Safer Mental Health Discharge Stakeholder Engagement Research
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Safer Mental Health Discharge:Stakeholder Focus Groups and Consensus Study
IRAS ID
279577
Contact name
Maria Panagioti
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
University of Manchester
Duration of Study in the UK
0 years, 5 months, 30 days
Research summary
Research Summary
Background
Discharge from acute mental health settings to community care is described by patients and staff as a distressing and challenging period. An NHS improvement solution is the SAFER patient flow bundle, which aims to improve the patient discharge process from hospitals to the community. Whilst SAFER has been implemented locally, it is unclear whether and which of its principles are more or less relevant to patients discharged from mental health settings. The project aims to address the following research questions:
1. What are best practice principles for discharging patients from mental health trusts to the community?
2. Which specific principle(s) of SAFER needs to be adapted to make it applicable to mental health settings?
3. Can healthcare professional and patient engagement with the intervention be increased using evidence-based techniques?
Aims
We aim to engage with stakeholders to understand how best to deliver the SAFER patient flow bundle in mental health settings to promote safe discharge from hospitals to community for people living with mental health problems.
Methods
The project has two research phases.
Work Package One (WP1): will consist of 5-7 focus groups with healthcare professionals (n=10) key informants (n=10) and patients/service users (n=10) in separate discussions.
Work Package Two (WP2): Based on the output of phase one, the team will develop quality statements relating to components of SAFER to present to a group of stakeholders (researchers, professionals, n=12) to determine the exact components of the SAFER-Mental Health Intervention.
Settings and Participants
Most participants will be recruited through three participating Mental Health trusts, these focus groups will take place on site. One or two generic focus groups will happen within the Manchester area for individuals not affiliated to the trusts.Summary of Results
We conducted 35 interviews to understand how different people (patients, carers and professionals) feel about a new way of doing mental health hospital discharges. The participants provided lots of ideas about how to new way of working would be better suited to a mental health setting. We then asked a panel of experts to vote on the best way to incorporate this into practice. As a result we developed a new way of working and three new documents that has been co-designed with patients, carers and professionals. We are now working to test this way of working in a few hospitals.
REC name
North West - Haydock Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
20/NW/0228
Date of REC Opinion
12 May 2020
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion