What is the positive change that has emerged through new collaborations or partnerships during Covid-19 that your project is going to embed?

The need to introduce new and innovation means of communicating with our staff and patients has been accelerated massively by COVID-19. We have had to rapidly deploy virtual technologies to ensure we keep continuing to deliver care for our patients.

We have increased the amount of shareable information  on digital media to virtualise historical paper leaflets from attendance to consultations.

MPFT have collaborated with NHS Creative to produce animated videos. These videos have had a real impact on reducing pressure to share all the required information “in the moment” and reducing the duplication of effort. Through close collaboration between our Clinical Child Psychiatrists and the animation team at NHS Creative, an online suite of animated guidance videos can be produced in accompaniment to the virtual consultation to ensure Children within our services have limitless access to helpful information in a friendly, understandable and accessible format.

What does your project aim to achieve?

Through the creation of a clinically led and child friendly series of animated videos, both parents, children and our clinical workforce can benefit from the introduction of new interactive digital methods to share important information for self-care, medication and useful tips and guidance. This removes the reliance on handouts and parents taking notes during consultations, and improves the likelihood of children being able to understand ADHD and how they can adjust their daily habits, take their medication and talk with their parents.

This project aims to improve child adoption of their care plans and alignment to their recommended prescriptions, it also aims to improve the balance of clinical time, ensuring that repeatable information is handled in a more efficient and engaging manner. This could ultimately lead to better quality consultations, or even create additional clinical capacity to see more patients and assist with potential reduction of health inequalities.

How will the project be delivered?

First we would develop a clear specification of work for NHS Creative, ensuring that the videos are clinically sound and pay attention to health literacy considerations. Drafts would be developed and we would share with young people and families for feedback and to check understanding.

We would update key MPFT websites, building in the links to any patient correspondence for relevant cohorts, and ensuring that clinical colleagues across MPFT were aware of their existence for lessons learned and sharing potential within other areas of the organisation.

The video content would be designed to stand the test of time, but reviewed annually to ensure it is still best practice and relevant. For each year that they remain in use, the one-off cost for video production will be offering a return on investment for both patient quality of care, reduced printing/postage costs and release of clinical time to care.

How is your project going to share learning?

The content created from this project will be advertised and shared with other NHS colleagues that run Children’s and Young People services and CAMHS. If deemed appropriate, these videos could therefore be shared and adopted by other NHS Trusts as part of their approach to helping young children and their parents understand ADHD. Similar to how this NHS Creative video is shared in public for all: https://vimeo.com/291921078