Understanding the customer experience supports the development of mental health and substance use services
In spring 2021, a group of employees from mental health and substance use treatment units, experts by experience, and several specialists from our organisation (THL) met remotely in workshops to develop a questionnaire for the first national customer feedback survey to be carried out in mental health and substance use services. The need for such a questionnaire had existed for a long time.
One of the key priorities in both the mental health strategy and the substance use and addiction strategy is the development of services. Although the priorities are worded somewhat differently, the shared objective is the same: to ensure high-quality and easily accessible services for clients.
To achieve these goals, the mental health strategy proposes that the experiences of experts by experience and clients should be utilised in the planning, implementation, and evaluation of services. This formed the background for the idea of producing a customer feedback survey.
A workshop process as a strong foundation for implementing the customer feedback survey
A jointly implemented workshop process was considered the best foundation for producing a functional customer feedback survey. In line with the principles of integration, it was clear from the outset that actors from substance use and addiction services should also be included.
Approximately 30 employees from various treatment units registered for the workshops. The participants represented a wide range of expertise in mental health and substance use services, and we were able to involve doctors, nurses, social workers, and social counsellors from different parts of Finland.
It was also considered essential to include experts by experience—individuals who have personally encountered the functioning or shortcomings of mental health and substance use services in their everyday lives. Seven such individuals took part.
Participants highlighted important themes
Four workshops were organised. In the first three, we developed the questionnaire together, and in the fourth, the final version was presented. During the first meeting, we also discussed that the same questionnaire could be used in both mental health and substance use services, but that separate questionnaires would be needed for outpatient and inpatient care.
In the second workshop, the themes raised for discussion included experiences of doctors and other staff in hospital and institutional care, experiences of stigma, and the consideration of family members in the care process.
The themes of the third workshop included, among others, medication, access to information about the illness, support for personal resources, access to care and the availability of services, self-determination, peer support, and experiences of treatment and interaction during care.
These themes were identified by the participants as important. Some of them might not have been addressed without the contribution of the experts by experience.
The workshops were considered highly valuable by all participants. The groups respected each other’s professional expertise and experiential knowledge. I personally listened with great interest to the experiences shared by the experts by experience—sometimes positive, sometimes negative—regarding their time as clients in Finnish mental health and substance use services.
It is difficult to imagine how we could have carried out the customer feedback survey successfully without these workshops in spring 2021. I am particularly pleased about the participation of the experts by experience.