The Service Children In State School (SCISS) National Executive Advisory Committe (NEAC) commissioned Tiller Research Ltd to undertake a consultation with schools who have Service children on roll. The purpose of the consultation was to ensure that the group’s forthcoming action plan truly reflects the areas of most importance for schools. The key lines of enquiry were: • To identify current areas of successful school-based practice, and effective external resources, in relation to support for Service children; • To identify current challenges faced by schools in relation to support for Service children; • To identify key priorities/messages for stakeholders (e.g. government departments and local authorities), with a focus on developing policy and services that optimise the quality of support that schools can provide to Service children. This report presents the findings of the consultation, based on over 500 responses from headteachers and school leads for supporting Service children.
Abstract: Context: In response to the opioid crisis, federal guidelines were implemented, including the Veterans Health Administration's (VA) Opioid Safety Initiative in 2013. The impact of policies on patients near the end of life is unknown. Objective: Examine temporal trends in opioid prescribing, pain, and opioid overdoses among Veterans near the end of life. Methods: Retrospective, time series analysis of VA decedents between October 2009 and September 2018 whose next-of-kin participated in VA's Bereaved Family Survey (BFS). Using multivariate regression to adjust for sociodemographic and clinical covariates, we examined temporal trends in outpatient opioid prescribing, uncontrolled pain based on BFS report, and opioid overdose-related hospitalizations, in the last month of life, overall and by clinical diagnosis (cancer versus non-cancer). Results: Among 79,409 decedents, mean daily outpatient opioid dose in morphine milligram equivalents in the last month of life decreased from 4.6 mg in 2010 to 2.1 mg in 2018 (adjusted change -0.20 mg/year; P