What is a therapeutic conversation in the emergency department?
Research type
Research Study
Full title
What is a therapeutic conversation with a mental health professional in the emergency department?
IRAS ID
221079
Contact name
Tobit Emmens
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Devon Partnership NHS Trust
Clinicaltrials.gov Identifier
researchregistry2567 , The Research Registry
Duration of Study in the UK
2 years, 2 months, 30 days
Research summary
In mental health care, practitioners and patients routinely engage in delicate and emotional face-to-face conversations about suicidal thoughts and plans. A key setting for these conversations is the emergency department.
The aim of this study is to explore the quality of conversations about suicide between patients and mental health professionals in the emergency department.
We will work closely with people with lived experience to address the following research questions:
1. How do mental health professionals communicate with people about suicide in the emergency department?
2. What are patients’, companions’ and professionals’ perspectives on the barriers to and facilitators of improved communication?
3. How does the suicide risk formulation entered into the patient’s medical record correspond to information obtained by the mental health professional from the patient in their face-to-face meeting?These research questions will be addressed by:
1. Video-recording professional-patient conversations to gain an in-depth understanding of professional-patient communication.
2. Interviewing patients, companions and professionals to explore their experiences of barriers to and facilitators of improved communication.
3. Reviewing meeting notes and patient medical records.Psychiatry Liaison teams across 2 NHS Trusts in Devon and London will be recruited. We will record 50 mental health professional-patient meetings. We will ask patients to complete questionnaires after the meeting, to assess the therapeutic relationship, experience of communication, depression, suicidal thoughts and hope for the future. We will interview patients, companions (family members, carers or friends) and professionals to explore barriers to and facilitators to having an effective, therapeutic meeting. We will review meeting notes and medical records to identify how the suicide risk formulation is entered into the patient’s medical record, and how it corresponds to information obtained in face-to-face communication via the video-recordings.
The findings from this study will help us to identify positive practice in order to develop training for NHS staff, which is a NHS priority.
REC name
London - Central Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
17/LO/1234
Date of REC Opinion
21 Sep 2017
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion