SNAP (the Support Needs Approach for Patients) is a way of enabling person-centred care. Clinicians wanted to use SNAP in mental health, but it was not originally developed for use this setting. So we have been working with service users with experience of mental health services, and mental health clinicians, to adapt SNAP for use in 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 clinician 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. In this new project we worked with service users with experience of mental health services, and clinicians from those services, to adapt the “How are you?” Booklet and SNAP’s person-centred process for mental health. We did this through a series of focus groups, workshops, and a survey, and by working with an NHS Media Studio and our Service User Group (of people with experience of mental health).
Research Questions:
- RQ1: How should the SNAP Tool be adapted for service users in mental health settings?
- RQ2: What is the optimal operationalisation of SNAP’s person-centred process in mental health settings?
- RQ3: Does the adapted SNAP Tool have face and content validity for mental health service users?
Project Aims
To adapt and optimise SNAP for service users with mental health conditions.
Three objectives mapped to the three research questions.
- Objective 1 (O1): To adapt the SNAP Tool for mental health service users (RQ1)
- Objective 2 (O2): To optimally operationalise SNAP’s person-centred process for mental health (RQ2)
- Objective 3 (O3): To produce a user-friendly validated SNAP-MH Tool, ready for use in clinical practice (RQ3)
Project Activity
To answer the research questions and address the objectives we conducted a five-stage multi-method project involving patients, clinicians, and an NHS Media Studio.
The project's five stages are mapped to the research questions and objectives:
- Stage 1 worked with service users to initially review the SNAP Tool and SNAP for 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 mental health through a service user workshop and interviews (RQ1-2/O1-O2)
- Stage 3 worked with clinicians to optimise operationalisation of SNAP for mental health through a clinician workshop (RQ2/O2)
- Stage 4 was a survey of service users in which they completed the adapted SNAP Tool for mental health (SNAP-MH Tool) to help us find out whether it covered all the relevant support needs of service users (RQ3/O3)
- Stage 5 then worked with an NHS Media Studio to produce a user-friendly version of the validated SNAP-MH Tool (RQ3/O3)
Anticipated outputs
- The adapted SNAP Tool (SNAP-MH Tool) will be made available (under licence) via the SNAP website (free of charge to not-for-profit organisations).
- Guidance developed on the delivery of SNAP within mental health (using the SNAP-MH Tool) will be made available to clinicians via the SNAP website.
- A report on Stages 1-3 can be found here.
- A report on Stages 4-5 is in preparation.
- Brief reports were also provided to participants who wanted one: one for those who took part in Stages 1-3, and one for those who took part in Stage 4.
- A webinar will be held, supported by NIHR ARC EoE.
- An academic paper for publication is being co-produced with service users.
Who was 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
- The Support Needs Approach for Patients (SNAP website)
- A report on Stages 1-3 can be found here.
Contact us
Prof. Morag Farquhar, University of East Anglia
