Good friends are hard to find? The social networks of people with mental illness 12 years after deinstitutionalisation.

Background: While community care is now well established in England, the development and maintenance of social networks of people with long-term mental illness remains a major challenge to services.

Aims: To investigate the size of the social networks of people with long-term mental illness and the types of social support they receive in relation to their age and accommodation. Sample Thirty-nine men and 46 women (mean age: 61 years; range: 38-88).

Predictors of outcomes of assertive outreach teams: a 3-year follow-up study in North East England.

Introduction: Assertive outreach (AO) is a required component of services for people with severe mental illness in England. However, the claims to its effectiveness have been contested and the relationships between team organisation, including model fidelity, the use of mental health interventions and outcomes for service users remain unclear.

Method: Three-year follow up of 33 AO teams was conducted using standardised measures of model fidelity and mental health interventions, and of current location and a range of outcomes for service users (n = 628).

Functional defecation disorder as a clinical subgroup of chronic constipation: analysis of symptoms and physiological parameters.

Objective: Patients with functional constipation can be classified according to symptoms and physiological parameters as either having a disorder of defecation or having normal defecation. It is hypothesized that the disordered defecation, where it exists, is a causative factor of the constipation. However, the utility of this classification has yet to be proven in terms of predicting response to therapy.

Correlation models for monitoring child growth.

Growth measurements of children, such as weight and height, are monitored regularly, particularly in infancy, to assess whether or not a child's growth is normal when compared with a reference population of the same age and sex. Here, after a suitable power transformation to normality of the reference population, we model temporal evolution of the standardized deviation (Z-score) of the transformed measurement of a normal child from the reference population as a Gaussian process with zero mean and unit variance. This paper concentrates on modelling and fitting the serial correlation structure of the process, with the benefit that monitoring growth at specific ages is not crucial, statistically.

Outcomes of interprofessional education for Community Mental Health Services in England: the longitudinal evaluation of a postgraduate programme.

We report a comprehensive, longitudinal evaluation of a two-year, part-time postgraduate programme designed to enable health and social care professionals in England to work together to deliver new community mental health services, including psychosocial interventions (PSIs). The study tracked three successive cohorts of students (N = 111) through their learning. Outcomes were assessed according to the Kirkpatrick/Barr et al.

A needs index for mental health care in England based on updatable data.

Background: Mathematical models relating rates of mental health care use to population characteristics such as social deprivation are widely used in both planning and researching mental health services. The models currently in wide use in England are based on data mostly derived from the 10-yearly population censuses. These are perceived to be out of date many years before new census data are available for their replacement.

Prevalence of Helicobacter pylori in patients with gastro-oesophageal reflux disease: systematic review.

Objectives: To ascertain the prevalence of Helicobacter pylori in patients with gastro-oesophageal reflux disease and its association with the disease.

Design: Systematic review of studies reporting the prevalence of H pylori in patients with and without gastro-oesophageal reflux disease.

Data Sources: Four electronic databases, searched to November 2001, experts, pharmaceutical companies, and journals.

Service organisation, service use and costs of community mental health care.

Background: Different forms of service organisation may be expected to affect costs. I is important to understand the distribution of costs amongst providers of mental health care, so that the effect of service developments on budgets can be better anticipated and planned.

Aims: This study explored the association between different forms of mental health service organisation and costs.

Correlates of stress in carers.

Background: Mental health services are required to take account of the needs of carers, yet little is known about how services affect carers.

Aims: This paper explores the relationship between the user's mental health problems, the services received and the impact of caring on carers.

Methods: Sixty-four carers were interviewed, measuring their experiences of care-giving, carer stress and the service user's level of impairment.

Community mental healthcare in England: associations between service organisation and quality of life.

The present authors set out to explore the relationship between different forms of service organisation and quality of life (QoL) for service users. Four mental health trusts and their corresponding social services departments were recruited to exemplify: (1). high and low levels of integration between health and social services; and (2).