Health
Liaise
Aim
To measure service user and staff perceptions of inpatient care, using a participatory research model developed by Dr Diana Rose.
Two questionnaires (named ‘voice’ for service users and ‘vote’ for staff) have been developed and will be used in Better Pathways and Doorways to evaluate the effectiveness and acceptability of the interventions.
These measures were developed by Jo Evans, Service User Researcher and Caroline Laker, Nurse Researcher of the Service User Research Enterprise (SURE). SURE is a body within the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience that undertakes research testing effectiveness of services and treatments from the perspective of people with mental health problems and their carers.
Process of measure development
Topic Guides
- Comprehensive literature reviews produced suggested themes for the topic guides.
- Two reference groups were convened, one of service users and representatives from mental health organisations, and the other of senior nursing staff from the Trust under study and other London Trusts. The groups identified major themes from their experiences of either receiving or delivering services, and those themes were incorporated into flexible topic guides for the focus groups.
Recruitment
- Two independent samples were recruited. The service user sample was taken from two user groups of acute inpatient services and comprised service users admitted to SLaM acute in-patient services within the last two years. The staff sample was taken from qualified nurses and health care assistants in SLaM.
- Service users were recruited directly by phone, following presentations to community mental health teams and liaison with care co-ordinators.
- Staff were recruited via presentations to ward managers and nursing teams, posters and flyers, posts on the SLAM e-news bulletin and individual letters.
Project status: Ongoing
