NHS practitioners in Cumbria use GRiST to assess and help manage risks to their service users. Today, eGRiST met with NHS managers in Cumbria for an important discussion around how GRiST can best support the whole clinical decision making process for mental health.
Effective risk assessment and management is critical not only in the short-term, but for a long-term, sustainable recovery. Risks and the factors affecting them should be evaluated and managed along the care pathway, with the goal of reducing factors which increase risk and improving factors that protect against it.
From a technical perspective, GRiST is an effective tool for improving continuity of care. As it is an online service, assessment and management data is stored securely on the web, and access can be transferred between practitioners in a service or to other services as a service user transitions along the care pathway.
The discussion in Cumbria focused on how GRiST could most effectively support the entire clinical decision making process to deal with risks faced by service users. Outcomes from this meeting will be considered when developing future training materials and advice for integrating GRiST into the care pathway.