Is LiveWellCloz acceptable for patients and healthcare staff?
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Is the LiveWellCloz intervention acceptable for patients and healthcare staff, a qualitative analysis?
IRAS ID
212799
Contact name
Jason Hancock
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
University of Exeter
Duration of Study in the UK
0 years, 11 months, 31 days
Research summary
Schizophrenia is a common severe mental illness and is associated with a life expectancy 10-20 years less than the background population. The majority of premature deaths are caused by physical illnesses such as cardiovascular disease or diabetes. While this is due to many factors the use of antipsychotic medication is known to increase the risk of physical health complications in this population.
In 2014 NICE recommended for the first time that physical health monitoring for people taking an antipsychotic is performed by the patient’s secondary care mental health trust rather than by their GP. This poses a challenge for secondary care services. It is not known where patients wish their physical health monitoring to be performed, and there is longstanding disagreement between primary and secondary care as to where the responsibility for managing the physical health complications of this population lie. In Exeter we have developed an intervention (LiveWellCloz) within the local Clozapine clinic to increase the proportion of patients prescribed Clozapine having the appropriate physical health monitoring performed.
This study will use short 30 minute semi-structured qualitative interviews to ask six to ten patients attending the Clozapine clinic in Exeter, and previously exposed to LiveWellCloz, if the intervention is acceptable to them and who they would want to support them with their physical health needs. This study will also interview a range of additional stakeholders including local primary and secondary care healthcare professions with a knowledge of the clinic (psychiatrists, General Practitioners, clinic and community nursing staff) to determine if the intervention is acceptable to them and to determine where they feel physical health monitoring and management should take place.
Answering these questions will allow further improvement of this intervention and will help guide future interventions aiming to improving the physical health monitoring of patients taking antipsychotic medication.
REC name
South West - Cornwall & Plymouth Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
16/SW/0265
Date of REC Opinion
27 Sep 2016
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion