaW]

I don't object to "professionals" being on here but the I wonder how many posts would be professionals offering platitudes to your problems not real people offering something much more sincere, sympathy and advise from the heart.

I took CeliaW's post to mean that if more professionals knew about TP and read the threads they would be more likely to emphasise with their clients.

Indeed Nitram, exactly that. Many professionals, even those with the best of intentions, dont get the reality of it all - how one thing happening (or not happening) impacts on another, how the reality of caring is not just the sum total of different things but the nature of them makes the total greater than its parts...

People on here are real life - a different ball game to textbooks and lectures.

 

[Beate]

Yes, TP should be more widely advertised. It ought to be prescribed reading material for the powers that be who seem to think that they are doing enough when they are not.

 

[chick1962]

I have been told that professionals do peek in but don't sign up. I, however find TP a great support and tremendous help this last year. Some members have my outmost admiration and are a fantastic credit to this site, their humour, courage and strength shines through and they are always there for advice and help what a lovely "family" to be part of well done all of you


Sent from my iPhone using Talking Point

 

[KatherineW]

Thanks all for your thoughts about Talking Point, and for your feedback about the survey.

Just to pick up on a couple of the points that were raised...

Re. promotion: we do a lot of work to promote Talking Point, both online and offline. We work closely with our Digital team to promote TP online, and we carry out a range of activities to promote TP offline, too. These have included press features, and in the next couple of weeks we will be sending Talking Point flyers out to 9000 GP surgeries.

We do of course have to make sure that any external promotion we carry out is done in a measured way, as aside from the costs of promoting TP, it's important to ensure that we have the resources in place to effectively support people when they come here.

Talking Point is promoted internally, too: there have been features about TP in our staff newsletters and volunteers' magazine, and we share Talking Point news (like the survey results) widely. Talking Point is also one of the services included in the Services section of our Induction programme, so I'm disappointed to hear that the person you met hadn't heard of TP, Celia.

This figure was a bit disappointing:
83.5% of respondents are female; 16.5% are male.
(Last year, 80% of respondents were female, and 20% were male).
A near decline of 20% in men's membership as a proportion of the whole number of members.
K

We are really keen to engage more men with Talking Point, and we plan to carry out some tailored promotion in this area, over the coming year. It's also important to recognise though that the gender balance for Talking Point users (both members and non-members respond to the survey) mirrors that at Alzheimer's Society support services across the country, including our National Helpline and face-to-face support groups. It's likely there are a number of reasons why men don't engage as much with our support services as women tend to, so there's probably more involved here that just doing more promotion - but of course, that's a start.