Background: People with severe mental illness (SMI) have worse physical health than the general population. There is evidence that support from volunteers can help the mental health of people with SMI, but little evidence regarding the support they can give for physical health.
Aims: To evaluate the feasibility of an intervention where volunteer 'Health Champions' support people with SMI in managing their physical health.
People with severe mental illness (SMI) are more likely to experience physical health conditions than the general population. Little is known about the experience of people with SMI using digital health interventions (DHIs) to support their physical health. We explored how people with SMI use DHIs to support their physical health, the acceptability, factors affecting use, and impact on physical health.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Adults with a serious mental illness (SMI) are at greater risk of physical health morbidity and premature death than the general population, largely as a result of preventable physical health issues. Staff working in mental health services have a role to play in addressing these inequalities, but little is known about how they perceive their role and how this impacts on their practice. Understanding this better would enable services to improve their approach and support better health outcomes for SMI patients.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Mental health service users report that staff empathy is key to developing positive therapeutic relationships but promoting empathy in staff training is challenging. Staff may struggle to maintain their compassion, particularly in challenging settings, and have limited clinical confidence when treating conditions of which they lack subjective understanding. Novel interventions are required to address these needs.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjective: This systematic review aims to synthesise existing evidence on doctors' personal, social and organisational needs when returning to clinical work after an absence.
Design: Systematic review using Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses guidelines.
Data Sources: AMED, BNI, CINAHL, EMBASE, EMCARE, HMIC, Medline, PsycINFO and PubMed were searched up to 4 June 2020.
Aims: Mental disorders constitute one of the main causes of disease and disability worldwide. While nurses are often at the frontline of mental health care, they have limited access to dedicated psychiatric training opportunities. Simulation training may foster the development of the appropriate competencies required when supporting people with mental disorders.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjectives: This study reports preliminary findings on the prevalence of, and factors associated with, mental health and well-being outcomes of healthcare workers during the early months (April-June) of the COVID-19 pandemic in the UK.
Methods: Preliminary cross-sectional data were analysed from a cohort study (n=4378). Clinical and non-clinical staff of three London-based NHS Trusts, including acute and mental health Trusts, took part in an online baseline survey.
Despite recognised benefits of Simulation-Based Education (SBE) in healthcare, specific adaptations required within psychiatry have slowed its adoption. This article aims to discuss conceptual and practical features of SBE in psychiatry that may support or limit its development, so as to encourage clinicians and educators to consider the implementation of SBE in their practice. SBE took off with the aviation industry and has been steadily adopted in clinical education, alongside role play and patient educators, across many medical specialities.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAdv Med Educ Pract
November 2020
In situ simulation is the practice of using simulated scenarios in a clinical environment itself rather than in training facilities to promote learning and improved clinical care. The use of in situ simulation has been increasingly used to train healthcare staff in dealing with emergencies, resuscitation and clinical skills. The aim of this study is to provide an overview of the themes, perspectives and approaches to in situ simulation for educational purposes with healthcare staff.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBMJ Simul Technol Enhanc Learn
August 2020
Background: This report presents the findings of a simulation programme to improve the integrated response of teams working in mental health crisis (MHC) care. The programme consisted of the delivery of five interprofessional training courses that aimed to improve the core skills of teams working in MHC care.
Methods: Questionnaires were conducted pre-training and post-training, measuring participants' human factors using the Human Factors SKills for Healthcare Instrument, as well as self-reported learning experience using free text questions.
Context: Most medical doctors are likely to work with patients experiencing mental health conditions. However, educational opportunities for medical doctors to achieve professional development in the field of psychiatry are often limited. Simulation training in psychiatry may be a useful tool to foster this development.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFClinical measurement of neopterin has been extensively used as a marker of inflammation but the in vivo mechanism generating neopterin is poorly understood. Neopterin is described as the oxidation product of 7,8-dihydroneopterin, a potent antioxidant generated by monocyte/macrophages in response to interferon-γ. While peroxyl and hydroxyl scavenging generates dihydroxanthopterin, hypochlorite efficiently oxidises 7,8-dihydroneopterin into neopterin, but this reaction alone does not explain the high levels of neopterin seen in clinical data.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFWe evaluated disagreement between reported symptoms and a final diagnosis of depression, anxiety, withdrawal, psychosis, or delirium through regression models assessing individual and combined diagnoses. Highest disagreement rates were reported for services classified as others (88.2%), general surgery (78.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjective: Effective teamwork is critical to patient safety across multiple healthcare settings. However, current observational tools assessing teamwork performance tend to be developed for specific settings or tasks and do not capture temporal features of interaction. This study aimed to develop a valid and reliable observational teamwork behaviour framework, which is based on healthcare practice, applicable across a variety of healthcare contexts and can be used to capture temporal team dynamics.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFContext: Knee arthroplasty surgery is significant trauma, leading to an activated immune system causing inflammation and oxidative stress. Many current biomarkers are invasive, costly, and often slow to analyse, limiting their use for rapid inflammatory measurements.
Objectives: We have examined the use of urinary neopterin and total neopterin in knee arthroplasty patients to non-invasively measure oxidative stress and inflammation from immune system activation.
Community mental health teams (CMHTs) in England face mounting service pressures due to an increased focus on out-of-hospital care. Interprofessional working is essential to providing good mental healthcare in community settings. Simulation training is underused in mental health, despite strong support for its improvement of clinical skills, confidence, teamwork, and interprofessional collaboration in other healthcare settings.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAtherosclerotic plaques are complex tissues containing many different cell types. Macrophages contribute to inflammation, formation of the necrotic core, and plaque rupture. We examined whether macrophages in plaque can be activated and compared this to monolayer cells.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjective: Working with the families and networks of patients with mental illness has significant benefits. There are, however, numerous barriers to this way of working, meaning that it is not universally privileged in mental healthcare services. This study evaluated the impact of an interprofessional simulation (IPS) course on working with families and networks on participants' confidence, attitudes, and perceived future clinical practice.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: In the UK, people with severe mental illness die up to 20years earlier than the general population, prompting increased focus on physical health in mental illness. However, training for mental health inpatient staff to meet patients' physical health needs has not received the same attention, with physical health training often being reactive and lacking evidence of effectiveness.
Objectives: To evaluate an interprofessional, in situ, simulation training intervention for managing medical deterioration in mental health settings.
This study aimed to use nuanced statistical methods in a large UK sample to identify and explore the factors associated with different types of frequent user of Emergency Departments (EDs) who are referred to Mental Health Liaison Services (MHLS). A retrospective 5-year longitudinal study was conducted of all attenders (n = 23,718) of four London EDs who were referred to their MHLS. Longitudinal group-based trajectory analysis of monthly MHLS referrals enabled identification of factors which may contribute to membership of the resulting groups.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjectives: To describe a case of neuroleptic malignant syndrome following antipsychotic treatment of catatonia, highlighting the potentially serious complications of this rare adverse drug reaction.
Methods: We present a case report of a patient who developed this syndrome with various sequelae.
Results: The patient developed neuroleptic after being treated with lorazepam and olanzapine for catatonia.
Int J Psychiatry Clin Pract
September 2017
Objective: To identify predictors of misidentification of organic mental disorders and delirium in patients undergoing psychiatric liaison consultation.
Methods: Data were collected at Santa Casa de São Paulo between July of 2009 and March of 2013. We included in our analysis all inpatients for whom the requesting service judged that a psychiatric consultation was required for a possible mental health condition.