The Patient and Carer Race Equality Framework: a model to reduce mental health inequity in England and Wales.

The Patient and Carer Race Equality Framework (PCREF) is an Organisational Competence Framework (OCF), recommended by the Independent Review of the Mental Health Act as a means to improve mental health access, experience and outcomes for people from ethnic minority backgrounds, particularly Black people. This is a practical framework that should be co-produced with and tailored to the needs of service users, based on quality improvement and place-based approaches. We aim to use the PCREF to address the longstanding epistemic justices experienced by people with mental health problems, particularly those from minoritised ethnic groups. We will outline the work that led to the proposal, the research on racial inequalities in mental health in the UK, and how the PCREF will build on previous interventions to address these. By taking these into account, the PCREF should support a high minimum standard of mental health care for all.

The association between social class and the impact of treatment for mental health problems: a systematic review and narrative synthesis.

PURPOSE: This systematic review aimed to synthesise all quantitative literature on the association between social class and the effectiveness of interventions for mental health disorders. METHODS: Systematic literature searches (inception-March 2021) were conducted across 7 databases, and all quantitative studies meeting inclusion criteria, examining the impact of social class on access to treatment, or intervention effectiveness, or the impact of treatment on social mobility, were synthesised narratively. RESULTS: Evidence suggests that lower social class may be associated with reduced access to primary and secondary mental health care and increased likelihood of access via crisis services, and patients of lower social class may not benefit from all mental health interventions, with reduced effectiveness. While limited, there was some indication that psychosocial interventions could encourage increased employment rates. CONCLUSION: Social class is associated with the effectiveness of psychological interventions, and should be considered when designing new interventions to prevent barriers to access and improve effectiveness.

A Systematic Review of Economic Aspects of Service Interventions to Increase Anticoagulation Use in Atrial Fibrillation.

OBJECTIVE: To systematically identify and appraise existing evidence surrounding economic aspects of anticoagulation service interventions for patients with atrial fibrillation. METHODS: We searched the published and grey literature up to October 2019 to identify relevant economic evidence in any health care setting. A narrative-synthesis approach was taken to summarise evidence by economic design and type of service intervention, with costs expressed in pound sterling and valued at 2017 to 2018 prices. RESULTS: A total of 13 studies met our inclusion criteria from 1,168 papers originally identified. Categories of interventions included anticoagulation clinics (n = 4), complex interventions (n = 4), decision support tools (n = 3) and patient-centred approaches (n = 2). Anticoagulation clinics were cost-saving compared with usual care (range for mean cost difference: £188-£691 per-patient per-year) with equivalent health outcomes. Only one economic evaluation of a complex intervention was conducted; case management was more expensive than usual care (mean cost difference: £255 per-patient per-year) and the probability of its cost-effectiveness did not exceed 70%. There was limited economic evidence surrounding decision support tools or patient-centred approaches. Targeting service interventions at high-risk groups and those with suboptimal treatment was most likely to result in cost savings. CONCLUSION: This review revealed some evidence to support the cost-effectiveness of anticoagulation clinics. However, summative conclusions are constrained by a paucity of economic evidence, a lack of direct comparisons between interventions, and study heterogeneity in terms of intervention, comparator and study year. Further research is urgently needed to inform commissioning and service development. Data from this review can inform future economic evaluations of anticoagulation service interventions.

Reasons behind the rising rate of involuntary admissions under the Mental Health Act (1983): Service use and cost impact.

There has been a significant rise in the use of the Mental Health Act (1983) in England over the last 10 years. This includes both health-based Place of Safety detentions and involuntary admissions to NHS mental health facilities. Although these trends should clearly inform the implementation of mental health care and legislation, there is currently little understanding of what caused these increased rates. We therefore sought to explore potential underlying reasons for the increase in involuntary admissions and Place of Safety detentions and to ascertain the associated service costs. We extracted publicly available data to ascertain the observed number of involuntary admissions (Section 2 or 3) and health-based Place of Safety detentions in England between 1999/2000 and 2015/2016. A simple regression analysis then enabled us to compare observed admission rates with predicted rates, between 2008/2009 and 2015/2016. This prediction model was based on observed figures before 2008. We then generated a costing model for these rates and compared admission costs to alternative interventions. Finally, we added relevant covariates to the prediction model, to explore potential relationships with observed rates. Since 2008/2009, there has been a marked increase in the number of involuntary admissions (38%) and Place of Safety detentions (617%). The analysis revealed that for involuntary admissions, the period of greatest increase occurred after 2012, two years after austerity measures were implemented. For Place of Safety detentions, substantial rises were seen from 2008/2009 to 2015/2016, coinciding with the economic recession. The rise in Place of Safety detentions may have been worsened by a reduction in mental health bed availability. During the study period, involuntary admissions are estimated to have cost the English NHS £6.8 billion; with a further £120 million spent on Place of Safety detentions. This is approximately £597 million greater than predicted, had involuntary admissions continued to change at pre-2008 rates. We conclude that the rise in involuntary admissions, and to a lesser extent Place of Safety detentions, were associated with three specific impactful events: the economic recession, legislative changes and the impact of austerity measures on health and social care services. In addition to the extensive arguments presented elsewhere, there is also an urgent economic case for addressing this trend.

Screening for atrial fibrillation: a call for evidence.

Atrial fibrillation (AF) is the most common cardiac arrhythmia and prevalence is predicted to double over the next 30 years due to changing demographics and the rise in prevalence of risk factors such as hypertension and diabetes. Atrial fibrillation is associated with a five-fold increased stroke risk, but anticoagulation in eligible patients can reduce this risk by around 65%. Many people with AF currently go undetected and therefore untreated, either because they are asymptomatic or because they have paroxysmal AF. Screening has been suggested as one approach to increase AF detection rates and reduce the incidence of ischaemic stroke by earlier initiation of anticoagulation therapy. However, international taskforces currently recommend against screening, citing the cost implications and uncertainty over the benefits of a systematic screening programme compared to usual care. A number of large randomized controlled trials have commenced to determine the cost-effectiveness and clinical benefit of screening using a range of devices and across different populations. The recent AppleWatch study demonstrates how advances in technology are providing the public with self-screening devices that are increasingly affordable and accessible. Health care professionals should be aware of the implications of these emerging data for diagnostic pathways and treatment. This review provides an overview of the gaps in the current evidence and a summary of the arguments for and against screening.

The role of informal carers in the diagnostic process of heart failure: a secondary qualitative analysis.

BACKGROUND: Heart failure (HF) is a common clinical syndrome, particularly in older people, and symptoms can develop gradually. The aim of this study was to explore the role of informal carers in the HF diagnostic process. METHODS: Secondary analysis of qualitative interviews with 16 participants with a new diagnosis of HF. Original interviews were conducted in the participant's home, with carers present in some cases. Interview transcripts were re-analysed using the Framework Method for themes pertaining to informal carers and how they were involved in the diagnostic process. RESULTS: Informal carers often noticed symptoms, such as breathlessness, before participants. In some cases, carers colluded with participants in normalising symptoms but over time, when symptoms failed to resolve or got worse, they encouraged participants to seek medical help. Adult children of participants commonly initiated help-seeking behaviour. During the diagnostic process, carers coordinated participants' healthcare through advocacy and organisation. Carers were keen to be informed about the diagnosis, but both participants and carers struggled to understand some aspects of the term 'heart failure'. CONCLUSIONS: Carers play a crucial role in HF diagnosis, particularly in initiating contact with healthcare services, and should be empowered to encourage people with HF symptoms to seek medical help. Improving public awareness of HF could mean informal carers are more likely to notice symptoms. The important role of carers in supporting the patient's route to diagnosis should be incorporated into future care pathways and explored in further research.

Evaluating a nurse scholarship programme: realising potential.

Evaluation is an integral component of any nurse education programme and ideally requires a multi-method approach. This article describes both the formative and summative evaluation of the St Mark's Burdett nurse scholarship from the perspective of the health professionals involved. During the nursing scholar's specialty placements, their achievements were recorded alongside a more detailed insight into their ongoing development during weekly supervision sessions. The summative evaluation comprised recording their attendance at taught study days, progress in academic modules and one-to-one interviews. A survey was also conducted to gather feedback about the scholarship. The evaluation indicated that this programme helped the nursing scholars gain exposure to a broad range of gastrointestinal nursing clinical environments, provided them with the resources needed to continue to develop academically and professionally, and helped them to achieve career progression in specialist nursing.

MICE or NICE? An economic evaluation of clinical decision rules in the diagnosis of heart failure in primary care.

BACKGROUND: Detection and treatment of heart failure (HF) can improve quality of life and reduce premature mortality. However, symptoms such as breathlessness are common in primary care, have a variety of causes and not all patients require cardiac imaging. In systems where healthcare resources are limited, ensuring those patients who are likely to have HF undergo appropriate and timely investigation is vital. DESIGN: A decision tree was developed to assess the cost-effectiveness of using the MICE (Male, Infarction, Crepitations, Edema) decision rule compared to other diagnostic strategies to identify HF patients presenting to primary care. METHODS: Data from REFER (REFer for EchocaRdiogram), a HF diagnostic accuracy study, was used to determine which patients received the correct diagnosis decision. The model adopted a UK National Health Service (NHS) perspective. RESULTS: The current recommended National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) guidelines for identifying patients with HF was the most cost-effective option with a cost of £4400 per quality adjusted life year (QALY) gained compared to a "do nothing" strategy. That is, patients presenting with symptoms suggestive of HF should be referred straight for echocardiography if they had a history of myocardial infarction or if their NT-proBNP level was ≥400pg/ml. The MICE rule was more expensive and less effective than the other comparators. Base-case results were robust to sensitivity analyses. CONCLUSIONS: This represents the first cost-utility analysis comparing HF diagnostic strategies for symptomatic patients. Current guidelines in England were the most cost-effective option for identifying patients for confirmatory HF diagnosis. The low number of HF with Reduced Ejection Fraction patients (12%) in the REFER patient population limited the benefits of early detection.

Cost-effectiveness analysis of different systolic blood pressure targets for people with a history of stroke or transient ischaemic attack: Economic analysis of the PAST-BP study.

BACKGROUND: The PAST-BP trial found that using a lower systolic blood pressure target (<130 mmHg or lower versus <140 mmHg) in a primary care population with prevalent cerebrovascular disease was associated with a small additional reduction in blood pressure (2.9 mmHg). OBJECTIVES: To determine the cost effectiveness of an intensive systolic blood pressure target (<130 mmHg or lower) compared with a standard target (<140 mmHg) in people with a history of stroke or transient ischaemic attack on general practice stroke/transient ischaemic attack registers in England. METHODS: A Markov model with a one-year time cycle and a 30-year time horizon was used to estimate the cost per quality-adjusted life year of an intensive target versus a standard target. Individual patient level data were used from the PAST-BP trial with regard to change in blood pressure and numbers of primary care consultations over a 12-month period. Published sources were used to estimate life expectancy and risks of cardiovascular events and their associated costs and utilities. RESULTS: In the base-case results, aiming for an intensive blood pressure target was dominant, with the incremental lifetime costs being £169 lower per patient than for the standard blood pressure target with a 0.08 quality-adjusted life year gain. This was robust to sensitivity analyses, unless intensive blood pressure lowering reduced quality of life by 2% or more. CONCLUSION: Aiming for a systolic blood pressure target of <130 mmHg or lower is cost effective in people who have had a stroke/transient ischaemic attack in the community, but it is difficult to separate out the impact of the lower target from the impact of more active management of blood pressure.

The characteristics and health needs of pregnant women with schizophrenia compared with bipolar disorder and affective psychoses.

BACKGROUND: Most women with psychotic disorders and bipolar disorders have children but their pregnancies are at risk of adverse psychiatric and fetal outcome. The extent of modifiable risk factors - both clinical and socio-demographic - is unclear as most studies have used administrative data or recruited from specialist tertiary referral clinics. We therefore aimed to investigate the socio-demographic and clinical characteristics of an epidemiologically representative cohort of pregnant women with affective and non-affective severe mental illness. METHODS: Women with severe mental illness were identified from a large electronic mental health case register in south London, and a data linkage with national maternity Hospital Episode Statistics identified pregnancies in 2007-2011. Data were extracted using structured fields, text searching and natural language processing applications. RESULTS: Of 456 pregnant women identified, 236 (51.7%) had schizophrenia and related disorders, 220 (48.3%) had affective psychosis or bipolar disorder. Women with schizophrenia and related disorders were younger, less likely to have a partner in pregnancy, more likely to be black, to smoke or misuse substances and had significantly more time in the two years before pregnancy in acute care (inpatient or intensive home treatment) compared with women with affective disorders. Both groups had high levels of domestic abuse in pregnancy (recorded in 18.9%), were from relatively deprived backgrounds and had impaired functioning measured by the Health of the Nation Outcome Scale. Women in the affective group were more likely to stop medication in the first trimester (39% versus 25%) whereas women with non-affective psychoses were more likely to switch medication. CONCLUSIONS: A significant proportion of women, particularly those with non-affective psychoses, have modifiable risk factors requiring tailored care to optimize pregnancy outcomes. Mental health professionals need to be mindful of the possibility of pregnancy in women of childbearing age and prescribe and address modifiable risk factors accordingly.

Quality, bias and service user experience in healthcare: 10 years of mental health guidelines at the UK National Collaborating Centre for Mental Health.

The guideline programme developed by the National Collaborating Centre for Mental Health (NCCMH) for the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) is probably the most comprehensive and methodologically advanced mental health guideline programme in the world, covering most adults and children with mental health problems and addressing a broad range of pharmacological and psychological/psychosocial interventions. As the success of the NICE programme gains momentum, its influence in the National Health Service (NHS) grows. If guidelines contain systematic bias the effects will be widespread. Over the last 10 years the NCCMH has recognized imperfections and patterns of bias in the way that evidence is generated and included in guidelines, including psychological/psychosocial interventions and drug treatments. The pharmaceutical industry remains a major source of bias through selective reporting and publishing, and represents a threat to ensuring the evidence underpinning guidelines and clinical decision-making is as complete and reliable as possible. The inclusion of service users into guideline development at the NCCMH has developed in parallel to the identification and understanding of evidential bias, and is now becoming an important focus for high-quality guidelines which are becoming increasingly person-centred. For mental health this is as radical as the integration of psychological/psychosocial treatments into what has, for many years, been a largely medical domain. The future role of service users in monitoring their own experience of care and ensuring that trusts are accountable to them is now a real possibility and is likely to have an impact upon the traditional power relations in mental health and the stigma usually associated with psychiatric problems.

Establishing the continuing professional development needs of general practitioners in their first five years after training.

AIMS: To identify existing and preferred methods of accessing CPD for GPs in the first five years of independent practice. To establish areas of CPD need for this group. To quantify how many First5 GPs are currently part of a small group and if they undertake CPD in this format. To investigate how First5 currently fund CPD and how much they would be willing to invest in CPD per year. METHODS: Online survey of RCGP members who have been on the GP register for less than five years. RESULTS: First5 GPs access CPD in a variety of formats. CPD provision around practice management and leadership aimed at GPs in their first five years is currently lacking. Many First5 GPs already belong to a small group but more than half find undertaking CPD in the small group is challenging. Most First5 GPs self fund their educational activity and would like to spend £500 or less per year on CPD. CONCLUSION: Cost-effective CPD tailored to the needs of GPs in their first five years of independent practice and delivered in a variety of formats is lacking in some educational areas. First5 GPs require formal written guidance on delivering CPD in small groups.

Schizophrenia in adults 1: NICE guidance on detection, assessment and initial management.

This first in a two-part unit on updated NICE guidance on schizophrenia looks at early detection, assessment and initial treatment of the condition. It also looks at issues around working with people from diverse ethnic and cultural groups.

Dementia 2: early diagnosis and initial nursing care.

In response to concerns over provision of care for people with dementia, NICE and the Social Care Institute for Excellence (SCIE) developed a national guideline on supporting patients and carers. The clinical and support issues raised below are based on the NICE/SCIE (2006a) guidance on dementia. The guidance specifies nurses are key professionals in dementia care. Whether they work in mental health or elsewhere all nurses need to understand the guidance to enable sound implememtation across all caer settings.