Identifying solutions to meet unmet needs of family caregivers using human-centered design

Conceptualizations of health, ability to act upon those definitions and desire for supports among families from historically marginalized communities

Respect for parents' values and clinician-parent collaboration is less common among families from historically marginalized communities. We investigated how parents from marginalized communities operationalize health and their preferences for paediatric primary care. We recruited families who spoke English, Haitian Creole or Spanish with at least one child younger than 6 years old. Staff queried families' values and life experiences, perspectives on health and healthcare, social supports and resources. Fourteen interviews with the parents of 26 children were thematically analysed. Interviews revealed the following four themes: (1) parents' definitions of 'health' extend beyond physical health; (2) families' ability to actuate health definitions is complicated by poverty's impact on agency; (3) parents engage in ongoing problem recognition and identify solutions, but enacting solutions can be derailed by barriers and (4) parents want support from professionals and peers who acknowledged the hard work of parenting. Eliciting parents' multidimensional conceptualizations of health can support families' goal achievement and concern identification in the context of isolation, limited agency and few resources. Efforts to improve family centred care and reduce disparities in paediatric primary care must be responsive to the strengths, challenges, resources and priorities of marginalized families.

A Human-Centered Design Approach to Develop Oral Health Nursing Interventions in Patients with a Psychotic Disorder

In mental health, oral health is often given little attention. Mental health nurses (MHNs) are professionally the appropriate target group to support maintaining and increasing oral health. We aimed to develop and validate personas that reflect the attitudes and needs of MHNs regarding oral health in patients with a psychotic disorder. We used a human-centered design with contextual interviews (n = 10) to address the key issues of the problems and needs of MHNs working with patients with a psychotic disorder. We analyzed the data thematically and reflected on insights into unique personas, which were then validated by conducting semi-structured interviews (n = 19) and member checking. Four personas were found based on attitudes and perspectives, barriers, needs, suggestions for interventions, and site conditions regarding practicing oral care in this patient group. Our findings were as follows: the attitudes and perspectives differed from not feeling any responsibility to a holistic obligation, including oral health; suggestions for interventions for MHNs ranged from interventions focusing on improving skills and knowledge to using practical tools; most MHNs recognized themselves within a persona that had a holistic obligation that included oral health; in addition, the MHNs indicated that they considered the issue of oral health in this patient group important, but, in practice, took little responsibility for that role. These findings suggest that a toolkit with interventions for MHNs that are tailored to the personas that emerged from our research should be developed by MHNs in co-creation with designers. The differences between the perceived role and MHNs' practice in oral health highlighted the need for role clarification and professional leadership of MHNs regarding oral health, which should be considered when developing interventions.