User Focused Monitoring Project

What is User Focused Monitoring?

User Focused Monitoring (UFM) was developed at the Sainsbury Centre for Mental Health and is a departure from the traditional way of evaluating services. The initiative was led by a qualified researcher and a long-term user of both inpatient and community mental health services. The idea of UFM is that if the evaluation of services was genuinely to reflect the concerns and views of the people who use them rather than those of providers, then users should lead the process at every stage.

UFM at Peter Bedford evaluates mental health services in Camden and Islington Primary Care Trust, and is currently made of eleven researchers, called Auditors, who are current or former mental health service users. There are also two Project Managers and an Administrative Assistant.

Auditors are trained and employed to carry out research and reviews of other service users’ experiences in mental health services. The service users involved in the process gain real skills and experience contributing towards increased social inclusion and wellbeing. For some Auditors, working in UFM will help them to gain other jobs.

Projects carried out during 2010-12

The CPA project

The main aim of the Care Programme Approach (CPA) is to enable mental health service users to maintain good mental health through Care Plans (also known as support plans). Using Care Plans, mental health staff can work with service users to identify the best way in which to provide support, and help service users become more socially included. Support could include physical and social health as well as mental health. Service users are appointed a Care Coordinator who helps to put the support plan into practice. In this way it is expected that mental health service users will regain control over their mental health and stay well.

Care plans have been around since 1991 and there have been a lot of changes since then! The aim of the CPA audit is to ask service users how well the CPA process is working for them. We are using questionnaires to ask 100 service users to find out what works about the CPA process, what isn’t working well, and whether service users think there should be any changes.

Click here to download and view UFM Project Reports.

If would like to know more about User Focused Monitoring or about our projects please contact us on 020 7226 6074 or send us an email now: ufm@peterbedford.org.uk

The UFM Team are based at our Legard Works site in Islington. Follow this link for information on How to find us