User Focused Monitoring

In 2001, The Local Implementation Team of North Somerset Primary Care Trust commissioned an independent study as a pilot project for the proposed User Focused Monitoring, which was to be an ongoing, yearly project evaluating services provided in the experience of people who were in contact with the mental health services in North Somerset.

'Friend' were approached and agreed to line-manage the project, and The Sainsbury Centre were invited to do presentation of their model of User Focused Monitoring.   This model was adopted for the pilot project, which initially involved one of the Sainsbury Centre workers together with Judy Mead.    Posters were displayed in Friend in Weston-superMare and at Marine Hill in Clevedon, stating briefly the nature of User Focused Monitoring and asking for people to put their names forward if they would like to become involved in the project.

Those who responded were contacted by Judy Mead, who was co-ordinating and producing the final report of the pilot project, and a meeting was arranged for information to be given about the purpose and the process of the project, and what it would involve.

Ten people were recruited as interviewers, and initially their training was quite intensive as they learnt to share their existing skills and practise some new ones, learned about interviewing techniques and how to compile questionnaires.    It was hard work - however, it was also great fun and everyone in the group worked well together.

In 2002, the group recruited in 2001 embarked upon monitoring a new topic with the invaluable guidance and assistance of Philippa Chapman, of the Evaluation Trust, and the support of Jeremy Lax, a 2nd. Year Social Work student on placement with 'Friend' at that time.

As in the pilot project of 2001, all members of the group had experience of the mental health system, and were empathetic to the needs of other users.    (It is important to note here that the interviewers had been trained by the Sainsbury Centre for the 2001 study. However, additional training was provided locally for the 2002/3 study to ensure they were well informed)

By means of a consultation process with service users in the area, the topic for UFM 2002/3 was chosen as '24-hour Access to Care'.    This was discussed with and agreed by the Local Implementation Team, and funded by the North Somerset Primary Care Trust.

The interviewing group agreed that they should:

• use their own experiences to develop and ask appropriate questions in order to produce a sensitive analysis of the current situation
• find out the views from users across North Somerset
• establish the level of knowledge about existing 24-hour services
• identify areas which needed to be improved and where there were gaps in service
• present their findings to local funding bodies in order to influence service developments and improve overall services.

Service users were engaged in the study by responding to:

• a series of posters displayed in Health Centres, GP surgeries, the hospital, Community Mental Health Team bases, drop-ins and voluntary organisations supporting people with a mental health problems
• word of mouth
• information sent to existing user groups

At each interview the interviewee was:

• assured of complete confidentiality of the process
• given a copy of the questionnaire to follow as the questions arose
• given a card at the end of the interview with details about existing services and phone numbers
• given details about how to access support after the interview if they felt they needed it

All interviews were completed by November 2002, and in December the group had several meetings with Philippa, from the Evaluation Trust, to gather together all the completed forms, analyse the findings, produce a report and agree their recommendations in response to the findings.

Presentations of the report and the findings were arranged and held at the Winter Gardens, Weston-super-Mare and St. Andrews Church Hall, Clevedon at the end of April 2003.

The current User Focused Monitoring project is evaluating the 'Integrated Care Plan Approach', and once the report has been published, details will be posted here.