Colleagues and service users from the Trust’s John Howard Centre (JHC) in Hackney have won a prestigious national award for their work in developing an app for service users in hospital.
The Pathways App Team of occupational therapists and service users at the Centre won the ‘Psychiatric Team of the Year: Digital Mental Health’ category at the Royal College of Psychiatrists’ annual RCPsych Awards.
The ceremony was held on Thursday, 7th November at the college’s London Office in Tower Hill. The professional body, which is responsible for supporting psychiatrists’ career development, holds the annual ceremony to recognise teams who are making a difference across mental health care.
The JHC provides specialist psychiatric services in east London. The app was created at the Centre to help service users to achieve their goals while staying in hospital.
The Pathways App is co-produced by staff and service users, making patient care easier and more connected across Forensic Services. It enables all parties to track progress on healthcare objectives that have been set, such as weight loss and progressing through the hospital. It also helps to tackle any setbacks and guides each step of a service user's journey in one place. This holds staff accountable, helping to keep everyone on the same page.
It is fully accessible in its format, giving service users ownership of their own objectives. This has enabled staff and patients to develop positive relationships, so that progress can be monitored in real time. As a result, the app has a completion rate of more than 80 percent from 389 sessions, meaning service users are engaging effectively.
Commenting on the team’s innovation, the category’s judges said: “The Pathways App Team have developed and implemented a system which has made an impressive difference in the quality of care for people with complex needs in a forensic service, markedly improving understanding, communication and satisfaction for staff, service users and their carers.
“The panel was tremendously impressed by the team's commitment to co-production, great user experience and a high standard of accessibility for people with learning disabilities or autism.”
Lead Occupational Therapist at the John Howard Centre, Seán Harte, added: “It was a privilege to even be shortlisted for this award, so we are all really proud of this achievement. It is a nice validation for the staff and service users who co-produced the app, showing that we are on the right track.
“I would personally like to thank all the staff and service users who have supported the Pathways project so far and it is exciting to see where we go from here.”
You can read about all of the winners from this year’s RCPsych Awards on the Royal College of Psychiatrists’ website.