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AbstractHigh numbers of children face mental health difficulties in the UK, leading to increased referrals to Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) which face reduced capacity and increased waiting times. Children’s mental health can deteriorate significantly during this wait for treatment. Safety Nets is an 8-week group intervention for children on CAMHS waiting lists, involving psychoeducation and physical activity co-delivered by clinicians and coaches at local sports clubs. A mixed-methods feasibility study was conducted exploring the impact of Safety Nets. A fully powered trial is now needed to further test for clinical and cost-effectiveness and to support future implementation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Self-harming behaviours can include cutting the skin, ligaturing and taking overdoses. These actions can result in infection, blood loss, or even death. A young person's risk of dying by suicide increases if they engage in self-harm. Self-help empowers people to utilise different coping strategies and implement life changes without reliance on a clinical intervention, "helping people to help themselves". Self-help toolkits contain a variety of items that are selected by the person to help them manage the urge to self-harm. The items included sensory objects, distractions, prompts to seek help and creative prompts such as colouring books and pens and personal items that trigger positive memories. AMED, EMBASE, APA Psycinfo and MEDLINE were searched with no language restriction or date restriction. Of the 368 studies screened, 13 met the inclusion criteria. The studies were mainly small scale or case studies pertaining to the use of self-help toolkits or similar. They described the need for a flexible and/or individualised approach to self-help toolkits. Abstracts and studies were screened separately by two members of the research team for inclusion. Qualitative data was analysed using Grounded Theory. Nine themes were identified: Creativity, Hope, Social contact/help seeking, calming/relaxing, sensory items, reflection, distractions, therapeutic prompts and emotional release. Self-efficacy and self-awareness were the two main mechanisms identified. Self-help toolkits were found to be acceptable and helpful, but the limited evidence base means their efficacy for reducing self-harm episodes has not been established. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Central-Bantu speakers usually use the predominant QWERTY keyboard on a combination of some local and European languages, such as Chichewa and English. There has been no research that looks into usability issues of Central-Bantu speakers typing text in English and in local languages on QWERTY. This article presents our experiments that assess the usability of multilingual keyboards for Central-Bantu language speakers. We first obtained a Central-Bantu layout that is partially optimized from QWERTY, based on the German-QWERTZ keyboard, and a highly optimized version based on the French-AZERTY keyboard. The two keyboard layouts (Entry and advanced-level) were optimized for both English and Chichewa, for a two-finger text-entry mode. Simulation tests measured text-entry rates for Chichewa and English. The usability experiments show that the text-entry rate of English is about 13 % higher than that of Chichewa, which is close to the prediction of the simulation test. The Bantu keyboards reduced this imbalance to about 4 %. While the simulation tests predicted an increase in text-entry rate, the experimental tests show a decrease in performance. Typing-error rates almost double from QWERTY to the Advanced-Bantu keyboard. In this study, we show that the Central-Bantu keyboards have high practical-performance potential for both Chichewa and English, at balanced usability levels. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This practitioner research article sought to provide an interpretation of the parental experience of video interaction guidance (VIG).Two mothers and one grandmother participated in one cycle of VIG and one interview about their experiences. Transcripts were analysed using Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis (IPA). Findings indicated that parents valued the opportunity to use video to reflect on their interaction skills. They felt empowered to use their learning to develop relationships with their children. Questions emerged about parents' experiences of control and feeling judged during VIG. Participants' felt VIG involved some judgement o f their parenting skills and their children's communication skills. This is discussed within the wider socio-cultural context of practitioner-client relationships. The article highlighted implications for VIG practitioners to be honest about their positions and mindful o f the feelings of the clients they support. Understanding o f the function o f the relationship between the guider and the VIG client was identified as an area for future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background People with mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) commonly experience cognitive impairments. Occupational therapists working in acute general hospitals in Australia routinely access client Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS) scores, and assess cognitive status using standardized tools and by observing basic activity of daily living (ADL) performance. However, limited evidence exists to identify the best assessment(s) to determine client cognitive status. Aim/objectives To determine whether cognitive status assessed by GCS score and the Cognistat are predictive of basic ADL performance among clients with mTBI in an acute general hospital and make inferences concerning the clinical utility of these assessment tools. Material and methods Retrospective analysis of medical record data on demographics, Cognistat, GCS, and modified Barthel Index (MBI) using descriptive statistics, chi-square tests and linear regression. Results Data analysis of 166 participants demonstrated that no associations exist between GCS and Cognistat scores, or Cognistat scores and MBI dependency level. The presence of co-morbid multi-trauma injuries and length of stay were the only variables that significantly predicted MBI dependency level. Conclusion and significance While the MBI scores are of value in identifying clients with difficulty in basic ADLs, Cognistat and GCS scores are of limited use in differentiating client levels of cognitive impairment and the authors caution against the routine administration of the Cognistat following mTBI. Further research is required to identify more suitable assessments for use with a mTBI population. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]