scholarly journals Reduction in hospitalizations and emergency psychiatric care due to social distancing measures during the COVID-19 pandemic

2021 ◽  
Vol 70 (1) ◽  
pp. 54-58
Author(s):  
Maximiliano Loiola Ponte de Souza ◽  
Everton do Carmo Barbosa ◽  
Davi Queiroz de Carvalho Rocha ◽  
Fernando José Herkrath

ABSTRACT Objetivo: Assess the impact of the lockdown measures on hospitalizations and emergency psychiatric care in a capital of a Brazilian state. Methods: Psychiatric hospitalizations and emergency psychiatric attendances carried out between January 7th and May 28th, 2020, were evaluated, covering the periods before and after lockdown due to COVID-19 pandemic in the city of Fortaleza, capital of the state of Ceará, Brazil. The data in the two periods were described and presented in time series graphs. Attendances were also described according to the severity categories. Comparisons were performed using Mann-Whitney U test and test for proportions. Results: The daily average of hospitalizations and of attendances decreased in the evaluated periods from 16.0 to 10.8 (p < 0.001) and 67.9 to 35.0 (p < 0.001), respectively. This absolute reduction was observed in all categories of severity. No difference was observed in the proportion of severe attendances (2.3% vs. 2.8%; p = 0.207). The proportion of mild cases decreased from 18.6% to 10.7% (p < 0.001) and of intermediate severity cases increased from 79.1% to 86.5% (p < 0.001). Conclusion: The findings showed both a decrease in emergency psychiatric attendances and hospitalizations, which can lead to severe impacts in the absence of counterpart mitigation measures by the local mental health system.

2019 ◽  
pp. 135481661989075 ◽  
Author(s):  
Simon Hudson ◽  
Fang Meng ◽  
Kevin Kam Fung So ◽  
Scott Smith ◽  
Jing Li ◽  
...  

This study examined the impact of lodging tax increases on eight different destinations of the United States. Data were collected via in-depth stakeholder interviews and monthly statistics provided by Smith Travel Research including average daily rate, occupancy, and revenue per available room. Time series analysis was employed to estimate the impact of tax increases in each destination by analyzing that time series before and after the imposition of the tax. Overall, our results did not fully support the hypothesis that when a city’s hotel tax greatly increases above that of an easily accessible competitor, it will result in an economic loss to the city with the disproportionate tax rates. Hotels appear to have absorbed any tax increases with little impact to their businesses, but there was concern among stakeholders as to how the lodging tax was spent.


2020 ◽  
pp. 103985622093312
Author(s):  
Nagesh Pai ◽  
Shae-Leigh Vella

Objective: This article discusses the treatment that is actually provided by the Australian mental health system, arguing that the treatment provided constitutes purely psychiatric care in the sense that it is solely reliant on pharmaceuticals. This issue is framed in the context of an increasing mental health disease burden and the need to move to more holistic care in accordance with that advocated by Engel. Conclusion: Thus, with the predictions of an increase in mental and substance use in the next 30 years, it is imperative to take measures to try to negate this increasing burden and associated costs. Therefore, returning to the holistic views of Engel and incorporating the psychological and social needs of patients in treatment is recommended as a way to attempt to minimise the impact.


2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (10) ◽  
pp. e8679108875
Author(s):  
Hellen Renatta Leopoldino Medeiros ◽  
Eitan Naaman Berezin

Evaluating the impact of the 10-valent pneumococcal conjugate vaccine on the hospitalization of children under five years of age before and after its implementation in the city of Patos, PB – Brazil. The first part of this paper comprises a descriptive study with a transversal approach; the data were collected through scrutiny of the patients’ hospital records. For that effect, every medical record found from 2005 until 2015 (periods before and after the introduction of the PVC10 to the Brazilian vaccination schedule) were examined, the ones diagnosed with pneumonia were selected and those that belonged to children from Patos were analysed. The second part includes an ecological time series, whose data were collected from the Paraiba State 6thRegional Health Section database to access information from the National Immunization Program Information System (NIP-IS). It has been found that there were 1,094 hospitalizations for pneumonia on children under 5 years of age within the ten-year-period investigated. The data confirm a declining tendency of hospital admissions for pneumonia in the city of Patos-PB in the analyzed time series, and the PVC10 vaccination coverage has been effective in the analyzed municipality. Despite the declining tendency, the number of cases is still considerably high. Being aware that in the health-disease process children’s hospitalizations are caused by multiple variables including social, economic and cultural issues, it is fundamental the establishment of public policies as well as active surveillance that continuously evaluates the profiles and occurrences of pneumonia cases in Brazil.


2011 ◽  
Vol 08 (01) ◽  
pp. 09-15
Author(s):  
D. McDaid

SummaryNew forms of psychiatric remuneration linked to levels of activity undoubtedly will have an increasing role to play in mental health systems right across Europe. Potentially they can be more efficient and promote choice, but valid concerns have been raised about their impact on the sustainability and nature of psychiatric care. This article looks in particular at recent developments in England and the Netherlands and reflects on how remuneration mechanisms may need to develop further both to improve efficiency and quality within the context of an ever more fragmented and multi-sectoral mental health system. Any introduction of activity- based reimbursement should be introduced gradually. This should be accompanied by investment in adequate information systems to help better understand service utilisation patterns, transitional funding safeguards to reduce the risk of financial instability and incentives/ contractual measures to ensure that services strive to offer services of the highest possible quality that meet the needs of service users.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (15) ◽  
pp. 8215
Author(s):  
Lluís Frago Clols

COVID-19 has meant major transformations for commercial fabric. These transformations have been motivated by the collapse of consumer mobility at multiple scales. We analyzed the impact of the collapse of global tourist flows on the commercial fabric of Barcelona city center, a city that has been a global reference in over-tourism and tourism-phobia. Fieldwork in the main commercial areas before and after the pandemic and complementary semi-structured interviews with the main agents involved highlight the relationship between global tourist flows and commercial fabric. The paper shows how the end of global tourism has meant an important commercial desertification. The end of the integration of the city center into global consumer flows has implications for urban theory. It means a downscaling of the city center and the questioning of traditional center-periphery dynamics. It has been shown that the tourist specialization of commerce has important effects on the real estate market and makes it particularly vulnerable. However, the touristic specialization of commercial activities as a strategy of resilience has also been presented. This adaptation faces the generalized commercial desertification that drives the growing concentration of consumption around the online channel.


2021 ◽  
Vol 68 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-12
Author(s):  
Athanasios Thanos Giannopoulos

AbstractThis paper is concerned with the assessment of future applications of CASE (Co-operative, Autonomous, Shared, and Electric) mobility—a term that is also taken to include the more traditionally known applications of ITS (Intelligent Transport Systems). It sets the objective of making such assessments more holistic and horizontal in nature because future CASE mobility applications will include many technologies and service concepts as an integrated whole serving specific mobility objective. Traditional evaluation methodologies will therefore have to be modified to account for this situation, and to this end, the paper focuses on assessing and adapting such “traditional” methodologies. It draws from the experience gained in Greece in the last decade when a substantial number of ITS applications were implemented and assessed, especially in the second largest urban area of the country, the city of Thessaloniki (part of the EU’s European Network of Living Labs). Four basic methodologies are selected: the use of KPIs (Key Performance Indicators), focused interviews, the CMME (CASE Mobility Matrix Evaluation), and the use of safety audits before and after the CASE mobility application. For the first three, the paper suggests specific indicators and/or content. It also gives an example of the use of CMME based on a use case from Thessaloniki. The contents and recommendations of this paper provide a better understanding of the emerging situation as regards CASE mobility applications and point to the need for establishing a timely and comprehensive CASE mobility evaluation framework at both national and European levels, for future implementations.


2011 ◽  
Vol 56 (2) ◽  
pp. 989-994 ◽  
Author(s):  
C. Plüss-Suard ◽  
A. Pannatier ◽  
C. Ruffieux ◽  
A. Kronenberg ◽  
K. Mühlemann ◽  
...  

ABSTRACTThe original cefepime product was withdrawn from the Swiss market in January 2007 and replaced by a generic 10 months later. The goals of the study were to assess the impact of this cefepime shortage on the use and costs of alternative broad-spectrum antibiotics, on antibiotic policy, and on resistance ofPseudomonas aeruginosatoward carbapenems, ceftazidime, and piperacillin-tazobactam. A generalized regression-based interrupted time series model assessed how much the shortage changed the monthly use and costs of cefepime and of selected alternative broad-spectrum antibiotics (ceftazidime, imipenem-cilastatin, meropenem, piperacillin-tazobactam) in 15 Swiss acute care hospitals from January 2005 to December 2008. Resistance ofP. aeruginosawas compared before and after the cefepime shortage. There was a statistically significant increase in the consumption of piperacillin-tazobactam in hospitals with definitive interruption of cefepime supply and of meropenem in hospitals with transient interruption of cefepime supply. Consumption of each alternative antibiotic tended to increase during the cefepime shortage and to decrease when the cefepime generic was released. These shifts were associated with significantly higher overall costs. There was no significant change in hospitals with uninterrupted cefepime supply. The alternative antibiotics for which an increase in consumption showed the strongest association with a progression of resistance were the carbapenems. The use of alternative antibiotics after cefepime withdrawal was associated with a significant increase in piperacillin-tazobactam and meropenem use and in overall costs and with a decrease in susceptibility ofP. aeruginosain hospitals. This warrants caution with regard to shortages and withdrawals of antibiotics.


2021 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 22-43
Author(s):  
Lea Waters ◽  
Matthew Charles Higgins

Over the past decade, research has consistently found that positive education interventions have a beneficial effect on mental health outcomes for students, such as improvements in life satisfaction and reduction of anxiety. While it is encouraging to see these changes in student mental health, the research has not yet adequately explored whether positive education interventions change a student’s understanding of wellbeing itself. Wellbeing literacy is a new construct within the field of positive education and is defined as the ability to understand the concept and language of wellbeing. This study examines whether student language and understanding of wellbeing changes following an intervention that trains teachers in the core principles of positive education. Students across grades five, six and seven (ages 11–13; n = 231) from three Australian schools provided brief written descriptions of their understanding of wellbeing before and after their teachers undertook an eight-month positive education intervention. Thematic analysis was used as the methodological tool to analyze student language and understanding of wellbeing. Inferential frequency-based statistical analyses were used to compare the pre-intervention and post-intervention responses. The results revealed that student understanding of wellbeing evolved in four key ways to become more: (1) detailed; (2) strength based; (3) expanded/multidimensional; and (4) relational. Post-intervention understanding of wellbeing was significantly more likely to include aspects of emotional management, strengths, coping, mindfulness and self-kindness. Implications, limitations and future directions are discussed.


1997 ◽  
Vol 21 (5) ◽  
pp. 260-263 ◽  
Author(s):  
Martin Commander ◽  
Sue Odell ◽  
Sashi Sashidharan

The difficulty in achieving good quality community mental health care for homeless people has received increasing attention during the last few years. Less consideration has been given to the provision of inpatient care. By comparing data collected before and after its inception, we examined the impact of a specialist community mental health team for homeless people on ‘no fixed abode’ admissions in Birmingham. Although the team was successfully involved in the admission and discharge process in a substantial proportion of cases, many admissions still took place out of hours and involved the police, while discharge was often against medical advice and occurred without follow-up. These findings and their implications for the provision of homeless services are discussed.


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