Activities on inpatient wards
Co-Producing activities that support health, recovery and mental wellbeing for people with psychosis on acute mental health
Boredom is a big issue on inpatient mental health wards that is linked to poor patient satisfaction, feelings of frustration and increased incidents of self-harm and aggression. Where wards have a good range of activities, for example art, music, computer games, gardening and exercise, service users felt less bored and had improved wellbeing.
Over many years, studies have reported a lack of activities, especially during evenings and weekends. It has also been found that little is known about what activities service users want, or how activities might be meaningful for them.
By conducting research to better understand what makes activities desirable for service users we can create a better understanding of how to improve the experiences and satisfaction of service users on acute mental health wards.
Aims
The aim of this study is to explore the role of activities and their impact for patients with psychosis, and how meaningful activities can be delivered on wards.
Methods
We carried out research about activities on acute inpatient mental health wards to understand what activities are meaningful for service users who experience psychosis.
- We interviewed a total of 78 participants across seven wards at three different hospital sites: 41 patients (23 male and 18 female) and 28 staff members were recruited from the wards, three senior managers (one per hospital site) and six community partners (two per hospital site).
- We attend activities on all seven wards and conducted observations on these wards during which we completed an Activities Mapping Tool and The Camden Staff-Patient Activity Record (CaSPAR) (Lloyd-Evans et al., 2011) is an instrument developed to observe and measure the proportion of patients in contact with staff at pre-defined recording times.
- Following the triangulation of data from the interviews, activities mapping and observations on all seven wards, the analysed data was summarised and key findings and themes were presented to a group of key stakeholders during a consensus exercise. A total of 40 people, including experts by experience, experts by profession, ward staff and researchers in the field attended a half-day event.
Summary of Findings
Our study highlights the need for meaningful, person-centred activities on acute wards to alleviate boredom, improve psychological wellbeing, promote safety and personal recovery. We hope that this study will highlight the importance of activities as essentials components of recovery orientated care.
‘Activities are everyone’s business’ and our Final Report will be launched later this year.
Impact
Our work has influenced and been cited in the NHSE (2024). Culture of care standards for mental health inpatient services. Section 10. Things to do on the ward.
Funding
Our Activities Study was funded by The Maudsley Charity as part of the Living Well for Psychosis funding programme. Funders were independent of the research and did not impact findings.
Principal Investigator
Professor of Mental Health Nursing