Survey on critical incident reporting in a child and adolescent mental health service.

Aim: To examine the prevalence and nature of critical incident reports at a generic child and adolescent mental health service.

Method: This is a retrospective survey of all critical incident reports completed at a community based child and adolescent mental health service between 2008 and 2011. Information was obtained about the nature of incidents and actions taken.

Mental health needs of parents with intellectual disabilities.

Purpose Of Review: Parents with intellectual disabilities are more susceptible to psychological distress, isolation and abuse, but little is known about their mental health. A significant proportion risk losing custody of their children and current services are inadequate to meet their needs. It is timely to review this in the light of current reforms and good practice guidance.

Depression, demoralisation or adjustment disorder? Understanding emotional distress in the severely medically ill.

As emotional distress is often seen as an understandable reaction to a severe or life-threatening illness, clinicians are reluctant to make a diagnosis of depression and resort to alternative diagnoses such as adjustment disorder (AD) or demoralisation. This paper introduces these concepts and critically examines their clinical utility. It concludes that neither AD nor demoralisation can be clearly distinguished from depression on variables such as clinical symptoms, outcome or treatment response.