Short summary

Shared decision-making is a prioritized implementation effort in all hospitals in the Region of Southern Denmark. The aim of this project is to initiate the establishment of a knowledge base on SDM practice in Mental Health by conducting semi-structured interviews with providers and patients, who have experiences with SDM and with the use of a Decision Aid in SDM consultations in mental health practice.

Rationale

Shared decision-making (SDM) is a collaborative process between a client and a practitioner, both of whom recognize one another as experts and work together to exchange information and clarify values in order to arrive at a health care decision (Deegan, Rapp, Holter, & Riefer 2008). SDM includes patient preferences, along with scientific evidence and clinician skills, with the aim to ensure patient-centered care and treatment decisions that works well for the patient.

In the Region of Southern Denmark, SDM is a prioritized implementation effort in all hospitals in the region - all hospitals of somatic care end all hospitals that are part of the mental health services. Thus, SDM is integrated into the overall vision of the mental health services and part of the central strategy plan for mental health guided by the principle that..."the best possible course of treatment is characterized by people with mental illness being met as equal partners with influence on their own treatment".

Large-scale implementation of SDM in the mental health services in the Region of Southern Denmark is ongoing and gradually, the implementation will involve most of the mental health units and teams in the mental health services of the Southern Region of Denmark. The aim of the project is to initiate the establishment of a knowledge base on SDM practice in mental health. By following-up on the implementation process, this project investigates SDM understandings and experience in patients and providers that have been part of the first SDM implementation area, which were settings treating people struggling with an eating disorder, by interviewing staff and patients, who have experiences with SDM and with the use of a Decision Aid in SDM consultations.

The project is a collaboration between the mental health services in the Region of Southern Denmark and the Center for Patient Involvement in the Capital Region. The aim of the collaboration is to establish a shared base of knowledge on SDM implementation in the mental health to obtain knowledge on SDM in practice to support the further implementation in the Southern Region of Denmark and a possible similar implementation in the mental health services of the Capital Region.

Description of the cohort

Mental health providers treating adults in treatment for an eating disorder and adult patients in treatment for an eating disorder in the Eating disorder Treatment Team in the Mental Health Unit Odense.

Data and biological material

Qualitative data, based on conducting observations of SDM consultations in mental health and semi-structured interviews with patients and providers on the experience of SDM practice in mental health.

Collaborating researchers and departments

Center for Patient Involvement in the Capital Region