Mental health services

BACKGROUND: Previous research into improving patient safety has emphasised the importance of responding to and learning from concerns raised by service users and carers. Expertise gained by the experiences of service users and their carers has also been seen as a potential resource to improve patient safety. We know little about the ease of raising concerns within mental health services, and the potential benefits of involving service users and carers in safety interventions.

Background: Almost 40 million family caregivers care for a loved one with severe physical or cognitive impairments. The purpose of this review is to summarize evidence about the benefits of interventions to support or involve family members/caregivers of patients with trauma-related injury on caregiver, patient, and household outcomes. Methods: English-language peer-reviewed publications in MEDLINE, CINAHL, and PsycINFO from 1995 through December 2016 were identified.

The VA Program of Comprehensive Assistance for Family Caregivers (PCAFC) provides landmark support for family caregivers of post-9/11 veterans. This study examines PCAFC support for veterans with and without PTSD and assesses whether program effect differs by PTSD status using a pre-post, non-equivalent, propensity score weighted comparison group design (n = 24,280). Veterans with and without PTSD in PCAFC accessed more mental health, primary, and specialty care services than weighted comparisons.

Background: Crisis resolution teams (CRTs) can provide effective home-based treatment for acute mental health crises, although critical ingredients of the model have not been clearly identified, and implementation has been inconsistent. In order to inform development of a more highly specified CRT model that meets service users' needs, this study used qualitative methods to investigate stakeholders' experiences and views of CRTs, and what is important in good quality home-based crisis care.

Background: There is an expectation in current heath care policy that family carers are involved in service delivery. This is also the case with compulsory outpatient mental health care, Community Treatment Orders (CTOs) that were introduced in England in 2008. No study has systematically investigated family involvement through the CTO process.; Method: We conducted qualitative interviews with 24 family carers to ascertain their views and experiences of involvement in CTOs.

Background A diagnosis of serious mental illness can impact on the whole family. Families informally provide significant amounts of care but are disproportionately at risk of carer burden when compared to those supporting people with other long-term conditions. Shared decision making (SDM) is an ethical model of health communication associated with positive health outcomes; however, there has been little research to evaluate how routinely family is invited to participate in SDM, or what this looks like in practice.

The author, from the organisation Rethink, gives his personal views on the current state of the mental health services; what users and carers would like their experience of mental health services to be; and the key areas to tackle in order to improve services.

Objective: To test the feasibility (for a potential randomised controlled trial) of a computer intervention for improving social interaction and promoting the mental health of rural carers.

Design: The study combined pre- and post-intervention measures with interviews to determine the feasibility of the intervention and the acceptability of the study design to participants. The intervention consisted of providing 14 rural carers with computers and a 4-week training program on basic computer skills, using email and the Internet.

The literature on carer burden, needs and interventions developed to address care needs of those caring for people with psychosis are reviewed. The findings of a study which explored the views and experiences of carers, service users and professionals with regard to what carers of people with psychosis need from mental health services are then reported.

This paper will inform mental health service users and carers on how a University in Wales established a service user and carer-led research group. * The group's primary aim will be to undertake its own service user and carer-led research projects. * Mental health service users have undergone empowerment and research training at a University in Wales. This is an important initiative because it is the first service user and carer-led research group in Wales. * This paper is co-authored by a mental health service user and includes transcripts of service users' stories written in their words.