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Prevalence of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) among UK veterans is higher than in the general population. However, prevalence figures do not reflect the complexity of this phenomenon and ways in which it may be bound up with veterans’ experiences of adjusting to civilian life. The purpose of this study is to explore veterans’ experiences of successfully managing PTSD.

Semi-structured interviews were conducted with six veterans who had served in the UK armed forces and analysed using interpretative phenomenological analysis.

Three themes were developed: accepting the problem, taking responsibility and gaining control; talking to the right people; and strategies, antidotes and circling back around. Managing PTSD appeared to be bound up with veterans’ experience of renegotiating their identity, where positive aspects of identity lost on leaving the military were rebuilt and problematic aspects were challenged. Participants sought to speak about their difficulties with others who understood the military context. They felt that their experiences made them a valuable resource to others, and they connected this with a positive sense of identity and value.

The findings suggest the importance of wider provision of peer support and education for civilian health services on veterans’ needs.

This study adds to the understanding of what meaningful recovery from PTSD may involve for veterans, in particular its potential interconnectedness with the process of adjusting to civilian life.

Client engagement increases substantially when staff teams implement active support. The impact of active support on challenging behaviour is less clear. There are grounds for believing that active support procedures could in some cases neutralise environmental conditions known to evoke challenging behaviour. We implemented a three‐phase clinical intervention to increase engagement and reduce passive and challenging behaviour. In phase 1 we trained staff to deliver inviting activity‐based instruction at eye level. In phase 2 we introduced activity support plans to increase client choice and control. In phase 3 staff used peer‐monitoring procedures to consolidate implementation. We measured staff behaviour and client outcome across the three phases of intervention and at follow‐up. Staff provided warm and inviting activity‐based instruction at eye level more frequently after participating in phase 1 on‐site training. The proportion of activity‐based interactions with choice increased when activity plans were introduced in phase 2. Engagement replaced passive and challenging behaviour. Staff observations suggested changes were maintained over the short run. Our own observations indicated decay at 22 months. Our data suggest that active support procedures can make challenging behaviour less likely by altering antecedent conditions that reliably evoke such behaviour. Without sustained effort, interventions are susceptible to decay.

In recent years there have been increasing calls for the use of anabolic androgenic steroids (AAS) and associated drugs to be recognized as a public health issue. In the domain of the competitive athlete and professional bodybuilder, recent decades have seen the diffusion of AAS from the hardcore gyms of the 1980s and 1990s to the mainstream exercise and fitness environments of the twenty-first century. Alongside the apparent increases in the use of these drugs, there is a growing evidence base in relation to harms – physical, psychological and (to some extent) social. But is this form of drug use a public health issue? What criteria should we use to make this judgement? What is the available evidence and has our understanding of the issue improved? By drawing on the authors' research in the United Kingdom and the wider international literature this chapter will explore these issues and attempt to answer the fundamental question – is the use of anabolic steroids a public health issue?

A biopsychosocial case formulation is an important tool for understanding complexity and guiding treatment for people with intellectual disabilities. It has been suggested that formulation meetings develop staff understanding of individuals they support. This study aims to explore the change processes that occur as a result of professional team formulation meetings, and the mechanisms that facilitate and hinder these events.

Eight clinicians who took part in multi-disciplinary team-based formulations in an inpatient mental health service for adults with intellectual disabilities were interviewed. Interviews were examined using thematic analysis.

The key themes identified were: “gaining information”, “altered thoughts” and “focused goals”. These themes were supported by “collaborative working” and “time for reflection” and were hindered by “poor communication and interaction” and inconsistent “staff attendance”.

Multi-disciplinary team formulation meetings may have a number of change processes that affect staff knowledge and perception of the people that they support. The facilitation of these processes should be a focus for further development.

The current pilot study explored food insecurity, food waste, food related behaviours and cooking confidence of UK consumers following the COVID-19 lockdown.

Data were collected from 473 UK-based consumers (63% female) in March 2020. A cross-sectional online survey measured variables including food insecurity prevalence, self-reported food waste, food management behaviours, confidence and frequency of use of a range of cooking methods, type of food eaten (ultra-processed, semi-finished, unprocessed) and packaging type foods are purchased in.

39% of participants have experienced some food insecurity in the last 12 months. Being younger, having a greater BMI and living in a smaller household were associated with food insecurity. Green leaves, carrots, potatoes and sliced bread are the most wasted of purchased foods. Polenta, green leaves and white rice are the most wasted cooked foods. Food secure participants reported wasting a smaller percentage of purchased and cooked foods compared to food insecure participants. Overall, participants were most confident about boiling, microwaving and stir-frying and least confident with using a pressure cooker or sous vide. Food secure participants were more confident with boiling, stir-frying, grilling and roasting than insecure food participants.

This has implications for post lockdown policy, including food policies and guidance for public-facing communications.

We identified novel differences in self-report food waste behaviours and cooking confidence between the food secure and insecure consumers and observed demographics associated with food insecurity.

This paper aims to explore how social enterprises are treated in scholarly research on quasi-markets. In so doing, the paper aims to show that a number of critical knowledge gaps persist which require deeper engagement from researchers, practitioners and policymakers alike.

This study adopts a conceptual analysis of the existing literature concerning social enterprises and quasi-markets.

The paper finds that there are four main knowledge gaps in this area. First, there are moral dilemmas created by boundary shifts, arising from the development of quasi-markets. Second, the phenomenon of “tactical mimicry” (Day and Teasdale 2016) represents a key theoretical platform not yet fully explored. Third, the lack of clear, comparative assessments of social enterprises across quasi-markets, and other types of service providers is also apparent despite offering a significant methodological opportunity for scholars. Fourth, there is the issue of how social enterprises engage in, and resource the operational functions that will support their management of conflicting logics, especially rigorous impact measurement.

This paper uses a synthesis of key social enterprise and quasi-market studies to extend current debate in this area, which tends to be diffused and complex. By focussing on critical knowledge gaps, the paper contributes a meta-level appraisal of the key areas for future research, providing a focussed agenda for scholars to target their efforts in growing this important body of knowledge.

The purpose of this paper is to identify and encourage good practice in adult safeguarding by housing providers, despite their unclear and largely unregulated role in this area.

Literature search on policy and research on the role of housing in adult safeguarding. Good practice search, drawn from No Secrets consultation responses and more recently, from other housing providers.

Despite the current weak incentives for housing providers to engage in adult safeguarding, some have done so effectively, overcoming barriers to joint working.

This is not a comprehensive study of all good practice in this area; much will exist “unsung” and unrecognised.

Increase housing providers' involvement in adult safeguarding.

The paper is of value, as there is a dearth of literature on the role and potential of housing and adult safeguarding.

This paper describes how one specialist learning disability health service has attempted to increase its focus on meeting the complex needs of people with profound learning disability (PLD) both with and without additional physical, sensory and medical impairment. Through individual assessment and intervention, carer consultation, training and supervision, research, and audit and advice to management, a multi‐disciplinary group has influenced the development of more proactive community teams for people with learning disability. This is in the context of both the publication of Signposts for Success (NHSE, 1998) and of a changing organisational culture which has embraced essential lifestyle planning, person‐centred teams, supported living and direct payments. The challenge remains of ring‐fencing sufficient resources (of time, skill and equipment), given the high‐profile and competing demands of people with milder learning disabilities but with complex mental health needs and/or challenging behaviour.

In all its stages, qualitative research inhabits a visible world. Yet the use of visual data across the life of a research project is a visual span seldom considered in the methodological literature (Albrecht, 1985; Brannen, 2002). From a study largely based on observation and interviews in which visual data did not feature at the outset, we illustrate this longer perspective by focussing on two aspects of span. One refers to the inclusion of visual data throughout a project, from the search for a research setting to the final stage of dissemination. The other concerns the more frequent approach that includes a mix of visual methods, ranging from visual documents of film and photographs (Denzin, 1989) to other visual images and sights fleetingly observed. We argue that to use our eyes in the peripheral as well as the central data gathering stages, and to glean data from what is incidentally noticed as well as harvested with specific visual tools, generate an extended sociological understanding. The visual widens the window on the world of those being studied, bringing the intricacies of their lives closer to both researcher and audience. In this latter regard, we note the value of visual data at the dissemination stage, particularly for audiences of practitioners and those with interests in policy formation.

Against Violence & Abuse (AVA) and DrugScope undertook research into good practice interventions for supporting women involved in street-based prostitution and substance use. The purpose of this paper is to report on the findings of a survey of service providers and interviews with both service users and providers about women's involvement in prostitution and substance use, their associated support needs and how these can be met by services.

As part of a mixed methods study, this paper focuses on the findings of interviews with 19 women involved in prostitution and of a survey of and interviews with 64 services that support women involved in prostitution.

Generic substance misuse services are more likely to associate women's involvement in prostitution with funding their own or their partner's substance use. By comparison, specialist sex work projects are more likely to report women using substances to manage the emotional and physical pain of selling sex. These beliefs impact on the interventions delivered, with specialist services offering a more diverse package of care than generic services.

This study covered predominantly two English regions. A more systematic study of service provision across the UK would be welcomed and could be used to inform guidance for national and local policymakers.

This paper adds to the existing evidence base of “what works” in supporting women involved in prostitution. It is novel in its focus on women involved in prostitution who also use substances and in offering a detailed picture of the types of support currently available in England.