Safe staffing levels across the NHS have worsened significantly in the last year, according to UNISON’s UK-wide annual survey of nursing professionals published today (Monday), at the start of its annual health conference in Brighton.
This briefing looks at the successes of the Buurtzorg model [Dutch district nursing model], while also identifying some of the challenges which would need to be addressed if the UK were ever to adopt a similar system approach. The content and analysis have been updated to reflect developments taking place across the UK with regards to piloting Buurtzorg, as well as the growth of RCN about how the model works.
With extremely high rates of mental ill-health among the prison population, Mental health and criminal justice draws on experiences from across England and Wales to determine the way forward for improvement.
Commissioned by the Department of Health and the Ministry of Justice, the Centre's Dr Graham Durcan identified key areas for improvement across the criminal justice system. Consultations were held across England and Wales to review the experiences of over 200 people with personal or professional knowledge of the interfaces between the criminal justice system and mental health services.
What have I learnt from 40 years in the medical trade? First, medicine is more than the sum of its parts. Specialists specialise and their purity of thought and protected environment often shields them from the rough and tumble of generalised medicine. Specialists provide authoritative advice that is almost invariably correct but often uncontaminated by elements derived from other specialties. Second, a lot of useful general advice never makes it into textbooks and guidelines. Third, collections of such general advice tend to be, indeed have to be, rather unspecialised, unstructured and a bit random. This sums up the author and what I write below. To read the full article, log in using your NHS OpenAthens details
An informant history is critical in the complete cognitive assessments of older adults, but has never been formally assessed. A convenience sample of older adults aged ≥70 years were assessed using cognitive screeners for delirium (confusion assessment method-intensive care unit) and dementia (standardised Mini Mental State Examination and AD8) in a tertiary referral emergency department (ED). To read the full article, log in using your NHS OpenAthens details
Rodgers M, Dalton J, Harden M, Street A, Parker G, Eastwood A. Integrated care to address the physical health needs of people with severe mental illness: a rapid review. Health Serv Deliv Res 2016;4(13)
People with mental health conditions have a lower life expectancy and poorer physical health outcomes than the general population. Evidence suggests that this discrepancy is driven by a combination of clinical risk factors, socioeconomic factors and health system factors.
Objective(s)
To explore current service provision and map the recent evidence on models of integrated care addressing the physical health needs of people with severe mental illness (SMI) primarily within the mental health service setting. The research was designed as a rapid review of published evidence from 2013–15, including an update of a comprehensive 2013 review, together with further grey literature and insights from an expert advisory group.
Military Psychology (Apr 21, 2016).
Mental health disorders continue to plague service members and veterans; thus, new approaches are required to help address such outcomes. The identification of risk and resilience factors for these disorders in specific populations can better inform both treatment and prevention strategies. This study focuses on a unique population of U.S. Army Special Operations personnel to assess how specific avenues of social support and personal morale are related to mental health outcomes. The results indicate that, whereas personal morale and friend support reduce the relationship between combat experiences and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), strong unit support exacerbates the negative effects of combat experiences in relation to PTSD. The study thus shows that although informal social support can lessen postdeployment mental health concerns, military populations with strong internal bonds may be at greater risk of PTSD because the support that they receive from fellow service members may heighten the traumatic impact of combat experiences. To read the full article, log in using your NHS OpenAthens details
Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology 84.5 (May 2016): 415-426.
Attentional inhibitory deficits expressed as difficulty ignoring irrelevant stimuli in the pursuit of goal-directed behavior may serve as a fundamental mechanism of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Evidence of inhibitory processes as central to extinction suggests that exposure-based treatments may act more directly on the inhibitory deficits implicated in PTSD, whereas, in facilitating serotonergic neurotransmission, selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) may be less direct and bring about general neurochemical changes in the fear circuitry. To read the full article, log in using your NHS OpenAthens details
Specialist nurse intervention reduces hospital admissions in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, research suggests. To read the full article, log in using your NHS OpenAthens details
Despite intense focus on child sexual exploitation (CSE) in the UK, little is known about how and why some young people recover well from sustained exploitation by multiple perpetrators. Using thematic analysis, three published memoirs by young people (female) about their sexual exploitation by groups of men in the UK are analysed for insight into what contributes to positive short- and long-term outcomes.
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App Review. From obsessive compulsive disorder to postpartum depression, this app is a comprehensive resource on a variety of mental illnesses. To read the full article, log in using your NHS OpenAthens details
Half of the one million children in the UK with asthma will have an asthma attack every year, with about 25,000 requiring hospital admission. This article looks at how initiatives such as creating networks of GP practices and placing hospital specialists in the community could improve the care of children with asthma. To read the full article, log in using your NHS OpenAthens details
Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology84.5 (May 2016): 438-452.
Objective: This study aims to explore the mechanisms of personality-targeted intervention effects on problematic drinking, internalizing and externalizing symptoms. Method: As part of a cluster-randomized trial, 1,210 high-risk students (mean age 13.7 years) in 19 London high schools (42.6% White, 54% male) were identified using the Substance Use Risk Profile Scale. Intervention school participants were invited to participate in personality-matched interventions by trained school staff. To read the full article, log in using your NHS OpenAthens details
Actions to help people with mental health problems quit smoking have been published, in an effort to address premature death rates among this group. To read the full article, log in using your NHS OpenAthens details
Adult safeguarding is the subject of increasing attention in England and internationally. This article draws on research which developed a typology of ‘models of safeguarding’. ‘Models’ refer to different ways local authorities in England organise adult safeguarding (about which there is little evidence) rather than ‘model’ approaches to be emulated.
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As students, we learn the importance of empowering patients and taking an active role in their care. We are taught how to build our patients’ confidence and promote independence. But we should also remember that patients also help to empower us. To read the full article, log in using your NHS OpenAthens details
There has been growing interest in religion and spirituality within social work literature. However, little empirical research has explored Islamic welfare organisations and especially their significance for service users. This article presents findings from an evaluation of a British Islamic social work organisation (Ihsaan Social Support Association (ISSA) Wales), drawing on qualitative interviews with Muslim service users (n = 8) and quantitative findings from the service user database (n = 495), a quality-of-life assessment (n = 42) and a satisfaction survey (n = 36).
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