Improving Mental Health through Healthcare CX – The CSR Journal

By: Katie Wallace, assistant. Vice President, Ugam (now Merkle)

The concept of normality is powerful. It is so powerful that even the idea of ​​a “new normal” is now commonly applied to address major societal changes. However, in mental health, applying the term normal can be a debilitating, isolating and stigmatizing notion. It leads to feelings of shame and perceptions of brokenness or of being different in unacceptable ways. It is essential to face such feelings with deep empathy. Cultivating this empathy to empower the person and change the healthcare infrastructure is the heart and soul of the healthcare customer experience (CX).

Healthcare CX has an impressive set of methods and tools that can help reduce stigma, raise awareness and mobilize efforts to improve mental health. Incorporating CX methodologies and practices can generate social empathy for mental health and build a better human experience, making mental health a reality for all.

Mental health in India

The onset of COVID-19 has brought a host of challenges, not least the rise in mental health issues. A study by the World Health Organization (WHO) revealed that 7.5% of the Indian population suffers from some type of mental disorder, which represents almost 15% of mental, neurological and substance abuse disorders worldwide. world. The growing mental health problems in India affecting people of all ages have reached levels where 0.8% of the total health budget is spent on mental health services (US$88 million).

Knowing and tracking these statistics is essential to understanding the prevalence of mental health problems in India. But it’s easy to focus too much on the numbers and become numb to what’s most important: the human side. Experience management methodologies, specifically those within customer experience (CX), can bring back the humanity within data.

The human-centred approach: treat the person, educate the people

While general attitudes toward mental health appear to be improving, a study by the National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences (NIMHANS) found that stigma prevents nearly 80% of those affected from receiving treatment, despite having been ill for more than 12 months. Feelings of shame and stigma are compounded by a lack of awareness of and support for various mental health conditions. This demands the need to normalize mental health. Mental health services are most effective when they take a human-centered, recovery-oriented approach to providing quality care and educating the public about the types of mental illnesses that could affect their friends, family, and colleagues.

Experience management best practices follow a listen-understand-act framework:

1) Listen to patients individually and collectively as a society.

2) Understand the patient’s feelings throughout their mental health process, such as their hopes and dreams for the future.

3) Take action by identifying areas for improvement and allowing patients to feel in control of their plan and progress

The patient experience requires balancing the moments that matter throughout the healthcare process and delving into sociocultural factors to determine the correlates and causes of the rise in mental disorders. The holistic CX methodology involves more than measuring satisfaction with an experience, service, or person.

At the same time, it is essential to reduce fear of mental health conditions through targeted awareness efforts. This includes education on the broad differences between acute and chronic mental illness and instruction on how best to support and develop community inclusion through active empathy.

Understand and act on critical needs

Well-executed CX requires a laser focus on positive outcomes grounded in deep layers of empathy. A human-centered approach is needed to:

1) Understand broad and nuanced mental health issues

2) Capture negative emotions

3) Create the necessary positive emotions throughout the trip

4) Establish the appropriate success factions

5) Measure leading (reducing stigma) and lagging (awareness) indicators of success

CX also helps shift the focus from secondary and tertiary behaviors to a more primary emphasis so action is taken on root causes.

CX incorporates a blended approach to mitigate and manage immediate constraints with long-term strategies. When applied to mental health and patient experience (PX) support, her human-centered approach focuses on enabling and empowering people to make informed decisions about their care. The health care provider should guide people through their mental health process and not dictate, coerce, or force treatment. The key is to create an environment of trust and empowerment between the patient and the provider:

– Trust that the provider has considered your needs and feelings

– Empowerment in having the necessary information to make decisions

To create an environment of trust and reduce patient anxiety, ongoing cost transparency is essential. The How India Perceives Mental Health 2021 study LiveLoveLaugh found that areas other than stigma preventing people from accessing treatment and support were lack of access due to socioeconomic conditions and concerns with expensive treatment. CX best practices include transparency as a guiding principle, primarily because healthcare costs can be especially complex.

PX must also promote community inclusion and relationship-based support to reduce isolation and strive to bridge socioeconomic divides. These approaches are necessary to focus on overall wellness rather than just symptom reduction. PX principles can provide the necessary frameworks to standardize the kind of mental health support that leads to long-term results.

The first step in applying CX fundamentals to the patient experience (PX) is to take a co-creation approach to ensure that mental health services are accessible to all. It should be as simple as ordering takeout or delivery, but is that experience really available to everyone?

To drive PX results, it is crucial that all people are represented in the development of accessible services. The only way to ensure easy access to care is to ensure easy steps and clear communication at every touch point, collect feedback, and apply learnings to improve experiences.

measuring success

Employing healthcare CX methods and mental health best practices will humanize and build empathy across cultures. Without CX, it will be an ongoing challenge to address the root causes affecting consciousness. It would be difficult to allow individuals and groups to neutralize stigma and shame effectively or to normalize mental health support in acute and chronic conditions. The listen-understand-act approach takes a holistic vision to empower people throughout their journey and educate society on ways to be inclusive and supportive. When combined, empathy, inclusion, and empowerment can make the concept of “normalcy” powerful for everyone globally.

Disclaimer: This press release is automatically generated. RSE Magazine is not responsible for the content.

Katie has over 15 years of experience in experience management, human-centered research, change management, and process improvement. She is a seasoned leader who builds relationships with clients and teams to help strategize, execute roadmaps, and achieve measurable value. Katie has a Master of Arts in Intercultural/International Communication from the American University School of International Service.