There are pitifully few examples of good com munication of information to patients in psychiatry. Pollock et al (2004) used focus groups to look at the situation on an inpatient ward. Patients and carers felt that information about their medication was helpful, reassuring -and generally absent. Written information was particularly valued because it could be read and absorbed over a period of time. However, this information was not there -not even the manufacturers' leaflets that would usually be included with medication dispensed from a chemist in the community. Staff were often busy and patients tended to feel that their concerns and questions were not important enough for staff to spend time on them. So, even in a restricted and highly controlled environment, information is lack ing, jeopardising an opportunity for patients to be constructively involved in their care and recovery. These findings would be recognisable in most mental health wards in the UK. We suspect that the same is true of most community services, but are not aware of similar studies in such settings. One, carried out among mental health workers in primary care, found that although staff were aware of goodquality information for patients, it was not readily available to them (Blackburn, 2001).Some psychiatrists might feel that their skills in communication render leaflets redundant. There is surprisingly little published evidence on psychiatrists' communication skills, but one
Using written information in clinical work with patients and carers
Philip Timms, Rosalind Ramsay & Roslyn ByfieldAbstract In all areas of medicine there is increasing awareness that patients need information that is clear, relevant and appropriately timed. This is obviously connected with ethical concerns of patient dignity and autonomy, but it also underpins the principle of informed choice. It is not possible to make an informed choice about how you want a problem to be managed, if you do not have the relevant information. Doctors have, historically, been poor communicators of such information. Although, on the face of it, this seems a straightforward issue to rectify, there are a surprising number of practical problems to be addressed before such communication can become a reality in daily practice.