Mental health services have come up with a green way of getting people to fill out a form by planting a tree for every completed questionnaire received from patients in this year’s patient survey.

More than 1,000 copies of the survey have been sent to Croydon residents who have recently used mental health services.

The survey is sent to a random sample of people who get the opportunity to respond anonymously and have their say on their experience of receiving care and treatment from South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust (Slam).

Operated by the Care Quality Commission, the independent regulator of health and social care in England, the survey is part of the annual national patient survey of people using services NHS services.

Dr Martin Baggaley, medical director at Slam, said: “We wanted to give people an extra reason to fill the survey in.

“Taking part in the survey is good both for the local environment and mental health services. We want to hear about what we do well, and what we could do better. We also know people care about the environment they live in, and there’s a shortage of trees in London.

“We plan to plant a tree for every person who completes the survey. That’s potentially up to 1,000 more trees in London.

“We will be working with councils to plant trees in public places, such as parks, as well as at our hospital and community sites.”

If you are a patient and have received a copy of the survey and have not filled it in, there is still time. The deadline is June 18.

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