Epidemiological tools help commissioners allocate resources more effectively, suggests research

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Caroline De Brun highlights the Psymaptic epidemiological prediction tool, which helps commissioners make evidence-based decisions about mental health service provision, specifically early intervention in psychosis.

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Interactive Behavioural Therapy: A review of the evidence and suggestions for future research

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Mental health problems have been found to be more common in people with learning disabilities than in the general population.

Fawn Harrad looks at a review of literature exploring the use of interactive behavioural therapy.

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Inpatient mindfulness group improves self-reported intrapersonal skills

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Mindfulness has been offered as a way to help reduce stress in family and carers but few studies have as yet looked directly at the effects of offering mindfulness-based interventions to people with learning disabilities themselves.

In her debut blog, Leen Vereenhooghe looks at an attempt to evaluate a mindfulness group in an inpatient assessment and treatment unit through the experiences of those who took part.

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Anxiety in young people with learning disabilities: prevalence and assessment

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Anxiety disorders are estimated to affect over 3% of children and young adults in the UK, but it is less clear how common such disorders might be amongst children and adolescents with learning disabilities.

Here, in his debut blog, Sam Jee looks at a systematic review which looks at what we know about the prevalence and measurement of anxiety in children and adolescents with learning disabilities.

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Social workers' caregiver identity and distress

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Jo Moriarty examines a study on social worker caregiver identity and distress and discovers some useful findings about the nature of stress in social work, with helpful practice messages for team managers.

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Exercise for depression in adults with rheumatic diseases

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In her first blog for the Musculoskeletal Elf, Pamela Andrews a sports therapist and a PhD candidate at Glasgow Caledonian University discusses a recent systematic reiew of meta-analyses evaluating the effectiveness of exercise for depression in adults with arthritis, fibromyalgia and other rheumatic diseases.

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Return to work practices for musculoskeletal and mental health conditions

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Heather Gray summarises a review of best practice in work absence management and return to work programmes for people with musculoskeletal and mental health conditions.

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'Strategies for Relatives': improving mental health for family carers of people with dementia

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In her latest blog, Clarissa Giebel examines research into the effectiveness of the ‘Strategies for Relatives’ psychological and educational training programme for family carers of people with dementia and explores what the findings might mean for wider programme implementation.

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Equipping family carers with better information about in-patient assessment and treatment for people with learning disabilities

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We know that access to accurate information is crucial if people are to make good decisions about the support they get from services. If someone with a learning disability is admitted to a hospital unit for assessment or treatment for a mental health issue or in response to behaviour that is challenging support services, this can be a particularly difficult and confusing time for all concerned.

In her debut blog, Alison Giraud-Saunders, along with co-author Angela Cole, describes a booklet that she co-authored with the involvement of family members which has lots of key information on the law and people’s rights.

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