The Subjective Experience of Music in Autism Spectrum Disorder

Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 12 high-functioning adults on the autism spectrum in order to examine the nature of their personal experiences of music. The analysis showed that most participants exploit music for a wide range of purposes in the cognitive, emotional and social domains, but the autism spectrum disorder (ASD) group’s descriptions of mood states reflected a greater reliance on internally focused (arousal) rather than externally focused (emotive) language, when compared with studies of typically developing individuals

Use of a Sensory Room on an Intensive Care Unit

In recent years there has been an increasing use of sensory rooms in psychiatric settings internationally, with suggestions that sensory rooms can reduce seclusion rates. In this study, we explore the use of a sensory room on an Intensive Care Unit (ICU) (known as a Psychiatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU) in the UK), with a particular focus on the impact on seclusion rates and staff and patients’ experiences of using the sensory room. A mixed method research design was used, with the collection of seclusion data before and after a sensory room was introduced followed by qualitative interviews with staff and patients. There was no significant reduction of seclusion rates with the introduction of the seclusion room. However, the interviews revealed a perception among staff that there had been a reduction in seclusion rates. Other findings from the interviews were that staff and patients viewed the sensory room as a positive therapeutic intervention and that using the sensory room had improved staff-patient communication and patients’ overall experience of the ICU. In conclusion, the use of a sensory room improved both staff and patients’ experience of the ICU and should be an intervention considered by other ICUs and inpatient psychiatric settings

Virtual voices: social support and stigma in postnatal mental illness Internet forums

Many women with postnatal mental illness do not get the treatment they need and this is often because stigma prevents disclosure. The purpose of this study was to explore online social support for postnatal mental illness, how women experience stigma and potential disadvantages of using Internet forums. Interviews were conducted with fifteen participants who had suffered postnatal mental illness and had used forums. Systematic thematic analysis identified common themes in relation to social support, stigma and disadvantages of using forums. Most women felt they benefited from visiting forums by developing a shared understanding and discourse about their illness. Findings suggest future research should investigate if women benefit from using online social support provided by forums, if use challenges stigma and further explore potential concerns about using forums

Diagnosing uncertainty, producing neonatal abstinence syndrome

The use of alcohol and other drugs during pregnancy is understood to be an important public health problem. One way in which this problem is expressed and responded to is via the identification and treatment of neonatal abstinence syndrome (NAS). In this article, we demonstrate how the processes of anticipating, identifying and responding to NAS are characterised by significant uncertainty among parents and health and social care practitioners. We draw on interviews with 16 parents who had recently had a baby at risk of NAS, and multidisciplinary focus groups with 27 health and social care professionals, held in Scotland, UK. NAS, and drug use in pregnancy, is a fraught and complex arena. Parents in the UK who use opioids risk losing custody of children, and must navigate a high degree of surveillance, governance and marginalisation. We suggest that considering NAS as a social diagnosis, further informed by Mol's political ontology of ‘multiple’ bodies/diseases, may help to produce clinical and social responses to uncertainty which avoid, rather than promote, further marginalisation of parents who use drugs. One such response is to develop a culture of relationship‐based care which empowers both service providers and service users to challenge existing practice and decision‐making.Output Status: Forthcoming/Available Onlin

Barriers and facilitators to shared decision-making in child and youth mental health: Exploring young person and parent perspectives using the Theoretical Domains Framework

Objective: Young people and parents want to be more active in treatment decisions. Using the Theoretical Domains Framework (TDF), which segments behaviour change into barriers and facilitators across fourteen domains, the aim of this study is to explore the barriers and facilitators to shared decision‐making (SDM) from young people and their parents’ perspectives. / Method: The sample comprised nine young people who presented with internalising difficulties and ten parents of young people with internalising difficulties across two sites in England. Interviews were conducted, and transcripts were analysed using a deductive thematic analysis. / Results: Overall, 15 barriers to and facilitators for SDM in child and youth mental health were identified. Under capability, these included an awareness of SDM, forgetting discussions or not asking questions, clinician listening skills and communication skills. For opportunity, these included the availability of treatment options, availability of understandable resources, staff shortages, the environment being conducive to SDM, and if the school, or parents of young people, facilitated decisions. For motivation, these included whether SDM was thought to empower individuals, result in better treatment, or individuals making the ‘wrong’ decision, as well as whether individuals felt capable to be involved in treatment decision‐making, whether young people lacked capacity, and whether they could make decisions due to enhanced emotional states. / Conclusions: Barriers and facilitators across capability, opportunity and motivation were identified. Interventions which target these barriers and facilitators may facilitate young people and their parents’ involvement in decision‐making

The experience of being a father of a son or daughter with an intellectual disability: older fathers’ perspectives

Background: As life expectancy for people with an intellectual disability increases, there is a growing cohort of older father carers. This study aimed to gain a more in‐depth understanding of older father carers’ experiences of parenting. Methods: Semi‐structured interviews were conducted with 7 older fathers (M = 63.9 years) and analysed using constructivist grounded theory. Results: Three conceptual categories were identified. “Wearing different hats: how fathers’ sense of identity had altered over the years. “Family comes first”: importance placed on the family unit. “Getting on in years”: the challenges faced by ageing fathers parenting their son/daughter. Conclusions: Fathers re‐evaluated their priorities and found a new identity in their parenting role, although they continued to see themselves as secondary carers. Fathers worried about the future as their health declined but drew strength from the benefits they had derived and the challenges that they had overcome to do their best for their son/daughter and their family

A qualitative exploration of memory cuing by personal items in the home

© The Author(s) 2017. We are surrounded by personal items that can trigger memories, such as photos, souvenirs and heirlooms. Also during holidays, we collect items to remind us of the events, but not all bring back memories to the same extent. Therefore, we explored peoples’ responses to personal items related to a holiday, using the home tour interviewing method. In total, 63 accounts of cuing responses from nine home tours were analysed using thematic analysis. This resulted in four types of cuing responses: (a) ‘no-memory’ responses, (b) ‘know’ responses, (c) ‘memory evoked think or feel’ responses and (d) ‘remember’ responses. For each of these cuing response categories, we looked into the types of items and their characteristics. Furthermore, we found that some items can evoke multiple memories. The majority of the memories’ content refers to events close to the moment of acquiring the item

‘They’re more like ordinary stroppy British women’: Attitudes and expectations of maternity care professionals to UK-born ethnic minority women

Objective To explore the attitudes and expectations of maternity care professionals to UK-born ethnic minority mothers. Methods Qualitative in-depth interviews with 30 professionals from eight NHS maternity units in England that provide services for large proportions of women of black Caribbean, black African, Indian, Pakistani and Irish descent. Results All the professionals reported providing care to both UK-born and migrant mothers from ethnic minorities. Most of them felt that they could differentiate between UK-born and migrant mothers based mainly on language fluency and accent. ‘Westernized dress’ and ‘freedom’ were also cited as indicators. Overall, professionals found it easier to provide services to UK-born mothers and felt that their needs were more like those of white English mothers than those of migrant mothers. UK-born mothers were generally thought to be assertive and expressive, and in control of care-related decision-making whereas some South Asian Muslim women were thought to be constrained by family influences. Preconceived ideas about ethnic minority mothers' tolerance of pain in labour, use of pharmacological pain relief measures and mode of delivery were recurring themes. Women's education and social class were felt to be major influences on the uptake of maternity care, regardless of ethnicity. Conclusions Professionals appeared to equate the needs of UK-born ethnic minority women with those of white English women. Overall, this has positive implications for care provision. Despite this, specific behavioural expectations and unconscious stereotypical views were evident and have the potential to affect clinical practice

How patients and clinicians experience the utility of a personalized clinical feedback system in routine practice

The objective was to explore how a person-adaptive clinical feedback system (CFS) effects its users, and how meaning and relevance are negotiated. We conducted a 10-month case-study of the implementation and practice of Norse Feedback, a personalized CFS. The data material consisted of 12 patient interviews, 22 clinician interviews, 23 field notes, and 16 archival documents. We identified four main categories or themes: (i) patients' use of clinical feedback for enhanced awareness and insight; (ii) patients work to make clinical feedback a communication mode; (iii) patients and clinicians negotiate clinical feedback as a way to influence treatment; and (iv) clinical feedback requires an interactive sense-making effort. Patients and therapists produced the meaning and relevance of the CFS by interpreting the CFS measures to reflect the unique patient experience of the patient-therapist relationship. Patients regarded CFS as a tool to inform therapy with important issues. Patients became more self-aware and prepared for therapy. [Abstract copyright: © 2020 The Authors. Journal of Clinical Psychology published by Wiley Periodicals LLC.