No CrossRef data available.
A Qualitative Evaluation of the Quality of Assessments for the Psychological Medicine in Primary Care Service: A Patient Perspective
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 07 July 2023
Abstract
Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.
Aims. Background: Psychological Medicine in Primary Care, Stockport works with people with persistent physical symptoms and personality difficulties whose psychological needs cannot be met by existing services due to complexity. The service views the assessment process as a therapeutic intervention in its own right and utilises a relational, formulation-based approach over 2 to 5 sessions. A letter including this formulation is sent following assessment to both the patient and their GP.
Aims:
1. To evaluate the quality of the assessments from a patient perspective.
2. To improve the quality of the assessments in order to improve patient care and the support offered to patients.
Methods
A short questionnaire with open questions was created. Thirty-two patients assessed by the service took part in semi-structured interviews by means of a short telephone discussion after consent was taken. Three independent investigators reviewed their responses and performed thematic analysis, using an inductive and recursive approach.
Results
Theme 1: The understanding of the service and awareness of the referral affects the perception of the assessment.
Theme 2: There can be therapeutic gain in the assessment process, which appears to be mediated by the relationship with the assessors including:
• Emotional catharsis
• Having a wider perspective of personal issues
• Developing new coping mechanisms
• Regaining a sense of agency
• Gaining a sense of hope
• Developing a better understanding of emotions
• Having a different experience to past encounters with mental health services
Theme 3: The relationship with the assessor plays an important role in the experience of the assessment process, and is mediated by skills of the assessor, including:
• Active listening
• A sense of thoroghness; not feeling rushed
• Sensitive use of verbal and non-verbal communication
• An empathic, non-judgmental approach
• A warm, professional approach
• Open, clear, collaborative communication
• A consistent approach
• Validation
• Psychological containment
Patient perception of the degree of attunement in these areas appears to lend itself to a sense of psychological trust and safety in the process.
Theme 4: The outcome of the assessment can lead to various emotional responses which can play a role in how people perceive the assessment process
Theme 5: The assessment letter is considered an important part of the assessment by many, but not all, participants
Conclusion
Psychiatric assessment can be a therapeutic intervention in its own right and a collaborative, relational approach can help to facilitate this.
- Type
- Service Evaluation
- Information
- BJPsych Open , Volume 9 , Supplement S1: Abstracts from the RCPsych International Congress 2023, 10–13 July , July 2023 , pp. S143 - S144
- Creative Commons
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. This does not need to be placed under each abstract, just each page is fine.- Copyright
- Copyright © The Author(s), 2023. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of the Royal College of Psychiatrists
Footnotes
Abstracts were reviewed by the RCPsych Academic Faculty rather than by the standard BJPsych Open peer review process and should not be quoted as peer-reviewed by BJPsych Open in any subsequent publication.
You have
Access
Open access
eLetters
No eLetters have been published for this article.