Shared Decision Making

SUBSTANCE ABUSE AND MENTAL HEALTH SERVICES ADMINISTRATION (SAMHSA)

Shared Decision Making is an emerging best practice in health care and behavioral health services. It pairs style of communication and decision making tools to help balance clinical information about behavioral health conditions and treatment options with an individual's preference, goals, cultural values, and beliefs.

To support the Shared Decision Making process, Westat worked with SAMHSA and (AHP) to develop an interactive decision aid for both providers and consumers, which would help them consider the role of anti-psychotic medications in one's recovery plan. Westat developed a requirements analysis to determine the process and specifications for the development of the decision aid. The results of the requirements analysis included a work plan, team requirements, hardware-software requirements, an implementation plan, and supporting documents. The basic requirements of the interactive tool included maintaining 508 compliance, allowing users to fill-in information and respond to questions, no back-end database where information could be stored and the need for a printed report. This interactive tool comprises HTML formatting and fillable PDFs and is complemented by several video clips.