Maria Giorgalli summarises a recent review on the use of digital technology to improve mental health services, based on the healthcare systems of Australia and the USA.
[read the full story...]Developing engaging online interventions for people with psychosis
Simon Bradstreet explores a recent Australia study, which looks at individual- and intervention-level engagement with online interventions for people with psychosis, and discovers some of the things that can predict engagement with online psychosocial support.
[read the full story...]Music groups on acute mental health inpatient wards
Una Foye highlights a small qualitative study that explores the benefits of establishing music groups on acute mental health inpatient wards. She reflects on the boredom felt by many inpatients and the importance of social connection and a positive ward atmosphere that may indirectly improve recovery and mental well-being.
[read the full story...]Can PTSD in refugees affect their children’s well-being via harsher parenting styles?
David Turgoose writes his debut elf blog on a longitudinal cohort study, which looks at the effect of post-traumatic stress disorder on refugees’ parenting and their children’s mental health.
[read the full story...]Involuntary hospitalisation: variations in mental health detentions across Western Europe, Australia and New Zealand
John Baker examines an international comparative mental health study published today, which looks at variations in patterns of involuntary hospitalisation and in legal frameworks.
[read the full story...]Involving consumers and survivors in mental health policy making
Andrew Shepherd explores a paper that makes him ask: Does the language and implementation of evidence based practice essentially risk excluding different voices from mental heath policy making?
[read the full story...]Hope for recovery: REFOCUS-PULSAR recovery training in specialist mental health care
Simon Bradstreet welcomes the positive findings of the REFOCUS-PULSAR trial, which evaluated recovery-oriented practice training in specialist mental health care.
[read the full story...]Can gamified cCBT prevent depression in secondary school students?
Lisa Burscheidt summarises a school-based RCT of an online gamified cCBT intervention (SPARX-R) for preventing depression in final year secondary school students in Australia.
[read the full story...]Independent living: what matters most to very old people?
Jill Manthorpe reports on an Australian qualitative study on what independent living means to very old people.
[read the full story...]New Australian guidelines for the treatment of ASD and PTSD in children
Do not use psychological debriefing when a child has been exposed to a traumatic event such as assault or a major car crash. And if you treat a child who has developed Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) due to trauma, do not use pharmacotherapy either (that is, not as a first line treatment). Rather, apply the [read the full story…]