KEYNOTE: Designing a Digital Pathway for Severe Mental Illness

Synopsis

Designing a Digital Pathway for Severe Mental Illness

This design took place in an inner London borough with the 3^rd highest rate for severe mental illness in England. It was driven by feedback from people with lived experience of severe mental illness, who highlighted absence of care plans and support post discharge from secondary care.

The design solution involves a digital platform that supports people with severe mental illness to better manage their own care. The platform brings care elements such as health information, personal goals, journals, personal health budgets and psycho-educational materials all together in one place. It also enables the patient to dynamically interact with the people and organisations involved in their care and to move information seamlessly between organisations. The design was a result of a number of collaborative partnerships between people with lived experience, secondary care providers, primary care providers, the voluntary sector and the platform provider, Patients Know Best. The design of the pathway goes beyond the technological itself and involves clinicians making a cultural shift away from delivering care packages patients to, instead, co-producing goals with patients and supporting them through coaching to achieve their health goals.