Introducing a group-based psychoeducation intervention for older people in an inpatient mental healthcare setting.

This article reports on a service evaluation of a group-based psychoeducation programme for older people in an inpatient mental healthcare setting. It sought to explore how the programme was experienced by patients and staff, as well as its acceptability and the feasibility for implementation in the longer term. Via questionnaires, views were gathered from patients and staff. A focus group interview with staff facilitating the group sessions was also undertaken, and patient attendance records for sessions were collected and compared with demographic data relating to the two wards housed in the unit where the programme took place. The programme was generally viewed as a positive addition to care delivery by staff and patient respondents in offering an adjunct to pharmacological treatment, increasing familiarity with psychology staff, encouraging patients to develop a greater degree of mastery regarding their health and fostering mutual support among the patient community. The role of the ward environment in supporting access to group-based intervention is also considered.

Perspective on clinical high-risk for psychosis in Africa.

Clinical High Risk for Psychosis has evolved in recent years as a conceptual and clinical entity, representing a shift in focus from the syndromal psychosis state to a recognition of the pre-psychotic state as a period of potential preventive intervention. Much existing evidence has been generated from well-resourced countries, with a more limited body of literature available from Africa and other Majority World countries. Against a backdrop of prevailing systemic challenges, it is necessary to appraise the state of knowledge on Clinical High Risk for Psychosis in Africa. In this perspective article, we cover epidemiology, risk factors, predictors of psychosis conversion, as well as an overview of sociocultural factors, notably stigma, and the barriers to mental health services in African settings. We discuss existing and promising assessment approaches and reflect on preventive and early intervention strategies. We conclude with recommendations including the need for more clinical, longitudinal, and collaborative research anchored in an integrative transdisciplinary approach. We highlight the need for more culturally valid assessment tools and strategies to improve access to and utilization of services while also reducing stigma.

Email correspondence, interpretation and the psychoanalytically informed research interview.

BACKGROUND: Approaching qualitative interviews using principles drawn from psychoanalytic therapy can assist nurse researchers in developing nuanced accounts of participants' and their own subjectivity. Yet, doing so means confronting questions about the use of psychoanalytic concepts and techniques outside the traditional clinical context of the consulting room. AIM: To consider the researcher's interpretive involvement when a psychoanalytically informed interview approach is used with specific reference to email correspondence as a form of interpretive intervention. DISCUSSION: The authors describe the experience of completing a study involving a psychoanalytically informed interview approach. The interpretive quality of email correspondence is illustrated via reference to the case of one study participant for whom this correspondence appeared to help in the level of insight afforded overall. CONCLUSION: When using a psychoanalytically informed interview approach, researchers should consider emails delineating topics for discussion in follow-up interviews as a form of interpretive intervention. IMPLICATIONS FOR PRACTICE: Nurse researchers interested in this type of method should reflect on the interpretive function of email correspondence. Pre-participation and pre-interview dialogue with participants may be used to explore participants' views on the potentially therapeutic aspects of participation and what might be related to them of the researcher's understanding.

Psychoanalytic therapy and narrative research interviewing: some reflections.

BACKGROUND: This article focuses on approaches to qualitative research interviewing that draw direct inspiration from psychoanalytic therapy. The reflective discussion piece provides a critical spotlight on this method to promote reflection and ethical application. AIM: To provide clarity regarding the meaning of psychoanalytically informed, psycho-social research and the interpretive nature of qualitative interviews and of therapy, and to reflect on nurse researchers' partiality for using quasi-dynamic interpretative comments and the sharing of formulations in interviews. DISCUSSION: The authors review relevant literature, and comment on the apprehension and uncertainty researchers may experience with this type of research approach. CONCLUSION: Researchers should consider how they conduct themselves as interviewers and what to share of the analysis of participants' accounts based on the specifics of the research, including their or their team's experience of conducting psychotherapy and their and participants' expectations about what may be therapeutic about interviews. IMPLICATIONS FOR PRACTICE: Psychoanalytically informed research interviewing should be used in a reflective way by nurse researchers with attention paid to the limitations and possibilities of parallels between psychotherapeutic and research interview dialogue.