'Well, who do I phone?' Preparing for urgent care: a challenge for patients and service providers alike'.

AIMS AND OBJECTIVES: To investigate factors influencing patients' self-management of urgent diabetes problems that precipitated unscheduled hospital care. BACKGROUND: Diabetes is placing increasing resource demands on health services and current policy advocates management in primary care and community settings whenever possible. Such policy has implications for patient education and empowerment and on mechanisms within primary and community care to support the management of diabetes when urgent healthcare problems arise. DESIGN: Qualitative, descriptive investigation, across two contrasting sites. METHODS: Forty-five people admitted to hospital for urgent/emergency care due to diabetes-related problems were recruited from urban and rural localities in the UK. Semi-structured interviews were conducted and data analysed using nvivo version 8 and framework techniques. RESULTS: Self-management of diabetes was typically habitual, and urgent problems that proved difficult to resolve necessitated recourse to unscheduled hospital care. Though skills relating to problem-solving, decision-making, resource use and formation of patient-provider partnerships were evident among some participants, these required further development. Evidence of action planning or self-tailoring skills was sparse. CONCLUSIONS: Education plays an important role in assisting individuals to self-manage their diabetes on a daily basis, but urgent, unexpected health problems proved challenging for both patients and health service providers. A greater focus on empowering patients with core self-management skills is required to enhance ability to successfully manage unexpected diabetes complications, coupled with enhanced primary care resources, particularly out-of-hours. RELEVANCE TO CLINICAL PRACTICE: The importance of informal and structured diabetes education should not be underestimated; however, the challenge of improving skills such as problem-solving to manage urgent healthcare needs must be tackled. This study provokes debate regarding how best to deliver appropriate education and health services to cover urgent unscheduled care needs without automatically referring to emergency department hospital care.

'Somebody there to watch over you': the role of the family in everyday and emergency diabetes care.

This paper reports on the role of family members in everyday diabetes self-care and in diabetic crises. It is based on qualitative data drawn from 45 semi-structured interviews with a wide range of people with an established diagnosis of Type 1 or Type 2 diabetes, who were admitted to hospital for urgent or emergency treatment in connection with their diabetes. The interviews were carried out in two contrasting sites in the United Kingdom in 2009-2010, transcribed and analysed thematically with particular reference to framework analysis methods. We found that family involvement in self-care was common, and the role of family and friends was especially important when the person with diabetes needed urgent help. We comment on the diversity of family members who assisted regularly or dealt with crises, the importance of taking account of the complexities of family life, including reciprocal care, and the particular problems faced by people without family support. Finally, we make recommendations for further research and for improvements in existing services.

An extended theory of planned behavior intervention for older adults with type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease.

A randomized controlled trial evaluated the effectiveness of a 4-wk extended theory of planned behavior (TPB) intervention to promote regular physical activity and healthy eating among older adults diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes or cardiovascular disease (N = 183). Participants completed TPB measures of attitude, subjective norm, perceived behavioral control, and intention, as well as planning and behavior, at preintervention and 1 wk and 6 wk postintervention for each behavior. No significant time-by-condition effects emerged for healthy eating. For physical activity, significant time-by-condition effects were found for behavior, intention, planning, perceived behavioral control, and subjective norm. In particular, compared with control participants, the intervention group showed short-term improvements in physical activity and planning, with further analyses indicating that the effect of the intervention on behavior was mediated by planning. The results indicate that TPB-based interventions including planning strategies may encourage physical activity among older people with diabetes and cardiovascular disease.

Recovery following stroke: the role of self-management education.

Current stroke rehabilitation tends to focus on the bio-medical course of disability, often responding to psychological and social issues only when they have been implicated in crises. Although this situation is costly, little evidence exists in relation to how psychological and social outcomes can be facilitated or how psychosocial decline can be prevented. In the area of adjustment following traumatic injury, there has been some suggestion that rehabilitation should focus on the expansion of resources, skills and self-efficacy as this will enable individuals to cope more effectively with their medical condition and circumstances. The current study was a longitudinal randomised controlled trial involving 100 people with stroke, 58 of whom were randomly allocated to an intervention based on the notion of psychosocial skill expansion. All were patients of a major hospital in Queensland, Australia. An existing self-management intervention (The Chronic Disease Self-Management Course, Lorig et al., 2001) was used to operationalise the concept of psychosocial skill expansion. The control group reported declines in functioning during the first year following stroke in the areas of family roles, activities of daily living, self-care and work productivity, that were not reported by the intervention group. Although the groups had reached similar levels by one year post-stroke, this intervention may have a protective function, presumably by improving capacity to manage the functional requirements of daily life. However, the intervention did not appear to have its impact through self-efficacy, as was expected, and failed to influence outcomes such as mood or social participation. Nevertheless, the intervention warrants further investigation, given that it appears to improve rehabilitation outcomes, at least in the short-term.

Lessons from the National Mental Health Integration Program.

Three projects were funded under the national Mental Health Integration Program (MHIP) in 1999, each of which employed a different model aimed at improving linkages between disparate parts of the mental health system. A national evaluation framework guided local evaluations of these projects, and this paper presents a synthesis of the findings. For providers, the projects improved working relationships, created learning opportunities and increased referral and shared care opportunities. For consumers and carers, the projects resulted in a greater range of options and increased continuity of care. For the wider system, the projects achieved significant structural and cultural change. Cost-wise, there were no increases in expenditure, and even some reductions. Many of the lessons from the projects (and their evaluations) may be generalised to other mental health settings and beyond.

Iranian migrants' discourses of health and the implications for using standardized health measures with minority groups.

This paper explores the concept of health implied in the SF-36 within a group of Iranians in Australia. Qualitative data were collected from a sample of 21 people--10 females and 11 males. For the first time, the NUD*IST program was used to organize and manage the data in Persian (also known as Farsi), the language spoken by Iranians. Health was defined in terms of holistic, spiritual, social, physical/emotional aspects, and absence-of-disorder dimensions. Among these, physical, absence of disorder, holistic, and spiritual aspects of health were mentioned more frequently than other themes. The findings of the study raise concerns about the extent to which the SF-36 captures the diversity of the concept of health as expressed by the sample of Iranian migrants.

Relationship between psychosocial factors and health behaviours for women experiencing menopause.

This study investigated the psychosocial factors related to the health behaviours of women at menopause. These health behaviours included choice of intervention by women for menopause, particularly consultation of health professionals, use of hormone replacement therapy and preferred information sources. A postal questionnaire was distributed to a structured random population-based sample of 400 women in the 45-54 years age group living in south-east Queensland, Australia. Explanatory variables were: attitudes to menopause, social functioning, mental health, vitality, preventive health practices and lifestyle factors. This study found that information, preventive health practices, attitudes towards menopause, exercise, number of children living at home, years of formal education and working in paid employment, were related to the health behaviours of women at menopause. The study concludes that a number of related psychosocial factors not associated with hormonal changes may influence the health behaviours of menopausal women. It will be important for nurses, other health professionals and counsellors to decide how best to respond to these findings in consultation with the women affected by their decisions.