Improving End of Life Care for People with Severe Mental Illness
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Improving End of Life Care for Adults with Severe Mental Illness: Understanding the views of patients, and their informal care networks, through co-design to improve approaches to clinical practice
IRAS ID
229792
Contact name
Jed Jerwood
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Coventry University
Duration of Study in the UK
1 years, 4 months, 31 days
Research summary
This study concerns patients with history of severe mental illness who develop life-limiting or terminal illnesses and their experience of accessing end of life care. Previous research showed that little is known about the end of life care needs of people with mental illness, and that the experiences and views of patients have not been explored or understood and that little has been done to improve end of life care for this patient group.
This study has two parts - part one involves carrying out a series of interviews with patients and their carers to understand their views on their end of life care needs. Part two involves bringing together patients, carers and clinical staff to undertake a series of co-design workshops to develop the content and format of a clinical resource to improve staff knowledge and confidence in providing care.
This doctoral research builds on a study carried out last year involving a literature review and focus groups exploring the views and experiences of clinical staff on the barriers to delivering end of life care to this patient group and how care could be improved. The findings of the study will be synthesized with the patient interview data and used to inform the co-design process.
The use of co-design methods (where patients and staff and the researcher work together as equal partners) will ensure that the education/information resource designed is fit for purpose and addresses the needs of the clinical staff delivering end of life care to people with severe mental illness.REC name
West Midlands - Edgbaston Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
17/WM/0300
Date of REC Opinion
20 Sep 2017
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion