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“Co-production” is a process in health and social care wherein service users and practitioners work in partnership. Recovery colleges (RCs) are educational establishments offering mental health education; a cornerstone feature is that courses are designed and delivered in parity by both mental health practitioners and “peers” – people with lived experience of mental illness. This paper aims to consider, through the identification of key themes, whether co-production within RCs is operating successfully.

The paper is a systematic review of qualitative literature. Relevant concept groups were systematically searched using three bibliographic databases: Medline, Social Care Online and Scopus. Articles were quality appraised and then synthesised through inductive thematic analysis and emergent trends identified.

Synthesis identified three key themes relating to the impact of co-production in RCs: practitioner attitudes, power dynamics between practitioners and service users, and RCs’ relationships with their host organisations. As a result of RC engagement, traditional practitioner/patient hierarchies were found to be eroding. Practitioners felt they were more person-centred. RCs can model good co-productive practices to their host organisations. The review concluded, with some caveats, that RC co-production was of high fidelity.

RC research is growing, but the body of evidence remains relatively small. Most of what exists examine the impact of RCs on individuals’ overall recovery and mental health; there is a limited empirical investigation into whether their flagship feature of parity between peers and practitioners is genuine.

This paper explores the perceptions of a small cohort of participants in the “Involving People” programme. This 35-week course recruited staff from across statutory, voluntary and charity sectors who aimed to lead and develop change initiatives within their respective organisations. The study captured staff views on the extent to which their training in co-production enabled them to deliver sustainable service improvement within their organisations.

This was a small scale, qualitative study, using a purposive sampling approach. Of the 18 staff participants, 5 agreed to participate in face-to-face semi-structured interviews. Through a process of free text analysis, several themes and sub-themes were identified.

Several barriers and opportunities were highlighted coupled with suggestions on changes to public service delivery based on equal and reciprocal relationships between professionals, service users and their families. Organisational structures and silo working still act as an inhibiter for real change.

Additionally, it was demonstrated that training in the area of co-production can act as a catalyst for wider service improvements. It can enhance staff confidence to profile the importance of service user involvement, persuading their colleagues of its benefits and challenging practice where co-production is not happening. However, a collective leadership and a shared language on co-production are still needed to develop inclusive organisational cultures.

This was the first study of its kind in Northern Ireland which highlighted that there was a need for a collective leadership and a shared language on co-production to develop inclusive organisational cultures.

Outlines the service provided by Opportunity Youth, a unique personal development and health and social awareness programme delivered to 16‐18‐year‐olds undergoing youth training in four community workshops in North and West Belfast, Northern Ireland. Opportunity Youth employs peer educators alongside professional health workers to provide a formal programme on social skills, relationships, sex education and alcohol/drugs awareness in parallel with an informal counselling and advice service. It provides a universally accepted and user‐friendly service for marginalized youth, offering, in most circumstances, a “one‐stop‐shop” within the context of youth training. The model is a flexible one and could be transferred to any context, but particularly where young people provide a captive audience, for example in schools and colleges. Suggests that health education for young people, by young people, supported and facilitated by professionals with health promotion experience, provides a new direction in health education for young people.

The purpose of this paper is to explore professional perspectives on restorative approaches with families in elder abuse cases.

Data were gathered from 37 social workers in statutory and voluntary organisations through nine focus group sessions in one region of Northern Ireland. A thematic analysis was undertaken and themes were derived from the data using NVivo software.

This paper reports main findings under the themes of engaging families and service users; managing risk in working with families in adult safeguarding; and challenges for professionals in practice. A key finding was that professionals felt challenged personally and professionally in managing the risks and working with families in these highly complex cases.

Investigative approaches have their limitations in relation to adult abuse situations. This study adds to the existing knowledge base, identifies potential practice developments and discusses the challenges in adopting restorative approaches with families in elder abuse cases. The study highlights the need for further specialist training. Managers should consider the creation of specialist teams with a focus on alternative or restorative approaches with families.

Despite the long-established importance of infant mental health, internationally this has not been mirrored in the provision of infant mental health services. Within Scotland in the UK, there has been significant recent government investment in developing infant mental health services. However, existing research identifies a massive knowledge and skills gap that could create barriers to implementation. This study aims to use qualitative methods to consider the views of relevant professional stakeholders on education and training within infant mental health.

The authors completed semi-structured interviews with 14 professional stakeholders working in a health board in Scotland. This study used purposive sampling to include a broad range of professionals across health and social care services and analysed the resulting data using Braun and Clarke’s (2006) methodology. This study adopted a reflexive stance throughout, including the research team interviewing each other as part of the process.

Within the theme of education and training, we identified four sub-themes. These included roles for public health and societal education, training for parents, training for professionals and increasing professionals’ experience of infant mental health.

The issues identified are relevant in any area of the UK or internationally in considering the role of education and training in developing and maintaining new infant mental health services. Further research with families and with wider groups of professional stakeholders would be of further benefit.

Polypharmacy, the concurrent use of multiple medicines by one individual, is a common and growing challenge driven by an ageing population and the growing number of people living longer with chronic conditions. Up to 11% of unplanned hospital admissions in the UK are attributable to, mostly avoidable, harm from medicines. However, this topic is not yet central to integrated practice. This paper reviews the challenge that polypharmacy presents to the health and care system and offers lessons for integrated policy and practice.

Two commonly encountered scenarios illustrate the relevance of addressing inappropriate polypharmacy to integrated practice. An overview of the literature on polypharmacy and frailty, including two recent large studies of policy and practice in Europe, identifies lessons for practitioners, managers, policy makers and commissioners.

Comprehensive change strategies should extend beyond pharmacist led deprescribing initiatives. An inter-professional and systems thinking approach is required, so all members of the integrated team can play their part in realising the value of holistic prescribing, appropriate polypharmacy and shared decision making.

Awareness and education about polypharmacy should be embedded in inter-professional training for all practitioners who care for people with multimorbidity or frailty.

This paper will help policy makers, commissioners, managers and practitioners understand the value of addressing polypharmacy within their integrated services. Best practice national guidance developed in Scotland illustrates how to target resources so those at greatest risk of harm from polypharmacy can benefit from effective pharmaceutical care as part of holistic integrated care.

Obesity among elderly consumers precipitates undesirable health outcomes. This study aims to investigate the effects of environmental cues on food intake of elderly consumers in an aged-care facility.

A longitudinal study conducted over 17 weeks in situ within an aged-care facility with 31 residents investigated how auditory (soothing music), olfactory (floral-scented candle) and visual (infographic on health benefits of the main meal component) cues influenced food intake quantity during a meal, while accounting for portion size effect (PSE).

Analysing the cross-sectional results of individual treatments and rounds did not reveal any consistent patterns in the influence of the three environmental cues. Longitudinal analyses, however, showed that the presence of auditory and olfactory cues significantly increased food intake, but the visual cue did not. Moreover, PSE was strong.

Extending research into environmental factors from a commercial to a health-care setting, this study demonstrates how the presence of auditory and olfactory, but not cognitive cues, increased food intake behaviour among elderly consumers. It also shows that a cross-sectional approach to such studies would have yielded inconclusive or even misleading findings. Merely serving more would also lead to higher food intake amount.

Environmental factors should be a part of health-care providers’ arsenal to manage obesity. They are practical and relatively inexpensive to implement across different health-care settings. However, the same environmental factors would have opposite desired-effects with normal or underweight residents, and hence, aged-care facilities need to separate the dining experience (or mealtime) of obese and other residents. Quantity served should also be moderated to discourage overeating.

While studies into managing obesity, particularly among older adults, have mainly focused on techniques such as pharmacotherapy treatments with drugs, dietary management or even lifestyle change, less attention has been given to the influence of environmental cues. This study, executed in situ within an aged-care facility, provided evidence of the importance of considering the impact of environmental factors on food intake to help reduce obesity.