Ben Harvey
NHS Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services
CAMHS Tier 4 are specialised services that assess and treat children and young people with emotional, behavioural, or mental health difficulties.
The Project
The product created for the service helps to manage and increase the visibility of young people requiring specialist services. The responsibility for CAMHS Tier 4 service transitioned from NHS England to Surrey Heartlands ICS CAMHS Tier 4 Provider Collaborative and the digital team was responsible for providing an integrated digital care pathway solution.
The solution requires a new referral hub for children to access health professionals, specialised services to set appointments with ease, Electronic patient records to show the information that is needed, a Dashboard of all data on patient records, and Visualisation of all children waiting and seen.
Services
UX Research
UX Design
​
Production tools
Electronic Patient Record
Adobe XD
Adobe Illustrator
Lead Time
9 Months Contract
3 Months Research
6 Months Design
Research
Stakeholders gathering
Usability study
AS-IS Mapping
Post it notes
Outcomes
50% Less paperwork
Saving 20 hours per week for clinicians
Increase in reports and data
​
Design
TO-BE Mapping
Branding alignment
LO-FI artifacts
Adobe XD prototypes
Process
Role
The approach for this began through user research to understand the needs and pain points of young people requiring specialist services. I and 2 others then ideated and designed a solution that addressed these needs and was user-friendly. Through design iterations and testing, we refined the solution to ensure it was effective and efficient. Our goal is to provide an integrated digital care pathway solution that helps manage and increase the visibility of young people requiring specialist services, while also meeting the requirements of the Surrey Heartlands ICS CAMHS Tier 4 Provider Collaborative.
My role for this project was User Experience Designer: Conducted user research, created design artefacts, lead testing and designs.
User Research
Product Vision Board
A product vision board was created to help describe, visualise and validate the product vision and strategy of the CAMHS Tier 4 service. This helped to capture the target group, user needs, key product features, and business goals, to make sure every aspect of the product was covered.
​
Research
Working alongside UX researchers, research was conducted to help validate the need for a product, as well as get a better understanding of service users, by highlighting existing problems and identifying goals.
The CAMHS Tier 4 service provided the team with a number of documents to get an understanding of how the service is run and the partners involved. From this, a stakeholder map was created to identify key stakeholders that need to be involved in the process for the development of the product.
Co-design Workshop
Using Miro to develop UX methodologies for CAMHS can lead to the creation of detailed personas, identification of user needs, user journey mapping, and fostering empathy. These outcomes enable a comprehensive understanding of the diverse stakeholders involved, including children, parents, and healthcare providers. Detailed personas ensure the design addresses specific user requirements, while collaborative brainstorming and affinity mapping help prioritize user needs. User journey mapping visualizes the entire experience, highlighting pain points and opportunities for improvement. Overall, fostering empathy through this process ensures the final service design is user-centered, enhancing its effectiveness in helping children access the mental health services they need.
Ideation
​
Story Board
A series of service user interviews were conducted to get an understanding of how the service is run and to understand pain points. Also to identify where to potentially integrate a digital care pathway solution. From this an As Is storyboard was created to depict the whole service journey
TO-BE Process
Utilising the information obtained from research, service insights and service/user requirements a To Be process map was created as a working document. The to be process map helped to define the product use in the CAMHS Tier 4 service journey. It also helped to understand the flow of the service and provided an overview of the care pathway taking into consideration the product.
Design
​
Testing
User acceptance tests were conducted on the product with members of the CAMHS tier 4 service and defects and issues were logged to improve the MVP before service-wide launch. The direct observation method was adapted to test MVP, encouraging the testers to think out loud as they performed tasks. Changes were then made before the final release date.
​
I conducted 1-2-1 testing sessions through online and in-person sessions running through. Alongside this, a wider heat mapping, first click and optimal website architecture for a wider audience and understanding of users perception of the MVP
​
LO-FI Wireframe
The creation of low fidelity wireframe mock ups was an iterative process based on all findings from research and requirements. The initial mock ups were created and presented to stakeholders for feedback and iterations were made based on feedback which led to clickable low fidelity prototypes to test out the navigation between screens.
Outcome
Combining the low-fidelity wireframe mock-ups, and brand guidelines. A high-fidelity prototype was created, which was then presented to stakeholders and feedback was given.
Results:
1. Pathway for patients to get help and receive help more user-friendly
2. Health professionals to create appointments with ease
​
Products:
1. Website created for referral to get service created
2. Dashboard for health professionals to view clients' personal details
3. Visualisation of how many people need to be seen and have been seen
4. Appointment booking system
Impact
-
With this being in place in 2023 this has since been 280x the amount of children being assessed in the Surrey area.
-
Health professionals could easily visualise the situation on the website dashboards and easily translate the data to give children the help they need faster
-
Faster appointment times. The average assessment took 120 minutes which was reduced to 60 minutes due to the ease of information from the patient to the health professional
Challenges and Hurdles
​
​
Data Integration
Ensuring seamless integration of data from various sources such as patient records, treatment plans, and appointment schedules while adhering to data protection regulations like GDPR.
​
Stakeholder Engagement
Engaging with a wide range of stakeholders including clinicians, administrators, patients, and policymakers to gather input, address concerns, and ensure alignment with the overarching goals of the CAMHS Tier 4 service transition.
​
​
​
