Participant, Mental Health and Substance Use Referral Management Solution Focus Group

Help us use technology to revamp our referral system! We’re looking for patient partners who have personally been referred to mental health and substance use programs or those who have had family members experience the referral system within Interior Health. Attend a two-hour in-person session in Kelowna in February 2019 to brainstorm how to improve referrals and find potential technological solutions!

Open to: Patient partners from the Kelowna area

Lead Organization or Department

Interior Health, Mental Health and Substance Use (MHSU), Information Management Information Technology team (IMIT)

Aim

To have patient partners provide feedback as to what they would need and like to have in an electronic referral system or application and ideas on how an IT solution could make their experience easier and more streamlined.

Level of Engagement

This opportunity is at the level of consult on the spectrum of engagement. 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

• Comfort telling your story (or your family member's story)
• Experience in patient working groups or research
• Available to attend the two-hour focus group in-person in Kelowna

Logistics

Vacancies: 5 Location, Date, Time: Based on patient partner availability the focus group will occur on one of the following dates in Kelowna (please confirm your availability in the RSVP form):

• Monday February 11 from 1000 - 1200; or
• Tuesday February 12 from 1000 - 1200.

Reimbursement

Mileage (from outside the Kelowna city limits) and parking costs will be reimbursed as per Interior Health's policy.

Background

Information collected in this focus group will help identify high-level/ideal requirements of an IT solution for referral management in MHSU. This is an opportunity for patients (or family members) to provide feedback to improve their future MHSU experience. This work focuses on referrals in Acute, Community, and Tertiary* streams. (*Tertiary = highly specialized, longer-term mental health services designed for individuals with severe mental illness who have not responded to treatment; this is third level of care in the mental health continuum of care.)

Engagement Leader Contact Information

Carol Stathers
Engagement Leader, Patient and Public Engagement | Okanagan, Interior Region
778.516.3308
cstathers@bcpsqc.ca