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To what extent can medical care be standardised for certain treatments? It is argued that it can and should be, with illustrations of some model health care programmes in Scandinavia. In this way, the patient can be assured of receiving the same standard of treatment throughout the health system which makes such standardisation very close to the principle of quality assurance.

Reviews previous studies of the universal approach to mental health promotion, and disease prevention programmes or interventions in schools. Over 8,000 publications were identified initially and 425 studies obtained for further review. The inclusion criteria were met by 17 (mostly US) studies investigating 16 interventions. Positive evidence of effectiveness was obtained for programmes that adopted a whole‐school approach, were implemented continuously for more than a year, and were aimed at the promotion of mental health as opposed to the prevention of mental illness. Provides evidence that universal school mental health promotion programmes can be effective and suggests that long‐term interventions promoting the positive mental health of all pupils and involving changes to the school climate are likely to be more successful than brief class‐based mental illness prevention programmes.

Support, time and recovery (STR) workers are in the vanguard of the new frontline, non‐professionally affiliated groups identified in the NHS Plan (Department of Health, 2000).Since 2003, the former changing workforce programme mental health team (now part of NIMHE's national workforce programme) have facilitated the implementation of this role across England, initially through a pilot project, then an accelerated development programme (ADP). It is this latter, ongoing, programme that forms the basis of this article. The authors refer to the challenge of establishing the STR worker role in a variety of statutory, non‐statutory and independent service settings and achieving the Department of Health (DH) target of 3000 STR workers in post by December 2006. The collaborative implementation process is discussed and many issues such as performance management, measures, service user involvement, organisational (including human resources and occupational health) support, and education and training, are explored. Key learning from the process is identified, and consideration given to the future application of such a simple yet effective model for change.

Objective. To evaluate a health and fitness programme conducted within a New South Wales, Australia correctional facility for male inmates with a chronic illness. Design. A randomised control trial. Sample. Twenty male inmate participants with a chronic illness, two risk factors for developing a chronic illness or who were over the age of 40 years. Measurements. Pre and post programme health assessments that included resting blood pressure and heart rate, weight, body mass index, waist girth, peak flow measures, peripheral saturation of oxygen, blood glucose levels and 6 minute walk test. Intervention. A 12‐week structured exercise programme focusing on cardio respiratory endurance, strength and flexibility training. Results. Statistically significant improvements in resting heart rate and endurance were found. Conclusions. The health and fitness programme positively impacts on the health of inmates with a chronic illness. A further study with a larger sample size would be productive.

In order to investigate the potential of refugee resettlement programmes as mental healthpromoting settings, this study examines resettlement staff's constructions of refugees' health in everyday episodes within the resettlement programme. Everyday episodes relating to refugees' health were collected through individual and group interviews with 28 members of staff, and analysed using grounded theory methodology. The constructions of health in these episodes focused on mental health, the latter understood as a concept stressing the dynamic fit between person, programme and external environment. If a comprehensive strategy focusing on creating mental health among refugees through inter‐sectoral co‐ordination is developed, resettlement programmes can probably be developed into mental health‐promoting settings. The model proposed in this paper could be a good starting point to further this programme and policy development.

Objective – Nepal's Safe Delivery Incentive Programme (SDIP) was introduced nationwide in 2005 with the aim of encouraging greater use of professional care at childbirth. It provided cash to women giving birth in a public health facility and an incentive to the health provider for each delivery attended, either at home or in the facility. We aimed to assess the impact of the programme on neonatal mortality and health care seeking behaviour at childbirth in one district of Nepal.

Methods – Impacts were identified using an interrupted time series approach, applied to household data. We estimated a model linking the level of each outcome at a point in time to the start of the programme, demographic controls, a vector of time variables and community-level fixed effects.

Findings – The recipients of the cash transfer in the programme's first two years were disproportionately wealthier households, reflecting existing inequality in the use of government maternity services. In places with women's groups – where information about the policy was widely disseminated – the SDIP substantially increased skilled birth attendance, but failed to impact on either neonatal mortality or the caesarean section rate. In places with no women's groups, the SDIP had no impact on utilisation outcomes or neonatal mortality.

Implications for policy – The lack of any impact on neonatal mortality suggests that greater increases in utilisation or better quality of care are needed to improve health outcomes. The SDIP changed health care seeking behaviour only in those areas with women's groups highlighting the importance of effective communication of the policy to the wider public.

There are strong links between the mental health promotion and neighbourhood renewal agendas. In this paper we describe the process we have undertaken to develop a framework for monitoring and evaluating progress achieved by a neighbourhood renewal programme in East Hull (Preston Road) against a set of indicators of positive community mental health. Through a series of face‐to‐face and paper consultations with representatives of the Preston Road regeneration programme, a range of measures were devised to support the indicators and to identify sources of data that would provide evidence of progress on each measure. The framework that has emerged (and which is still open to development) will enable us to observe trends in the indicators over time. This will inform an evaluation of the impact of the regeneration programme on the community's mental health and provide the basis for the production of a Preston Road ‘mental health status’ report.

Occupational health promotion programmes targeting the Indonesian agricultural farmers (AFs) are limited. This action research aimed to involve the AFs in the research and development of community-based occupational health promotion (COHP) programme, which is tailored to meet their perceived needs for preventing health problems related to occupational workplace.

This study employed the qualitative action research approach. The participants (n = 136) were farmers from seven regions in the rural areas of East Java, Indonesia. The COHP was examined from public health centres (PHCs) in seven regions through eight steps, including recognition, analyses, planning, communication, preparation, implementation, evaluation and continuity of programme, for eight weeks. Data were collected through focus group interviews and examined using qualitative content analysis.

The findings revealed that the participants not only lacked health status but were also required to promote a comprehensive programme for occupational health and safety. The health problems of AFs were identified as the lack of nutrition and high blood pressure, which are related to un-ergonomic condition during work, limited use of personal protective equipment, high stress and workload. The lack of support for AF groups to prevent health problems and to access health services was a key theme for all the participants. Therefore, self-help group as social support was designed to solve the health problems among AFs.

The COHP, through action research, provided a change strategy for AFs to manage and promote occupational health and safety within their practice. The study findings could be used in the development of a framework for PHCs in delivering occupational health and safety practices in the agricultural sectors.

This article discusses the state of the art concerning the meaning and value of model programmes in mental health promotion and mental disorder prevention. Model programmes are considered an important instrument for improving the quality, social impact and cost‐effectiveness of promotion and prevention. However, there is a lack of conceptual clarity and insight in the processes and mechanisms for successful use of model programmes in this field. This article offers a further clarification of the concept of model programmes and discusses its pros and cons and current views on the process of programme development and programme use. The discussion will be based particularly on recent experiences with model programmes in Europe. Until recently, prevention research was directed mainly at the design and testing of new model programmes. However, successful use of the ‘model programme strategy’ requires more attention to the pre‐conditions for effective dissemination, adoption and implementation of model programmes. Only when this multi‐phased process is taken into account and the required pre‐conditions and quality criteria are specified can one expect that model programmes will be more effective at a community level. The consequences of this view for prevention science and prevention research policies are discussed. To implement such a multi‐phased process successfully, not only are conceptual clarity and a scientific underpinning crucial, but also collaborative organisational structures are needed at national and international level if the range of complementary tasks is to be executed effectively and efficiently.