Further steps to define and deliver high quality care for care clusters: the mental health care clusters and pathways website
| Date | 22 March 2013 |
| Pages | 4-13 |
| Published date | 22 March 2013 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/13619321311306893 |
| Author | Michael Clark,Clare Hilton,Wendy Shiels,Carole Green,Christina Walters,Miranda Stead,Karen Batty,Ian Smyth,Joseph Flahive |
| Subject Matter | Health & social care |
Further steps to define and deliver high
quality care for care clusters: the mental
health care clusters and pathways website
Michael Clark, Clare Hilton, Wendy Shiels, Carole Green, Christina Walters, Miranda Stead,
Karen Batty, Ian Smyth and Joseph Flahive
Abstract
Purpose – With care clusters an established framework for mental health services it is timely to consider
how to use them to deliver high quality, evidence based care that is socially inclusive and recovery
oriented. This paper aims to describe conceptual thinking about these issues, specifically in relation to
the challenges and balances inherent in the care packages approach. It seeks to describe work to
develop an internet based, high-level description of such packages for each care cluster.
Design/methodology/approach – The background to the project is described, along with a discussion
of the conceptual and practice issues behind the work.
Findings – With mental health care now trying to make sense of local services in terms of care clusters
the authors offer a high-level framework to help people in this sensemaking. Coherent, socially inclusive
and recovery oriented packages are set out on the website.
Research limitations/implications – The work discussed in the article is highly innovative, being the
first systematic attempt to provide evidence-based, high-level care packages for the care clusters
model. Hence, a limitation is the challenge remaining to operationalise the work to real world care
contexts.
Practical implications – The website sets out a framework to help local services and commissioners
plan and organise their services, drawing on the best guidance and evidence and developing care
packages on the basis of the right ethos of care.
Social implications – In moving to services fully commissioned and organised around the care clusters
model, there remain major conceptual and practice challenges to address including operationalising
evidence-based care packages and means of flexibly delivering individual care.
Originality/value – This is the first view of socially inclusive packages for each of the care clusters that
also draw together the best of guidance and standards of care.
Keywords Mental health, Care clusters, Payment byresults, Care packages, Social inclusion, Recovery,
Health services
Paper type Conceptual paper
Introduction
This article describes work to define care packages for the care cluster model being
adopted into mental health care in England. There is growing understanding about the use
of these clusters in organising mental health care, with thought being applied to how they
can be used to organise and deliver high-quality care that supports better social inclusion
and recovery for individuals (Clark, 2011; Denham-Vaughan and Clark, 2012a, b). Yet, it is
still early days with using this model to organise services and individual care and support.
Much sensemaking and careful development is required, and this article aims to contribute
to these processes in England, nationally and locally.
The authors accepted a brief through the Department of Health (DH) to develop a care
packages and pathways web site to help local service providers and commissioners as they
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VOL. 18 NO. 1 2013, pp. 4-13, QEmerald Group Publishing Limited, ISSN 1361-9322 DOI 10.1108/13619321311306893
Michael Clark is Research
Programme Manager,
PSSRU, London School of
Economics & Political
Science, London, UK.
Clare Hilton is Clinical
Psychologist, and
Wendy Shiels is Nurse
Consultant, both based at
Older Peoples Mental
Health, Humber NHS
Foundation Trust, Hull, UK.
Carole Green is Project
Director, Care Pathways &
Packages Project, Humber
NHS Foundation Trust,
Hull, UK.
Christina Walters is
Systems Development
Programme Manager,
InPAC, South West
Yorkshire Partnership NHS
Foundation Trust,
Wakefield, UK.
Miranda Stead is Director,
Mednet, Leeds, UK.
Karen Batty is Clinical
Manager, South West
Yorkshire Mental Health
NHS Trust, Wakefield, UK.
Ian Smyth is Chair, Industry
and Mental Health Services
Collaborative (IMHSeC),
High Wycombe, UK.
Joseph Flahive is Director
of Communications,
Mednet, Leeds, UK.
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