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People with a history of depression are more likely to smoke and less likely to achieve abstinence from smoking long term. The purpose of this paper is to understand the factors associated with smoking and smoking cessation among patients with depression.

This paper reports on smoking prevalence and cessation in a cohort of 789 primary care attendees with depressive symptoms (Centre for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale score of=16) recruited from 30 randomly selected Primary Care Practices in Victoria, Australia in 2005.

At baseline, 32 per cent of participants smoked. Smokers were more likely to be male, unmarried, receive government benefits, have difficulty managing on available income, have emphysema, a chronic illness, poor self-rated health, to have more severe depressive and anxiety symptoms, to be taking anti-depressants, to be hazardous drinkers, to report suicidal ideation and to have experienced childhood physical or sexual abuse. At 12 months, 20 participants reported quitting. Females and people with good or better self-rated health were significantly more likely to have quit, while people with a chronic illness or suicidal ideation were less likely to quit. Smoking cessation was not associated with increases in depression or anxiety symptoms. Only six participants remained quit over four years.

Rates of smoking were high, and long-term cessation was low among primary care patients with depressive symptoms. Primary care physicians should provide additional monitoring and support to assist smokers with depression quit and remain quit.

This is the first naturalistic study of smoking patterns among primary care attendees with depressive symptoms.

This article describes a research study conducted in Brisbane, Australia, that sought to establish older people's views on what contributes to their quality of life in residential settings. Focus group interviews were used to explore the key aspects of residential life that equated with a high‐quality experience. A number of key themes were identified, particularly relating to issues about autonomy, control and staff‐resident interactions. The article concludes with recommendations for those working in, or providing, residential care.

The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the organisational impact of the New to Forensic Mental Health education programme, developed for use across all forensic services in Scotland. To date, 267 have been trained as a trainer or mentor; 502 have completed the programme and 375 are yet to complete. The programme is designed to promote self‐directed learning and is multi‐disciplinary and multi‐agency in approach. It includes case studies and problem‐based learning relating to patients in a variety of settings, from the community to high secure care.

As part of a larger longitudinal study to assess the value of this New to Forensic Mental Health education programme, organisational impact was assessed using semi‐structured interviews with (n=13) senior staff working in forensic services. Participants were purposively selected for interview.

Transcripts were analysed using thematic analysis, which revealed three themes: “Acquiring knowledge: what you learn and how you learn”, “Developing skills” and “Shift in attitudes and behaviour”. The results demonstrate the positive impact the programme has had at an organisational level and what changes can occur when staff become more knowledgeable, skilful and confident. The implications for practice, along with the limitations of the study, are discussed. One of the weaknesses of this type of analysis is that it is always dependent on the analyst's interpretation, and is thus the product of that person's bias, filters or prejudices.

This evaluation is one of the limited few that explore organisational impact of an education programme.