Personalised Care and Support Planning is a series of facilitated conversations in which the person, or those who know them well, actively participates to explore the management of their health and well-being within the context of their whole life and family situation. ReSPECT is one such tool. The ReSPECT process creates personalised recommendations for a person’s clinical care and treatment in a future emergency, in which they are unable to make or express choices. These recommendations are created through conversations between a person, their families and their health and care professionals, to understand what matters to them and what is realistic in terms of their care and treatment. Patient preferences and clinical recommendations are recorded on a non-legally binding form which can be reviewed and adapted if circumstances change.

ReSPECT is already being used by many organisations within the Health Innovation Oxford and Thames Valley region. There is widespread consensus for it to become a common tool, to allow recording of discussions, and importantly that these are better communicated between healthcare professionals and carers working across different organisations. The Oxford Patient Safety Collaborative is supporting its adoption and spread across acute and community care services, primary healthcare and care homes.

Resources:

• The NHS has provided general guidance on what should be included in personalised care and support planning.
• ReSPECT has been produced by the Resuscitation Council UK, which has produced a range of resources directed at both healthcare-professionals and for patients and carers.
• Our colleagues at Health Innovation West of England have compiled a series of excellent resources. These include links to e-learning modules, video clips and case studies.
• NHS Gloucestershire has produced training resources, examples, leaflets and posters.
• A series of patient and staff information guides leaflets including easy-read formats are also available.

The University of Warwick has published research reports relating to ReSPECT:

• Eli K, Ochieng C, Hawkes C, Perkins GD, Couper K, Griffiths F, Slowther AM. Secondary care consultant clinicians’ experiences of conducting emergency care and treatment planning conversations in England: an interview-based analysis. BMJ Open. 2020 Jan 1;10(1).
• Eli K, Hawkes CA, Ochieng C, Huxley CJ, Baldock C, Fortune PM, Fuld J, Perkins GD, Slowther AM, Griffiths F. Why, when and how do secondary-care clinicians have emergency care and treatment planning conversations? Qualitative findings from the ReSPECT Evaluation study. Resuscitation. 2021 May 1;162:343-50.
• Eli K, Hawkes CA, Fritz Z, Griffin J, Huxley CJ, Perkins GD, Wilkinson A, Griffiths F, Slowther AM. Assessing the quality of ReSPECT documentation using an accountability for reasonableness framework. Resuscitation Plus. 2021 Sep 1;7:100145.
• Huxley CJ, Eli K, Hawkes CA, Perkins GD, George R, Griffiths F, Slowther AM. General practitioners’ experiences of emergency care and treatment planning in England: a focus group study. BMC family practice, 22(1),1-8.

Other research studies featuring ReSPECT

Recommended Summary Plan for Emergency Care and Treatment into primary care and its impact on patient treatment and care (ReSPECT)

A research team at the University of Warwick, led by Professor Anne Slowther, is conducting an evaluation of ReSPECT in primary care. This project will complement the initial evaluation study of ReSPECT in acute trusts. The study is funded by the NHIR HS&DR programme (NIHR131316). The overall aim of the study is to explore how, when and why ReSPECT is used in primary and community care settings, and to evaluate its impact on patient treatment and care. We will explore experiences and views of ReSPECT from a range of different perspectives including patients, their families, GPs and other health and social care professionals