Qi project: Greenwich Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) Team

Developing a digital model of service delivery

Project leads:

Dr Nicola Reynolds, Principal Clinical Psychologist/ Clinical Lead for Integrated Neurodevelopment Team
Dr James Woollard, Locum Consultant Child and Adolescent Psychiatrist
Christine Hutchings, ADHD Clinical Nurse Specialist
Claire Stott, ADHD Clinical Nurse Specialist

Reason for project:

This project aimed to address the challenge of delivering high quality, effective care to a growing population of children and young people with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) in the Royal London Borough of Greenwich.

Approximately 3-5% of children could be diagnosed with ADHD and an increase has been observed in those seeking help.

What we did:

A web-based platform called ‘Headscape Focus’ was developed to bring the ADHD care team, families, schools and other professionals together in a secure, shared online environment.

The platform allows families to track their child’s sleep and the symptoms of their ADHD, set goals, build up resources of coping strategies and have instant message conversations with the team.

The platform launched in December 2017 and a few families were invited to use the platform so processes could be tested out. This was improved with every bit of feedback using the Quality Improvement Approach.

In February 2018, the platform was developed further to bring teachers on board to the platform.

Outcomes:

We currently have 28 families and five schools using the platform. Conversations and messages have been used to:

  • Request prescriptions
  • Discuss medication effectiveness
  • Provide advice and behavioural support around managing sleeping and difficult behaviour
  • Arrange future appointments.

Evidence we have at present suggests that this platform helps reduce parent stress around managing their ADHD. We will continue to increase the number of families and schools using the platform so it will become a main form of communication.

We will also continue to collect data around the outcomes for parents and young people.

What we learnt:

  • Co-design is an important part of quality improvement
  • To consider human factors and the nature of behaviour change when implementing something new
  • Quality improvement takes time
  • Feeling safe to take risks whilst also having fun is really important for innovation

Future plans:

The messaging functionality could be extended to include other professionals working with the young person such as GP or social workers.

We look forward to building more evidence of how families benefit from this platform in the future as the number of families using the system grows.

Headscape Focus

"The platform has been
really helpful to me as
I am able to write down
how I feel and I also get
a response from your team
quickly. Keeping a track
of my child’s sleep is helpful
too, as I am able to look
back on the weeks. I would
definitely like to keep
going with the platform."
Parent of a young person with ADHD

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