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This paper reports follow-up findings for an Mentalization based treatment (MBT) parenting intervention delivered to a community mental health sample. Parents completed the 12-week version of the Lighthouse Parenting Program (LPP) and were evaluated on parenting practices, parent-child relationships, parental mental health indicators, and child problem behaviour levels. We evaluated the extent to which improvements in mentalizing at follow-up mediated changes in parenting, parental adjustment, mental health, and child outcomes. Results included a reduction in parental coercive behaviours and child problems, improved parent-child relationship, and better parental psychological adjustment and mental health. Improvement in self-focused mentalizing were observed. Self-focused mentalizing mediated the changes in most outcomes from baseline to 3-month follow-up. These results provide strong preliminary evidence that the LPP improves parent and child outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we sought to give voice to the unspoken issue of mothers' disintegrative responses—that is, intrusive thoughts and dissociative experiences—in the context of infant care. Three methodologies were employed: (a) in-depth interviews were conducted with 23 Israeli women up to 3 months postpartum; (b) 126 Israeli women up to 12 months after childbirth responded to an open-ended questionnaire; and (c) a clinical case study was performed. Mothers referred to intrusive thoughts as "attacks," and related primarily to three themes: fear of losing their grip, aggressive fantasies, and guilt and shame. Dissociative experiences were described as vague and elusive, with three major themes emerging: detachment, disorientation, and helplessness. We argue that the findings correspond with psychosocial approaches whereby disintegrative responses may be an indication of maternal ambivalence and a reflection of "contagious arousal" in which the mother identifies with the experience of the infant. The findings offer a new direction to clinicians working with mothers by suggesting that the mother's openness to these responses may be an opportunity for her to acknowledge subjective and repressed parts of herself and undergo a process of reintegration out of disintegration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The aim of this paper is the systematic review of psychological/psychosocial interventions for gender diverse youth under 18 years of age and their families, based on the published protocol: PROSPERO 2020 CRD42020163995. Methods: A search strategy was developed using key terms. An electronic literature search was completed using the following data bases (OVID MEDLINE; EBSCO CINAHL; ProQuest MEDLINE; OVID PsycINFO). Only studies published in English between 2001–2021 were included. This review is based on PRISMA guidance. Studies meeting inclusion criteria were quality appraised using the Mixed Methods Assessment Tool (MMAT). Results: 8405 studies were independently screened. Four studies met the inclusion criteria for the study. Parents of transgender youth attended between one and 11 psychological/psychosocial group interventions. Parents reported reduced isolation and increased knowledge, which enabled them to advocate for their young person's needs. Psychological/psychosocial group interventions were creating challenges in terms of group processes, with some parents dominating interactions. Psychological/psychosocial group interventions were positive for parents, but no outcomes were collected for transgender young people. Conclusion: More research is required to understand the role of group facilitators, the optimal group size and the number of psychological/psychosocial intervention sessions required. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mentalization refers to the capacity to understand and interpret one's own and others mental states. There is good evidence for individualised treatments aimed at increasing this capacity with children and adolescents. However, there has been no focused synthesis of the literature concerning specifically group delivered mentalization-based parenting interventions. The current study aimed to systematically review the literature in relation to group delivered mentalization-based parenting interventions. Three databases were searched to identify N =515 studies that were screened and reported according to PRISMA guidelines. Inclusion criteria were met by N =10 studies. Interventions varied in terms of content, but often included psychoeducation, experiential group exercises and homework tasks. The length and setting of interventions did not appear to influence outcomes. Significant improvements in parental reflective functioning were found in eight of the ten studies. There was mixed evidence for the efficacy in terms of other parental and child outcomes. This may be due to the lack of high quality studies and the absence of longer-term follow-ups. There is a need for future research to conduct high quality studies with greater diversity in participating parents and long-term follow-up. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background : Evidence indicates that the more traditional and behavioural parenting strategies are ineffective when parenting a child who has experienced developmental trauma. Recognising the need to parent with an attachment focus, the current paper evaluates the effectiveness of running the [Enfys] Nurturing Attachments Group, virtually, within the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. Method : A pilot feasibility study evaluated eight bespoke groups. Consenting professionals and co-professionals completed the Brief Parental Self-Efficacy Scale (BFSS), Care Questionnaire (CQ) and the Parental Reflective Functioning Questionnaire (PRFQ). Results : One hundred forty individuals attended the groups, with 51 (36%) completing both pre-and post-measures. The results provide evidence that professionals and co-professionals reported statistically significant positive increases on both the BPSS (d =.55) and CQ (d =.62). For the PRFQ, the results showed a statistically significant decrease on the Pre-mentalising sub scale, a non-significant mid-range score for Certainty about Mental States and a non-significant increase for Parental Interest and Curiosity in Mental States. Conclusion : The study has demonstrated initial viability of effectively facilitating the [Enfys] Nurturing Attachments Group, virtually. Importantly, it has also shown that the group can be run with professionals alongside co-professionals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: Patients with a combination of long-term physical health problems can face barriers in obtaining appropriate treatment for co-existing mental health problems. This paper evaluates the impact of integrating the improving access to psychological therapies services (IAPT) model with services addressing physical health problems. We ask whether such services can reduce secondary health care utilization costs and improve the employment prospects of those so affected. Methods: We used a stepped-wedge design of two cohorts of a total of 1,096 patients with depression and/or anxiety and comorbid long-term physical health conditions from three counties within the Thames Valley from March to August 2017. Panels were balanced. Difference-in-difference models were employed in an intention-to-treat analysis. Results: The new Integrated-IAPT was associated with a decrease of 6.15 (95% CI: −6.84 to −5.45) [4.83 (95% CI: −5.47 to −4.19]) points in the Patient Health Questionnaire-9 [generalized anxiety disorder-7] and £360 (95% CI: –£559 to –£162) in terms of secondary health care utilization costs per person in the first three months of treatment. The Integrated-IAPT was also associated with an 8.44% (95% CI: 1.93% to 14.9%) increased probability that those who were unemployed transitioned to employment. Conclusions: Mental health treatment in care model with Integrated-IAPT seems to have significantly reduced secondary health care utilization costs among persons with long-term physical health conditions and increased their probability of employment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Schizophrenia is a severe, chronic mental disorder that causes many psychosocial problems. In order to reveal these problems, it is necessary to measure the quality of life of people with schizophrenia. Aim: The aim of this meta-analysis is to compare the quality of life of people with schizophrenia and healthy subjects. Methods: Literature search was conducted in the Web of Science Core Collection database including the dates of January 2000 and March 2021. The systematic search provided 464 potentially relevant studies. The final sample consisted of 18 studies. Results: The results of using a random effects model for analysis indicated that schizophrenia subjects showed considerably lower quality of life scores compared to healthy controls. Conclusion: Determining the quality of people with schizophrenia will help us to create effective psychosocial intervention programs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The prevalence of mental disorders is increased among people of low socioeconomic status or educational level, but it remains unclear whether their access to treatment matches their increased need. Aims: Our objective was to examine whether educational level as an indicator of socioeconomic status is associated with use of mental health services, psychotropic medication and psychotherapy in Finland. Method: Cross-sectional data from a follow-up survey of a longitudinal, population-based cohort study were used to form a sample of 3,053 men and women aged 24 to 68 with a current or previous physician diagnosed mental disorder. The prevalence of mental disorders, mental health service use and educational level were assessed with self-report questionnaire. Educational level was determined by the highest educational attainment and grouped into three levels: high, intermediate and low. The associations between educational level and mental health service -related outcomes were assessed with binary logistic regression. Covariates in the fully adjusted model were age, gender and number of somatic diseases. Results: Compared to high educational level, low educational level was associated with higher odds of using antidepressants (OR 1.35, 95% CI [1.09, 1.66]), hypnotics (OR 1.33, 95% CI [1.07, 1.66]) and sedatives (OR 2.17, 95% CI [1.69, 2.78]), and lower odds of using mental health services (OR 0.80, 95% CI [0.65, 0.98]). No associations were found between educational level and use of psychotherapy. Conclusions: The results do not suggest a general socioeconomic status related mismatch. A pharmacological emphasis was observed in the treatment of low educational background participants, whereas overall mental health service use was emphasized among high educational background participants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]