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Introduction: Successful adoption of POCTs (Point-of-Care tests) for COVID-19 in care homes requires the identification of ideal use cases and a full understanding of the contextual and usability factors that affect test results and minimise biosafety risks. This paper presents a scoping-usability and test performance study of a microfluidic immunofluorescence assay for COVID-19 in care homes. Methods: A mixed-methods evaluation was conducted in four UK care homes to scope usability and to assess the agreement with qRT-PCR. A dry run with luminescent dye was conducted to explore biosafety issues. Results: The agreement analysis was conducted on 227 asymptomatic participants (159 staff and 68 residents) and 14 symptomatic participants (5 staff and 9 residents). Asymptomatic specimens showed 50% (95% CI:1.3%−98.7%) positive agreement and 96% (95% CI: 92.5%−98.1%) negative agreement with overall prevalence and bias-adjusted Kappa (PABAK) of 0.911 (95% CI: 0.857−0.965). Symptomatic specimens showed 83.3% (95% CI: 35.9%−99.6%) positive agreement and 100% (95% CI: 63.1%−100%) negative agreement with overall prevalence and bias-adjusted Kappa (PABAK) of 0.857 (95% CI: 0.549−1). The dry run highlighted four main sources of contamination that led to the modification of the standard operating procedures. Simulation post-modification showed no further evidence of contamination. Conclusion: Careful consideration of biosafety issues and contextual factors associated with care home are mandatory for safe use the POCT. Whilst POCT may have some utility for ruling out COVID-19, further diagnostic accuracy evaluations are needed to promote effective adoption. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary Only recently has social work begun to grapple with its place in relation to environmental issues. While considerable progress has been made in bringing environmental considerations into the centre of our profession's scholarship and practice, this project is far from complete. Drawing on environmental literature and based on findings of a qualitative case study of water activism in one Canadian city, this paper argues that the concept of “community resilience” provides both a practical and a conceptual framework for advancing social work's engagement with issues of the natural environment and environmental justice through community praxis. Findings In Guelph, Ontario, Canada, water issues are the focal point of considerable community activism. The case study research reveals, however, that while water is the focus, much of this activism is driven by three broad social priorities that reflect ideas of community resilience and which suggest entry points for social work participation in community-based environmental initiatives: self-reliance and sustainability, localization and direct citizen participation, and community. Applications “Community resilience” is increasingly popular in environmental and community development fields as a conceptual framework for assessing and building the capacity of communities to support wellbeing in the face of environmental change, adversity and risk. While the concept of “resilience” is well established in social work, “community resilience” remains under-examined in social work literature. In this paper, the author draws attention to this arena of resilience thinking, highlighting its potential for the integration of considerations of the natural environment into social work scholarship, education, and practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the future sustainability of the Fijian Ministry of Health's (MoH) information and communication technology (ITC) system for patient management (PATIS). PATIS was developed with AusAID funding and, as the owner of the system, AusAID has no commercial competence or interest in further development of the system. Thus, the question that arises is: should Fiji adopt a commercially available patient administration system or retain the existing PATIS? In-depth consultations with senior executives and line managers of units that were major users of PATIS were undertaken. Semi-structured interviews and focus group discussion approaches were utilised. The consensus or majority views of the users were that the existing PATIS performed more than adequately. The future sustainability of the system is threatened by the lack of investment in resources (e.g. hardware maintenance and human resources) required to keep the system operating at its optimum. It was found that PATIS provides Fiji with a satisfactory patient administration system. The identified problems with the system are not related to the application per se but rather to an under-investment in resources for its utilisation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: The aim of this paper is to assess Australian young people’s awareness of mental health services available for their age group. Of particular interest was awareness of headspace, which was created in 2006 to provide youth-oriented mental health services, and has expanded to 30 centres nationally in 5 years.Method: In 2011, a telephone interview was conducted with a national sample of 3021 Australians aged between 15 and 25 years. Participants were asked questions about awareness of mental health organizations, where they would seek help for themselves and how they would assist a peer with a mental health problem.Results: There were very low frequencies of spontaneous mentions of headspace as a mental health organization, or as a service where respondents would seek help for themselves or refer a peer to. However, when prompted, about half of respondents recognized headspace as a mental health organization. Living within a headspace service area predicted better recognition of headspace. However, past-year psychological distress was unrelated to recognition of headspace as a mental health organization.Conclusions: In order to reach them more effectively, young people need to be aware of youth-oriented services that are available to them and their peers. Awareness campaigns need to be targeted to the subgroups of young people who have the greatest need for headspace services, namely those with recent mental health problems. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Objective: The aim of this paper was to estimate the degree to which smoke-free facilities may facilitate smoking cessation in smokers with mental illness by estimating the proportion of smokers with mental illness who receive inpatient treatment, their smoking rates and average durations of stay. Method: Smoking and hospitalization rates were estimated from the Australian National Survey of Mental Health and Wellbeing. Information on duration of inpatient treatment was calculated from the Western Australian Mental Health Information System. Results: Of Australia's estimated 3 567 000 current adult smokers, 32.4% had a mental illness in the past 12 months, and 66.6% had a lifetime mental illness. However, only 1.4% of smokers were hospitalized for a mental health problem in the past 12 months, and 6.3% had ever been hospitalized for a mental health problem. Of those hospitalized for mental health treatment in the past 12 months, 61.2% were current smokers. In 2007 median duration of inpatient mental health admissions was 1 day, and 57% of admissions had duration of 2 days or less. Conclusions: The majority of smokers with mental illness are not treated in inpatient facilities, and where inpatient admissions occur they are generally of short duration. While smoking cessation is an important goal in treatment of smokers with mental illness, support after discharge from inpatient care is important for longer term cessation. Other strategies will be required to support smoking cessation efforts for the majority of smokers with mental illness not in contact with mental health services. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: This paper reports findings from a national survey on stigmatizing attitudes towards people with depression, anxiety disorders and schizophrenia/psychosis. Method: In 2011 telephone interviews were carried out with 6019 Australians aged 15 or over. Participants were presented with a case vignette describing either depression, depression with suicidal thoughts, early schizophrenia, chronic schizophrenia, social phobia or post-traumatic stress disorder. Questions were asked about stigmatizing attitudes, including perceptions of discrimination, personal and perceived stigma and desire for social distance. Results: Chronic schizophrenia was most likely to be associated with dangerousness, unpredictability and a preference for not employing someone with the problem, while social phobia was most likely to be seen as due to personal weakness. Attitudes concerning dangerousness and social distance were greater in relation to men with mental disorders compared to women. Other people were perceived as more likely to hold stigmatizing attitudes than the respondents reported for themselves. Conclusions: Anti-stigma interventions are more likely to be successful if they focus on individual disorders rather than on 'mental illness' in general. Such interventions may need to address perceptions of social phobia as being due to weakness and those of dangerousness in people with more severe disorders. Such interventions should also focus on bringing beliefs about public perceptions in line with personal beliefs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]