This meta-analysis estimates the effects of patient preference on clinical outcome, satisfaction and adherence regarding treatment of depression and anxiety. Open access article - no login required.
this study contributes to the growing evidence-base which suggests that ACT could be another treatment option for people with psychosis. Further studies of ACT for people with psychosis are required to continue building upon the evidence-base.
Within healthcare services, we facilitate ACT-based groups for people with mental health difficulties. We have an opportunity here to set up ACT-based groups specifically for people with psychosis and conduct service evaluation studies to evaluate their feasibility in services.
Several useful points for clinicians emerge from this paper. The first-hand experiences compiled here reveal some common experiences among people living with depression which are not reflected in diagnostic criteria or checklists for lay people. While sleep, weight and appetite disturbances are noted in the latest edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders as indicative of depression, this paper suggests that the somatic nature of the depressive experience is more pronounced than this. Experiences such as aches and pains, a sense of heaviness, and a body that lacks physical energy may be important markers of depression, and it is therefore unhelpful to view the mind and body as separate. The importance of fatigue has also been stressed by adolescents experiencing depression
In our work on Understanding integration, The King’s Fund and the Picker Institute developed a guide for health and care partners to come together to better understand and learn from the views and lived experience of people and communities, in the spirit of delivering genuinely integrated care. Centred around 10 principles, the guide was designed to help systems to work to co-ordinate services around what matters to people and communities.
Over the past year, The King’s Fund has been working with NHS England and the HOPE network to design and develop projects drawing on the principles and ways of working outlined in the guide. The HOPE network provides peer learning and support opportunities for leaders within NHS trusts with responsibility for patient experience.
Over the past few years it feels like things have gone backwards. The proportion of patients feeling involved in decisions about their care or treatment has been falling in recent years. There is still good work going on but increasingly we hear from staff who feel powerless to act on what they are hearing and tell us that patient experience is slipping down the agenda both nationally and locally.
The Women in Medicine Carers Network focuses on the specific issues doctor carers face, and have numerous stories of where support was insufficient or non-existent; here is just one.
This review concluded that people living with depression are at considerable risk of internalising negative stereotypes and discrimination associated with depression. Prominent risk factors were identified, including depression symptom severity and stigma-related factors; but protective factors were also identified, such as quality of life and self-esteem.
Avoidable harm in mental health social care - Andie Ashdown summarises a review on service users’ experiences of social and psychological avoidable harm.
Editorial. Although mental health problems are extremely common, stigma is still attached to them, often making them difficult to talk about. Despite women and men experiencing stigma in response to help-seeking for mental health issues, there would appear to be gender-specific influences on men's reluctance to seek help.
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During mirror meetings, professionals were confronted with the experiences of young people (YP) with inflammatory bowel disease to encourage them to improve their transitional care arrangements. Mirror meetings are a powerful tool to enhance professionals' awareness of YP's needs. To read the full article, choose Open Athens “Institutional Login” and search for “Midlands Partnership”.
In this study, we observed that caring for people with PWS can have a significant effect on the mental health, burden and quality of life of caregivers, with a greater impact among primary caregivers compared with the other living relatives. To read the full article, choose Open Athens “Institutional Login” and search for “Midlands Partnership”.
There are people who argue for the use of intersectional approaches in understanding people’s lived experience of care in tackling ethnic health inequalities. These intersectional approaches help health and care providers shift their focus from people’s behaviours to also identifying and addressing ways of working that create and reinforce inequalities and poor experiences of care that create and reinforce inequalities and poor experiences of care.
The early-access Living Well support group, led by an occupational therapist and a registered nurse, was developed to support people with motor neurone disease and their carers. The objective of this study was to explore the carers’ lived experiences of being part of this support group. To read the full article, choose Open Athens “Institutional Login” and search for “Midlands Partnership”.
This paper aims to examine the use of coproduction to create a film “Do You See Me?”, to amplify the voices of a “hard to reach” group: older lesbian, gay, bisexual (LGB) victim-survivors of domestic abuse (DA). To read the full article, choose Open Athens “Institutional Login” and search for “Midlands Partnership”.
This article represents reflections on current social and legal issues for people given a mental diagnosis, from a lived experience perspective. To read the full article, choose Open Athens “Institutional Login” and search for “Midlands Partnership”.
This reflective piece occurs from the co-production of knowledge between Mark Lynes and Clive Sealey. To read the full article, choose Open Athens “Institutional Login” and search for “Midlands Partnership”.
This article explores the key areas by which an academic book was co-produced with people from diverse backgrounds and lived experiences. We argue that co-production is possible, by building relationships with co-participants, working in an adaptable and flexible way around structures and facilitating the voices of people with lived experience. To read the full article, choose Open Athens “Institutional Login” and search for “Midlands Partnership”.
Orla, a Bipolar UK peer support officer, shares her personal experiences and how nurses can help to destigmatise the condition. To read the full article, choose Open Athens “Institutional Login” and search for “Midlands Partnership”.
Since the age of 14 I have had symptoms of bipolar, with alternating periods of depression and hypomania.
People with mental health problems are often left behind, forgotten and excluded• Little is known or written from a service user perspective about experiences of psychiatry, mental health nursing, Mental Health Tribunals and alternative ap-proaches (such as counselling, peer support, psychological and recovery ap-proaches, cognitive behavioural therapy—CBT and creative/art/music/drama/horticultural/dance therapies)
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”.
This paper describes the holistic experiences of a nurse faculty member living with serious mental illness and highlights lessons learned in both healthcare and academic settings.
In addition to insights from the experience, the paper also shares suggestions for moving forward, reducing burnout, and supporting employees in these fields. To read the full article, choose Open Athens “Institutional Login” and search for “Midlands Partnership”.
The purpose of this research is to develop an understanding of the experiences of staff working with PSWs in a community forensic team and the impact this has on them. To read the full article, choose Open Athens “Institutional Login” and search for “Midlands Partnership”.
The purpose of this study was to describe mental health professionals’ experiences of changes in attitudes towards, and knowledge about, users of mental health-care recovery and decisional participation in clinical practice after an educational intervention.To read the full article, choose Open Athens “Institutional Login” and search for “Midlands Partnership”.
How much of social work knowledge is based on the experiences and views of people who have experience of health and social care as service users and/or carers, rather than practitioners, managers or other professionals and/or experts? To read the full article, choose Open Athens “Institutional Login” and search for “Midlands Partnership”.
Inpatient care often involves restrictive interventions such as seclusion and restraint and restrictive practices that limit the person’s freedom, rights, and daily activities. Restrictive practice has not been the explicit focus in previous research however, it often appears as an important theme, with participants identifying it can have a detrimental effect on their wellbeing. More research specifically on this topic in an inpatient setting is therefore needed. Women might be particularly vulnerable to adverse effects of restrictive practices compared to men as women generally occupy less powerful positions in society and more often experience abuse. To read the full article, choose Open Athens “Institutional Login” and search for “Midlands Partnership”.
Mental healthcare services have undergone significant changes since the start of the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic. In Leicestershire Partnership NHS Trust one such change has been the development of a community enhanced rehabilitation team, to support service users who had experienced quicker discharge from inpatient rehabilitation services due to pandemic-related measures with transition into the community.
The authors provide examples of reflections on collecting data from a participatory research project that explored Gypsies, Roma and Travellers’ experiences of cancer in their communities. To read the full article, log in using your NHS OpenAthens details.
Mental health lived experience narratives are first-person accounts of people with experience of mental health problems. They have been published in journals, books and online, and used in healthcare interventions and anti-stigma campaigns. There are concerns about their potential misuse. To read the full article, log in using your MPFT NHS OpenAthens details.
To discuss the practical aspects of developing a PPI group, including one approach to convening a PPI group, and provide examples of where a PPI group has refined and improved the design of research. To read the full article, log in using your NHS OpenAthens details.