Guidelines Review, Care for Patients at Risk of Suicide in Acute Psychiatric Settings

Help Providence Health review their guidelines to improve care for patients at risk of suicide in an acute psychiatric hospital setting.

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

Lead Organization or Department

St. Paul's Hospital Urban Health, Mental Health & Substance, Providence Health Care

Aim

The acute psychiatric guidelines will be reviewed to ensure that practices reflect current evidence. The review will also ensure that patients with lived experiences can share their experience, and identify how these guidelines would have impacted them as patients, providing feedback for revision.

Level of Engagement

This opportunity is at the level of consult on the spectrum of engagement (www.iap2.org). The promise to you is that the health care partner will listen to and acknowledge your ideas and concerns, and provide feedback on how your input affected the decision.

Eligibility

• Patient or family member of a patient who has received acute psychiatric care and can recall the experience
• Preference for care experience at St. Paul’s Hospital
• Comfortable sharing your story
• Comfortable reading a 15-page document written for a medical audience

If you have a strong interest in this work but have not yet completed a PVN orientation and Volunteer Agreement, are unsure if your experience is a good fit or feel another format of engagement would work better with your availability, please contact Karen Estrin directly.

Logistics

• Vacancies: 2
• Patient partners will have the option of participating in person or via teleconference. It is anticipated that selected patient partners will be involved in one or two short meetings.
• The meetings will be scheduled to accommodate the selected patient partners.
• A copy of the 15-page guidelines document will be provided via email or hard copy in advance of the meeting.
• There is the potential that the patient partners who participate in this review may have the opportunity to participate in staff education of the updated guidelines once they are completed.

Reimbursement

Expenses related to travel (i.e. transit, parking up to $18/day, approved mileage) to attend the session will be reimbursed by Providence Health Care. Please note that reimbursement typically takes 4-6 weeks. If this is a concern, please contact Karen Estrin for alternate arrangements.

Background

The existing guidelines used in acute psychiatric care have not been reviewed for at least five years. It is time to review them and bring them in line with current best practices based on updated evidence. Patient partners will review the guidelines and offer suggestions for improvement, as well as help identify additional information and therapeutic needs for patients and family members. Patient partners will meet with a Clinical Nurse Specialist and nurse educators to describe their patient experience and identify how these guidelines would have impacted them as patients, providing feedback for revision.

Engagement Leader Contact Information

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