Laoise Renwick considers the findings of a recent systematic review on the safety of service users with severe mental illness receiving inpatient care on medical and surgical wards.
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John Baker summarises an updated Cochrane review on ‘as required’ PRN medication regimens for seriously mentally ill people in hospital, which finds no randomised controlled trials that support this widely used intervention.
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John Baker is struck by the lack of evidence for crisis intervention for people with severe mental illness, highlighted by a recently updated Cochrane systematic review.
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De-institutionalisation, the advent of community care and development of psychotropic medicines are implicated in the reduction in hospital bed numbers and mean length of stay. There remains a huge variance in length of stay and outcomes across the UK and beyond (NHS Confederation, 2011). Figures on length of stay and service configuration are difficult to [read the full story…]
In the Woodland we all enjoy a good sing-a-long, but can this actually be therapeutic? Music therapy has a growing database with regards to its use in helping to treat a variety of mental health disorders. It is thought of as a systematic intervention that uses music experiences (active or receptive) and the relationships that [read the full story…]
‘Crisis intervention’ and ‘home-care packages’ are provided in the community to help people who are going through an acute phase of severe mental illness. The Cochrane Schizophrenia Group have updated their review on this topic by conducting their usual robust and systematic search for randomised controlled trials of crisis intervention models versus standard care for [read the full story…]
Despite what you read in the tabloid press, the vast majority of people with mental health problems are not violent. However, when violence does occur in hospitals, it’s important that healthcare professionals know how to manage the situation. This new systematic review has been conducted by a team of Italian researchers who searched a range [read the full story…]
