This Programme is concerned with the delivery of health services, looking at broader impact on healthcare use, working practice and quality of care as well as patient outcome.

New research is needed to understand better how liaison psychiatry services can operate within complex health and social care systems. A key focus is on the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of care and appropriateness to patients.

The Department of Health’s National Institute for Health Research invites proposals for research on the organisation, quality and cost-effectiveness of psychiatric liaison services in acute settings. The purpose of this call is to fund research within five identified areas of need:

• mapping services;
• assessing quality, including patient experience;
• evaluating cost-effectiveness of models of care;
• examining team, workforce and organisation.

This call specifies a range of research gaps, ranging from evaluation of service models to qualitative research on patient experience. A core focus of this study is the cost-effectiveness of services. Note that there is some overlap across the identified areas of research need. Researchers may wish to put forward proposals which tackle more than one of these areas, perhaps in a phased programme of work, but would need to ensure that teams are staffed with range of expertise and sites to deliver learning on a national scale.

 Closing date: 12 Sep 13

For further informtion go to: http://www.netscc.ac.uk/hsdr/commissionedcalls.html