Peer support in youth mental health settings holds promise as a developmentally appropriate and impactful initiative; however, research exploring implementation remains limited. To advance the field and strengthen future implementation efforts, the aim of the present study was to generate new understandings about how non-peer service providers working alongside youth peer support workers experience the peer support role in youth mental health settings.

Guided by interpretive description and tenets of a research community partnership model, semi-structured interviews were conducted with non-peer service providers (n=11) across three integrated youth services centres in British Columbia, Canada, from August to December 2020. Data were analysed inductively using a constant comparative approach to identify and construct themes.

Participants emphasised integration and supervision of youth peer support workers as essential for successful peer programming within integrated youth services, highlighting three interconnected themes: defining supervisory roles, envisioning role clarity and capacity and governance of youth peer support services.

Integrated youth services initiatives and peer-led agencies can play key roles—both directly and indirectly—to strengthen the governance and infrastructure of youth peer support.

Chronic low back pain (LBP) is among the world’s leading causes of disability and declines in quality of life. Despite considerable financial and research investment, current interventions demonstrate only modest success or are associated with deleterious side effects. Furthermore, most treatment efforts are directed towards LBP that has already become chronic, rather than interventions capable of preventing pain chronicity in the first instance. Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS), a portable and cost-effective form of non-invasive brain stimulation, presents a potential means of targeting acute pain and preventing the transition to chronic pain. However, this approach has been limited primarily to experimental settings that require intensive appointments and specialist expertise. Thus, this assessor-blinded, participant-blinded, and therapist-blinded, randomised controlled trial aims to explore the effectiveness of home-based tDCS for improving pain and disability in people with acute LBP. This may provide insight into the potential for tDCS to expedite recovery from acute LBP and prevent pain chronicity.

40 individuals with acute LBP (onset

Ethics approval has been granted by the Western Sydney University Human Research Ethics Committee (H16334). Findings will be disseminated through scientific conferences and peer-reviewed journal publication.

Up to 40% of late preterm and early term infants require neonatal admission with respiratory disease being the most common cause. Less invasive surfactant administration (LISA) has previously been used with good success in the very preterm population, but it is unclear whether late preterm infants suffering from respiratory distress syndrome and early term infants suffering from secondary surfactant deficiency might also benefit from LISA. Continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) in that population can increase asynchrony and air leaks, whereas these may be avoided by using high flow nasal cannula (HFNC). This trial will investigate whether LISA during HFNC reduces the need for invasive ventilation.

This non-blinded, single-centre study with a treatment and a control arm will take place on the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit at King’s College Hospital National Health Service (NHS) Foundation Trust and the local neonatal unit at the Princess Royal University Hospital. The study will recruit 245 infants born between 34+0 and 38+6 weeks gestational age, who are requiring respiratory support via HFNC. The 245 participants will be placed into a control and treatment group. Those infants eligible for SURFactant Or Not (SurfON) will be randomised as per the SurfON protocol. The remaining infants will, where possible, be recruited to the treatment group. All recruited infants will have 2 minutes of respiratory function monitoring. Those receiving LISA will receive a further 2 minutes of monitoring after the procedure. As HFNC, LISA and respiratory monitoring are part of routine clinical practice, retrospective consent will be gained from parents or guardians after the procedure to analyse the respiratory function data. The primary outcome will be the percentage of neonates needing invasive ventilation within 72 hours from birth. The secondary outcomes are length of neonatal unit stay; the cost of stay as estimated via standard NHS tariffs; and the lung function parameters including tidal volume, respiratory rate, end tidal CO₂ (ET CO₂), fraction of inspired oxygen (FiO₂) and ratio of oxygen saturations to fraction of inspired oxygen (SpO₂/ FiO₂) ratio before and 2 minutes after LISA and the SpO₂/FiO₂ ratio 2 hours after the administration of LISA.

A favourable opinion was sought and obtained from the London – Hampstead Research Ethics Committee and Health Research Authority for the study protocol and other relevant documentation (informed consent forms and patient information leaflets) prior to commencing the study (REC reference: 24/PR/0431). Anonymised study data will be presented at conferences and published by the investigators in peer-reviewed journals

NCT06421506.

Severe intraventricular haemorrhage (IVH) and white matter injury (WMI) are major neurological complications in preterm infants, leading to long-term neurodevelopmental impairments. Despite advances in neonatal care, effective treatments are lacking. Umbilical cord blood cell (UCBC) therapy shows neuroprotective potential, with autologous sources ideal but often not feasible due to the unpredictability of preterm births. Allogeneic UCBCs offer an alternative, although immunogenicity and human leucocyte antigen (HLA) compatibility present challenges with knowledge gaps in their relevance in neonatal populations. This study aims to assess the feasibility and safety of partially HLA-matched allogeneic UCBC therapy in preterm infants with severe brain injury.

The ALLO trial is an open-label, phase I, single-arm feasibility and safety study conducted at Monash Children’s Hospital, Victoria, Australia. Preterm infants born before 28 weeks (ALLO-1) or between 28 weeks and 36+6 weeks (ALLO-2) gestational age with severe brain injury identified on neuroimaging will be enrolled. Severe brain injury is defined as grade 3 or 4 IVH or significant WMI. Exclusion criteria include major congenital anomalies or redirection to comfort care. Eligible infants will receive a single intravenous infusion of unrelated, allogeneic, partially HLA-matched (4/6 or 5/6 HLA match) UCBCs sourced from a public cord blood bank. The target dose is 50 million total nucleated cells per kilogram body weight. Infusion will occur within 2–3 weeks of confirmation of eligibility, contingent on clinical stability and absence of active sepsis. Primary outcome includes: (1) feasibility, defined as having more than 60% of enrolled infants with an eligible allogeneic partially matched cord blood unit available and (2) safety, defined as absence of severe adverse events within 48 hours of infusion or graft-versus-host disease within 3 months of infusion. Secondary outcomes include survival, neonatal morbidities, neurodevelopmental assessments and serum cytokine analysis.

Monash HREC has granted full ethics approval (RES-23-0000-297A) for the study, including the research use of allogeneic cord blood from compassionate donations by healthy donors, facilitated through the Bone Marrow Donor Institute Cord Blood Bank within the AusCord network. Findings will be disseminated through peer-reviewed publications and conference presentations, contributing to the development of novel neuroreparative therapies for preterm brain injury.

ACTRN12623001352695 (The Australian New Zealand Clinical Trials Registry).

Sodium-glucose co-transporter inhibitors have potential glycaemic and non-glycaemic benefits in people with type 1 diabetes (T1D). However, the increased risk of diabetic ketoacidosis (DKA) limits their widespread use. We hypothesise that dapagliflozin 10 mg daily, combined with the use of continuous ketone monitoring (CKM) and education strategies to mitigate progression to DKA, will demonstrate improved glycaemic control without increasing DKA events.

PARTNER is a multisite 6-month randomised crossover double-masked study involving Australian adults with T1D who have a Haemoglobin A1c (HbA1c)

The study has received ethical approval from the St Vincent’s Hospital Melbourne Human Research Ethics Committee (HREC reference 302/23). The results will be published in peer-reviewed journals and presented at national and international diabetes conferences.

ACTRN12624000448549.