Background The incidence of mental health problems in children and adolescents in the United Kingdom has significantly increased in recent years, and more people are in contact with mental health services in Greater Manchester than in other parts of the country. Children and young people spend most of their time at school and with teachers. Therefore, schools and other educational settings may be ideal environments in which to identify those experiencing or those at the risk of developing psychological symptoms and provide timely support for children most at risk of mental health or related problems. Objective This study aims to test the feasibility of embedding a low-cost, scalable, and innovative digital mental health intervention in schools in the Greater Manchester area. Methods Two components of a 6-week digital intervention were implemented in a primary school in Greater Manchester: Lexplore, a reading assessment using eye-tracking technology to assess reading ability and detect early atypicality, and Lincus, a digital support and well-being monitoring platform. Results Of the 115 children approached, 34 (29.6%) consented and took part; of these 34 children, all 34 (100%) completed the baseline Lexplore assessment, and 30 (88%) completed the follow-up. In addition, most children were classified by Lincus as regular (≥1 per week) survey users. Overall, the teaching staff and children found both components of the digital intervention engaging, usable, feasible, and acceptable. Despite the widespread enthusiasm and recognition of the potential added value from staff, we met significant implementation barriers. Conclusions This study explored the acceptability and feasibility of a digital mental health intervention for schoolchildren. Further work is needed to evaluate the effectiveness of the digital intervention and to understand whether the assessment of reading atypicality using Lexplore can identify those who require additional help and whether they can also be supported by Lincus. This study provides high-quality pilot data and highlights the potential benefits of implementing digital assessment and mental health support tools in a primary school setting.
Background Self-harm, including suicide, is common among prisoners. Staff attitudes and perceptions regarding self-harm may affect quality of care and patient safety. Aims To systematically review the experiences, perceptions and attitudes of staff in adult prisons regarding self-harm. Method Systematic searches of EMBASE, Medline, PsycINFO and CINAHL databases were conducted, and supplemented by hand-searching and grey literature review, to identify relevant English-language articles published since the year 2000. Articles were screened by two authors and evaluated with standardised quality appraisal tools. Qualitative data were analysed thematically, whereas quantitative data were narratively synthesised because of high study heterogeneity. Results Two thousand articles were identified, of which 32 were included, involving 6389 participants from five countries. Most studies were moderate (n = 15) or poor (n = 10) quality, and seven were rated as good quality. Staff frequently witnessed self-harm and described multiple perceived risk factors and causes of this. Perceptions that self-harm is ‘manipulative’ or ‘attention-seeking’ were associated with hostility toward prisoners and lower quality of care. Perceived barriers to preventing and managing self-harm included low staffing levels, prison environments and culture, poor staff confidence and insufficient training. The importance of multidisciplinary teamwork and building staff–prisoner relationships were highlighted. Staff occasionally experienced intense psychological reactions to self-harm, which resulted in adaptive or maladaptive coping that influenced their capacity to care. Conclusions There are mixed attitudes and perceptions toward self-harm among prison staff. Further training, support and resources are required to protect staff's well-being and improve self-harm prevention and management in prisons.
BACKGROUND Recent work across Greater Manchester reports that schools, teachers, and parents/guardians are increasingly concerned about the mental health and well-being of their children, but lack the resources, skills and time to identify or support those susceptible to poor mental health. Similar concerns have been expressed by parents and teaching staff across the UK. OBJECTIVE To embed a low cost, scalable and innovative digital mental health intervention in schools in the Greater Manchester area, in order to identify and provide timely support for children most at risk of developing mental health or related problems. METHODS Two components of a digital intervention: 1) Lexplore, a reading assessment using eye-tracking technology to assess reading ability; and 2) Lincus, a digital support and monitoring wellbeing platform were implemented in a primary school in Greater Manchester. RESULTS Overall, teaching staff and children found both components of the digital intervention engaging, usable, feasible and acceptable. However, despite widespread enthusiasm and recognition of the potential added-value from Headteachers during the consultation phases of the project, we met significant implementation barriers. CONCLUSIONS This study explored the acceptability and feasibility of a digital mental health intervention for schoolchildren. Further work is needed to evaluate the effectiveness of the digital intervention and to understand whether assessing reading atypicality using Lexplore can identify those who require additional help and can also be supported by Lincus. This study provides high-quality pilot data and highlights the potential benefits of implementing digital assessment and mental health support tools within a primary school setting.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.
hi@scite.ai
10624 S. Eastern Ave., Ste. A-614
Henderson, NV 89052, USA
Copyright © 2024 scite LLC. All rights reserved.
Made with 💙 for researchers
Part of the Research Solutions Family.