Commentary on: Anttila M, Lantta T, Hipp K, et al. Recovery-oriented mental health principles in psychiatric hospitals: How service users, family members and staff perceive the realisation of practices.
Implications for practice and research
Systematic efforts are needed for staff to recognise and address the barriers for personal recovery in psychiatric hospitals.
A larger focus on patient-reported and family-reported outcome measures is needed in the evaluation of recovery-oriented practices.
To read the full article, choose Open Athens “Institutional Login” and search for “Midlands Partnership”.
While the mental health needs of populations are increasing, the targeted training of mental health professionals, specifically nurses, is required. Stigma surrounding mental health from nursing students exists, highlighting educational gaps. To address this, the involvement of consumers in undergraduate education has resulted in a positive effect on the stigmatising attitudes of nursing students. There is still a limited understanding, however, of the consumers experience in this process.
There is a lack of research about experiences of family caregivers of service users in forensic mental health care (FMHC) and their involvement in care and treatment. Research shows that caregivers are burdened. Further knowledge is required, to provide a foundation for improving clinical practice.
The therapeutic relationship is not always functional in clinical practice due to various factors, such as lack of time, lack of job motivation, exhaustion and rejection towards the person cared for.
Early intervention for people diagnosed with bipolar disorder is a priority, but little is known about how recovery from first episode psychotic mania is experienced by this group. This study aimed to explore the experience of recovery from first episode psychotic mania for people diagnosed with bipolar disorder.
The study aimed to evaluate the efficacy, and explore carers' experience, of a brief carer focussed intervention in an Early Intervention in Psychosis (EIP) service using a mixed methods approach.
This study aims to understand the experiences of professional paid carers providing community support to people with intellectual disability “at risk of admission”. This study explores factors that were helpful or lacking in terms of the support the carers received from NHS health services during this time. To read the full article, choose Open Athens “Institutional Login” and search for “Midlands Partnership”.
This article demonstrates that co-production can be an effective framework to improve experiences for service users and healthcare staff. It is an empowering process that can happen in varying degrees and can be a key part of nurse managers’ practice. The article explores how co-production can be successfully used in a range of healthcare and higher education environments. Ideas about how nurse managers can use co-production to address diversity and inclusion in services are explored. To read the full article, choose Open Athens “Institutional Login” and search for “Midlands Partnership”.
Many people with parkinsonism require care as the disease progresses with much provided unpaid by family and friends. Caring for someone can have a negative impact on physical and psychosocial wellbeing. Caregiver burden can impact ability to continue this role, which can precipitate hospitalisation or institutionalisation of the recipient. To read the full article, choose Open Athens “Institutional Login” and search for “Midlands Partnership”.
Equality and diversity is an overlooked yet critical aspect of PPI. Discrimination and inequality compound the power imbalance that exists in involvement. If this is appropriately attended to at systemic and organisational levels, there is an opportunity to genuinely involve patients in research and strategic decision-making in an empowered and mutually beneficial way that simultaneously challenges structural inequality.
Rates of re-traumatisation among mental ill-health patients have risen significantly over the past decade and clinical guidelines place mental health nurses at the heart of their care. To read the full article, choose Open Athens “Institutional Login” and search for “Midlands Partnership”.
Advanced planning of care and peer support are two of several approaches advocated by Mental Health Europe as a way to reduce coercive practice in mental health. In this study, Tinland and colleagues have demonstrated that including peer worker support in the development and sharing of advance directives compares favourably to leaving patients to do this on their own.
Reducing admissions is a laudable aim, and the evidence is that, overall, peer support did not achieve this in this high need population, but admissions is not the only important outcome.
Given the positive results from some other high quality RCTs, and importantly from qualitative work about the experiences of those providing and receiving peer support, and the quite specific circumstances in which the results of this study apply, peer support arguably still has much to offer.
this study confirms people with complex emotional needs (CEN) are not finding current community services useful or able to meet their needs. However, this study shows people with CEN can identify how services should be designed to care for them. Current and future services not only need to look into the evidence, but they also need to conduct service development research and consult with service user panels.
Mental Health Act Assessment (MHAA) is not experienced as person-centred. Although not explicitly set as a specific standard of the assessment process (DoH, 2018), the overarching principle is of empowerment, involvement, and increased personalised care (DoH, 2015).
The participants expressed difficulty in understanding the process and their options, lack of voice, and disempowerment.
Thus, this study supports that throughout the MHAA, information be delivered more effectively, repeated discussions on options be had, and emotional support be offered.
Losing a family member to suicide is a traumatic experience which includes guilt and self-stigma. Yet, there is lack of data synthesis on the survivors' experience.
The COVID-19 pandemic has induced a considerable amount of mental health difficulties, ranging from anxiety and depression to psychosis. As services struggle to cope with the demand for support, the effect of such psychological challenges on quality of life remains a major concern. To read the full article, choose Open Athens “Institutional Login” and search for “Midlands Partnership”.
Family intervention (FI) is recommended in national guidance to be offered to all service users accessing an early intervention in psychosis (EIP) team, due to the consistent evidence base in reducing relapse and rehospitalisation rates. However, FI implementation is poor nationally. Although barriers have been identified at the level of staff member and the organisation, there is a paucity of research identifying service user perspectives. To read the full article, choose Open Athens “Institutional Login” and search for “Midlands Partnership”.
This is an account of my experiences becoming unwell and accessing general and mental health services in Ireland. It traces this experience from initial contact with my general practitioner, to admission to a secure psychiatric ward where recovery slowly began. It is hoped that this lived narrative of my recovery will shed light on accessing mental health services from a dual lens; that of service user and social worker. To read the full article, choose Open Athens “Institutional Login” and search for “Midlands Partnership”.
The existing psychosocial Support activities in the Northern Territory, Australia, are mostly delivered through individualised outreach and client-centred Support programs and do not currently have a strong Peer focus. To address this gap, a Peer-Led Education Pilot was developed and implemented in Darwin, Australia. To read the full article, choose Open Athens “Institutional Login” and search for “Midlands Partnership”.