Introduction: This study explores the attitudes of psychologists towards psychedelics and psychedelic-assisted therapy (PAT) following the world-first regulatory changes in 2023 in Australia which permitted psilocybin and 3,4-methylenedioxy-methamphetamine (MDMA) to be used in clinical services.
Methods: A purposive sample of 20 Australian psychologists was recruited using snowball sampling. Semi-structured interviews were conducted which explored participants' attitudes, knowledge and concerns about PAT.
Objective: This epidemiological study estimated the lifetime prevalence of chronic physical illness (i.e., an illness that lasted or was expected to last ≥6 months) and 6-month prevalence of mental disorder and multimorbidity (i.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFContext: The COVID-19 pandemic has reignited a commitment from the health policy and health services research communities to rebuilding trust in healthcare and created a renewed appetite for measures of trust for system monitoring and evaluation. The aim of the present paper was to develop a multidimensional measure of trust in healthcare that: (1) Is responsive to the conceptual and methodological limitations of existing measures; (2) Can be used to identify systemic explanations for lower levels of trust in equity-deserving populations; (3) Can be used to design and evaluate interventions aiming to (re)build trust.
Methods: We conducted a 2021 review of existing measures of trust in healthcare, 72 qualitative interviews (Aug-Dec 2021; oversampling for equity-deserving populations), an expert review consensus process (Oct 2021), and factor analyses and validation testing based on two waves of survey data (Nov 2021, n = 694; Jan-Feb 2022, n = 740 respectively).
Towards developing more effective interventions for fall-related injuries, this study analysed a novel database from six retirement home facilities over a 4-year period comprising 1,877 fallers and 12,445 falls. Falls were characterized based on location, activity, injury site, and type, and the database was stratified across four levels of care: Independent Living, Retirement Care, Assisted Care, and Memory care. Falls most occurred within the bedroom (62.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Trauma is commonly overlooked or undiagnosed in clinical care settings. Undetected trauma has been associated with elevated substance use highlighting the need to prioritize identifying individuals with undetected trauma through common characteristics.
Objective: The purpose of this study is to identify classifications of traumatic life experiences and substance use among persons admitted to inpatient psychiatry in Ontario and to identify covariates associated with classification membership.
Background: Ontario stroke prevention clinics primarily held in-person visits before the COVID-19 pandemic and then had to shift to a home-based teleconsultation delivery model using telephone or video to provide services during the pandemic. This change may have affected service quality and patient experiences.
Objective: This study seeks to understand patient satisfaction with Ontario stroke prevention clinics' rapid shift to a home-based teleconsultation delivery model used during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Background: Cannabis is a risk factor in the onset and persistence of psychotic disorders. There is concern that non-medical cannabis legalization in Canada may have population-level impacts on psychotic disorders. We sought to examine changes in health service use and incident cases of psychotic disorder following cannabis legalization, during a period of tight restrictions on retail stores and product types.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Cannabis is associated with the onset and persistence of psychotic disorders. Evidence suggests that accessibility of substances is associated with an increased risk of use-related harms. We sought to examine the effect of residing in proximity to non-medical cannabis retailers on the prevalence of health service use for psychosis.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Trust in government is associated with health behaviours and is an important consideration in population health interventions. While there is a reported decline in public trust in government across OECD countries, the tools used to measure trust are limited in their use for informing action to (re)build trust, and have limitations related to reliability and validity. To address the limitations of existing measures available to track public trust, the aim of the present work was to develop a new measure of trust in government.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe COVID-19 pandemic highlighted and exacerbated inequities in health for structurally marginalised Canadians. Their location on society's hierarchies constrained their ability to access healthcare and follow recommended health behaviours. The aim of this article is to identify, from the perspective of marginalised populations, factors influencing the acceptance or rejection of COVID-19 countermeasures by structurally marginalised Canadians.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFImportance: Episodes of substance-induced psychosis are associated with increased risk of developing a schizophrenia spectrum disorder. However, there are limited data on the transition risk for substance use without psychosis.
Objectives: To quantify the risk of transition to schizophrenia spectrum disorder following an incident emergency department (ED) visit for (1) substance-induced psychosis and (2) substance use without psychosis and to explore factors associated with transition.
A major public health concern of cannabis legalization is that it may result in an increase in psychotic disorders. We examined changes in emergency department (ED) visits for cannabis-induced psychosis following the legalization and subsequent commercialization (removal of restrictions on retail stores and product types) of non-medical cannabis in Ontario, Canada (population of 14.3 million).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPrevious research suggests that family dysfunction may be related to lower health-related quality of life (HRQoL) in parent caregivers, but it is unknown if this association exists in the context of child mental illness. Therefore, the objectives of this study were to compare HRQoL between parent caregivers and Canadian population norms using the Short Form 36 Health Survey (SF-36); examine associations between family functioning and parental HRQoL; and investigate whether child and parental factors moderate associations between family functioning and parental HRQoL. Cross-sectional data were collected from children receiving mental healthcare at a pediatric hospital and their parents ( = 97).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFJ Can Acad Child Adolesc Psychiatry
February 2023
Objective: This study examined psychometric properties, parent-youth agreement, and factors associated with agreement on the 12-item and 36-item versions of the World Health Organization Disability Assessment Schedule (WHODAS) 2.0.
Methods: Data come from a clinical sample of 56 youth, aged 14-17 years, receiving mental health care at a pediatric hospital.
Background: Despite growing evidence that reduced vegetation cover could be a putative risk factor for mental health disorders, the age- and the sex-specific association between vegetation and mental health disorder cases in urban areas is poorly understood. However, with rapid urbanization across the globe, there is an urgent need to study this association and understand the potential impact of vegetation loss on the mental well-being of urban residents.
Objective: This study aims to analyze the spatial association between vegetation cover and the age- and sex-stratified mental health disorder cases in the neighborhoods of Toronto, Canada.
Background: Mood disturbance is a pervasive problem affecting persons of all ages in the general population and the subset of those receiving services from different health care providers. interRAI assessment instruments comprise an integrated health information system providing a common approach to comprehensive assessment of the strengths, preferences and needs of persons with complex needs across the continuum of care.
Objective: Our objective was to create new mood scales for use with the full suite of interRAI assessments including a composite version with both clinician-rated and self-reported items as well as a self-report only version.
Background: The adoption of teleconsultation for outpatient neurology services was limited until the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic which forced many outpatient neurology services to rapidly switch to virtual models. However, it remains unclear how this change has impacted patients' and clinicians' perceptions of service quality. The purpose of this scoping review is to identify process factors that influence patients' and clinicians' experiences of outpatient teleconsultation services during COVID-19.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFInt J Environ Res Public Health
February 2022
There is a need to improve the integration of substance use and mental health care for children and youth. This study examines risk and protective factors for substance use among youth with mental health conditions who received community-based or residential care services between 2012-2020 in Ontario, Canada. In this study, a cross-sectional design was used to examine patterns and factors associated with substance use among youth (12-18 years) assessed in the community (n = 47,418) and residential (n = 700) mental health care facilities in Ontario, Canada.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe COVID-19 pandemic has raised serious concerns about the mental health impact of people directed and indirectly affected by the virus. Because this is a rapidly evolving situation, our goal was to explore potential risk factors and trends in feelings of anxiety and depression among the general population in Canada over the first 5 months of the pandemic. We completed on-line surveys of 3,127 unique individuals representative of the Canadian general population at 4 discreet periods every 6 weeks from April 15th to July 28th 2020.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFConsiderable debate exists on whether exposure to vegetation cover is associated with better mental health outcomes. Past studies could not accurately capture people's exposure to surrounding vegetation and heavily relied on non-spatial models, where the spatial autocorrelation and latent covariates could not be adjusted. Therefore, a suite of five different vegetation measures was used to separately analyze the association between vegetation cover and the number of psychotic and non-psychotic disorder cases in the neighborhoods of Toronto, Canada.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjectives: This study aimed to examine the incidence of, and factors associated with, hospital presentation for self-harm among older Canadians in long-term care (LTC).
Design: Retrospective cohort study.
Setting And Participants: The LTC data were collected using Resident Assessment Instrument-Minimum Data Set (RAI-MDS) and Resident Assessment Instrument-Home Care (RAI-HC), and linked to the Discharge Abstract Database (DAD) with hospital records of self-harm diagnosis.
Objectives: To examine the trends in cannabis use within 30 days of first admission to inpatient psychiatry in Ontario, Canada, between 2007 and 2017, and the characteristics of persons reporting cannabis use.
Methods: A retrospective cross-sectional analysis was conducted for first-time admissions to nonforensic inpatient psychiatric beds in Ontario, Canada, between January 1, 2007, and December 31, 2017, using data from the Ontario Mental Health Reporting System ( = 81,809).
Results: Across all years, 20.
Background: Marginalization is a multidimensional social construct that influences the mental health status of individuals and their use of psychiatric services. However, its conceptualization and measurement are challenging due to inconsistencies in definitions, and the lack of standard data sources to measure this construct.
Aims: To create an index for screening marginalization based on an existing comprehensive assessment system used in inpatient psychiatry.
The lives of persons living with mental illness are affected by psychological, biological, social, economic, and environmental factors over the life course. It is therefore unlikely that simple preventive strategies, clinical treatments, therapeutic interventions, or policy options will succeed as singular solutions for the challenges of mental illness. Persons living with mental illness receive services and supports in multiple settings across the health care continuum that are often fragmented, uncoordinated, and inadequately responsive.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF