Barriers and facilitators to social prescribing in child and youth mental health: Perspectives from the frontline

There is growing interest in the role of Social Prescribing (SP) to help promote mental wellbeing 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 wellbeing. Interventions which target different domains related to capability, opportunity and motivation should be developed to better facilitate CYP SP

Barriers and facilitators to social prescribing in child and youth mental health: perspectives from the frontline

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

Future food contaminants: An assessment of the plant uptake of Technology-critical elements versus traditional metal contaminants

Technology-critical elements (TCEs) include most rare earth elements (REEs), the platinum group elements (PGEs), and Ga, Ge, In, Nb, Ta, Te, and Tl. Despite increasing recognition of their prolific release into the environment, their soil to plant transfer remains largely unknown. This paper provides an approximation of the potential for plant uptake by calculating bioconcentration factors (BCFs), defined as the concentration in edible vegetable tissues relative to that in cultivation soil. Here data were obtained from an indoor cultivation experiment growing lettuce, chard, and carrot on 22 different European urban soils. Values of BCFs were determined from concentrations of TCEs in vegetable samples after digestion with concentrated HNO3, and from concentrations in soil determined after 1) Aqua Regia digestion and, 2) diluted (0.1 M) HNO3 leaching. For comparison, BCFs were also determined for 5 traditional metal contaminants (TMCs; As, Cd, Cu, Pb, and Zn). The main conclusions of the study were that: 1) BCF values for the REEs were consistently low in the studied vegetables; 2) the BCFs for Ga and Nb were low as well; 3) the BCFs for Tl were high relative to the other measured TCEs and the traditional metal contaminants; and 4) mean BCF values for the investigated TCEs were generally highest in chard and lowest in carrot. These findings provide initial evidence that there are likely to be real and present soil–plant transfer of TCEs, especially in the case of Tl. Improvements in analytical methods and detection limits will allow this to be further investigated in a wider variety of edible plants so that a risk profile may be developed

Glucocorticoid resistance in T-lineage acute lymphoblastic leukaemia is associated with a proliferative metabolism

Glucocorticoids (GCs) are among the most important drugs for acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL), yet despite their clinical importance, the exact mechanisms involved in GC cytotoxicity and the development of resistance remain uncertain. We examined the baseline profile of a panel of T-ALL cell lines to determine factors that contribute to GC resistance without prior drug selection. Transcriptional profiling indicated GC resistance in T-ALL is associated with a proliferative phenotype involving upregulation of glycolysis, oxidative phosphorylation, cholesterol biosynthesis and glutamate metabolism, increased growth rates and activation of PI3K/AKT/mTOR and MYC signalling pathways. Importantly, the presence of these transcriptional signatures in primary ALL specimens significantly predicted patient outcome. We conclude that in lymphocytes the activation of bioenergetic pathways required for proliferation may suppress the apoptotic potential and offset the metabolic crisis initiated by GC signalling. It is likely that the link between GC resistance and proliferation in T-ALL has not been fully appreciated to date because such effects would be masked in the context of current multiagent therapies. The data also provide the first evidence that altered expression of wild-type MLL may contribute to GC-resistant phenotypes. Our findings warrant the continued development of selective metabolic inhibitors for the treatment of ALL

Individualized outcome prognostication for patients with laryngeal cancer

Peer Reviewedhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/142424/1/cncr31087.pdfhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/142424/2/cncr31087_am.pd