21/03/2023
Our Acute Mental Health Inpatient and Crisis Service based at Tyrone and Fermanagh Hospital, Omagh have been chosen to undertake the TULIPS (Talk, Understand, Listen, for Inpatient Settings) research study to help improve access to psychological therapy for mental health in-patients.
Joanne Heavern, Highly Specialist Counselling Psychologist at the Western Trust explains:
“The TULIPS study is a nation-wide research study with the aim to increase patient access to psychological therapies on acute mental health inpatient wards. The TULIPS project have designed a psychological stepped model of care specifically for acute mental health inpatient wards. The study is evaluating the effectiveness of this stepped model of care on 16 wards across the UK with WHSCT’s Acute Mental Health Inpatient & Crisis Service being the only service in Northern Ireland taking part in the research study.
“The primary goal for our research is to assess the effectiveness of a psychological service model designed specifically for acute mental health wards and determine whether it reduces the occurrence of ward-level serious incidents and improves patient well-being. The study will gather outcomes from staff on their well-being and patients experiences of being on our acute mental health Wards. The study will compare these outcomes with other Wards that have not been privy to the stepped model of psychological care. The objective of the study is to highlight the importance of psychological therapies within inpatient care and how offering such therapeutic practice can improve outcomes for both patients and staff. The outcomes of this study will contribute to developing a National Strategy for Access to Psychological Therapies within Acute Inpatient Mental Health Wards. The research will also be published in research journals and presented at relevant Mental Health conferences.”
Joanne added:
“There are also a number of secondary goals for this research study which include, to explore whether the intervention improves patients’ symptoms and social functioning; to explore whether the intervention improves patient and staff perceptions of ward atmosphere; to explore whether the intervention reduces staff burnout; to understand future service and resource use of the patients that are exposed to the intervention arm of the study (by the follow-up data); to assess the cost effectiveness of the psychological service model using health economic measures; and to identify contextual factors that promote/inhibit implementation and routine incorporation of psychologically-informed care and therapies into everyday practice.
“We look forward to speaking to staff and patients over the coming weeks and hope this research will benefit and improve patient outcomes in the future.”