Liaison Psychiatry Services: measurement and evaluation LP-MAESTRO WS1
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Liaison Psychiatry: Measurement and evaluation of service types, referral patterns and outcomes (LP-MAESTRO) Workstream 1
IRAS ID
163413
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
University of Leeds
Duration of Study in the UK
1 years, 8 months, 31 days
Research summary
Liaison psychiatry (LP) involves the provision of mental health services in non-psychiatric settings, in this case in general hospitals. Liaison services exist because there are higher rates of most mental health problems in general hospitals than there are in the general population. The two main questions asked of them are: do they improve outcomes for the people referred to them and if so can they do so in a cost-effective way? It has even been claimed that LP saves the NHS money by reducing inappropriate use of expensive general hospital stays and treatment for people who are best helped in other ways. The challenge in answering these questions is that liaison services vary greatly in how they are set up, in the sort of referrals they see, and in how they deliver care. Liaison psychiatry for the elderly does not cover the same ground as that for working age adults. So asking whether liaison services are cost effective is not like asking whether a cardiac surgery service is cost-effective but more like (on a smaller scale!) asking if general practice is.
In phase 1 we will use data from a national liaison psychiatry accreditation scheme run by the Royal College of Psychiatrists (along with other existing data sources) and data from follow-up telephone interviews with key members of selected LP services to identify services that we will then characterize according to how they are configured and the types of referral they see.
In phase 2 we will interview a number of health professionals associated with LP services and use pseudonymised case-based and/or aggregated data from a 28 day survey of practice to describe referrals.
Expert PPI and professional workshops will be used to question and validate the theories and models that are derived from the research.
REC name
North of Scotland Research Ethics Committee 2
REC reference
15/NS/0025
Date of REC Opinion
25 Mar 2015
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion