Simulation modelling in mental health services Southern Health NHS Foundation Trust

As part of Hampshire and Isle of Wight Sustainability and Transformation Partnership’s (STP) drive to improve outcomes for adults using mental health services and to reduce the use of inappropriate out of area placements, this project looked at how an evidence base can be built to support commissioning decisions, using an analytics approach.

The initial aim of the project was to develop a simulation model of the existing system using patient activity data. The intention was that the model would be built in collaboration with trained local data analysts; giving decision makers a clearer understanding of cause and effect, and providing an environment for the analysts to test different scenarios.

Detailed process maps were created and an initial high-level simulation model developed. However, issues relating to data quality and consistency, complex patient pathways, and information governance processes caused significant delays and prevented a simulation model from being developed further.

However, despite these challenges, there were significant achievements over the course of the project. Analysts from across the STP were trained in simulation modelling and links have been developed between local mental health data analysts that did not previously exist.

A detailed exploration of data from Southern Health NHS Foundation Trust was carried out, and partners across the Integrated Care System (ICS) continue to explore the best available data to further understand population needs, with the potential for simulation modelling to be used in the future.

Partners across the ICS continue to work to implement improvements to the mental health services data set and have commissioned a detailed quantitative and qualitative mental health needs analysis to further inform its population health approach.

Contact information

For more information about this project, please contact Kath Florey-Saunders, Southern Health NHS Foundation Trust.