MINPLAN – en app som kan bidra til å redde liv?

Abstract

Background and research question: Today there is an increasing openness regarding suicide in the Norwegian public, and Norwegian politicians, health care authorities and health service have focused on suicide prevention. The national patient safety programme I trygge hender 24-7 has chosen crisis card as one of the measures to decrease the prevalence of suicide in mental health care. In cooperation with the national patient safety programme the regional hospital Sørlandet sykehus have developed a mobile application that functions as an electronic crisis card: MINPLAN. The app is available for the operating systems iOS and Android. The object of this study is to explore how the app may be implemented in mental health care and the research question is: How can the app MINPLAN be implemented as a supplement to the treatment of suicidal patients in mental health care? Method: The study has a qualitative design and data collection has been achieved through semi-structured interviews. The study population is seven health care professionals from the Division of Mental Health in Sørlandet sykehus. Results: Crisis cards are perceived as useful in the follow-up of suicidal patients. The app MINPLAN is perceived as useful and easy to use, and it may lead crisis cards to become more available to patients. The informants reported that they had received little training, and there is a low degree of integration between the app and the work system. Conclusion: MINPLAN is useful and may contribute to an increase in the use of crisis cards, but there is a need for more research into the effectiveness of crisis cards. The implementation is so far insufficient, but better and more tailored training and available super users in every unit may increase use of the app.