Patients' Experiences of Restrictive Interventions in Australia: Findings From the 2010 Australian Survey of Psychosis.

Objective: The authors used survey data to investigate patients' experiences of restrictive interventions in inpatient settings.

Methods: The 2010 Australian Survey of High Impact Psychosis (N=1,825) asked about restrictive interventions experienced during a mental health admission in the previous year (N=428), ranging from restrictions on leaving a ward to seclusion. The authors explored the relationship between perceived benefit (good or limited versus no benefit) and the number of different types of restrictive interventions experienced.

Postsecondary education: kindling opportunities for people with mental illness.

Education is recognized in many sectors of society as essential for empowerment and better lives, and postsecondary education is increasingly a prerequisite for many occupations. Given its onset in late adolescence and early adulthood, mental illness frequently disrupts secondary or tertiary education, and resulting lower educational attainment contributes to reduced lifetime employment and earning potential. Yet, supporting people with mental illnesses to pursue postsecondary education offers pathways to vocational qualifications and more diverse opportunities for employment and career advancement.

Finding and sustaining employment: a qualitative meta-synthesis of mental health consumer views.

Background: The viewpoints of employed people experiencing mental ill-health receive limited attention in reviews of employment-related research.

Purpose: To identify implications from studies investigating the employment-related views of people with persistent mental ill-health to guide the further development of employment supports available to this group.

Methods: Published qualitative studies between 1998 and 2008 were searched, resulting in 20 studies for qualitative metasynthesis.

The Camden Schizophrenia Surveys. III: Five-year outcome of a sample of individuals from a prevalence survey and the importance of social relationships.

Background: Most studies of outcome in schizophrenia have focused on incidence cohorts or samples identified through specialist mental health services; population-based samples provide a more complete picture of the effectiveness of community services.

Aims: To examine whether outcome predictors, derived from studies of selected patients with prolonged schizophrenia, would emerge in a largely community-dwelling population sample.

Methods: A follow-up sample of 114 adults with schizophrenia was identified via two censuses of key informants conducted for two prevalence surveys in North London, five years apart.

Best practices: the consultation-liaison in primary-care psychiatry program: a structured approach to long-term collaboration.

This column presents the Consultation-Liaison in Primary-Care Psychiatry model, which was developed in Australia. This model is a structured approach to collaborative care of people with mental illnesses between primary care services and specialist mental health services. The first component of the model is a consultation, liaison, and education service provided by psychiatric consultants at participating general practices.

The configuration of mental health services to facilitate care for people with schizophrenia.

In Australia, the configuration of public mental health services varies between States and Territories, but, overall, community-based services are increasingly integrated and responsive to people with schizophrenia. Community-based services include mobile crisis teams, providing home-based acute treatment, and case-management services for ongoing treatment. Service improvements have been uneven across Australia.