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Tuesday, November 3, 2009: 10:55 AM
Learning Objective 1: describe consumer perspectives of discharge planning and care in acute mental health practice
Learning Objective 2: apply knowledge of consumer perspectives of discharge planning and care in their nursing practice
This paper presents some of the findings from the study of an ‘in-reach’ model of discharge planning. In this model, the discharge planner is based with the community based services, and visits the hospital daily to meet with all admitted clients to offer discharge services. The model is designed to provide seamless care to people leaving hospital after a mental health admission. A program evaluation strategy was used to evaluate the effectiveness of this care model for clients and for the agencies involved. Participants (n=36) were enrolled over a 7 month period. They were interviewed at enrollment, at one month post-discharge and at 6 months post-discharge. This paper focuses on the qualitative findings from the study. Responses to open ended questions regarding the discharge experience were analyzed using Leininger’s ethnographic method (1985). Participants were asked to describe their discharge and follow-up care, what was helpful, what was not helpful, and in what ways did they feel they still needed help. While participants reported receiving regular follow-up care form a general practitioner, a psychiatrist and/or a case manager, many identified a desire to have some form of counselling or psychotherapy in addition to the supports that were in place. Specific areas were identified included stress management, anger management, employment/vocational counselling, and substance abuse counselling. A few people also identified a need for help with developing social skills so they could increase the amount of social support in their lives. The information provided from the consumer perspective is helpful in evaluating and improving discharge planning processes and care provided.