Music groups on acute mental health inpatient wards

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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.

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Life after leaving hospital: when does a duty of care end?

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Sally McManus writes her debut elf blog on a recent national cohort study of multiple adverse outcomes following first discharge from psychiatric care, which finds that mental health inpatients are more likely to experience all types of adversity after leaving hospital.

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REsTRAIN YOURSELF: reducing restrictive practices on mental health wards #BCTcompare

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Krysia Canvin helps us prepare for the #BCTcompare event on Wed 5th June by blogging about a recent study, which looks at the outcome of a restraint reduction programme (‘REsTRAIN YOURSELF’) to minimise the use of physical restraint in acute mental health services.

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How should we assess suicide risk in mental health services, or should we stop doing it?

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Vishal Bhavsar reports on the development and validation of a new clinical prediction rule (the OxMIS tool), which has been developed by the Forensic Psychiatry and Psychology group at the University of Oxford to help predict the risk of suicide in people with severe mental illness.

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Suicide risk assessment among psychiatric inpatients: pessimism around predictive power

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Alex Langford appraises a systematic review that looks at high-risk categories for suicide risk assessment among psychiatric inpatients.

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Involuntary hospitalisation: variations in mental health detentions across Western Europe, Australia and New Zealand

The rate of mental health detentions in England has risen by nearly 50% in the last decade. This is faster than almost anywhere else in Europe

John Baker examines an international comparative mental health study published today, which looks at variations in patterns of involuntary hospitalisation and in legal frameworks.

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Community supported discharge service for teenagers leaving psychiatric hospital

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Robyn Murphy summarises an RCT that compares the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of an intensive community supported discharge service versus treatment as usual for adolescents with psychiatric emergencies.

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Compulsory Community Treatment does not reduce readmissions or length of stay in hospital

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John Baker explores a systematic review of compulsory community treatment to reduce readmission to hospital and increase engagement with community care in people with mental illness.

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Mental Health Act review: the demise of the nearest relative?

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Kathryn Berzins considers the implications of a recent rapid systematic review of the views and experiences of the Nearest Relative provision of the Mental Health Act (1983).

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Decision-making capacity of inpatients with schizophrenia: don’t assume people are incapable

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Mental Health Masters Students from UCL summarise a recent cross-sectional study on the association of decision-making capacity for treatment and research in inpatients with schizophrenia and related psychoses.

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