Behavioral And Psychiatric Health Problems In Iranian Students During The COVID-19 Pandemic

Background: the study of behavioral and psychiatric health problems in space and time, can help to improve health services for adolescents and children by increasing understanding of causes, development, and course of psychiatric disorders. This study aimed to examine the behavioral and psychiatric status of adolescences during the pandemic to address the effect of the pandemic and isolation on adolescent behavioral and psychiatric health.Methods: This cross-sectional study has been carried out through cluster sampling design on 322 normal students aged 12-18 attending in public high and elementary school in Esfahan, Iran. They completed study instrument that included the 110-item the Child Symptom Inventory-4 (CSI-4) and those inquiring the students’ demographic information. Results: Findings showed that 58% students met criteria for all psychiatric symptoms except of the autism and Asperger’s disorders, and 39.5% suffered from more than one comorbid categories of psychiatric disorders. The most common psychiatric disorders in boys and girls were ADHD (18.5%), ODD (15%), ADHD-C (13.5%), GAD (12.8%), ADHD: HI (11.5), and MDD (10.8%). Conclusion: Most of students suffered from more than one co-morbid category of psychiatric disorders. It is better to develop effective strategies and interventions, train students about self-protection, and establish a psychological crisis intervention team to minimize the psychological impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Costs and Savings Associated With the Police Use of the interRAI Brief Mental Health Screener

Background: The police response to calls for service identified as being related to mental health continues to be highly controversial. Strategies to improve the police response include Crisis Intervention Team (CIT) training and various forms of co-response models neither of which have been subjected to comprehensive evaluations, particularly as to cost-efficiency. A new approach is the use of the interRAI Brief Mental Health Screener to enhance police officer ability to identify persons with serious mental disorders. The purpose of the current study is to evaluate the costs and cost efficiency of the police response to mental health calls using the interRAI Brief Mental Health Screener.Method: Secondary data was analyzed from the use of the screener from 2018 to 2020 by police officers in a mid-sized Canadian city. Changes were measured in the overall number of interactions police officers had with persons with mental health disorders, the number of incidents where police officers referred the person to hospital, and the time officers remained in the emergency department.Results: A total of 6,727 assessments were completed with involuntary referrals decreasing by 30%, and voluntary referrals by 34%. The overall time police officers were involved in involuntary referrals decreased from 123 min in 2018 to 113 min in 2020. The average emergency department wait time for voluntary referrals dropped from 41 min in 2018 to 27 min in 2020, while involuntary referrals decreased from 61 min in 2018 to 42 min in 2020. Each averted involuntary referral to the emergency department resulted in a savings of $81, on average during the study period.Conclusion: An analysis of the costs and costs savings associated with the use of the screener demonstrate that it is a worthwhile investment for police services. An additional benefit is its ability to collect mental health statistics that may be useful to police leaders to justify budgets. Future studies should attempt to devise some method of collecting pre-implementation data that would reveal the true costs and cost-efficiency of using the BMHS, which have been shown to be significant in the current study however, undoubtedly are under-estimated.

Behavioral and Psychiatric Health Problems in Iranian Students During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Background the study of behavioral and psychiatric health problems in space and time, can help to improve health services for adolescents and children by increasing understanding of causes, development, and course of psychiatric disorders. Methods This cross-sectional study has been carried out through cluster sampling design on 322 normal students aged 12–18 attending in public high and elementary school in Esfahan, Iran. They completed study instrument that included the 110-item The Child Symptom Inventory-4 (CSI-4) and those inquiring the students’ demographic information. Results Findings showed that 58% students met criteria for all psychiatric symptoms except of the autism and Asperger’s disorders, and 39.5% suffered from more than one comorbid categories of psychiatric disorders. The most common psychiatric disorders in boys and girls were ADHD (18.5%), ODD (15%), ADHD-C (13.5%), GAD (12.8%), ADHD: HI (11.5), and MDD (10.8%). Conclusion Most of students suffered from more than one co-morbid category of psychiatric disorders. It is better to develop effective strategies and interventions, train students about self-protection, and establish a psychological crisis intervention team to minimize the psychological impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Covid-19 lock down stress and type 1 diabetes mellitus - analysis of crisis psychological intervention (Preprint)

BACKGROUND The COVID-19 pandemic has challenged the world view of most people. The social isolation after the lock-down has not only led to economic difficulties, but also adverse psychological reactions. As in most countries, also in Poland the situation was very challenging for T1DM patients. In this case a crisis intervention team for T1 DM patients was established. The goal of the team was to provide psychological support for the patients if needed and to present information concerning how the patients may obtain medical consultations/prescriptions. OBJECTIVE Analysis of psychological parameters and main emotional reactions of T1DM patients during Covid-19 lock-down METHODS An email with information concerning the possibility of online consultation with psychologists/psychiatrist, with an attached set of psychological tests was sent to all patients with T1DM who were under the care of outpatient diabetes clinic. The consultations were done by licensed clinical psychologist and psychologist. The study was approved by the bioethics committee RESULTS The patients who decided to use psychological support had statistically higher level of anxiety and stress that patients from the group who did not seek for support. CONCLUSIONS The presented intervention team may be perceived as an example of an important and successful cooperation and communication between specialists of different fields of medicine (diabetology, psychiatry and psychology) in a moment of crisis situation.

A Meta-Analysis of Police Response Models for Handling People With Mental Illnesses: Cross-Country Evidence on the Effectiveness

Recent global statistics on mental health showed that the number of people with mental illnesses has dramatically increased in many countries. A gatekeeper to the criminal justice system, police have begun to develop their own police response programs or have adopted renowned models from other countries for handling people with mental illnesses. Although there is a growing body of empirical research that has investigated the effectiveness of police response models for handling the mentally ill (PRMHMI) in various countries, existing systematic reviews or meta-analytic studies have disproportionately focused on findings from studies testing the effects of the crisis intervention team in the United States. Thus, it is still not clear whether PRMHMI can be considered as “evidence-based” models on the international level. To help fill this gap in the literature, the current systematic review and meta-analysis compared the effectiveness of PRMHMI operating in the United States to those operating in other countries including the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, and Liberia. Results revealed that the effect sizes of PRMHMI were substantially different across countries. This study’s results demonstrate the importance of a national context for designing, implementing, and evaluating PRMHMI.

Crisis Intervention Team Training in a Correctional Setting: Examining Compliance, Mental Health Referrals, and Use of Force

The Crisis Intervention Team (CIT) model was developed as a specialized police-based program in which officers are trained to safely interact with individuals with mental illnesses. In 2011, the Minnesota Department of Corrections adapted this program for corrections. This study compares prison incidents involving CIT officers to a comparison sample of non-CIT incidents on a number of outcomes, including gaining compliance from people in custody (either immediately or as an incident unfolds), making mental health referrals, and using force against people in custody. We conducted a content analysis of reports describing 500 incidents in an all-male, maximum security prison and estimated multivariate binary logistic models to control for characteristics of situations, incarcerated people, and employees. The findings provide some support for implementing CIT training in a correctional setting, but some less encouraging results show that improvements to the program are still needed.

The Use of the Crisis Intervention Team (CIT) Model for Corrections Officers: Reducing Incidents within a County Jail

This study presents an adaptation of the Crisis Intervention Team Model (CIT) to a jail setting. Pre-post surveys and interviews assessed changes in corrections officers’ (CO) knowledge of and attitudes toward mental health. Cell Removal Team (CRT) services assessed the impact of CIT on the use of this specialized unit. Results indicate positive changes in CO attitudes, increased de-escalation skills, and an abrupt decrease in the level of CRT usage, with results sustained in the 8-month follow-up period.