We surveyed samples of medical students in the United Kingdom (U.K.) and Australia, prior to their psychiatry placement, to ascertain views about electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) and the effect on those views of watching ECT scenes in movies. A 26-item questionnaire was constructed by the authors and administered to the students. At set times during the questionnaire, students were asked to view five movie clips showing, or making reference to, ECT. The clips were from Return to Oz, The Hudsucker Proxy, Ordinary People, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, and Beverly Hillbillies. Ninety-four students participated in the study. Levels of knowledge about the indications, side effects, and mode of administration were poor, and attitudes were generally negative. Viewing the ECT scenes influenced attitudes toward the treatment; after viewing, one-third of the students decreased their support for ECT, and the proportion of students who would dissuade a family member or friend from having ECT rose from less than 10% to almost 25%.

Having commenced its movie career as a severe but helpful remedy for personal distress, ECT on film has become a progressively more negative and cruel treatment, leaving the impression of a brutal, harmful, and abusive maneuver with no therapeutic benefit.

Objectives: There is emerging interest in models of care that focus on assessment and brief inpatient treatment (two to three days) including psychiatric emergency care centre units and short-stay units in Australia. We present the development of a functionally integrated Missenden Assessment Unit and six-bed short-stay unit in the new Professor Marie Bashir Centre at Royal Prince Alfred Hospital in inner-city Sydney. The focus was on collaboration between emergency, drug and alcohol and mental-health services in developing the short-stay unit and Missenden Assessment Unit with joint admission and resource use. We outline the models of care and findings from the 2016 evaluation following the initial two years of operation and consider ongoing challenges. Conclusion: The Missenden Assessment Unit provides an alternative point of presentation for mental-health drug and alcohol patients. The short-stay unit provides coordinated, therapeutic interventions. The Missenden Assessment Unit/short-stay unit reduced the burden of presentations to the emergency department while providing the opportunity for training and collaboration. Further refinement of the models of care should occur with policy development and via research.

Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) has featured in Hollywood films for sixty years. Film depictions continue to exert a powerful and predominantly negative effect on public attitudes towards the treatment. From review of the 22 currently available films that directly refer to ECT the main themes identified are described. While initially portrayed as a dramatic but effective psychiatric intervention, ECT on film has come to stand for something quite different, representing the brutal and generally futile attempts of society to control and suppress the individual, gathering along the way a hackneyed cinematic grammar that emphasizes its inhumane and punitive nature. The film representation now has little in common with ECT as currently practised, such that filmmakers portraying ECT appear influenced more by films such as One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest than by evidence of the safety and effectiveness of ECT as a psychiatric treatment. Filmgoers with no personal or professional exposure to the treatment may fail to make the distinction between the demands of film narrative and clinical reality.

Background A crucial aspect of continued senior care is the early detection and management of frailty. Developing reliable and secure electronic frailty assessment tools can benefit virtual appointments, a need especially relevant in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. An emerging effort has targeted web-based software applications to improve accessibility and usage. The objectives of this scoping review are to identify and evaluate web-based frailty assessment tools currently available and to identify challenges and opportunities for future development. Methods We conducted a review with literature (e.g., using MEDLINE databases) and Google searches (last updated on October 10, 2021). Each of the identified web applications were assessed based on eight featured categories and assigned a rating score accordingly. Results Twelve web-based frailty assessment applications were found, chiefly provided by the USA (50%) or European countries (41%) and focused on frailty grading and outcome prediction for specific patient groups (59%). Categories that scored well among the applications included the User Interface (2.8/3) and the Cost (2.7/3). Other categories had a mean score of 1.6/3 or lower. The least developed feature was Data Saving. Conclusions Web-based applications represent a viable option for remote frailty assessments and multidisciplinary integrated care of older adults. Despite the available web-based frailty assessments on the Internet, many missed certain needed features for professional use in healthcare settings. This situation calls for fully comprehensive web-based applications, taking into consideration a number of key functions linking graphical user interface and functionalities, and paying special attention to secure data management.