Katherine Frew, Joanne Atkinson, Dawn Craig, Sonia Dalkin, Felicity Dewhurst, Yu Fu, Olivia Grant, Kathryn Mannix, Fiona Matthews, Paul Paes, Felicity Shenton, Daniel Stow, Adam Todd, Donna Wakefield, Barbara Hanratty
Background: The North East is one of the most disadvantaged areas of England with end-of-life care needs shaped by high levels of disability, physical and mental ill health. This programme of work aimed to set the foundation for the development of a palliative and end-of-life care research community, equipped to meet local and national challenges.
Objectives: Develop a self-sustaining research culture in North East palliative and end-of-life care. Build research collaborations around older age, frailty, multiple long-term conditions and inequalities and submit at least one research proposal. Convene a diverse patient and public advisory group.
Methods and findings: To establish cross-institutional collaborations, we worked with patient and public partners and key stakeholders from local National Health Service trusts, hospices, social care, our National Institute for Health and Care Research infrastructure (Applied Research Collaboration North East and North Cumbria, Policy Research Unit Older People and Frailty, National Institute for Health and Care Research Innovation Observatory, Comprehensive Research Network, and Research Design Service). A series of events were hosted to foster a research culture, including establishing a monthly seminar programme, research sandpits, bespoke research training and dissemination events. A diverse community of patient and public involvement partners was established to support and shape the developing research. Multiple project and two fellowship applications were supported by the partnership. A qualitative study identified issues pertinent to local access to data that could support research.
Conclusions: This work has been a catalyst for palliative and end-of-life care research and practice collaborations to develop. Funding success and ongoing research and training events should provide a platform for sustained research development in this area.
Funding: This article presents independent research funded by the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) Health and Social Care Delivery Research programme as award number NIHR135278.
{"title":"Developing palliative and end-of-life care research partnerships in the North East and North Cumbria: A report on the first year of the RIPEN network.","authors":"Katherine Frew, Joanne Atkinson, Dawn Craig, Sonia Dalkin, Felicity Dewhurst, Yu Fu, Olivia Grant, Kathryn Mannix, Fiona Matthews, Paul Paes, Felicity Shenton, Daniel Stow, Adam Todd, Donna Wakefield, Barbara Hanratty","doi":"10.3310/GJKF1425","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3310/GJKF1425","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Background: </strong>The North East is one of the most disadvantaged areas of England with end-of-life care needs shaped by high levels of disability, physical and mental ill health. This programme of work aimed to set the foundation for the development of a palliative and end-of-life care research community, equipped to meet local and national challenges.</p><p><strong>Objectives: </strong>Develop a self-sustaining research culture in North East palliative and end-of-life care. Build research collaborations around older age, frailty, multiple long-term conditions and inequalities and submit at least one research proposal. Convene a diverse patient and public advisory group.</p><p><strong>Methods and findings: </strong>To establish cross-institutional collaborations, we worked with patient and public partners and key stakeholders from local National Health Service trusts, hospices, social care, our National Institute for Health and Care Research infrastructure (Applied Research Collaboration North East and North Cumbria, Policy Research Unit Older People and Frailty, National Institute for Health and Care Research Innovation Observatory, Comprehensive Research Network, and Research Design Service). A series of events were hosted to foster a research culture, including establishing a monthly seminar programme, research sandpits, bespoke research training and dissemination events. A diverse community of patient and public involvement partners was established to support and shape the developing research. Multiple project and two fellowship applications were supported by the partnership. A qualitative study identified issues pertinent to local access to data that could support research.</p><p><strong>Conclusions: </strong>This work has been a catalyst for palliative and end-of-life care research and practice collaborations to develop. Funding success and ongoing research and training events should provide a platform for sustained research development in this area.</p><p><strong>Funding: </strong>This article presents independent research funded by the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) Health and Social Care Delivery Research programme as award number NIHR135278.</p>","PeriodicalId":519880,"journal":{"name":"Health and social care delivery research","volume":" ","pages":"1-13"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2025-12-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145688888","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Louise Wallace, Sara Ryan, Rosalind Searle, Gemma Hughes, Annie Sorbie, Gemma Ryan-Blackwell, Sharif Haider, Richard West
<p><strong>Background: </strong>In the United Kingdom, over 2.5 million health and social care professionals are registered by 13 statutory professional regulators. When professional conduct falls below standard, registered professionals may face an investigation into matters such as their conduct, health or competence via fitness to practise processes. Very serious cases are heard in public by an independent adjudication panel. The public, the largest source of concerns, may be asked by the regulator to be cross-examined in a hearing where their evidence may be crucial. Witness cross-examination is known to be distressing in the criminal context, where the victim is questioned about the harm they experienced and how they faced the alleged perpetrator. In fitness to practise, retelling stories could be similarly retraumatising. Our research focuses on the public (and colleagues) who raise concerns, including that they have been harmed by a professional, and examines their experience of engaging with fitness to practise processes.</p><p><strong>Design and methods: </strong>The study employed multiple qualitative methods. Public website materials were analysed using thematic content analysis, accessibility and readability algorithms and a useability survey about submitting a complaint (<i>n</i> = 11). The views of the public and those with personal experience of fitness to practise validated our analysis of the web content (<i>n</i> = 15). Sociolegal analysis was conducted of the United Kingdom's social work/social care regulators' conceptualisations of witness vulnerability and special measures. Twenty-seven registrants' employers were approached, and 25 were interviewed about organisational support for registrants, patients and service users. Data collection via regulators (<i>n</i> = 285) with small numbers via social media included surveys, (<i>n</i> = 64 in total) across 9 regulators, interviews (<i>n</i> = 47) across 10 regulators, ethnographic observation of hearings (<i>n</i> = 22) with 81 days of observation across 9 regulators, and documentary analysis of hearings determinations and witness statements across 13 regulators (<i>n</i> = 207). Project recommendations were coproduced through six formative workshops involving public members, legal, health and social care professionals, regulatory staff and lawyers and academics. Analytic methods included institutional ethnography, thematic analysis and narrative portraits.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>The website information for the public was often too much or too little, in inaccessible formats, and requiring high literacy and digital skills. The social care regulators' conceptions of vulnerability largely relied on inherent factors (e.g. disability), or misconduct categories, rather than being situationally sensitive to witnesses' diverse needs. The experience of those who had been harmed was found to be profoundly distressing for most participants at each stage of the fitness to practise
{"title":"Witness to Harm-Holding to Account. Improving patient, family and colleague experiences of Fitness to Practise proceedings: A mixed-methods study.","authors":"Louise Wallace, Sara Ryan, Rosalind Searle, Gemma Hughes, Annie Sorbie, Gemma Ryan-Blackwell, Sharif Haider, Richard West","doi":"10.3310/SSPP1118","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3310/SSPP1118","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Background: </strong>In the United Kingdom, over 2.5 million health and social care professionals are registered by 13 statutory professional regulators. When professional conduct falls below standard, registered professionals may face an investigation into matters such as their conduct, health or competence via fitness to practise processes. Very serious cases are heard in public by an independent adjudication panel. The public, the largest source of concerns, may be asked by the regulator to be cross-examined in a hearing where their evidence may be crucial. Witness cross-examination is known to be distressing in the criminal context, where the victim is questioned about the harm they experienced and how they faced the alleged perpetrator. In fitness to practise, retelling stories could be similarly retraumatising. Our research focuses on the public (and colleagues) who raise concerns, including that they have been harmed by a professional, and examines their experience of engaging with fitness to practise processes.</p><p><strong>Design and methods: </strong>The study employed multiple qualitative methods. Public website materials were analysed using thematic content analysis, accessibility and readability algorithms and a useability survey about submitting a complaint (<i>n</i> = 11). The views of the public and those with personal experience of fitness to practise validated our analysis of the web content (<i>n</i> = 15). Sociolegal analysis was conducted of the United Kingdom's social work/social care regulators' conceptualisations of witness vulnerability and special measures. Twenty-seven registrants' employers were approached, and 25 were interviewed about organisational support for registrants, patients and service users. Data collection via regulators (<i>n</i> = 285) with small numbers via social media included surveys, (<i>n</i> = 64 in total) across 9 regulators, interviews (<i>n</i> = 47) across 10 regulators, ethnographic observation of hearings (<i>n</i> = 22) with 81 days of observation across 9 regulators, and documentary analysis of hearings determinations and witness statements across 13 regulators (<i>n</i> = 207). Project recommendations were coproduced through six formative workshops involving public members, legal, health and social care professionals, regulatory staff and lawyers and academics. Analytic methods included institutional ethnography, thematic analysis and narrative portraits.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>The website information for the public was often too much or too little, in inaccessible formats, and requiring high literacy and digital skills. The social care regulators' conceptions of vulnerability largely relied on inherent factors (e.g. disability), or misconduct categories, rather than being situationally sensitive to witnesses' diverse needs. The experience of those who had been harmed was found to be profoundly distressing for most participants at each stage of the fitness to practise","PeriodicalId":519880,"journal":{"name":"Health and social care delivery research","volume":"13 44","pages":"1-40"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2025-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145807010","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Erica Gadsby, Emma King, Madeline Bell, Geoff Wong, Sally Kendall
<p><strong>Background: </strong>The COVID-19 pandemic interrupted and, in some cases, transformed the way health visiting teams work, the way they interact with families and children and with the wider community and other service providers. Health visiting services are organised, delivered and experienced differently in different places, with little evidence to suggest what works best, for whom and in what contexts.</p><p><strong>Objective: </strong>To synthesise the evidence on changes during the pandemic to identify the potential for improving health visiting services and their delivery in the United Kingdom.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>This realist review engaged professional stakeholders (<i>N</i> = 28) and those caring for babies during the pandemic (<i>N</i> = 6) throughout the process. We searched five electronic databases for publications on health visiting during the COVID-19 pandemic from October 2022 to April 2023. This was followed by citation searching and review of organisational websites. Programme theory was iteratively refined through discussions with the team, professional stakeholders and people with lived experience and was translated into key findings and recommendations.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>One hundred and eighteen documents informed this review; most focused on health visiting in England (56%) or the United Kingdom (34%), with relatively few from Wales (6%), Scotland (3%) and Northern Ireland (1%). Documents highlighted the widespread, uneven and lasting impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on babies and families. Findings revealed significant concerns expressed by both families and practitioners and corresponding actions taken by health visiting services. These concerns and responses emphasised the flexibility and resourcefulness of health visitors, the vital role of trusting relationships between health visitors and families and the importance of holistic assessments for early intervention. Changes in service delivery were varied and were not always evaluated or sustainable. While the data illuminated some of the hidden complexities of health visiting practice, limited evidence was found on decision-making at organisational and managerial levels during the pandemic response.</p><p><strong>Evidence limitations: </strong>Included papers were predominantly from an advocacy or practitioner perspective, and few focused on health visiting in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. Our focus on the universal health visiting pathways meant that documents pertaining to additional support received by the most vulnerable families might have been excluded. Experiences of Black, Asian and minority ethnic families and staff were illustrated in several papers.</p><p><strong>Conclusions: </strong>The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted the essential role of health visitors in safeguarding child and family well-being in the United Kingdom. While digital adaptations provide necessary continuity, face-to-face interactions remain essentia
{"title":"Health visiting in the UK in light of the COVID-19 pandemic experience (RReHOPE): study synopsis.","authors":"Erica Gadsby, Emma King, Madeline Bell, Geoff Wong, Sally Kendall","doi":"10.3310/GJEG0402","DOIUrl":"10.3310/GJEG0402","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Background: </strong>The COVID-19 pandemic interrupted and, in some cases, transformed the way health visiting teams work, the way they interact with families and children and with the wider community and other service providers. Health visiting services are organised, delivered and experienced differently in different places, with little evidence to suggest what works best, for whom and in what contexts.</p><p><strong>Objective: </strong>To synthesise the evidence on changes during the pandemic to identify the potential for improving health visiting services and their delivery in the United Kingdom.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>This realist review engaged professional stakeholders (<i>N</i> = 28) and those caring for babies during the pandemic (<i>N</i> = 6) throughout the process. We searched five electronic databases for publications on health visiting during the COVID-19 pandemic from October 2022 to April 2023. This was followed by citation searching and review of organisational websites. Programme theory was iteratively refined through discussions with the team, professional stakeholders and people with lived experience and was translated into key findings and recommendations.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>One hundred and eighteen documents informed this review; most focused on health visiting in England (56%) or the United Kingdom (34%), with relatively few from Wales (6%), Scotland (3%) and Northern Ireland (1%). Documents highlighted the widespread, uneven and lasting impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on babies and families. Findings revealed significant concerns expressed by both families and practitioners and corresponding actions taken by health visiting services. These concerns and responses emphasised the flexibility and resourcefulness of health visitors, the vital role of trusting relationships between health visitors and families and the importance of holistic assessments for early intervention. Changes in service delivery were varied and were not always evaluated or sustainable. While the data illuminated some of the hidden complexities of health visiting practice, limited evidence was found on decision-making at organisational and managerial levels during the pandemic response.</p><p><strong>Evidence limitations: </strong>Included papers were predominantly from an advocacy or practitioner perspective, and few focused on health visiting in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. Our focus on the universal health visiting pathways meant that documents pertaining to additional support received by the most vulnerable families might have been excluded. Experiences of Black, Asian and minority ethnic families and staff were illustrated in several papers.</p><p><strong>Conclusions: </strong>The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted the essential role of health visitors in safeguarding child and family well-being in the United Kingdom. While digital adaptations provide necessary continuity, face-to-face interactions remain essentia","PeriodicalId":519880,"journal":{"name":"Health and social care delivery research","volume":"13 42","pages":"1-28"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2025-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145703672","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Stephen Morris, Efthalia Massou, Josefine Magnusson, Saheli Gandhi, Pei Li Ng, Angus Ig Ramsay, Naomi J Fulop
<p><strong>Background: </strong>Evidence suggests that centralising specialist healthcare services can improve outcomes for patients but increase travel distances and times. Traditionally, people requiring specialist health care were cared for by a single specialist, with mental and physical health care delivered by separate services. Recent trends involve greater collaboration between specialists. Integrated care is the highest level of collaboration, including shared access to medical records and multidisciplinary care.</p><p><strong>Objectives: </strong>To investigate how centralisation of specialised healthcare services can be characterised. To examine the proposed integration between physical and mental health services in the care of children and young people with eating disorders and functional symptom disorders in one region of England.</p><p><strong>Design: </strong>Mixed-methods study comprising: a scoping review (conducted in November 2020) of four databases to characterise centralisation of specialised healthcare services; a systematic literature review (conducted in August 2022, updated in July 2024) of three databases to evaluate integration of physical and mental health services for children and young people with eating disorders and functional symptom disorders; an interview study of parents (<i>n</i> = 10 participants), healthcare professionals (<i>n</i> = 14 participants) and a project lead (<i>n</i> = 1 participants) to understand perspectives on integration, which analysed data in themes organised within the Consolidated Framework for Implementation Research; and two discrete choice experiments of preferences using online surveys (<i>n</i> = 400 participants).</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>The scoping review (<i>n</i> = 93 studies) found that definitions of centralisation commonly lacked detail but, where available, covered centralisation's form, objectives, mechanisms and drivers. Limited evidence suggests centralisation could be linked to better outcomes, but many important outcomes were rarely examined. The systematic review of integration found one low-quality (uncontrolled) pre-post study of eating disorders in Australia. Findings from the interviews suggest that service redesign should ensure the concept of 'integration' has shared meaning among professionals, and that agreement is reached over roles and responsibilities. From the discrete choice experiments, the main things that mattered to parents when thinking about integration were days missed from school in the case of eating disorders and time to diagnosis for functional symptom disorders.</p><p><strong>Limitations: </strong>Limited, poor-quality literature in the reviews; small numbers of interview participants; difficulties engaging parents, carers and healthcare professionals for the discrete choice experiment.</p><p><strong>Conclusions: </strong>There is a lack of evidence around integrated care for children and young people affected by eating disorders and fu
{"title":"Integration of specialised services for eating disorders and functional symptom disorders in children and young people: discrete choice experiments and qualitative study.","authors":"Stephen Morris, Efthalia Massou, Josefine Magnusson, Saheli Gandhi, Pei Li Ng, Angus Ig Ramsay, Naomi J Fulop","doi":"10.3310/CLHA1094","DOIUrl":"10.3310/CLHA1094","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Background: </strong>Evidence suggests that centralising specialist healthcare services can improve outcomes for patients but increase travel distances and times. Traditionally, people requiring specialist health care were cared for by a single specialist, with mental and physical health care delivered by separate services. Recent trends involve greater collaboration between specialists. Integrated care is the highest level of collaboration, including shared access to medical records and multidisciplinary care.</p><p><strong>Objectives: </strong>To investigate how centralisation of specialised healthcare services can be characterised. To examine the proposed integration between physical and mental health services in the care of children and young people with eating disorders and functional symptom disorders in one region of England.</p><p><strong>Design: </strong>Mixed-methods study comprising: a scoping review (conducted in November 2020) of four databases to characterise centralisation of specialised healthcare services; a systematic literature review (conducted in August 2022, updated in July 2024) of three databases to evaluate integration of physical and mental health services for children and young people with eating disorders and functional symptom disorders; an interview study of parents (<i>n</i> = 10 participants), healthcare professionals (<i>n</i> = 14 participants) and a project lead (<i>n</i> = 1 participants) to understand perspectives on integration, which analysed data in themes organised within the Consolidated Framework for Implementation Research; and two discrete choice experiments of preferences using online surveys (<i>n</i> = 400 participants).</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>The scoping review (<i>n</i> = 93 studies) found that definitions of centralisation commonly lacked detail but, where available, covered centralisation's form, objectives, mechanisms and drivers. Limited evidence suggests centralisation could be linked to better outcomes, but many important outcomes were rarely examined. The systematic review of integration found one low-quality (uncontrolled) pre-post study of eating disorders in Australia. Findings from the interviews suggest that service redesign should ensure the concept of 'integration' has shared meaning among professionals, and that agreement is reached over roles and responsibilities. From the discrete choice experiments, the main things that mattered to parents when thinking about integration were days missed from school in the case of eating disorders and time to diagnosis for functional symptom disorders.</p><p><strong>Limitations: </strong>Limited, poor-quality literature in the reviews; small numbers of interview participants; difficulties engaging parents, carers and healthcare professionals for the discrete choice experiment.</p><p><strong>Conclusions: </strong>There is a lack of evidence around integrated care for children and young people affected by eating disorders and fu","PeriodicalId":519880,"journal":{"name":"Health and social care delivery research","volume":"13 43","pages":"1-19"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2025-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145806986","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Michael Sharpe, Jane Walker, Maike van Niekerk, Mark Toynbee, Nicholas Magill, Chris Frost, Ian R White, Simon Walker, Ana Duarte, Colm Owens, Chris Dickens, Annabel Price, Rowan Harwood, Sarah E Lamb, Daniel Lasserson, Sasha Shepperd
<p><strong>Background: </strong>Older medical inpatients have complex biopsychosocial problems, which often lead to prolonged hospital stays. Proactive Integrated Consultation-Liaison Psychiatry was designed to help ward teams manage biopsychosocial complexity and thereby reduce the time that older medical inpatients spend in hospital.</p><p><strong>Objectives: </strong>To assess the experience, effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of enhancing medical care with Proactive Integrated Consultation-Liaison Psychiatry in The HOME Study.</p><p><strong>Design and setting: </strong>A parallel-group, multicentre, individually randomised controlled trial with process and economic evaluations in 24 medical wards of three National Health Service hospitals.</p><p><strong>Participants: </strong>Patients aged ≥ 65 years, admitted in an emergency and expected to remain in hospital for at least 2 days from the time of enrolment.</p><p><strong>Interventions: </strong>Proactive Integrated Consultation-Liaison Psychiatry clinicians (consultation-liaison psychiatrists supported by assisting clinicians) made proactive biopsychosocial assessments of patients' problems, then delivered discharge-focused care as integrated members of ward teams. Usual care was provided by ward teams.</p><p><strong>Process evaluation: </strong>Observations on training Proactive Integrated Consultation-Liaison Psychiatry clinicians and the care they provided; Proactive Integrated Consultation-Liaison Psychiatry clinicians' experiences of working in the new service model; patients' and ward staff members' experiences of Proactive Integrated Consultation-Liaison Psychiatry.</p><p><strong>Primary outcome: </strong>Time spent as an inpatient (during the index admission and any emergency re-admissions) in the 30 days post randomisation.</p><p><strong>Secondary outcomes: </strong>Rate of discharge for the total length of the index admission; discharge destination; length of the index admission post randomisation truncated at 30 days; number of emergency re-admissions, number of days in hospital and rate of death in the year post randomisation; the patient's experience of the hospital stay and view on its length; anxiety; depression; cognitive function; independent functioning; health-related quality of life; overall quality of life.</p><p><strong>Economic evaluation: </strong>Cost-effectiveness of Proactive Integrated Consultation-Liaison Psychiatry over 1, 3 and 12 months from a hospital perspective.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>Two thousand seven hundred and forty-four participants were enrolled (1399 male, 1345 female; mean age 82.3 years; 2565 White; 1373 Proactive Integrated Consultation-Liaison Psychiatry, 1371 usual care). Proactive Integrated Consultation-Liaison Psychiatry was experienced positively by patients (43 interviews) and ward staff (54 interviews). The mean time spent in hospital in the 30 days post randomisation was 11.37 days (standard deviation 8.74) with Proactive Integ
{"title":"Proactive Integrated Consultation-Liaison Psychiatry for older medical inpatients: The HOME Study RCT of its effectiveness and cost-effectiveness.","authors":"Michael Sharpe, Jane Walker, Maike van Niekerk, Mark Toynbee, Nicholas Magill, Chris Frost, Ian R White, Simon Walker, Ana Duarte, Colm Owens, Chris Dickens, Annabel Price, Rowan Harwood, Sarah E Lamb, Daniel Lasserson, Sasha Shepperd","doi":"10.3310/KGFS3671","DOIUrl":"10.3310/KGFS3671","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Background: </strong>Older medical inpatients have complex biopsychosocial problems, which often lead to prolonged hospital stays. Proactive Integrated Consultation-Liaison Psychiatry was designed to help ward teams manage biopsychosocial complexity and thereby reduce the time that older medical inpatients spend in hospital.</p><p><strong>Objectives: </strong>To assess the experience, effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of enhancing medical care with Proactive Integrated Consultation-Liaison Psychiatry in The HOME Study.</p><p><strong>Design and setting: </strong>A parallel-group, multicentre, individually randomised controlled trial with process and economic evaluations in 24 medical wards of three National Health Service hospitals.</p><p><strong>Participants: </strong>Patients aged ≥ 65 years, admitted in an emergency and expected to remain in hospital for at least 2 days from the time of enrolment.</p><p><strong>Interventions: </strong>Proactive Integrated Consultation-Liaison Psychiatry clinicians (consultation-liaison psychiatrists supported by assisting clinicians) made proactive biopsychosocial assessments of patients' problems, then delivered discharge-focused care as integrated members of ward teams. Usual care was provided by ward teams.</p><p><strong>Process evaluation: </strong>Observations on training Proactive Integrated Consultation-Liaison Psychiatry clinicians and the care they provided; Proactive Integrated Consultation-Liaison Psychiatry clinicians' experiences of working in the new service model; patients' and ward staff members' experiences of Proactive Integrated Consultation-Liaison Psychiatry.</p><p><strong>Primary outcome: </strong>Time spent as an inpatient (during the index admission and any emergency re-admissions) in the 30 days post randomisation.</p><p><strong>Secondary outcomes: </strong>Rate of discharge for the total length of the index admission; discharge destination; length of the index admission post randomisation truncated at 30 days; number of emergency re-admissions, number of days in hospital and rate of death in the year post randomisation; the patient's experience of the hospital stay and view on its length; anxiety; depression; cognitive function; independent functioning; health-related quality of life; overall quality of life.</p><p><strong>Economic evaluation: </strong>Cost-effectiveness of Proactive Integrated Consultation-Liaison Psychiatry over 1, 3 and 12 months from a hospital perspective.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>Two thousand seven hundred and forty-four participants were enrolled (1399 male, 1345 female; mean age 82.3 years; 2565 White; 1373 Proactive Integrated Consultation-Liaison Psychiatry, 1371 usual care). Proactive Integrated Consultation-Liaison Psychiatry was experienced positively by patients (43 interviews) and ward staff (54 interviews). The mean time spent in hospital in the 30 days post randomisation was 11.37 days (standard deviation 8.74) with Proactive Integ","PeriodicalId":519880,"journal":{"name":"Health and social care delivery research","volume":"13 41","pages":"1-85"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2025-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145703682","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Nikki Newhouse, Agne Ulyte, Zuzanna Marciniak-Nuqui, Jackie van Dael, Sonja Marjanovic, Sharon Brennan, Sara Shaw
<p><strong>Background: </strong>Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease affects around 2% United Kingdom population. Timely identification of patients at risk of deterioration is crucial. Technology-enabled remote monitoring may help prevent deterioration, support chronic obstructive pulmonary disease patients at home and appropriate use of National Health Service services. Evidence on the adoption, use and experience of technology-enabled remote monitoring in the chronic obstructive pulmonary disease pathway is currently limited, impeding efforts to inform effective technology-enabled remote monitoring design and implementation.</p><p><strong>Objective: </strong>To understand what supports good practice in the implementation and use of technology-enabled remote monitoring in the chronic obstructive pulmonary disease care pathway and draw transferable lessons that can inform spread and scale up.</p><p><strong>Design and methods: </strong>Rapid evaluation, combining qualitative interviews, focused case studies and stakeholder workshops. Patient and public voices informed evaluation design, conduct and co-design of resources.</p><p><strong>Setting and participants: </strong>Scoping interviews with a purposive sample of 29 national and regional stakeholders informed selection of four case study sites involved in delivering technology-enabled remote monitoring for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Case studies combined interviews with 19 staff and review of 18 documents. Analysis was informed by the non-adoption, abandonment and challenges to scale-up, spread and sustainability of technology framework. A stakeholder workshop (<i>n</i> = 23 participants) refined emerging findings. Interviews with respiratory patients and a co-design workshop informed development of patient-facing resources.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>Technology-enabled remote monitoring for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease occurs along a continuum of scope and scale. Technology-enabled care pathways have some common overarching features, but variation is seen across contexts and patient cohorts. Technology-enabled remote monitoring services influence care provision on a system level. Effective implementation is underpinned by service characteristics affecting its use, technology functionalities and organisational capabilities and capacities. Technology-enabled remote monitoring success also depends on defining the data-driven purpose and value proposition, ensuring buy-in, organising the workforce and workload in sustainable ways, data and IT platform interoperability, support for patients in using the service safely and appropriately, utilising existing resources, team buy-in, financial resourcing and clear policy incentives, and openness to ongoing learning. Patients value technology-enabled remote monitoring services that help them feel more connected to healthcare providers and provide timely information and support. Healthcare staff value high-quality patient care, s
{"title":"Implementation and use of technology-enabled remote monitoring for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease: a rapid qualitative evaluation.","authors":"Nikki Newhouse, Agne Ulyte, Zuzanna Marciniak-Nuqui, Jackie van Dael, Sonja Marjanovic, Sharon Brennan, Sara Shaw","doi":"10.3310/GJSS1422","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3310/GJSS1422","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Background: </strong>Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease affects around 2% United Kingdom population. Timely identification of patients at risk of deterioration is crucial. Technology-enabled remote monitoring may help prevent deterioration, support chronic obstructive pulmonary disease patients at home and appropriate use of National Health Service services. Evidence on the adoption, use and experience of technology-enabled remote monitoring in the chronic obstructive pulmonary disease pathway is currently limited, impeding efforts to inform effective technology-enabled remote monitoring design and implementation.</p><p><strong>Objective: </strong>To understand what supports good practice in the implementation and use of technology-enabled remote monitoring in the chronic obstructive pulmonary disease care pathway and draw transferable lessons that can inform spread and scale up.</p><p><strong>Design and methods: </strong>Rapid evaluation, combining qualitative interviews, focused case studies and stakeholder workshops. Patient and public voices informed evaluation design, conduct and co-design of resources.</p><p><strong>Setting and participants: </strong>Scoping interviews with a purposive sample of 29 national and regional stakeholders informed selection of four case study sites involved in delivering technology-enabled remote monitoring for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Case studies combined interviews with 19 staff and review of 18 documents. Analysis was informed by the non-adoption, abandonment and challenges to scale-up, spread and sustainability of technology framework. A stakeholder workshop (<i>n</i> = 23 participants) refined emerging findings. Interviews with respiratory patients and a co-design workshop informed development of patient-facing resources.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>Technology-enabled remote monitoring for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease occurs along a continuum of scope and scale. Technology-enabled care pathways have some common overarching features, but variation is seen across contexts and patient cohorts. Technology-enabled remote monitoring services influence care provision on a system level. Effective implementation is underpinned by service characteristics affecting its use, technology functionalities and organisational capabilities and capacities. Technology-enabled remote monitoring success also depends on defining the data-driven purpose and value proposition, ensuring buy-in, organising the workforce and workload in sustainable ways, data and IT platform interoperability, support for patients in using the service safely and appropriately, utilising existing resources, team buy-in, financial resourcing and clear policy incentives, and openness to ongoing learning. Patients value technology-enabled remote monitoring services that help them feel more connected to healthcare providers and provide timely information and support. Healthcare staff value high-quality patient care, s","PeriodicalId":519880,"journal":{"name":"Health and social care delivery research","volume":" ","pages":"1-40"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2025-11-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145574994","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Ruth Riley, Johanna Spiers, Hilary Causer, Jill Maben, Carolyn Chew-Graham, Nikolaos Efstathiou, Anya Gopfert, Kathryn Grayling, Maria van Hove
<p><strong>Background: </strong>Healthcare professionals are 24% more likely to die by suicide than the general population. The impact of such deaths on National Health Service colleagues is unclear. Early post-suicide support (postvention) is beneficial for those affected, yet little is known about how to offer this support within the National Health Service.</p><p><strong>Objectives: </strong>We set out to: (1) review existing research on suicide impact and postvention interventions in workplace settings; (2) explore the impact of colleague suicide on staff well-being; (3) examine staff perceptions of contributing factors to their colleague's suicide; (4) identify what supports or hinders bereaved colleagues in seeking help, and gather staff preferences for future support; (5) explore how managers currently support workers following a death by suicide; and (6) use the findings to develop evidence-based postvention guidance for National Health Service organisations.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>This study had four work packages: (1) an integrative review of primary research to review the impact of suicide in the workplace; (2) a qualitative interview study with National Health Service staff affected by a colleague's suicide or involved in supporting others (<i>n</i> = 29 affected staff, <i>n</i> = 22 supporters). Data were analysed using grounded theory and thematic analysis; (3) a co-production workshop with key stakeholders to review research findings and generate recommendations; and (4) a synthesis of all findings and recommendations to develop evidence-based postvention guidance.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>The integrative review revealed that existing postvention guidance often lacks empirical support and does not address how workplace culture affects staff after a suicide. Those tasked with delivering postvention face stigma and complex challenges, and current support does not fully meet the needs of affected staff. In the interview study, two theories were developed. First, staff affected by a colleague's suicide faced cultural and behavioural barriers to accessing support. Some devised strategies to overcome these barriers, while others fell through the gaps. Second, those providing postvention support also encountered barriers and required emotional and practical backing to effectively support others. Thematic analysis generated key recommendations for National Health Service trusts: (1) promote staff mental health and encourage open discussions about suicide; (2) establish trained teams to deliver timely support; (3) share information swiftly and compassionately, giving staff space to reflect together; (4) offer ongoing emotional support and staff-led activities like memorials and (5) ensure support teams also receive emotional and practical assistance. All findings and recommendations were discussed during our co-design workshop. Stakeholder attendees supported the recommendations. Findings informed our guidance, which emphasi
{"title":"Evidence of the impact on and views of NHS staff following a colleague's suicide to inform postvention guidance: a multi-methods study.","authors":"Ruth Riley, Johanna Spiers, Hilary Causer, Jill Maben, Carolyn Chew-Graham, Nikolaos Efstathiou, Anya Gopfert, Kathryn Grayling, Maria van Hove","doi":"10.3310/GFTA1212","DOIUrl":"10.3310/GFTA1212","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Background: </strong>Healthcare professionals are 24% more likely to die by suicide than the general population. The impact of such deaths on National Health Service colleagues is unclear. Early post-suicide support (postvention) is beneficial for those affected, yet little is known about how to offer this support within the National Health Service.</p><p><strong>Objectives: </strong>We set out to: (1) review existing research on suicide impact and postvention interventions in workplace settings; (2) explore the impact of colleague suicide on staff well-being; (3) examine staff perceptions of contributing factors to their colleague's suicide; (4) identify what supports or hinders bereaved colleagues in seeking help, and gather staff preferences for future support; (5) explore how managers currently support workers following a death by suicide; and (6) use the findings to develop evidence-based postvention guidance for National Health Service organisations.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>This study had four work packages: (1) an integrative review of primary research to review the impact of suicide in the workplace; (2) a qualitative interview study with National Health Service staff affected by a colleague's suicide or involved in supporting others (<i>n</i> = 29 affected staff, <i>n</i> = 22 supporters). Data were analysed using grounded theory and thematic analysis; (3) a co-production workshop with key stakeholders to review research findings and generate recommendations; and (4) a synthesis of all findings and recommendations to develop evidence-based postvention guidance.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>The integrative review revealed that existing postvention guidance often lacks empirical support and does not address how workplace culture affects staff after a suicide. Those tasked with delivering postvention face stigma and complex challenges, and current support does not fully meet the needs of affected staff. In the interview study, two theories were developed. First, staff affected by a colleague's suicide faced cultural and behavioural barriers to accessing support. Some devised strategies to overcome these barriers, while others fell through the gaps. Second, those providing postvention support also encountered barriers and required emotional and practical backing to effectively support others. Thematic analysis generated key recommendations for National Health Service trusts: (1) promote staff mental health and encourage open discussions about suicide; (2) establish trained teams to deliver timely support; (3) share information swiftly and compassionately, giving staff space to reflect together; (4) offer ongoing emotional support and staff-led activities like memorials and (5) ensure support teams also receive emotional and practical assistance. All findings and recommendations were discussed during our co-design workshop. Stakeholder attendees supported the recommendations. Findings informed our guidance, which emphasi","PeriodicalId":519880,"journal":{"name":"Health and social care delivery research","volume":"13 40","pages":"1-87"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2025-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145497793","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Henry Goodfellow, Ann Blandford, Katherine Bradbury, Manuel Gomes, Fiona Hamilton, William Henley, Fiona Stevenson, Delmiro Fernandez-Reyes, John Hurst, Melissa Heightman, Paul Pfeffer, William Ricketts, Richa Singh, Hannah Hylton, Stuart Linke, Julia Bindman, Chris Robson, Sarah Walker, Hadiza Ismaila
<p><strong>Background: </strong>By July 2020, large numbers of post-COVID patients were experiencing symptoms for weeks or months, but traditional National Health Service models of rehabilitation service delivery could not meet demand.</p><p><strong>Objectives: </strong>Design and deploy a digital health intervention to provide digitally delivered, remotely supported rehabilitation to long COVID patients on complicated and evolving pathways.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>The multidisciplinary team combined established research methods based on engineering and computer science (considering safety, stability and user requirements) with those based on biomedical and health service research (considering effectiveness and population impact). Qualitative data comprised recordings of meetings between study team members and clinicians and semistructured interviews with clinician and patient users. Quantitative data comprised referral, registration and usage rates; demographic and clinical characteristics of patients; and patient-reported outcome measures.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>We created a modifiable digital health intervention, 'Living With COVID Recovery<sup>TM</sup> developed by Living With Ltd', London, UK, that continues to be used by National Health Service trusts. The digital health intervention included integration into a clinical pathway, a clinician-facing dashboard, two-way messaging and a patient-facing app with information and evidence-based treatments. We aimed to register 1000 users. By study completion on 20 December 2022, there were 9781 patients invited, of whom 7679 (78.5%) had registered, at 33 National Health Service clinics.</p><p><strong>Limitations: </strong>Data came from patients at long COVID clinics, however data were unlikely to be representative of people with long COVID. We could not observe clinics under lockdown and had limited access to patient digital health intervention users or to people not engaging with the digital health intervention. Patient user data were incomplete, with inconsistent patient-reported outcome measure and other questionnaire data completion and no data on initial severity of disease, vaccination status, comorbidities or other individual circumstances.</p><p><strong>Conclusions: </strong>Long COVID can be extremely debilitating, comparable to stage IV lung cancer in relation to fatigue and health-related quality of life. Care and rehabilitation should address the management of fatigue and reflect the impact of social disadvantage on symptom severity. With sufficient resources, a digital health intervention can be developed quickly and effectively using agile methodology and bringing together a genuinely multidisciplinary team, including, importantly, an industry partner. Digital health intervention product design and deployment are both important in getting National Health Service trusts, healthcare professionals and patients to engage with a digital health intervention. Projects should
背景:截至2020年7月,大量新冠肺炎后患者出现数周或数月的症状,但传统的国家卫生服务体系(nhs)康复服务模式无法满足需求。目标:设计和部署数字健康干预措施,为长期感染COVID的患者提供数字交付、远程支持的康复,途径复杂且不断发展。方法:多学科团队将基于工程和计算机科学(考虑安全性、稳定性和用户需求)的既定研究方法与基于生物医学和卫生服务研究(考虑有效性和人群影响)的研究方法相结合。定性数据包括研究小组成员和临床医生之间的会议记录,以及与临床医生和患者用户的半结构化访谈。定量数据包括转诊率、注册率和使用率;患者的人口学和临床特征;以及患者报告的结果测量。结果:我们创建了一个可修改的数字健康干预措施,由英国伦敦Living With Ltd开发的“Living With COVID RecoveryTM”,继续被国家卫生服务信托机构使用。数字健康干预包括整合到临床途径、面向临床医生的仪表板、双向信息和面向患者的应用程序中,其中包含信息和循证治疗。我们的目标是注册1000名用户。到2022年12月20日研究结束时,共邀请了9781名患者,其中7679名(78.5%)已在33个国家卫生服务诊所登记。局限性:数据来自长COVID诊所的患者,但数据不太可能代表长COVID患者。我们无法观察到被封锁的诊所,接触数字健康干预患者或不参与数字健康干预的人的机会有限。患者用户数据不完整,患者报告的结果测量和其他问卷数据不一致,没有关于疾病初始严重程度、疫苗接种状况、合并症或其他个人情况的数据。结论:长COVID可能非常虚弱,在疲劳和健康相关生活质量方面与IV期肺癌相当。护理和康复应解决疲劳的管理问题,并反映社会不利条件对症状严重程度的影响。有了足够的资源,就可以使用敏捷方法,并将真正的多学科团队(重要的是,包括行业合作伙伴)聚集在一起,快速有效地制定数字卫生干预措施。数字健康干预产品的设计和部署对于让国民健康服务信托机构、医疗保健专业人员和患者参与数字健康干预都很重要。项目应与所有用户组密切合作。封锁和新患者群体的需求未得到满足,鼓励了那些本来可能不愿尝试数字健康干预的人。许多患者和诊所接受了这种数字远程支持,这有助于患者感到受到照顾,同时减少了卫生服务的压力。这可能会鼓励人们接受其他数字医疗干预措施,尽管医疗记录整合仍然是诊所的一个障碍。未来工作:本研究的重点是长期COVID数字化康复计划的开发、部署和评估。临床有效性将在“症状、轨迹、不平等和管理:了解长期covid以解决和改变现有综合护理途径”(伦敦大学学院,英国伦敦)研究中进行评估。资助:本摘要介绍了由国家卫生和保健研究所(NIHR)卫生和社会保健提供研究计划资助的独立研究,奖励号为NIHR132243。
{"title":"Development and implementation of a digital health intervention in routine care for long COVID patients: a comprehensive synopsis.","authors":"Henry Goodfellow, Ann Blandford, Katherine Bradbury, Manuel Gomes, Fiona Hamilton, William Henley, Fiona Stevenson, Delmiro Fernandez-Reyes, John Hurst, Melissa Heightman, Paul Pfeffer, William Ricketts, Richa Singh, Hannah Hylton, Stuart Linke, Julia Bindman, Chris Robson, Sarah Walker, Hadiza Ismaila","doi":"10.3310/GJHG0331","DOIUrl":"10.3310/GJHG0331","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Background: </strong>By July 2020, large numbers of post-COVID patients were experiencing symptoms for weeks or months, but traditional National Health Service models of rehabilitation service delivery could not meet demand.</p><p><strong>Objectives: </strong>Design and deploy a digital health intervention to provide digitally delivered, remotely supported rehabilitation to long COVID patients on complicated and evolving pathways.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>The multidisciplinary team combined established research methods based on engineering and computer science (considering safety, stability and user requirements) with those based on biomedical and health service research (considering effectiveness and population impact). Qualitative data comprised recordings of meetings between study team members and clinicians and semistructured interviews with clinician and patient users. Quantitative data comprised referral, registration and usage rates; demographic and clinical characteristics of patients; and patient-reported outcome measures.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>We created a modifiable digital health intervention, 'Living With COVID Recovery<sup>TM</sup> developed by Living With Ltd', London, UK, that continues to be used by National Health Service trusts. The digital health intervention included integration into a clinical pathway, a clinician-facing dashboard, two-way messaging and a patient-facing app with information and evidence-based treatments. We aimed to register 1000 users. By study completion on 20 December 2022, there were 9781 patients invited, of whom 7679 (78.5%) had registered, at 33 National Health Service clinics.</p><p><strong>Limitations: </strong>Data came from patients at long COVID clinics, however data were unlikely to be representative of people with long COVID. We could not observe clinics under lockdown and had limited access to patient digital health intervention users or to people not engaging with the digital health intervention. Patient user data were incomplete, with inconsistent patient-reported outcome measure and other questionnaire data completion and no data on initial severity of disease, vaccination status, comorbidities or other individual circumstances.</p><p><strong>Conclusions: </strong>Long COVID can be extremely debilitating, comparable to stage IV lung cancer in relation to fatigue and health-related quality of life. Care and rehabilitation should address the management of fatigue and reflect the impact of social disadvantage on symptom severity. With sufficient resources, a digital health intervention can be developed quickly and effectively using agile methodology and bringing together a genuinely multidisciplinary team, including, importantly, an industry partner. Digital health intervention product design and deployment are both important in getting National Health Service trusts, healthcare professionals and patients to engage with a digital health intervention. Projects should","PeriodicalId":519880,"journal":{"name":"Health and social care delivery research","volume":"13 39","pages":"1-27"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2025-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145491401","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Nikolina Jovanović, Maev Conneely, Sarah Bicknell, Jelena Janković
<p><strong>Background: </strong>Ethnic minority women face worse maternity outcomes and increased risk of perinatal mental health issues, yet research on the accessibility and acceptability of perinatal mental health services for these groups is limited.</p><p><strong>Objectives: </strong>(1) To explore access to and utilisation of mental health services during the perinatal period among ethnic minority women; (2) to explore care pathways to community and inpatient perinatal mental health services; (3) to explore the attitudes, experiences and service improvement suggestions of ethnic minority women with perinatal mental health problems, as well as those of their partners, family members and healthcare professionals and (4) to produce recommendations for improving clinical practice.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>Mixed-methods study was conducted during 2018-23, encompassing four studies aligned with specific aims: (1) a population-based study of 615,092 women who gave birth in National Health Services hospitals in England, using data from the National Commissioning Data Repository; (2) a retrospective evaluation of patients accessing community perinatal mental health services in Birmingham and London (<i>n</i> = 228) and inpatient services in Birmingham, London and Nottingham (<i>n</i> = 198) using an adapted World Health Organization care pathways questionnaire; (3) a qualitative study with four cohorts across England: service users (<i>n</i> = 37), non-users or those who disengaged (<i>n</i> = 23), partners/family (<i>n</i> = 15) and healthcare professionals (<i>n</i> = 24); (4) findings informed recommendations for practice improvements, coproduced with individuals with lived experience of perinatal mental illness and of being in a minoritised ethnic group. Data were analysed using quantitative and qualitative approaches.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>Access issues to mental health services were evident for Black African, Asian and White other women compared to White British women. Variability in patient journeys to community perinatal mental health services seem to stem from service-level factors rather than patient needs. Asian patients had more emergency admissions to Mother and Baby Units, while Black patients were less likely to experience multiple services before Mother and Baby Unit admission. Barriers to access included limited service awareness, fear of child removal, stigma, remote clinical appointments and unresponsive services. Despite these challenges, many women found services helpful. Family members noted gaps in family-focused care. Recommendations for improvement include raising awareness, monitoring access for different ethnic groups and addressing concerns about child removal, with a focus on consistent care, family involvement and cultural sensitivity.</p><p><strong>Conclusion: </strong>These findings shed light on health inequalities in perinatal mental health care for ethnic minority women. The results can be utilised
{"title":"Accessibility and acceptability of perinatal mental health services for women from ethnic minority groups: a synopsis of the PAAM study.","authors":"Nikolina Jovanović, Maev Conneely, Sarah Bicknell, Jelena Janković","doi":"10.3310/TDAS1298","DOIUrl":"10.3310/TDAS1298","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Background: </strong>Ethnic minority women face worse maternity outcomes and increased risk of perinatal mental health issues, yet research on the accessibility and acceptability of perinatal mental health services for these groups is limited.</p><p><strong>Objectives: </strong>(1) To explore access to and utilisation of mental health services during the perinatal period among ethnic minority women; (2) to explore care pathways to community and inpatient perinatal mental health services; (3) to explore the attitudes, experiences and service improvement suggestions of ethnic minority women with perinatal mental health problems, as well as those of their partners, family members and healthcare professionals and (4) to produce recommendations for improving clinical practice.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>Mixed-methods study was conducted during 2018-23, encompassing four studies aligned with specific aims: (1) a population-based study of 615,092 women who gave birth in National Health Services hospitals in England, using data from the National Commissioning Data Repository; (2) a retrospective evaluation of patients accessing community perinatal mental health services in Birmingham and London (<i>n</i> = 228) and inpatient services in Birmingham, London and Nottingham (<i>n</i> = 198) using an adapted World Health Organization care pathways questionnaire; (3) a qualitative study with four cohorts across England: service users (<i>n</i> = 37), non-users or those who disengaged (<i>n</i> = 23), partners/family (<i>n</i> = 15) and healthcare professionals (<i>n</i> = 24); (4) findings informed recommendations for practice improvements, coproduced with individuals with lived experience of perinatal mental illness and of being in a minoritised ethnic group. Data were analysed using quantitative and qualitative approaches.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>Access issues to mental health services were evident for Black African, Asian and White other women compared to White British women. Variability in patient journeys to community perinatal mental health services seem to stem from service-level factors rather than patient needs. Asian patients had more emergency admissions to Mother and Baby Units, while Black patients were less likely to experience multiple services before Mother and Baby Unit admission. Barriers to access included limited service awareness, fear of child removal, stigma, remote clinical appointments and unresponsive services. Despite these challenges, many women found services helpful. Family members noted gaps in family-focused care. Recommendations for improvement include raising awareness, monitoring access for different ethnic groups and addressing concerns about child removal, with a focus on consistent care, family involvement and cultural sensitivity.</p><p><strong>Conclusion: </strong>These findings shed light on health inequalities in perinatal mental health care for ethnic minority women. The results can be utilised","PeriodicalId":519880,"journal":{"name":"Health and social care delivery research","volume":"13 36","pages":"1-22"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2025-10-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145277004","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Fiona L Hamilton, Sumayyah Imran, Aamina Mahmood, Joanna Dobbin, Katherine Bradbury, Shoba Poduval, Jamie Scuffell, Fred Thomas, Fiona Stevenson
<p><strong>Background: </strong>Digital health interventions can support health-related knowledge transfer, for example through websites or mobile applications, and may reduce health inequalities by making health care available, where access is difficult, and by translating content to overcome language barriers. However, digital health intervention can also increase health inequalities due to the digital divide. To reach digitally excluded populations, design and delivery mechanisms need to specifically address this issue. This review was conducted during the evolving COVID-19 pandemic and informed the rapid design, deployment and evaluation of a post-COVID-19 rehabilitation digital health intervention: 'Living with COVID Recovery' (LWCR). LWCR needed to be engaging and usable for patients and to avoid exacerbating health inequalities. LWCR was introduced as a service into 33 NHS clinics, was used by 7679 patients, and evaluation ran from August 2020 to December 2022.</p><p><strong>Objective: </strong>To identify evidence-based digital health intervention design and deployment features conducive to mitigating the digital divide.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>Cochrane Library, Epistemonikos, National Institute for Health and Care Excellence Evidence, PROSPERO, PubMed (with MEDLINE and Europe PMC) and Turning Research into Practice; OpenGrey and Google Scholar were searched for primary research studies published in English from 1 October 2011 to 1 October 2021. Adults who were likely to be affected by the digital divide, including older age, minority ethnic groups, lower income/education level and in any healthcare setting.</p><p><strong>Interventions: </strong>Any digital health intervention with features of design and/or deployment intended to enable access and engagement by the population of focus.</p><p><strong>Comparators: </strong>Any or none.</p><p><strong>Outcome measures: </strong>Any related to participants' access and/or use of digital health intervention and/or change in digital skills and confidence.</p><p><strong>Analysis: </strong>Data from studies that met the inclusion criteria were extracted, narratively synthesised and thematically analysed.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>Twenty-two papers met the inclusion criteria. Digital health interventions evaluated included telehealth, text message interventions, virtual assistants, self-management programmes and decision aids. Co-development with end-users, user testing through iterative design cycles, digital health interventions that also helped improve digital skills and digital health literacy, tailoring for low literacy through animations, pictures, videos and writing for low reading ages; virtual assistants to collect information from patients and guide the use of a digital health intervention.</p><p><strong>Deployment themes included: </strong>Free devices and data, or signposting to sources of cheap/free devices and Wi-Fi, text message interventions, providing 'human support',
背景:数字卫生干预措施可以支持与卫生有关的知识转移,例如通过网站或移动应用程序,并且可以通过向难以获得的地方提供卫生保健以及通过翻译内容克服语言障碍来减少卫生不平等现象。然而,数字卫生干预也可能因数字鸿沟而加剧卫生不平等。为了接触到被数字排斥的人群,设计和实施机制需要专门解决这一问题。本综述是在不断演变的COVID-19大流行期间进行的,为COVID-19后康复数字健康干预措施的快速设计、部署和评估提供了信息:“与COVID-19一起康复”(LWCR)。LWCR需要对患者具有吸引力和可用性,并避免加剧卫生不平等。LWCR作为一项服务被引入33家NHS诊所,有7679名患者使用,评估从2020年8月持续到2022年12月。目的:确定有助于缓解数字鸿沟的循证数字卫生干预设计和部署特征。方法:Cochrane Library、Epistemonikos、National Institute for Health and Care Excellence Evidence、PROSPERO、PubMed (with MEDLINE和Europe PMC)和Turning Research into Practice;OpenGrey和谷歌Scholar检索了2011年10月1日至2021年10月1日发表的英文初级研究。环境和人口:可能受到数字鸿沟影响的成年人,包括年龄较大、少数民族群体、收入/教育水平较低以及在任何医疗保健环境中。干预措施:任何数字卫生干预措施,其设计和/或部署特点旨在使重点人群能够获得和参与。比较对象:有或没有。结果衡量指标:任何与参与者获取和/或使用数字健康干预措施和/或数字技能和信心变化有关的指标。分析:从符合纳入标准的研究中提取数据,进行叙事综合和主题分析。结果:22篇论文符合纳入标准。评估的数字卫生干预措施包括远程保健、短信干预、虚拟助理、自我管理方案和决策辅助。设计主题包括:与最终用户共同开发、通过迭代设计周期进行用户测试、也有助于提高数字技能和数字卫生素养的数字卫生干预措施、通过针对低阅读年龄的动画、图片、视频和写作为低识字率量身定制;虚拟助理从患者那里收集信息并指导数字健康干预的使用。部署主题包括:免费设备和数据,或标明廉价/免费设备和Wi-Fi的来源,短信干预,提供“人力支持”,提供量身定制的数字技能教育作为干预的一部分,并提供同伴/家庭支持。局限性:我们的研究延伸到2021年底,在大流行之后,文献数量大幅增加。然而,由于我们的审查是为了为LWCR数字健康干预措施的设计和部署提供信息而进行的,因此我们报告了为这项工作提供信息的结果。纳入本综述的研究是异质性的,因此通用性可能有限。很少有随机对照试验通过使用有效的措施来评估数字卫生干预对数字卫生技能的影响。结论:在制定数字卫生干预措施时使用上述设计和部署结果可能有助于克服数字鸿沟。除了为LWCR数字卫生干预措施的发展提供信息外,审查结果对数字卫生干预措施的公平设计、提供和评估具有更广泛的影响。资助:本文介绍了由国家卫生和保健研究所(NIHR)卫生和社会保健提供研究项目资助的独立研究,奖励号为NIHR132243。
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