Database of peer review publications written by occupational therapists about mental health

An Excel spreadsheet which includes every peer reviewed publication written by occupational therapists in mental health since 2000. It is updated each January to include the previous years publications. Information recorded includes author number, author designation, bibliographic details (i.e. title, journal), categorisation according to doing/being/becoming/belonging, levels of evidence and days between submission and acceptance, and acceptance and publication.

A study protocol of a randomised controlled trial incorporating a health economic analysis to investigate if additional allied health services for rehabilitation reduce length of stay without compromising patient outcomes

Background
Reducing patient length of stay is a high priority for health service providers. Preliminary information suggests additional Saturday rehabilitation services could reduce the time a patient stays in hospital by three days. This large trial will examine if providing additional physiotherapy and occupational therapy services on a Saturday reduces health care costs, and improves the health of hospital inpatients receiving rehabilitation compared to the usual Monday to Friday service. We will also investigate the cost effectiveness and patient outcomes of such a service.
Methods/Design A randomised controlled trial will evaluate the effect of providing additional physiotherapy and occupational therapy for rehabilitation. Seven hundred and twelve patients receiving inpatient rehabilitation at two metropolitan sites will be randomly allocated to the intervention group or control group. The control group will receive usual care physiotherapy and occupational therapy from Monday to Friday while the intervention group will receive the same amount of rehabilitation as the control group Monday to Friday plus a full physiotherapy and occupational therapy service on Saturday. The primary outcomes will be patient length of stay, quality of life (EuroQol questionnaire), the Functional Independence Measure (FIM), and health utilization and cost data. Secondary outcomes will assess clinical outcomes relevant to the goals of therapy: the 10 metre walk test, the timed up and go test, the Personal Care Participation Assessment and Resource Tool (PC PART), and the modified motor assessment scale. Blinded assessors will assess outcomes at admission and discharge, and follow up data on quality of life, function and health care costs will be collected at 6 and 12 months after discharge. Between group differences will be analysed with analysis of covariance using baseline measures as the covariate. A health economic analysis will be carried out alongside the randomised controlled trial.
Discussion This paper outlines the study protocol for the first fully powered randomised controlled trial incorporating a health economic analysis to establish if additional Saturday allied health services for rehabilitation inpatients reduces length of stay without compromising discharge outcomes. If successful, this trial will have substantial health benefits for the patients and for organizations delivering rehabilitation services.

Understanding social work practice in mental health

Book review of: Understanding social work practice in mental health, by Vicki Coppock & Bob Dunn, 2010.

Repositioning social work in mental health: challenges and opportunities for critical practice

This paper emerges in response to the recent initiative by the Australian Association of Social Workers (AASW) to mandate the inclusion of specific, clinically based mental health curriculum into qualifying social work programs across Australia. Whilst the authors affirm the importance of an emphasis of mental health in social work education, we further suggest that the professional repositioning of social work in mental health must be informed by critical/postmodern theoretical approaches. If social work is to engender and maintain its unique and vital role in problematising simplistic, depoliticised and individualising constructions of mental health and illness, we need to promote more contextualised and holistic understandings of people’s experiences. The paper concludes by offering an example of critical mental health curriculum.

Social work practice in mental health: an introduction

Book review of: Social Work Practice in Mental Health: An Introduction