Team psychological formulations in assertive outreach teams: Evaluating staff experiences

Abstract

Team psychological formulation meetings aim to provide a space for team members to reflect on the development and maintenance of service users' difficulties, including the potential impact of team members own interpersonal responses. The aim of this service evaluation was to explore assertive outreach team members' views and experiences of team psychological formulation and review meetings. Twenty-five assertive outreach team staff members who had experience attending formulation meetings were interviewed using a semi-structured approach. The interview data were analysed using thematic analysis. Themes identified were: ‘Valuing the meetings’ and ‘Barriers to the meetings’, along with sub-themes of ‘increased knowledge and understanding’, ‘empathy’, ‘structure’, and ‘input’. Four barriers as sub-themes were identified: lack of knowledge about the service user, staff thinking their opinion will not matter, attendance and time constraints. Staff members found formulation meetings useful and valued the process. Recommendations include team members taking on the preparation for the meetings, prioritisation of the meetings, and developing a Care Programme Approach-linked process for sharing and developing the formulation with service users.