The Effectiveness and Cost of an Intervention to Increase the Provision of Preventive Care in Community Mental Health Services: Protocol for a Cluster-Randomized Controlled Trial.

Preventive care to address chronic disease risk behaviours is infrequently provided by community mental health services. In this cluster-randomised controlled trial, 12 community mental health services in 3 Local Health Districts in New South Wales, Australia, will be randomised to either an intervention group (implementing a new model of providing preventive care) or a control group (usual care). The model of care comprises three components: (1) a dedicated 'healthy choices' consultation offered by a 'healthy choices' clinician; (2) embedding information regarding risk factors into clients' care plans; and (3) the continuation of preventive care by mental health clinicians in ongoing consultations. Evidence-based implementation strategies will support the model implementation, which will be tailored by being co-developed with service managers and clinicians. The primary outcomes are client-reported receipt of: (1) an assessment of chronic disease risks (tobacco smoking, inadequate fruit and vegetable consumption, harmful alcohol use and physical inactivity); (2) brief advice regarding relevant risk behaviours; and (3) referral to at least one behaviour change support. Resources to develop and implement the intervention will be captured to enable an assessment of cost effectiveness and affordability. The findings will inform the development of future service delivery initiatives to achieve guideline- and policy-concordant preventive care delivery.

Effectiveness of referral to a population-level telephone coaching service for improving health risk behaviours in people with a mental health condition: study protocol for a randomised controlled trial.

BACKGROUND: People with a mental health condition have a shorter life expectancy than the general population. This is largely attributable to higher rates of chronic disease and a higher prevalence of modifiable health risk behaviours including tobacco smoking, alcohol consumption, poor nutrition, and physical inactivity. Telephone support services offer a viable option to provide support to reduce these health risk behaviours at a population-level; however, whilst there is some research pertaining to Quitlines, there is limited other research investigating whether telephone services may offer effective support for people with a mental health condition. This protocol describes a randomised controlled trial that aims to evaluate the referral of people with a mental health condition to a population-level telephone coaching service to increase physical activity, healthy eating, or weight management, and increase attempts to do so. METHODS: A parallel-group randomised controlled trial will be conducted recruiting participants with a mental health condition through community mental health services and advertisement on social media. Participants will be randomly assigned to receive either a health information pack only (control) or a health information pack and a proactive referral to a free, government-funded telephone coaching service, the NSW Get Healthy Coaching and Information Service® (intervention), which offers up to 13 telephone coaching calls with a University Qualified Health Coach to assist with client-identified goals relating to physical activity, healthy eating, weight management, or alcohol reduction. Data will be collected via telephone surveys at baseline and 6 months post-recruitment. Primary outcomes are as follows: (1) minutes of moderate to vigorous physical activity per week, (2) serves of fruit consumed per day, (3) serves of vegetables consumed per day, and (4) a composite measure assessing attempts to change at least one health risk behaviour (any attempts to change physical activity, fruit consumption, vegetable consumption, or other parts of nutrition). Secondary outcomes include weight and body mass index. DISCUSSION: This study is the first to evaluate the effectiveness of referral to a population-level telephone support service for reducing health risk behaviours relating to physical activity, healthy eating, and weight in people with a mental health condition. Results will inform future policy and practice regarding the delivery of telephone-based behaviour change coaching services and the management of physical health for this population to reduce health inequity and the burden of chronic disease. TRIAL REGISTRATION: The Australian New Zealand Clinical Trials Registry ACTRN12620000351910 . Retrospectively registered on 12 March 2020.

Barriers to the implementation of clinical guidelines for maternal alcohol consumption in antenatal services: A survey using the theoretical domains framework.

ISSUE ADDRESSED: The aim of this study was to assess potential barriers to the implementation of clinical guideline recommendations regarding maternal alcohol consumption by antenatal clinicians and managers. METHODS: Cross-sectional surveys of antenatal clinicians and managers employed in a New South Wales Local Health District were undertaken. Survey items were developed based on 11 domains of the Theoretical Domains Framework. Consistent with previous studies, a cut point of less than 4 was applied to mean values of survey items (range: 1-5) to identify domains representing barriers to the implementation. RESULTS: Thirty-three antenatal clinicians and eight managers completed the surveys. For clinicians, the domains with the lowest mean values included "environmental context and resources" (ie, complexity of appointments and availability of supporting systems) (mean: 3.13, SD: 0.93); "social influences" (ie, expectations of others that alcohol will be addressed) (mean: 3.33, SD: 0.68); "beliefs about capabilities" (ie, confidence in providing guideline recommendations) (mean: 3.51, SD: 0.67); and "behavioural regulation" (ie, planning and responding to feedback) (mean: 3.53, SD: 0.64). For managers, "emotion regulation" (ie, stress in managing change) (mean: 2.13, SD: 0.64) and "environmental context and resources" (ie, complexities of managing change) (mean: 3.13, SD: 0.83) were the lowest scoring domains. CONCLUSIONS: The antenatal service environment and availability of resources appear to be primary barriers to both clinicians and managers implementing guidelines for maternal alcohol consumption. SO WHAT?: In the development of interventions to support the delivery of clinical guideline recommendations addressing alcohol consumption during pregnancy, a broad range of potential barriers at both the clinician and manager levels need to be considered and targeted by effective implementation strategies.

Differential intervention effectiveness of a universal school-based resilience intervention in reducing adolescent substance use within student subgroups: exploratory assessment within a cluster-randomised controlled trial.

OBJECTIVES: Interventions addressing the individual and environmental protective factors of adolescents are suggested to have potential for reducing adolescent substance use. While universally delivered school-based substance use prevention interventions are common, previous studies have suggested variable effectiveness by subgroups of students. An exploratory study was undertaken to examine the differential effectiveness of a universal school-based resilience intervention on adolescent substance use and protective factors according to their sociodemographic and previous substance use. DESIGN: Secondary analysis of data from a cluster-randomised controlled trial. SETTING: 32 Australian secondary schools. PARTICIPANTS: Cohort of grade 7 students (n=3155) followed up in grade 10 (aged 15-16 years; 2014; n=2105). INTERVENTION: Three-year universal school-based intervention implemented by school staff that targeted a range of student resilience protective factors (2012-2014). MEASUREMENTS: Primary outcomes included: tobacco (recent, number of cigarettes) and alcohol (recent, 'risk' and number of drinks) use, and secondary outcomes included: marijuana (recent) and other illicit substance (recent) use, and aggregate individual and environmental protective factor scores. Generalised and linear mixed models examined interactions between treatment and student subgroups (gender; socioeconomic disadvantage (low/high); geographic location (major city/inner regional/outer regional-remote); and previous substance use (non-user/user)) at follow-up (36 models). RESULTS: Analysis of student follow-up data showed no differential intervention effect for any substance use or protective factor outcome for any subgroup, with the exception of one differential effect found by socioeconomic status for the outcome of mean number of cigarettes smoked by recent smokers (p=0.003). There was no evidence of an intervention effect within the low (mean difference (MD) -12.89, 95% CI -26.00 to 0.23) or high (MD 16.36, 95% CI -1.03 to 33.76) socioeconomic subgroups. CONCLUSIONS: No evidence of an intervention effect on substance use and protective factors was found according to student subgroups defined by sociodemographic characteristics or previous substance use. TRIAL REGISTRATION NUMBER: ACTRN12611000606987.