Jennifer Beecham

Jennifer Beecham
University of Kent | KENT

About

243
Publications
47,088
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9,438
Citations

Publications

Publications (243)
Article
Full-text available
Context: UK austerity measures following the 2008 financial crisis included budget reductions for health and social care. We aimed to investigate the extent to which austerity-measures had impacted the lives of people with intellectual disabilities in England, and whether their support costs were associated with their characteristics, needs and out...
Article
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Background Good quality parenting in early childhood is reliably associated with positive mental and physical health over the lifespan. The hypothesis that early parenting quality has significant long‐term financial benefits has not been previously tested. Methods Design: Longitudinal study with follow‐up from 2012 to 2016. Setting: UK multicentre...
Article
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Background About one in seven adolescents have a mental health disorder in England, UK. School counselling is one of the most common means of trying to address such a problem. We aimed to determine the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of school-based humanistic counselling (SBHC) for the treatment of psychological distress in young people in En...
Article
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Background With increasing reductions in funding for social care across many countries, the need to ensure that resources are used to best effect is becoming increasingly important, in particular for those with severe and complex needs. Methods In order to explore the outcomes and costs of skilled support for this group of people, quality of life...
Article
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Objective: There is concern whether established parenting programs for children's conduct problems meet the needs of families with severe and complex mental health problems. For example, many children with conduct problems show comorbid ADHD or emotional problems, or have parents who are depressed, but families with such complex mental health prob...
Article
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Background Knowing that your parent or caregiver will be there for you in times of emotional need and distress is a core aspect of the human experience of feeling loved and being securely attached. In contrast, an insecure attachment pattern is found in many antisocial youth and is related to less sensitive caregiving. Such youth are often distrust...
Article
Purpose Research in care homes requires the co-operation of care home managers. Noting the challenges faced by the care home sector, the purpose of this paper is to consider ways in which research studies can encourage care home managers and their homes to participate in research. Design/methodology/approach The discussion is informed by two resea...
Article
Background: Childhood conduct problems are a costly public health problem and are five times more common in socially disadvantaged groups than they are in advantaged groups. Untreated, conduct problems have a poor prognosis, with increasing gaps between socioeconomic groups, and high rates of subsequent criminality. Incredible Years is a high qual...
Article
Strong arguments have been made for early intervention for child problems, stating that early is more effective than later, as the brain is more malleable, and costs are lower. However, there is scant evidence from trials to support this hypothesis, which we therefore tested in two well-powered, state-of-the-art meta-analyses with complementary str...
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Background Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) frequently persist into adolescence and young adulthood. However, there are few clinical services that support those with these disorders through adulthood. Objective Our aim was to determine if clinical services meet the needs of people with ASD and ADHD...
Article
Introduction The Royal College of Occupational Therapists has launched a campaign to demonstrate that occupational therapists improve lives and save money for health and social care services. Occupational therapists play a major part in supporting older and disabled people to remain in their own homes through the provision of home adaptations. Amon...
Article
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Background: Depression and anxiety are highly prevalent and often co-occur. Several studies indicate the potential of disorder-specific psychological interventions for the prevention each of these disorders. To treat comorbidity, transdiagnostic treatment concepts seem to be a promising approach, however, evidence for transdiagnostic concepts of pr...
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Background: Anorexia nervosa (AN) is a life-threatening mental disorder that is associated with substantial caregiver burden. Carers of individuals with AN report high levels of distress and self-blame, and insufficient knowledge to help their loved ones. However, carers can have a very important role to play in aiding recovery from AN, and are of...
Article
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Background Mental health problems are common and place a burden on the individual as well as on societal resources. Despite the existence of evidence-based treatments, access to treatment is often prevented or delayed due to insufficient health care resources. Effective internet-based self-help interventions have the potential to reduce the risk fo...
Article
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Background Child disruptive behavioural problems are a large and costly public health problem. The Incredible Years ® (IY) parenting programme has been disseminated across the UK to prevent this problem and shown to be effective in several trials. It is vital for policy to know for which families IY is most effective, to be sure that it helps reduc...
Article
Background: People with intellectual disabilities have a shorter life expectancy, but healthcare improvements mean that they are beginning to live longer, with associated health difficulties. This means that there is an urgent need to focus research on ageing as well as end-of-life care. This study aimed to explore a specialist intellectual disabi...
Article
TRIANGLE is a multicentre trial investigating whether the addition of a novel intervention for patients and carers (ECHOMANTRA) to treatment as usual (TAU) improves outcomes for people with anorexia nervosa (AN). ECHOMANTRA is based on the cognitive interpersonal model of AN and includes assessments, workbooks, videos, online groups and joint Skype...
Article
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Background Anorexia nervosa (AN) is a severe psychiatric condition and evidence on how to best treat it is limited. Objectives This programme consists of seven integrated work packages (WPs) and aims to develop and test disseminable and cost-effective treatments to optimise management for people with AN across all stages of illness. Methods WP1a...
Article
The benefits of meaningful activity in later life are well documented. Studies show that being occupied contributes to both physical and mental health as well as quality of life. Research also suggests that activity may be beneficial to people residing in care homes, including people living with dementia. This paper presents findings from a study w...
Article
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Background: Parenting programs aim to reduce children's conduct problems through improvement of family dynamics. To date, research on the precise benefits and possible harms of parenting programs on family well-being has been unsystematic and likely to be subject to selective outcome reporting and publication bias. Better understanding of program...
Article
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Background: People with intellectual disabilities, if convicted of offences, may be sentenced to prison, but little is known about their life when they are released. Method: This study followed up men with intellectual disabilities who were leaving prisons in England. Results: The men were hard to contact, but 38 men were interviewed, on avera...
Article
Background: Parenting programs aim to reduce children’s conduct problems through improvement of family dynamics. To date, research on the precise benefits and possible harms of parenting programs on family well-being has been unsystematic and likely to be subject to selective outcome reporting and publication bias. Better understanding of program b...
Article
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Background: While Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) often persists into adulthood, little is known about the needs and service use among adolescents and young adults with ADHD. The present study followed-up a cohort diagnosed with ADHD as children and assessed their: 1) needs, 2) correlates of contact with clinical services, and 3) e...
Article
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Objective: This study reports follow-up data from a multicenter randomized controlled trial (n = 142) comparing the Maudsley Model of Anorexia Nervosa Treatment for Adults (MANTRA) with Specialist Supportive Clinical Management (SSCM) in outpatients with broadly defined anorexia nervosa (AN). At 12 months postrandomization, all patients had statis...
Article
Parents of children on the autistic spectrum often struggle to understand the condition and, related to this, manage their child’s behaviour. Cygnet is a parenting intervention which aims to help parents address these difficulties, consequently improving parenting confidence. It is widely used in the United Kingdom (UK). Despite this, there have be...
Article
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Background: Active family engagement improves outcomes from adolescent inpatient care, but the impact on adult anorexia nervosa is uncertain. Aim: The aim of this study was to describe the 2-year outcome following a pragmatic randomised controlled trial in which a skill training intervention (Experienced Caregivers Helping Others) for carers was...
Article
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Families express a need for information to support people with severe anorexia nervosa. Aims To examine the impact of the addition of a skills training intervention for caregivers (Experienced Caregivers Helping Others, ECHO) to standard care. Method Patients over the age of 12 (mean age 26 years, duration 72 months illness) with a primary diagnosi...
Article
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Anorexia nervosa (AN) in adults has poor outcomes, and treatment evidence is limited. This study evaluated the efficacy and acceptability of a novel, targeted psychological therapy for AN (Maudsley Model of Anorexia Nervosa Treatment for Adults; MANTRA) compared with Specialist Supportive Clinical Management (SSCM). One hundred forty-two outpatient...
Article
Background People with severe and profound intellectual disabilities often spend substantial time isolated and disengaged. The nature and quality of the support appears to be important in determining quality of life.Methods Structured observations and staff questionnaires were used to explore the quality of life and quality of support for 110 peopl...
Conference Paper
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Introduction and main aims: Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is increasingly recognised as a developmental disorder that often persists into adulthood, however many studies have shown that few young adults with this disorder are in receipt of effective treatments. This study investigates correlates of contact with clinical services (...
Article
Objective The aim of this study was to develop and validate a new questionnaire designed to measure caregiver skills that, in line with the interpersonal component of the cognitive interpersonal maintenance model (Schmidt and Treasure, J Br J Clin Psychol, 45, 343–366, 2006), may be helpful in the support of people with anorexia nervosa (AN). A fur...
Article
Experienced Carers Helping Others (ECHO) is an intervention for carers of people with eating disorders. This paper describes the theoretical background and protocol of a pilot multicentre randomised controlled trial that will explore the use of two variants of ECHO for improving outcomes for adolescents with anorexia nervosa (AN) referred for outpa...
Article
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Economic evaluations are increasingly used in decision-making. Accurate measurement of service use is critical to economic evaluation. This qualitative study, based on expert interviews, aims to identify best approaches to service use measurement for child mental health conditions, and to identify problems in current methods. Results suggest consid...
Article
Evidence on the effectiveness of interventions to support parents of disabled children to manage their child's behaviour problems is limited. The aim of this study was to evaluate a group-delivered intervention (Riding the Rapids) which was specifically developed for parents of a child with a disability or autistic spectrum condition. This programm...
Article
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Purpose of the study: to examine the costs and cost-effectiveness of ‘second-generation’ telecare, in addition to standard support and care that could include ‘first-generation’ forms of telecare, compared with standard support and care that could include ‘first-generation’ forms of telecare. Design and methods: a pragmatic cluster-randomised contr...
Article
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Although childhood hyperactivity and conduct problems are associated with difficulties in adulthood, little is known about later service use or public expenditure costs in the UK. To describe the use of services and calculate recent (past 6 months) and early adulthood (since the age of 18 years) public expenditure costs incurred by young adults who...
Article
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Resources for supporting children and adolescents with psychiatric disorders continue to be scarce. Economics research can identify current patterns of expenditure, and help inform allocation of treatment and support resources between competing needs or uses. The aim was to identify the costs of supporting children and adolescents, the economic imp...
Article
A survey in Wales of people with severe intellectual disabilities and the most severe challenging behaviour identified 17 adults living in new specialist community housing and 19 in traditional services. With the omission of two people from the latter group, this study explored the relationships between resident characteristics, service characteris...
Article
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Background: Despite its high prevalence, help-seeking for depression is low. Aims: To assess the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of 1-day cognitive-behavioural therapy (CBT) self-confidence workshops in reducing depression. Anxiety, self-esteem, prognostic indicators as well as access were also assessed. Method: An open randomised control...
Article
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Background Despite its high prevalence, help-seeking for depression is low. Aims To assess the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of one-day cognitive behaviour therapy (CBT) self-confidence workshops in reducing depression. Anxiety, self-esteem, prognostic indicators as well as access were also assessed. Method An open randomised controlled...
Article
Adoption can provide stability and improved outcomes for looked after children, but the support needs of adoptive families range from financial support to managing difficult behaviours and attachment problems. This study looks at the use of services and associated costs over a six-month period through data collected from nineteen adoptive parents s...
Article
Background Interventions aimed at high-need families have difficulty demonstrating short-term impact on child behaviour. Measuring impact on use of services could provide short-term indication of longer term benefits. Method During a feasibility pilot study we collected data on service use and attitudes to services from a small sample of parents f...
Article
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Background: Anorexia nervosa (AN) is a biologically based serious mental disorder with high levels of mortality and disability, physical and psychological morbidity and impaired quality of life. AN is one of the leading causes of disease burden in terms of years of life lost through death or disability in young women. Psychotherapeutic interventio...
Article
The aim of the study was to examine how carers cope practically and emotionally with caring for individuals with anorexia nervosa who require intensive hospital care. This study explores objective burden (time spent with caregiving and number of tasks), subjective burden (psychological distress), and social support in a sample of parents (n = 224)...
Article
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To examine the costs and cost effectiveness of telehealth in addition to standard support and treatment, compared with standard support and treatment. Economic evaluation nested in a pragmatic, cluster randomised controlled trial. Community based telehealth intervention in three local authority areas in England. 3230 people with a long term conditi...
Article
Full-text available
Experienced Carers Helping Others (ECHO) is a guided self-help intervention for carers of people with eating disorders to reduce distress and ameliorate interpersonal maintaining factors to improve patient outcomes. The aim of this paper is to describe the theoretical background and protocol of a randomised controlled trial that will establish whet...
Article
Full-text available
There are few economic evaluations of speech and language interventions. Such work requires underpinning by an accurate estimate of the costs of the intervention. This study seeks to address some of the complexities of this task by applying existing approaches of cost estimation to interventions described in published effectiveness studies. The stu...
Article
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Introduction The Whole Systems Demonstrator pilots introduced telehealth and telecare into three local authority areas using an integrated approach to deliver health and social care to those with high care needs and long-term conditions. Proponents of these technologies have given cost savings as one rationale for advocating their introduction and...
Article
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Background. Major depression is often chronic or recurrent and is usually treated within primary care. Little is known about the associated morbidity and costs. Objectives. To determine socio-demographic characteristics of people with chronic or recurrent depression in primary care and associated morbidity, service use, and costs. Method. 558 parti...
Conference Paper
Background: Prior work found that caring for young children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) or Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is associated with significant psychological burden. While there is considerable evidence to suggest that the impairments associated with these disorders continue into adulthood few studies have examined...
Conference Paper
Background: Although many studies have investigated service use and needs of children with developmental disorders (e.g. ASD) to date little is known about this issue for these groups as they reach adolescence and young adulthood. Also, the lack of adult services for those with ongoing needs and functional impairments mean that family members becom...
Article
Full-text available
Although economic evaluation has been widely recognized as a key feature of both health services and educational research, for many years there has been a paucity of such studies relevant to services for children with speech, language and communication needs (SLCN), making the application of economic arguments to the development of services difficu...
Article
While community care is now well established in England, the development and maintenance of social networks of people with long-term mental illness remains a major challenge to services. To investigate the size of the social networks of people with long-term mental illness and the types of social support they receive in relation to their age and ac...
Data
"Cost of crime related to conduct disorder". Describes how the costs of crime used in the decision-analytic model were calculated from the Offending, Crime and Justice Survey and Home Office unit costs of crime.
Data
"Cost of conduct disorder to the public and voluntary sectors". Describes how the costs to public and voluntary sectors were derived from existing literature and operationalized in the model.
Article
Full-text available
Conduct disorders are the most common psychiatric disorders in children and may persist into adulthood in about 50% of cases. The costs to society are high and impact many public sector agencies. Parenting programmes have been shown to positively affect child behaviour, but little is known about their potential long-term cost-effectiveness. We ther...