Cargando…

Service user and carer involvement in mental health care safety: raising concerns and improving the safety of services

BACKGROUND: Previous research into improving patient safety has emphasised the importance of responding to and learning from concerns raised by service users and carers. Expertise gained by the experiences of service users and their carers has also been seen as a potential resource to improve patien...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Berzins, Kathryn, Louch, Gemma, Brown, Mark, O’Hara, Jane K., Baker, John
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: BioMed Central 2018
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6098618/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30119632
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12913-018-3455-5
_version_ 1783348514363801600
author Berzins, Kathryn
Louch, Gemma
Brown, Mark
O’Hara, Jane K.
Baker, John
author_facet Berzins, Kathryn
Louch, Gemma
Brown, Mark
O’Hara, Jane K.
Baker, John
author_sort Berzins, Kathryn
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: Previous research into improving patient safety has emphasised the importance of responding to and learning from concerns raised by service users and carers. Expertise gained by the experiences of service users and their carers has also been seen as a potential resource to improve patient safety. We know little about the ease of raising concerns within mental health services, and the potential benefits of involving service users and carers in safety interventions. This study aimed to explore service user and carer perceptions of raising safety concerns, and service user, carer and health professional views on the potential for service user and carer involvement in safety interventions. METHODS: UK service users, carers and health professionals ( n= 185) were recruited via social media to a cross-sectional survey focussed on raising concerns about safety issues and views on potential service user and carer participation in safety interventions. Data were analysed using descriptive statistics, and free text responses were coded into categories. RESULTS: The sample of 185 participants included 90 health professionals, 77 service users and 18 carers. Seventy seven percent of service users and carers reported finding it very difficult or difficult to raise concerns. Their most frequently cited barriers to raising concerns were: services did not listen; concerns about repercussions; and the process of raising concerns, especially while experiencing mental ill health. There was universal support from health professionals for service user and carer involvement in safety interventions and over half the service users and carers supported involvement, primarily due to their expertise from experience. CONCLUSIONS: Mental health service users and carers experience difficulties in raising safety concerns meaning that potentially useful information is being missed. All the health professionals and the majority of service users and carers saw potential for service users and carer involvement in interventions to improve safety, to ensure their experiences are taken into consideration. The results provide guidance for future research about the most effective ways of ensuring that concerns about safety can be both raised and responded to, and how service user and carer involvement in improving safety in mental health care can be further developed.
format Online
Article
Text
id pubmed-6098618
institution National Center for Biotechnology Information
language English
publishDate 2018
publisher BioMed Central
record_format MEDLINE/PubMed
spelling pubmed-60986182018-08-23 Service user and carer involvement in mental health care safety: raising concerns and improving the safety of services Berzins, Kathryn Louch, Gemma Brown, Mark O’Hara, Jane K. Baker, John BMC Health Serv Res Research Article BACKGROUND: Previous research into improving patient safety has emphasised the importance of responding to and learning from concerns raised by service users and carers. Expertise gained by the experiences of service users and their carers has also been seen as a potential resource to improve patient safety. We know little about the ease of raising concerns within mental health services, and the potential benefits of involving service users and carers in safety interventions. This study aimed to explore service user and carer perceptions of raising safety concerns, and service user, carer and health professional views on the potential for service user and carer involvement in safety interventions. METHODS: UK service users, carers and health professionals ( n= 185) were recruited via social media to a cross-sectional survey focussed on raising concerns about safety issues and views on potential service user and carer participation in safety interventions. Data were analysed using descriptive statistics, and free text responses were coded into categories. RESULTS: The sample of 185 participants included 90 health professionals, 77 service users and 18 carers. Seventy seven percent of service users and carers reported finding it very difficult or difficult to raise concerns. Their most frequently cited barriers to raising concerns were: services did not listen; concerns about repercussions; and the process of raising concerns, especially while experiencing mental ill health. There was universal support from health professionals for service user and carer involvement in safety interventions and over half the service users and carers supported involvement, primarily due to their expertise from experience. CONCLUSIONS: Mental health service users and carers experience difficulties in raising safety concerns meaning that potentially useful information is being missed. All the health professionals and the majority of service users and carers saw potential for service users and carer involvement in interventions to improve safety, to ensure their experiences are taken into consideration. The results provide guidance for future research about the most effective ways of ensuring that concerns about safety can be both raised and responded to, and how service user and carer involvement in improving safety in mental health care can be further developed. BioMed Central 2018-08-17 /pmc/articles/PMC6098618/ /pubmed/30119632 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12913-018-3455-5 Text en © The Author(s). 2018 Open AccessThis article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.
spellingShingle Research Article
Berzins, Kathryn
Louch, Gemma
Brown, Mark
O’Hara, Jane K.
Baker, John
Service user and carer involvement in mental health care safety: raising concerns and improving the safety of services
title Service user and carer involvement in mental health care safety: raising concerns and improving the safety of services
title_full Service user and carer involvement in mental health care safety: raising concerns and improving the safety of services
title_fullStr Service user and carer involvement in mental health care safety: raising concerns and improving the safety of services
title_full_unstemmed Service user and carer involvement in mental health care safety: raising concerns and improving the safety of services
title_short Service user and carer involvement in mental health care safety: raising concerns and improving the safety of services
title_sort service user and carer involvement in mental health care safety: raising concerns and improving the safety of services
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6098618/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30119632
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12913-018-3455-5
work_keys_str_mv AT berzinskathryn serviceuserandcarerinvolvementinmentalhealthcaresafetyraisingconcernsandimprovingthesafetyofservices
AT louchgemma serviceuserandcarerinvolvementinmentalhealthcaresafetyraisingconcernsandimprovingthesafetyofservices
AT brownmark serviceuserandcarerinvolvementinmentalhealthcaresafetyraisingconcernsandimprovingthesafetyofservices
AT oharajanek serviceuserandcarerinvolvementinmentalhealthcaresafetyraisingconcernsandimprovingthesafetyofservices
AT bakerjohn serviceuserandcarerinvolvementinmentalhealthcaresafetyraisingconcernsandimprovingthesafetyofservices