Living with chronic kidney disease, or experiencing acute kidney injury, is associated with potentially serious psychological and psychiatric harm. To read the full article, log in using your MPFT NHS OpenAthens details.
Social support is also important for health, especially when recovering from an illness. A dog provides companionship and may be a way of getting to know other dog owners in the neighbourhood.
However, the studies do not prove that dog ownership has a direct effect on health, only that it seems to be linked to longer life. While people who enjoy the company of dogs may benefit from exercise and companionship, the study does not show that people who are happily social and active without dogs should get one.
Ultimately this research cannot prove cause and effect. Both optimism and lifespan may be influenced by many hereditary, health, lifestyle and personal factors. People with a good overall standard of health and wellbeing are probably more likely to be optimistic about their future. While researchers attempted to adjust their analysis for these sort of factors, it's hard to remove their influence fully.
It's also questionable how applicable the results of these optimism assessments, taken 15 to 30 years ago from very specific groups of older US nurses and war veterans, are to the general UK population.
Nevertheless the research highlights the importance that mental health and wellbeing can have on physical health.
Although many home nations fans might find sitting through this year’s rugby world cup matches a little too nerve-racking at times, the NHS says watching the sport can actually be good for your mental health and wellbeing.
Despite the growing prevalence of depression in the Chinese elderly, there is conflicting evidence of life course socioeconomic position (SEP) and depression onset in China, and whether this association is akin to that observed in Western societies. We compared incident risk of mid–late life depression by childhood and adulthood SEP in China and England, a country where mental health inequality is firmly established. To read the full article, log in using your NHS OpenAthens details.
This study found that almost half of health care workers reported experiencing a mental illness, which could have significant implications for service delivery. Some health care workers held causal explanations of mental illness that were not evidence based. To read the full article, log in using your NHS OpenAthens details.
Conclusions: Our findings suggest that the current application of gamification to apps and technologies for improving mental health and well-being does not align with the trend of positive reinforcement critiqued in the greater health and well-being literature. We also observed overlap between the most commonly used gamification techniques and existing behavior change frameworks.
Social workers are among the largest group of professionals in the mental health workforce and play a key role in the assessment of mental health, addictions and suicide. Most social workers provide services to individuals with mental health concerns, yet there are gaps in research on social work education and training programmes. The objective of this scoping review is to examine literature on social work education and training in mental health, addictions and suicide. Open Access Article
There is good evidence that job stressors are prospectively related to mental health problems, particularly depressive symptoms. This review aimed to examine whether job stressors were also related to use of psychotropic medications. To read the full article, log in using your MPFT NHS OpenAthens details.
Older Men at the Margins was a two-year study to understand how men aged 65 and over from different social backgrounds and circumstances experienced loneliness and social isolation. It also explored the formal and informal ways they sought to stay connected with others and feel less lonely.
Adults who are sleeping rough and living with mental illness and substance misuse will benefit from £1.9 million funding to improve their access to vital healthcare.
Improving the way people travel and their experience at rail stations, airports and on roads, could play a significant role in improving their mental wellbeing, a new study commissioned by London City Airport reveals. The report also provides new estimates of the cost of poor mental health in different parts of England.
Globalised and 24/7 business operations have fuelled demands for people to work long hours and weekends. Research on the mental health effects of these intensive temporal work patterns is sparse, contradictory or has not considered gender differences. Our objective was to examine the relationship between these work patterns and depressive symptoms in a large nationally representative sample of working men and women in the UK. To read the full article, log in using your NHS OpenAthens details.
Residents of disadvantaged neighbourhoods report higher levels of depressive symptoms; however, few studies have employed prospective designs during adolescence, when depression tends to emerge. We examined associations of neighbourhood social fragmentation, income inequality and median household income with depressive symptoms in a nationally representative survey of adolescents. To read the full article, log in using your NHS OpenAthens details