Objective: People with mental health conditions have high rates of chronic physical diseases, partially attributable to lifestyle risks factors. This study examined risk prevalence among community mental health service clients, their readiness and confidence to change, and associations with participant characteristics.
Methods: Cross-sectional survey of adult clients from 12 community mental health services across 3 local health districts in New South Wales, Australia, collected from 2021 to 2022.
Introduction: Smoking rates remain higher for people with a mental health condition compared to the general population and contribute to greater chronic disease burden and premature mortality. Quitline services offer telephone-based smoking cessation support to the public and have been shown to be effective. There is limited research exploring the characteristics of smokers with a mental health condition who use the Quitline or the impacts of using the service on their smoking behaviors.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFVisual illusions are of particular interest to cognitive researchers because they reflect the active role of the brain in processing the world around us. Yousif and Scholl (2019) recently described a new visual experience, the one-is-more illusion, in which adult humans perceived continuous objects as longer than sets of discrete objects of equal length. In the current study, we investigated this phenomenon in human children ( ) and rhesus macaques ().
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPreventive care to address chronic disease risk behaviours is infrequently provided by community mental health services. In this cluster-randomised controlled trial, 12 community mental health services in 3 Local Health Districts in New South Wales, Australia, will be randomised to either an intervention group (implementing a new model of providing preventive care) or a control group (usual care). The model of care comprises three components: (1) a dedicated 'healthy choices' consultation offered by a 'healthy choices' clinician; (2) embedding information regarding risk factors into clients' care plans; and (3) the continuation of preventive care by mental health clinicians in ongoing consultations.
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