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Padraig O Feich
Mental Health Reform, Ireland
Posters & Accepted Abstracts: Clin Psychol Cog Sci
Background: In 2006, in a policy document entitled A Vision for Change, Ireland undertook to move towards a modern, recovery orientated public mental health service characterised by holistic care, individualised care planning, the provision of accessible support, increased involvement of service users in decisions about their treatment and care and greater continuity of care across the mental health services. More than a decade on, it remained unclear to what extent Irish mental health services had progressed towards the modern, recovery orientated system outlined in A Vision for Change.
Aim: Mental Health Reform's My Voice Matters project aimed to address this by examining the views and experiences of mental health service users and the evidence for progress towards a recovery orientated public mental health service in Ireland. This project was the first large-scale national consultation in many years to provide detailed and up-to-date service user feedback.
Method: 1,188 participants who had accessed mental health services in Ireland in the last two years completed an in-depth online survey. The analysis was mainly descriptive in nature. However, an ordinal logistic regression was carried out to examine key factors associated with service user's overall experience of/satisfaction with the mental health service in Ireland.
Findings: Findings were mixed at best with a minority of participants experiencing services consistent with a recovery orientated approach as outlined in A Vision for Change. On average overall satisfaction was low with 42 percent of participants reporting a poor overall experience in the last two years. However, findings from the ordinal logistic regression indicated some ways in which service user experiences may be improved, which are consistent with modern, recovery orientated mental health care. Alongside age, the provision of individualised care plans, accessible support in the form of a key worker, service user involvement in decisions about their treatment and care, and continuity of care were found to be significant predictors of service user satisfaction. Calculated odds ratios showed, for example, that service users who reported having a written recovery/care plan and those who reported being involved in decisions about the medications they take were 2.2 and 2.5 times more likely to report a good overall experience, respectively.
Conclusion: More work is needed if Ireland is to achieve the modern, recovery orientated system envisaged in A Vision for Change more than a decade ago. However, key pillars of the recovery orientated approach, such as individualised care planning and increased service user involvement, have the potential to improve service user's experiences going forward.
Pádraig Ó Féich is currently a research officer with Mental Health Reform, Ireland's leading national coalition on Mental Health. An experienced mixed-methods researcher and former University College Dublin Scholar, he was awarded a PhD by the School of Psychology in UCD in 2016. After that, he completed a post-doctoral project working with University College Dublin and the Childhood Development Initiative on a housing policy paper. He has a history of research in the charity and community sectors, is currently a volunteer director of an inner-city community organization in Dublin, and has a strong interest in advocacy-based research.
E-mail: pofeich@mentalhealthreform.ie
+447362049920
