Using the Cascade of Care framework, we explored the demographic and clinical characteristics of students at six stages in an early psychosis detection program at a college counseling center, with a focus on the transition between stages with the highest disengagement. We detailed and compared the demographic and clinical characteristics of those who (1) completed the Prodromal Questionnaire-Brief (PQ-B, N = 1588); (2) met the PQ-B cutoff score (n = 486); (3) were referred for secondary phone screening (n = 404); (4) completed secondary phone screening (n = 198); (5) completed a Coordinated Specialty Care (CSC) eligibility assessment (n = 51); and (6) were enrolled in CSC (n = 21). Education level and gender identity were associated with engagement at multiple stages of the early detection cascade.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIntroduction: Long COVID is a life-limiting condition that affects 65 million people worldwide. It devastates lives with uncertain illness trajectories, and yet, there are many research uncertainties as there is a lack of understanding of its causes, effective treatments and management plans. We set out to identify current research priorities for people with Long COVID, carers, healthcare professionals and researchers.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: This qualitative enquiry explores the experiences and perspectives of individuals with an eating disorder (ED) regarding their perceptions of yoga as an adjunct intervention to psychotherapy. It also explores the feasibility, acceptability, and safety of yoga from their perspectives.
Methods: This study used a practice-based evidence framework and employed semi-structured interviews with 16 females with an ED.
Multiple system reforms in Australia, including the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS), are changing mental health (MH) and disability-related service provision, whilst policy drivers continue to require service integration. This has necessitated service providers discovering new ways of working collaboratively to achieve an integrated model of care. This qualitative study examined what does and does not work to support collaborative and coordinated care (CCC), as essential components of service integration.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFComplement Ther Clin Pract
November 2023
Background: Yoga has been recognised as a beneficial adjunct for eating disorder (ED) treatment due to demonstrating positive effects on ED symptomology. Despite this, research exploring the perspectives of clinicians regarding the use of yoga for the spectrum of the EDs is limited. Consequently, this study utilised qualitative enquiry to explore the experiences and perspectives of clinicians regarding the implementation of yoga as an adjunct for ED treatment.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Eating disorders are serious mental health conditions that significantly impact the social and economic burden of mental ill health in Australia. Best practice treatment for eating disorders includes a multi-axial approach, including medical, psychiatric, and psychological approaches. More recently, complementary and alternative therapy approaches, such as yoga, are used to support eating disorder recovery.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjective: Programs for early detection of psychosis help identify individuals experiencing emerging psychosis and link them with appropriate services, thereby reducing the duration of untreated psychosis (DUP). The authors used the cascade-of-care framework to identify various care stages between screening and enrollment in coordinated specialty care (CSC) and to determine attrition at each stage, with the goal of identifying points in the referral process that may affect DUP.
Methods: Project partners included a college counseling center and CSC program.
Background: While research investigating the potential benefits of yoga for eating disorders (EDs) has expanded, a systematic approach examining how yoga has been implemented for this cohort has not yet been conducted. This research therefore aimed to synthesize the current understanding of how yoga has been implemented for individuals with EDs, with regards to the feasibility, acceptability, and safety of yoga for this cohort.
Methods: This study utilised mapping review technology.
Health Promot Int
August 2022
Educators continue to seek teaching and learning strategies to augment student self-empowerment, agency and professional skills. This qualitative study analysed students' own evolving perspectives when Boler's pedagogy of discomfort was used to redevelop curriculum. Changes over time were examined regarding personal and professional development in public health and health promotion, including those most significant to the students themselves.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFHealth Promot J Austr
October 2022
Issue Addressed: This study reports outcomes from initial steps taken to promote cultural proficiency among our next generation, nonclinical health workforce, including addressing any tendencies towards stereotyping, biases and discrimination, when redeveloping and Indigenising curricula.
Methods: This qualitative study involved purposive sampling of undergraduate students enrolled in a final-year health promotion unit (subject), as well as staff within the Faculty of Health. Thematic analysis was applied to two datasets: (i) outcomes from a staff survey examining insights and reactions to delivering Indigenous content (n = 16) and (ii) a collection of online student posts describing their observations and reflections during delivery of an Indigenous health module (n = 91).
Background: Interest in the use of yoga to enhance engagement with and augment the benefits of psychological treatment has grown. However, a systematic approach to reviewing existing research examining the use of yoga with psychological treatment is lacking.
Materials And Methods: This mapping review identified and synthesised research trialling yoga as an integrated or adjunct therapy with evidence-based psychological interventions for the treatment of anxiety, depression, PTSD, and eating disorders.
Background: Yoga has several mechanisms that make it a promising treatment for depression and anxiety, including physical activity, behavioural activation, and mindfulness. Following positive outcomes from adapted CBT interventions incorporating mindfulness-based practices, this study explored the effects of a therapeutic yoga program as an adjunct to group-based CBT for depression or anxiety.
Methods: This was a pragmatic preference trial involving adults diagnosed with depression or anxiety in a regional primary mental healthcare service (n = 59), comparing transdiagnostic group CBT (n = 27) with transdiagnostic group CBT combined with an adjunct therapeutic yoga program (n = 32).
Health Promot J Austr
April 2022
Issue Addressed: The emergence of COVID-19 forced the health industry to re-imagine its role and drove Work Integrated Learning (WIL) practicums into virtual spaces, adding complexity for students in these programs. Studies documenting the impact of these outcomes as well as the student experience during these tumultuous times are few, and therefore this study investigated students' lived experience using data sourced from personal observations and insights and subsequent analysis of their own narratives.
Methods: This qualitative study involved researchers applying a thematic analysis to online student blogs which documented their experiences as posted in the discussion forums.
Objectives: Cognitive behaviour therapy (CBT) is recommended for treating anxiety and depression, demonstrating good efficacy and moderate rates of engagement. To further improve outcomes and access to evidence-based treatments, researchers have sought to enhance CBT protocols with mindfulness-based approaches, such as yoga. This study aimed to examine whether yoga is an acceptable and complementary adjunct to CBT through exploring the lived experiences of adults with anxiety and depression who engaged in an adjunct therapeutic yoga programme alongside group CBT.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFComplement Ther Clin Pract
November 2019
Health Promot J Austr
August 2018
Issue Addressed: To deconstruct a personal account involving the initial decision making and ultimate consequences of driving under the influence of alcohol to educate drinkers about the realities of short- and long-term impacts associated with drink-driving.
Methods: This qualitative study uses collaborative methods and draws on an autoethnographic (n = 1) account to identify multiple challenges and outcomes arising from a singular drink-driving incident.
Results: Findings document how the split-second decision to drink and drive can give rise to unforeseen, ongoing and complex problems associated with injuries and pain management, the legal system, personal and professional costs, social isolation and shame.
Health Promot J Austr
April 2019
Issue Addressed: Identifying ways to manage the psychological and emotional costs of workplace stress is essential. Mindfulness meditation is reported to support mental well-being; however, findings are limited in Australian business settings. Accordingly, this study explored the efficacy of a mindfulness meditation program tailored for an Australian public-sector workplace.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMultipotent hematopoietic stem cells differentiate into an ensemble of committed progenitor cells that produce the diverse blood cells essential for life. Physiological mechanisms governing hematopoiesis, and mechanistic aberrations underlying non-malignant and malignant hematologic disorders, are often very similar in mouse and man. Thus, mouse models provide powerful systems for unraveling mechanisms that control hematopoietic stem/progenitor cell (HSPC) function in their resident microenvironments in vivo.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFHematopoietic development requires the transcription factor GATA-2, and GATA-2 mutations cause diverse pathologies, including leukemia. GATA-2-regulated enhancers increase Gata2 expression in hematopoietic stem/progenitor cells and control hematopoiesis. The +9.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSince the highly conserved exosome complex mediates the degradation and processing of multiple classes of RNAs, it almost certainly controls diverse biological processes. How this post-transcriptional RNA-regulatory machine impacts cell fate decisions and differentiation is poorly understood. Previously, we demonstrated that exosome complex subunits confer an erythroid maturation barricade, and the erythroid transcription factor GATA-1 dismantles the barricade by transcriptionally repressing the cognate genes.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFComplex developmental programs require orchestration of intrinsic and extrinsic signals to control cell proliferation, differentiation, and survival. Master regulatory transcription factors are vital components of the machinery that transduce these stimuli into cellular responses. This is exemplified by the GATA family of transcription factors that establish cell type-specific genetic networks and control the development and homeostasis of systems including blood, vascular, adipose, and cardiac.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAn important determinant of disease following Streptococcus pneumoniae (pneumococcus) lung infection is pulmonary inflammation mediated by polymorphonuclear leukocytes (PMNs). We found that upon intratracheal challenge of mice, recruitment of PMNs into the lungs within the first 3 hours coincided with decreased pulmonary pneumococci, whereas large numbers of pulmonary PMNs beyond 12 hours correlated with a greater bacterial burden. Indeed, mice that survived infection largely resolved inflammation by 72 hours, and PMN depletion at peak infiltration, i.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFComplex genetic networks control hematopoietic stem cell differentiation into progenitors that give rise to billions of erythrocytes daily. Previously, we described a role for the master regulator of erythropoiesis, GATA-1, in inducing genes encoding components of the autophagy machinery. In this context, the Forkhead transcription factor, Foxo3, amplified GATA-1-mediated transcriptional activation.
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