Management of demographic equality of access to family intervention for psychosis in specialist community mental healthcare teams

Abstract

Background/Aims UK mental health services must provide evidence-based psychological treatments, including family intervention, to every service user diagnosed with psychosis. Although healthcare managers are required to ensure equitable delivery of prescribed core treatments, in practice equality of access remains debatable. This study investigates equality of access to family intervention for psychosis. Subsequent treatment uptake and engagement are also examined. The role of healthcare records in equality management is considered. Methods Retrospective analysis of electronic medical records of 244 service users across four specialist early intervention teams in London in 2018 was undertaken using binary logistic regression and multiple linear regression. Bonferroni adjustment was applied to control for type 1 errors. Results Participants were found to have equal access to the nationally endorsed treatment across all demographic variables. Likewise, treatment uptake and engagement were equally distributed. Conclusions An overall compliance with national policies was shown, demonstrating that equal provision of core treatment for psychosis is achievable. As discrepancies in record keeping were shown to impede the data extraction process, suggestions were made for the management of electronic medical records in mental healthcare services.