Advisory Group Member, Education for Nurses Interacting with People with Concurrent Substance Use and Mental Health Disorders

Use your personal experience with mental health and substance use to help develop education that will support nurses to provide patient- and family-centred care for people with similar lived experience.

Open to: Patient partners in the Lower Mainland and Fraser Valley

Lead Organization or Department

Providence Health Care, Urban Health, Mental Health & Substance Use Program

Aim

The aim of this project is to first identify the learning needs and challenges of nurses delivering care to patients with both mental health and substance use disorders in acute psychiatric settings, and then to develop and deliver an education session aimed at supporting nurses with the knowledge, skills and competence to deliver evidence-based care. People with lived experience and family members will be part of an advisory group that will shape the direction of the project and help ensure that the approach is patient- and family-centred, including the patient perspective from start to finish. Activities will include:

• Advise on the development of the grant proposal
• Advise on research methods and ethical considerations
• Prepare for execution of the study
• Advise on data collection
• Help to disseminate the knowledge gained

Level of Engagement

This opportunity is at the level of collaborate on the spectrum of engagement (www.iap2.org). The promise to you is that the research partner will work together with you to formulate solutions and incorporate your advice and recommendations into the decisions to the maximum extent possible.

Eligibility

• Lived experience with mental health and substance use disorder care, or a patient partner who has supported a family member.
• Having accessed care at Providence Health Care and/or Vancouver Coastal Health is preferred.
• Patients should have previously attended a patient partner orientation session and signed the Volunteer Agreement.

Logistics

• Vacancies: 3
• Involvement will run from October 2017 to December 2018
• Time commitment is expected to be approximately 6 hours per month
• Some meetings will be held in person. Other communication will be by email. Details to be worked out within the group.

Reimbursement

Patient partners will be reimbursed for out-of-pocket expenses related to their involvement in the project. These should be discussed with the research partner.

Background

• Care for people with substance use and mental health disorder is complex and challenging. The project seeks to improve care for people with substance use and mental disorder, commonly referred to as concurrent disorder or dual diagnosis. The project has two main phases. The first phase will be a questionnaire survey to identify the learning needs and challenges of nurses delivering care to patients with concurrent disorder in acute psychiatric settings. Findings from phase 1 will inform the second phase which is the delivery of an educational session aimed at equipping nurses with the knowledge, skills and competence needed to deliver evidence-based concurrent disorder care in acute psychiatric settings.
• The project is in its early stages (development of a grant proposal)
• The research partner will work with the Patient Engagement Lead of the BC SUPPORT Unit to facilitate training.

Health Care Partner Contact Information

Karen Estrin
Engagement Leader, Patient and Public Engagement | Lower Mainland & Sunshine Coast
604.668.8245
kestrin@bcpsqc.ca