Editorial

Citation

Pozner, A. (2012), "Editorial", Mental Health and Social Inclusion, Vol. 16 No. 2. https://doi.org/10.1108/mhsi.2012.55716baa.001

Editorial

Article Type: Editorial From: Mental Health and Social Inclusion, Volume 16, Issue 2

This issue ranges over a very wide terrain … personal hygiene, recovery films, the role of mental health social work, art and mental wellbeing, care clusters and race equality.

As always, we start with our regular features. Simon Lawton-Smith provides what will be his last “Policy watch”, in this issue casting his gaze over the last ten years of developments in mental health policy across the UK and suggesting how the mental health world might look in ten years’ time. Sophie Corlett from national Mind has kindly agreed to pick up the baton and will be penning “Policy watch” in future issues. A heartfelt thanks to Simon for his invaluable input over the last few years.

In our other regular feature Research Watch, Sue Holttum summarises two recent research papers relating to employment and mental health. The first shows that simply having a job is not enough – poor quality employment is worse for mental health than no job at all. The second highlights how poor quality employment may contribute to psychological distress after having a baby. Real social inclusion through employment thus depends not only on being in work but the quality of that work.

In a fascinating account, Jerome Carson, Michelle McNary and colleagues describe how they went about making a film about recovery. The film features four service users, and was directed and edited by Michelle who herself has lived experience of mental health problems.

Sally Denham-Vaughan and Michael Clark critically examine the care clusters descriptors now being introduced into mental health care in England, discussing them in the context of trying to further approaches to co-production, social inclusion and recovery. The paper proposes a revised set of cluster descriptors that are more lay friendly and more likely to encourage service user engagement in care.

David Baker and colleagues report on an evaluation of a highly innovative art-on-prescription programme in North Devon. This involved ten-week art courses which encouraged participants to take inspiration from local nature. Participation in these courses had a significant impact on mental wellbeing.

Rob Goemans provides a challenging analysis of the mental health social work role and its potential contribution to promoting social inclusion. He suggests that while social work is ideally placed to challenge the biomedical model and promote social inclusion, organisational and other failings seriously undermine its ability to do so.

Peter Bates from the National Development Team for Inclusion explores the neglected and under-theorised topic of poor personal hygiene and its potential consequences for employability, social inclusion and quality of life. He suggests possible ways of making sense of this phenomenon and working positively with the person concerned.

And finally, Edward Davie of the National Service Users Network reviews the current state of BME service user involvement in mental health policy making and commissioning of services. He identifies current barriers to participation, and potential strategies to enhance BME involvement and ensure more culturally sensitive services.

Adam Pozner