Seeing both sides of the story: creating patient/provider persona dyads for use in mental health service co-design

Tailored methods are needed to co-design services with consumers, in particular priority groups who experience access and outcome inequalities, but these methods are not well reported in the academic literature. Personas offer a creative human-centred approach and participatory tool for involving consumers in healthcare co-design, but without the provider perspective they tell one side of the story. In the context of value-based healthcare, which encompasses both patient experiences and outcomes and provider experiences, we designed patient/provider persona dyads for use in workshops held to redesign care for people who attend Emergency Departments with mental health concerns. The study was conducted in three steps. First, clinical scenarios were constructed from analysis of data from non-participant observations and interviews with mental health providers, patients and epistemic experts. Second, semi-structured interviews with four patients and six providers were completed to co-design the personas. Third, persona dyad cards were created to represent the themes from the interview analysis. Three overarching themes were identified through inductive analysis of participant interviews: Humanise, acknowledging the human behind the patient or provider; Contextualise, situating the patient and provider in the healthcare system; and Illuminate, revealing thoughts, feelings and goals of the personas. Patient participants preferred personas portray positive, strengths-based goals; provider participants emphasised the complexity of their roles, including systemic challenges and frustrations. It is anticipated that use of the persona dyads in co-design workshops will generate more realistic, empathetic and actionable design solutions. The method used and persona profile cards may be applied in future research and service redesign projects, particularly in contexts involving priority populations and complex care environments.