Cardiorespiratory fitness and self-reported physical activity levels of referring mental healthcare professionals, and their attitudes and referral practices related to exercise and physical health

Feasibility and Acceptability of a Physical Activity Group Program Using telerehabilitation during the COVID-19 Pandemic in Multiple early Intervention for Psychosis Services

BACKGROUND

Although physical activity (PA) is beneficial to young people with early psychosis (YEP) to improve physical health and psychiatric symptoms, few YEP initiate and maintain PA. The sports group interventions offered in early psychosis services had to be suspended due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Telehealth has shown promising results in different fields of health services including for patients with mental health disorders.

METHODS

Descriptive retrospective study aiming to determine the feasibility and acceptability of a telekinesiology intervention among YEP and to describe its multicenter implementation. The PA sessions were delivered to YEP by a kinesiologist and peer support workers. Feasibility was measured by the number of programs approached which referred participants, and the proportion of referred YEP who participated to at least one PA session. Acceptability was measured by the proportion of participants who attended more than one PA session, the number of sessions attended per participant and by surveys on patient satisfaction.

RESULTS

Of the 35 clinics approached, 150 YEP (of 214 referred) from 13 clinics participated to at least one of the 204 telekinesiology sessions (offered 2-3 times/week from May 2020 to May 2022) The mean number per participant was 5.5 sessions. 106 YEP engaged in more than one session (mean of 7.3 sessions per persistent participant). The mean number of participants per session was 4 (1-12). 99 % of the survey respondents were very satisfied/or satisfied with the sessions.

CONCLUSION

Telekinesiology appears to be an acceptable and feasible option to be implemented simultaneously in multiple early intervention services.

The association between mental healthcare professionals' personal characteristics and their clinical lifestyle practices: a national cross-sectional study in The Netherlands

BACKGROUND

Lifestyle interventions are important to improve the mental and physical health outcomes of people with mental illness. However, referring patients to lifestyle interventions is still not a common practice for mental healthcare professionals (MHCPs) and their own lifestyle habits may impact this. The aim of this study was to investigate MHCPs' personal lifestyle habits, their lifestyle history and referral practices, and if these are associated with their lifestyle habits, gender, and profession.

METHODS

In this cross-sectional study, an online questionnaire was distributed across relevant MHCP's in The Netherlands. Ordinal regression analyses on lifestyle habits, gender, profession, and lifestyle history and referral practices were conducted.

RESULTS

A total of the 1,607 included MHCPs, 87.6% finds that lifestyle should be part of every psychiatric treatment, but depending on which lifestyle factor, 55.1-84.0% take a lifestyle history, 29.7-41.1% refer to interventions, and less than half (44.2%) of smoking patients are advised to quit. MHCPs who find their lifestyle important, who are physically more active, females, and MHCPs with a nursing background take more lifestyle histories and refer more often. Compared to current smokers, MHCPs who never or formerly smoked have higher odds (2.64 and 3.40, respectively, p < 0.001) to advice patients to quit smoking.

CONCLUSIONS

This study indicates that MHCPs' personal lifestyle habits, gender, and profession affect their clinical lifestyle practices, and thereby the translation of compelling evidence on lifestyle psychiatry to improved healthcare for patients.

The importance of collaboration between medical and exercise professionals in addressing patient physical inactivity

Physical activity has declined further during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. Physicians are at the front lines of proactively educating and promoting physical activity to patients; however, physicians do not feel confident and face numerous barriers in prescribing exercise to patients. Exercise referral schemes, comprising collaborations with qualified exercise professionals, represent a fruitful option for supporting physicians hoping to promote physical activity to more patients. Herein, we provide practical suggestions for establishing and creating a successful referral scheme. Ultimately, exercise referral schemes offer an alternative to help physician burnout and mitigate patient physical inactivity during and beyond the COVID-19 pandemic.