Evidence Base Camp: Day 2Practical Group Sessions

Graham Cline – National Police LibraryMark Abram – Research UnitCharmian Werren – Research Unit

Research question

What interventions have been shown to be effective in supporting individuals during an acute mental health crisis?

Session Outline

• Practical session• Walk through of an example search• Develop search terms for our

question area• Look at each ‘tier’ of our search in

turn• Run search of combined terms

Recap

The process (in a nutshell)

1. Draft search terms/run searches

2. Draft sift criteria

3. Sift received abstracts

4. Request full papers

5. Read and ‘grade’ papers

6. Write it up (‘synthesis’)

Terms Results

Anywhere in the article

“Domestic violence” 597,000

“Domestic abuse” 32,500

Title only

“Domestic violence" 23,700

“Domestic abuse” 1,220

Published since 2000 (title only)

“Domestic violence" 13,200

“Domestic abuse” 822

Adding ‘randomised controlled trial’

“Domestic violence" 0

“Domestic violence" 0

Adding ‘experiment’

“Domestic violence" 32

“Domestic abuse” 0

Adding ‘systematic review’

“Domestic violence" 7

“Domestic abuse” 0

• Search terms are hugely important

• Today’s session will really focus on our search terms and their impacts.

• Librarians and Researchers to help run live pilot searches

• Group work to build our search terms

• Boolean is a powerful tool and can be used to create quite complex searches. The standard Boolean operators are:

ANDORNOT (or AND NOT) (advanced users only!)

• Boolean is most effective when used in combination with:

PARENTHESES (round brackets)TRUNCATION e.g. politic*WILDCARDS e.g. randomi?eDOUBLE QUOTES for "specific phrases"

10:45

The Basics Boolean operators

Practical example of searching -What works in preventing residential burglary?

Creating a search stringexample of domestic violence

• String should be based around the research question:

• What works in the policing of public order?

• How can we reduce recidivism amongst sexual offenders?

• Each key aspect identified will then make up one Tier of the search.

• The tiers will then be combined to create the complete search string.

Creating a Search String

• There are often three tiers, but there can be as many or as few as the search requires.

• The standard way to create tiers is create lists of synonyms within a table, eg.

Tiers

Tier 1 Frozen Dessert

Tier 2 Wafer

Tier 3Syrup

Ice creamFroyoSorbetGrannita

WaferWaffle

Golden syrupMaple syrupChocolate sauceStrawberry sauce

Domestic violence example

Tier 1. Domestic violence / Domestic abuse• This is the main area of the search.

Q: What are the risks/ predictive factors associated with domestic violence/ abuse?

Tier 2. Risk factors/ predictive factors• These terms interact with the main subject of the search.

Tier 3. Effectiveness / What works• We want to capture evidence that is evaluative, rather than commentary.

Tier 4. Policing (?)• We may want to limit our search to factors for the police and policing, or we

might decide we are interested in factors identified from healthcare or other potential partners.

Building our search string using synonyms

Tier 1: Domestic violence/ abuse

Tier 2:Risk/ predictive factors

Tier 3:Effectiveness

Tier 4:Policing

•Domestic violence•Domestic abuse•Intimate partner violence•Intimate-partner violence (hyphenated)•Intimate partner femicide •Spousal assault•Partner violence•Battered women•Wife assault•Repeated violence•Couple violence•Domestic murder

•Risk assessment•Risk management•Risk appraisal•Risk of homicide•Prediction of homicide•Nursing assessment•Lethality risk assessment•Predicting/ predictive•Dangerousness assessment

•Evaluation•Assessment•“What works”•Impact•Randomised controlled trial•Trial•Experiment•Systematic review

•Police•Policing•Law Enforcement

Q: What are the risks/ predictive factors associated with domestic violence/ abuse?

Turning synonyms into search terms

• ((Domestic OR Physical OR Emotional OR Familial OR Marital OR Spousal) AND (Abus* OR violen* OR control* OR behav*)) OR Coerc* OR "domestic homicide" OR "marital rape" OR "intimate partner violence" OR "repeat victim*" OR "women’s refuge"

• C. 197,000 results11:30 - break

Research question• What interventions have been shown to be effective

in supporting individuals during an acute mental health crisis?

• mental health crisis • intervention

• acute• police• What Works/effective

Factors in our question

• Tier 1 – mental health crisis• Tier 2 – interventions• Tier 3 – acute• Tier 4 – police• Tier 5 – effective/What Works

Tier 1 Synonyms – metal health crisis

• Mental health crisis • Mental health crisis

12-12:15 in sub-groups12:15-12:30 feedback to whole group

ProQuestNational Police Library catalogue

http://library.college.police.uk

Google....

Lunch

Afternoon session starts at 13:15

12:30

Tier 1 - Version 1 - ProQuest

• Search terms• Mental ill health• Mental illness• Mental breakdown• Nervous breakdown• Psychotic crisis• Psychotic episode

• Approximate numbers of hits

Extra search terms

• Mental* *capacity• Depressive episode• Suicid*• Mental medical condition• Unsound mind• Mental disorder• Psychiatric disorder• Psychiatric condition• Mental condition

Even more search terms

• Depess*• Anxi*• PTSD• Panic• Bipolar• Excited delirium

Tier 1 - Version 2 - ProQuest

• Search terms

• Approximate number of hits

Tier 1 - Version 3 - ProQuest

• Search terms

• Approximate number of hits

Tier 2 Synonyms – intervention

• intervention • intervention

Tier 2 - Version 1 - ProQuest

• Search terms• (tactic* OR intervention* OR strateg* OR

initiative* OR procedure* OR approach*)• Approximate number of hits 3.1 million

Tier 2 - Version 2 - ProQuest

• Search terms

• Approximate number of hits

Tier 2 - Version 3 - ProQuest

• Search terms

• Approximate number of hits

Tier 3 Synonyms – acute

• acute

• Major• Serious• Severe• Severity• Violent• Intense• Emergency• Distress• Inpatient• Detain• critical

• Acute

• Event• Incident• Trauma• Mani*

Tier 3 - Version 1 - ProQuest

• Search terms• (crisis OR crises OR emergency OR hysteria OR

acute OR attack* OR episode*)• Approximate number of hits 1 million

Tier 4 Synonyms – interventions

• Insert Established Terms forTier 4 – Police

police OR policing OR "law enforcement"

Tier 5 Synonyms – What Works

• Insert Established Terms forTier 5 – WHAT WORKS

("systematic review" OR "literature review*" OR trial* OR "RCT" OR experiment* OR evaluat* OR "best practice*" OR "good practice*" OR effective* OR assess* OR "What Works" OR impact* OR success*)

Initial merging of terms• Version __ of Tier 1 + Version __ of Tier 2 = c. _______ records• + Tier 3 = c. _______ records• + Tier 4 = c. _______ records

• Issues/ questions/ queries• What surprised you, etc.

This exercise

1. Shows the value of systematically searching2. Shows the impact of having multiple tiers in our searches3. Gives us an idea of the number of articles that might be

relevant to our research question…

• At the next evidence base camp we will sift through the abstracts based on inclusion/ exclusion criteria to identify the full papers to request for the review.

• www.college.police.uk/library• library@college.pnn.police.uk

Usual Synonyms

• intervention* OR tactic* OR strateg* OR initiative* OR procedure* or approach*

• ("systematic review" OR "literature review*" OR trial* OR "RCT" OR experiment* OR evaluat* OR "best practice*" OR "good practice*" OR effective* OR assess* OR "What Works" OR impact* OR success*)

• police OR policing OR "law enforcement"

Back-up Synonyms

• " mental health crisis " OR "psychotic episode*" OR "extreme anxiety" OR " panic attack*" OR (suicidal AND (behavio*r OR intent))

• crisis OR crises OR emergency OR hysteria OR acute OR attach OR episode* or trauma?