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Aims: Venue capacity has been proposed as a factor associated with increased number of violent incidents on‐premises, though no specific research has demonstrated this association, and instead has tended to focus on the relationship between crowding and aggression. The aim of current paper is to investigate the association between venue capacity and the number of violent incidents on‐premises. Methods: Venue capacity data (the maximum capacity listed on the liquor license) were obtained for all venues in central Melbourne from 2010 until 2016. These data were then matched with police‐recorded on‐premises assaults that occurred within high‐alcohol hours (Friday and Saturday 8 pm–6 am) inside the venue. Results: Analyses were conducted on 5729 venue‐years (yearly assault counts per venue, per year) across central Melbourne. Compared with venues that have a maximum capacity of between 0 and 100 patrons, venues with higher capacities have increasingly more recorded assaults. Venues with maximum capacities between 501 and 1000 are 6.1 times more likely to have an assault recorded compared with venues with a maximum capacity between 0 and 100. Further, each additional high‐alcohol hour that a venue can be open for is associated with a 72% increase in the number of recorded assaults. Conclusions: Greater venue capacity was found to be strongly associated with an increased risk of violent incidents for any given venue. This was further exacerbated by late‐night trading which substantially adds to the risk of assaults inside the venue. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Issues: Australian jurisdictions have introduced lockouts to prevent alcohol-related violence. Lockouts prohibit patrons from entering licensed premises after a designated time while allowing sale and consumption of alcohol to continue. Their purposes include managing the movement of intoxicated patrons, and preventing violence and disorder by dispersing times that patrons leave premises. We sought to evaluate the effectiveness of lockouts in preventing alcohol-related harm.Approach: We systematically searched electronic databases and reference lists and asked authors to identify relevant studies published to 1 June 2017. We deemed studies eligible if they evaluated lockouts, and if outcome measures included: assault, emergency department attendances, alcohol-related disorders or drink-driving offences. Two reviewers independently extracted data.Key Findings: After screening 244 records, we identified five studies from electronic databases, two from reference lists search and one from a Google search (N = 8). Two studies showed a decline in assaults; a third study showed reductions occurred only inside licensed premises; two studies showed an increase in assaults; and three studies showed no association. The studies had significant design and other limitations.Implications: Lockouts have been implemented across Australian jurisdictions as a strategy to prevent alcohol-related harm, despite limited evidence. In this systematic review, we synthesised findings from studies that evaluated lockouts as stand-alone interventions, to help clarify debate on their utility as a harm prevention strategy.Conclusion: There is not good evidence that lockouts prevent alcohol-related harm, in contrast to what is known about stopping the sale of alcohol earlier, for which there is evidence of effectiveness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The demand for medical students to be trained to communicate effectively has seen the emergence of interpersonal communication skills as core graduate competencies in medical training. We conducted a systematic review of interventions for medical students aiming to improve interpersonal communication in medical consultations. We searched five electronic databases in September 2020 and screened reference lists of relevant articles. We included randomised controlled trials, cluster-RCTs, and non-randomised controlled trials evaluating the effectiveness of interventions delivered to students in pre-service medical programmes. Standard Cochrane methodological procedures were used. We found 91 publications relating to 76 separate studies (involving 10,124 students). We performed meta-analysis according to comparison and outcome. Outcomes reporting on overall communication skills, empathy, rapport or relationship building, patient perceptions/satisfaction, information gathering, and explanation and planning were reported separately. The quality of evidence ranged from moderate to very low, and there was high, unexplained heterogeneity. Overall, interventions had positive effects on most outcomes, but generally small effect sizes and low quality limit the conclusions that can be drawn. for discussion include: programmes that include personalised feedback probably improve medical students' overall communication skills more than programmes that involve general or no feedback; and online or self-directed programmes may make little to no difference in improving skills in empathy or rapport compared with face-to-face teaching. Since publication of the papers in the review, the tertiary education sector has been rocked by the global Covid-19 pandemic. Taken together, the results of our review and the subsequent pandemic-related experiences lend weight to the notion that 'when taught, students will learn'. Combining the lessons of the review with those of the pandemic, we are in a position to offer well-informed guidance to educators and accreditors about the most practical and evidence-based approaches to teaching communication skills. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aims to generate evidence-based guidelines for researchers regarding how to effectively disseminate mental health research via Twitter. Three hundred mental health research Tweets posted from September 2018 to September 2019 were sampled from two large Australian organizations. Twenty-seven predictor variables were coded for each Tweet across five thematic categories: messaging; research area; mental health area; external networks; and media features. Regression analyses were conducted to determine associations with engagement outcomes of Favourites, Retweets, and Comments. Less than half ( n  = 10) of predictor variables passed validity tests. Notably, conclusions could not reliably be drawn on whether a Tweet featured evidence-based information. Tweets were significantly more likely to be Retweeted if they contained a hyperlink or multimedia. Tweets were significantly more likely to receive comments if they focused on a specific population group. These associations remain significant when controlling for organization. These findings indicate that researchers may be able to maximize engagement on Twitter by highlighting the population groups that the research applies to and enriching Tweets with multimedia content. In addition, care should be taken to ensure users can infer which messages are evidence-based. Guidelines and an accompanying resource are proposed.

Competing Interests: AG reports receiving payment for educational presentations from the National Ageing Research Institute and Hammond Care. HB reports Board memberships for Roche, Skin2Neuron, Cranbrook Care, Montefiore Homes and a consultancy for Biogen. KA reports receiving a symposium presenter fee from Nutricia.

This study explores the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the work and social and emotional well-being (SEWB) of staff at Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Services (ACCHS) in Australia. Between September and November 2021, staff from three ACCHSs in New South Wales completed an online survey to report changes to their roles, concerns about becoming infected with the COVID-19 virus, and job satisfaction in the last month. The survey measured emotional exhaustion and psychological distress by using the Maslach Burnout Inventory-Human Services Survey and Kessler-5 scale, respectively. The survey determined staff's access to SEWB support. Descriptive statistics were calculated for each variable. Among 92 staff from three ACCHSs, 36% reported a COVID-19-related change in their role and 64% were concerned about becoming infected. In spite of the pandemic, most staff (69%) were satisfied with their job. While most staff were not burnt out or psychologically distressed, 25% had high emotional exhaustion and 30% had high to very high psychological distress. Relatedly, 37% had accessed SEWB support at least once in their lifetime and 24% had accessed support in the last month. As the pandemic continues, it is important to identify factors influencing burnout or psychological distress among ACCHS staff and implement evidence-based solutions.

: Amid concerns about increasing alcohol-related violence in licensed premises, Queensland introduced a system of risk-based licensing (RBL) in 2009, the first of five Australian jurisdictions to do so. Under RBL, annual license fees are supposed to reflect the risk of harm associated with the outlet's trading hours and record of compliance with liquor laws. The objective is to improve service and management practices thereby reducing patron intoxication and related problems. Using police data, we defined cases as assaults that occurred during so-called 'high-alcohol hours', and compared a pre-intervention period of 2004-2008 with the post-intervention period 2009-2014. We employed segmented linear regression, adjusting for year and time of assault (high vs. low alcohol hours), to model the incidence of (1) all assaults and (2) a subset that police indicated were related to drinking in licensed premises. We found a small decrease in all assaults (β = -5 per 100,000 persons/year; 95% CI: 2, 9) but no significant change in the incidence of assault attributed to drinking in licensed premises (β = -8; 95% CI: -18, 2). Accordingly, we concluded that the results do not support a hypothesis that RBL is effective in the prevention of harm from licensed premises. There may be value in trialing regulatory schemes with meaningful contingencies for non-compliance, and, in the meantime, implementing demonstrably effective strategies, such as trading hour restrictions, if the aim is to reduce alcohol-related violence., Competing Interests: The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Background/objectives: Bacterial skin infections in Indigenous children in Australia frequently lead them to access primary health care. This systematic review aims to identify and analyse available studies describing the treatment and prevention of bacterial skin infections in Indigenous children., Methods: Electronic databases including Scopus, MEDLINE, CINAHL, ProQuest, Informit and Google Scholar were searched. Studies in English published between August 1994 and September 2016, with the subject of bacterial skin infections involving Indigenous children and conducted in Australia, New Zealand, the USA or Canada were selected., Results: Initially 1474 articles were identified. After the application of inclusion and exclusion criteria, 10 articles remained. Strategies for the treatment and prevention of bacterial skin infections included the management of active infections and lesions, improving environmental and personal hygiene, the installation of swimming pools and screening and treatment., Conclusion: There is a need for more, rigorous, large-scale studies to develop evidence for appropriate, culturally acceptable methods to prevent and manage bacterial skin infections in Indigenous children in Australia. The problem is complex with multiple determinants. Until underlying socioeconomic conditions are addressed skin infections will continue to be a burden to communities., (© 2017 The Australasian College of Dermatologists.)