Introduction | |||
| preparation & piloting | design & data gathering | data analysis & dissemination |
During the project's 9-month preparation and piloting phase, a steering group will constitute and reliable communication links between all 12 centres will be set up. Approval on ethical and data protection issues will be obtained in each centre and a special working group on legal issues and policy counselling formed. This group will draw up dissemination strategies and provide continuous expert advice. A computerised documentation system will be planned and implemented, assessment instruments translated and validated and researchers and staff trained their use, in order to reach high inter-rater and intra-rater reliability. The preparation and piloting phase will be concluded with a piloting of all assessment instruments in clinical routine.
During a 21-month data gathering phase, the assessment procedure set up during the previous months will be continued. Two groups of patients will be assessed in each centre: legally involuntary admissions and legally voluntary admissions who feel coerced to admission. Each at three time points, using structured assessment instruments. Complete data sets of 180 patients per centre will be aimed at. Data will be entered into the web-based computerised documentation system.
In a 6-month analysis and dissemination phase, statistical analyses will be performed. Local focus groups and a European workshop will be integrating the study's findings with knowledge from legal and ethical experts as well as from user organisations into guidelines ("patient charter") for best clinical practise of coercive psychiatric treatment. The project will be concluded by handing over the documentation system into national responsibility, disseminating the findings at conferences, through journals, and through brochures aimed at specific groups. Dissemination will be directed at all professional groups involved in the process of involuntary admission and at user organisations, aiming at an improvement of public health reports, a strengthening of user involvement and influencing political and legal decisions.
The study is being funded by the Fifth Framework Programme of the European Commission under contract no. QLG4-CT-2002-01036. Project work has started on 1 December 2002.
An abstract in pdf format can be downloaded here.