Care pathways in the transition of patients between district psychiatric hospital centres (DPCs) and community mental health services

Rationale, aims, and objectives: Patients with mental health problems experience numerous transitions into and out of the hospital. Primary care providers have mixed success in identifying and managing patients' needs. This study explores health personnel’s experience of care pathways in patien...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Sather, Eva W., Svindseth, Marit F., Crawford, Paul, Iversen, Valentina C.
Format: Article
Published: Wiley 2018
Subjects:
Online Access:https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/50462/
_version_ 1848798257071783936
author Sather, Eva W.
Svindseth, Marit F.
Crawford, Paul
Iversen, Valentina C.
author_facet Sather, Eva W.
Svindseth, Marit F.
Crawford, Paul
Iversen, Valentina C.
author_sort Sather, Eva W.
building Nottingham Research Data Repository
collection Online Access
description Rationale, aims, and objectives: Patients with mental health problems experience numerous transitions into and out of the hospital. Primary care providers have mixed success in identifying and managing patients' needs. This study explores health personnel’s experience of care pathways in patient transition between inpatient and community mental health services. Method: A descriptive qualitative design was chosen. Four focus group interviews with twelve informants from seven different communities were conducted. Interviews were analyzed thematically. Results: Two main themes were identified: integrated care and patient activation. The participants shared their experiences on topics that can affect smooth care pathways in mental health. Six promoting factors were identified for successful patient transition: opportunities for information sharing, implementation of systematic plans, use of e-messages, around-the-clock care, designating one responsible health person in each system for each patient, and the involvement of patients and their families. The following barriers were all found to impede the patients’ transition between levels of care: the lack of a single responsible person at each health care level, insufficient meetings, the absence of systematic plans, difficulties in identifying the right staff at different levels, delays in information sharing, and the complexity of welfare systems negatively affecting patient dignity. Conclusions: Systems and procedures should be developed to ensure clear responsibilities and transparency at each stage of the pathways of care. A single person should take charge of ensuring sufficient connection and communication between inpatient and community mental health services. Finally, both patient and staff in community services should be linked through a direct telephone number with around-the-clock availability.
first_indexed 2025-11-14T20:16:53Z
format Article
id nottingham-50462
institution University of Nottingham Malaysia Campus
institution_category Local University
last_indexed 2025-11-14T20:16:53Z
publishDate 2018
publisher Wiley
recordtype eprints
repository_type Digital Repository
spelling nottingham-504622020-05-04T19:39:15Z https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/50462/ Care pathways in the transition of patients between district psychiatric hospital centres (DPCs) and community mental health services Sather, Eva W. Svindseth, Marit F. Crawford, Paul Iversen, Valentina C. Rationale, aims, and objectives: Patients with mental health problems experience numerous transitions into and out of the hospital. Primary care providers have mixed success in identifying and managing patients' needs. This study explores health personnel’s experience of care pathways in patient transition between inpatient and community mental health services. Method: A descriptive qualitative design was chosen. Four focus group interviews with twelve informants from seven different communities were conducted. Interviews were analyzed thematically. Results: Two main themes were identified: integrated care and patient activation. The participants shared their experiences on topics that can affect smooth care pathways in mental health. Six promoting factors were identified for successful patient transition: opportunities for information sharing, implementation of systematic plans, use of e-messages, around-the-clock care, designating one responsible health person in each system for each patient, and the involvement of patients and their families. The following barriers were all found to impede the patients’ transition between levels of care: the lack of a single responsible person at each health care level, insufficient meetings, the absence of systematic plans, difficulties in identifying the right staff at different levels, delays in information sharing, and the complexity of welfare systems negatively affecting patient dignity. Conclusions: Systems and procedures should be developed to ensure clear responsibilities and transparency at each stage of the pathways of care. A single person should take charge of ensuring sufficient connection and communication between inpatient and community mental health services. Finally, both patient and staff in community services should be linked through a direct telephone number with around-the-clock availability. Wiley 2018-05-31 Article PeerReviewed Sather, Eva W., Svindseth, Marit F., Crawford, Paul and Iversen, Valentina C. (2018) Care pathways in the transition of patients between district psychiatric hospital centres (DPCs) and community mental health services. Health Science Reports, 1 (5). e37. ISSN 2398-8835 Community mental health care psychiatric services district psychiatric centre integrated care care pathways information communication patient transition https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/hsr2.37 doi:10.1002/hsr2.37 doi:10.1002/hsr2.37
spellingShingle Community mental health care
psychiatric services
district psychiatric centre
integrated care
care pathways
information
communication
patient transition
Sather, Eva W.
Svindseth, Marit F.
Crawford, Paul
Iversen, Valentina C.
Care pathways in the transition of patients between district psychiatric hospital centres (DPCs) and community mental health services
title Care pathways in the transition of patients between district psychiatric hospital centres (DPCs) and community mental health services
title_full Care pathways in the transition of patients between district psychiatric hospital centres (DPCs) and community mental health services
title_fullStr Care pathways in the transition of patients between district psychiatric hospital centres (DPCs) and community mental health services
title_full_unstemmed Care pathways in the transition of patients between district psychiatric hospital centres (DPCs) and community mental health services
title_short Care pathways in the transition of patients between district psychiatric hospital centres (DPCs) and community mental health services
title_sort care pathways in the transition of patients between district psychiatric hospital centres (dpcs) and community mental health services
topic Community mental health care
psychiatric services
district psychiatric centre
integrated care
care pathways
information
communication
patient transition
url https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/50462/
https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/50462/
https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/50462/