Co-PACT
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Experience based investigation and Co-design of approaches to Prevent and reduce Mental Health Act Use: (CO-PACT)
IRAS ID
296851
Contact name
Kam Bhui
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
University of Oxford / Clinical Trials and Research Governance
Duration of Study in the UK
1 years, 7 months, 28 days
Research summary
The Mental Health Act allows professionals to admit people to hospital against their will. People from black and minority ethnic communities are more likely to get care this way. This can be distressing, reduces trust, and is costly. The government’s review of these laws recommended more research to understand the rise in use of compulsory care. We want to find ways of reducing care like this.
This research will ask people about their experiences of compulsory admission to hospital. We will work with mental health services in London, Manchester, Leeds, Birmingham, Bradford, Oxford and Derby. Service users will be of diverse ethnic backgrounds, and aged over 18. In each city, we will recruit 20 service users who have experienced at least one compulsory admission to hospital in the previous year. We will use a creative process involving photography to capture their experiences. The first meeting will explain the approach. In two more meetings, we will ask people to add titles, captions, or descriptions to tell their stories. The captions can be written, or audio or video recordings. Twenty mental health staff from across the seven cities will do the same.
In each city we will share this information with a group of people including, service users, psychiatrists, carers, psychologists, social workers, nurses, police, commissioners, and policy experts. This group will meet three times and design a new approach, to reduce the number of people receiving compulsory care. A fourth meeting will bring everyone together to consider their experience when they tried to apply the approach, specifically what works, for whom and how. Using information about changes in care or practice, we will estimate costs and benefits.
We will ask everyone how they found working on the project. This will help us understand what helped and if anything changed for them.
REC name
South Central - Berkshire Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
21/SC/0204
Date of REC Opinion
22 Jun 2021
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion