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Leeds autism diagnostic service is an adult autism diagnostic service for people of any intellectual ability which also offers consultancy to service users/carers or professionals, as well as a wide range of autism training. The service was set up as a pilot in 2011 and a paper describing the service development was published in this journal in November 2015. The purpose of this paper is to describe the approach taken to measure the quality of the service the authors provide and accurately assess risk in adults with autism.

The process of evaluating appropriate outcome measures is described, along with considering appropriate risk assessment tools for use in the community. Over 200 people each year complete the autism diagnostic pathway, and 164 patients were invited to respond to service evaluation questionnaires in 2014.

To date, the most useful outcome measures for this group include a prospective service user questionnaire which enables service user opinion to influence service development. In the absence of any appropriate autism-specific risk assessment tools, the service has developed one which it is currently piloting. This has proved particularly useful in the consultancy setting

This paper is a follow-up paper looking at the day-to-day issues that the team have had to grapple with – how do you assess whether what you are doing is providing the best possible service for the people that you serve and how do you accurately assess risk in this population?

The purpose of this paper is to examine the gap between recovery-oriented processes and clinical outcomes in peer support, an exemplar of recovery-oriented services, and offer suggestions for bridging this gap.

This viewpoint is a brief review of literature on peer support services and gaps in outcome measurement towards building an evidence base for recovery-oriented services.

Clinical outcomes like hospitalizations or symptoms remain a focus of research, practice and policy in recovery-oriented services and contribute to a mixed evidence base for peer support services, in which recovery-oriented outcomes like empowerment, self-efficacy and hopefulness have more evidentiary support. One approach is to identify the theoretical underpinnings of peer support services and the corresponding change mechanisms in models that would make these recovery-oriented outcomes mediators or process outcomes. A better starting point is to consider which outcomes are valued by the people who use services and develop an evaluation approach according to those stated goals. User driven measurement approaches and more participatory types of research can improve both the quality and impact of health and mental health services.

This viewpoint provides a brief review of peer support services and the challenges of outcome measurement in establishing an evidence base and recommends user driven measurement as a starting point in evaluation of recovery-oriented services.

Hosting business events is no longer the preserve of hotels and purpose-built conference and exhibition centres. Today, visitor attractions, theatres, museums, universities and sporting complexes also compete for their share of the lucrative business events sector. However, few of these venues were originally designed and built to accommodate events but are now multipurpose in function and marketed to the events industry to secure a secondary source of income. This paper aims to evaluate the supply and design of venues for business events from both a historical and contemporary viewpoint.

As business events have specific venue requirements, ranging from extensive, accessible space for exhibitions to numerous rooms for plenary and syndicate conference sessions, choosing an appropriate venue from those available has become a considerable task. A review of key moments in history demonstrates how different types of venues have emerged and developed.

This study reveals how venues that have a similar background typically share features such as architectural design and layout. The paper discusses the characteristics of unusual, academic and sporting venues as well as hotels and purpose-built space to include factors such as availability, cost and location.

This paper provides an insight into the benefits and drawbacks of using different types of venues for business events and the advantages and challenges that these present to organisers. Case studies are embedded within this paper, illustrating the range of venues that are used to successfully host business events today. As there is limited literature that explores venue development for events, or commonalities of venue characteristics by type, the synthesis of these two important elements of event management makes this study an original and valuable contribution to the developing literature.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the experiences of both staff and patients in a medium-secure mental health unit of the self-harm and/or suicidal behaviour of others. Suicide and self-harm is highly prevalent in forensic settings and evidence suggests that experiencing other people’s self-harm and suicidal behaviour can lead to negative outcomes, both for staff and patients. This is particularly important in hospitals where patients are highly dependent on staff for support.

Semi-structured interviews were conducted with five staff members and six patients in a medium-secure male mental health unit in the North of England. Data were analysed following interpretative phenomenological analysis guidelines.

Three dominant themes were identified during analysis: the impact of suicide and self-harm; the role of others; and the importance of understanding and experience. Various impacts were discussed including desensitization, negative emotions and the desire to help. Other people played an important role in protecting against negative impacts, with shared experiences and peer support reported as the biggest benefits. Experiences of self-harm and suicide were found to increase understanding resulting in more positive attitudes. Additionally, the importance of training and education was highlighted.

This paper provides an insight into the experiences of staff and patients in medium-secure male mental health unit, which has benefits to practitioners when considering support mechanisms.

Shared decision making (SDM) prioritises joint deliberation between practitioner and service user, and a respect for service-users’ experiential knowledge, values and preferences. The purpose of this paper is to review the existing literature pertaining to key stakeholders’ attitudes towards SDM in mental health. It examines whether perceived barriers and facilitators differ by group (e.g. service user, psychiatrist, nurse and social worker) and includes views of what facilitates and hinders the process for service users and practitioners.

This review adopts the principles of a qualitative research synthesis. A key word search of research published between 1990 and 2016 was undertaken. Qualitative, quantitative and mixed methods studies were included.

In total, 43 papers were included and several themes identified for service user and practitioner perspectives. Both practitioners and service users see SDM as an ethical imperative, and both groups highlight the need to be flexible in implementing SDM, suggesting it is context dependent. A range of challenges and barriers are presented by both practitioners and service users reflecting complex contextual and cultural features within which interactions in mental health take place. There were qualitative differences in what service users and practitioners describe as preventing or enabling SDM. The differences highlighted point towards different challenges and priorities in SDM for service users and practitioners.

The presentation of nuanced views and attitudes that practitioners and service users hold represent an important and under reported area and offer insight into the reasons for the gap between idealised policy and actual practice of SDM in mental health settings.

Phenomenology has a long tradition as a qualitative research method in the social and health sciences. The application of phenomenological methods to understand lived experiences and subjectivities offers researchers a rich tapestry of methodological approaches, often however, the availability of these methods to researchers is tempered as a result of inflexible ideas regarding their use. This article aims to highlight the uniting features between approaches.

The paper begins by offering a brief overview of the two traditions within phenomenology, the descriptive and interpretive approaches and traces the development of each one. It then presents an overview of the commonalities shared by both approaches in with particular reference to the philosophical and methodological cohesion between them.

Frequently, the literature fails to focus on how these methodologies can be used together, and instead foregrounds the ontological and methodological differences between them. While an overview of some of the more vociferous debates within phenomenology are included and acknowledged, the paper calls for a focus on the shared goals of the phenomenological project.

This article aims to illustrate that, while recognising differences, the two phenomenological traditions have more in common that unites them, and argues that once this is applied pragmatically, a multiplicity of phenomenological traditions are available to researchers.

This paper seeks to examine the career experiences of seven women who have developed successful careers in the Chinese information technology (IT) industry, focusing on the way they managed their careers and the implications this has for women's career theory in China.

Personal narrative method is used to explore the women's cumulated experiences of career management in order to draw out their feelings and attitudes.

Findings demonstrated convergence between western career theory and the situation of these successful Chinese women in IT, especially in family/career role management. Nevertheless, the paper argues that deeply embedded values in China encourage a rejection of planning and proactivity in women's career management resulting in a lack of applicability of western theory.

Findings are based on a small sample size. Personal narrative method is highly subjective and “contaminated” by selective recall of information due to the deterioration or concealment of certain key factors. However, this finding in itself contains interesting implications for international career research.

The career experiences of these women could provide role‐modelling to other women who are also pursuing careers in the IT industry in China.

The paper contributes to the developing discourse of women's career experiences within Chinese society. It highlights constraints and limitations of applying western models and traditional research techniques. It advocates a broad, contextualised approach that incorporates a stronger emphasis on internal and social values.

The community-managed mental health sector needs to meet growing workforce demands. Yet, limited research has explored professional development opportunities and effective recruitment and retention strategies to support sector growth. One strategy is the use of a scholarship program to increase skills and training, via a University qualification. The purpose of this paper is to explore the progress of 19 mental health scholarship students and the impact of the scholarship on career intentions.

A mixed-methods approach comprising scholarship applications, questionnaires and semi-structured interviews was used to explore the students’ university experiences between February 2013 and January 2015. Course convenors of the Mental Health Program were interviewed. Data were collected across three time-points over 24 months, with each collection informing the next research phase. Data analysis involved thematic analysis and descriptive statistics.

Deeper knowledge, recognition of experience, new career pathways and improved work practice were benefits. Managing time and study, and work-life balance were the greatest challenges. Completing students displayed a range of internal attributes and accessed external supports. At the time of the study, the scholarships maintained student motivation and intention to work in the sector.

This research provides a deeper understanding of the demographics of the sector’s workforce. Insight into the attributes of completing students was obtained. The benefits realized and the challenges faced by the scholarship recipients will inform ongoing workforce development programs for the community-managed mental health sector.

Peer support, such as mentorship and befriending, has been found to have a valuable impact on a range of outcomes. There are multiple formats, including face-to-face (individually and group), and in online forums. Advancement in technology has enabled online peer support to increase in popularity; however, little is known about mechanisms underpinning individual one to one online peer interactions. The purpose of this paper is to qualitatively explore the mechanisms underpinning email exchanges in an eating disorder peer support service.

Email transcripts from dyads in a moderated peer-to-peer email support service were analysed using inductive thematic analysis (Braun and Clarke, 2006).

The thematic analysis generated five themes as mechanisms of peer support. Relating and reflecting experience was the central superordinate theme. Subthemes included Positive Encouragement, Checking in and Prompting, Being a Confidante and Defining Recovery.

The current findings align with previous research and add new developments. The theme of Defining Recovery added the awareness of the personal perception of recovery, which had not been considered as a mechanism in previous literature and may be specific to this digital platform. This study could assist in the development of training for the provision of further peer support within eating disorder services.