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The COVID-19 pandemic has disproportionally affected the mental health of health and social care workers (HSCWs), with many experiencing symptoms of depression, anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder. Psychological interventions have been offered via mental health services and in-house psychology teams, but their effectiveness in this context is not well documented.
Aims
To evaluate a stepped-care psychological support pathway for HSCWs from Homerton Healthcare Foundation Trust in London, which offered psychological first aid, evidence-based psychological therapies and group-based well-being workshops.
Method
The service evaluation used a pre–post approach to assess depression, anxiety, functional impairment and post-traumatic stress disorder symptom change for those who attended sessions of psychological first aid, low- or high-intensity cognitive–behavioural therapy or a combination of these. In addition, the acceptability of the psychological first aid sessions and well-being workshops was explored via feedback data.
Results
Across all interventions, statistically significant reductions of depression (d = 1.33), anxiety (d = 1.37) and functional impairment (d = 0.93) were observed, and these reductions were equivalent between the interventions, as well as the demographic and occupational differences between the HSCWs (ethnicity, staff group and redeployment status). HSCWs were highly satisfied with the psychological first aid and well-being workshops.
Conclusions
The evaluation supports the utility of evidence-based interventions delivered as part of a stepped-care pathway for HSCWs with common mental health problems in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. Given the novel integration of psychological first aid within the stepped-care model as a step one intervention, replication and further testing in larger-scale studies is warranted.
The study is aimed to better understand how post-acute-care services help persons with acquired brain injury (ABI) and their families following acute-care discharge. Participants included 21 primary family caregivers of persons with ABI. Participants reported their level of satisfaction with 14 different post-acute-care ABI services following discharge from an acute-care ABI facility in a large south-western city in the United States. Participants completed a survey following the discharge (on average 8.1 months) of their family member from acute-care services. Surveys included both quantitative and open-ended questions. The present study focused on participant satisfaction ratings and perceptions of helpfulness among the 14 different service areas. The average satisfaction rating across the 14 service areas was 73.4%. Professional consultation and assessment (81.8%) received the highest satisfaction rating, followed by therapy and intervention (77.9%), and peer support (51.9%). Open-ended question responses on the helpfulness of post-acute-care services focused on (a) therapy and intervention and (b) professional consultation and assessment. Study findings highlight the need to track the use of ABI services from the acute-phase through long-term community adjustment. Findings also underscore the importance of targeting interventions and services specific to the post-acute phase of ABI rehabilitation.
The calving rates and calving styles of temperate glaciers that calve into fresh water are distinctively different from those of temperate tide-water glaciers. These contrasts are important for interpreting and predicting the response of ice masses to climate change. Glaciar Upsala is a large calving outlet of Hielo Patagónico Sur (southern Patagonia ice field). Its twentieth-century retreat has been climate-driven but significantly modulated by calving dynamics and by the transition from melting to calving at its eastern terminus. Here, the onset of rapid calving in the early 1980s initiated retreat at ≤440 m a−1. The 1992–93 calving rate (vc) is estimated to be 60 m a−1 in a mean water depth (hw) of 67 m. A vc/hw relationship for fresh water based on 14 sites around the world, including seven deep-water sites, confirms both the linear dependency of vc on hw and the contrast between calving rates in tide water and fresh water. As yet, no physical explanation for this contrast exists, but differences in subaqueous melt rates, longitudinal strain rates and crevassing may provide a partial explanation.
Intensive archaeobotanical investigations at Çatalhöyük have created a unique opportunity to explore change and continuity in plant use through the ca 1,500-year Neolithic to early Chalcolithic sequence of an early established farming community. The combination of crops and herd animals in the earliest (Aceramic) part of the sequence reflects a distinct and diverse central Anatolian ‘package’ at the end of the eighth millennium cal. BC. Here we report evidence for near continual adjustment of cropping regimes through time at Çatalhöyük, featuring recruitment of minor crops or crop contaminants to become major staples. We use panarchy theory to frame an understanding of Çatalhöyük's long-term sustainability, arguing that its resilience was a function of three key factors: its diverse initial crop spectrum, which acted as an archive for later innovations; its modular social structure, enabling small-scale experimentation and innovation in cropping at the household level; and its agglomerated social morphology, allowing successful developments to be scaled up across the wider community. This case study in long-term sustainability through flexible, changeable cropping strategies is significant not only for understanding so-called boom and bust cycles elsewhere but also for informing wider agro-ecological understanding of sustainable development in central Anatolia and beyond.
The study aimed to understand the use and barriers to use of post-acute-care services by persons with acquired brain injury (ABI). A total of 21 primary family caregivers of persons recently discharged from an ABI acute-care facility in a large southwestern city in the United States participated. Service use in 14 domains appeared consistent with post-discharge needs. In five service areas, participants were not aware the service was available. Professionals in acute ABI rehabilitation units need to be fully aware of the range of available potential supports and diligent in informing injured persons and their families about available post-discharge services.
Charles Roach Smith (1806–90) had a prosperous career as a druggist. His shop was in the City of London, then undergoing major excavation and redevelopment, and he began to collect the artefacts being uncovered around him. With a widening interest in all aspects of the past, Smith began to publish notes on his collection as well as antiquarian observations. (His Illustrations of Roman London is also reissued in this series.) This three-volume work, published 1883–91, reviews his activities as an excavator, collector, and co-founder of the British Archaeological Association. Pen-portraits of fellow enthusiasts and descriptions of ancient buildings and ruins are interspersed with accounts of infighting in the Association, and biting criticism of local and national authorities who refused to take on responsibility for Britain's archaeological heritage. Volume 3, published posthumously, includes Smith's accounts of his later life in Kent, and his antiquarian visits to France.
Stochastic Efficiency with Respect to a Function (SERF) is used to rank transgenic cotton technology groups and place an upper and lower bound on their value. Yield and production data from replicated plot experiments are used to build cumulative distribution functions of returns for nontransgenic, Roundup Ready, Bollgard, and stacked gene cotton cultivars. Analysis of Arkansas data indicated that the stacked gene and Roundup Ready technologies would be preferred by a large number of risk neutral and risk averse producers as long as the costs of the technology and seed are below the lower bounds calculated in this manuscript.
We give several algorithms for finitely generated subgroups of the modular group PSL2(ℤ) given by sets of generators. First, we present an algorithm to check whether a finitely generated subgroup H has finite index in the full modular group. Then we discuss how to parametrise the right cosets of H in PSL2(ℤ), whether the index is finite or not. Further, we explain how an element in H can be written as a word in a given set of generators of H.
This case describes the prenatal diagnosis and integrated peripartum management of a foetus with 2:1 atrioventricular block and torsade de pointes due to congenital long QT syndrome. The unique issues related to the detection of intrauterine conduction abnormalities and ventricular arrhythmias, along with the immediate postnatal care, have been described as an interesting teaching case with successful outcome.
Ladies and Gentlemen, Mathematicians and friends. I find myself the ass on whose back has been laid the burden of expressing our feelings on the birthday celebrations of Derek and John. It is a matter of regret that John cannot be with us, but I shall follow the famous and ill-written paper by Ella Wheeler Wilcox, and turn my mind to the happier aspects of this occasion. As we walk around the Cayley diagram of life, we are constantly at cross-roads; but a birthday is an Irish roundabout where there are but two exits: we can look forward, or we can look back.
Looking back, my first introduction to programming was re-writing the STACK-HANDLER for John's CAYLEY program to work on the Queen Mary College mainframe machine. This, of course, was written in FORTRAN; and the success of the translation owed much to expert supervision. The first time I proved a theorem as the result of computer-generated information this information was obtained using CAYLEY, on a mainframe at the ETH in Zurich, using punched cards.
At about the same time (plus or minus 10 years) Derek and I overlapped in a certain Lehrstuhl in Aachen, and I was told, in hushed tones, that this Englishman was writing a program in C to calculate cohomology groups. The combination of the two C words, namely C and cohomology, induced a feeling of awe that was akin to the feelings of builders of propeller-drive fighter aircraft towards the end of the late war towards colleagues at the other end of the shed who were building the first jets.
Medical liability remains a major concern among U.S. physicians, and according to the American Medical Association (AMA) the United States is currently experiencing its third fullblown medical liability crisis with many physicians limiting their practices as a result of rising malpractice costs. The AMA, many in the medical community, and several prominent politicians including former president George W. Bush have called for medical liability reform including caps on non-economic damages. Some researchers argue that the medical liability crisis has been overdrawn. Several studies have shown that the vast majority of patients injured through medical malpractice do not sue, that the insurance cycle is likely major contributor to rising malpractice insurance premiums, and that defensive medicine likely plays a minor role in rising health care costs. Further, evidence shows that malpractice damage caps may lead to a crossover effect where juries increase the amount of economic damages they award to offset limitations in non-economic damages available.
This case is another in a series intended to highlight the new questions emerging from advances in mapping the human genome and the application of genetic findings to clinical practice. The National Human Genome Research Institute, a component of the National Institutes of Health, by law is directed to designate a portion of its annual budget to furthering understanding of the ethical, legal, and social questions emerging from research on the human genome. As part of the effort, the Institute supports research by scientists and scholars around the nation with the aim of clarifying and resolving the tough ethical and research choices facing this endeavor. But recently it has launched an intramural program, which is expected to take a catalytic role in grappling with the array of issues the researchers face in carrying out investigations in human genetics.
Although there have been numerous technological devices introduced for the diagnosis and treatment of temporomandibular disorders, many are either ineffective or are research tools without direct clinical application. This article reviews the various modalities and makes recommendations regarding their effectiveness based on the available clinical and scientific evidence.
A variety of new observational opportunities have made transit and more generally light curve analysis central to the study of exoplanets. Talks at this IAU 253 Symposium have dramatically highlighted the measurement of the radius, density, atmospheric composition and atmospheric thermal structure, presently for relatively large, hot planets, but soon for smaller planets orbiting further from their host stars. On-going and future space observations will play a key role in the detection and characterization of these planetary systems. After a brief review, I focus on two topics: the need for a sensitive all-sky survey for planets transiting the brightest, closest stars and the follow-up opportunities afforded by the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST).
Antiviral prophylaxis is recommended for the control of institutional influenza A outbreaks. In long-term–care institutions other than nursing homes, neither the seriousness of influenza nor the risks and benefits of antiviral prophylaxis is clearly understood. We studied the severity of illness due to influenza among adults residing in a center for the developmentally disabled and assessed adverse reactions to amantadine and oseltamivir prophylaxis.
Methods:
Data were collected from the charts of consenting residents. Complications of upper respiratory tract illness were recorded. Potential adverse events were documented during amantadine and oseltamivir therapy, and during a baseline period with neither medication.
Results:
The median age of the 287 participants was 46.4 years. Only 15 (5%) were older than 65 years, and 69 (24%) had chronic underlying medical illness placing them at high risk for influenza. Of the 122 residents with an upper respiratory tract infection, 16 (13%) developed pneumonia, 12 (9.8%) were hospitalized, and 5 (4%) died. Twenty-eight (25%) of 112 residents had an adverse neurologic event while receiving amantadine prophylaxis, compared with 3 (2.7%) receiving no antiviral medication and 5 (4.5%) receiving oseltamivir (P < .001). Sixteen percent of the residents discontinued amantadine due to adverse events; in contrast, adverse events were identified in 2.9% of the residents prescribed oseltamivir, and none discontinued therapy.
Conclusions:
Viral respiratory tract infections are associated with a high risk of complications in this population. The rate of adverse neurologic events associated with amantadine was significantly higher than that associated with oseltamivir.