The Impact of the work
Co-production
Having a project team that included lived experience enabled the team to learn more about the experience of patients and families when accessing the service. As part of this, the team co-produced a new letter inviting people to their appointments. Compared with the previous letter (left), the new letter was much more warm and inviting (right) and the team hoped it would improve patients' experience of accessing the service and lead to more appointments being attended.
There were long waits, people getting lost in the system and letters that weren't the most inviting. Our waits are down from 4 months to 6 weeks for assessments – we are outcoming appointments, agreeing interventions and we’ve come a long way in a short space of time. In the face of so much change and overwhelm, we’ve brought the teams back together and feel a real sense of pride at what we’ve achieved.
PDSA: To increase the number of assessments conducted and completed in a single face-to-face appointment.
An increase in the number of assessments completed in the same month from 30% to 70%
Reduction in assessment time from 237 minutes to 192 minutes
Increase in number of assessments completed each month from 7 (March 2023) to 20 (March 2024)
Reduction in the average number of days an assessment remained open from 39 days to 2 days
Reduction in number of assessments requiring multiple appointments, from 60% to 30%
Aim95% of routine referrals to the Mental Health and Wellness team Central, to be offered an appointment or assessed within 6 weeks by June 2024
% routine referrals assessed within 6 weeks
Number of referrals received each month
Number of patients discharged from caseload each month
Implementing joint working with psychology during screening
Text patients who do not respond to STR calls
Undertake skills gap analysis, re-writing of job descriptions and creation of personal development plans so staff have sufficient training, expertise and confidence to undertake their role.
A Quality Improvement Project to provide people with an outcome after their assessment within 7 working days
A QI project from a lived-experience perspective
It’s a wonderful and successful achievement. Very meaningful. It will impact the clients positively - even one day of waiting can feel like a very long time. Waiting 3 weeks for example feels like a lifetime, even if you expect it. So to be outcomed within 7 working days is a brilliant step forward. Bearing in mind a GP is likely to suggest a wait time of at least two weeks, imagine how beneficial it will be to hear sooner. New clients might not be as aware of the previous longer waiting times but will be pleasantly surprised that help is at hand sooner. And returning clients will really feel the difference. Every client is in limbo from referral to having the initial contact made - it’s tough. You just hope you’ll hear something soon and when you do it’s one step forward on the path to feeling better.
As for the team itself. It really is motivational for the entire team to understand and embrace this has been achieved. Although the project team have worked with commitment and diligence to bring this about, everyone ultimately can enjoy knowing the clients are being helped quicker. It’s all about people at the end of the day but it’s only natural at times to perhaps lose sight of that at screening.
It’s a 360 win/win for clients and the whole team.
Our QI project team included lived and learned experience
We identified an issue with 'flow' at the front end of our pathway (screening stage). Screenings were taking between 1 and 30 days to complete
Our project aim: Ensure 95% of referrals have an outcome within 7 working days by June 2024
We tested 2 smaller change ideas, then focused on merging 2 stages of screening to streamline and improve efficiency
By June 2024 we were providing 100% of our clients with a referral outcome within 7 working days (an 25% increase in 12 months)
