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This paper aims to introduce Seikatsu Rinsho, a values-based approach to supporting recovery based on identifying service user values and aspirations that have been developed since 1958 in Japan where mental health services are still hospital-based and user involvement is not well-developed. This paper believes this will be of great implications for future practices around the world.

Hope is essential to recovery and that hope is dependent on identifying what service users really want for themselves (aspirations) and then ensuring that these are communicated to – and supported by – professionals and carers. This is achieved through examining the life events, which are likely to trigger relapse for a specific individual, the important choices that the person has made throughout his/her life course and the reasons behind them. Through a process of “co-production”, an attempt is made to understand the values expressed in these choices in the context of family history over several generations.

The attempt to examine both life events throughout the life course and family history over generations was found to be an effective way to understand a service user and his/her family and then support recovery. The cases where even people with severe and persistent mental health problems have successfully achieved full recovery have been accumulated.

The limitations of the approach in the context of Japanese mental health services, and the necessity of additional evidence are acknowledged and some thoughts shall be given to future development.

Seikatsu Rinsho approach can provide a new angle to understand service users and family and a new way to support recovery.

In the last issue, Rob Hill and Geoff Shepherd gave a critical account of the Transitional Employment part of the Clubhouse programme. This has produced strong reactions, and here Colin MacLean takes issue with both their premises and their conclusions. What about the user/member view? Watch this space…

Finding employment is often a key element in recovery from mental ill health but, argues Professor Geoff Shepherd, few professionals place work at the top of their list of priorities during their efforts to support clients through rehabilitation. It is, he suggests, time for change. Mental health services need to recognise the importance of employment and accept that it is their business.

On the last page of the White Paper A New Contract for Welfare ‐ Support for the Disabled, the Rt Hon Alistair Darling MP, Secretary of State for Social Security, states: ‘We are increasing the therapeutic earnings limit in Incapacity Benefit to ensure that people with a long‐term illness or disability who undertake therapeutic work can benefit from higher wage rates.’The week before the paper was published, a letter requesting exactly this change was sent to Alistair Darling signed by service user groups and representatives of the Royal College of Psychiatrists, Mind, the National Schizophrenia Fellowship, the Manic Depression Fellowship, ITON Ireland, the Richmond Fellowship, Birmingham and City Universities, the Centre for Mental Health Services Development at King's College, London, Professor Geoff Shepherd, Jack Ashley, Elizabeth Bray and me.Who says no‐one ever listens!

The purpose of this paper is to review the available evidence regarding the effectiveness and cost effectiveness of Recovery Colleges. To make suggestions for future research.

Selective review of relevant published studies, including reports in the “grey” literature.

Despite methodological limitations, it has been consistently found that attendance at Recovery Colleges is perceived to be useful and to help people progress towards their recovery goals. There is some evidence of reductions in service use (and therefore costs). In addition, there is evidence of beneficial effects for peer trainers and possible positive impact on staff attitudes.

The existing research highlights the need for further robust studies, using both qualitative and quantitative methods, to understand better the overall impact of Recovery Colleges and the underlying mechanisms of change.

There is a need for further studies of the relationship between the “key defining features” and outcomes. This means the collection and pooling of systematic, “practice-based” evidence.

The introduction of an explicitly recovery educational (“learning”) model into mainstream mental health services seems to have a profound effect on reducing the power differences inherent in traditional professional/patient relationships. If this can be replicated across organisations it could facilitate the kind of fundamental cultural change necessary to give back recovery to the people who have always owned it.

The information collected together in this paper is already publicly available, however it is difficult to find. The analysis and interpretation is original.

The clubhouse in Britain is a phenomenon of the 1990s. However, their influence possibly far exceeds their numbers in terms of the overall provision of work opportunities for individuals with mental health problems. Maybe such visibility is one reason why clubhouses provoke support and hostility in about equal measure. Often when this occurs both supporters and detractors focus on one particular attribute of the clubhouse to the exclusion of others. There have been few impartial examinations of the clubhouse (and fewer still empirical evaluations of the efficacy of the clubhouse approach to work rehabilitation). In this paper we wish to examine some of the advantages and disadvantages of the clubhouse in relation to vocational rehabilitation goals and offer some thoughts on its future role within mental health services.

The purpose of this paper is to review representative literature on social inclusion and evaluate the usefulness of the concept in current mental health policy.

The paper employs a selective review of the cost‐effectiveness of interventions aimed at improving social inclusion in children, young adults with first episode psychosis and unemployed adults of working age.

Social inclusion remains a useful concept in understanding both the causes of mental health problems and how these might best be addressed. Although measurement is not easy, it can be operationalised through a mixture of subjective and objective indicators. There is strong evidence for the effectiveness and cost‐effectiveness of interventions aimed at improving social inclusion for the groups selected. These findings provide strong support for prioritising these interventions, especially in times of severe financial restrictions.

The selection of literature for review limits the generalisability of the conclusions.

The paper sets out a clear and simple analysis of the concept of social inclusion and how it may be measured. It also brings together the cost‐effectiveness literature on attempts to improve social inclusion for three, key high‐risk groups. The paper strongly supports the value of retaining the concept of social inclusion, despite the fact that it has become temporarily unfashionable.

The purpose of this paper is to present the outline of a methodological approach to help address ten key challenges for the implementation of Recovery‐orientated services.

At the onset of the project the authors produced a policy paper, Making Recovery a Reality. This formed the basis of a series of workshops on implementing Recovery in organisations that were held in five mental health trusts in 2008 and 2009.

A key element driving the transformation of Recovery‐orientated mental health services will be the joint work of local systems, setting priorities, agreeing goals and contracts and then monitoring progress and reviewing.

The impetus for the project arose out of the increasing attention being given to the principles of recovery in government policy and in local mental health services, combined with an increasing frustration that there was little to guide how these principles could be put into practice.

‘In some traditional craft apprenticeships there is a need to remove age restrictions and to place much greater weight on the attainment of recognised standards of performance. Tests of trainee performance after particular phases of training are already applied in certain schemes but we need to build on such developments and make them more general.’ So said the Secretary of State for Employment Jim Prior in the House of Commons recently. And his views are being echoed throughout Industry with more and more people agreeing that there is a need to train to measurable standards of skill. In fact the RTITB Skills Assessment programmes are specifically designed with this in mind and have been steadily developed since they were launched in 1975, following two years of closely controlled pilot tests.