Published: 08 April 2022
Experts at Northumbria University are supporting a £1 million research study, funded by the NIHR, which aims to improve the outcomes and experiences of those being discharged from mental health hospitals.
Around 50,000 people leave mental healthcare hospitals every year. However, a national survey from the mental health charity Mind, found that 40 per cent of those have no plan in place to support them after they leave.
Sarah Rae, a mental health service user, experienced difficulties when discharged from mental health wards in the past. She is now working alongside researchers from Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust (NSFT), two other NHS trusts and academics from six universities across the country – including Northumbria.
Determined to use her lived experience of two long-stay admissions to improve services for others, Sarah is co-leading the research along with Dr Jon Wilson, a Consultant Psychiatrist at NSFT. The team are working with mental health service users and carers to develop a new support package for discharge.
National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) guidelines state that discharge planning should include staff working together with service users.
Mental health workers want to create a positive experience for those leaving hospital, however, there are many complicated factors that can disrupt this. The researchers aim is to develop and adopt an ‘Engineering Better Care’ toolkit which can be applied and adapted to the discharge process from the point of view of the people involved. This will include what people feel they need to stay well after leaving hospital.
Dr Sonia Dalkin, Associate Professor of Applied Health Research from the Department of Social Work, Education and Community Wellbeing at Northumbria said: “This kind of co-produced research adds an extra dimension. Sarah is an active agent and partner in leading this research, with invaluable input in terms of lived experience, contextual conditions, and processes surrounding discharge planning approaches. Overall, improving the problem of poor discharge would improve the lives, safety and mental health recovery of significant numbers of service users.”
The study was funded by the NIHR Health and Social Care Delivery Research Programme.
Find out more about the study on the NIHR Funding and Awards website.