Search results

Interventions that promote both mental and physical wellbeing have been advocated for people with mental health difficulties, as they have been found to engage less in healthy behaviours and have lower levels of physical fitness. However, no optimal approach to facilitate this undertaking has been identified. The purpose of this paper is to explore the experiences of people with psychological distress who accessed a social enterprise that fosters the building of positive social networks in the community, as part of a personalised recovery programme. The intention was to gain an insight into its therapeutic effect in relation to mental and physical health.

An exploratory survey design was undertaken with a purposive sample of 50 individuals who had attended the enterprise. Descriptive statistics and thematic analysis were employed to analyse the data from both closed and open-ended questions.

The wellbeing service appeared to provide a supportive environment that offered people access to social networks through their participation in local services and activities. Fostering participants’ active participation, connection building and the ability to make meaningful contributions helped to facilitate health behaviours that had a positive impact on their health and wellbeing.

This study highlights the potential role of a social enterprise in optimising the social context for promoting the health and wellbeing of people with mental health difficulties.

This study aims to examine the behavioral health disorders and trauma exposure are disproportionately represented among incarcerated men. Historically, prisons have been inadequately equipped to respond to the behavioral health needs of incarcerated people. Given the abundance of behavioral health need and the relatively limited availability of prison-based treatment resources, population health management strategies, particularly need stratification, are vital.

A sample of 943 male inmates from three Spanish prisons completed a structured questionnaire. Need groups are based on current depression, anxiety and stress symptoms assessed by the DASS-21 and were validated using adverse childhood experiences (ACE), prison-based abuse, prison-based substance use, social support and resilience.

Three need groups were identified, namely, minimal, mild/moderate and severe, each representing about one-third of the sample. The severe group had the highest level of all three types of psychological distress, ACE and prison-based adversity and substance use. No statistical differences in social support and resilience were found among the groups. These findings provide a platform for future research to explore how the complexity of behavioral health care need can be identified and stratified for strategic and rational treatment matching. Proving whether a population health management approach improves behavioral health and personal safety outcomes within funding-constrained carceral environments is the next research priority.

This study is the first to group co-morbid psychological distress into need categories using a social determinants of health framework for validation.