Hearing dogs for people with severe and profound hearing loss: a wait-list design randomised controlled trial investigating their effectiveness and cost-effectiveness.

Background: Hearing loss increases the risk of poor outcomes across a range of life domains. Where hearing loss is severe or profound, audiological interventions and rehabilitation have limited impact. Hearing dogs offer an alternative, or additional, intervention.

An Assessment of the Psychometric Properties of the GHQ-12 in an English Population of Autistic Adults Without Learning Difficulties.

Valid and reliable tools to measure mental health are a key requirement to developing a robust evidence base on mental health difficulties and autism. There are several reasons why mental health measures developed for the neurotypical population may not be valid and reliable when used with autistic adults. Using data collected from a national evaluation of community-based, specialist autism provision in England, this study assessed the psychometric properties of the General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-12) in a population of autistic adults without learning difficulties.

Effectiveness and Cost-Effectiveness of Receiving a Hearing Dog on Mental Well-Being and Health in People With Hearing Loss: Protocol for a Randomized Controlled Trial.

Background: People with hearing loss, particularly those who lose their hearing in adulthood, are at an increased risk of social isolation, mental health difficulties, unemployment, loss of independence, risk of accidents, and impaired quality of life. In the United Kingdom, a single third-sector organization provides hearing dogs, a specific type of assistance dog trained to provide sound support to people with hearing loss. These dogs may also deliver numerous psychosocial benefits to recipients.

A preliminary investigation into the effectiveness of a group-delivered sleep management intervention for parents of children with intellectual disabilities.

Sleep problems are more prevalent and severe among children with intellectual disabilities and autism compared to typically developing children. Training parents in behavioural approaches to manage sleep problems is advocated. However, delivering such interventions via groups is novel.

Riding the rapids: living with autism or disability--an evaluation of a parenting support intervention for parents of disabled children.

Evidence on the effectiveness of interventions to support parents of disabled children to manage their child's behaviour problems is limited. The aim of this study was to evaluate a group-delivered intervention (Riding the Rapids) which was specifically developed for parents of a child with a disability or autistic spectrum condition. This programme has been routinely delivered by a community-based mental health team across an urban, multi-ethnic locality for a number of years.

Mapping the introduction of assistant practitioner roles in acute NHS (hospital) trusts in England.

Aims: This mapping study describes current or planned introduction of assistant practitioner roles in English National Health Service Acute Hospital Trusts.

Background: In the last decade there has been a growth in nursing support workforce numbers and their scope of practice. An important United Kingdom support worker development is the Assistant Practitioner role.

'Out of Hospital': a scoping study of services for carers of people being discharged from hospital.

Successive government policies have highlighted the need to inform and involve carers fully in the hospital discharge process. However, some research suggests that many carers feel insufficiently involved and unsupported in this process. This paper summarises a scoping review to identify what the UK literature tells us about the service provision for carers, and its effectiveness, around the time of hospital discharge of the care recipient, and also describes a mapping exercise of the work currently being done by Princess Royal Trust for Carers Centres in England to support carers around the time of hospital discharge.

Assistant or substitute: exploring the fit between national policy vision and local practice realities of assistant practitioner job descriptions.

Objectives: To understand the extent to which the assistant practitioner role is described as 'assistive' in formal job descriptions and analyse whether the term 'assistive' has been stretched to encompass more 'substitutive' or 'autonomous' characteristics.

Methods: Sixteen AP job descriptions representing all clinical divisions across one UK acute NHS Hospital Trust were both macro- and micro-analysed for broad similarities and differences in line with Hammersley and Atkinson's analytical framework. The analysis specifically focused on how clinical tasks were related to clinical responsibility, from this the job descriptors were then indexed as belonging to one of five discrete categories.