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Despite the emerging body of literature on the benefits of youth peer support, there is also evidence that peer support can have unintended negative impacts on peers themselves. It is important to explore what aspects of the peer role contribute to these difficulties in order to mitigate risks. This paper uses a participatory approach to examine the unique attributes of youth peer practice and the related challenges. We conducted semi-structured interviews and focus groups with both peer and non-peer staff from a community-based youth mental health program that provides peer support services (N = 29). Thematic analyses were completed using QSR NVivo. Analyses capture the defining features and related challenges of the peer support role (self-disclosure, boundaries, role confusion and dynamic recovery), and risk factors that affect peers (stigma, exposure to harm and burnout). This paper contributes to the literature on peer support as well as youth participatory evaluation. The findings will be useful to support the development of improved organizational contexts for peer practice and more effective peer support programming. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Measurement based care (MBC), a practice that uses patient reported outcome measures (PROMs), is not widely used in behavioral health settings and little is known about the patient experience with MBC in safety-net settings. This study aimed to understand patient experiences completing PROMs on paper when presenting to an outpatient, behavioral health setting within a public safety-net hospital. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 22 participants in English and Spanish. Participants were 42 years old (SD = 12.7), mostly white (36.4%) and Black (31.8%). Thematic analysis was used to analyze findings. Overall, participants were engaged with PROMs and described them as helpful for themselves and their clinicians. Participants also expressed themes focused on PROMs user-friendliness, including formatting, time to complete measures, and participant characteristics such as attention and literacy. These findings are important to consider to ensure equitable access to MBC when implemented in behavioral health in the health safety-net setting. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For over 70 years, studies have reported lower rates of completed suicide in Muslim-majority countries and individuals who identify as Muslim. To this point, the mechanisms underlying the relationship between Islam and lower risk of suicide remain understudied. In an effort to advance our understanding, we convened a bilingual international interdisciplinary panel of experts for a discussion of the current state and future directions of the field. In this paper, we present an exploratory qualitative analysis of the core themes that emerged from the group interviews. We also derive a general theoretical model of the association between Islam and suicide risk. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: The COVID-19 pandemic has had significant impacts on maternal mental health. We explored the lived experiences of women with perinatal depression and anxiety to elucidate their perceptions of how the pandemic influenced their mental health and access to care. Methods: We conducted a qualitative descriptive study using semi-structured interviews. From March to October 2021, purposive sampling was used to recruit a socio-demographically diverse sample of women with self-reported perinatal depression or anxiety who were pregnant or within one year postpartum between March 2020 and October 2021. Interviews were conducted remotely and thematically analyzed. Results: Fourteen women were interviewed. Three major themes arose. Theme 1, Negative impacts of COVID-19 on symptoms of depression and anxiety, described how the pandemic magnified underlying symptoms of depression and anxiety, increased social isolation, generated anxiety due to fears of COVID-19 infection, and caused economic stress. In theme 2, Negative impacts of COVID-19 on access to and quality of health care, women described stressful and isolating delivery experiences, negative psychological impact of partners not being able to participate in their perinatal health care, interruptions and barriers to mental health treatment, and challenges in using telehealth services for mental health care. Theme 3, Positive impacts of COVID-19 on mental health, identified advantages of increased telehealth access and ability to work and study from home. Conclusions for Practice: The COVID-19 pandemic negatively affected women with perinatal depression and anxiety by magnifying underlying symptoms, increasing stress and social isolation, and disrupting access to mental health care. Findings provide support for policies and interventions to prevent and address social isolation, as well as optimization of telehealth services to prevent and address gaps in perinatal mental health treatment. Significance: What is Already Known on this Subject? Quantitative data suggest that the pandemic increased rates of perinatal mental illness. Yet the perspectives of women with perinatal depression and anxiety on how the pandemic affected their mental health and access to care remain underreported. What this Study adds? This paper offers new insight from the lived experience of women with perinatal depression and anxiety on ways the pandemic negatively and positively affected their mental health and access to mental health care. Implications for interventions, policies, and clinical practice are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is growing interest in the role of Social Prescribing (SP) to help promote mental well-being and support individuals with mental health difficulties. Yet, implementation of SP to children and young people (CYP) has proved slow and underdeveloped compared with adult populations. Understanding the barriers and facilitators will help key stakeholders to better embed SP for CYP into practice. Using the Theoretical Domains Framework (TDF), a comprehensive, theoretical-led framework, underpinned by 33 behaviour change theories and 128 constructs, perceived barriers and facilitators to SP were investigated. The sample comprised of 11 Link Workers and 9 individuals involved in facilitating SP with CYP, who took part in semi-structured interviews. Transcripts were analysed using a deductive thematic analysis, and themes were coded under each theoretical domain. Overall, 33 barriers and facilitators for SP were identified across 12 domains of the TDF. Under capability, barriers and facilitators were found for knowledge, skills, memory/attention/decision making processes, and behavioural regulation. For opportunity, barriers and facilitators were found for social/professional influences, as well as environmental context and resources. Finally, for motivation, domains covered included: beliefs about consequences, beliefs about capabilities, optimism, motivations/goals, reinforcement, and emotions. Findings suggest that a wide range of barriers and facilitators affect the implementation of CYP SP to improve mental health and well-being. Interventions which target different domains related to capability, opportunity and motivation should be developed to better facilitate CYP SP. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]