Help shape the future of Mental Health Act digitisation
Why Steering Groups matter
The Thalamos mission is to make access to, receipt of, and discharge from, acute mental healthcare, swifter, simpler and safer. We achieve this by creating digital enablers which support health and social care professionals to better care for their patients. Better patients outcomes are at the centre of everything we do.
We have the somewhat paradoxical goal of applying technology to make mental healthcare more human. To deliver on this goal we must ensure that our software is simple, intuitive and aligned with human needs for those who use it. To achieve this, we must seek to fully understand those potential users and include them in the design, build and improvement processes.
The Thalamos Steering Groups are designed to do exactly this. They exist to inform, guide and to course correct the evolution of Thalamos products, ensuring they are aligned to the specific and nuanced requirements of individual users.
A direct way to influence the software you use
1. Designed by the experts
• Steering Groups ensure Thalamos evolves based on real-world user needs, not assumptions
2. Making digital mental health care more human
• We use technology to simplify processes so you can focus on patient care
3. Directly shape the future of Thalamos
• Your feedback turns into real product improvements, helping you work more effectively
4. National alignment on key challenges
• By bringing together professionals in the same role but in a different organisations, Steering Groups ensure national sentiments are heard
Who can join
Our Steering Groups are designed to generate feedback from core product user groups. By bringing together individuals and teams with similar challenges and ways of working we can generate insights that help with specific parts of product development.
How Steering Groups have shaped the future of Thalamos products
Thalamos users have firsthand knowledge of how our tools fit into ways of working. Steering Groups give a direct way to request and shape improvements.
Mental Health Act form co-creation
By bringing together a Steering Group made up of individuals from different organisations who complete Mental Health Act forms on a daily basis we were able to collate their own templates and current challenges to build a non statutory form that is standardised across all trusts. It removed unwarranted variations in practice and is first instance of this collaborative approach happening in MHA care.
Problem identified – solution built
Amending of forms was a consistent problem which was discussed within our Steering Groups. Working with the users, Thalamos developed a way for Section 15 amends to be done digitally. The software can now facilitate amends and keep track of version history. The Steering Groups were crucial in directing this development in the right way.
Patient detail sharing
Feedback from Steering Groups showed that the sharing of forms with multiple people at the same time was a challenge, and therefore something they would like a solution to. Thalamos was able to work with them to co-design a way for users to add multiple recipients at the same time time, aligning with our ambition to create faster access to care and more joined up ways of working.
Pre-populated forms
An integration with the Personal Demographics Service (PDS) was raised by different stakeholders during Steering Group meetings to ensure patient information and NHS numbers are pre-populated on forms so they could reconcile the record against their EPR. The subsequent design and development was directed by their inputs, with regular feedback along the way.
Status dashboard
With Steering Group guidance, Thalamos built a live Mental Health Act status dashboard that is providing an aggregated overview status so stakeholders have accurate oversight of all patients being cared for under the MHA. They shared their internal polices, best practice and, together, we created a standardised approach to developing a system that provides alerts aligned to expiring detentions.
Caseload and oversight of team
The ability to have access to forms within a specific team and/or hospital was raised during Steering Group meetings. Based on their feedback, we built a caseload that not only gives an accurate representation of forms within a specific ward or site that can be accessed by all staff, but also allows them to more easily manage handovers and shift changes by ensuring all staff can get access to the forms if needed.
How to get involved
1. Sign up — Express interest via our short form
2. Meet with group — We’ll invite you to a 90-minute quarterly session to explore ideas and challenges
3. Directly influence product development — Request changes, test features, and suggest improvements
4. See the impact — Your feedback directly influences our product roadmap and helps put the right digital tools in your hands
