We need to give staff a say, to make sure they will want to stay: what a realist review tells us is missing from the NHS Long Term Workforce Plan

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Justine Karpusheff explores a new realist synthesis of factors affecting retention of staff in UK adult mental health services.

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Could a decision support tool help to guide mental health treatment in primary care?

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Linda Gask reviews a recent randomised controlled trial on the clinical efficacy of a Decision Support Tool (Link-me) to “guide the intensity of mental health care in primary practice”.

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Research unit to bring evidence to forefront of mental health policy

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Today we announce the launch of the new NIHR Mental Health Policy Research Unit, led by Sonia Johnson from UCL & Paul McCrone from King’s, alongside researchers from City, University of London and Middlesex University.

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Mental health expenditure associated with higher quality care and better service user experience

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Kwame McKensie publishes his debut Mental Elf blog on a recent cross-sectional study, which explores the relationship between national mental health expenditure and quality of care in longer-term psychiatric and social care facilities in Europe.

This is the fourth in a new series of Mental Elf blogs produced in partnership with the British Journal of Psychiatry.

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Quality of general hospital care through the liaison psychiatry lens?

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Kirsten Lawson explores a recent study of liaison psychiatry professionals’ views of general hospital care for patients with mental illness.

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Bridging the gap between mental and physical healthcare in general hospitals #TreatAsOne

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Kirsten Lawson presents the findings and recommendations of the recent National Confidential Enquiry into Patient Outcome and Death #TreatAsOne report.

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What is happening to the quality of care in care homes during times of austerity?

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Mike Clark looks at a study of 12 different nursing homes on how quality of care is affected by financial cutbacks.

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CQC State of Care Report and research for quality improvement: Elves mine the archive

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Sarah Carr takes a look at CQC’s State of Adult Social Care Report 2014/15 and corrals the elves in to mine the Social Care Elf archive for some research blogs to help adults social care providers improve services quality.

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Satisfaction with orthodontic treatment

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This review of satisfaction with orthodontic treatment included 18 questionnaire-based studies, involving 2891 patients and 464 parents. Based on the available limited evidence, satisfaction was associated with perceived aesthetic outcomes, psychological benefits, and the quality of care.

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Risk assessment tool in acute hospitals reported to contribute to improvement in health outcomes for people with learning disabilities

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We recently posted about the publication of the final report of the confidential inquiry into premature deaths in people with learning disabilities. The Inquiry found 43% of the deaths of people with learning disabilities were unexpected and for a substantial number, there was significant difficulty or delay in diagnosis, investigation or specialist referral. The Inquiry [read the full story…]