Experiences and challenges faced by community mental health workers when providing care to people with mental health conditions: A qualitative descriptive study.

The global prevalence of mental health conditions and the associated wide treatment gaps have led to increased demand for quality mental healthcare services. In Singapore, despite a shift towards a joint provision of mental healthcare in hospitals and the community, experiences of mental healthcare teams in such hospital-community partnerships have remained unclear. Through a qualitative descriptive approach, this study explored community mental health workers' experiences and perceptions of working with partners from tertiary hospitals and other community organisations. Eighteen participants were individually interviewed with a semi-structured question guide through video conferencing. This study was guided by the 32-item checklist from the Consolidated Criteria for Reporting Qualitative Research. Data were subjected to Braun and Clark's six-step thematic analysis. Three themes emerged: (i) the need for supportive partners, due to institutional and legal challenges faced in the participants' liaison with hospital partners and other community organisations; (ii) the need for a supportive organisation, whose presence and importance were revealed by the interviews; and (iii) the necessity of advanced training, identified by the participants as a contributor to their professional growth. The findings highlighted the importance of inter-sectoral communication and positive effects of a robust organisational support system. Accordingly, hospitals and community mental healthcare organisations should consider strengthening networking and boosting case discussions through regular inter-sectoral meetings that would prioritise the clients' continuity of care. Furthermore, opportunities for advanced trainings should be created for community-based mental healthcare workers.

Effects of online stigma-reduction programme for people experiencing mental health conditions: A systematic review and meta-analysis.

Despite the increased awareness of mental health-related issues, people experiencing mental health conditions have continued to face stigmatization worldwide. The literature on help-seeking behaviours has frequently highlighted the development of self-stigma because of public stigma and emphasized the need to address public stigmatization faced by them. Given the increasing acceptance of digital services in recent years, this systematic review aimed to examine the effects of online and face-to-face anti-stigma interventions in reducing public stigma towards people experiencing mental health conditions. A search was conducted on the Cochrane Library, CINAHL, PubMed, Embase, PsycInfo, and ProQuest from inception of the databases to October 2020. Studies were included in this review if they have explored: (i) public stigmatization towards people of all ages with different types of mental health conditions; (ii) online interventions; and (iii) face-to-face interventions. Nine studies were included in this review, of which only five were included in the meta-analysis as the remaining four had incomplete data. The meta-analysis included an aggregate of 1203 participants while the four excluded studies included 713 participants. Results revealed that online interventions performed favourably with small effect sizes in comparison to face-to-face, wait-list control, and no-intervention groups. Results from the studies excluded from the meta-analysis also found a significant reduction of public stigmatization with online interventions. Such findings provide insightful evidence for the effectiveness of online interventions in reducing public stigmatization. Hence, mental health organizations and groups can consider adopting online interventions suitable for their target audience and type of mental health conditions.

The Impact of COVID-19 on nurses working in a University Health System in Singapore: A qualitative descriptive study.

Given Singapore's high population density and extensive geographical interconnections, it is unsurprising that the country reported one of the highest numbers of COVID-19 cases in Asia. Past pandemic studies have suggested that nurses working in such crises might experience a deterioration of mental health, which could persist for years beyond the initial outbreak. This study used a qualitative descriptive design to explore nurses' experiences of working in tertiary hospitals during the COVID-19 pandemic. A total of 17 registered nurses who had worked for at least one year prior to the start of the COVID-19 pandemic were recruited from a University Health System in Singapore from March to June 2020. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews lasting at least an hour conducted over an online platform by the principal investigator. The data were analysed through Braun and Clarke's six-step thematic analysis independently by two researchers. Three main themes emerged: (i) challenging moments of COVID-19, during which the participants reported physical and psychological challenges relating to working conditions of the hospital in the initial months of the pandemic; (ii) the professional role as nurses, in where the participants dispelled their worries and demonstrated commitment to their role as nurses; and (iii) support for nurses, which originated from their family, friends and leaders from their organizations for them to persevere and overcome the unprecedented challenges of COVID-19. The nurses in this study demonstrated resilience and professionalism despite the challenges of COVID-19. The findings highlighted the importance of a robust support system for healthcare professionals.

Parental Emotion Coaching: Associations With Self-Regulation in Aggressive/Rejected and Low Aggressive/Popular Children.

This study investigated associations between maternal and paternal emotion coaching and the self-regulation skills of kindergarten and first-grade children. Participants were 54 children categorized as either aggressive/rejected or low aggressive/popular by peer reports. Findings indicated a statistical trend for fathers of low aggressive/popular children to engage in more emotion coaching than fathers of aggressive/rejected children. Paternal emotion coaching accounted for significant variance in children's regulation of attention. Maternal emotion coaching moderated the relation between children's status and regulation of emotion. Findings suggest that interventions focused on parental emotion coaching may prove beneficial for increasing the self-regulation and attention skills of children with social and conduct problems.