Psychological Self-help Research Articles

KIERUNKI ROZWOJU APLIKACJI MOBILNYCH W DIAGNOSTYCE I TERAPII SZUMÓW USZNYCH: PRZEGLĄD LITERATURY NAUKOWEJ

IntroductionTinnitus is a condition that requires multidisciplinary care and monitoring. Widespread use of mobile devices and ready access to the internet offers a possible solution since smartphones can run apps programmed for a particular health problem. The aim of the article is to assess the scale and direction of how mobile apps are being created and used to diagnose and treat tinnitus.Material and methodsPublications in Google Scholar, PubMed, and ResearchGate were searched for the years 2010–2023. The results of the review were organized by themes.ResultsHits were organized into the following themes: (1) existing mobile apps for tinnitus, (2) apps supporting the diagnosis of tinnitus, (3) apps supporting tinnitus therapy, (4) a look to the future – sensors built-in or connected to mobile devices, wearables, artificial intelligence (AI), and big data systems.ConclusionsSmartphone-based apps with ecological momentary assessment methods and the possibilities of using wearable diagnostic devices might be useful in better understanding the variability of tinnitus and perhaps its causes. Mobile crowdsensing and central databases with big data and artificial intelligence support appear to be a valuable resource for new scientific research. There are now mobile apps providing a variety of therapies – sound therapy, self-help psychology, and educational training. Equally important for tinnitus therapy are smart devices managed by mobile apps – hearing aids, cochlear implants, and other hearables. In the future, development of mobile technologies and artificial intelligence will help create smart therapy platforms for tinnitus.

Роль професійного вигорання в системі управління конфліктами персоналу сучасних підприємств

The article is devoted to considering the concepts of “emotional burnout syndrome” and “professional burnout” and determining their commonalities and differences in essence. It characterizations individuals’ reactions to systematic stress, which necessarily occurs during intense work, unstable working conditions, etc. These reactions include exhaustion, dehumanization (depersonalization, feelings of cynicism), and reduced work capacity. The following types of reactions of individuals to stress factors are additionally characterized: emotional imbalance, pessimistic attitude towards life, distancing, and disorganization. The common logic of behavioral reactions to stress and professional and emotional burnout symptoms is determined. The influence of emotional and professional burnout on personality conflict is determined. It is noted that behavioral reactions that are formed under the influence of a state of professional or emotional burnout can form factors of conflict of various types. Understanding the 12 stages (phases) of burnout is crucial for being informed and prepared. These stages, such as ‘Forced bringing to the point of no return’, ‘Overtime work ‘, ‘Closing’ of conflicts and needs’, ‘Suppression’ of conflicts and needs’, ‘Rethinking values ‘, ‘Activation of denial of problems’, ‘Retreat’, ‘Observation of changes in behavior ‘, ‘Loss of personality ‘, ‘Inner emptiness ‘, ‘Depression ‘, and ‘Complete exhaustion ‘, provide a roadmap for recognizing and managing burnout. The need to combine the efforts of the organization’s management and personnel in managing emotional and professional burnout is emphasized. The proposed strategy of personnel development in the field of management of emotional and professional burnout. Proposed methods of psychological self-help for personnel are unchanged regardless of their functional, professional, or role affiliation. Among such methods are effective time management in professional and personal spheres; organization and redistribution of professional workload; quality rest and sleep; proactive, empathetic, and assertive communication; breathing practices; practicing self-training techniques to control the emotional and volitional sphere; development of critical, creative, and positive thinking; self-development and time for hobbies; attention to one’s health. Keywords: emotional burnout, professional burnout, conflicts, stress, personnel, methods of psychological self-help.

PSYCHOSOCIAL SUPPORT FOR THE EDUCATIONAL PROCESS PARTICIPANTS AS AN INDICATOR OF THE QUALITY OF EDUCATION UNDER MARTIAL LAW

The article emphasizes that russia’s armed aggression against Ukraine has significantly affected the security situation and the deterioration of the psychological state of the educational process participants, which is a dangerous phenomenon in the context of ensuring the quality of education. The necessity of creating a safe educational environment to reduce the impact of risk factors on the mental health of students, their parents and educators is put stress on. The challenges faced by the psychological service in the education system during the war are identified, in particular the growing number of people who are in need of psychological help and support, an insufficient number of trained practical psychologists and educators for providing psychological support and first psychological aid to the educational process participants, an imperfect system of support for educators and practical psychologists while working in stressful conditions, parents’ lack of awareness of mental health issues and mechanisms for providing psychological support to their children. The article highlights the peculiarities of providing psychosocial support to children and adults affected by the war in crisis situations as well as the mechanisms of psychological self-help as a factor of stress resistance and internal potential to withstand psychological trauma during the war. The ways of implementing the educational policy to ensure constant supervision and timely provision of psychosocial support for the educational process participants under martial law are revealed, which is a guarantee and a necessary prerequisite of quality education in accordance with the goals and objectives of the education system. The results of an empirical study into the war’s impact on the life of students and their mental health have shown that their psychological state underwent significant changes during martial law, which led to the weakening of academic motivation and a deterioration in learning outcomes. It is concluded that psychosocial support for the educational process participants is a prerequisite for ensuring the quality of education in the conditions of war and in the post-war period.

The Relationship Between Interpersonal Sensitivity and Emotion Regulation in Youths

Abstract: Background: In clinical psychology, interpersonal sensitivity is defined as a vulnerability to perceived signs of rejection in interpersonal situations; it plays an important role in the development of psychopathology, especially mood disorders. We investigated the relationship between interpersonal sensitivity, emotion-regulation strategies, and emotional reactivity in a group of youths without mental health issues. Method: Participants ( N = 231, 46 men, 185 women, 18–25 years old) were recruited from online groups focusing on education, social activism, and psychological self-help. Measures: Interpersonal Sensitivity Measure, Perth Emotional Reactivity Scale, and Emotion Regulation Questionnaire. Results: Negative emotional reactivity predicted all dimensions of interpersonal sensitivity. Positive emotional reactivity negatively predicted fear of rejection and dependence on the opinion of others. Only expressive suppression predicted the fear of rejection. Activation and intensity of negative emotions moderated the link between expressive suppression and fear of rejection. The Interpersonal Sensitivity subscales predicted negative emotional reactivity and expressive suppression. Discussion: The present study corroborates and broadens the results of previous studies that utilized rejection sensitivity – a narrower construct than interpersonal sensitivity. Expressive suppression and emotional reactivity emerge as differential predictors of individual dimensions of interpersonal sensitivity.

Using modern technologies for prevention of suicidal behavior among adolescents

ABSTRACT The study aimed to examine the effectiveness of an intervention using a smartphone application for psychological self-help among adolescents at risk of suicidal behavior. Over 12 weeks, a proprietary program was implemented for children aged 13–15. The questionnaire results of the experimental and control groups were compared using the independent samples t-test. The research results underscore the practical significance of employing self-help psychological apps as an additional tool in working with youth at risk of suicidal behavior. Integrating such technologies into adolescent interventions can contribute to enhancing the effectiveness of psychological support and preventing negative mental health consequences.

Psychological Aid to Victims of War and the Covid Pandemic - 19 in Ukraine

The article reflects theoretical, methodological and methodical bases of psychological aid to victims of unexpected crisis-military situations on the background of coronovirus pandemics spreading. The essence of psychological self-help as a factor of stress-resistance and internal psychological potential of resisting psychological traumas in the conditions of war and viral pandemics with the propositions of effective methodological means of its conducting is revealed. In providing psychological aid, the cognitive-behavioral approach was deemed effective as the basic one, and it was suggested that integrative psychotherapeutic and comprehensive psychological approaches to crisis counseling in conditions of military conflict be applied, depending on the specifics of survivors' experience of acute emotional reactions and the complexity of the course of posttraumatic stress disorders of resistance to the action of a psychotraumatic factor. Neuropsychological correction deserves special attention in providing psychological aid in conditions of military conflict and pandemics, which allows a combination of an integrated body-oriented psychological approach with neuro-psycho-correctional techniques and psychotherapeutic methods for effective restoration of the tone of the nervous system and stabilization of the psycho-emotional state. The main provisions of practical psychology that in conditions of war and pandemic COVID-19 the adaptive potential of psychological health of each person and psychological self-help is love, faith and hope. Psychological recommendations of educational character for the formation of basic skills to ensure psychological health in conditions of war and pandemic COVID-19 have been developed.

FOCUS ON OPTIMISM AND HAPPINESS: PSYCHOLOGICAL FOUNDATIONS FOR DEVELOPING THE SOCIAL WORK CLIENTS’ STRENGTS

Understanding the value and autonomy of the client in the intervention process are postulates on which the modern social work practice is based and which are complementary integrated in a relatively new strengths-based approach (SBA).This paper aims to characterize the theoretical basis of SBA. It is based on a retrospective review of the literature, presenting those psychological concepts on which social work interventions are based, aimed at developing clients' resources and raising their self-esteem and self-efficacy in dealing with life challenges or in solving life’s tasks.It has been determined that SBA is based primarily on humanistic philosophy and positive psychology and seeks or strives to maximize the client's resource potentia in order to improve their quality of life. It's a philosophy and a way to consider clients as resourceful and resilient in the face of challenges. It was found that the implementation of SBA requires the integration of knowledge psychology, in particular the theory of self-actualization (A. Maslow), the need for self-realization (K. Rogers), the development of faith in one's own ability (R. May) , the desire for self-development (J. Bugental), and directions positive psychology - cognitive-behavioral, rational emotional-behavioral therapy (A. Beck and A. Ellis), theory of "learned optimism"(M. Seligman), theory of self-efficacy (A. Bandura) "flow", psychology (M. Csikszentmihalyi), goal-setting (C. Snyder), growth mentality (С. Dvek), understanding of happiness (D. Gilbert), self-determination (K. Sheldon) and strengths perspective (С. Peterson). At the same time, a strengths-based approach combines self-help psychology through the study of self-consistency and the use of psychocybernetics tools. The strengths-based approach as a direction of modern social work is based on such categories of humanistic and positive psychology as "self-concept", self-actualization, potential, resources, subjective well-being, client perspective, experience, positive thinking in order to maximize the client’s resource potential and empowerment, which reinforces its relevance and demand.

Transfer of Mental Health Services for Medical Students to Cyberspace during the COVID-19 Pandemic: Service Use and Students' Preferences for Psychological Self-Help Techniques.

The high risk of mental health problems among medical students has been compounded by the COVID-19 pandemic, which greatly reduced social contact. The mental health support service of the medical school of one Hungarian university was transferred to the online learning management system and was expanded by self-help materials in three domains: Improving study skills, stress management techniques, and reducing stress related to the COVID-19 pandemic. We wanted to understand the preferences of medical students for psychological self-help techniques by investigating the pattern of access to online self-help materials and the characteristics of the users. Access to the online materials between April 2020 and April 2021 among Hungarian and international medical students was analyzed using the logging data of the system. Of all the students who logged in during the examination period (n = 458), 36.6–40.4% viewed materials to improve study skills and 23–29% viewed stress management materials, of which short-duration audio format techniques were preferred. The access rate of content targeting coping with the mental health effects of COVID-19 was 9.5–24%. Support to improve study skills is significantly more preferred than interventions targeting distress-reduction. The pattern of access can be used for the development of interventions that are of most interest to medical students.

A deep learning-based prediction model of college students' psychological problem categories for post-epidemic era-Taking college students in Jiangsu Province, China as an example.

For a long time, it takes a lot of time and energy for psychological workers to classify the psychological problems of college students. In order to quickly and efficiently understand the common psychological problems of college students in the region for real-time analysis in the post-epidemic era, 2,000 college students’ psychological problems were selected as research data in the community question section of the “Su Xin” application, a psychological self-help and mutual aid platform for college students in Jiangsu Province. First, word segmentation, removal of stop words, establishment of word vectors, etc. were used for the preprocessing of research data. Secondly, it was divided into 9 common psychological problems by LDA clustering analysis, which also combined with previous researches. Thirdly, the text information was processed into word vectors and transferred to the Attention-Based Bidirectional Long Short-Term Memory Networks (AB-LSTM). The experimental results showed that the proposed model has a higher test accuracy of 78% compared with other models.

The Relationship of Character Accentuations and Emotional Disorders in the Context of the COVID-19 Pandemic

The article presents data on the study of the relationship between character accentuations and emotional disorders in the adult population in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. The methods used to study this relationship are listed. The analysis of the results of the study allowed us to determine the types of character accentuations that are prerequisites for the occurrence of emotional disorders. The study revealed a type of character accentuation that disposes to the absence of anxiety and allows you to remain satisfied with your living conditions against the background of the events of the COVID-19 pandemic. Recommendations of psychological self-help in conditions of self-isolation are given.

Структурно-рівневий аналіз досвіду організації консультативної роботи з підлітками

The article provides a structural-level analysis of the experience of organizing counseling work with adolescents. The features of psychological counseling of adolescents are revealed, taking into account the characteristics of a given age period of a child's life and the main social risks of our time. Systematization of scientifically based and ethical principles of psychological counseling of adolescents, accepted in the professional community, has been carried out. The main themes of the psychological experience of counseling adolescents are described based on the analysis of professional experience, in particular in the education system. The aim is to summarize the international experience of counseling with the help of telemedicine to identify opportunities and limitations in the use of these tools in practice, the availability of psychological assistance to adolescents living, in particular, in rural areas. Methods. The study uses methods of generalization and systematization of existing research (international experience) in the field of telemedicine. Results. Research shows that adolescents with psychological problems are usually negatively affected by the rural environment, while psychological assistance is less available for this social group. It was found that the restriction of such assistance is due primarily to the lack of anonymity, a developed culture of psychological self-help, increasing social stigma of mental illness. The study showed that the most appropriate institutional form of psychological counseling is access to such services through specialized counseling services organized within the educational environment of rural schools. In addition, based on the generalization of experience, it is shown that the most effective means of telemedicine is to offer standardized programs of psychological assistance, as well as improving the security of personal information through the involvement of specialists from regional centers. Conclusions. The use of telemedicine is a unique tool to support young people with psychological problems and mental disorders in rural areas. Psychological counseling through telemedicine in schools is an effective way for rural adolescents to access qualified care. Key words: psychological counseling, adolescents, structural-level analysis.

Shameless modernity

Critical scholars suggest that self-help psychology discourages political activism and encourages entrepreneurship by promoting a “positive” attitude. This article complicates this finding, arguing that for Chinese youth, self-help groups reproduce class distinctions, expressed through leisure and perceived modernity, and that these groups mobilize negative affects, particularly shame. Drawing on extensive fieldwork, the article shows how Chinese youth recount shameful experiences in personal growth groups, reflecting on their perceived failures and committing to redefine themselves. Their shame induces reflexivity, or self-awareness; this reflexivity helps Chinese youth to position themselves in a highly stratified society. Furthermore, reflexive self-definition indexes social class and personal fulfillment. Youth use self-help groups as spaces in which to align their personal identity with local moral registers championing urban consumer lifestyles and modern values. Therefore, self-help practices channel negative affects into reproducing social class and into constructing an imagined national modernity.

Transformation of the Iidea of Self-improvement into the Business Industry

The aspiration for development and personal growth is one of the deepest human needs, and for most of human history it has been principally ethical issue. However, the contemporary situation of the individual striving for perfection is quite different. Forced to live in a sharply competitive society with ever-increasing demands for efficiency, speed and improvement of socio-demanded personal qualities, on the one hand, and increasing opportunities to make radical changes thanks to modern biomedical and psychological technologies, on the other, he must not only adapt to the constantly changing conditions by becoming balanced, efficient, stress-resistant, quick and determined, but also to love change and learn to turn it to his advantage. The cult of personal growth and self-improvement, which we have seen in recent decades, with the total penetration of Internet technology in our lives has taken on an unprecedented expansion. Almost every day there are new books, programs and training seminars with recipes for happiness, love, beauty, health and wealth, but a huge part of the proposed recipes for happiness consists of tips that help not everyone, and some may even cause some damage. Promises of quick and easy results, being unachievable in reality, can cause more despair, apathy and even depression. The fact is that today psychological self-help has become a huge industry that penetrates into the emotional, mental and moral life of the person, and sometimes leads not to the achievement, but rather to the loss of himself, and the idea of Self-Improvement, having become a commercial product, turns into another tool for manipulating people, forces modern man to be in an endless exhausting race for perfection.

ПСИХОЛОГІЧНИЙ СУПРОВІД ДІЯЛЬНОСТІ ВІЙСЬКОВОСЛУЖБОВЦІВ ПІД ЧАС ВИКОНАННЯ ЗАВДАНЬ У МІЖНАРОДНИХ ОПЕРАЦІЯХ З ПІДТРИМАННЯ МИРУ І БЕЗПЕКИ

Introduction. The article is devoted to the research of the actual problem of psychological support of the activity of military personnel of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in peacekeeping operations. Defining the specific tasks of peacekeeping that are inherent in peacekeeping operations in the 21st century.Purpose. Determining the peculiarities of psychological support for the activities of military personnel during the tasks in peacekeeping operations.Methods. Analysis of the peculiarities of peacekeeping activities of military personnel in peacekeeping operations, comparison and generalization of factors of negative psychological impact, systematization of measures of psychological support.Results. The specific tasks of peacekeeping activities that are inherent in peacekeeping operations in the 21st century are identified. Specific factors of negative psychological influence on the psyche of military personnel of national personnel have been established. The proposals for the organization of psychological support for the activities of military personnel during the execution of tasks in peacekeeping operations as a component of their psychological support are substantiated.Originality. The article focuses on the importance and relevance of autogenous methods of psychological support and self-help. The system of effective methods and techniques of psychological self-help is offered.Conclusion. Specificity of military personnel performing tasks in operations is activity under the influence of a number of negative psychological factors, in particular: threats to life, suddenness, novelty, monotony from excess time, group isolation, increase of pace of action, shortage of activities and combinations of activities at the same time and others. To prevent mental disorders in military personnel during prolonged stay in the conditions of negative psychological impact, we have proposed a set of measures of psychological support for peacekeeping activities, which includes both preventive and psychological assistance and self-help. For military personnel who are members of national personnel in peacekeeping operations, the most relevant are the autogenous methods of psychological support (self-help), namely: methods of static and dynamic self-training, breathing techniques, drafting their own code of honor, overcoming pain and others.

Efficacy of path-oriented psychological self-help interventions to improve mental health of empty-nest older adults in the Community of China

BackgroundChina has the world’s largest aging population and the number of empty-nest older adults is on the rise. In comparison to the aging population in general, empty-nest older adults have a lower level of subjective well-being and poorer mental health status due to a lack of emotional support from their children. The aim of this study is to conduct an empirical study to evaluate the efficacy of the ‘Path-oriented Psychological Self-help Intervention’ (P-oPSI) led by nurses on the mental health of empty-nest older adults in the community, to provide a scientific foundation for improving their quality of life.MethodsA Quasi-Experimental controlled intervention study was conducted from 2015 to 2017.A total of 76 empty-nest older adults from 2 districts were recruited using a convenience sampling and assigned to 2 groups based on their residential communities in the city of Chifeng in the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, China. The wait list control group participated in a mental health lecture to gain knowledge and learn techniques of mental health promotion. The intervention group additionally received 1 month of training in a nurse-led ‘P-oPSI’ for a month. Both groups were followed-up for 3 months. Mental health status, coping styles, and psychological self-help ability of the participating empty nest older adults were assessed at the baseline, 1 month, and 3-months follow up, respectively. Two-way analysis of variance and a simple effect test were used to analyse the differences of the two groups.ResultsThe P-oPSI yielded a greater benefit for the mental health status, coping styles, and psychological self-help ability of the participants in the intervention group. Combined with a simple effect test, the scores of the mental health status, positive coping style, and psychological self-help ability of those in the intervention group significantly increased at 1 month after the baseline (F mental health status = 7.59, F positive coping style = 7.24, F psychological self-help ability = 7.07); and the sustainable effect of this program lasted for 3 months after the intervention (F mental health status = 13.24, F positive coping style = 10.42, F psychological self-help ability = 10.45), which reached statistical significance (P < 0.01).ConclusionsThe P-oPSI program significantly improved the level of mental health of empty-nest older adults in China. This intervention provides a new approach of self-management to improve mental health of older adults in community settings.Trial registrationchictr.org.cn: ChiCTR1900025552. Retrospectively registered 1 September 2019.

『빨강머리 앤』의 귀환: 심리적 자기계발과 고백의 감정서사

『빨강머리 앤』의 귀환: 심리적 자기계발과 고백의 감정서사

Application of the Instrumentarium of a Visual-Narrative Approach in Psychological Assistance to Personality

The article focuses on the application of a visual-narrative approach in providing psychological assistance to personality. It is shown that the narrative approach is now widely used by specialists, in solving a wide range of psychological problems of personality, in normalization of a psychological state of personality in crisis and traumatic situations.&#x0D; The implementation of the narrative approach is done through the creation of oral and written texts while providing psychological assistance. The combination of a verbal creative product with metaphorical associative maps, photographs, leaflets, illustrations, mandalas, etc., allows us to distinguish the visual and narrative approach. «Texts» as a response to visual stimuli (associative maps, photographs, illustration, mandalas, etc.) can be of any character (biographical or imaginative) and any style (prose, rhymed and unrhymed verses, tales, personal stories, essays, etc.). In one version, the visual series may be primary, and the texts are secondary. In this case, «text» can be simply a detailed comment of the group member (client) or a creative author's text, which is made by the client. In another version, on the contrary, the texts can be primary, and then they receive visual stimuli, which are also further described and analyzed in their connection with the real life story of the client. The main points and principles of the narrative approach are presented. The stages of narrative psychotherapy are given: externalization of the problem (distancing the «problem» from a person); design (reconstruction) – a critical analysis of ideas that were uncritically learned that is, a kind of «unpacking» or «contextualization». It is shown that the narrative approach is considered as: – a means of the development of personality traits, the achievement of identity; – a form of awareness of personal experience; – a means of organizing a personal future and self-constitution; the method of intergenerational history analysis or correctional family psychotherapeutic method. The emphasis is placed on the special value of this approach as an effective means of psychological self-help.

Virtuous power: Ethics, Confucianism, and Psychological self-help in China

This article examines a genre of psychological self-help in China that deploys Confucian ethics to address social, moral, and psychological distress. Within this genre, a branch of what is called “third force” self-help, which attempts to overcome an ambiguous “third state” between health and illness, advocates encourage individuals to cultivate a form of virtuous power that emanates from the heart, seen as the basis of cognition, virtue, and bodily sensation. The heart has the freedom to imagine and act but also constrains such freedom. It constitutes the moral core necessary for achieving equanimity, a state of equilibrium in which one is not shaken by external disturbances and spontaneous bodily reactions are regulated by high moral reflection. This third force self-help uses heart-based Confucian ethics not only to help individuals cope with socioeconomic changes, but also, I argue, to constrain direct opposition to the causes of those changes by translating structural inequalities into ethical and moral issues. I suggest that this virtuous power serves government interests. The emphasis on Confucian ethics humanizes market competition and biologizes individual and family responsibility for care, legitimizing both class stratification and the family as a provider of social welfare.

Starting to develop self-help for social anxiety associated with vitiligo: using clinical significance to measure the potential effectiveness of enhanced psychological self-help

Vitiligo can be associated with high levels of distress, yet there are currently no self-help interventions available. To describe the initial development of a psychosocial self-help intervention designed to reduce social anxiety associated with vitiligo. Also to examine whether including a planning exercise, aimed at increasing use of the intervention (termed implementation intentions), has the potential to achieve a clinically significant reduction in distress. Participants (n=75) were randomized to one of three groups: cognitive behavioural self-help (CBSH), CBSH augmented with implementation intentions (CBSH+), or no intervention. Participants were assessed at baseline and after 8weeks on measures of social anxiety, anxiety and depression, and appearance-related concern. The two intervention groups also completed a questionnaire evaluating their use of, and satisfaction with, the intervention. High levels of social anxiety and concern over appearance were reported. Twenty-four per cent of participants in the CBSH+ group experienced clinically significant change on the measure of social anxiety compared with 8% in the CBSH group and 0% in the control group. In addition, 58% of the control group deteriorated during the study period. There were no significant differences between the conditions on the other outcome measures. Participants reported that the self-help leaflets were helpful. The findings demonstrate that augmented CBSH provides a relatively simple and accessible intervention that can result in a clinically significant reduction in social anxiety. The augmented intervention has potential and might be further developed and evaluated in subsequent trials.

Development of an early nurse led intervention to treat children referred to secondary paediatric care with constipation with or without soiling

BackgroundConstipation is a common chronic childhood condition referred to secondary care. Effective treatment requires early intervention, prolonged medication to soften stools and behavioural support to achieve a regular habit of sitting on the toilet to pass a stool. The purpose of this audit and service development was to assess routine consultant paediatrician-led care against minimum standards and if appropriate to develop a nurse-led intervention. The new care package could then be tried out within general paediatric clinics in Glasgow as a service evaluation. NICE guideline (CG99) has a research recommendation to compare nurse-led care with routine consultant-led care.MethodsDesign was an audit then development of a nurse-led intervention followed by a service evaluation. Participants were children (age 0–13 years), referred by their General Practitioner (GP) to the Royal Hospital for Sick Children Glasgow, with constipation the main problem in the GP letter. The audit covered appointment waiting times, intervention provided, initial follow-up and parental satisfaction with routine consultant-led practice. The nurse-led intervention focused on self-help psychology practice with NICE guideline medical support. This was compared with routine consultant paediatrician care in a service evaluation.ResultsThe audit found consultant-led care had long waiting times, delayed initial follow-up and variable intervention. The new nurse-led intervention is described in detail. The nurse-led intervention performed well compared with consultant-led care. Less ‘nurse-led’ children, 3/45 (7%), were still constipated passing less than 3 stools per week compared with 8/58 (14%) receiving consultant-led care. Less ‘nurse-led’ parents, 10/45 (22%), reported their child having pain passing stools in the previous week compared with consultant-led care, 26/58 (45%). The proportion of children, over 4 years, free from soiling accidents was similar, 15/23 (65%) in the nurse-led group and 18/29 (62%) with consultant-led care. Parental satisfaction was slightly better in the nurse-led group.ConclusionIt is difficult to achieve minimum standards using routine consultant-led care for children referred by their GP with constipation. Nurse-led early intervention is feasible and has produced promising results in a service evaluation. An exploratory trial is planned to develop a teaching module, robust outcomes including costs and benefits, and methodology for a definitive trial recommended by NICE.