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The purpose of this opinion piece is to present a case for the potential of positive autoethnography (PosAE) as a new autoethnographic approach.

This work resulted from on-going discussions between the authors as to the practicalities and benefits of associating the qualitative approach of autoethnography with the field of positive psychology.

PosAE is proposed to encourage writers to actively reflect on the importance for themselves, and their readers, of including positive narrative elements, prospective visions and exploratory trajectories in their work.

This research builds on existing research that has included positive psychology in autoethnography. As positive psychology is grounded in empirical research, the authors are suggesting that PosAE is allied to pragmatic autoethnography.

PosAE offers to facilitate positive thought, affect and strategies that could improve well-being. For example, some people struggling with serious health issues, and those helping them, may find it useful for articulating conditions and envisioning, even experiencing, positive change.

With so many lives impacted by mental health issues globally, and with rapidly changing societies struggling to provide stability and purpose, an autoethnography that provides tools such as PERMA (Positive emotions, Engagement, Positive Relationships, Meaning, Accomplishments/Achievements) to communicate the positive seems timely.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first time the creation of an autoethnographic approach explicitly linked to positive psychology has been proposed.

This paper aims to provide a living tribute to the mental health activist and international trainer Peter Bullimore.

Peter provided a list of people to who he wanted to provide tributes. Jerome approached all these people. All agreed.

Several people from around the world attest to the influence that Peter’s teaching and personality have had on their clinical practice and on their lives.

The disappearance of an Open Mind has left a shortage of journals, which welcome the user perspective. Mental Health and Social Inclusion have always championed the voice of people with lived experience. These are selected tributes to one man’s work in the field of mental health.

These accounts provide insights into the work of a remarkable individual.

Students of the mental health professions are mainly exposed to work produced by their peers. The history of mental health is filled with the stories of professionals, not the people who have used services.

Historically accounts of psychiatry are written by mental health professionals. Service user or lived experience accounts are often written from the perspective of the person’s story of illness and recovery. There are comparatively few, which celebrate the additional achievements of specific individuals with lived experience.

The purpose of this study is to examine the Values in Action (VIA) character strengths profile of people in addiction recovery, to identify which strengths are meaningfully represented in this population. This was compared with the generalised profile of a normative population to identify the differentiating features. Reasons for the profile variance and the significance this has for addiction recovery have also been explored.

An independent group design was adopted using purposive sampling. This saw participants (n = 100) complete the VIA Inventory of Strengths-P assessment to establish a character strengths profile for people in addiction recovery. To identify the differences in this profile, a mean score and rank order comparison was conducted, using data taken from a normative population. Additional exploratory analysis was conducted to establish if there were any significant differences in the character strength profile of males and females.

In descending order, the top five ranked strengths were kindness, humour, honesty, fairness and teamwork. The lesser five strengths in the profile were spirituality, zest, perseverance, prudence and self-regulation. A distinguishing feature was the presence of humour as a top five strength for people in addiction recovery. The existence of teamwork also deviated from the generalised normative population. There were two strengths shown to have a meaningfully higher score for females, teamwork and love. This did not change the strengths present in the overall top five for males or females, however.

This study contributes useful knowledge to the understanding of character strengths in addiction recovery. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first time character strengths have been examined in a sample of people in addiction recovery.

The purpose of this paper is to provide an analysis of the life of the musician Brian Wilson from five different perspectives.

The authors used a mixed method of collaborative autoethnography, psychobiography and digital team ethnography to try and better understand the life and contributions of Brian Wilson.

Each of the five contributors provides different insights into the life and music of Brian Wilson.

While the focus of this paper is on a single individual, a case study, the long and distinguished life of Brian Wilson provides much material for discussion and theorising.

Each individual presenting to mental health services has a complex biography. The five different contributions articulated in this paper could perhaps be taken as similar to the range of professional opinions seen in mental health teams, with each focusing on unique but overlapping aspects of the person’s story.

This account shows the importance of taking a biological-psychological-social-spiritual and cultural perspective on mental illness.

This multi-layered analysis brings a range of perspectives to bear on the life and achievements of Brian Wilson, from developmental, musical, psychological and lived experience standpoints.

The purpose of this study is to see if the affirmative results seen in the pilot study of the positive addiction recovery therapy (PART) programme are replicable and durable given a new cohort of participants. PART is a programme of work designed to improve the recovery and well-being of people in early addiction recovery. Its foundation is in the G-CHIME (growth, connectedness, hope, identity, meaning in life and empowerment) model of addiction recovery. It also uses the values in action character strengths and includes a set of recovery protection techniques.

This study uses a mixed method experimental design, incorporating direct replication and a follow-up study. Measures for recovery capital, well-being and level of flourishing are used to collect pre-, post- and one-month follow-up data from participants. The replication data analysis uses the non-parametric Wilcoxon test, and the follow-up analysis uses the Friedman test with pairwise comparison post hoc analysis. The eligibility criteria ensure participants (n = 35) are all in early addiction recovery, classified as having been abstinent for between three and six months.

This study found a statistically significant improvement in well-being, recovery capital and flourishing on completion of the PART programme. These findings upheld the hypotheses in the pilot study and the successful results reported. It also found these gains to be sustained at a one-month follow-up.

This study endorses the efficacy of the PART programme and its continued use in a clinical setting. It also adds further credibility to adopting a holistic approach when delivering interventions which consider important components of addiction recovery such as those outlined in the G-CHIME model.

This study adds to the existing evidence base endorsing the PART programme and the applied use of the G-CHIME model.

Digital mental health interventions (DMHIs) are promising alternatives to traditional face-to-face psychological interventions to improve psychological outcomes in various chronic health conditions. However, their efficacy among people with diabetes is yet to be established. Therefore, this narrative review aims to identify the importance and need for evidence-based research on DMHIs targeting the psychological outcomes in people with diabetes.

Using a narrative review approach, this study highlights the technological advancements in diabetes health care and identifies a need for developing DMHIs for people with diabetes.

DMHIs are promising for improving psychological outcomes in people with diabetes. However, there is a need for further rigorous, controlled and high-quality diabetes-focused studies, to make firm conclusions on the effectiveness and appropriateness of DMHIs for patients with diabetes. This review also suggests that DMHIs based on psychological theories and studies with higher quality methodologies are also needed.

This review highlights the contemporary literature on diabetes and related technological advancements. The findings of this study serve as a basis of the improvement of policy on digital mental health services for people with diabetes, to impact the global burden of the disease.

This paper aims to explore current inconsistencies within the theoretical framework of current posttraumatic growth (PTG) literature in support of the suggestion for an alternative novel phenomenon labelled “post-adversarial appreciation”.

This re-conceptualisation has developed from the findings of empirical research conducted by the authors and their understanding of PTG.

Significant inconsistencies persist across the PTG literature in relation to the parameters required for PTG to manifest. It appears that PTG or an alternative concept labelled adversarial growth does take place following adverse/traumatic events, but that a separate phenomenon may better explain positive improvements in perceived personal appreciation during such events. This phenomenon is theorised by the authors as “post-adversarial appreciation”.

This paper suggests the existence of a novel phenomenon that may address many of the inconsistencies and present within the current PTG literature. This highlights a significant need for further research within the field of trauma and adversity in relation to positive outcomes which may result from such negative experiences.