NICE has developed a series of case studies for GPs to help apply the recommendations from the Common mental health disorders guideline to practice. The case studies which are informed by clinical experience, include contributions from GPs, clinical psychologists and psychiatrists to help GPs when considering the range of treatments and approaches that are recommended [read the full story…]
The NHS Confederation have published another paper in their occasional series that looks at interactions between the NHS, individuals and communities. This paper explores the potential for using and sharing information in the NHS. It looks at the costs and benefits of informing and communicating with patients through web and social media platforms versus the [read the full story…]
A number of reviews have been published in recent years, which explore the prevalence of depression in old people. Prevalence rates vary enormously from one study to the next and so the reviews tend to report quite a wide range, typically up to 10%. Prevalence is defined as: “a measure of the proportion of people [read the full story…]
The NHS Confederation have published a new briefing that summarises the findings and recommendations from a recent report, commissioned by the Department of Health, into race equality in mental health. The report is based on a series of interviews with NHS and local authority leaders. The report suggests that focusing on tackling inequalities in access [read the full story…]
Payment by Results (PbR) was introduced into the NHS with the aim of improving efficiency and increasing value for money. The approach uses a national tariff of agreed fixed prices reflecting average prices for procedures. In this article, the authors argue that given that outcome focused approaches to payment by results will be incrementally introduced [read the full story…]
‘Crisis intervention’ and ‘home-care packages’ are provided in the community to help people who are going through an acute phase of severe mental illness. The Cochrane Schizophrenia Group have updated their review on this topic by conducting their usual robust and systematic search for randomised controlled trials of crisis intervention models versus standard care for [read the full story…]
The term ‘physical interventions’ refers to ‘any method of responding to challenging behaviour which involves some degree of direct physical force to limit or restrict movement or mobility’ The authors of this literature review set out to look at the current evidence on the use of restraint as an intervention in managing challenging behaviours in [read the full story…]
Memory clinics are becoming more widespread in the UK and elsewhere. They offer assessment, support, information and advice to people with memory problems and their carers. GPs will often refer patients to memory clinics if they feel that they may be in the early stages of dementia, but need an assessment before a diagnosis can [read the full story…]
We have posted previously about the impact of carer attributions regarding the behaviour of people with learning disabilities and the impact these can have on carer responses. The authors of this systematic review were interested in the effects of carer training in challenging and complex behaviour. The researchers searched the literature and included papers that [read the full story…]
Traditionally the response of periodontal disease to treatment has most commonly been measured using the surrogate markers of; bleeding on probing (BOP); pocket probing depth (PPD) and clinical attachment loss (CAL). This review aims to review whether a patient orientation measure (POEM) such as quality of life can measure the effect of treatment. What did [read the full story…]
