NHS cuts mental health hold-ups

Database aims to reduce waiting time for treatment for young patients

An NHS-funded mental health research organisation is installing a database system to help reduce potentially damaging delays in treatment.

The three-year project, dubbed First Episode of psychosis Research Network (Fern), is being run by the universities of Sheffield and Birmingham, and is designed to improve the treatment times of young people with mental health problems.

Dr Zaffar Iqbal, Fern’s national director, says he wants to create new ways of treating psychosis and schizophrenia, and to provide services for early intervention and evaluation.

‘Fern now has 25 NHS trusts involved, based all over the country,’ he said.

‘We needed a way to manage the data from thousands of cases; a central mechanism for people to input information. The centralised data in the database will allow us to look at any examples of trends or good practice, in a way that allows it to be examined and analysed easily.

‘The period between diagnosis and effective treatment can be as much as two years, a delay that has long-term implications.’

The database, supplied by Tribal Software, is designed to be user-friendly, to accommodate the needs of non-specialist staff who will be inputting information, including GPs, social workers, occupational health carers and nurses.

Medical staff will also be able to print off graphical information regarding the effectiveness of the treatments they are bringing to patients, says Iqbal.

‘These facilities will ensure that people do not see using the database as a chore, but as something they can use to help put together care plans,’ he said.

Graphic information included in the system will help reduce the time it takes for patients to be properly treated, says Iqbal.

‘We need to know where people are going for help, because schizophrenia is something that occurs over a considerable period of time,’ he said.

‘During this period people are visiting their GPs, trying to access help, and the database allows us to map where people have been going to seek it.’