Does Mental Illness Impact the Incidence of Crime and Victimisation among Young People?

While the high prevalence of offending and victimisation among young people is well established, no study to date has compared official crime records of young people with mental illness with those without mental illness. This case linkage study sought to determine whether young people with a formal history of mental illness were more likely to have official histories of offending and victimisation than young people who had no recorded histories of mental illness. Results suggested that young people with a history of mental illness are particularly vulnerable to violence. While a weak association was established between violent offending and mental illness, a stronger relationship was found between victimisation and mental illness, especially violent victimisation. Consistent with literature regarding the victim-offender overlap, a history of offending placed young people at a substantially higher risk of victimisation. Implications of these results are discussed in the context of how public mental health services could better protect these vulnerable young people.

Is coping well a matter of personality? A study of euthymic unipolar and bipolar patients.

BACKGROUND: Euthymic bipolar disorder (BD) patients often demonstrate better clinical outcomes than remitted patients with unipolar illness (UP). Reasons for this are uncertain, however, personality and coping styles are each likely to play a key role. This study examined differences between euthymic BD and UP patients with respect to the inter-relationship between personality, coping style, and clinical outcomes. METHODS: A total of 96 UP and 77 BD euthymic patients were recruited through the CADE Clinic, Royal North Shore Hospital in Sydney, and assessed by a team comprising Psychiatrists and Psychologists. They underwent a structured clinical diagnostic interview, and completed self-report measures of depression, anxiety, stress, personality, coping, social adjustment, self-esteem, dysfunctional attitudes, and fear of negative evaluation. RESULTS: Compared to UP, BD patients reported significantly higher scores on levels of extraversion, adaptive coping, self-esteem, and lower scores on trait anxiety and fear of negative evaluation. Extraversion correlated positively with self-esteem, adaptive coping styles, and negatively with trait anxiety and fear of negative evaluation. Trait anxiety and fear of negative evaluation correlated positively with eachother, and both correlated negatively with self-esteem and adaptive coping styles. Finally, self-esteem correlated positively with adaptive coping styles. LIMITATIONS: The results cannot be generalised to depressive states of BD and UP, as differences in the course of illness and types of depression are likely to impact on coping and clinical outcomes, particularly for BD. CONCLUSIONS: During remission, functioning is perhaps better 'preserved' in BD than in UP, possibly because of the protective role of extraversion which drives healthier coping styles.

Enhancing parenting skills for parents with mental illness: the Mental Health Positive Parenting Program.

OBJECTIVE: To determine the effect of the Mental Health Positive Parenting Program (MHPPP) on parenting practices of parents reporting a mental health problem. DESIGN, SETTING AND PARTICIPANTS: A prospective before-and-after examination of positive parenting skills and parent-reported child outcomes among parents of children aged 2-10 years who had self-reported a mental health problem. One hundred and eleven (85.4%) of 130 parents who commenced the MHPPP completed the program. Of these, 77.5% (n = 86) completed both before- and after-intervention measures. The MHPPP was conducted across four community health centres. INTERVENTION: A 10-week intervention was tailored to parents with a mental health problem. The intervention was divided into a 6-week group parenting program based on the Positive Parenting Program and four weekly home visits. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Parental discipline practices and children's behaviour were measured by the Parenting Scale (PS) and the Eyberg Child Behavior Inventory (ECBI), respectively. RESULTS: Following the MHPPP, parents scored significantly lower on each of the PS subscales: laxness (Z = - 6.23; P < 0.001), over-reactivity (Z = - 7.15; P < 0.001) and verbosity (Z = - 6.59; P < 0.001); and significantly lower on both ECBI subscales: intensity (Z = - 7.08, P < 0.001) and problem (Z = - 7.57; P < 0.001). CONCLUSIONS: Our findings suggest the MHPPP can reduce the number of dysfunctional parenting strategies and parent-reported child behavioural problems. The MHPPP is a promising avenue for early intervention in this population.