MH66.2013 Assess how environments and practices can be maintained and improved to promote mental health

Overview

This standard covers assessing how environments and practices can be maintained and improved to promote mental health. This involves identifying all those with a stake in the environments and practices and consulting with them about their requirements and expectations. The environments may be homes, workplaces, public places, or the broader environment such as towns, housing estates and the countryside. Environments will also cover social, cultural and aesthetic aspects as well as physical aspects and the interaction of people with their environment. The term ‘practices' is used to describe significant activities which take place within the environment, including: how the environment is used for working or domestic practices, therapeutic activities, public access and use, routine activities interpersonal relationshipsinitiatives that will increase the capacity of those who live in, work in or otherwise use the environment to promote mental health and well-being. This standard applies to anyone who works in the mental health sector in a role which requires them to assess environments and practices to determine how they can be maintained and improved to promote mental health. Users of this standard will need to ensure that practice reflects up to date information and policies. Version No 2

Knowledge and Understanding

You will need to know and understand:

1. the current national legislation, guidelines and local policies and protocols which affect your work practice
2. the importance of evidence-based practice and why it is important to establish access to and use evidence from research about what is effective
3. the importance of values-based practice for eliciting and understanding the values of stakeholders and for resolving conflicts between them
4. who may have an interest in the environment and practices concerned, both directly and indirectly
5. the tensions that may exist between your professional concerns and interests, the concerns and priorities of your agency and the concerns and priorities of the groups, organisations and communities with whom you are working, and ways of managing these tensions
6. why and in what ways consultation methods may need to be adapted for the context in which they are used
7. the ways in which communication can be modified and altered for different needs, contexts and beliefs to ensure understanding
8. the effect of environments and contexts on effective communication, particularly institutional settings and strategies for better communication
9. the kinds of misinformation which people receive about mental health and mental illness and how this can be managed
10. your own role and responsibilities and from whom assistance and advice should be sought if required
11. your own values and how these affect your work with people who use services and with other service providers
12. the effect of the physical, cultural, aesthetic, social and economic environment on people's mental health and social well-being
13. how personal beliefs and preferences affect how people live and the choices they make
14. current thinking on the interaction between environments and practices and mental health in the context of the whole person
15. the purpose, objectives and scope of the assessment
16. how to design and/or adapt assessment methods so that they are resource-effective, valid and reliable and focus on critical information
17. the nature and range of data which is needed on the environments and practices concerned, and the best ways of collecting this
18. signs of weaknesses and discrepancies in information and what to do about them
19. how to collaborate with stakeholders in ways that encourage ownership of the process and outcomes and promote a constructive approach
20. the practices and systems which affect people's mental health in the settings in which you work and personal practices to promote mental health and reduce harm
21. ways of promoting mental health in environments and practices which also promote other aspects of health needs
22. the issues and concerns which people, significant others, groups and communities have in relation to environments and practices and how there may be tensions between these
23. the strengths, aspirations and resources which people, significant others, groups and communities may bring to maintaining and improving environments and practices and how there may be tensions between these
24. how to develop proposals which acknowledge the competing interests of different groups and enable them to move forwards to their mutual benefit
25. the requirements and expectations which may need to have priority over others, the reasons for this and how to distinguish short from long term priorities
26. how to assess the risks in environments and practices and the risks associated with either acting or not acting to improve the situation
27. the different ways in which environments and practices could be improved and the advantages and disadvantages of each of these particularly in relation to recovery and development of self-management skills

Performance Criteria

You must be able to do the following:

1. identify all stakeholders with a legitimate interest in the environments and practices
2. use valid and reliable methods to consult with stakeholders to:
1. determine their requirements and expectations of the environments and practices
2. determine the strengths, aspirations and resources they bring to improving environments and practices
3. engage their interest in helping to promote mental health
4. promote their rights and responsibilities
3. communicate with stakeholders in an open way which encourages a productive exchange of views
4. actively encourage stakeholders to take a full and active part in decision making processes about improving and maintaining environments and practices
5. access other relevant information about requirements and expectations
6. use qualitative and quantitative methods to analyse the data collected
7. collaborate effectively with others to ensure that stakeholder perspectives are fully addressed in the reports produced
8. present the outcomes of data analysis and scrutiny of in language and formats that are relevant, useful and comprehensible to those who will use them
9. identify any tensions between the requirements and expectations of different stakeholders and the reasons for them
10. make proposals about how best to handle competing requirements and expectations and where compromise can be achieved
11. establish and agree the objectives and scope of the assessment with all interested stakeholders
12. identify the range of data needed to assess the environments and practices under study
13. estimate the resources needed to carry out the assessment and negotiate and agree resource allocation with relevant people
14. identify and develop resource effective assessment methods which are appropriate to:
1. the environments and practices
2. the people who will be asked to contribute information
15. encourage people who are asked to contribute information to the assessment to do so constructively in the interest of improving environments and practices to promote mental health
16. obtain sufficient information to allow a valid and complete assessment to be made within the limitations of resource availability
17. analyse the information and produce a complete assessment report which:
1. includes an assessment of risk
2. includes the requirements and expectations of the different parties involved
3. includes the strengths, aspirations and resources of the different parties involved
4. states any assumptions made and any limitations of the assessment
5. makes clear the areas for improvement
18. propose and justify realistic and sustainable ways of improving environments and practices
19. make the assessment report available to all those with a legitimate interest in it and in language and formats that are likely to be used and understood

Additional Information

This National Occupational Standard was developed by Skills for Health. This standard links with the following dimension within the NHS Knowledge and Skills Framework (October 2004): Dimension: HWB1 Promotion of health and wellbeing and prevention of adverse effects to health and wellbeing