Foundations for Change: Borderline Personality Disorder – Consumers’ and Carers’ Experiences of Care, Summary Report

Copyright (2011) Private Mental Health Consumer Carer Network (Australia) and the Australian Medical Association. Published version of the paper reproduced here with permission from the publishe

Foundations for change: Part 1- CONSUMERS: Experiences of CONSUMERS with the diagnosis of borderline personality disorder (BPD)

Copyright (2011) Private Mental Health Consumer Carer Network (Australia) and the Australian Medical Association. Published version of the paper reproduced here with permission from the publishe

Foundations for change: Part 2 - CARERS: Experiences of CARERS supporting someone with the diagnosis of Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD)

Copyright (2011) Private Mental Health Consumer Carer Network (Australia) and the Australian Medical Association. Published version of the paper reproduced here with permission from the publishe

The importance of relationship in understanding the experiences of spouse mental health carers

The burden of caring for family members with mental illness has been researched extensively. However, knowledge of spouse carers’ experiences is limited. In this article, we explore this from a carers’ perspective, with 28 spouse carers, using qualitative open-ended semi-structured interviews using a grounded theory approach informed by the social interactionism tradition to collect and analyze the data. We present six interrelated themes around the central theme of this being “a real and genuine relationship”. The findings indicate that caring for a spouse with severe mental illness is a unique role compared with other caring roles. First and foremost, spouse carers strive for the relationship with their partner, and accommodate mental illness into their lives to protect the relationship. Because of this, they often lead surreal lives marked by significant emotional pressure and isolation. This has implications for how mental health service providers work with and support spouse carers

Experiences of care by Australians with a diagnosis of borderline personality disorder

© 2015 The Authors. Journal of Psychiatric and Mental Health Nursing published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs License, which permits use and distribution in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, the use is non-commercial and no mAccessible summary Borderline personality disorder (BPD) is a complex and challenging mental health condition for the person and service providers who support them. This paper reports on the results of a survey of 153 people with a diagnosis of BPD about their experiences of attempting to receive support in managing this mental health condition. It provides their perceptions of a range of experiences not reported in the existing literature, including general practitioner roles, urban and rural differences, public and private hospital differences, and comparison of usefulness of support across multiple support types. People with a diagnosis of BPD continue to experience significant discrimination when attempting to get their needs met within both public and private health services. Further education for nurses and other health professionals is indicated to address pervasive negative attitudes towards people with a diagnosis of BPD. Abstract There is limited understanding of the experience of seeking and receiving treatment and care by people with a diagnosis of borderline personality disorder (BPD), their perceptions of barriers to care and the quality of services they receive. This study aimed to explore these experiences from the perspective of Australians with this diagnosis. An invitation to participate in an online survey was distributed across multiple consumer and carer organizations and mental health services, by the Private Mental Health Consumer Carer Network (Australia) in 2011. Responses from 153 people with a diagnosis of BPD showed that they experience significant challenges and discrimination when attempting to get their needs met within both public and private health services, including general practice. Seeking help from hospital emergency departments during crises was particularly challenging. Metropolitan and rural differences, and gender differences, were also apparent. Community supports were perceived as inadequate to meet their needs. This study provides data on a range of experiences not reported in existing literature, including general practitioner roles, urban and rural differences, public and private hospital differences, and comparison of usefulness of support across multiple support types. Its findings can help inform better training for health professionals and better care for this population

Celebrating twenty - five years as a university for the real world: 1989–2014.

This book celebrates the first twenty five years of Queensland University of Technology 1989-2014.Twenty-five years is a significant milestone in the life of any institution and provides an opportunity to pause and reflect on the progress QUT has made

Dissecting the Shared Genetic Architecture of Suicide Attempt, Psychiatric Disorders, and Known Risk Factors

Background Suicide is a leading cause of death worldwide, and nonfatal suicide attempts, which occur far more frequently, are a major source of disability and social and economic burden. Both have substantial genetic etiology, which is partially shared and partially distinct from that of related psychiatric disorders. Methods We conducted a genome-wide association study (GWAS) of 29,782 suicide attempt (SA) cases and 519,961 controls in the International Suicide Genetics Consortium (ISGC). The GWAS of SA was conditioned on psychiatric disorders using GWAS summary statistics via multitrait-based conditional and joint analysis, to remove genetic effects on SA mediated by psychiatric disorders. We investigated the shared and divergent genetic architectures of SA, psychiatric disorders, and other known risk factors. Results Two loci reached genome-wide significance for SA: the major histocompatibility complex and an intergenic locus on chromosome 7, the latter of which remained associated with SA after conditioning on psychiatric disorders and replicated in an independent cohort from the Million Veteran Program. This locus has been implicated in risk-taking behavior, smoking, and insomnia. SA showed strong genetic correlation with psychiatric disorders, particularly major depression, and also with smoking, pain, risk-taking behavior, sleep disturbances, lower educational attainment, reproductive traits, lower socioeconomic status, and poorer general health. After conditioning on psychiatric disorders, the genetic correlations between SA and psychiatric disorders decreased, whereas those with nonpsychiatric traits remained largely unchanged. Conclusions Our results identify a risk locus that contributes more strongly to SA than other phenotypes and suggest a shared underlying biology between SA and known risk factors that is not mediated by psychiatric disorders.Peer reviewe

What consumers, general practitioners and mental health professionals want: the co-design and prototype testing of a transdiagnostic, acceptance and commitment therapy-based online intervention to reduce distress and promote wellbeing among Australian adults

Abstract Background Many Australians experience mental health challenges, but only a third access face-to-face psychological services, due to multiple barriers including long waitlists. Additional strategies to prevent or help people de-escalate distress at an early stage are needed. Web-based mental health interventions are becoming increasingly acceptable to consumers and referring General Practitioners (GPs), but most are designed for specific disorders/populations. This study explores consumers’ and health professionals’ preferences and recommendations for the design of a transdiagnostic, Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT)-based, online intervention for Australian adults. Methods Thirty-five people (consumers, carers, GPs, mental health professionals) participated in one or more co-design stages. Stage 1: semi-structured interviews to establish what is wanted from such websites (n = 22). Stage 2: feedback emailed on branding options (n = 20). Stage 3: feedback provided via Zoom or an online survey after testing a website prototype (n = 19). Data were analysed using Thematic Framework Analysis and descriptive statistics. Results Stage 1 highlighted nine key design principles (plus 25 subthemes) that participants emphasised as important to ensure the website would have broad appeal and meet their needs: (1) user choice is valued highly; (2) ACT-based content is acceptable as it is focused on helping people be proactive and ‘get unstuck’; (3) non-pathologising, direct, empowering, lay language is endorsed; (4) a positive look and feel is appreciated; (5) images and videos are important to break up text and maintain engagement; (6) short text messages to aid engagement are valued; (7) provision of tailored psychoeducation for highly distressed and suicidal users is endorsed; (8) personal and proactive brand name is preferred (icanactnow); (9) diverse marketing and training activities are recommended. In Stage 2, icanactnow branding preferences were elicited (simplicity, colours to represent growth and a call to action). Stage 3 resulted in the inclusion of a safety plan template and a tailored entry portal for people referred to icanactnow by health professionals. High levels of satisfaction with the prototype were reported. Conclusions These findings informed icanactnow and provide insights for the development of other online mental health interventions, in ways that appeal to both consumers and professionals recommending them