Translating research knowledge in dementia care organisations.

Objective: To evaluate dementia care organisations' capacity to acquire, assess, adapt and apply dementia research.

Methods: We used the Canadian Health Services Research Foundation's survey, 'Is research working for you?' by inviting the members of the New Zealand National Dementia Cooperative to participate in the online survey.

Results: A total of 146 (32%) members responded and indicated that, although the workforce had the skills to engage in research and implement evidence into practice, there was limited organisational support in terms of the time, resources and access to external support.

Optimizing arousal to manage aggression: a pilot study of sensory modulation.

The dominant model that informs clinical training for preventing violence and managing aggression posits arousal as mediated downwards from higher cortical structures. This view results in an often-misplaced reliance on verbal and cognitive techniques for de-escalation. The emergence of sensory modulation, via the Six Core Strategies, is an alternative or complementary approach that is associated with reduced rates of seclusion and restraint.

One-year treatment continuation in patients prescribed risperidone long-acting injection in New Zealand: a retrospective study.

Objective: Treatment discontinuation is a major problem in routine clinical settings and is associated with poorer outcomes for conditions like schizophrenia. Risperidone long-acting injection (RLAI) has shown low discontinuation and good tolerability in long-term clinical trials. This retrospective study investigated RLAI continuation in a naturalistic clinical setting in New Zealand.

Five-year follow-up of an acute psychiatric admission cohort in Auckland, New Zealand.

Aim: This paper describes a follow-up of acute psychiatric hospital contact in Auckland, New Zealand for an admission cohort in the 5-years past an index admission (published in the NZMJ in 2005).

Methods: A 5-year follow-up study of hospital psychiatric service utilisation by 924 patients admitted (index admission) in Auckland during 2000. Hospital admissions within New Zealand for this population were extracted from electronic records.

The experience and impact of living with gout: a study of men with chronic gout using a qualitative grounded theory approach.

Background: Gout is commonly undertreated and can lead to significant disability. Few data are available about the lived experience of gout or the barriers to effective urate-lowering therapy in men with gout.

Aims: This study aims to understand the experience of men living with chronic gout using a qualitative grounded theory approach.

Comparative effectiveness of long-acting risperidone in New Zealand: a report of resource utilization and costs in a 12-month mirror-image analysis.

Background: Schizophrenia affects approximately 1% of the population and is associated with a considerable economic burden to society. The healthcare costs of the disorder are high and are compounded by substantial productivity losses. Failure to adhere to medication regimens, with subsequent relapse and hospitalization, is a key driver of these costs.

Socioeconomic deprivation and extended hospitalization in severe mental disorder: a two-year follow-up study.

Objective: This study examined the association between socioeconomic deprivation and extended hospitalization in severe mental disorder, after taking account of confounding variables.

Methods: A representative sample of 660 inpatients from South Auckland, New Zealand, was followed for two years from their index admission. Additional data were collected during the index admission for a subsample of 291 patients.

Unmet needs and treatment seeking in high users of mental health services: role of illness perceptions.

Objective: A small number of patients tend to use a disproportionately high amount of mental health services. Understanding the needs and behaviours of this group is important in order to improve patient management. Few studies have investigated the role that patients' perceptions about their mental illness play in guiding coping responses and treatment seeking.

Socio-economic deprivation and duration of hospital stay in severe mental disorder.

Adults from South Auckland, New Zealand who required acute admission to hospital were followed from admission to discharge. After adjusting for demographic factors, diagnosis, chronicity, severity, consultant psychiatrist and involuntary admission, the length of stay for those from more deprived areas was significantly longer by 7 days than for those from less deprived areas. Information on socio-economic deprivation should be used in discharge planning and in optimising access to community care.

Psychiatric hospitalization: reasons for admission and alternatives to admission in South Auckland, New Zealand.

Objective: To describe reasons for admission and alternatives to admission in a government funded acute inpatient unit.

Method: Reasons for admission and alternatives to admission were rated for a consecutive sample of 255 admissions to an acute psychiatric unit in Auckland, using interviews with staff and case note review.

Result: Most patients had a functional psychosis and were admitted involuntarily.

More deprived areas need greater resources for mental health.

Objective: This study set out to investigate the relationship in New Zealand between the newly developed small area index of socio-economic deprivation, NZDep96, and measures of psychiatric bed utilisation. It aims to contribute to the debate on resource allocation and to estimate the distribution of beds required in relation to levels of deprivation.

Method: A cohort study of 872 persons admitted to the psychiatric in-patient unit within Counties Manukau, involving 1299 episodes of in-patient care between 1998 and 2000.