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Background: A growing body of literature points to the potential of mindfulness to support therapeutic relationships, and the importance of the therapeutic relationship when working with children and youth, yet little attention has been paid to this topic in occupational therapy. Aims/Objectives: The aim of this study was to inquire into occupational therapists' experiences of mindfulness in the therapeutic relationship with children and youth. Materials and Methods: Hermeneutic phenomenology was the methodological approach, with Heidegger's concepts of being-with and care as theoretical underpinnings of the study. Eight North American occupational therapists participated in semi-structured interviews that elicited first-hand accounts of mindfulness in the therapeutic relationship with children and youth. Interviews were transcribed verbatim and analysed using a phenomenological approach. Results: Four key themes were identified: fostering a safe space, enhancing presence, being authentic, and cultivating acceptance. Conclusions and Significance: The findings offer insights regarding the potential affordances of mindfulness to support clinicians in the development of therapeutic relationships with children and youth. Further, this study highlights research priorities for future inquiry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Psychological models of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and prolonged grief disorder (PGD) make predictions about the role of unhelpful coping strategies in maintaining difficulties by blocking self-correction of negative appraisals and memory integration following stressful life events like bereavement. However, few studies have tested these predictions directly. Method: We used counterfactually based causal mediation to assess whether unhelpful coping strategies mediated the relationship between (1) loss-related memory characteristics and/or (2) negative grief-related appraisals and symptoms of PGD, PTSD and depression using a three-wave longitudinal sample (N = 275). Appraisals and memory characteristics were measured at time point 1, unhelpful coping strategies at T2, and symptom variables at T3. Additionally, multiple mediation analyses within a structural equation modelling (SEM) framework assessed which types of coping strategies differentially mediated symptoms of PGD, PTSD and depression. Results: Coping strategies mediated the relationship between negative appraisals and memory characteristics and symptoms of PGD, PTSD and depression after adjusting for demographics and loss characteristics. Sensitivity analyses suggested that these results were most robust for PGD, followed by PTSD and then depression. Multiple mediation analyses suggested that all four subscales (avoidance, proximity seeking, loss rumination and injustice rumination) individually mediated the effect of memory characteristics and appraisals on PGD. Conclusions: These results suggest that core predictions of the cognitive model for PTSD and the cognitive behavioural model of PGD are useful in predicting symptoms of post-loss mental health problems in the first 12–18 months after loss. Targeting unhelpful coping strategies is likely to reduce symptoms of PGD, PTSD and depression. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Kratom is taken to self-treat pain and symptoms of psychiatric disorders, including substance-use disorders (SUDs) and opioid withdrawal. Before COVID-19, kratom use was increasing in the US, however, there are few published data on whether that trend continued during the COVID-19 pandemic, which could have affected kratom use in multiple ways. Aim: To examine COVID-19-related changes in kratom use and how these changes were experienced, relative to changes in other commonly used substances. Methods: Using Amazon Mechanical Turk, 2615 evaluable surveys were completed between September 2020 and March 2021. Responses from past-month and past-year kratom-using adults (N = 174) indicating changes for the better or worse were examined using generalized linear mixed effects models, and relevant open-text responses (n = 85) were thematically coded. Results: For kratom 33% (n = 58) reported a Covid-related increase and 24% (n = 42) reported a Covid-related decrease. Controlling for changes in amount used, alcohol (OR = 5.02), tobacco (OR = 4.72), and nonmedical opioid use (OR = 3.42) were all more likely to have changed for the worse, compared with kratom use. Relative to decreases in kratom use, decreases in alcohol (OR = 3.21) and tobacco (OR = 6.18) use were more likely to be changes for the better. Cannabis use was the only substance to display a probability lower than 50% of being a decrease for the better, and of the increases, cannabis use displayed the highest probability of being for the better. Conclusions: Increases in kratom and cannabis use were less likely than alcohol and tobacco to be reported as changes for the worse, and decreases in kratom and cannabis use were more likely than alcohol and tobacco to be reported as changes for the better. These findings indicate that people differently conceptualize their relationships with kratom and cannabis, compared to their relationships with alcohol and tobacco. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose To evaluate the effectiveness of clinical decision support (CDS) alerts tied to high-risk medications at a Michigan health system by determining the true prescriber action rate in response to select "do not give" (DNG) alerts. Methods A retrospective review of prescriber actions in response to CDS alerts was conducted to evaluate the effectiveness of alerts designed to prevent prescribing of high-risk medications to patients with concurrent DNG orders. The primary endpoint was the overall action rate, determined by totaling orders cancelled within the alert display and orders modified shortly after an alert. The overall action rate was hypothesized to significantly exceed the action rate estimated on the basis of alert overrides alone. Following the initial review, changes were made to the alert format and preset documentation choices ("acknowledgement comments"), and it was hypothesized that these changes would increase the overall action rate. A repeat analysis was conducted to evaluate the impact of these changes. Results Across a total of 506 CDS alerts over 14 months, 78% resulted in prescribers modifying orders to comply with alert recommendations. Prescribers cancelled orders in response to only 26% of alerts, often overriding alerts prior to modifying orders. Documentation of rationale or approval for overrides was inconsistent, and while requiring acknowledgement comments facilitated documentation of prescriber rationale, it did not consistently improve overall action rates. Conclusion These findings demonstrate that override rates alone are not good markers for the true effectiveness of CDS alerts and support the need for frequent evaluation of alerts at the institutional level. CDS alerts remain a valuable tool to prevent inappropriate prescribing of high-risk medications and for promoting patient safety. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

BACKGROUND: Kratom is taken to self-treat pain and symptoms of psychiatric disorders, including substance-use disorders (SUDs) and opioid withdrawal. Before COVID-19, kratom use was increasing in the US, however, there are few published data on whether that trend continued during the COVID-19 pandemic, which could have affected kratom use in multiple ways. AIM: To examine COVID-19-related changes in kratom use and how these changes were experienced, relative to changes in other commonly used substances. METHODS: Using Amazon Mechanical Turk, 2615 evaluable surveys were completed between September 2020 and March 2021. Responses from past-month and past-year kratom-using adults (N = 174) indicating changes for the better or worse were examined using generalized linear mixed effects models, and relevant open-text responses (n = 85) were thematically coded. RESULTS: For kratom 33% (n = 58) reported a Covid-related increase and 24% (n = 42) reported a Covid-related decrease. Controlling for changes in amount used, alcohol (OR = 5.02), tobacco (OR = 4.72), and nonmedical opioid use (OR = 3.42) were all more likely to have changed for the worse, compared with kratom use. Relative to decreases in kratom use, decreases in alcohol (OR = 3.21) and tobacco (OR = 6.18) use were more likely to be changes for the better. Cannabis use was the only substance to display a probability lower than 50% of being a decrease for the better, and of the increases, cannabis use displayed the highest probability of being for the better. CONCLUSIONS: Increases in kratom and cannabis use were less likely than alcohol and tobacco to be reported as changes for the worse, and decreases in kratom and cannabis use were more likely than alcohol and tobacco to be reported as changes for the better. These findings indicate that people differently conceptualize their relationships with kratom and cannabis, compared to their relationships with alcohol and tobacco. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Autistic children have difficulties in adapting their language for particular listeners and contexts. We asked whether these difficulties are more prominent when children are required to be cognitively flexible, when changing how they have previously referred to a particular object. We compared autistic (N = 30) with neuro-typical 5- to 7-year-olds. Each child participated in two conditions. In the switch condition, the same animal had to be re-described across trials to be appropriately informative (e.g. a participant could appropriately describe a picture as 'dog' on one trial but later the participant needed to re-describe the same picture as 'spotty dog' to differentiate it from a co-present black dog). In the no-switch condition, no picture needed to be re-described. Nonetheless, the conditions were matched regarding the requirement to use both complex (e.g. spotty cat) versus simple expressions (e.g. horse). Autistic children were more over-informative than peers even prior to the requirement to re-describe an animal. Overall, we found a main effect of the switch condition and no interaction with group. Switching a description hinders the ability of children to be appropriately informative. As autistic children are generally less appropriately informative, the requirement to switch leads to particularly poor performance in autism. The way autistic individuals use language often gives the impression that they are not considering how much information listeners need in a given context. The same child can give too much information in one context (e.g. saying 'the big cup' with only one cup present) and too little information in another context (e.g. entering a room and announcing 'the red one' when the listener has no prior knowledge regarding what this refers to). We asked whether many autistic children particularly struggle to tailor their language appropriately in situations where this means changing how they have previously described something. That is, if a speaker has recently described an object as 'the cup', the need to switch to describing it as 'the big cup' could hinder the speaker's ability to use language in a context-appropriate way. We found that switching descriptions indeed makes it more difficult for children to use language in a context-appropriate way, but that this effect did not play out differently for autistic versus neuro-typical children. Autistic children were, however, less likely to provide a context-appropriate amount of information overall than were neuro-typical peers. The combination of these effects meant that when object re-description was required, autistic children only produced an appropriate description half the time. In contrast, without a requirement to re-describe, autistic children could indeed take listener informational needs into account. Applied professionals should consider whether a requirement to change the way the child has previously said something may hinder a child's ability to communicate effectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We asked whether parental questionnaires on the heritage language proficiency of bilingual children might elucidate how proficient bilingual children are in their heritage language. We tested 20 UK-based Polish–English bilingual children between 4;5 and 5;9 years on Polish and English versions of the Cross-linguistic Lexical Tasks (CLTs). These comprise receptive and expressive picture tasks. Our bilingual group performed significantly worse on the Polish CLTs than on the English CLTs overall. They also performed significantly worse on the English CLTs than did an age- and gender-matched group of monolingual English-speaking children. Therefore our bilingual sample represent the type of bilinguals for whom education professionals have difficulty determining whether weak English is due to diminished English input vs. an underlying speech, language or communication need.Parents of the bilinguals completed a Polish adaptation of the Children’s Communication Checklist 2. They also completed the Parents of Bilingual Children Questionnaire (PaBiQ), which includes risk factor measures (‘No Risk Index’ and children’s ‘Current Language Skills’). The PaBiQ also includes measures of the Amount and Length of Exposure to the majority language (English) prior to age four as well as the Proportion of English in the current input. For the bilingual sample the CCC2 General Communication Composite (GCC), which measures structural language, significantly predicted Polish CLT production, uniquely accounting for 25% of the variance. The parent-rated PaBiQ ‘Current Polish Skills’ section predicted the Polish CLT comprehension. While the PaBiQ measure of Amount and Length of English Exposure was related to both Polish comprehension and production, it did not retain significance in a regression analysis. Therefore, parental questionnaires of the heritage language could provide a useful first step for education professionals when deciding whether to refer bilingual children for speech and language assessment. Large scale studies are needed to further develop these parental questionnaires.   [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Language comprehension delays in pre-schoolers are predictive of difficulties in a range of developmental domains. In England, early years practitioners are required to assess the language comprehension of 2-year-olds in their care. Many use a format based on the Early Years Foundation Stage Unique Child Communication Sheet (EYFS:UCCS) in which the child’s language comprehension is assigned to an age band based on written guidance. Seventy 2½–3-year-olds were assessed on the comprehension component of the Preschool Language Scale (PLS) by psychology graduates. Early years practitioners assessed language comprehension in the same children using the EYFS:UCCS and the WellComm, which involves some direct testing. The EYFS:UCCS had poor sensitivity and specificity, and the understanding section did not correlate with the PLS. The WellComm had good to acceptable levels of sensitivity and specificity and significantly correlated with the PLS. Early years setting staff can accurately assess the language comprehension of 2-year-olds if provided with a tool which gives specific instructions on administration, but current frequently used procedures (EYFS:UCCS) are not fit for this purpose. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background Bilingual children are under-referred due to an ostensible expectation that they lag behind their monolingual peers in their English acquisition. The recommendations of the Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists (RCSLT) state that bilingual children should be assessed in both the languages known by the children. However, despite these recommendations, a majority of speech and language professionals report that they assess bilingual children only in English as bilingual children come from a wide array of language backgrounds and standardized language measures are not available for the majority of these. Moreover, even when such measures do exist, they are not tailored for bilingual children. Aims It was asked whether a cut-off exists in the proportion of exposure to English at which one should expect a bilingual toddler to perform as well as a monolingual on a test standardized for monolingual English-speaking children. Methods & Procedures Thirty-five bilingual 2;6-year-olds exposed to British English plus an additional language and 36 British monolingual toddlers were assessed on the auditory component of the Preschool Language Scale, British Picture Vocabulary Scale and an object-naming measure. All parents completed the Oxford Communicative Development Inventory (Oxford CDI) and an exposure questionnaire that assessed the proportion of English in the language input. Where the CDI existed in the bilingual's additional language, these data were also collected. Outcomes & Results Hierarchical regression analyses found the proportion of exposure to English to be the main predictor of the performance of bilingual toddlers. Bilingual toddlers who received 60% exposure to English or more performed like their monolingual peers on all measures. K-means cluster analyses and Levene variance tests confirmed the estimated English exposure cut-off at 60% for all language measures. Finally, for one additional language for which we had multiple participants, additional language CDI production scores were significantly inversely related to the amount of exposure to English. Conclusions & Implications Typically developing 2;6-year-olds who are bilingual in English and an additional language and who hear English 60% of the time or more, perform equivalently to their typically developing monolingual peers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aims: To explore the impact of diabetes on sexual relationships among men and women living with type 2 diabetes People living with type 2 diabetes (PLWD) and their partners in Cape Town, South Africa. Methods: As part of a larger study developing an intervention to improve type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) self management, we conducted in‐depth individual interviews with 10 PLWD and their partners without diabetes about experiences living with T2DM, between July 2020 and January 2021. We used inductive thematic analysis. Results: Both PLWD and partners felt that their sexual relationships and desires changed post‐diagnosis, in ways beyond biomedical issues. Although couples' reports on the quality of their sexual relationships were concordant, most participants had not communicated their sexual desires and concerns with each other, causing unhappiness and fears of disappointing or losing their partner. Participants felt uninformed about sexual dysfunction but had not discussed this with their healthcare provider, leading to increased anxiety. Conclusion: PLWD and their partners need more informational support to increase their understanding of diabetes‐associated sexual dysfunction and to decrease fears and anxiety. Strengthening communication within couples on sexual issues may empower them to find solutions to problems experienced. This may improve couples' relationships and quality of life, and indirectly result in better self management of T2DM. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Activity space in people with substance use disorders (SUDs) has been assessed for theoretical reasons and for detection/prevention of relapse. In this observational study, we relate passively obtained activity space measures to mental states and behaviors relevant to the success of treatment for opioid use disorder. Our long-term goal is to use such data to assess risk in real time and to recognize when SUD patients might benefit from a just-in-time intervention. We used GPS data from 238 urban residents in the first 16 weeks of stabilization on medication for opioid use disorder to test preregistered hypotheses about activity space (distance traveled, number of locations, time spent moving, and psychosocial-hazard levels of neighborhoods where participants spent time) in relation to certain static variables (personality, mood propensities) and time-varying treatment-relevant behaviors such as craving and use of opioids and cocaine. The most consistent findings were that 1) mobility decreased over the course of the study; 2) neuroticism was associated with overall lower mobility; 3) trait-like positive mood (averaged from momentary ratings) was associated with higher mobility; 4) participants who used cocaine more frequently had lower mobility; 5) early in treatment, participants spent less time moving (i.e., were more sedentary) on days when they were craving. Some of these findings were in the expected direction (i.e., the ones involving neuroticism and positive mood), and some were opposite to the expected direction (i.e., we expected cocaine use to be associated with higher mobility); others (e.g., changes in mobility over time or in relation to craving) involved nondirectional hypotheses. Real-time information that patients actively provide is valuable for assessing their current state, but providing this information can be burdensome. The current results indicate that certain static or passively obtained data (personality variables and GPS-derived mobility information) are relevant to time-varying, treatment-relevant mental states and drug-related behavior, and therefore might be useful when incorporated into algorithms for detecting need for intervention in real time. Further research should assess how population-specific these relationships are, and how these passive measures can best be combined with low temporal-density, actively-provided data to obtain valid, reliable assessments with minimal burden. • We assessed mobility as a function of personality, mood, craving and drug use • Mobility decreased over the first 16 weeks of buprenorphine or methadone treatment • Neuroticism and persistent cocaine use were each associated with low mobility • Trait-like positive mood was associated with high mobility • Mobility was generally related more to between-person traits than momentary states [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic is a mass bereavement event which has profoundly disrupted grief experiences. Understanding support needs and access to support among people bereaved at this time is crucial to ensuring appropriate bereavement support infrastructure. Aim: To investigate grief experiences, support needs and use of formal and informal bereavement support among people bereaved during the pandemic. Design: Baseline results from a longitudinal survey. Support needs and experiences of accessing support are reported using descriptive statistics and thematic analysis of free-text data. Setting/participants: 711 adults bereaved in the UK between March and December 2020, recruited via media, social media, national associations and community/charitable organisations. Results: High-level needs for emotional support were identified. Most participants had not sought support from bereavement services (59%, n = 422) or their General-Practitioner (60%, n = 428). Of participants who had sought such support, over half experienced difficulties accessing bereavement services (56%, n = 149)/General-Practitioner support (52%, n = 135). About 51% reported high/severe vulnerability in grief; among these, 74% were not accessing bereavement or mental-health services. Barriers included limited availability, lack of appropriate support, discomfort asking for help and not knowing how to access services. About 39% (n = 279) experienced difficulties getting support from family/friends, including relational challenges, little face-to-face contact and disrupted collective mourning. The perceived uniqueness of pandemic bereavement and wider societal strains exacerbated their isolation. Conclusions: People bereaved during the pandemic have high levels of support needs alongside difficulties accessing support. We recommend increased provision and tailoring of bereavement services, improved information on support options and social/educational initiatives to bolster informal support and ameliorate isolation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]