CQIC Co-Chair Naomi Vodden (Director of Mental Health and Addiction Services, Grey Bruce Health Services)
and CQIC Partner Melanie Knapp
Melanie has had good and not-so-good experiences while getting support for her mental health. Service experiences where she was encouraged and helped to develop her skills were very positive. At other times, however, she was treated like she has less potential than she truly does. Having experienced these ups and downs of receiving care in the mental health system, Melanie was looking for a way to help others in her position.
Melanie found that opportunity as an active partner on the South West Continuous Quality Improvement Collaborative (CQIC). Between now and March 2020, CQIC partners are working together to improve the experience of clients and their supporters in the mental health and addiction system in Southwestern Ontario. In particular, CQIC partners hope they can improve the transition experience from and between services.
Melanie was one of the first partners to join the CQIC in the Fall of 2017. The CQIC is made up of other people with lived experience and representatives from 14 community agencies and hospitals that provide mental health and addiction services in Southwestern Ontario. Melanie notes, “the group is truly a blessing because people are so excited to be working with partners with lived experience.”
Diversity and caring have become important to Melanie, and she finds it great to see these values embraced by a network of partners. “Diversity is helping everyone share,” she says. “Being part of this CQIC group helps me to feel hopeful about mental health recovery because the group has such caring intentions. I did not previously know that professional workers at this level cared so much.”
The CQIC uses feedback from clients and their supporters to guide its actions. All of the CQIC partner agencies collect client feedback using the same survey tool, the Ontario Perception of Care Tool for Mental Health and Addictions (OPOC). Across the province, the OPOC is being put in place to standardize how input is gathered from clients. Feedback from clients in the South West pointed CQIC partners towards an opportunity to improve transitions out of and between mental health and addictions programs.
According to the CQIC partners with lived experience, good transitions are done with kindness and compassion. They empower individuals to support themselves, and help connect them to important resources like: counseling, support groups, and mental health libraries. Service providers note that, with good transitions, staff feel more confident the person is ready to leave and has appropriate supports in place. In addition, individuals do not typically have as many return visits.
CQIC partners reviewed different innovations to improve client transitions and decided to implement a person-oriented discharge summary (PODS). PODS is a simple tool that provides clients with the key information they need to support their success after discharge. For an individual being discharged from a mental health program, this might include information about what to do if specific symptoms arise. Having this important information written down can prevent a crisis. According to Dan, another CQIC partner with lived experience, “My experience helped me see that an awful lot of good can come from this tool.” PODS was developed by OpenLab at the University Health Network in collaboration with many clients and their supporters. It has spread to more than 30 hospitals across Ontario. In addition to implementing PODS in the CQIC’s four hospital partners, PODS will also be adopted by the CQIC’s community partners.
Adopting PODS goes beyond just a piece of paper. CQIC partners will also work to adjust their transition processes to include recommendations from the PODS development group. These include specific education strategies, welcoming clients’ supporters as partners in care, and ensuring there is a follow-up to discharge. By being directly involved in the discharge planning process, it is hoped clients will have more confidence in their ability to manage their care after discharge. Looking at their own words on the PODS form may also be an essential step to wellness. Alazar, another CQIC partner with lived experience, notes: “I think the transition bundle can help people find their way.”
The CQIC’s work is grounded in the voices of individuals with lived experience in mental health and addictions services in the region. This has been important for all partners at the table. For Alazar, partnering on the CQIC has “given me the opportunity to be heard, to be of service.” For Dan, “it’s been a wonderful experience and created a wonderful change in me.” And, according to one agency partner, the most important thing the CQIC accomplished in the past year of working together is, “the fact that, from the beginning, we’ve had our community members, people with lived experience, at the table helping guide us, helping ground us, and helping us to know that we’re doing the right thing.”
Implementing PODS is what the CQIC group hopes will be the first of many opportunities that improve services using client feedback data and this collaborative model of working together. For now, the group hopes to get others to help spread the word about the work they are doing.
Source: collaborative document by several members of the SW CQIC Steering Committee, submitted by Melanie Knapp, CQIC Partner, on behalf of the CQIC Steering Committee
