Technology Plan
- Technology can be used to accentuate the Comfort Toolkit, but is not a requirement.
- The Comfort Plan can be completed digitally, and tracking features enabled to document how many times a given symptom was noticed, how many times a coping strategy was used, how effective the strategy was, etc. This can be used to refine the list of symptoms and coping techniques.
- Technology-enabled anxiety rating scales that would be triggered before and after Comfort Kit use can give valuable data about the effectiveness of the intervention.
- Many modern smart watches have heart rate tracking features. Heart rate is a good way for patients to track symptoms of anxiety, build awareness about emotional states, and prompt use of the Comfort Kit when necessary.
- Technology can be good grounding tools, and may be helpful in a grounding kit. For example, MP3 players pre-loaded with soothing music, handheld video games, technology guided meditation.
Patient & Family Engagement
The inclusion of a patient’s family and/or support persons (friends, religious leaders, private mental health clinician etc.) in a patient’s care planning while in hospital is vital to providing complete care for the patient. We have identified the involvement of family and other supports as a key factor in promoting optimal patient outcomes, and propose to:
- Create a conceptual model of family and support engagement in acute psychiatric settings
- Create tools to help clinicians better assess and map out a patient’s family and support system e.g. genograms
- Provide identified family and supports with psychoeducation about ways to best support a patient during an acute psychiatric crisis
- Develop metrics for quantifying the impact of family and support on patient outcomes, to contribute to the existing body of research.
Metrics
Topic
Collaborative Care Planning
Outcome Measure Formula
Decrease in unit suicides
Decrease in violence incidents
Decrease in seclusion or restriant usage
Compliance rate: number of patients with active kit