Smoking bans and violence on mental health wards: what’s the link?

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John Baker isn’t convinced by the findings of a systematic review on smoking bans and violence in mental health settings, which concludes that the introduction of smoke-free policies generally do not lead to an increase in violence.

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Police killings and the mental health of black Americans

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Ian Cummins provides the context and perspective to consider the implications of a population-based, quasi-experimental study of police killings and their spillover effects on the mental health of black Americans.

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Crime victimisation: vulnerability increased after onset of mental illness

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Danny Whiting writes his debut elf blog on a recent Danish study that uses police data to measure the risk of being subjected to crime, including violent crime, after onset of mental illness.

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Suicide risk following childhood interpersonal violence

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Katrina Witt considers the findings of a meta-analysis of longitudinal studies, which looks at exposure to interpersonal violence in childhood, and the impact that it may have on risk of suicide in young people.

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Bullying in childhood and adolescence: we need to do better

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Tamsin Ford publishes her debut elf blog on an annual research review by Louise Arseneault in the Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, which looks at the persistent and pervasive impact of being bullied in childhood and adolescence, and considers important implications for policy and practice.

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Trauma-related childhood hospital admission linked with self-harm and violent crime in young adults

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Emily Stapley summarises a recent Danish national cohort study, which looks at self-harm and violent criminality among young people who experienced trauma-related childhood hospital admission.

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Smoke-free policy in psychiatric hospitals associated with reduction in physical violence

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Olivia Maynard reports on a new study in The Lancet Psychiatry that explores the effect of implementing a smoke-free policy on physical violence in a psychiatric inpatient setting, which has some surprising findings.

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“Won’t you be my neighbour?” Psychosis and violent reoffending: does where you live matter?

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Derek Tracy and Krisna Patel consider neighbourhood influences on violent reoffending risk in released prisoners diagnosed with psychotic disorders.

The blog also features a half hour audio podcast with the lead researcher Amir Sariaslan, the blogger Derek Tracy and Chief Elf André Tomlin.

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Violence and women’s mental health: new review summarises the evidence

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Nicky Lambert writes her debut Mental Elf blog on a recent review of violence and the impact that it has on women’s mental health

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The weekend effect in mental health services: new evidence suggests no increased risk of suicide, inpatient mortality or seclusion

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Laura Hemming reviews two recent studies that investigate whether patients admitted to a psychiatric hospital at the weekend had worse clinical outcomes, as well as the specific weekend versus weekday incidences of suicide in very high-risk mental health patients.

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