Developing a Mental Health Experience of Services (MHES) Survey for Scotland

Appendix A: Survey questions

Within the interviews and TLB survey, interviewees and survey respondents suggested a range of specific questions that could be asked within the MHES survey. These have been listed below in no particular order of importance or prevalence of suggestions, but grouped according to stages of service user experience.

1. Experience of GPs, referrals and accessing services.

• Ease of access to services
• Process of referrals
• Which services were accessed e.g. inpatient, community, eating disorder service
• Transitions between services
• What support was received prior to entering the mental health system
• Contact with police and crisis support
• Timeliness of service access
• Information provided prior to accessing services, and whether that enabled them to feel prepared
• Knowledge and understanding of what supports are available
• Ability to find the service
• Language barriers to accessing services
• Level of mistrust of services
• Accuracy of information given
• Clarity on service policies
• How people found out about services
• Whether they were referred to the correct services for their needs
• How transitions were managed from child and adolescent mental health services to adult services

2. Waitlist experience

• Support provided while on the waitlist, including from GPs
• Whether they were kept informed while on the waitlist
• What happened while they were on the waitlist
• Mental health impacts from being on the waitlist

3. Treatment experience

• Experience of the staff
• Physical environment – type of room, food, access to activities in the building, facilities, ability to meet visitors
• Medications they were/are taking
• Involvement in decision making
• Whether their human rights were upheld
• Barriers to treatment
• Examples of good practice
• Whether they felt listened to and respected
• Whether their needs were met
• Whether they felt safe, understood, supported and treated with empathy
• Whether they were asked the same questions multiple times
• Level of agency and control over what is/was happening to them
• How well their care was managed
• Overall experience of treatment and service use
• Whether it was clearly explained to them what was happening to them by doctors
• Understanding of their condition
• Whether there were clear outcomes
• Whether they were treated with dignity
• What other supports they would have liked
• Thoughts on staff communication
• What access to therapies they had
• Whether they understood the information they were provided with
• What type of workers they had access to
• Ability to meet with workers face to face, rather than through technology
• Whether rapport with staff was developed
• Key agents of change within their treatment
• Whether medication was pushed over therapy
• Reasons for treatment disengagement
• Whether services were integrated/joined up
• What they found helpful in their treatment
• Whether they were supported in a trauma-informed way

4. Post-service experience

• Transitions to other services
• Follow-up services
• Support post-service
• Aftercare
• Discharge experience
• Feedback and complaints process
• If they knew who to contact if had any issues
• If they know what medication they should still be taking
• Waiting times for follow up appointments
• Whether there was a clear discharge plan and process

5. Outcomes

• Self-reported outcomes
• Quality of life
• Long-term effects from service use, improvements

6. Experience beyond services

• Whole of life experience of mental health
• Employment
• Access to other services needed
• Holistic view
• What people want from their life – quality of life, income, things to do, friendships, to feel well

7. Questions for family, friends and carers

• Whether they felt listened to, informed, supported and involved in the care of their loved one
• Accessibility of information for family, friends and carers to support their loved one
• Barriers for family members to support in care of their loved one
• If children and young people are included within the scope, the perspective of their carer/family perspective of the above sections on behalf of the child/young person, their perspective on what made a positive difference

8. Questions for staff

• What they consider examples of good practice
• What needs improvement
• What makes a difference to outcomes
• What they are proud of in the system
• What is working well
• Pressure on staff
• Impact of cuts to the third sector
• Staff retention

9. Other questions

• Was their family member, if consented for them to do so, able to participate

in your care journey

• What happened if they were unable to access public service support and had to go private
• What would they want to see again if their friend went through the service
• Experience of LGBTQIA+ services specifically
• GP training on mental health
• Spiritual care provided
• The use of third sector and carers to fill service provision gaps
• General comments on what went well and what could be better
• Access to charities/voluntary services
• Involvement in research
• Service gaps in their community
• Mental health perceptions and stigma experienced
• Availability of online resources
• Whether specific needs were met for neurodiverse people
• How neurodevelopmentally-informed services are – if adjustments took place or whether people had to fit whatever the service looked like
• Whether specific needs were met for people with learning disabilities
• Access to social care and care packages
• Support in community once leave hospital (for inpatients)
• Experiences of people with substance use and poor mental health
• Experiences of people with poor mental health going through justice system
• Experience of people with poor mental health who are homeless
• Whole system of care and supports accessed beyond just services – including peer support, community support