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M Slade

Publications and source records attributed to M Slade.

At least 37 records · Page 2Linked to original sources
PubMed1996

Assessing the needs of the severely mentally ill: cultural and professional differences.

International interest is currently focused on the effectiveness of mental health services in helping the severely mentally ill. An important outcome measure is change in the level of individual need. Little research has been done into how mental health professionals prioritise needs. This question was addressed by undertaking a survey of mental health professionals in cities in India, Australia and England. Similar priorities were found in all survey sites, and across hospital and community staff, though differences were found due to professional background. This suggests that there is some cross-cultural consistency in prioritising needs, but the choice of profession to assess need may influence the way in which needs are assessed.

Culture↗
PubMed1995

Multidisciplinary mental health teams.

This study surveyed current practice amongst 91 Indian and Australian staff working within multidisciplinary mental health teams, looking at leadership skills, conflict resolution and therapeutic abilities. Length of training was associated with management skills, though these skill were more developed by psychiatric nurses and occupational therapists working in community settings. Hospital settings involved less consensual decision-making than community teams. Psychiatric nurses spent most time in clinical work, and occupational therapists were rated as less skilled in the therapeutic activities assessed than any other profession. Psychiatrists and clinical psychologists undertook most research. The activities assessed in this study could be undertaken by a team comprising psychiatrists, psychiatric nurses and social workers, with clinical psychologists employed where possible, especially for research or service evaluation.

Australia↗
PubMed1995

The Camberwell Assessment of Need: the validity and reliability of an instrument to assess the needs of people with severe mental illness.

BACKGROUND: People with severe mental illness often have a complex mixture of clinical and social needs. The Camberwell Assessment of Need (CAN) is a new instrument which has been designed to provide a comprehensive assessment of these needs. There are two versions of the instrument: the clinical version has been designed to be used by staff to plan patients' care; whereas the research version is primarily a mental health service evaluation tool. The CAN has been designed to assist local authorities to fulfil their statutory obligations under the National Health Service and Community Care Act 1990 to assess needs for community services. METHOD: A draft version of the instrument was designed by the authors. Modifications were made following comments from mental health experts and a patient survey. Patients (n = 49) and staff (n = 60) were then interviewed, using the amended version, to assess the inter-rater and test-retest reliability of the instrument. RESULTS: The mean number of needs identified per patient ranged from 7.55 to 8.64. Correlations of the inter-rater and test-retest reliability of the total number of needs identified by staff were 0.99 and 0.78 respectively. The percentage of complete agreement on individual items ranged from 100-81.6% (inter-rater) and 100-58.1% (test-retest). CONCLUSIONS: The study suggests that the CAN is a valid and reliable instrument for assessing the needs of people with severe mental illness. It is easily learnt by staff from a range of professional backgrounds, and a complete assessment took, on average, around 25 minutes.

Adult↗
PubMed1994

A self-report Insight Scale for psychosis: reliability, validity and sensitivity to change.

Lack of insight is a frequent concomitant of psychosis and has traditionally been viewed as a binary, all or none phenomenon. Recent conceptualization has formulated insight as a continuum representing the juxtaposition of 3 factors--awareness of illness, need for treatment and attribution of symptoms. Measurement of insight has been exclusively based on interview; this method does not easily lend itself to frequent repeated measurement and requires interrater reliability to be established. A self-report Insight Scale is presented, and evidence in support of its reliability, validity and sensitivity is provided that includes a sample of 30 patients monitored during recovery from an acute psychosis. The scale is a quick and acceptable measure that may find application in investigations of acute care, cognitive therapy of psychotic symptoms and as a method of augmenting clinical judgements of insight.

Adult↗
PubMed1991

Application of forensic toxicology to the problem of domestic violence.

The role of the forensic toxicologist in helping to determine causes of death or in aiding in the resolution of "driving under the influence" or similar cases is well known and clearly understood. Less clearly defined is the position of the forensic toxicologist vis-à-vis other socially significant problems. However, as the 21st century approaches, it is worth considering how forensic toxicology can help in unraveling some of these problems. The problem of violence between intimates--that is, domestic violence--is a social problem in which it has been long felt that alcohol has played a part. Until now, though, no carefully controlled toxicological studies have been conducted to substantiate this or to determine whether other drug use is associated with domestic violence. At the San Francisco Medical Examiner's Office, toxicological data from both the victim and the suspect in 20 cases of domestic violence that ended in homicide have been gathered. It was found that alcohol or other drugs or a combination of these factors was invariably present in the suspect, the victim, or both. The implications of these results and how they can be used to develop a toxicological strategy to help reduce the most serious consequences of domestic violence are presented.

Cocaine↗
PubMed1990

HIV infection in sexually transmissible disease practice in Sydney: the effects of legislation, public education and changing clinical spectrum.

The experience with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection of a private inner-city sexually transmissible diseases (STD) clinic in Sydney was quantified. Between February 1984 and March 1988, 2073 of the Clinic's patients were tested for antibodies to HIV on 5095 occasions. Of those tested, 538 (26%) were positive for antibodies to HIV: 532 (98.9%) of the seropositives had practised male homosexual intercourse. This is the highest reported seroprevalence of HIV for any primary care service in Australia. Those individuals seropositive because of other risk behaviours were detected by voluntary contact tracing rather than by screening. Female prostitution was not found to be a risk factor for HIV. In general, rates of first HIV antibody tests were adversely affected by threatening legislation, and temporarily stimulated (among lower-risk persons) by a national television campaign. These data suggest that much of the counselling, detection and management of HIV infection in Australia is occurring in private practice, and that STD services (private and public) are at the forefront of the HIV epidemic. This has implications for disease surveillance and control, health services planning and medical education.

Adult↗
PubMed1977

HL-A histocompatibility antigens in recurrent aphthous ulceration.

The frequency of HL-A phenotypes has been investigated in 64 patients who had recurrent aphthous ulcers and 100 subjects who did not. The HL-A phenotypes were determined by a two-step microcytotoxicity test on peripheral blood lymphocytes, incubating these cells with a range of defined antiserums and complement and subsequently assessing lymphocyte viability by dye exclusion. There were no significant differences between the frequency of individual HL-A antigens in the patients with aphthous ulceration and those of subjects without aphthous ulceration. Similarly, no differences in numbers of shared antigens could be demonstrated. The distribution of HL-A antigens was essentially similar in subdivisions of patients with aphthous ulceration, grouped on the basis of sex, family history, age at onset, and maximum number of concurrent ulcers and their duration before healing.

Cytotoxicity Tests, Immunologic↗