Non-randomised feasibility study testing a primary care intervention to promote engagement in an online health community for adults with troublesome asthma: protocol.

INTRODUCTION: In the UK, approximately 4.3 million adults have asthma, with one-third experiencing poor asthma control, affecting their quality of life, and increasing their healthcare use. Interventions promoting emotional/behavioural self-management can improve asthma control and reduce comorbidities and mortality. Integration of online peer support into primary care services to foster self-management is a novel strategy. We aim to co-design and evaluate an intervention for primary care clinicians to promote engagement with an asthma online health community (OHC). Our protocol describes a 'survey leading to a trial' design as part of a mixed-methods, non-randomised feasibility study to test the feasibility and acceptability of the intervention. METHODS AND ANALYSIS: Adults on the asthma registers of six London general practices (~3000 patients) will be invited to an online survey, via text messages. The survey will collect data on attitudes towards seeking online peer support, asthma control, anxiety, depression, quality of life, information on the network of people providing support with asthma and demographics. Regression analyses of the survey data will identify correlates/predictors of attitudes/receptiveness towards online peer support. Patients with troublesome asthma, who (in the survey) expressed interest in online peer support, will be invited to receive the intervention, aiming to reach a recruitment target of 50 patients. Intervention will involve a one-off, face-to-face consultation with a practice clinician to introduce online peer support, sign patients up to an established asthma OHC, and encourage OHC engagement. Outcome measures will be collected at baseline and 3 months post intervention and analysed with primary care and OHC engagement data. Recruitment, intervention uptake, retention, collection of outcomes, and OHC engagement will be assessed. Interviews with clinicians and patients will explore experiences of the intervention. ETHICS AND DISSEMINATION: Ethical approval was obtained from a National Health Service Research Ethics Committee (reference: 22/NE/0182). Written consent will be obtained before intervention receipt and interview participation. Findings will be shared via dissemination to general practices, conference presentations and peer-reviewed publications. TRIAL REGISTRATION NUMBER: NCT05829265.

Systematic Review of Policies and Interventions to Prevent Sexual Harassment in the Workplace in Order to Prevent Depression.

BACKGROUND: Sexual harassment in the workplace (SHWP) is highly prevalent and has a negative impact, including depression, on its victims, as well as a negative economic impact resulting from absenteeism and low productivity at work. This paper aims to outline the available evidence regarding the prevention of depressive symptoms among workers through policies and interventions that are effective in preventing SHWP. METHODS: We conducted two systematic reviews. The first focused on the association of depression and SHWP, and the second on policies and interventions to prevent SHWP. We conducted a meta-analysis and a narrative synthesis, respectively. We identified 1831 and 6107 articles for the first and second review. After screening, 24 and 16 articles were included, respectively. RESULTS: Meta-analysis results show a prevalence of depression of 26%, as well as a 2.69 increased risk of depression among workers who experience SHWP. Variables such as number of harassment experiences and exposure to harassment from coworkers and other people increase this risk. CONCLUSIONS: There is limited evidence regarding the effectiveness of policies and training to prevent SHWP, mostly focused on improvements in workers' knowledge and attitudes about SHWP. However, there is no available evidence regarding its potential impact on preventing depression.

Exploring the initial experience of hospitalisation to an acute psychiatric ward.

BACKGROUND: Patient-reported satisfaction with inpatient psychiatric services, within the first few days of admission, is related to positive future outcomes. Despite its predictive value, little is known about this initial experience and what underlies these appraisals. The aim of this study was to qualitatively explore the initial experience of being admitted to an inpatient psychiatric ward. METHODS: Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 61 recently admitted patients across five psychiatric hospitals in London, England. Participants were purposively sampled to ensure a mix of experiences including people with high and low satisfaction scores as measured by the Client Assessment of Treatment. Thematic analysis was used to identify, analyse and report patterns within the data, with content analysis applied to determine whether certain themes were more common to either negative or positive appraisals. RESULTS: Four broad themes were evident 1) 'Best place for me right now?' 2) 'Different from out in society' 3) 'Moving from uncertainty to being informed' and 4) 'Relating & Alienating'. Individuals with very positive appraisals spoke most frequently of helpful relationships with both staff and other patients, and feeling cared for. They also spoke of having had previous admissions and the assessment process on entering the ward suggesting that these may be valuable experiences. Conversely, the group with very negative appraisals spoke of relationships that were alienating or where there was a perceived abuse of power. They described restrictions to their freedom, compared hospital to prison and generally had the view that hospital makes you worse. CONCLUSIONS: The experience of hospital within the first few days of admission determines whether an individual has a positive or negative experience of their inpatient care. Reducing the impact of uncertainty and promoting good relationships may help services to improve the initial experience of hospital admission and ultimately improve future outcomes for patients.

Staff understanding of recovery-orientated mental health practice: a systematic review and narrative synthesis.

BACKGROUND: Mental health policy is for staff to transform their practice towards a recovery orientation. Staff understanding of recovery-orientated practice will influence the implementation of this policy. The aim of this study was to conduct a systematic review and narrative synthesis of empirical studies identifying clinician and manager conceptualisations of recovery-orientated practice. METHODS: A systematic review of empirical primary research was conducted. Data sources were online databases (n = 8), journal table of contents (n = 5), internet, expert consultation (n = 13), reference lists of included studies and references to included studies. Narrative synthesis was used to integrate the findings. RESULTS: A total of 10,125 studies were screened, 245 full papers were retrieved, and 22 were included (participants, n = 1163). The following three conceptualisations of recovery-orientated practice were identified: clinical recovery, personal recovery and service-defined recovery. Service-defined recovery is a new conceptualisation which translates recovery into practice according to the goals and financial needs of the organisation. CONCLUSIONS: Organisational priorities influence staff understanding of recovery support. This influence is leading to the emergence of an additional meaning of recovery. The impact of service-led approaches to operationalising recovery-orientated practice has not been evaluated. TRIAL REGISTRATION: The protocol for the review was pre-registered (PROSPERO 2013: CRD42013005942 ).

Competing priorities: staff perspectives on supporting recovery.

Recovery has come to mean living a life beyond mental illness, and recovery orientation is policy in many countries. The aims of this study were to investigate what staff say they do to support recovery and to identify what they perceive as barriers and facilitators associated with providing recovery-oriented support. Data collection included ten focus groups with multidisciplinary clinicians (n = 34) and team leaders (n = 31), and individual interviews with clinicians (n = 18), team leaders (n = 6) and senior managers (n = 8). The identified core category was Competing Priorities, with staff identifying conflicting system priorities that influence how recovery-oriented practice is implemented. Three sub-categories were: Health Process Priorities, Business Priorities, and Staff Role Perception. Efforts to transform services towards a recovery orientation require a whole-systems approach.

Evaluating the feasibility of complex interventions in mental health services: standardised measure and reporting guidelines.

BACKGROUND: The feasibility of implementation is insufficiently considered in clinical guideline development, leading to human and financial resource wastage. AIMS: To develop (a) an empirically based standardised measure of the feasibility of complex interventions for use within mental health services and (b) reporting guidelines to facilitate feasibility assessment. METHOD: A focused narrative review of studies assessing implementation blocks and enablers was conducted with thematic analysis and vote counting used to determine candidate items for the measure. Twenty purposively sampled studies (15 trial reports, 5 protocols) were included in the psychometric evaluation, spanning different interventions types. Cohen's kappa (κ) was calculated for interrater reliability and test-retest reliability. RESULTS: In total, 95 influences on implementation were identified from 299 references. The final measure - Structured Assessment of FEasibility (SAFE) - comprises 16 items rated on a Likert scale. There was excellent interrater (κ = 0.84, 95% CI 0.79-0.89) and test-retest reliability (κ = 0.89, 95% CI 0.85-0.93). Cost information and training time were the two influences least likely to be reported in intervention papers. The SAFE reporting guidelines include 16 items organised into three categories (intervention, resource consequences, evaluation). CONCLUSIONS: A novel approach to evaluating interventions, SAFE, supplements efficacy and health economic evidence. The SAFE reporting guidelines will allow feasibility of an intervention to be systematically assessed.

Measures of personal recovery: a systematic review.

OBJECTIVE Mental health systems internationally have adopted a goal of supporting recovery. Measurement of the experience of recovery is, therefore, a priority. The aim of this review was to identify and analyze recovery measures in relation to their fit with recovery and their psychometric adequacy. METHODS A systematic search of six data sources for articles, Web-based material, and conference presentations related to measurement of recovery was conducted by using a defined search strategy. Results were filtered by title and by abstract (by two raters in the case of abstracts), and the remaining papers were reviewed to identify any suitable measures of recovery. Measures were then evaluated for their fit with the recovery processes identified in the CHIME framework (connectedness, hope, identity, meaning, and empowerment) and for demonstration of nine predefined psychometric properties. RESULTS Thirteen measures of personal recovery were identified from 336 abstracts and 35 articles. The Recovery Assessment Scale (RAS) was published most, and the Questionnaire About the Process of Recovery (QPR) was the only measure to have all items map to the CHIME framework. No measure demonstrated all nine psychometric properties. The Stages of Recovery Instrument demonstrated the most psychometric properties (N=6), followed by the Maryland Assessment of Recovery (N=5), and the QPR and the RAS (N=4). Criterion validity, responsiveness, and feasibility were particularly underinvestigated properties. CONCLUSIONS No recovery measure can currently be unequivocally recommended, although the QPR most closely maps to the CHIME framework of recovery and the RAS is most widely published.

Assessing the strengths of mental health consumers: a systematic review.

Strengths assessments focus on the individual's talents, abilities, resources, and strengths. No systematic review of strengths assessments for use within mental health populations has been published. The aims of this study were to describe and evaluate strengths assessments for use within mental health services. A systematic review identified 12 strengths assessments (5 quantitative, 7 qualitative). The Strengths Assessment Worksheet (SAW) was the most widely utilized and evaluated qualitative assessment. Psychometric properties of the assessments were assessed against set quality criteria. Data on psychometric properties were available for 4 measures. The Client Assessment of Strengths, Interests and Goals (CASIG) had the strongest psychometric evidence. The SAW and CASIG assessments can be tentatively recommended within clinical practice, although the evidence for all strengths assessments is currently limited. To describe the content of the strengths assessment, the items used to operationalize the concept of strengths in each assessment were extracted and themed. Twenty-four themes were identified and organized into 3 overarching categories: individual factors, environmental factors, and interpersonal factors. These categories form the basis of an empirically based definition of strengths that could be used as a conceptual foundation for new clinical assessments.

What does recovery mean in practice? A qualitative analysis of international recovery-oriented practice guidance.

OBJECTIVES: Recovery is a multifaceted concept, and the need for operationalization in practice has been identified. Although guidance on recovery-oriented practice exists, it is from disparate sources and is difficult to apply. The aims of the study were to identify the key characteristics of recovery-oriented practice guidance on the basis of current international perspectives and to develop an overarching conceptual framework to aid the translation of recovery guidance into practice. METHODS: A qualitative analysis of 30 international documents offering recovery-oriented practice guidance was conducted. Inductive, semantic-level, thematic analysis was used to identify dominant themes. Interpretive analysis was then undertaken to group the themes into practice domains. RESULTS: The guidance documents were diverse; from six countries-the United States, England, Scotland, Republic of Ireland, Denmark, and New Zealand-and varied in document type, categories of guidance, and level of service user involvement in guidance development. The emerging conceptual framework consists of 16 dominant themes, grouped into four practice domains: promoting citizenship, organizational commitment, supporting personally defined recovery, and working relationship. CONCLUSIONS: A key challenge for mental health services is the lack of clarity about what constitutes recovery-oriented practice. The conceptual framework contributes to this knowledge gap and provides a synthesis of recovery-oriented practice guidance.