Community Mental Health Navigator Pilot Evaluation
Research type
Research Study
Full title
The community mental health navigator pilot evaluation
IRAS ID
281112
Contact name
Heather Stradling
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Tavistock Institute of Human Relations
Duration of Study in the UK
2 years, 3 months, 3 days
Research summary
This study is a process, impact, and economic evaluation of the Community Mental Health Navigator Pilot, which involves navigators working in primary care settings to support the non-clinical needs of people seeking mental health support and reduce the number of people accessing mental health services with needs that are not clinically solvable (for example, due to housing, financial, or other social problems). The research will determine how the pilot impacts people experiencing mental illness and their families/carers, health service staff, and whether the pilot is effective at reducing the number of inappropriate presentations at primary care services by helping people to access more appropriate support. The methodology includes:
- Analysis of the level of pilot service user mental health service usage, as well as the reasons for their referral to the pilot.
- Qualitative interviews with pilot beneficiaries and their families/carers
- Baseline and 2 follow up surveys for pilot beneficiaries
- Qualitative interviews with health service staff
- Survey of health service staff
- Use of anonymised general data on health service usage from people with mental illness who are not referred to the pilot, to provide a counterfactual(point of comparison).The study is intended to end at the end of March 2023. It takes place in four sites - on in each nation of the UK. The pilot we are evaluating is already being delivered in the English and Welsh sites, however, the sites in Scotland and Northern Ireland were not intended to begin work until January 2021 and have been delayed. Although the Northern Ireland site will be in West Belfast, governance agreements with the GP surgeries have not been confirmed yet, so some information on the research there cannot be confirmed. Nonetheless, it is important the evaluation in England and Wales starts as soon as possible.
REC name
East Midlands - Nottingham 1 Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
21/EM/0063
Date of REC Opinion
15 Mar 2021
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion