Collaborative Care Planning

Collaborative Care Planning – a new approach to care planning

A new mental health care planning process is being introduced to improve patient involvement and choice.

Adults and older adults who use mental health services will be invited to work with their Mental Health Practitioner to set out how their care will be delivered and the goals they want to achieve for their own lives.

They will do this by completing a series of questionnaires known as Patient Reported Outcome Measures, or PROMs, and talking with their Mental Health Practitioner to provide direct feedback about their wellbeing and support needs.

People will be able to complete PROMs directly from their own smartphone or device, on paper or in conversation with their Mental Health Practitioner.

The move follows the issuing of new NHS best practice guidance and is just one of the ways Oxford Health is continually improving mental health care.

Adult and older adult services are beginning to introduce Collaborative Care Planning. The new approach will be gradually introduced across other community adult and older adult teams in the coming year. Speak to your Mental Health Professional to find out if the service you access has begun using Collaborative Care Planning.

Patient-Reported Outcome Measures (PROMs)

We will ask you to complete a series of questionnaires and assessments in the 24 hours before your appointment.

With a lifetime of experience, you know more about your health and how you are feeling than anyone else.

Alongside your Mental Health Practitioner, you are best placed to identify when things are going well, and when you need a bit of extra support and care.

Patient-Reported Outcome Measures, known as PROMs, are being introduced to Care Planning in adult and older adult mental health services.

The PROMs place your experience and needs at the heart of your care planning. They will run alongside objective clinical measures and allow your Mental Health Practitioner to understand your needs and build with you a personalised care plan

You will be invited to complete one or more PROMs online questionnaires and assessments before your appointment. Please complete these in the 24 hours before your appointment.

If for any reason your appointment is cancelled, your answers will not be seen by a clinician. If your appointment is cancelled, and you need to urgently tell us about a change in your mental health, please contact the Adult Mental Health Team/Older Adult Community Mental Health Team.

Patient-Reported Outcome Measures (PROMs) are a way for you to share how you are feeling, your experiences and concerns about your mental health with your healthcare provider.

PROMs place your experiences and needs at the heart of your care planning. The health professional you see will use the information you provide to think with you about how to plan and deliver your care.

We use the word PROMS to refer to the whole process of gathering and using Patient-Reported Outcome Measures. This includes using questionnaires, talking to you about your responses and how you feel, and monitoring outcomes of interventions and care.

How to complete the PROMS

We will send you a secure link via email or text messages to complete the PROMs online on a website called True Colours. You can do this on your own computer, smartphone or tablet ahead of your appointment.

If you do not have your own device, we will offer you the choice of completing the PROMs in the waiting room before your appointment or at the start of your appointment using an iPad which we will provide.

Please ask us if you would prefer to complete paper questionnaires and assessments or if you have any concerns or questions about this process.

The PROMs recommended for use in NHS-commissioned community mental health services for adults and older adults with Serious Mental Illness, including voluntary, community and social enterprise (VCSE) services, are:

DIALOG scale

A brief, reliable, and valid measure of your reported outcome in mental health care.

The DIALOG form is very simple and it has only 11 questions.

The first eight questions cover different areas of your life, and the last three are about your treatment.

You may be sent the DIALOG scale to complete by yourself before sessions.

Recovering Quality of Life Scale (ReQol-10)

A brief, self-administered questionnaire that measures your quality of life with mental health conditions.

It consists of 10 items that assess aspects of your life including your physical and psychological health, your social relationships and independence.

Goal-Based Outcomes (GBOs)

A person-centred approach to measuring progress in mental health care.

The GBOs involve setting specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound goals that are collaboratively developed between you and your therapist and are included in the joint care plan.

GBOs are then monitored and reviewed regularly to assess progress and make adjustments to the treatment plan as needed. You will normally create a GBO alongside a clinician.