Mental Health

Find out more
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Mental Health

Find out more
As the first platform integrating mental health organisations into the NHS App, we provide a convenient national front door for service users.  Read how our all-in-one Patient Engagement Platform (PEP) and Personal Health Record (PHR) supports a wide range of mental health organisations to enhance service user engagement and digitally enable key national programmes.

From demand to active participation

Lord Darzi’s report underscored the extent to which long waits have become the norm - delays which, as the King’s Fund also highlighted, often result in further deterioration and reliance on emergency or crisis services.  To help break the cycle of demand exceeding capacity, an underutilised resource for mental health organisations is empowering service users to actively participate in decision-making and self-management.  This necessitates access to their health & care information, along with interactive tools for effective communication with clinical teams and community services.

Single place to engage in a more holistic approach

Patients Know Best (PKB) provides a secure platform for service users to access their health data, manage appointments, systematically share information, co-create care plans and engage with care teams - all conveniently accessible through the NHS App.  Consolidating data from any healthcare provider into a single patient record, alongside patient-contributed information, supports coordination among all parties involved in a service user’s journey.  The ability to track symptoms and integrate devices, such as wearables, allows professionals to look at each aspect of an individual’s health and wellbeing to ensure every opportunity to improve is maximised.

Mental Health organisations we work with

PKB is England’s leading PEP provider, supporting over one-third of the nation’s Mental Health Trusts and operating extensively throughout the UK and Ireland
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Supported Programmes

Appointment management and digital letters

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WAYFINDER TRAILBLAZERS

Midlands Partnership University Foundation Trust, North London Foundation Trust, East London Foundation Trust, North East London NHS Foundation Trust and South West Yorkshire Partnership Teaching NHS Foundation Trust  were  the first  Mental Health Trusts to go live with the Wayfinder Service.  Others will follow shortly. 

We already support multiple mental health organisations to manage their appointments and letters through our deep integration with the NHS App, in line with the NHS England Wayfinder programme.  This includes the capability to:

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    View, cancel or reschedule appointments, as well as ensuring that service users have access to a single point of contact
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    Send Notifications & Messages within the NHS App to notify about a new or updated appointment, helping to reduce DNAs
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    Share documents (appointment letters, discharge summaries and clinical information) for service users to access in their record and via the NHS App

We were the first and are the most prominent PEP delivering NHS England Wayfinder Services in Mental Health, pioneering tailored screens to better support mental health service users. As a system-agnostic platform, we can work seamlessly with all Electronic Patient Record providers and have already implemented Wayfinder with Trusts using a range of solutions including, but not limited to: RiO, Civica Care Records: EPR system (formerly Paris) and SystmOne.

Care Planning

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COORDINATED CARE PLANNING FOR SMIs

City & Hackney introduced a digital pathway which brings together multi-disciplinary teams across Primary Care, Secondary Care and voluntary sector organisations all using the same care plan to support people with Severe Mental Illness.  Read more here on this award winning programme.

Care planning has always been a vital aspect of mental health service delivery, ensuring that individuals receive holistic and person-centred care.   Guidance within the government’s 10 year plan and the upcoming Mental Health Act reforms  will make this a legal requirement,  mandating that every service user has a tailored plan outlining the necessary steps for their discharge. 

Using a personal health record enables individuals to securely co-develop and access their care plans, set goals, track progress, and communicate with their care team. Importantly, they can share their thoughts and mental health history in their own words, eliminating the need to repeat themselves to new professionals involved in their treatment.  Key PKB features include:

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    Unlimited bespoke plans to personalise goals, provide guidance, links to resources and emergency traffic light triage

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    Ability to integrate process with EPRs for automated, systematic trust wide-implementation

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    Ability for multiple parties and the service user to co-edit plans with an audit trail for tracking

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    Journal for service users to document their mood and physical health

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    Share functionally empowering service users to grant access to friends, family and other carers involved in their support network - a crucial role that will also be formally recognised in the reformed Mental Health Act.

Midlands Partnership Foundation Trust (MPFT) Adult Mental Health Services has introduced an automated workflow to share ‘Personalised Care and Support Plans’ with service users within PKB. Read here how they have achieved PRSB Mental Health care plans standards using PKB questionnaires as part of the process.

PROMs and Questionnaires

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Digital DIALOG mental health survey interface for Nottinghamshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust hosted on the Patients Know Best platformImage

AUTOMATE QUESTIONNAIRES INTO TRUST EPR

Nottinghamshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust (NHC) has utilised PKB to automate the delivery of DIALOG PROMs to service users, removing the need for paper-based assessments. Once completed by a service user, the questionnaire is automatically fed back into the Trust’s EPR, allowing clinicians to review within their existing clinical system. Read how completion rates rose from 1-2% to 30+% in first three months.

Measuring outcomes is crucial in mental health services to assess the effectiveness of interventions, provide personalised care and drive service improvements. Digital solutions allow for easier access to and completion of service user reported outcome measures, enhancing and systemising data collection to support meaningful change. They provide valuable insights into treatment outcomes and inform decision-making at both the individual and system level.  Our questionnaire functionality offers:

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    Delivery of questionnaires without the need for registration

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    Existing library of common PROMs, including GAD7, PHQ9, Reqol and DIALOG+

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    Unlimited build of new questionnaires including coding, branching logic and scoring, which can be tailored to service’s/organisation’s specific requirements

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    Proven high engagement when linking PROMs to wider health record access

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    Easy access for patients via the NHS App

Making Every Contact Count (MECC), Waiting Well & Waitlist Validation

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MAKING EVERY CONTACT COUNT WITH DIGITAL

The Trust is implementing PKB with a specific focus on delivering automated questionnaires and surveys that provide service users with access to support resources and self-care options where appropriate.  The MECC approach also encourages MPFT personnel to utilise everyday interactions to motivate service users to engage with the platform’s resources for self-care.

MECC is the foundation of the behaviour change intervention pyramid, leveraging everyday interactions to support positive changes in wellbeing, physical and mental health. It facilitates opportunistic delivery of consistent and concise healthy lifestyle information and enables individuals to engage in conversations about their health at scale across organisations and populations.

PKB, alongside care providers, fosters sustainable changes to a service user’s lifestyle and improves their wellbeing. The platform provides a more accessible way for services to deliver a holistic care model upon referral, during extended waiting list periods and throughout active care delivery. Features which support MECC include:

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    A Library to sign post local services support, e.g. physical activity support, smoking cessation. As of our core “Waiting Well” features, organisations can provide resources to engage users and help build resilience while they wait for formal treatment. These resources can also be accessed by service users immediately upon self-referral.

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    Questionnaires which can be used for regular surveys to prompt engagement, validate a service user's status on the waitlist and provide access to resources for self-support.

Waiting Well & Waitlist Validation

Self refer/ acknowledgement of referrals

Provide resources to support self management during waiting

Validate and communicate with those on the waitlists through ongoing assessments

Recognising that long waiting times can be particularly stressful for individuals facing mental health challenges, our Waiting Well features, such as the Library, provide essential support.  Users can access informative content and interactive exercises that keep them engaged, build resilience, and provide valuable resources while awaiting formal treatment. 

Mental health organisations can use PKB to acknowledge a referral, update on waitlist times and use our questionnaires to regularly check a service’s status.  It can also be used for service users to self-refer, with teams using digital tools to support the triage process.

Patient stories 

Watch service user stories below to hear how PKB has improved their experiences

Find out how Patients Know Best can support your services today

Patient engagement platforms and personal health records have the potential to revolutionise mental health service delivery and address many key challenges faced. Embracing digital solutions in mental health services is not just an option but a necessity to create a brighter future for individuals seeking support on their mental health journeys. If you have ideas on how a service user engagement platform, or use of a personal health record could support your services, or want to know more from the use cases above, get in touch.

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