The Acceptability of a Recovery Group Intervention in Acute Inpatient Mental Health Wards.

The aim of the present study was to evaluate the feasibility and explore the service user experience of a recovery-focused group intervention delivered in acute inpatient wards in a National Health Service (NHS) Trust in England, United Kingdom. Feedback from the Recovery Group Questionnaire given to patients who had attended the Recovery Group whilst admitted to acute inpatient wards was collated and analysed. The results suggest that patients found the group useful and supportive, as well as easy to follow. Themes which emerged from the content analysis included, value, challenges, support and understanding. The feedback also showed that patients found having an Expert by Experience co-facilitating was beneficial. The Recovery Group is an acceptable and feasible group intervention for those who are admitted to acute inpatient wards. Further research examining the clinical effectiveness of the intervention may be considered, however there are some barriers to doing so given the open-access format of the group.

Oral health self-care behaviours in serious mental illness: A systematic review and meta-analysis.

AIM: To understand the relationship between serious mental illness and oral health self-care behaviours using meta-analytic methods and a narrative synthesis of available literature. METHOD: The review followed the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-analyses guidelines [PROSPERO reference: CRD42020176779]. Search terms pertaining to serious mental illness and oral health were entered into EMBASE, PsycINFO, Medline and CINAHL. Eligible studies included a sample of people with a serious mental illness and a quantitative measure of an oral health self-care behaviour (eg dental visits, toothbrushing). The Effective Public Health Practice Project tool was utilised to appraise the quality of the literature. Studies in the meta-analysis contained a non-clinical or general population comparator sample. RESULTS: People with a serious mental illness were significantly less likely to visit the dentist (OR 0.46, 95% CI 0.32-0.065, p > 0.001) or brush their teeth (OR 0.19, 95% CI 0.08-0.42, p < 0.001) when compared to non-clinical comparator samples. Few studies explored other oral health self-care behaviours (eg flossing and mouth washing), but uptake was generally low in people with a serious mental illness. The study quality of included studies was variable. CONCLUSIONS: The research showed a reduced uptake of oral health self-care behaviours in people with a serious mental illness. Suboptimal oral health can negatively impact on physical, social and psychological functioning. Further research is needed to understand the reasons for low rates of oral health self-care behaviours in this population.