In our second blog exploring research on personal budgets, Mike Clark dissects the biggest national survey of social care personal budget users and finds that a seemingly simple policy idea is complex in its operation and discovers some ideas about organising this complexity to meet individual needs and improve outcomes.
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Elly O’Brien summarises a recent RCT of folic acid for depression, which explores whether mood disorders can be prevented in young people at familial risk. The trial finds no evidence that folic acid supplementation reduces the incidence of mood disorders compared to those taking placebo.
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In the week following the publication of the Bubb report after the appalling scenes uncovered at Winterbourne View, a team in Ireland uncover similar abuses in a care centre in Mayo. Here we look at what they found and the initial response of the authorities there.
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Raphael Underwood reports on a thematic analysis of joint crisis plans, which explores what service users with psychotic disorders want in a mental health crisis or relapse.
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Erstwhile Mental Elf blogger, Ian Cummins, Senior Lecturer in Social Work at Salford University, joins the Social Care Elf to examine a study on the perspectives of service users, psychiatrists and carers on community treatment orders.
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Ioana Cristea critically reviews a recent meta-analysis of Internet-based CBT for patients with chronic somatic conditions. She concludes that the review authors are offering an overly positive interpretation of their results, and that we need more high quality studies before we can recommend online cognitive behaviour therapy for this population.
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This study suggests that treatment based on SDA concept led to better quality of life compared with treatment based on RPDs up to 12 months after treatment.
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For his first blog, Robin Miller, Senior Fellow at the Health Services Management Centre, University of Birmingham examines a Canadian study on place and older people’s volunteering and considers the implications for third sector policy.
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This review compared the survival of mandibular overdentures supported by 1- or 2- implants. Only two small RCTs were identified that suggest no difference between 1- or 2- implants. However only a small number of patients were included in these trials so the evidence is weak and more high quality trials are required.
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John Baker considers the findings of a recent meta-synthesis of research looking at the role of acute mental health nurses from the perspective of the nurses themselves. He concludes that, whilst this viewpoint is important, it’s also vital that we consider what service users think nurses should provide.
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