Health, education, and social care provision after diagnosis of childhood visual disability

Aim: To investigate the health, education, and social care provision for children newly diagnosed with visual disability.Method: This was a national prospective study, the British Childhood Visual Impairment and Blindness Study 2 (BCVIS2), ascertaining new diagnoses of visual impairment or severe visual impairment and blindness (SVIBL), or equivalent vi-sion. Data collection was performed by managing clinicians up to 1-year follow-up, and included health and developmental needs, and health, education, and social care provision.Results: BCVIS2 identified 784 children newly diagnosed with visual impairment/SVIBL (313 with visual impairment, 471 with SVIBL). Most children had associated systemic disorders (559 [71%], 167 [54%] with visual impairment, and 392 [84%] with SVIBL). Care from multidisciplinary teams was provided for 549 children (70%). Two-thirds (515) had not received an Education, Health, and Care Plan (EHCP). Fewer children with visual impairment had seen a specialist teacher (SVIBL 35%, visual impairment 28%, χ2p < 0.001), or had an EHCP (11% vs 7%, χ2p < 0 . 01).Interpretation: Families need additional support from managing clinicians to access recommended complex interventions such as the use of multidisciplinary teams and educational support. This need is pressing, as the population of children with visual impairment/SVIBL is expected to grow in size and complexity.This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited

Depression relapse prophylaxis with Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy: Replication and extension in the Swiss health care system

Background: Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT) is a group intervention that integrates elements of Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) with components of mindfulness training to prevent depressive relapse. The efficacy of MBCT compared to Treatment As Usual (TAU), shown in two randomized controlled trials indicates a significant decrease in 1-year relapse rates for patients with at least three past depressive episodes. The present study is the first independent replication trial comparing MBCT+TAU to TAU alone across both language and culture (Swiss health care system). Methods: Sixty unmedicated patients in remission from recurrent depression (≥3 episodes) were randomly assigned to MBCT+TAU or TAU. Relapse rate and time to relapse were measured over a 60 week observation period. The frequency of mindfulness practices during the study was also evaluated. Results: Over a 14-month prospective follow-up period, time to relapse was significantly longer with MBCT+TAU than TAU alone (median 204 and 69 days, respectively), although both groups relapsed at similar rates. Analyses of homework adherence revealed that following treatment termination, the frequency of brief and informal mindfulness practice remained unchanged over 14 months, whereas the use of longer formal meditation decreased over time. Limitations: Relapse monitoring was 14 months in duration and prospective reporting of mindfulness practice would have yielded more precise frequency estimates compared to the retrospective methods we utilized. Conclusions: Further studies are required to determine which patient characteristics, beyond the number of past depressive episodes, may predict differential benefits from this therapeutic approach