Range Of Mental Health Issues Research Articles

Mental health first aid training for nursing students: a protocol for a pragmatic randomised controlled trial in a large university

BackgroundThe impact of mental health problems and disorders in Australia is significant. Mental health problems often start early and disproportionately affect young people. Poor adolescent mental health can predict educational achievement at school and educational and occupational attainment in adulthood. Many young people attend higher education and have been found to experience a range of mental health issues. The university setting therefore presents a unique opportunity to trial interventions to reduce the burden of mental health problems. Mental Health First Aid (MHFA) aims to train participants to recognise symptoms of mental health problems and assist an individual who may be experiencing a mental health crisis. Training nursing students in MHFA may increase mental health literacy and decrease stigma in the student population. This paper presents a protocol for a trial to examine the efficacy of the MHFA training for students studying nursing at a large university in Perth, Western Australia.Methods/DesignThis randomised controlled trial will follow the CONSORT guidelines. Participants will be randomly allocated to the intervention group (receiving a MHFA training course comprising two face to face 6.5 hour sessions run over two days during the intervention period) or a waitlisted control group (not receiving MHFA training during the study). The source population will be undergraduate nursing students at a large university located in Perth, Western Australia. Efficacy of the MHFA training will be assessed by following the intention-to-treat principle and repeated measures analysis.DiscussionGiven the known burden of mental health disorders among student populations, it is important universities consider effective strategies to address mental health issues. Providing MHFA training to students offers the advantage of increasing mental health literacy, among the student population. Further, students trained in MHFA are likely to utilise these skills in the broader community, when they graduate to the workforce. It is anticipated that this trial will demonstrate the scalability of MHFA in the university environment for pre-service nurses and that implementation of MHFA courses, with comprehensive evaluation, could yield positive improvements in the mental health literacy amongst this target group as well as other tertiary student groups.Trial registrationAustralian New Zealand Clinical Trials Registry ACTRN12614000861651.

New Tool Offers Quick, Reliable Dementia Assessment

New Tool Offers Quick, Reliable Dementia Assessment

The challenge of meeting children's mental health needs

Ensuring the mental health and wellbeing of children and young people should be a key public health priority. However, unless school nurses are adequately educated, trained and supported, they will be unable to develop the necessary skills required to contribute to improved outcomes for children and young people with mental health and wellbeing issues. This article discusses the results of unpublished research, carried out by the authors in 2009, examining the range of mental health issues school nurses in one Scottish NHS health board encounter in their day-to-day activities and whether they are adequately trained and supported to meet the mental health needs of these children and young people.

AACAP Helps Psychiatrists Address Patients’ Cultural Factors

AACAP Helps Psychiatrists Address Patients’ Cultural Factors

Mental and Physical Health and Intimate Partner Violence against Women: A Review of the Literature.

Associations between intimate partner violence (IPV) and poor physical and mental health of women have been demonstrated in the international and national literature across numerous studies. This paper presents a review of the literature on this topic. The 75 papers included in this review cover both original research studies and those which undertook secondary analyses of primary data sources. The reviewed research papers published from 2006 to 2012 include quantitative and qualitative studies from Western and developing countries. The results show that while there is variation in prevalence of IPV across various cultural settings, IPV was associated with a range of mental health issues including depression, PTSD, anxiety, self-harm, and sleep disorders. In most studies, these effects were observed using validated measurement tools. IPV was also found to be associated with poor physical health including poor functional health, somatic disorders, chronic disorders and chronic pain, gynaecological problems, and increased risk of STIs. An increased risk of HIV was reported to be associated with a history of sexual abuse and violence. The implications of the study findings in relation to methodological issues, clinical significance, and future research direction are discussed.

Despite the evidence – why are we still not creating more trauma informed mental health services?

PurposeDespite evidence that exposure to traumatic events can be an important antecedent to a range of serious and chronic mental health problems – it appears that within the British National Health Service at least, this is still not fully understood nor acted upon. This paper aims to examine this evidence and asks why these findings have not been fully implemented in terms of updating practice.Design/methodology/approachA literature search was undertaken alongside relevant British DH policy. This resulted in a subsequent policy analysis.FindingsAlthough there have recently been changes in recommendation in clinical practice (e.g. CPA guidance) and policy (No Health without Mental Health) it appears that although some knowledge in this area has been changed into policy, its implementation remains “patchy”.Practical implicationsThis short paper outlines some of the evidence, examines current issues and highlights a possible pathway which might be of value in addressing this.Originality/valueThis short paper highlights traumatic exposure as an important antecedent to a range of mental health issues and highlights ways in which this may be assessed and, where relevant, addressed.

Obesity and Mental Health—A Complicated and Complex Relation

In 2007, following a comprehensive report by a Senate Committee, the Government of Canada announced funding for the launch of a mental health commission.1 This move was timely and sought to address the considerable burden of mental illness in Canada. A parallel epidemic of obesity, currently affecting 1 in 4 adult Canadians and as many as 1 in 10 Canadian children,2 has yet to receive similar attention. Interestingly enough, however, these 2 major health problems affecting millions of Canadians may be much closer related to each other than is evident at first glance. While obesity is largely regarded as a simple consequence of lifestyle choices, with both public health and individual interventions focusing primarily on measures to promote healthy eating and physical activity, its close link to mental health, as one of its key determinants, is often missed. In this edition of The Canadian Journal of Psychiatry, Dr Valerie H Taylor and colleagues34 present 2 articles discussing the complicated and complex links between mental health and excess weight, and provide a brief summary of current approaches to obesity management. As pointed out in the first article,3 there is considerable overlap between the mental health and obesity co-epidemics. Not only do the vast majority of treatment-seeking obese people present with a wide range of mental health issues, mental illness, in turn, can often promote weight gain and prove a major barrier to obesity management. As Dr Taylor and colleagues3 discuss, the latter is not simply a matter of obesogenic psychiatric medications promoting weight gain - the links between obesity and mood disorders, anxiety disorders, attention disorders, addiction disorders, psychotic disorders, personality disorders, and trauma (to name a few) invoke societal, cognitive, behavioural, and biological factors that interact in complex and complicated ways. Thus I have previously proposed that even a cursory assessment of mental health should be an integral part of every assessment for obesity.5 In addition, mental illness must be considered as a possible etiological factor in anyone presenting with weight gain attributable to overeating and undermoving.6 Not surprisingly, as outlined in the second article,4 current treatments for obesity borrow freely from the behavioural and pharmacological arsenal of mental health interventions. Cognitive-behavioural therapy, interpersonal therapy, motivational interviewing, and other techniques, well established in the treatment of mental health and addictions, are increasingly recognized for their role in obesity management. In addition, current pipelines for the pharmacological treatment of obesity include drugs targeting the serotonergic, dopaminergic, endocannabinoid, opiate, and other systems within the peripheral and central nervous systems. Given the importance of the central nervous system as a prime determinant of ingestive and activity behaviour, it is also not surprising that current obesity research uses a wide range of psychological assessments and neuroimaging techniques to better define the obesity phenotype. …

Serious Psychological Distress and Diabetes: A Review of the Literature

With the development of a measure of serious psychological distress (SPD) in 2002, more attention is being paid to the association of SPD with diabetes outcomes and processes of care. We review the literature on the relationship between SPD and diabetes processes of care and outcomes, as well as the literature on the relationship between specific mental health diagnoses and diabetes processes of care and outcomes during the 2010 to 2011 period. There is an extensive literature on the association of mental health diagnoses with diabetes outcomes, especially for depression. Because the Kessler scale measures a much broader range of mental health issues than any specific DSM-IV/Structured Clinical Interview for DSM Disorders diagnosis and is designed to assess SPD at the population level, additional research needs to be conducted both in clinical settings and using large administrative datasets to examine the association between SPD and diabetes outcomes and processes of care.

Recovery High Schools: A Descriptive Study of School Programs and Students

High schools specifically designed for students recovering from a substance use disorder (substance abuse or dependence) have been emerging as a continuing care resource since 1987. This study of 17 schools provides the first systematic description of recovery school programs and their students. The most common school model is that of a program or affiliated school, embedded organizationally and physically with another school or set of alternative school programs. Although embedded, there are serious efforts to maintain physical separation of recovery school students from other students, using scheduling and physical barriers. Affiliation with public school systems is the case for most recovery schools, and seems to be a major factor in assuring fiscal and organizational feasibility.The students in the recovery high schools studied were predominantly white (78%), with about one-half from two parent homes. Overall parent educational levels suggest a higher mean SES than in the general population. Most students (78%) had prior formal treatment for substance use disorders, often concomitantly with treatment for mental health concerns, and were often referred by treatment providers. Students came with a broad and complex range of mental health issues, traumatic experiences, drug use patterns, criminal justice involvement, and educational backgrounds. The complexity of these problems clearly limits the enrollment capacity of the schools.Retrospective pretest to post-test analysis suggests significant reduction in substance use as well as in mental health symptoms among the students. Students were very positive in their assessment of the therapeutic value of the schools, but less enthusiastic regarding the educational programs. The school programs appear to successfully function as continuing care to reinforce and sustain the therapeutic benefits students gained from their treatment experiences.

Mental Health Issues Facing a Diverse Sample of College Students: Results from the College Student Mental Health Survey

Over the past 5 years there has been increased attention given to mental health issues on college and university campuses across the country. However, few research efforts have been conducted to systematically investigate the mental health of college students. The College Student Mental Health Survey was undertaken as a first step towards gaining a better understanding of the broad range of mental health issues that face the college student population. This exploratory study describes the mental health history and current distress and coping of 939 college students from a large Midwestern public university, with an approximate enrollment of 40,000 students. Implications for research, policy, and practice are discussed.

District nurses’ involvement in mental health: an exploratory survey

This article reports on a survey of district nurses' involvement in mental health interventions in one county. Seventy-nine questionnaires were sent and 46 were returned. Descriptive analysis was carried out using statistical software. The DNs reported encountering a wide range of mental health issues and interventions in practice: dementia, anxiety and depression featured highly. Over half (55%) of the respondents reported involvement in bereavement counselling, and 28% and 23% of respondents reported encountering anxiety management, and problem solving and alcohol advice respectively. A large proportion, however, reported no involvement in mental health interventions. Among the psychiatric professionals, district nurses tended to have most frequent contacts with social workers. GPs were the most likely person to whom DNs made referrals, followed by community psychiatric nurses. Despite the apparent awareness of the values of psychosocial interventions, DNs were equally influenced by the medical model of treatment. In order to realize the potential contribution of district nurses in mental health interventions, there is a need for primary care teams to foster a closer working relationship with mental health specialist services.

Mental Health Issues Facing a Diverse Sample of College Students: Results from the College Student Mental Health Survey

Over the past 5 years there has been increased attention given to mental health issues on college and university campuses across the country. However, few research efforts have been conducted to systematically investigate the mental health of college students. The College Student Mental Health Survey was undertaken as a first step towards gaining a better understanding of the broad range of mental health issues that face the college student population. This exploratory study describes the mental health history and current distress and coping of 939 college students from a large Midwestern public university, with an approximate enrollment of 40,000 students. Implications for research, policy, and practice are discussed.

Therapist's Expectations of Psychotherapy Duration for Individuals Living with HIV

Data were collected from 102 psychotherapists providing mental health care to individuals living with HIV at a mental health clinic in the Southeastern United States, for the purpose of assessing the perceptions of therapists with regard to necessary therapy duration for a range of mental health issues and disorders. Analyses were conducted to explore the extent to which therapists perceived the need for different therapy durations for individuals living with HIV rather than those who had not received such a diagnosis. Across all mental health issues assessed, therapists indicated a greater need for therapy duration when an HIV diagnosis was also present, and this generally was consistent without regard to therapist education, demographics, or therapeutic orientation. Given the extent to which mental health care is often a routine component of the HIV social services infrastructure, the findings of this study have important implications for mental health providers, mental health training programs, and the staff and volunteers of other HIV-related organizations.

Mental health issues in primary healthcare

This article describes a project that was designed to explore mental health issues arising in primary care, as a basis for understanding primary care professionals' mental health training needs. Whilst recent UK government initiatives, such as the National Service Framework for Mental Health, have emphasized the need to enhance mental healthcare in the general population, the capacity to respond effectively is likely to be dependent upon primary care professionals acquiring the relevant skills. To achieve this, a thorough understanding of the issues inherent in dealing with mental health problems in primary care is required. Given that the mental health issues facing primary care professionals may differ from those that confront mainstream mental health professionals, logic dictates that primary care professionals may require a discrete set of skills and a special approach to mental health training. The principal aim of this project was, hence, to identify mental health issues arising in clinical practice, as a first step towards identifying primary care training needs. A series of focus groups and semi-structured interviews was used to gather information about mental health issues arising in primary care, based on the experiences of primary care professionals and users' representatives. The findings suggest that primary care professionals are confronted by a wide range of mental health issues, many of which lie outside of the scope of the current National Service Framework for Mental Health. The article discusses the implications for mental health training in primary care practice and future research.

Addressing mental health problems with the theory of planned behaviour

This paper argues that social cognition models can usefully contribute to our understanding of a range of mental health issues. Such models can also contribute to informing the design of health promotion interventions to improve mental health. The present study shows how the Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB) can help us understand GPs' referral of Asian and non-Asian patients to mental health services. The present study found that GPs were more likely to intend to refer non-Asian patients to mental health services. Intention to refer Asian and non-Asian patients appeared to be determined by different information. Implications for interventions are noted.

Social support and psychological disorder: A review

With the rapid growth in the literature on social support and psychological disorder, a review of the area is in order. The present article describes current conceptualizations of social support, and presents a distillation of empirical evidence on the relationships among stress, social support, and psychological disorder. The structure of support links and the quality of the relationships they provide appear to be associated with a range of mental health issues. Methodological problems with current research are assessed, and suggestions for appropriate design and conceptualization are offered.