scholarly journals ELPS helps!

BJPsych Open ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (S1) ◽  
pp. S355-S355
Author(s):  
Rajalakshmi Valaiyapathi ◽  
Ksenia Marjanovic-Deverill ◽  
Kezia Smith
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Gold Standard ◽  
Outcome Measure ◽  
Health Condition ◽  
Good Care ◽  
Liaison Psychiatry ◽  
Face To Face ◽  
Quantitative Results ◽  
Mental Health Unit

AimsThis study aimed to identify whether contact with the Ealing Liaison Psychiatry Service (ELPS) improved patients’ mental health using the Clinical Global Impressions (CGI) scale, and to understand the utility of this tool.BackgroundCGI is a frequently used outcome measure in psychiatry and also forms part of the RCPsych Framework for Outcome Measures in Liaison Psychiatry (FROM-LP) across the NHS's LP Services. However, there is minimal literature discussing the meaning of the quantitative results of the questionnaire. What would be a cut-off point associated with the provision of good care? It is not possible to draw conclusions about the quality of service and care based on the proportion of the patients who report an improvement on CGI in the absence of a gold standard.MethodPatients and their ELPS clinicians filled out a CGI questionnaire, rating the patient's mental health condition after contact with the clinician. The 1-7 rated CGI scale indicated the following: 1-3 signified varying degrees of improvement, 4 signified no change and 5-7 signified varying degrees of feeling worse. This study looked at all 205 patients with completed CGI questionnaires who had more than one face-to-face contact with a clinician in 2018 and 2019.Patient and clinician ratings were compared for concordance and patient notes were reviewed to identify potential reasons for patients with low CGI scores.Randomised sampling of patients who scored 1 ‘Very much improved’, 2 ‘Much improved’ and 3 ‘Minimally improved’ was conducted to identify differences in number of face-to-face contacts between the groups.Result59% of patients reported an improvement, 40% felt that there was no change and 1% (3 patients) indicated feeling worse. Of the latter, 2 patients had been admitted to a mental health unit.91% of cases showed concordance between patient and clinician ratings.Randomised sampling identified 9 patients scoring ‘1’, 22 patients scoring ‘2’ and 16 patients scoring ‘3’. The vast majority of patients had only two contacts with ELPS (77%).ConclusionELPS intervention improves patients’ self-reported wellbeing in 59% of patients according to CGI.There was no correlation between number of face-to-face contacts and the degree to which patients felt better. However, in the absence of a nationally-recognised gold standard, it is not possible to draw conclusions about whether care provided by ELPS is good compared to other services. Data from other centres are required to elucidate what constitutes a gold standard to aspire towards.

Enhancing Mental Health

2021 ◽  
pp. 264-269
Author(s):  
Parvind Gambhir
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Health Care ◽  
Mental Disorders ◽  
Health Priorities ◽  
Face To Face ◽  
Online Platforms ◽  
Diabetes Technology ◽  
The World ◽  
Challenging Situation

Mental health is one of the health priorities in the 21st century along with cardiovascular, cancer, and diabetes. Technology nowadays is most sought for getting any information. There are numerous online platforms that have been developed to assist in assessment, provide feedback, suggest management, and thereafter monitor mental disorders in target patients with a view to enhancing the quality of mental health care provided by traditional face-to-face services. In the current situation where the world is facing a challenging situation in COVID-19, technology has become highly sought after for managing the health of patients.

scholarly journals Improving prescription quality in an in-patient mental health unit: three cycles of clinical audit

2007 ◽  
Vol 31 (8) ◽  
pp. 293-294 ◽  
Author(s):  
Priti Ved ◽  
Tim Coupe
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Medical Staff ◽  
Clinical Audit ◽  
Clinical Implications ◽  
Health Unit ◽  
Patient Age ◽  
Patient Âgé ◽  
Mental Health Unit

Aims and MethodWe undertook three cycles of clinical audit of prescription charts to improve the quality of the prescriptions written in an in-patient unit. Pharmacy and medical staff reviewed a total of 1466 prescriptions on 242 prescription charts against local guidelines and provided feedback to medical staff. The pharmacist also regularly reviewed prescription charts on the wards between audits.ResultsAfter three cycles of audit, 99.5% of prescriptions written were legible. The recording of drug allergies, section 58 status and patient age remained poor.Clinical ImplicationsA combination of clinical audit and continual pharmacist review of prescription charts can improve the quality of prescriptions written by medical staff in an in-patient unit.

scholarly journals The development of an outcome measure for liaison mental health services

2018 ◽  
Vol 42 (3) ◽  
pp. 109-114
Author(s):  
Else Guthrie ◽  
Mathew Harrison ◽  
Richard Brown ◽  
Rajdeep Sandhu ◽  
Peter Trigwell ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Interrater Reliability ◽  
Substance Misuse ◽  
Outcome Measure ◽  
Sensitivity To Change ◽  
Mental Health Setting ◽  
Point Scale ◽  
Behavioural Disturbance ◽  
Liaison Psychiatry ◽  
The Mind

Aims and methodTo develop and pilot a clinician-rated outcome scale to evaluate symptomatic outcomes in liaison psychiatry services. Three hundred and sixty patient contacts with 207 separate individuals were rated using six subscales (mood, psychosis, cognition, substance misuse, mind–body problems and behavioural disturbance) plus two additional items (side-effects of medication and capacity to consent for medical treatment). Each item was rated on a five-point scale from 0 to 5 (nil, mild, moderate, severe and very severe).ResultsThe liaison outcome measure was acceptable and easy to use. All subscales showed acceptable interrater reliability, with the exception of the mind–body subscale. Overall, the measure appears to show stability and sensitivity to change.Clinical implicationsThe measure provides a useful and robust way to determine symptomatic change in a liaison mental health setting, although the mind–body subscale requires modification.Declaration of interestNone.

scholarly journals Comparative Evaluation of Inoculation of Urine Samples with the Copan WASP and BD Kiestra InoqulA Instruments

2015 ◽  
Vol 54 (2) ◽  
pp. 328-332 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jesper Iversen ◽  
Gitta Stendal ◽  
Cecilie M. Gerdes ◽  
Christian H. Meyer ◽  
Christian Østergaard Andersen ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Gold Standard ◽  
Comparative Evaluation ◽  
Urine Samples ◽  
Clinical Samples ◽  
Automation System ◽  
Gold Standard Method ◽  
Quantitative Results ◽  
Automated Instruments ◽  
Urine Specimens

This study evaluated the quantitative results from and quality of the inoculation patterns of urine specimens produced by two automated instruments, the Copan WASP and the BD InoqulA. Five hundred twenty-six urine samples submitted in 10-ml canisters containing boric acid were processed within 30 min on an InoqulA instrument plating 10 μl of specimen, and on two WASP instruments, one plating 1 μl of specimen (WASP-1), and the second plating 10 μl of WASP (WASP-10). All samples were incubated, analyzed, and digitally imaged using the BD Kiestra total lab automation system. The results were evaluated using a quantitative protocol and assessed for the presence or absence of ≥5 distinct colonies. Separate studies were conducted using quality control (QC) organisms to determine the relative accuracy of WASP-1, WASP-10, and InoqulA instruments compared to the results obtained with a calibrated pipette. The results with QC organisms were calculated as the ratios of the counts of the automated instruments divided by the counts for the calibrated pipette (the gold standard method). The ratios for the InoqulA instrument were closest to 1.0, with the smallest standard deviations indicating that compared to a calibrated pipette, the InoqulA results were more accurate than those with the WASP instrument. For clinical samples, the WASP instruments produced higher colony counts and more commensals than the InoqulA instrument, with differences most notable for WASP-1. The InoqulA instrument was significantly better at dispersing organisms with counts of ≥105bacteria/ml of urine than were the WASP-1 and WASP-10 instruments (P< 0.05). Our results suggest that the InoqulA quantitative results are more accurate than the WASP results, and, moreover, the number of isolated colonies produced by the InoqulA instrument was significantly greater than that produced by the WASP instrument.

scholarly journals Differences of mentally ill patients’ satisfaction degree during their involuntary or voluntary stay in a psychiatric clinic

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aspasia Goula ◽  
Evaggelos Margetis ◽  
Maria-Aggeliki Stamouli ◽  
Dimitra Latsou ◽  
Vasiliki Gkioka
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Mentally Ill ◽  
Statistical Significance ◽  
Health Condition ◽  
Psychiatric Clinic ◽  
First Line ◽  
Patient’S Rights ◽  
Full Knowledge ◽  
Private Matter

Background: Mental health illness is not considered as a private matter, as it affects not only the mental patient's life and those who are considered his/her immediate family, but also the society as a whole. The involuntary examination and/or hospitalization in the field of mental health as the basic first-line therapeutic solution in Greece, calls for an immediate intervention, which is supposed to counterbalance the need for therapy and patient's rights of personal freedom and safety.Design and methods: A research using questionnaire was realized, consisting of 100 hospitalized patients in psychiatric clinics (50 voluntarily and 50 involuntarily hospitalized) at the Psychiatric Hospital of Attica. The sampling scheme was the stratified sampling and the level of statistical significance was set to α=0.05.Results: The results have shown that involuntarily and voluntarily hospitalized mental patients did not differ significantly with almost the entirety of the questionnaire; however, the involuntary patients were significantly more satisfied with the conditions of hospitalization as well as assessing the overall quality of the services provided during their hospitalization.Conclusions: For mentally ill patients, greater importance and stronger correlation with gratification, does not constitute the admission procedure to the psychiatric clinic but the development of effective communication and therapeutic relationship with the staff, full knowledge and update about patient’s health condition, medication, participation in therapeutic planning and hospitalization in a regime of autonomy and respect for their rights.

scholarly journals Recovering Quality of Life (ReQoL): a new generic self-reported outcome measure for use with people experiencing mental health difficulties

2018 ◽  
Vol 212 (1) ◽  
pp. 42-49 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anju Devianee Keetharuth ◽  
John Brazier ◽  
Janice Connell ◽  
Jakob Bue Bjorner ◽  
Jill Carlton ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Quality Of Life ◽  
Mental Health ◽  
Outcome Measures ◽  
Service User ◽  
Quantitative Methods ◽  
Outcome Measure ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Self Report ◽  
Better Than

BackgroundOutcome measures for mental health services need to adopt a service-user recovery focus.AimsTo develop and validate a 10- and 20-item self-report recovery-focused quality of life outcome measure named Recovering Quality of Life (ReQoL).MethodQualitative methods for item development and initial testing, and quantitative methods for item reduction and scale construction were used. Data from >6500 service users were factor analysed and item response theory models employed to inform item selection. The measures were tested for reliability, validity and responsiveness.ResultsReQoL-10 and ReQoL-20 contain positively and negatively worded items covering seven themes: activity, hope, belonging and relationships, self-perception, well-being, autonomy, and physical health. Both versions achieved acceptable internal consistency, test–retest reliability (>0.85), known-group differences, convergence with related measures, and were responsive over time (standardised response mean (SRM) > 0.4). They performed marginally better than the Short Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Well-being Scale and markedly better than the EQ-5D.ConclusionsBoth versions are appropriate for measuring service-user recovery-focused quality of life outcomes.Declaration of interestM.B. and J.Co. were members of the research group that developed the Clinical Outcomes in Routine Evaluation (CORE) outcome measures.

scholarly journals Assessment of physical and mental well-being among students of Bangladesh during COVID-19 Pandemic

2021 ◽  
pp. 7-12
Author(s):  
Aurpita Shaha ◽  
Mintu Sarker ◽  
Md. Nazmul Islam ◽  
Trishna Khatun ◽  
Md. Abdul Bashir ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Education Institution ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Health Condition ◽  
Physical Activities ◽  
Female Students ◽  
Physical And Mental Health ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Face To Face ◽  
Concentration Problem

The outburst of COVID-19 influenced the lives of all segment of society as people were requested to self-quarantine in their homes to stop the outspread of the virus. The lockdown had consequential impacts on mental health, triggering psychological problems encompassing frustration, stress, and depression. The outbreak of Covid-19 has significantly affected the lives of all parts of the society. One of the most instant changes launched was the closure of educational institutions to decelerate the spreading of the virus. Students no longer had availability of institution-based physical activities such as physical education, recess, and walking to/from universities/colleges/school. Inadequate physical activities and enormous sedentary behavior amid students exhibits a noteworthy problem because health behavior patterns can result in heightened risk for a number of hazardous health conditions (e.g., overweight/obesity, type II diabetes, and metabolic syndrome) in later. The objective of this study was to explore the pervasiveness of physical and mental health condition among Bangladeshi students during the COVID-19 pandemic. It also focuses on recognizing the stimulus of various states of physical and mental conditions throughout COVID-19 pandemic. The cross sectional data was gathered by means of interviews or self-responses among the university students from various districts of Bangladesh on July to August 2020. The study was performed with structured questionnaire. To reduce threats of Covid-19 infection, in this investigation, participants were interviewed over telephone instead of face to face interaction. In order to explore the effects of this pandemic on the lives of students, we performed a survey in which a total of 576 participants were participated. In this survey, among them 377 (66%) are male and 197 (34%) female. It was discovered that 92% of participants appreciate participating in physical activities & rest of them (8%) don’t like to participate in physical activities. In addition, our study also revealed 46% of the students having trouble in sleep and 45% students feels concentration problem. The findings of this study show that greater numbers of the students are not in sound physical or mental conditions. They are bored, helpless, anxious and depressed than previous.  This study shows that the mental conditions of female students are more affected by Covid-19 compared to male students. 82% of female students are stressed about their study, future life and so on. 46% female students are feeling helpless, 61% become upset and 60% feel bored during lockdown and close of education institution. COVID-19 is striking threat both on physical and mental health since its outbreak. During this challenging time, it is necessary to continue taking care of physical and mental health. 

scholarly journals Survey of remote consultations in psychiatry during the SARS-CoV-2 outbreak

BJPsych Open ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (S1) ◽  
pp. S264-S265
Author(s):  
Nusra Khodabux ◽  
Satheesh Gangadharan ◽  
Samuel Tromans ◽  
Avinash Hiremath
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Qualitative Data ◽  
Healthcare Professionals ◽  
Mental Healthcare ◽  
Technical Quality ◽  
Face To Face ◽  
The Mean ◽  
Detrimental Impact ◽  
Remote Consultations

AimsTo compare the usage of remote consultations before and after the first wave of the SARS-CoV-2 outbreak and explore mental health workers’ views on the usage of telemedicine.MethodAn online questionnaire survey was developed, and disseminated to mental healthcare professionals via e-mail and social media. Quantitative data were analysed using descriptive statistics and qualitative data were analysed using Braun and Clarke's six step procedure for thematic analysis.1ResultThere were 40 responses from mental healthcare professionals of varying grades from different sub-specialties, predominantly from the UK. Compared to before the SARS-CoV-2 outbreak, there was an increase in usage of telephone (9(22.5% to (29)72.5%) and video consultations (4(10%) to 17(42.5%)). Respondents reported an increase in virtual MDTs (35(87.5%) during the pandemic, 9(22.5%) pre-pandemic).Based on a 5-point Likert scale, the mean technical quality of telephone consultations was 3.56/5 (Range 2-5), with 75% rating telephone consultations as not being as good as face-to-face consultations. The mean technical quality of video consultations was 3.58/5 (Range 2-5), with 63% rating video consultations as not being as good as face-to-face consultations. 25 (62.5%) respondents felt comfortable using telephone consultations during the pandemic, 20(50%) felt comfortable using video consultations. Recurring themes identified from the qualitative data regarding reasons for the technical quality ratings were: connection issues, poor infrastructure and security concerns.Nine (23%) respondents felt that using video conferencing consultations had a detrimental impact on the mental health of patients while 14(35%) felt that telephone consultations had a detrimental impact on patients’ mental health. Recurring themes for health practitioners’ perceived effect of the use of telemedicine on patients’ mental heath were the loss of personal touch and reduced patient engagement.ConclusionThere was a substantial increase in usage of remote consultations during the first wave of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic among mental healthcare professionals. The results reported in the present study suggest there are numerous barriers to the use of telemedicine in psychiatry, which require future exploration, ideally through interview or ethnographic studies.

scholarly journals An Adjunctive Internet-Based Intervention to Enhance Treatment for Depression in Adults: Randomized Controlled Trial

10.2196/26814 ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 8 (12) ◽  
pp. e26814
Author(s):  
J Carola Pérez ◽  
Olga Fernández ◽  
Cristián Cáceres ◽  
Álvaro E Carrasco ◽  
Markus Moessner ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Quality Of Life ◽  
Mental Health ◽  
Mental Health Center ◽  
Controlled Trial ◽  
Intervention Group ◽  
Control Group ◽  
Online Platform ◽  
Face To Face ◽  
Eq Vas

Background Internet-based interventions promise to enhance the accessibility of mental health care for a greater number of people and in more remote places. Their effectiveness has been shown for the prevention and treatment of various mental disorders. However, their potential when delivered as add-on to conventional treatment (ie, blended care) is less clear. Objective The aim of this study is to study the effectiveness of an internet intervention (ASCENSO) implemented in addition to face-to-face treatment as usual (TAU) for depression. Methods A 2-arm, parallel-group, randomized controlled trial was conducted in an outpatient private mental health care center in Chile. In all, 167 adults, diagnosed with major depressive disorder, without severe comorbidities, and with internet access, were included. Eighty-four participants were assigned to the intervention group and received medical and psychological TAU from the mental health center plus access to the ASCENSO online platform. The control group (n=83) received only TAU. The ASCENSO platform includes psycho-educational information, depressive symptom monitoring and feedback, and managing emergencies based on the principles of cognitive behavioral therapy. Emergency management was mental health provider–assisted. TAU includes access to primary care physicians and psychiatrists, to a brief individual psychotherapy, and to medication when needed. The baseline questionnaires were administered in person, and 6- and 9-months assessments were conducted online. Depression symptoms and quality of life were measured by self-administered questionnaires, and treatment adherence was determined via the Mental Health Center’s internal records. The usage of ASCENSO was assessed by server logs. Reduction on depressive symptomatology was considered as the primary outcome of the intervention and quality of life as a secondary outcome. Results Of the 84 participants in the intervention group, 5 participants (6%) never accessed the online platform. Of the remaining 79 participants who accessed ASCENSO, 1 (1%, 1/79) did not answer any of the symptom questionnaire, and most participants (72/79, 91%) answered the monitoring questionnaires irregularly. The ASCENSO intervention implemented in addition to face-to-face care did not improve the outcome of the usual care delivered at the mental health center, either in terms of reduction of depressive symptoms (F2,6087= 0.48; P=.62) or in the improvement of quality of life (EQ-5D-3L: F2,7678=0.24; P=.79 and EQ-VAS: F2,6670= 0.13; P=.88). In contrast, for the primary (F2,850=78.25; P<.001) and secondary outcomes (EQ-5D-3L: F2,1067=37.87; EQ-VAS: F2,4390= 51.69; P<.001) in both groups, there was an improvement from baseline to 6 months (P<.001), but there was no change at 9 months. In addition, no effects on adherence to or use of TAU were found. Finally, the dropout rate for the face-to-face treatment component was 54% (45/84) for the intervention group versus 39% (32/83) for the control group (P=.07). Conclusions The fact that the adjunctive access to ASCENSO did not improve outcome could be due to both the rather high effectiveness of TAU and to patients’ limited use of the online platform. Trial Registration ClinicalTrials.gov NCT03093467; https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT03093467

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document