Service user experience of formulation
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Service user understanding and experience of formulation in the context of a multi-disciplinary team approach: An exploration using Thematic Analysis.
IRAS ID
248362
Contact name
Carys Evans
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
University of East Anglia
Duration of Study in the UK
1 years, 4 months, 29 days
Research summary
Being supported to make sense of our mental health difficulties can make us feel listened to, understood and give feelings of hope. However, some people find this difficult and upsetting. It is not clear what makes this experience helpful for some and not others.
These ‘stories’ are normally done in sessions with a psychologist and are a way of making sense of problems, this can be called formulations. Formulation is a joint process between the person and their team that makes sense of the difficulties they may be experiencing. It includes an understanding of, why the difficulties started and what is keeping them going, and can be used to make a plan. They can sometimes make our relationships with a mental health service better and lead to more person-centred care and treatment. It is thought that if more mental health staff can do these it could be helpful. This study hopes to understand the experience of people who have been through the formulation process with a mental health professional.
I would like to understand what it was like for you during the formulation process, by having an interview with me. Some areas we may talk about are; how you found the way it was carried out, how the professional drew all your information together, what was helpful and what was more difficult.
The interview will take about 1 hour and will be audio recorded. I will study each interview to understand what it was like and see if there are any similarities and differences. I plan to talk to between 6 and 10 people. The hope is that your experiences could help to shape our understanding of this way of working and consider ways to improve it.
REC name
Yorkshire & The Humber - Sheffield Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
19/YH/0059
Date of REC Opinion
23 May 2019
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion