Patient-facing software is being increasingly used to support the quick identification of someone who’s experiencing a mental health deterioration. Claire Read explores whether patient-facing apps can be used to support earlier, and more appropriate, intervention when facing mental ill health
This is an edited version of an article first published by Digital Health
Chris O’Sullivan, head of business development and engagement at the Mental Health Foundation, has been interested in the potential of digitisation to deliver better mental health for about 20 years – “Since the internet was an infant,” he says with a smile.
It’s a period during which, he points out, greater access to digital services has affected a multitude of contributors to our mental wellbeing. “It’s fundamentally changed, or developed, the ways in which we connect, communicate, find meaning, express ourselves, generate content, expect feedback,” he says.
“When we are thinking about how we might want, or need, to interact with health professionals, particularly in relation to our mental health, there’s a logical expectation that digital might be part of the picture. A smartphone can be a very powerful and contemporaneous tool for enabling patients to make sense of their experiences, and then communicating that to services.”
Monitoring mood
Growing numbers of suppliers and trusts are trying to make use of precisely that tool.
“It’s an app which patients will download onto their own mobile ‘phones,” explains Lee Meredith, product manager at Servelec, which has developed the software. “It provides them with three main functions: it allows them to view their safety plan – which is the output of consultation and conversation with their mental health professionals – it gives them direct access to emergency contacts and they can also use the app to record their mood.”
The last of those is not an innovation as such; mood diaries have been an important part of mental healthcare for some time. However, they’ve typically been on paper, with all the attendant difficulties. “Inevitably, when paper is involved, you generally lose it or don’t have it when you need it,” Lee explains, “so we really worked at looking at how we can provide a digital solution for this vulnerable group of patients.”
Having the right information at the right time
The solution is not just for service users; Servelec is best known for its Rio electronic patient record (EPR), with which the mood diary app will link seamlessly. “Once the mood has been recorded by the patient it is automatically stored as part of their clinical record within the EPR system,” explains Lee.
“Because it is fully integrated into the Rio electronic patient record, if the clinician and the patient have agreed some changes to the safety plan for the patient, as soon as those changes are saved in Rio, they are instantly available on the app for the patient.
“So, the patient can walk out of that consultation and everything they’ve discussed, even any changes to the contacts, is instantly available to them. It’s really very much about making sure the patient’s got the right information at the right time.”
Future opportunity
The app means clinicians have got instant access to a continuing record of a patient’s self-reported condition – and it also offers a future opportunity for data analysis and, possibly, the development of predictive models.
“The first trusts we’re looking to go live with, they’re not initially going to be using [the app] for predictive modelling,” Lee stresses. “But, of course, having that digital channel means that we’ve got an opportunity to really start looking at that on a proactive basis, and provide early intervention to those patients with the overall objective of reducing self-harm risk and suicide.”
At Mersey Care NHS Foundation Trust these sorts of efforts have already begun. In April, the organisation started to embed a dashboard solution in all community mental health teams. The ‘management and supervision tool’ (MaST) analyses data from the electronic patient record and uses an algorithm to determine how likely a patient is to use crisis services in the next 28 days.
“If there are early warning flags, the system makes it a lot easier for us to pick those up, whereas before we might be relying just on the skill of that individual practitioner, the quality of the referral, the ability of the person who presents to the service to articulate themselves,” says Adam Drage, GDE clinical business change manager at the trust.
Up-to-date assessments
MaST overlays existing electronic health record and business information tools, extracting data overnight from the EPR , presenting an up-to-date assessment each day. As well as helping clinicians identify those patients with the greatest potential need, it also makes it easier to understand who might be ready for discharge from inpatient care.
“MaST is used by clinicians to help them make decisions about which interventions, and which care pathways, are most appropriate for people,” explains Caroline Gadd, director at Otsuka Health Solutions, which developed and supplies the tool.
“For example, somebody whose risk of using urgent care services is very low, who doesn’t have other social complexities in their life, actually might be somebody who is ready to be discharged from secondary services back to a, more appropriate, primary care service, for example.
“Conversely, somebody who is at high risk of using crisis services, and has many complexities in their life, may need a more intensive programme of care delivered to them than they’re currently receiving in order to keep them well in the community.”
According to Adam, at Mersey Care Foundation Trust there is early evidence that MaST is supporting clinicians to make such decisions. He says the trust has, traditionally, had the challenge of patients sitting on case lists indefinitely, with care neither stepped up nor stepped down.
However, with the tool now live for 10,000 patients across 10 sites, with 150 trained clinical users, this seems to have become less of an issue. “There’s a definite correlation between discharges and use of MaST, so there’s an increase in teams that are discharging people back to GPs who are using MaST, but you’ve also got a reduction in the re-referrals,” he explains.
“Previously, people who were discharged often bounced back to services – so not only are we increasing our discharges, but we’re also reducing the number of people who are bouncing back, which indicates MaST is helping to move the right people back to the GP, rather than the wrong people.
“The more people use MaST, the more flow we’re getting, which means that patients are having their needs met quicker and we’re able to evidence recovery because we’re ending their involvement once their needs have been met – which is obviously absolutely paramount to an NHS service being sustainable.”
Benefits of self-management
Sustainability is, of course, the backdrop to so many conversations about healthcare digitisation. Chris O’Sullivan, of the Mental Health Foundation, is another who sees the potential of digital mental healthcare solutions to not only improve patient care, but also the bottom line.
“The benefits of being able to establish self-management using digital tools that are two way between clinician and individual – and, potentially, also their families or other people in their networks – are going to be really, really high to those people,” he argues. “But also, if we’re talking about cold, hard costs, in terms of the prevention of hospitalisation and other service use, the argument is definitely there.”
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