Designing for wellbeing

Transfer Ticket
Transfer Ticket 6 is a design proposal that tackles the patient transfer process
in psychiatric care. The goal for this project was to humanise the
process of transferring patients between clinics by focusing on its emotional
aspects and experience. The solution bridges the communication
breakdowns that can occur during the process. It transforms the referral
into a ticket format that includes the necessary information about the
patient’s care and which the patient can bring along for the transfer. This
alleviates the anxiety felt by the patient at being left on their own while
being transferred to the next phase of treatment. As well as being a practical
reminder for the patient, the ticket acts as a tool for the person receiving
them by providing the necessary information about the patient’s care. The
power of the final concept lies in its use of a simple metaphor. It can be
seen as vuja de brought to life. It is a concept familiar to everyone, and the
psychiatric care professionals can identify the value it adds to the transfer
process. From the patient’s perspective the added prestige of the transfer
ticket compared to a conventional referral, or no referral at all, conveys
an attitude of appreciation and respect and creates positive expectations
for the next appointment. (page 42)
The student group found airline and train travel as useful analogies for
their concept through conducting an ethnographic study of care personnel
and ex-patients as representative users of the system while relating their
own experiences to bear on the findings. This reflection was crucial as it
enabled the group to see familiarity in an unfamiliar situation. Through
the analogy the team was able to map the critical points in the patient
transfer process and develop ideas around them. The application of this
method is significant because it allows emotional aspects and hard data
to be connected, thus yielding solutions that are not only practical but
give something more.
6 Transfer Ticket by Tamara Amalia, Sanna Tuononen, Mike Walker, Otto Schultz
45 · We have always been here before: on design courting real disciplines