People with advanced cancer express the need for support to balance everyday activities to experience quality of life. The Balance, Activity and Quality of Life Intervention was developed to address this need using a resource- and activity-oriented approach that integrates rehabilitation into palliative care. To inform a future full-scale evaluation, the objective of this feasibility study was to test if the selected outcome measures of health-related quality of life, including physical function and fatigue, and occupational balance could capture any possible changes of the Balance, Activity and Quality of Life Intervention in people with advanced cancer.

Repeated-measurement feasibility study without a control group (ClinicalTrials.gov NCT04772690). Twenty-two home-living adults with advanced cancer participated in the study. The intervention was delivered at the research clinic of REPHA, The Danish Knowledge Centre for Rehabilitation and Palliative Care. Data regarding health-related quality of life, including physical function and fatigue, and occupational balance were collected with the European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer Quality of Life Questionnaire Core-30 and the Occupational Balance Questionnaire at baseline, after a 5-day intervention stay and at 6- and 12-week follow-up.

The outcome measure of health-related quality of life captured a statistically significant improvement (p = 0.0046) after the 5-day intervention stay, with 64% of the participants experiencing clinically relevant improvements. No other statistically significant changes were found. Missing data were minor.

Health-related quality of life is a promising outcome measure to capture the possible changes of the Balance, Activity and Quality of Life Intervention. The results indicate that a resource- and activity-oriented approach may be helpful when integrating rehabilitation into palliative care.

Drowning persists as a preventable pediatric cause of severe morbidity and mortality. This study aims to investigate the risk factors, circumstances, and medical consequences associated with pediatric drowning incidents in order to identify patterns that can inform targeted interventions.

This was a retrospective analysis of a cohort of pediatric drowning cases. The study encompassed children aged 0-18 years who presented to the pediatric emergency departments (PEDs) of Hadassah Medical Centers in Jerusalem from January 1, 2004 through April 30, 2023. Inclusion criteria were individuals with main registration diagnosis containing the terms “drowning” or “submersion.”

Analysis revealed 129 cases of pediatric drowning, males comprising 66% of the cohort. The average age was 4.9 years (SD = 4.5). Predominantly, drownings occurred in private (38%) or public pools (27.1%). Forty-eight percent of children required hospitalization in intensive care. Notably, children from the Arab minority were significantly younger at the time of drowning (3.8 years; P = .04) and were at elevated risk of severe neurologic outcomes necessitating rehabilitation (P = .03). Incidents occurring on weekends were associated with younger victim ages (3.5 years; P = .04) and with increased likelihood of outcomes necessitating rehabilitation (P = .04). Conversely, children from families with four or more siblings were notably older at the time of drowning (5.3 years; P = .01). No other statistically significant differences were observed among demographic groups.

Strategies aimed at promoting child health and preventing drowning must surmount feasibility barriers. Intervention efforts should be tailored to populations at heightened risk, including younger children, minority groups, and incidents occurring during weekends.

Cognitive impairment (CI) is one of the most prevalent and burdensome consequences of COVID-19 infection, which can persist up to months or even years after remission of the infection. Current guidelines on post-COVID CI are based on available knowledge on treatments used for improving CI in other conditions. The current review aims to provide an updated overview of the existing evidence on the efficacy of treatments for post-COVID CI.

A systematic literature search was conducted for studies published up to December 2023 using three databases (PubMed–Scopus–ProQuest). Controlled and noncontrolled trials, cohort studies, case series, and reports testing interventions on subjects with CI following COVID-19 infection were included.

After screening 7790 articles, 29 studies were included. Multidisciplinary approaches, particularly those combining cognitive remediation interventions, physical exercise, and dietary and sleep support, may improve CI and address the different needs of individuals with post-COVID-19 condition. Cognitive remediation interventions can provide a safe, cost-effective option and may be tailored to deficits in specific cognitive domains. Noninvasive brain stimulation techniques and hyperbaric oxygen therapy showed mixed and preliminary results. Evidence for other interventions, including pharmacological ones, remains sparse. Challenges in interpreting existing evidence include heterogeneity in study designs, assessment tools, and recruitment criteria; lack of long-term follow-up; and under-characterization of samples in relation to confounding factors.

Further research, grounded on shared definitions of the post-COVID condition and on the accurate assessment of COVID-related CI, in well-defined study samples and with longer follow-ups, is crucial to address this significant unmet need.

The physical health comorbidities and premature mortality experienced by people with mental illness has led to an increase in exercise services embedded as part of standard care in hospital-based mental health services. Despite the increase in access to exercise services for people experiencing mental illness, there is currently a lack of guidelines on the assessment and triage of patients into exercise therapy.

To develop guidelines for the pre-exercise screening and health assessment of patients engaged with exercise services in hospital-based mental healthcare and to establish an exercise therapy triage framework for use in hospital-based mental healthcare.

A Delphi technique consisting of two online surveys and two rounds of focus group discussions was used to gain consensus from a multidisciplinary panel of experts.

Consensus was reached on aspects of pre-exercise health screening, health domain assessment, assessment tools representing high-value clinical assessment, and the creation and proposed utilisation of an exercise therapy triage framework within exercise therapy.

This study is the first of its kind to provide guidance on the implementation of exercise therapy within Australian hospital-based mental healthcare. The results provide recommendations for appropriate health assessment and screening of patients in exercise therapy, and provide guidance on the implementation and triage of patients into exercise therapy via a stepped framework to determine (a) the timeliness of exercise therapy required and (b) the level of support required in the delivery of their exercise therapy.

The aim of this project was to set out recommendations for the section 17 leave form to reflect guidance provided in the Mental Health Act 1983: Code of Practice, following local Care Quality Commission feedback. We reviewed guidance in the Code and publicly available leave forms to identify items to include in the leave form. Then, we determined which publicly available leave forms included each item and reviewed whether the item should be included in the leave form and whether any reformulation was needed.

Using the method described, we identified a list of items that should be included in the leave form. When comparing the leave forms of different trusts, there was considerable variation with respect to which items were included in each form.

We provide some recommendations for future practice regarding section 17 leave forms to facilitate consistency with the Code and between different trusts.

To assess the effects of intratympanic gentamicin on the recovery of patients with large vestibular schwannomas undergoing retrosigmoid resection.

We conducted a prospective case-control pilot study over 24 months, including 13 patients with large vestibular schwannomas (25–41 mm intracranial diameter); seven patients received intratympanic gentamicin pre-operatively, while six did not. Outcome measures were duration of stay (main), age, gender, vestibular schwannoma size, body mass index and financial costs.

Age had the highest association with longer inpatient stay. The non-gentamicin patients had longer hospital stays, were older, had lower body mass indices and larger vestibular schwannomas. A trend towards shorter stay was seen in patients receiving gentamicin with tumours less than 35 mm in size, but not in patients with larger tumours. Costs were lower for the gentamicin group.

Although not statistically significant, there was a positive trend in patients with vestibular schwannomas greater than 35 mm in size; thus, intratympanic gentamicin as prehabilitation could be considered.

To explore the experiences pertaining to long-term care services from the perspectives of dyads of stroke survivors and their family caregivers in indigenous and non-indigenous communities.

Stroke occurrence is a life-changing event associated with quality of life for stroke survivors and their families, especially those who provide primary support. Indigenous people are more likely to experience a stroke at a younger age and have a higher likelihood of hospitalisation and death due to health disparities. Few studies have investigated family dyads or indigenous populations to understand their experiences of coping with changed body-self and to contextualise their reintegration into communities post-stroke.

Ethnographic fieldwork over nine months in 2018–2019 with indigenous, urban-based, and non-indigenous populations, resulting in 48 observations and 24 interviews with 12 dyads in three geo-administrative communities.

The post-stroke recovery trajectory is illuminated, delineating the dyads’ life transitions from biographical disruption to biographical continuation. The trajectory is shaped by seven states involving four mindsets and three status passages. The four mindsets are sense of loss and worry, sense of interdependence, sense of independence, and wellbeing state. The status passages identified in this study are acceptance, alteration, and identification. A community-based and family-centred long-term care system, aligning with medical healthcare and community resources, underpinned each dyad’s biographical continuation by: (1) providing rehabilitation that afforded time and space for recovery adaptation; (2) acknowledging the individuality of family caregivers and helping to alleviate their multitasking; and (3) reintegrating stroke survivors into their communities. Key to determining the quality of recovery for the indigenous participants was their reintegration into their native community and regaining of identity. Therefore, integrating post-stroke care into various care contexts and incorporating indigenous-specific needs into policymaking can support dyads in adapting to their communities.