In his debut blog, Robbie Fraser reviews findings from a staff survey stating that the role of a social worker in community mental health teams is valued, but hard to define.
[read the full story...]One size doesn’t fit all: new insights into eating disorders and autism
In her debut blog, Shania Lorenz summarises a qualitative research study that looks at the experiences of women with eating disorders and autism, their parents and health professionals.
[read the full story...]New evidence on treatments for symptoms of depression in dementia
Andrew Sommerlad appraises a recent review on the efficacy of interventions for depression in people with dementia, which identified several non-drug treatments that can have a meaningful effect on depressive symptoms in dementia.
[read the full story...]Knitting makes me happy
Dafni Katsampa reviews a recent qualitative study that examines the perceived benefits of knitting and its role in the lives of people who self-identified as passionate knitters.
[read the full story...]Psychosocial interventions for negative symptoms in psychosis
Rachel Upthegrove reviews a new systematic review and meta-analysis of psychological and psychosocial interventions for negative symptoms in psychosis.
This is the third in a new series of Mental Elf blogs produced in partnership with the British Journal of Psychiatry.
[read the full story...]Specialist depression service may help people with persistent depression
Ben Hannigan reports on a recent RCT of the efficacy and cost-effectiveness of a specialist depression service versus usual specialist mental health care to manage persistent depression.
[read the full story...]Occupational therapy for stroke survivors in UK care homes: findings of an RCT study
Jill Manthorpe discusses a ‘gold standard’ RCT study on occupational therapy for stroke survivors in UK care homes and the implications of the findings.
[read the full story...]Helping people with depression return to work
Meg Fluharty reports on a new Cochrane review of interventions to improve return to work in depressed people. The review finds moderate quality evidence for a range of work-directed and clinical interventions that can help people with depression return to work.
[read the full story...]Occupational Therapists gather feedback from people with learning disabilities but do little to reduce potential bias
Getting feedback about interventions from people with learning disabilities involves a number of challenges, including of course communication difficulties The researchers in this study were interested in how occupational therapists (OT’s) gathered feedback from people who used their services. They looked at this by asking 70 OT’s to complete a questionnaire and a subset of [read the full story…]