Joe Judge appraises a recent systematic review and meta-analysis looking at the duration of untreated psychosis as a predictor of long-term outcomes in schizophrenia.
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Stephen Wood summarises a recent cluster RCT of vocational rehabilitation in early psychosis, which finds that early intervention services need to do more to help young people with psychosis return to work.
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This report provides everything that is needed for people working in mental health services to make a business case for investing in early and community-based interventions. This includes, commissioners, practitioners, local authorities, policy-makers, providers, and social care. As part of this document, the authors have provided the evidence for the cost-effectiveness of a range of [read the full story…]
Background There are relatively few randomised controlled trials in interventions to support people with learning disabilities. There are often significant difficulties in design in multi-element real-life interventions, along with a range of ethical issues to consider. The researchers in this Turkish study however were keen to use the methodology to look at responsive teaching for [read the full story…]
In the current economic climate in many countries across the world, the impact of socio-economic inequalities on mental health has become an important topic, not only in terms of supporting people, but in terms of planning a public health response to a rising concern. Poverty and low economic status is known to affect various aspects [read the full story…]
Those lovely people at the Joint Commissioning Panel for Mental Health (JCP-MH) have published four new guides to help those of you involved in commissioning community specialist services, older people’s services, inpatient and crisis home treatment and services for people with learning disabilities. These guides are short (around 20 pages), readable and nicely summarised with ten [read the full story…]
More and more research is telling us about the long-term negative consequences of trauma and adversity in childhood with correlations between childhood trauma and poor mental and physical health outcomes across the lifespan. So, it makes sense that there should be a good evidence base for treating the effects of childhood trauma. In February this [read the full story…]
Schizophrenia is a debilitating illness that affects an estimated 25 million people worldwide. People with the condition can experience a huge amount of disability (both social, physical and psychological), but we know that early intervention can help reduce the duration of the illness and prevent further episodes of relapse. People with schizophrenia usually experience a [read the full story…]
Early intervention services for psychosis are aimed at people aged 14-35 who are experiencing a first episode of psychosis or at risk of doing so. The teams that work in this area usually include psychiatrists, psychologists, community psychiatric nurses, social workers and support workers. The NICE schizophrenia guideline recommends that early intervention services are offered [read the full story…]
Setting clear goals that stretch but are achievable and measurable is a key skill in bringing about change. The researchers in this Australian study were interested in how parents and people with learning disabilities experienced using the Family Goal Setting Tool, which aims to support people and their families to identify targets for change. The [read the full story…]
