In January 2001 the College Research and Training Unit launched a
national programme to collect information systematically about
service users experience and expectations of their mental health
care. The information that is gathered will be used to support both
individual care planning, and service bench-marking. The programme
is aimed at community mental health services and will use CUES
(Carers and Users Expectations of Services).
Why?
Nationally
- "Patient and carer experience" is one of the National Service
Frameworks six main areas for assessing performance.
- National surveys of "patient and user experience" will be
conducted and publicised both locally and nationally.
- The experiences of service users are important indicators of
the achievement of NSF standards 4, 5 and 6 (relating to the care
of people on CPA).
- Comparisons between services are implicit in the introduction
of National Performance Frameworks.
- Such surveys must be underpinned by valid and reliable
measures which accurately reflect the user perspective.
For comparisons to be meaningful, normative data from a sufficient
number and range of type of services are required.
Locally
- Service users often emphasise and value different aspects of
their health and social function than do mental health care
professionals.
- Surveys have showed repeatedly that some aspects of existing
mental health services do not meet the expectations of service
users.
There are two good reasons for paying close attention to the
issues that service users consider important. Firstly, quality of
life, as perceived by the recipient of care, should be the final
criterion by which the quality of that care is judged. Secondly,
paying attention to the issues considered important by a service
user is likely to increase the extent to which he or she is
prepared to engage with care. Assessments should therefore ensure
that the service users perspective is considered and that this
information is available to their care co-ordinator and, after
aggregation, to local service planners.
What is CUES?
- CUES 17 items measure aspects of the quality of life and
satisfaction of services of the people who use mental health
services.
- It was developed and tested by a collaboration led by the Royal
College of Psychiatrists' Research Unit, the National Schizophrenia
Fellowship and the Royal College of Nursing Institute.
- CUES items cover issues that service users have identified as
being their priorities.
- CUES is completed by the service user, with support if needed
from a relative, friend or advocate.
How can CUES information be used?
The information that is gathered can be used in three ways:
- To improve communication in care planning:
CUES provides a structure for service users to tell staff about
their experiences of mental illness and its consequences. Ideally,
this should happen in the context of individual care planning.
- Local service development: at the service
level CUES can bring the customer perspective to the quality
improvement cycle.
- National bench-marking: Trusts can compare
CUES returns from users of their services with those from other
organisations.
The National Programme
The content
The Multi-Centre Audit Team at the College Research Unit
support participating services to use CUES data to fulfil the three
functions listed above. Supports include:
- Regionally-based one-day Introductory
Workshop: Teams of three people from participating
organisations come together to learn more about CUES and about how
to set up the project locally.
- Provision of materials including: Project
Management Pack; copies of CUES; template letters, leaflets and
other tools to support the collection of the CUES data; a copy of a
database for local data entry (optional - see below); freepost
labels for returning completed copies of CUES (optional - see
below).
- Helpline service: problem-solving and advice
service during office hours.
- Central analysis and reporting of local data:
completed copies of CUES are returned to the CRU to be analysed.
Teams receive a report of their findings.
- Feedback Workshop: teams come together to
review local and national findings, share good practice, and to
develop action plans for local service improvement.
Who should take part?
- The programme is aimed at community mental health teams.
- CUES is used to gather customer feedback from service users who
have regular contact with the teams ie. people on higher tier
CPA.
- One or more community team from any trust may join the
programme.
Options & Costs of using CUES-U
We will provide CUES-U booklets at a cost of 30p per booklet,
plus a one off admin fee of £15 (only applicable on orders over 100
booklets) + p&p.
We will provide a trainer to provide a day's training for
up to 20 people at your site on 'how to use CUES-U', which will
include details of how to get the best results using the booklets.
This option also includes a project management pack (hard copy and
on disk), CUES-U booklet on word, 20 free booklets and a copy of
the British Journal of Psychiatry article on CUES-U and its
development. CUES-U training is personalised to your organisation
and the trainer will contact you in advance of the day to speak to
you about your specific requirements.
Cost - £700 + VAT (plus travel expenses for
trainer)
Subscriptions for the programme have been calculated on a
sliding scale, depending on the case-load of the participating
community team(s).
Note: the prices quoted are for each
participating community team. If a trust chooses to involve more
than one team, each team would be entitled to all of the supports
listed above.
| Caseload of less than 50 people |
£1300 plus VAT |
| Caseload of 50-100 people |
£1400 plus VAT |
| Caseload of 100-150 people |
£1500 plus VAT |
| Caseload of greater than 150 people |
£1600 plus VAT |
All of the above plus data analysis of completed CUES-U
resulting in a local report, and a national report pitching your
results against other trusts that have/are taking part. This option
also includes a feedback event at the end of the data collection
phase when your results will be presented and gives an opportunity
for how to continue using CUES within your organisation in the
future.
Need more information?
For further information, please contact: