Background
Research has shown that an empowering and nurturing yet challenging work climate is beneficial for people receiving clinical services as it increases patient satisfaction, motivation, engagement, therapeutic alliance and functional improvement. Therefore, for inpatients, monitoring, encouraging and understanding ward climate holds considerable potential for improving forensic mental health services. To date, the most widely employed tool for ward‐climate, the Essen Climate Evaluation Schema (EssenCES), has been evidenced as useful in medium and high security hospitals, but little tested with people with learning disabilities or in low security services.
Aims
To establish the internal consistency and factor validity of the EssenCES, modified for easier reading, in a low secure hospital unit for people with learning disabilities.
Method
Language in the EssenCES was simplified and picture supplements added to facilitate comprehension. Patients completed the scale as part of their clinical routine, supported by National Health Service (NHS) employed psychology assistants. The research team, entirely independent of NHS staff, extracted data from the electronic records of purposively sampled residents in a low‐secure forensic hospital setting for people with learning disabilities.
Findings
Two hundred and twenty‐seven records (70% men) were acquired. The EssenCES was shown to have good factor validity and retained the original three factor model including the subscales: therapeutic hold, safety and cohesion. One single‐item from the ‘therapeutic hold’ subscale was removed to improve the internal consistency (p < 0.05).
Conclusions
This study adds preliminary support for the use of the EssenCES (with removal of one item) in individuals with learning disabilities within low‐risk secure forensic hospital settings.
These case studies examined the effects of mindful sport performance enhancement (MSPE) programs on competitive swimming performance, flow experience, and emotional regulation. Sixteen national competitive adolescent swimmers were randomly allocated into MSPE (n = 9) and relaxation training (n = 7) groups for 8 weeks. In the second phase of the intervention, the 16 participants were evenly split into an MSPE group for swimming and a control group for 5 weeks. The participants completed measures of trait and state flow, and mindfulness pre- and postintervention. The data analysis revealed that mindfulness had significant effects on both action–awareness merging and clear goals subscales. Further analysis revealed that the MSPE for swimming group significantly improved in terms of presence relative to the control group. In conclusion, general and sport-specific mindfulness interventions can psychologically benefit adolescent competitive swimmers.
Purpose
Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a common neurodevelopmental condition with community prevalence globally of 2%–7% (M = 5%; Sayal, Prasad, Daley, Ford, and Coghill; 2018). Clinicians are routinely encouraged to explain to children and young people the benefits of a healthy lifestyle, including exercise (NICE NG87, 2018). Exercise has been proposed as a safe and low-cost adjunctive approach for ADHD and is reported to be accompanied by positive effects on several aspects of executive functioning (EF). The purpose of this narrative review was to synthesise the contemporary randomised control trial (RCT) studies that examine the effect of sport, physical activity and movement on EF in children and adolescents with ADHD.
Design/methodology/approach
A narrative review approach with a systematic literature search using PRISMA guidelines for screening and selecting relevant systematic reviews was used. The final review included four peer-review systematic reviews (>2019).
Findings
The results identified three RCT meta-analyses and findings showed that children and adolescents with lower baseline cognitive performance demonstrated greater improvements in functioning after physical activity interventions, particularly for tasks with higher executive function demands, where baseline performance reaches an optimal level. Findings suggest that 10–20 min of acute moderate-high-intensity exercise interventions (cycling/running) appeared to have positive effects on indices of inhibitory control. Preliminary evidence suggests that as little as 5 min of jumping exercises improved inhibitory control. And 60–80 min of moderately intense, repeated (chronic) exercise appeared to demonstrate the greatest beneficial impact on selection attention.
Originality/value
To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this review is the first to present the extant literature on the effect of physical activity and sport on symptoms of young people with ADHD. It presents evidence to suggest that exercise with progressively increasing cognitive demands may have positive effects for children with ADHD, specifically in terms of improving cognitive flexibility. Further large-scale clinical trials are needed to confirm the positive effects of physical exercise on cognitive functioning in children with ADHD.
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