Our mental health services are transforming the way they help service users with thoughts of suicide or self-harming improve their mental wellbeing and resilience.
And they are doing it all from the convenience of a service user’s pocket.
Working with a member of the mental health practice improvement and development team and staff from the Airdrie community mental health team (CMHT), service users have been piloting digital safety plans which give them instant access to their bespoke plan.
The plan supports staff to work with service users to use their own phone to store the plan which they devise, design and list the information that is important to them.
The new system, which is evidence-based, is initially being rolled out to the CMHTs and ward two at University Hospital Wishaw.
The wheels were set in motion for the pilot, which was completed at Airdrie CMHT after a service user with suicidal feelings completed a paper safety plan, but said: “My life is on my phone.”
Feedback from patients has been so positive that the digital safety plans are now set to be officially launched on Wednesday 23 June.
The pilot has had resoundingly positive feedback from service users and staff about the efficacy of the digital safety plan.
Feedback included:
- All staff believed the digital plan was useful;
- 90 per cent felt the digital plans are used to their full potential by patients;
- All service users who previously had a paper plan said they did not take it out of the house with them;
- In comparison, 80 per cent reported using the safety plan when away from the home;
- All service users said they did not share their previous safety plan with family or friends;
- 80 per cent said they had shared the digital one with family or friends;
- 90 per cent of service users said they preferred using a digital safety plan.
Ultimately, all service users reported feeling more in control and more involved in the design of their safety plan which confirms it as a wholly person-centred intervention.
