Hi,
I wanted to air an issue with the list concerning
the collection of evidence, which impacts on it's
validity.
I work in community mental health. From this month
we are required to supply data for the Mental Health
Minimun Data Set. To do this effectively presents
practical challenges for us. Primary amongst these is
that as a team we are already working at 100%. Because
we spend so much time directly with service users, it
is already difficult to find the time to be in the
office and record our contacts through the integrated
files.
The requirement for the recording of the Mental
Health Minimum Data Set data has come to us purely as
"you will now need to record and send this information
to us daily". There has been no explanation as to what
the data will be for or what purpose it will serve.
But the main issue for team members is that it is an
additional requirement on a team without the time to
do it. Asking practioners to take on new time
commitments without following that requirement with
additional resources presumes one of two things - a)
that practioners have time to spare or b.) that it is
acceptable for there to be a decrease in the immediate
quality of service service users receive.
The practical consequence of this is that
practioners are tempted to throw back any old data to
those "on high" to minimise the time spent on what is
seen as a relatively unnecessary exercise. Thus health
planners get inaccurate evidence, practioners have
lowered morale and service users get a decrease in the
quality of their service.
The point is a simple one of maths. Where additional
time is needed from practioners to gather evidence of
current health care provision, that requirement has to
be followed by an additional resource, or something
has to give. And in my experience, it is the quality
of the information or evidence that suffers.
I'll be interested in any comments.
Steve Thayne.
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