Primary care experience in people with mental health conditions: results from a national patient experience survey.

Aim: The study explored whether the reported experience of primary healthcare differs for survey respondents in Aotearoa New Zealand who self-report having a mental health (MH) condition in comparison with those who do not.

Method: Responses to the New Zealand Health Quality & Safety Commission's adult primary care patient experience survey received from August 2020 to May 2022 were analysed. Comparative analysis of patient-reported experience measures were completed to contrast experiences reported by those with and without a MH condition, with results stratified by ethnicity (Māori/non-Māori), age group and gender.

The impact of Individual Placement and Support on employment, health and social outcomes: quasi-experimental evidence from Aotearoa New Zealand.

Aim: To examine the impact of integrated employment support and mental health treatment (Individual Placement and Support, or "IPS") on Aotearoa New Zealand participants' employment, income, health, education and justice outcomes.

Method: De-identified linked data from the Stats NZ Integrated Data Infrastructure and propensity score matching were used to estimate effects.

Results: In total, 1,659 IPS participants were matched to 1,503 non-participants.

Cancer diagnosis after emergency presentations in people with mental health and substance use conditions: a national cohort study.

Background: Cancer survival and mortality outcomes for people with mental health and substance use conditions (MHSUC) are worse than for people without MHSUC, which may be partly explained by poorer access to timely and appropriate healthcare, from screening and diagnosis through to treatment and follow-up. Access and quality of healthcare can be evaluated by comparing the proportion of people who receive a cancer diagnosis following an acute or emergency hospital admission (emergency presentation) across different population groups: those diagnosed with cancer following an emergency presentation have lower survival.

Methods: National mental health service use datasets (2002-2018) were linked to national cancer registry and hospitalisation data (2006-2018), to create a study population of people aged 15 years and older with one of four cancer diagnoses: lung, prostate, breast and colorectal.

Experiences of physical healthcare services in Māori and non-Māori with mental health and substance use conditions.

Objectives: Inequities in physical health outcomes exist for people with mental health and substance use conditions and for Indigenous populations (Māori in Aotearoa New Zealand). These inequities may be partly explained by poorer quality of physical healthcare services, including discrimination at systemic and individual levels. This study investigated the experiences of people with mental health and substance use conditions accessing physical healthcare and differences in service quality for non-Māori relative to Māori.

Dealing With Discrimination in Physical Health Care Services: Strategies of People With Mental Health and Substance Use Conditions.

Discrimination against people with mental health and substance use conditions (MHSUC) by health professionals contributes to the poor physical health outcomes this group experiences. We surveyed people with MHSUC in Aotearoa New Zealand to explore how they experienced and responded to discrimination from physical health services. Participants identified 6 strategies used to avoid or minimize the impact of discrimination.

It's not in my head: a qualitative analysis of experiences of discrimination in people with mental health and substance use conditions seeking physical healthcare.

Introduction: Clinician bias contributes to lower quality healthcare and poorer health outcomes in people with mental health and substance use conditions (MHSUC). Discrimination can lead to physical conditions being overlooked (diagnostic overshadowing) or substandard treatment being offered to people with MHSUC. This research aimed to utilise experiences of people with MHSUC to identify discrimination by clinicians, including the role of clinician's beliefs and assumptions in physical health service provision.

Do patients with mental health and substance use conditions experience discrimination and diagnostic overshadowing in primary care in Aotearoa New Zealand? Results from a national online survey.

Introduction Quality of health care contributes to poor physical health outcomes for people with mental health and substance use conditions (MHSUC). AIM This study investigated experiences of people with MHSUC who sought help for a physical health condition in primary healthcare services, examining quality of care attributes. Methods An online survey of adults currently or recently accessing services for MHSUC was fielded in 2022.

Still in the shadows: a national study of acute mental health unit location across New Zealand hospitals.

Background: This study aimed to explore the location of acute mental health inpatient units in general hospitals by mapping their location relative to hospital facilities and community facilities and to compare their proximity to hospital facilities with that of general medical acute units.

Methods: We obtained Google maps and hospital site maps for all New Zealand public hospitals. Geographic data were analysed and mental health units' locations in relation to hospital facilities and public amenities were mapped.

Places of safety? Fear and violence in acute mental health facilities: A large qualitative study of staff and service user perspectives.

Aim: To understand violence on acute mental health units according to staff and service user perspectives and experiences.

Background: The collateral damage of violence in acute inpatient mental health settings is wide-ranging, impacting on the health and wellbeing of staff and service users, and detrimental to public perceptions of people who are mentally unwell. Despite international research on the topic, few studies have examined psychiatric unit violence from both staff and service user perspectives.

There's no smoke without fire: Smoking in smoke-free acute mental health wards.

Background: People who smoke with serious mental illness carry disproportionate costs from smoking, including poor health and premature death from tobacco-related illnesses. Hospitals in New Zealand are ostensibly smoke-free; however, some mental health wards have resisted implementing this policy.

Aim: This study explored smoking in acute metal health wards using data emerging from a large sociological study on modern acute psychiatric units.

Prediction of cardiovascular disease risk among people with severe mental illness: A cohort study.

Objective: To determine whether contemporary sex-specific cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk prediction equations underestimate CVD risk in people with severe mental illness from the cohort in which the equations were derived.

Methods: We identified people with severe mental illness using information on prior specialist mental health treatment. This group were identified from the PREDICT study, a prospective cohort study of 495,388 primary care patients aged 30 to 74 years without prior CVD that was recently used to derive new CVD risk prediction equations.

Specialist mental health care for older adults in New Zealand-an exploration of service models and routine data.

Aims: Older people experiencing mental distress are commonly overlooked in research and policy in New Zealand, partly due to lack of consistent national service provision and collation of information. This study aimed to: 1. Describe service arrangements for older people's mental health; 2.

It can work: Open employment for people with experience of mental illness.

Background: Previous research has tended to focus on the barriers to employment for people with mental illness and the extra support they may need. This research contributes to the knowledge base pertaining to this population by looking at successful employment relationships in New Zealand.

Objective: To describe factors enabling and/or sustaining the open employment of people with experience of mental illness.

Cancer survival in the context of mental illness: a national cohort study.

Objective: To explore the reasons for worse cancer survival in people with experience of mental illness, including differences by cancer type and psychiatric diagnosis.

Method: New Zealand breast and colorectal cancer registrations (2006-2010) were linked to psychiatric hospitalization records for adults (18-64 years). Cancer-specific survival was compared for recent psychiatric service users and nonusers using Cox regression.

Premature mortality in adults using New Zealand psychiatric services.

Aims: People with experience of mental illness, in particular those accessing mental health services, have increased mortality compared to the general population, but no studies have examined the situation in New Zealand. This study uses a complete national dataset to estimate mortality rates from natural and external causes for adults using psychiatric services compared to the general New Zealand population.

Methods: Routinely collected data on adults aged 18-64 using secondary mental health services between January 2002 and December 2010 were linked to death registrations over the same period.

"You don't look like one of them": disclosure of mental illness in the workplace as an ongoing dilemma.

Objective: The purpose of this study was to describe the pressures surrounding disclosure of a mental illness in the New Zealand workplace.

Methods: Using qualitative methods and general inductive analysis, the study included twenty-two employed New Zealanders with experience of mental illnesses.

Results: Fear of discrimination, and legal, practical and moral pressures contributed to tension between workplace disclosure and non-disclosure of a mental illness.