We have been working with service users with experience of being an inpatient in an acute mental health hospital, and healthcare professionals from the setting to adapt the "How are you?" Booklet and SNAP's person-centred process for mental health.
Background
Health care should be driven by patients’ needs. This is known as “person-centred care”. The NHS recommends it, but there is little guidance on how to provide it. In an earlier project we developed a way to do this called Support Needs Approach for Patients (SNAP: https://thesnap.org.uk/). SNAP uses a tool (a booklet called the “How are you?” Booklet which has a set of questions to help patients think about areas where they need more support) and a focused conversation between the patient and healthcare professional to help address those needs. SNAP was first developed for patients with chronic lung disease and is now being used to enable person-centred conversations for patients with a range of chronic physical conditions. This recent project (SNAP in Mental Health – Project 1) explored the usefulness of SNAP for people with mental health conditions. To do this we worked with service users with experience of being an inpatient in an acute mental health hospital, and healthcare professionals from the setting to adapt the ”How are you?” Booklet and SNAP’s person-centred process for mental health. We did this though a series of focus groups and workshops.
Research Questions:
- RQ1: How should the SNAP Tool be adapted for service users in acute mental health settings?
- RQ2: What is the optimal operationalisation of SNAP’s person-centred process in the acute mental health setting?
Project Aims
To adapt and optimise SNAP for service users with acute mental health conditions.
Two objectives mapped to the two research questions.
- Objective 1 (O1): Adaptation of the SNAP Tool for service users in acute mental health (RQ1)
- Objective 2 (O2): Optimal operationalisation of SNAP’s person-centred process for acute mental health (RQ2)
Project Activity
To answer the two research questions and address the two objectives we conducted an applied qualitative project involving patients and clinicians.
The project's three stages are mapped to the research questions and objectives:
- Stage 1 worked with service users to initially review the SNAP Tool and SNAP for acute mental health settings through focus groups (RQ1-2/O1-O2)
- Stage 2 worked with service users to adapt the SNAP Tool and begin to operationalise SNAP for acute mental health through a service user workshop and interviews (RQ1-2/O1-O2)
- Stage 3 worked with clinicians to optimise operationalisation of SNAP for acute mental health through a clinician workshop (RQ2/O2)
We are now carrying out a follow up study to validate the adapted tool (SNAP in Mental Health – Project 2). This follow up project is checking that the adapted tool will work for service users by exploring whether service users feel it looks like it does what it was designed for, and whether it covers all the relevant support needs of service users.
Anticipated outputs
- Once validated, the adapted SNAP Tool will be made available (under licence) via the SNAP website (free of charge to not-for-profit organisations).
- Any guidance developed on the delivery of SNAP within acute mental health will be made available via the SNAP website.
- A report on Project 1 can be found here.
- A brief report was also provided to participants in Project 1 who wanted one.
- A Project 2 report will be prepared for the trusts we work with on Project 2, and for the funder (NIHR ARC EoE), co-produced with service users. And a brief report will again be prepared for participants in Project 2 (who would like one).
- A webinar will be held, supported by NIHR ARC EoE (this will follow Project 2’s additional validation work).
- An academic paper for publication will be co-produced with service users (this will follow Project 2’s additional validation work).
Who is involved?
- Prof Morag Farquhar (PI & corresponding researcher), University of East Anglia
- Dr Carole Gardener (Project SRA), University of East Anglia
- Dawn Stewart, Cambridge & Peterborough Foundation Trust
Papers/resources
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A report on Project 1 can be found here.
Contact us
Prof. Morag Farquhar, University of East Anglia
