When the person has been in hospital and they feel they have had good care, or they received a good service from local authority or community team, it can give them useful feedback to receive compliments from people who have used their service. Often in the press the public only reads the negative stories when in fact there are dedicated and hardworking staff in many jobs who give excellent care.

If you want to give a compliment to a member of staff or to let the head of a service know how you or the person you care for felt about their experience you could try the following:

• Say thank you. Simple and easy but often overlooked
• Send a card with a thank you message. Say why you have been impressed with the service
• Write to the person in charge. Tell them why you think the staff giving the care have impressed you
• Email the ward or head of department 
• Offer to fill in a satisfaction questionnaire or audit if the service has one. This will help when planning future services to highlight which parts of a service have good practice and meet the needs of the users