Who’s got the obs sheets? Can QI methods reduce violence and restrictive practices on inpatient mental health wards?

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This large-scale quality improvement project across 55 mental health wards tested Board Relay, Zonal Observations, and Life Skills activities to improve therapeutic engagement. Results showed promising reductions in aggression, restrictive practices, and staff sickness.

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Racialised experiences of detention under the Mental Health Act: a PhotoVoice study

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The Co-Pact study uses powerful images and narratives from 48 people to reveal how compulsory admission under the Mental Health Act is experienced by racially minoritised communities. Participants described coercive care, institutional racism, and being “voiceless”, but also what could prevent crisis admissions.

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Inequity in action: why minoritised ethnic patients are more often rapidly tranquilised and what needs to change

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New evidence reveals that rapid tranquilisation is disproportionately used on minoritised ethnic patients in hospitals. Beyond the statistics, how do we create fair, compassionate, and equitable care?

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Evidence-based safe staffing levels on mental health wards: there’s no such thing

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The relationship between staffing and incidents of violence and aggression on wards is complex. Today Emily Wood reminds us that there is an urgent need for high quality evidence to inform guidelines and practice.

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Updated review of experiences of compulsory treatment builds the case for legal reform to be grounded in lived experiences

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Jill Stavert summarises a recent qualitative meta-synthesis of service users’ and carers’ experiences of assessment and involuntary hospital admissions under mental health legislations.

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How can you compare data about mental health and mental capacity law across borders? #BIGSPD24

Balance of stones. To weight pros and cons. Balancing stones on the top of boulder. Close up. Balance of stones on a blue sky background with a copy space. Scales. Stones balance, sustainability.

Alex Ruck-Keene reviews a recent study from the island of Ireland, which compares mental health and mental capacity law data across international borders.

There’s an accompanying podcast interview with the review authors, as we prepare for the #BIGSPD24 conference in Belfast in June 2024.

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Psychiatric Advance Directives: more effective when facilitated by peer workers, according to French RCT

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Rob Allison considers a French randomised controlled trial, which provides support for the use of peer worker–facilitated psychiatric advance directives to prevent compulsory rehospitalisation in people with severe mental illness.

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Migration and the increased risk of compulsory psychiatric admission for psychosis

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Zuva Dengu summarises a recent Swedish cohort study exploring migrant status and risk of compulsory admission at first diagnosis of psychotic disorder, which suggests that where you are from will influence your experience within psychiatric care.

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