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The purpose of this paper is to compare a group of service users with mental health problems with a community comparison group of gym attenders.

Cross-sectional questionnaire surveys were conducted at a large gym (n = 181) and two community mental health facilities (n = 127) in the Greater Manchester area using a convenience sample approach. All participants completed the PERMA Scale, a measure of flourishing.

Gym attenders scored significantly higher on the five elements of PERMA. Their physical health ratings were almost double. They also had significantly lower levels of negative emotions and loneliness and higher levels of overall happiness.

This study only considered levels of flourishing. Previous studies of quality of life have shown similar disparities between people with mental health problems and others.

Professor Seligman has claimed that improving levels of flourishing is the main aim of positive psychology. The present study suggests this may be especially challenging for people with mental health problems.

The concept of flourishing could provide a more positive non-medical focus for mental health services, in the development of what some have called positive psychiatry. This complements the current recovery model.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is one of the first studies to compare flourishing levels between individuals with mental health problems and a community comparison group using the PERMA Scale.

Current English health policy is focused on strengthening the ‘demand-side’ of the health care system. Recent reforms are designed to significantly enhance the capability and status of the organisations responsible for commissioning health care services and, in so doing, to address some of the perceived problems of a historically provider/supplierled health system. In this context, commissioning organisations are being encouraged to draw on concepts and processes derived from commercial procurement and supply chain management (SCM) as they develop their expertise. While the application of such principles in the health sector is not new, existing work in the UK has not often considered the role of health care purchasers in the management of health service supply-chains. This paper describes the status of commissioning in the NHS, briefly reviews the procurement and SCM literature and begins to explore the links between them. It lays the foundations for further work which will test the extent to which lessons can be extracted in principle from the procurement literature and applied in practice by health care commissioners.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the perceptions of librarians toward continuing education (CE) in library management.

The study followed survey design to collect perceptions of librarians from around the USA. In total, 166 usable surveys were returned and the bulk of the analysis examined responses from non-directors (n=96).

Non-director librarians identified knowledge areas important for success as a manager including human resources, leadership, and organizational behavior. The majority of respondents assessed their own level of management knowledge as average to above average. In all, 38 percent of respondents indicated their management knowledge came from workshops, webinars, and conferences. Respondents reported that the opportunity for a salary increase, as well as a personal desire to learn were motivators for seeking CE in management.

A CE program in management should extend the knowledge learned in the MLIS degree, address knowledge, skills, and individual development, be flexibly scheduled and reasonably priced, and offer clear benefits to the library and to the learner.

This research demonstrates the importance of building a CE program in management that compliments other educational offerings in order to help librarians develop the knowledge and skills needed to lead libraries.

Evidence from the USA/Australia suggests whole‐school interventions designed to increase social inclusion/engagement can reduce substance use. Completeness of implementation varies but contextual determinants have not been fully explored. Informed by previous interventions, the paper aims to examine these topics in an English pilot of the Healthy School Ethos intervention.

This intervention, like previous interventions, balanced standardization of inputs/process (external facilitator, manual, needs‐survey and staff‐training delivered over one year to enable schools to convene action‐teams) with local flexibility regarding actions to improve social inclusion. Evaluation was via a pilot trial comprising: baseline/follow‐up surveys with year‐7 students in two intervention/comparison schools; semi‐structured interviews with staff, students and facilitators; and observations.

The intervention was delivered as intended with components implemented as in the USA/Australian studies. The external facilitator enabled schools to convene an action‐team involving staff/students. Inputs were feasible and acceptable and enabled similar actions in both schools. Locally determined actions (e.g. peer‐mediators) were generally more feasible/acceptable than pre‐set actions (e.g. modified pastoral care). Implementation was facilitated where it built on aspects of schools' baseline ethos (e.g. a focus on engaging all students, formalized student participation in decisions) and where senior staff led actions. Student awareness of the intervention was high.

Key factors affecting feasibility were: flexibility to allow local innovation, but structure to ensure consistency; intervention aims resonating with at least some aspects of school baseline ethos; and involvement of staff with the capacity to deliver. The intervention should be refined and its health/educational outcomes evaluated.

FROM 5th to 8th October, 1951, Aslib was fortunate in holding its Annual Conference again at Ashorne Hill, near Leamington Spa, and our thanks are due for the third time to Colonel and Mrs. J. H. Alexander and their staff for the excellence of the catering and domestic arrangements. The weather also co‐operated and sunshine displayed all the autumn beauties of the garden and countryside.

Confidentiality in adoption has been the norm in this country since the 1930s. Traditionally, it has been perceived as beneficial to all sides of the adoption triangle: the adoptive parents, the adoptee, and the birth parents. Adoption agencies have supported the policy of confidentiality, and as a result the practice of concealment is almost universal in the United States. Alaska, Hawaii, and Kansas are the only states that allow adult adoptees access to their birth and adoption information.

In the very able and striking address which he recently delivered before the Society of Arts, Sir WILLIAM PREECE insisted that commercial success—whether of a man, of a body of men, or of a nation—is referable to the working of distinct laws, the recognition and study of which may justly be said to constitute a “science of business.” In terms rendered the more severe by their dispassionate and moderate character, Sir WILLIAM referred to the lamentable ignorance displayed by the legislature, by the manufacturer, and by the general public, of what may bo regarded as the most elementary facts and methods upon which such a science must be based. He pointed to the loose and bungling character of our commercial legislation; to the lack of co‐operation and combination; to the nonexistence of a properly organised and effective consular service whereby full information could be supplied and the interests of British trade, both home and colonial, might be studied and advanced; and finally to the lethargy of British producers and manufacturers themselves, who allow foreign competitors to drive them out of even their own home markets without making an effort to discard the old‐fashioned and worn‐out methods which have given those competitors the advantage. Of late years the warning voice has been raised from time to time, but it has been as a voice crying in the wilderness. The remarkable speech delivered at the Guildhall by H.R.H. THE PRINCE OF WALES is fresh in the recollection of those who are not too drowsy or too indifferent to appreciate the vital nature and the magnitude of the evil. In 1891 Lord PLAYFAIR stated that if the Americans were right in principle in the management of some of their commercial concerns, “the whole policy of the United Kingdom was founded on a gigantic error, and must lead to our ruin as a commercial nation.” Sir WILLIAM PREECE is amply justified in attaching severe blame to the British manufacturer and producer. They have allowed “the Americans and the Germans to oust them out of their own markets, not by any superiority in the quality of their goods, but by lower prices, by superior knowledge of the demands of the markets, by the establishment of new markets, by better direct communication with foreign countries, by superior methods in business ways, by establishing regular intelligence departments, and, above all, by possessing and exercising superior commercial technical knowledge,” “and,” continued Sir.WILLIAM, “they must lay aside the commercial habits of their fathers.” With regard to food‐products, for instance, can it be truly said that any adequate steps are taken to secure any satisfactory and permanent improvement of the national food supply with respect to purity and good quality? Has anything been done, with governmental or legislative assistance, to make a systematic study of, and provide authoritative information upon such questions as the sources from which food stuffs are obtained, the adequacy or inadequacy of supplies, the true value of home‐produce and the advantages of utilising colonial products as far as possible? The answers to these questions can only be emphatically in the negative. There is no civilised country in the world in which the producer and vendor of adulterated, impoverished, and inferior articles of food can cany on their nefarious practices with more impunity, in certain respects, than in the United Kingdom, although, originally, we led the way in framing legislative enactments on these all‐important matters. At every port of entry today we might most appropriately set up the old waste‐land notice that “rubbish may be shot here.” As we offer all the necessary facilities, and as they are being taken advantage of more and more, wo might also freely advise that “rubbish should bo manufactured here” as well, What steps do British producers and manufacturers of articles of food take to move with the times, to set their houses in order, to protect themselves, and to enable the public to differentiate between the good and the bad? In the vast majority of instances the attitude they adopt is still one of unmasterly inactivity, except in the direction of unscientific and clumsy advertisement. On this they spend enormous sums without proportionate returns, and in following this course they constantly lay themselves open to condemnatory criticism by the publication of unauthorised and exaggerated statements which, in spit© of CARLYLE'S dictum “mostly fools,” are now merely received by the general public with a shrug of the shoulders. The time has come when, in order not only to develop their trade but in order to keep it, British manufacturers must give evidence of an independent and authoritative character to justify the faith that is presumably in them in recommending their goods to the public. Those who refuse to entertain new ideas and who are content to rest in a semi‐comatose condition on the achievements of the past,—relying merely on the possession of the hitherto reputable “name of the firm,”—by the operation of an inexorable law must inevitably drop out of the race.

The level of inventories, particularly the finished‐goods inventories, is a good gauge of adjustment in inputs and outputs of the firms in a market economy and plays an important role in business fluctuations (see, e.g., Abramovitz, 1950, and Stanback, 1962).

This paper aims to trace the relational and material ways in which workplace teams come together (or fail to) in the provision of patient care.

Six interprofessional scholars brought their unique theoretical and disciplinary lenses to understand the contextualized experiences of the patient and the team. Adopting a critical narrative inquiry (CNR) approach, the experiences of 19 participants were documented as they interacted in the care of an elderly patient over a three-week period. Actor network theory constructs enabled the analysis of multiple artefacts implicated in the interactions to learn of their contribution to the enactment of her care.

The study gives empirical insights about ways in which knowledge circulates amongst the workplace and how systemic structures may impede effective and quality patient care. Various types of knowledge are held by different team members, and both individuals and materials (e.g. technologies) can influence the way those knowledges are shared (or not).

Focusing on a rich data set surrounding one patient documented as theatre serves pedagogical purposes and serves as a shared “boundary-breaking” object to interrogate from multiple stakeholder perspectives. CNR provides for recursive, dynamic learning as readers critically consider experiences within their own contexts.

Despite research that documents competing political, systemic and economic goals, sedimented policies and practices persist in ways that undermine care goals.

Tackling the urgent issue of an aging population will require expanding collaboration (for planning, research and so on) to include a broader set of stakeholders, including operational, administrative and post-discharge organizations. Attention to social infrastructure as a means to assemble knowledges and improve relationships in the care process is critical.

Building a boundary-breaking shared object to represent the data offers a unique opportunity for multiple stakeholder groups to enter into dialogue around barriers to workplace interaction and collaboration progress, linking problems to critical perspectives.

Smoking rates are known to be higher amongst those committed to prison than the general population. Those in prison suffer from high rates of comorbidities that are likely to increase their risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD), making it more difficult to manage. In 2016, a tobacco ban began to be implemented across prisons in England and Wales, UK. This study aims to measure the effect of the tobacco ban on predicted cardiovascular risk for those quitting smoking on admission to prison.

Using data from a prevalence study of CVD in prisons, the authors have assessed the effect of the tobacco ban on cardiovascular risk, using predicted age to CVD event, ten-year CVD risk and heart age, for those who previously smoked and gave up on admission to prison.

The results demonstrate measurable health gains across all age groups with the greatest gains found in those aged 50 years and older and who had been heavy smokers. Quitting smoking on admission to prison led to a reduced heart age of between two and seven years for all participants.

The data supports tobacco bans in prisons as a public health measure to reduce risk of CVD. Interventions are needed to encourage maintenance of smoking cessation on release from prison for the full health benefits to be realised.