The Problem
"A psychiatric advance directive (PAD) is a communication tool that promotes patients' autonomy and gives capacitated adults who live with serious mental illnesses the ability to record their preferences for care and designate a proxy decision maker before a healthcare crisis" (Table et al., 2020).
PADs foster positive health outcomes during a crisis for patients, but are not widely utilized by patients or providers, despite an interest in the tool by both.
This project was in phase in a multi-phase project to identify the barriers to creation and implementation of PADs. This phase considered privacy concerns as a barrier to completion of a PAD for patients. This study would lay the groundwork for a potential wearable health tech device that would carry an electronic version of an individual's PAD which a health care provider and/or emergency responder could access in an emergency when the patient is not able to communicate on their own behalf.
The Solution
Utilized the consumer voice to lay the groundwork for flow and access within the potential wearable PAD in regards to layered privacy and access. Through consumer surveys, we identified the concerns potential users of a wearable PAD device and their loved ones/caregivers had. These concerns were largely related to stigma and discrimination that patients had directly experienced or observed in society at large. These stigmas were based on public narratives about individuals with sever mental health illnesses. Individuals expressed concern a wearable technology that was identifiable by EMS or police would put them in harms way if the responders held negative views or perceptions towards individuals with mental illnesses. This concern was especially relevant for individuals who experienced discrimination from police and EMS due to their race/ethnicity and those who had been discriminated against due to their illness in the past.
These findings were utilized in the next phases of research and development to create a product that addressed patients privacy concerns to increase adoption.