Peer support does not reduce hospital readmissions: the final word?

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Danielle Lamb reviews a recent large randomised controlled trial on peer support for discharge from inpatient mental health care versus care as usual in England (the ENRICH study).

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Telemental health: mega-blog on remote mental health care during the pandemic

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In her debut blog, Philippa Clery presents the findings of three studies from the NIHR Mental Health Policy Research Unit, which explore the acceptability and efficacy of telemental health during the COVID-19 pandemic.

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A picture tells a thousand words: how promising is photovoice?

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In her debut blog, Rose McCabe examines a systematic review and meta-analysis looking at photovoice; a participatory photography and digital storytelling intervention that has been developed to promote positive social change.

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Young people report that harm minimisation strategies for self-harm are ineffective

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Sadhbh Byrne and Jo Robinson review a recent mixed methods study exploring young people’s views on harm minimisation strategies as a proxy for self-harm.

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Dementia day programmes: how can we tell if they are effective?

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Caroline Struthers looks at a study on the effectiveness of a NZ dementia day programme but wonders about the use of outcomes measures in the research.

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Effects of pilates exercise programmes for chronic low back pain

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In her debut blog, Jacquelyn Ryan asks if Pilates exercise programmes help chronic low back pain. Jacquelyn considers a new systematic review, which examined the literature to determine the effectiveness of Pilates exercises on pain and disability on chronic low back pain.

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Relationship training for children and family practitioners: does it work?

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Martin Webber looks at a rare social work randomised controlled trial (RCT) on relationship training for practitioners working with children and families and finds that even findings from a study using ‘gold standard’ research methodology have to be carefully examined for reliability.

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Preventing and responding to violence against disabled people – what works?

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Professor Jill Manthorpe begins 2015 with a blog considering a systematic review on interventions to prevent and respond to violence against disabled people. She reflects on how social workers use systematic review papers as part of evidence based practice and gives some useful pointers for reading and getting the most from such studies.

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Quality of life and mental health: What questions should we ask?

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In his debut blog, Martin Webber, Reader in Social Work at the University of York, asks how we can meaningfully measure quality of life with and for people living with mental health problems.

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