Jim Rokos Design - Mind Plan

Catherine Murgatroyd- Psychiatrist at City and Hackney Centre for Mental Health
“The 'mind plan' will be a very useful adjunct in developing care plans with patients, it could encourage real improvement in quality of life and it is simple and practical to use.”

Suzanne Smith- Senior I Occupational Therapist, Therapy and Life Skills Service, City and Hackney Centre for Mental Health
“This modern and re-usable timetabling device will benefit all who need support with structuring their week and implementing motivating goal attainment into their lives. It can be individualized therefore meeting differing literacy, numeracy and cultural needs. It can be utilised as both a diary and reflective piece to measure progress both for everyday living skills and mental health.”

John Kentish, Head of Health Psychology, Clarence Wing, St. Mary's Hospital
“To the best of my knowledge there is no other similar tool as yet. Until now people have used pen and paper to plan their activities. The Mind Plan is more fun to use so is more likely to be used. It is very graphic and activities stand out in a way that is not possible with pen and paper. Activities can easily be moved around which is not so easy with a paper version. I think the strongest point is that it looks fun to use as well as clearly indicating the planned activities.”

Worker at Portugal Prints, a mental health rehabilitation workshop managed by Westminster Mind
“The planner is a great tool for motivating people on a daily basis.
It provides the user with a flexible structure to work round the routines of meals/medication times. The planner would be very useful as a tool for people leaving hospital and planning days when they get home. This transitional period is very important in recovery - the planner could be used to ensure basic chores (e.g. shopping, cleaning) get done, as well as making steps back into the world of work, (e.g. voluntary work, visiting libraries) and make people aware of the importance of relationships and leisure activities. The planner could work as a daily reminder of many of the things needed to maintain a strong recovery and good mental health. The planner looks like a very inviting tool to use- it’s design gives it the feel of a 'work-like' (e.g. office planner) object crossing over into the area of a 'fun' (counters) object or 'game'. While the end-goal is some kind of work, the planner allows the individual user to take all the time they need to build up activities, and start at which ever level of daily/weekly activity is most appropriate.”

Patients recovering from M.E. at Royal London Homeopathic Hospital
“The most useful thing, was learning out how bad I am at rewards and leisure, how little time I gave to those’”

“The leisure discs showed up how sort of not very good time I actually had with my family…I started putting things down to play with my daughter…..That has definitely led to a change”

“It’s a lot easier to manage, you can look at it, and in a glance see what you should be doing.”

“It’s good to flip the booklet and see when I did achieve things”

“It made me think quite a lot about how I pace.”

Therapists treating M.E. at Royal London Homeopathic Hospital
“It follows on really nicely from the quite intensive keeping of activity diaries…. Mindplan reinforces the idea of personal responsibility for pacing and rest.”

"Mindplan is a simple to use self-management tool which may be a useful addition to an Activity Management programme for Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, to aid pacing strategies and maintain a balance of activities."

RSA's Design Directions Judges
"Whilst the physical output of the project was based on a business planner model, it was the fact that it was a neat solution to a real problem and was flexible enough to be entirely personalised to the needs of the user that showed he understood the requirements of the brief. The judges liked the clarity and appropriateness of his response that put control firmly in the hands of the user."