Predictors of long-stay in a tertiary care psychiatry hospital in India.

BACKGROUND: Many psychiatric patients continue to stay for longer duration in psychiatric institutions. Community reintegration and rehabilitation of such patients needs to be explored to ensure appropriate bed occupancy rates and access to in-patient care for newer patients in need of the same. OBJECTIVES: The aim is to identify the risk and protective factors leading to long-term admission of mentally ill patients in tertiary care hospital. METHODOLOGY: A cross-sectional study was conducted with all patients in the long-stay ward between May 2018 and February 2023. A retrospective chart review followed by cross sectional assessment of risks and disability was carried out with all the patients living in a long-stay psychiatric ward (N = 101) at a tertiary hospital in Bangalore, India, between May 2018 and February 2023. RESULTS: The hospital's average length of stay (LOS) was 5.70 ± 8.30 years. The risk and protective factors for LOS in psychiatric hospitals were analyzed using the Poisson Regression model. The results revealed that the male gender, diagnosis of schizophrenia or psychosis, clinicians' knowledge of family information, good clinical improvement, and higher participation in ward activities are the protective factors for a shorter hospital stay. While higher age, family history of mental illness, being married and employed, absence of children, and/or having family members rarely visiting the patient at the hospital were some factors that increased the risk of LOS. CONCLUSION: This study highlighted the importance of possible LOS predictors in the tertiary care psychiatric hospital. The multi-disciplinary team may utilize risk and protective factors for delayed LOS to introduce comprehensive psychosocial interventions and policies that reduce the risk of delays or length of stay in mental health hospitals.

Impact Evaluation of Technology Driven Mental Health Capacity Building in Bihar, India.

Task-shifting is an important means to address the barrier of inadequate specialist human resources for mental health in countries such as India. This paper aims to report the impact of one such task-shifting initiative. Twenty-two non-specialist Medical Officers of Bihar, an eastern Indian state were engaged in a ten-month long hybrid (a 15-days onsite orientation to psychiatry and periodic online mentoring in primary care psychiatry) training program to enable them to identify commonly presenting psychiatric disorders in their respective clinics. 20 online sessions (hub and spoke ECHO model) occurred over the next 10 months. Apart from didactic topics, 75 cases covering severe mental disorders, common mental disorders and substance use disorders were discussed (case presentations by the primary care doctors (PCDs)) and moderated by a specialist psychiatrist and clinical psychologist). 12 successive self-reported monthly reports (comprising of the number and nature of psychiatric cases seen by the trainee PCDs) were analyzed. The mean (SD) number of sessions attended was 9 (8.0) and median was 13 (Range: 0-20). Mean number of cases (per PCD) discussed was 3.4 (3.4) (Median: 4; Range: 0-10). Total 20,909 patients were cared for in the 12 months after initiation of the training program. Increasingly, a greater number of patients were cared for as the training progressed. This pattern was mainly driven by more identifications of severe mental disorders (SMDs), common mental disorders (CMDs), dementias and substance use disorders. Mean (SD) number of patients seen per month before and after training was 1340.33 (86.73) and 1876.44 (236.51) (t = - 3.5, p < 0.05) respectively. A hybrid model of training PCDs is feasible and can be effective in identification of persons with psychiatric disorders in the community. Prospective, well designed studies are essential to demonstrate the effectiveness of this model.

Profile of recipients of holistic health counselling in a psychiatric OPD in South India.

BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY: Persons with mental illness (PwMI) are prone to weight gain as a side effect of antipsychotics. Health counselling on diet, physical activity, medication adherence, expressed emotions and technology use, by health professionals, can help in managing these side-effects. AIM: The aim of this study was to identify the pre-counselling profile of the subjects such as body mass index (BMI), diet, physical activity, medication adherence, expressed emotions and technology use among PwMI; to attend the Holistic Health Clinic as part of follow-up services in the psychiatry Outpatient Department (OPD) as well as to find correlation and association between the study variables. METHODS: The study involved a cross-sectional descriptive design based on convenience sampling. The sample consists of 56 patients who are receiving antipsychotics under symptom control (self-reported) and were overweight. Data were collected with a patient assessment proforma and analysed using SPSS-22. RESULTS: The patients referred to the holistic health counselling (HHC) had abnormal weight and BMI. The mean and SD of weight was 74.48 ± 14.07 and BMI 29.51 ± 5.15. All the participants received counselling on diet, 87.5% on physical activity, 62.5% on sleep hygiene, 55.4% on medication adherence, 8.9% on family emotional climate and only 5.4% on healthy use of technology. Weight has shown significant relation with gender (male = 80.84 ± 17.71, female = 71.09 ± 10.52, t = -2.52, p = .015) and near to significant relationship (χ2 = 7.685, p = .053) with educational status. CONCLUSION: Patients receiving second-generation antipsychotics (SGA) have lesser extra pyramidal side-effects; however, they are more prone to gain weight. Proper screening and counselling during the follow-up visit in the outpatient setting can help in identification, prevention and management of the obesity-related metabolic syndrome and cardiovascular disease (CVD), and motivate them to adopt healthy behaviours.