Alistair Campbell - Academia.edu (original) (raw)
Papers by Alistair Campbell
General practitioners provide the most common access paint for psychological services for older a... more General practitioners provide the most common access paint for psychological services for older adults. The system for funding for psychological services by the Australian Medicare system can provide treatment for psychological conditions, such as depression, among older adults. Estimates concerning the prevalence of depression among older adults vary widely depending on the diagnostic criteria used, but effective treatment for depression among older adults still does not reach all cases. This is particularly true in regional Australia, where resources for general practitioners for the treatment of disorders common among older adults are less common than in urban centres. This prsliminary study identifies gaps in knowledge among general practitioners in northern Queensland with regard to the differentiation of depression from dementia in older adults. This distinction is important because of the different treatments for the two conditions. Participants were 13 general practitioners ...
There is an increasing tide of publications that challenge the dominant view that "evidence ... more There is an increasing tide of publications that challenge the dominant view that "evidence based practice" requires, and is located within, the positivist tradition of empirical methodologies. Increasingly, therapists with other viewpoints on what constitutes evidence about effectiveness of therapy, and on how evidence is to be valued, are publishing challenges to the randomised controlled trials (RCT) orthodoxy. This paper asks, after reviewing the overseas literature, where is the debate in Australia? The author argues that the concept of evidence based practice has been subsumed to the politics of mental health in Australia, and that various disciplines and professions in mental health are more or less committed to the concept to get a bigger slice of the pie. Therefore, debate is stifled and the debate is, indeed, in a sorry state, Finally, the author suggests how the debate might be revived.
Over the past 10 years in Australia, there has been significant expenditure of resources on menta... more Over the past 10 years in Australia, there has been significant expenditure of resources on mental health. Research has demonstrated that psychological disorders are a frequent and disabling health issue for many in the community. However, there continues to be a singular gap in our knowledge of mental health in rural and remote Australia. Numerous publications have identified the issue and called for more research in rural settings at all levels. Yet a number of reviews have shown that most publications in this area are commentaries, descriptions of services, or policy statements. established between the GP evaluation of psychological well-being and measures used in the survey suggesting that the GPs in this study were good at identifying psychological distress. Finally, it was found that the clients of the Local Mental Health Worker improved to a statistically and clinically significant degree on all the indicators of symptom level, distress, and quality of life compared to the other groups. More research is necessary but this study supports the idea that people do better when treated by mental health professionals in their own community. Such a model should be given serious consideration when developing future services. vi ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This is a piece of my life that could not have been undertaken without the support and encouragement of my wife, Joanne. I took this task on at the same time that Jo was to give birth to our twin daughters. If this was not enough, we moved from our 100-acre property, which had been home for 10 years of our lives, into town in Launceston (Tas), from there to Brisbane (Qld), and from there to Townsville (Qld). All in the space of these four years. Throughout that time I was only able to keep working on this because Jo supported my absences, forgave me my distractions, and let me know more clearly than I could have hoped that she understood why I wanted to achieve this. Although there have been many people who have helped me finish this task, and I am particularly thinking here of my supervisors Professor Judith Walker and Professor Gerry Farrell who coped so well with our long distance supervisory relationship. It is to Joanne that I dedicate this work, with all my love and deepest appreciation.
Australian and New Zealand Journal of Family Therapy (ANZJFT), 2008
From this it can be argued that there are three possible ways to operationalise clinically signif... more From this it can be argued that there are three possible ways to operationalise clinically significant change following treatment:(1) that functioning should lie outside the dysfunctional range, where 'range'is defined as two standard deviations beyond the mean ...
Australian and New Zealand Journal of Family Therapy, 1999
Single session consultations seem to be an efficient and effective way of providing therapeutic i... more Single session consultations seem to be an efficient and effective way of providing therapeutic interventions at a time of increasing demands for services and shrinking resources. Though 'one-off' consultations have a long clinical history, specific interest in their use was sparked by Talmon's (1990) observation that 78% of his clients who had had only one consultation had experienced improvement in their presenting problems. Several Australian studies have supported Talmon's advocacy of this approach (Boyhan, 1996; Hampson, O'Hanlon, Pentony and Cramby, 1994; Price, 1994) but have significant methodological flaws. The present study used a pre-post methodology to assess the effectiveness of single session interventions and explored whether family dynamics impacted on changes in the presenting problem and in level of coping. The results indicated significant changes in both. Family pride or morale was identified as a major factor in positive response to the interventions. The implications for the use of single sessions and for further clinically based research are discussed.
Australian and New Zealand Journal of Family Therapy, 1999
Single session consultations seem to be an efficient and effective way of providing therapeutic i... more Single session consultations seem to be an efficient and effective way of providing therapeutic interventions at a time of increasing demands for services and shrinking resources. Though `one-off ' consultations have a long clinical history, speci-fic interest in their use was ...
There are different ways of providing mental health services to Australians living in rural and r... more There are different ways of providing mental health services to Australians living in rural and remote areas. Most involve visiting mental health specialists providing consultancy or clinical service to local medical practitioners or generic health professionals. Few involve the location of a mental health specialist in the community to provide clinical service, consultancy and case management. Yet, such a model is generally acknowledged as probably most likely to provide effective service delivery. Approximately four years ago, a general medical practice in a rural community in Tasmania employed a mental health specialist through a one-off Commonwealth grant. The role of this person includes provision of direct clinical service to members of the community, consultancy on mental health conditions to local medical practitioners, and assisting the professional and general community in gaining a better understanding of mental health issues. In 1999, the University Department of Rural H...
Abstract Partial Least Squares analysis is an alternative way of modeling data which is relativel... more Abstract Partial Least Squares analysis is an alternative way of modeling data which is relatively new to the Social Sciences. The current study, reported here, investigated the relationship between emotional intelligence, coping styles and the experience of ...
Australian and New Zealand Journal of Family Therapy, 2003
PBRNs have been designed to encourage clinicians to develop research into issues that are of inte... more PBRNs have been designed to encourage clinicians to develop research into issues that are of interest to them. as well as a mechanism for coordinating the diverse range of activities that occur in any research project. PBRNs have been described as most suited for health ...
Australian and New Zealand Journal of Family Therapy, 2003
Stiefel, Renner & Riordan (2003: pp. 4950) in this column have continued our dis... more Stiefel, Renner & Riordan (2003: pp. 4950) in this column have continued our discussion from the last issue. In essence they note that the production of evidence can proceed in a number of directions following a range of methodologies. In so doing they direct our attention to ...
Australian and New Zealand Journal of Family Therapy, 2003
... versation, but some people work well through music, dance or physical exercise like Tai Chi, ... more ... versation, but some people work well through music, dance or physical exercise like Tai Chi, and that's fine with me. Yes, I'm well aware as a private practitioner that we compete for clients and resources. Yet in my book the best way to compete is to collaborate. Lil: You also ...
Australian and New Zealand Journal of Family Therapy, 2005
Australian and New Zealand Journal of Family Therapy, 2004
Australian and New Zealand Journal of Family Therapy, 2006
Australian Journal of Rural Health, 2005
The aim of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of a primary care mental health service. ... more The aim of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of a primary care mental health service. The study used a naturalistic longitudinal design to follow groups of participants who received intervention from a rural mental health worker, or 'usual' mental health service, or no treatment, over a period of 12 months. The service was evaluated in a rural primary care setting. One hundred and forty-five primary care patients. Changes in symptomatology were assessed using the SCL-90R summary scales, and changes in quality of life were assessed using the EuroQOL. Those participants treated by the primary mental health worker showed significant improvements in symptoms and quality of life compared to both the usual and no-treatment groups. There are few studies evaluating mental health services in rural settings. This study demonstrated that a particular model of primary mental health care was more effective than usual mental health care and no treatment at resolving symptoms and improving quality of life.
Assessment, 2012
In this study, the authors tested alternative factor models of the 12-item General Health Questio... more In this study, the authors tested alternative factor models of the 12-item General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-12) in a sample of Spanish postpartum women, using confirmatory factor analysis. The authors report the results of modeling three different methods for scoring the GHQ-12 using estimation methods recommended for categorical and binary data. A discriminant function analysis was also performed to test the utility of a multiple factor model. A two-phase cross-sectional study was designed: (a) 1,453 women visiting at 6 weeks postpartum completed the GHQ-12 and the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale questionnaire and (b) based on the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale outcomes, participants were stratified and randomly selected within each stratum for clinical evaluation. Using the Likert-type scoring approach, Hankins's one-factor model with "method effects" obtained the best fit. In addition, Graetz's three-factor model provided little discrimination between diagnostic groups, the factors being highly correlated. These results support the presence of only one latent factor in the GHQ-12.
This paper reviews research relating to the factor analysis of the GHQ-12. We explore the questio... more This paper reviews research relating to the factor analysis of the GHQ-12. We explore the question of whether there is a consistent replicable structure to the GHQ-12 using: (i) a comparative analysis of fit between identified factor models; and (ii) a confirmatory factor analysis of GHQ-12 data from our own study. The factor models proposed from the literature were reviewed. The published factor loadings were used to carry out a factor matching analysis to identify similarities between the various factor models that have been identified. In addition, 490 patients visiting their general practitioner completed the General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-12) in the first phase of a longitudinal study evaluating service delivery to rural Tasmania. Three different methods for scoring the GHQ-12 were utilized and each resultant data set was analysed using a Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) to establish which of the various factor models provided the most consistent description of the data. None of the complete factor models that have been proposed have been consistently replicated across studies. Isolated factors were replicated between some studies but no single factor structure was replicated across all studies. All of the models had adequate fit to the Tasmanian data when the usual scoring was used. However, only one model had a consistently high 'goodness of fit' across scoring methods. It was concluded that the 'best fit' was achieved by a model based on an early factor analytic study using an Australian sample. It was suggested that researchers wanting to extract scales from the GHQ-12 could use this model.
J Health Psychol, 2011
Purpose: Benefit finding after cancer is common. The mechanism for this may include cognitive pro... more Purpose: Benefit finding after cancer is common. The mechanism for this may include cognitive processing of the cancer trauma within a supportive social context. Methods: Cross-sectional survey of 439 cancer patients assessing optimism, intrusion, avoidance, social support and constraints, anxiety, depression, QOL, benefit finding. Results: Benefit finding was predicted by female gender, greater optimism, high intrusive thinking, high social support
Australian and New Zealand Journal of Family Therapy, Dec 1, 2002
General practitioners provide the most common access paint for psychological services for older a... more General practitioners provide the most common access paint for psychological services for older adults. The system for funding for psychological services by the Australian Medicare system can provide treatment for psychological conditions, such as depression, among older adults. Estimates concerning the prevalence of depression among older adults vary widely depending on the diagnostic criteria used, but effective treatment for depression among older adults still does not reach all cases. This is particularly true in regional Australia, where resources for general practitioners for the treatment of disorders common among older adults are less common than in urban centres. This prsliminary study identifies gaps in knowledge among general practitioners in northern Queensland with regard to the differentiation of depression from dementia in older adults. This distinction is important because of the different treatments for the two conditions. Participants were 13 general practitioners ...
There is an increasing tide of publications that challenge the dominant view that "evidence ... more There is an increasing tide of publications that challenge the dominant view that "evidence based practice" requires, and is located within, the positivist tradition of empirical methodologies. Increasingly, therapists with other viewpoints on what constitutes evidence about effectiveness of therapy, and on how evidence is to be valued, are publishing challenges to the randomised controlled trials (RCT) orthodoxy. This paper asks, after reviewing the overseas literature, where is the debate in Australia? The author argues that the concept of evidence based practice has been subsumed to the politics of mental health in Australia, and that various disciplines and professions in mental health are more or less committed to the concept to get a bigger slice of the pie. Therefore, debate is stifled and the debate is, indeed, in a sorry state, Finally, the author suggests how the debate might be revived.
Over the past 10 years in Australia, there has been significant expenditure of resources on menta... more Over the past 10 years in Australia, there has been significant expenditure of resources on mental health. Research has demonstrated that psychological disorders are a frequent and disabling health issue for many in the community. However, there continues to be a singular gap in our knowledge of mental health in rural and remote Australia. Numerous publications have identified the issue and called for more research in rural settings at all levels. Yet a number of reviews have shown that most publications in this area are commentaries, descriptions of services, or policy statements. established between the GP evaluation of psychological well-being and measures used in the survey suggesting that the GPs in this study were good at identifying psychological distress. Finally, it was found that the clients of the Local Mental Health Worker improved to a statistically and clinically significant degree on all the indicators of symptom level, distress, and quality of life compared to the other groups. More research is necessary but this study supports the idea that people do better when treated by mental health professionals in their own community. Such a model should be given serious consideration when developing future services. vi ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This is a piece of my life that could not have been undertaken without the support and encouragement of my wife, Joanne. I took this task on at the same time that Jo was to give birth to our twin daughters. If this was not enough, we moved from our 100-acre property, which had been home for 10 years of our lives, into town in Launceston (Tas), from there to Brisbane (Qld), and from there to Townsville (Qld). All in the space of these four years. Throughout that time I was only able to keep working on this because Jo supported my absences, forgave me my distractions, and let me know more clearly than I could have hoped that she understood why I wanted to achieve this. Although there have been many people who have helped me finish this task, and I am particularly thinking here of my supervisors Professor Judith Walker and Professor Gerry Farrell who coped so well with our long distance supervisory relationship. It is to Joanne that I dedicate this work, with all my love and deepest appreciation.
Australian and New Zealand Journal of Family Therapy (ANZJFT), 2008
From this it can be argued that there are three possible ways to operationalise clinically signif... more From this it can be argued that there are three possible ways to operationalise clinically significant change following treatment:(1) that functioning should lie outside the dysfunctional range, where 'range'is defined as two standard deviations beyond the mean ...
Australian and New Zealand Journal of Family Therapy, 1999
Single session consultations seem to be an efficient and effective way of providing therapeutic i... more Single session consultations seem to be an efficient and effective way of providing therapeutic interventions at a time of increasing demands for services and shrinking resources. Though 'one-off' consultations have a long clinical history, specific interest in their use was sparked by Talmon's (1990) observation that 78% of his clients who had had only one consultation had experienced improvement in their presenting problems. Several Australian studies have supported Talmon's advocacy of this approach (Boyhan, 1996; Hampson, O'Hanlon, Pentony and Cramby, 1994; Price, 1994) but have significant methodological flaws. The present study used a pre-post methodology to assess the effectiveness of single session interventions and explored whether family dynamics impacted on changes in the presenting problem and in level of coping. The results indicated significant changes in both. Family pride or morale was identified as a major factor in positive response to the interventions. The implications for the use of single sessions and for further clinically based research are discussed.
Australian and New Zealand Journal of Family Therapy, 1999
Single session consultations seem to be an efficient and effective way of providing therapeutic i... more Single session consultations seem to be an efficient and effective way of providing therapeutic interventions at a time of increasing demands for services and shrinking resources. Though `one-off ' consultations have a long clinical history, speci-fic interest in their use was ...
There are different ways of providing mental health services to Australians living in rural and r... more There are different ways of providing mental health services to Australians living in rural and remote areas. Most involve visiting mental health specialists providing consultancy or clinical service to local medical practitioners or generic health professionals. Few involve the location of a mental health specialist in the community to provide clinical service, consultancy and case management. Yet, such a model is generally acknowledged as probably most likely to provide effective service delivery. Approximately four years ago, a general medical practice in a rural community in Tasmania employed a mental health specialist through a one-off Commonwealth grant. The role of this person includes provision of direct clinical service to members of the community, consultancy on mental health conditions to local medical practitioners, and assisting the professional and general community in gaining a better understanding of mental health issues. In 1999, the University Department of Rural H...
Abstract Partial Least Squares analysis is an alternative way of modeling data which is relativel... more Abstract Partial Least Squares analysis is an alternative way of modeling data which is relatively new to the Social Sciences. The current study, reported here, investigated the relationship between emotional intelligence, coping styles and the experience of ...
Australian and New Zealand Journal of Family Therapy, 2003
PBRNs have been designed to encourage clinicians to develop research into issues that are of inte... more PBRNs have been designed to encourage clinicians to develop research into issues that are of interest to them. as well as a mechanism for coordinating the diverse range of activities that occur in any research project. PBRNs have been described as most suited for health ...
Australian and New Zealand Journal of Family Therapy, 2003
Stiefel, Renner & Riordan (2003: pp. 4950) in this column have continued our dis... more Stiefel, Renner & Riordan (2003: pp. 4950) in this column have continued our discussion from the last issue. In essence they note that the production of evidence can proceed in a number of directions following a range of methodologies. In so doing they direct our attention to ...
Australian and New Zealand Journal of Family Therapy, 2003
... versation, but some people work well through music, dance or physical exercise like Tai Chi, ... more ... versation, but some people work well through music, dance or physical exercise like Tai Chi, and that's fine with me. Yes, I'm well aware as a private practitioner that we compete for clients and resources. Yet in my book the best way to compete is to collaborate. Lil: You also ...
Australian and New Zealand Journal of Family Therapy, 2005
Australian and New Zealand Journal of Family Therapy, 2004
Australian and New Zealand Journal of Family Therapy, 2006
Australian Journal of Rural Health, 2005
The aim of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of a primary care mental health service. ... more The aim of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of a primary care mental health service. The study used a naturalistic longitudinal design to follow groups of participants who received intervention from a rural mental health worker, or 'usual' mental health service, or no treatment, over a period of 12 months. The service was evaluated in a rural primary care setting. One hundred and forty-five primary care patients. Changes in symptomatology were assessed using the SCL-90R summary scales, and changes in quality of life were assessed using the EuroQOL. Those participants treated by the primary mental health worker showed significant improvements in symptoms and quality of life compared to both the usual and no-treatment groups. There are few studies evaluating mental health services in rural settings. This study demonstrated that a particular model of primary mental health care was more effective than usual mental health care and no treatment at resolving symptoms and improving quality of life.
Assessment, 2012
In this study, the authors tested alternative factor models of the 12-item General Health Questio... more In this study, the authors tested alternative factor models of the 12-item General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-12) in a sample of Spanish postpartum women, using confirmatory factor analysis. The authors report the results of modeling three different methods for scoring the GHQ-12 using estimation methods recommended for categorical and binary data. A discriminant function analysis was also performed to test the utility of a multiple factor model. A two-phase cross-sectional study was designed: (a) 1,453 women visiting at 6 weeks postpartum completed the GHQ-12 and the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale questionnaire and (b) based on the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale outcomes, participants were stratified and randomly selected within each stratum for clinical evaluation. Using the Likert-type scoring approach, Hankins's one-factor model with "method effects" obtained the best fit. In addition, Graetz's three-factor model provided little discrimination between diagnostic groups, the factors being highly correlated. These results support the presence of only one latent factor in the GHQ-12.
This paper reviews research relating to the factor analysis of the GHQ-12. We explore the questio... more This paper reviews research relating to the factor analysis of the GHQ-12. We explore the question of whether there is a consistent replicable structure to the GHQ-12 using: (i) a comparative analysis of fit between identified factor models; and (ii) a confirmatory factor analysis of GHQ-12 data from our own study. The factor models proposed from the literature were reviewed. The published factor loadings were used to carry out a factor matching analysis to identify similarities between the various factor models that have been identified. In addition, 490 patients visiting their general practitioner completed the General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-12) in the first phase of a longitudinal study evaluating service delivery to rural Tasmania. Three different methods for scoring the GHQ-12 were utilized and each resultant data set was analysed using a Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) to establish which of the various factor models provided the most consistent description of the data. None of the complete factor models that have been proposed have been consistently replicated across studies. Isolated factors were replicated between some studies but no single factor structure was replicated across all studies. All of the models had adequate fit to the Tasmanian data when the usual scoring was used. However, only one model had a consistently high 'goodness of fit' across scoring methods. It was concluded that the 'best fit' was achieved by a model based on an early factor analytic study using an Australian sample. It was suggested that researchers wanting to extract scales from the GHQ-12 could use this model.
J Health Psychol, 2011
Purpose: Benefit finding after cancer is common. The mechanism for this may include cognitive pro... more Purpose: Benefit finding after cancer is common. The mechanism for this may include cognitive processing of the cancer trauma within a supportive social context. Methods: Cross-sectional survey of 439 cancer patients assessing optimism, intrusion, avoidance, social support and constraints, anxiety, depression, QOL, benefit finding. Results: Benefit finding was predicted by female gender, greater optimism, high intrusive thinking, high social support
Australian and New Zealand Journal of Family Therapy, Dec 1, 2002