Effectiveness of vocational interventions for gaining paid work for people living with mild to moderate mental health conditions: Systematic review and meta-analysis

Objectives: To evaluate the effectiveness of vocational interventions to help people living with mild to moderate mental health conditions gain paid work. Methods: Systematic review of international, peer-reviewed literature. Development of the prepublished protocol and search strategy was done in consultation with stakeholder reference groups consisting of people with lived experience of long-term conditions, advocates and clinicians. We searched academic databases MEDLINE, EMBASE, PsychINFO, AMED, CINAHL, Proquest Dissertations and Theses database, and Business Source Complete for controlled trials comparing a specific vocational intervention against a control intervention or usual care, published between 1 January 2004 and 1 August 2019. Two authors independently screened search results, extracted data and appraised studies using the Cochrane risk of bias tool. Results: Eleven studies met inclusion criteria. Seven studies investigated Individual Placement and Support (IPS) modified for people who were not in intensive mental health treatment services. These studies occurred settings such as community vocational rehabilitation services, a housing programme and community mental health services. The studies provided very low quality evidence that people who receive IPS-style vocational rehabilitation are more likely to gain competitive employment than people who receive usual care (risk ratio 1.70, 95% CI 1.23 to 2.34, seven studies, 1611 participants). The remaining four studies considered cognitive behavioural therapy or specific vocational rehabilitation interventions designed to fit a unique context. There was insufficient evidence from these studies to draw conclusions regarding the effectiveness of non-IPS forms of vocational rehabilitation for people with mild to moderate mental health conditions. Discussion: The meta-analysis showed a clear intervention effect but low precision, and more high-quality studies are needed in this field. There is currently very low quality evidence that IPS-style intervention results in more participants in competitive employment compared with &lsquo;usual care&rsquo; control groups in populations with mild to moderate mental health conditions.</jats:sec

The effects of arousal reappraisal on stress responses, performance and attention

Background and Objectives: This study examined the effects of arousal reappraisal on cardiovascular responses, demand and resource evaluations, self-confidence, performance and attention under pressurized conditions. A recent study by Moore et al. [2015. Reappraising threat: How to optimize performance under pressure. Journal of Sport and Exercise Psychology, 37(3), 339–343. doi:10.1123/jsep.2014-0186] suggested that arousal reappraisal is beneficial to the promotion of challenge states and leads to improvements in single-trial performance. This study aimed to further the work of Moore and colleagues (2015) by examining the effects of arousal reappraisal on cardiovascular responses, demand and resource evaluations, self-confidence, performance and attention in a multi-trial pressurized performance situation. Design and Methods: Participants were randomly assigned to either an arousal reappraisal intervention or control condition, and completed a pressurized dart throwing task. The intervention encouraged participants to view their physiological arousal as facilitative rather than debilitative to performance. Measures of cardiovascular reactivity, demand and resource evaluations, self-confidence, task performance and attention were recorded. Results: The reappraisal group displayed more favorable cardiovascular reactivity and reported higher resource evaluations and higher self-confidence than the control group but no task performance or attention effects were detected. Conclusion: These findings demonstrate the strength of arousal reappraisal in promoting adaptive stress responses, perceptions of resources and self-confidence

A critical review of executive coaching research: a decade of progress and what's to come.

This paper aims to summarise the current state of coaching research and to provide a basis for future research which will provide a frame of reference ensuring that research builds on previous studies and adds to knowledge rather than replicating previous findings in innocence. This approach will prevent wasted effort and resources in organisations and research. The paper is divided into three sections. The first two sections review the state of research over the past hundred years, with a greater focus on the past decade when coaching research has accelerated at warp speed. The paper divides the recent research into categories; the nature of coaching, coach behaviour studies, client behaviour studies, relationship studies and executive coaching impact studies. The third section considers the future direction research may take. It identifies key questions which the authors believe should be the focus of future research and highlights the work undertaken to support coaching researchers and published by the Coaching Foundation

Incidence and outcomes of major trauma in New Zealand: findings from a feasibility study of New Zealand’s first national trauma registry

Aims: The aim of the study was to pilot the feasibility of long-term outcomes data collection from adult major trauma survivors in New Zealand. This initial paper aims to characterise the New Zealand major trauma population in terms of long-term disability and functional outcomes after major trauma. Methods: A prospective cohort study of adults who had survived major trauma was conducted between June 2015 and December 2016 at two major trauma centres in Auckland. Results: Of 256 trauma referrals, 112 (44%) were confirmed eligible and consented. One hundred completed the survey at six months and 83 at 12 months. A majority of the study sample were male (72%), under 65 years (84%), with a disproportionally higher number of Māori in the sample (23%). At six months post-injury, the majority of participants were categorised as experiencing either moderate disability (37%) or good recovery (42%). Half of the participants experienced moderate pain at both 6 and 12 months post-injury (50% and 52% respectively), and problems with their usual activities at six months post-injury (51%). Conclusions: Most study participants made a good recovery, but there was still a large group of people experiencing disability, pain and not in paid employment at 12 months post-injury