1.1.1 Expressed emotion in mental health building and service design (446)
Joe Forster, Deputy Unit Manager, Low Secure Unit, Mersey Care NHS Trust, Liverpool, United Kingdom joeforster@nhs.net
Abstract:
We are in the midst of the largest programme of health service building ever in the UK, and Merseyside has plans for the largest investment in mental health building to date. Service user and staff involvement is essential for successful building design, but we must prepare for the unexpected when our preconceptions about architecture are challenged. In the first phase of building we have developed the idea of inherently safe design. This reduces intrusive supervision of service users by staff and increases their sense of control and independence. In order to measure this we have set up a pilot study to investigate the concept of the expressed emotion profile of buildings. We will complete data collection by the end of 2007, having sampled 12 patients with a before and after 20-item questionnaire and collected comments to illuminate the concept from 20 patients attending existing meetings and discussions. Data analysis will be completed by February 2008. The study has ethical and governance approval and is part of a project designed with full service user involvement, including payment for their time (any payment being independent of the recipient’s actual level of participation in providing data). The results will indicate the direction for further investigation and assist those designing healthcare buildings to avoid the mistakes of the past and integrate their output with the models of care of the future.
Recommended reading list:
- Forster J et al (2003) 'The perceived expressed emotion in staff scale' Journal of Psychiatric and Mental Health Nursing 10(1) 109-117
- Wilson J (2006) 'In with the new' Hospital Development 38(9) 12-17
- Department of Health (2005) 'Creating a patient-led NHS: Delivering the NHS Improvement Plan' Department of Health, London
Biography:
Joe Forster is a mental health nurse with research and development interests in reflective practice, expressed emotion and service user involvement. His most recent project has been to head up end-user involvement in the new build for the 30-bed low-secure unit in which he works. This led to the evolution of a new concept, the expressed emotion profile of health buildings, and a new design feature, the Safevent NHS window. Joe has made study visits to Trieste, New York and throughout the UK and has co-authored a number of book chapters and journal articles.