Timeline
February 2021 – December 2021
BC Mental Health & Substance Use Services (BCMHSUS) provides care to individuals across the province with complex needs, including severe and persistent mental health and substance use challenges. In 2021, BCMHSUS partnered with the Health Design Lab to enhance the patient experience at the Heartwood Centre for Women, a tertiary in-patient treatment program. Through a series of co-design workshops with current clients and staff, the team developed journey maps to capture their perspectives and identify opportunities to improve the program experience.
This project, guided by the insights and ideas of patients and staff, emphasized the significance of quality-of-life factors in mental health and substance use care. At Heartwood, the program experience extends beyond medical care and scheduled programming. It is important that, as part of the whole-person care model, treatment includes recreational activities, hobbies, and stimulating group time to support clients’ well-being throughout their 90-day stay. Additionally, fostering strong relationships among clients and staff is essential for clients navigating the treatment experience.
Facilitation:
All workshops were guided by three facilitators from the Health Design Lab and an advisor with relevant lived experience. Having someone who could openly share her own journey through mental health treatment was a key factor in creating a welcoming and safe environment with people who were currently seeking treatment for their mental health and substance use.
Phase 1 | Client Engagement:
In total, four in-person workshops were held at BC Women’s Hospital, each lasting about 1.5 hours.
These workshops aimed to:
Creative, hands-on activities—including journey milestone cards, emoji stickers, and collaging—helped participants share feedback in diverse ways; helping facilitators to learn about their lives at the facility, relationships they valued both inside and outside Heartwood, the kind of community dynamics that existed there and specificities about how they view and feel about their own treatment in the program.
Phase 2 | Staff Engagement:
The Journey Mapping team conducted a virtual workshop and in-person ‘pop-up’ workshops with Heartwood staff, using reflection questions and brainstorming prompts informed by client insights. These workshops focused on areas of the treatment experience identified by clients as needing improvement, inviting staff to share their perspectives and identify key opportunities for strategic change.
Facilitators used visual engagement tools to encourage participants to generate ambitious, ‘blue sky’ ideas without constraints of time or resources, with the aim of centering the discussion around proposed solutions truly addressed patients’ quality-of-life needs. From these ideas, participants identified practical opportunities for improvement, including operational, resource-based, structural, and staffing solutions.”
The Health Design Lab, with input from strategic advisors, the Patient Experience team at BCMHSUS and the Unit Manager, compiled two reports: the Client Perspectives Report and the Staff Perspectives Report. To accompany these, two diagrams were developed that present key insights in a succinct format for frontline staff, administrators, and leadership:
These reports and diagrams highlight areas for future engagement and quality improvement initiatives, ultimately serving as valuable tools to support operational planning and Heartwood’s accreditation readiness.
Project Outcomes
Insights from the Client Perspectives Report and the Staff Perspectives Report informed several quality improvement projects at the Heartwood Centre for Women in subsequent years. One key insight led to the creation of new resources, including a welcome video and digital handbook, to help clients better understand what life at Heartwood might be like:
“A lack of accurate and accessible information during the referral period can affect clients’ readiness for treatment. Clients who struggle to engage may miss critical opportunities and resources, requiring more individualized care, increasing staff workload, and ultimately impacting the overall treatment experience.”
These resources aim to address this gap and enhance the treatment journey for both clients and staff.
