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B Falconer

Publications and source records attributed to B Falconer.

9 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed1997

The pattern-of-care model: a tool for planning community mental health services.

In periods of change, psychiatric services must project outcomes of decisions about service innovations and reductions, including budgetary implications. To support such decision making, a public-sector psychiatric service in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, developed a modeling tool that combines data from its service activity database and budgetary information with modeling techniques based on use of a spreadsheet. The model is based on clients' use of three major service components: the inpatient unit, continuing clinical care and consultancy services, and crisis assessment and treatment services. It classifies clients according to patterns of care-that is, whether they used one, two, or three of the components, in various combinations. The authors report service use and financial data derived from the model for the financial year 1992-1993. They describe two scenarios for using the model to project changes in patterns of care and costs when new services are implemented. Such a model can clarify costs, including opportunity costs, of management decisions and facilitate participation of senior clinicians in active service planning within the realities of budgetary constraints.

Budgets↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Post-mortem findings of cardiac lesions in epileptics: a preliminary report.

In search of satisfactory cause of death in epileptics an attempt was made to examine the hearts with special regard to microscopic findings. All nine examined cases showed fibrosis of the minor arterial walls as well as interstitial fibrosis connected with atrophy or myofibrillar degeneration. Five cases had subendocardial fibrosis, and 4 leukocytic infiltration resembling focal myocarditis. In one case, a fibroma (hamartoma?) of the atrioventricular bundle could presumably explain the symptoms of epilepsy. The authors conclude that epilepsy may be a possible cause of ischemic or hypoxic cardiomyopathy which can contribute to the cause of sudden death amongst epileptics.

Adult↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Cardiac lesions in intravenous drug addicts.

Postmortem findings in 25 intravenous addicts of centrally stimulating amines and centrally depressive narcotics (opiates) have been analysed with special reference to the presence of pathologic findings in the heart, and the cause of death. Most cases exhibited myocardial lesions of varying age, consistent with various phases of myofibrillar degeneration, such as hemorrhages, contraction bands, focal necroses, granulation tissue, stromal condensation, and scarring, indicating an active chronic process in the myocardium and the subendocardium, with a bias toward the conduction system of the heart. The lesions have been found in drug addicts who died immediately following an injection of narcotics as well as in those who, irrespective of their drug influence, have died following intervening injuries or disease. Cardiac lesions in drug addicts seem to have a variety of causative factors: infections, toxic influence, hypersensitivity, influence of catecholamines and general hypoxia. The authors feel that the two latter suggested causes appear most regularly and deserve special attention. The significance of these heart lesions seems to vary, but at times they may be the determining factor in the fatal outcome of a case.

Adult↗