This session will explore progress, impact and future directions for methods to improve quality in mental health care. An overview of the evidence base for and learning from quality improvement in mental health settings will be presented alongside insights into effective systems to embed coproduction into improvement activities. Case examples of improvement methodologies used by the College Centre for Quality Improvement (CCQI) will be discussed drawing on decades of learning from applying these at scale across the UK. The Prescribing Observatory for Mental Health (POMH-UK) and the Electroconvulsive Therapy Accreditation Service (ECTAS) which have vast coverage will be used as examples to demonstrate the impact of these initiatives to drive local and national improvements in care. We will present learning from audits of prescribing practice and the last two years of the ECTAS dataset, the largest focused on use of ECT in the UK and potentially globally. The session will conclude with considerations on the future and modernisation of established methods including use of routinely reported data and QI techniques in audit and the potential for Quality Networks to advance quality and safety in mental health care using coordinated, large scale efforts backed by high quality evaluation.
The aims of the session are:
- To learn about current evidence for different improvement methodologies in mental health care.
- To learn about the varied applications and success factors for impact in relation to audit, accreditation, quality standards, quality networks and QI in mental health care.
- To discuss the impact of the Prescribing Observatory for Mental Health on safe prescribing and to highlight areas of improvement for prescribing practice.
- To describe current use of electroconvulsive therapy in England, Wales, Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland.
Chair: Peter Thompson, Royal College of Psychiatrists, London, United Kingdom
Mary Docherty, Royal College of Psychiatrists, London, United Kingdom
Thomas Barnes, Imperial College, London, United Kingdom and Carol Paton, Royal College of Psychiatrists, London, United Kingdom
Vimal Sivasanker, Essex Partnership University NHS Foundation Trust, Basildon, United Kingdom
