by Siobhán O’Connor, Sandra M. Malone, Joseph Firnhaber, Sinéad O’Keeffe, John McNamara, Anna Donnla O’Hagan
While mental health literacy is an important component to successful help-seeking, rural populations often face gaps in both knowledge and service provision. Informed by the Theory of Planned Behaviour and Self-Efficacy Theory, we designed the ‘Skills for Resilience’ as a brief, once-off, community-based educational intervention to increase Irish farmers’ mental health literacy and help-seeking intentions. We adopted a quasi-experimental between (group: intervention and control) and within-group design (time: baseline [T1], immediately post-intervention [T2], and ≥ 1 month post-intervention [T3]). A total of 72 participants (intervention n = 37; control n = 35) were recruited from knowledge-sharing discussion groups. Although recruitment was also open to women, all discussion groups consisted of men. A trained facilitator delivered a discussion lasting between 30 and 90 minutes. Five intervention participants also participated in a qualitative interview after T3. Our results identified intervention participants’ mental health literacy increased significantly at T2 and T3 compared to T1, but did not increase between T2 and T3. Mental health literacy was also significantly greater in the intervention group compared to the control group at T2 and T3. Help-seeking intentions and self-efficacy in seeking mental healthcare also increased significantly at T2 compared to T1, but did not increase between T1 and T3 or T2 and T3. There were no significant changes in outcome measures for the control group at any time point. Through reflexive thematic analysis we identified that the intervention also addressed stigma against mental health (Theme 1) and provided important resources for participants and their community’s present and future coping (Theme 2). At T3, 100% of participants enjoyed the discussion and would recommend the intervention to other farmers. This intervention provides a successful example of integrating the Theory of Planned Behaviour and Self-Efficacy Theory to improve mental health literacy in farmers using a brief, educational intervention.The gig economy is a promising arena to reduce unemployment and provide other benefits such as the opportunity to earn supplemental income. Like all other forms of work, the gig space also presents occupational health issues for those working in it. This proposed review is aimed at identifying and describing the common occupational health outcomes reported within this workforce; second, to examine the risk factors that contribute to the development of these health issues; and third, to assess the interventions and support systems currently in place to promote the occupational health of gig workers.
A systematic review will be undertaken according to the recommendations of the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses Statement (2009). A search from 2015 to 2025 will be conducted on four global databases (Web of Science, SCOPUS, Academic Source Complete and Business Source Complete). Only records in English, full text and peer-reviewed journal articles will be included. Book chapters, thesis, reports and systematic reviews will be excluded. The Joanna Briggs Institute Critical Appraisal Tools will be used to assess the methodological rigour of various studies prior to inclusion for the final analysis. The extracted data will be synthesised using a narrative synthesis approach, integrating findings from both quantitative and qualitative studies.
This research is exempt from ethics approval because the work will be carried out on published documents. We will disseminate this protocol in a related peer-reviewed journal.
CRD420250654059.
To investigate the self-reported levels of social support from friends and family and from nurses as mediators of the relationship between self-rated physical and psychological condition in hospitalised patients.
Cross-sectional study of adult inpatients at a large tertiary-care hospital in the northeast United States.
Multiple mediation analysis of survey data.
In surveys received from 324 inpatients, one fourth of the variation in patients' self-rated psychological condition was explained by self-rated physical condition. Social support from family and friends mediated a significant proportion (11.0%) of the relationship between self-rated physical and psychological condition, however social support from nurses did not.
Social support from family and friends can positively influence the psychological health of inpatients, but nurses are not an adequate replacement for the social support provided by family and friends.
Although nurses cannot replace the social support provided by family and friends, the assessment of social isolation and care planning of interventions to support patients is a fundamental nursing role. Technology to connect patients with friends and family should be used to mitigate isolation for hospitalised patients unable to receive in-person visits from loved ones.
The influence of social support from family and friends and nurses was addressed. The study found social support from family and friends, but not nurses, to influence the relationship between physical and psychological ratings. This finding has implications for the role of nurses in the hospital setting.
Strengthening the Reporting of Observational Studies in Epidemiology guidelines were followed.