Search results

From 2012, all high-secure forensic mental health services in England began operating a policy of confining patients to their locked bedrooms overnight to increase service efficiency and reduce costs. The purpose of this paper is to assess the views of staff and patients concerning the policy and examine the specific impact of the policy on patients.

Measures of patients’ sleep hygiene, patients’ behaviour, ward atmosphere, engagement with therapy and adverse incidents were taken both before and after the night confinement (NC) policy was implemented. Both patients and staff also expressed their views of the impact of the NC policy.

Results provide converging evidence that the impact of the NC policy on patients is negligible. There were no consistent negative effects of confining patients overnight. Rather, patients and staff were broadly positive about the impact that the practice had on patients.

Confining patients to locked bedrooms overnight does not exert any consistent influence, positive or negative, on patients’ sleep hygiene, behaviour or engagement with therapy, and patients expressed a broadly positive view of the practice of NC. Thus, a NC policy may have a contribution to make to the provision an effective high-secure mental health service.

The study provides convincing evidence that secure inpatient mental health services that are considering the adoption of a NC policy may do so without fear of a negative impact on patients.

In this article, Sarah Wright introduces the Strategies for Living project; Karen Ledger then describes her experiences of working as a researcher within the programme.Strategies for Living was established as a project within the Mental Health Foundation in 1997, after the publication of a survey, Knowing our Own Minds (Faulkner, 1997). This survey was groundbreaking as, at the time, no other piece of research had directly asked people who used mental health services what they found useful as support for living and coping with mental distress.The report from the survey stated ‘we are all the primary experts on our own mental health, and about what works for us’. This belief underpins the work of Strategies for Living.

Workforce development is crucial to the offender personality disorder (OPD) service to provide contemporary, evidenced care and treatment. This study aims to provide an overview and the research evaluation results of a regional higher education programme delivered to a range of criminal justice workers used on the OPD pathway.

Three modules were developed and delivered; these are (1) enhancing understanding (20 students), (2) formulation and therapeutic intervention (20 students) and (3) relationships, teams and environments (17 students). A mixed-methods study evaluated participant confidence and compassion. Pre, post and six-month follow-up questionnaires were completed. Additionally, a series of focus groups were conducted to gain in-depth qualitative feedback with a cross-section of students across the modules (N = 7). Quantitative data was collected and analysed separately due to the three modules all having different content. Qualitative data was analysed, and a synthesis of qualitative findings was reported from data taken across the three modules.

A total of 52 students participated, drawn from three modules: Module 1 (N = 19); Module 2 (N = 18); Module 3 (N = 15). Confidence in working with people with a personality disorder or associated difficulties improved significantly following completion of any of the modules, whereas compassion did not. Results have been synthesised and have assisted in the future shaping of modules to meet the learning needs of students.

Further evaluation of the effectiveness of educational programmes requires attention, as does the longer-term durability of effect. Further research is required to explore the post-training impact upon practice, and further exploration is required and larger sample sizes to draw definitive conclusions related to compassion.

This unique model of co-production that draws upon the expertise of people with lived experience, occupational frontline and academics is achievable and well received by students and can be reproduced elsewhere.

The positive uptake and results of this study indicate a need for expansion of accessible OPD workforce training opportunities across the UK. Further research is required to explore student feedback and comparisons of effectiveness comparing different modes of training delivery, especially in light of the pandemic, which has forced organisations and higher education institutions to develop more digital and distance learning approaches to their portfolios.

This novel research provides an evaluation of the only higher education credit-bearing modules in the UK focussed solely upon the OPD workforce and aligned with the national drive for non-credit bearing awareness level training “knowledge and understanding framework” (KUF).

Secure mental health services in one UK region have acted within a network to develop a range of involvement practices. A new quality benchmarking tool has been created to appraise the implementation of these involvement practices. The purpose of this paper is to report upon a qualitative evaluation of this development.

Staff and service users involved in the co-production of the benchmarking tool were engaged in a series of focus groups and participatory inquiry approaches enacted in the course of scheduled network meetings. Data thus collected was subject to thematic analysis.

Four distinct themes were identified which were titled: Taking time, taking care; The value not the label; An instrument of the network; and All people working together. These are discussed in relation to recent theorising of co-production.

Effectively, this study represents a case study of developments within one region. As such, the findings may have limited transferability to other contexts.

Staff and service users can work together effectively to the benefit of each other and overall forensic services. The benchmarking tool provides a readymade mechanism to appraise quality improvements.

Despite a prevailing culture of competition in wider health-care policy, cooperation leads to enhanced quality.

The benchmarking tool is a unique development of a longstanding involvement network, demonstrating the positive implications for enacting co-production within secure services.

The aim of this paper is to provide an overview of a novel offender personality disorder (OPD) higher education programme and the research evaluation results collected over a three-year period. Data from Phase 1 was collected from a face-to-face mode of delivery, and Phase 2 data collected from the same programme was from an online mode of delivery because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

In Phase 1, three modules were developed and delivered in a fully face-to-face format before the pandemic in 2019–2020 (n = 52 student participants). In 2020–2021 (n = 66 student participants), training was adapted into a fully online mode of delivery in Phase 2. This mixed-methods study evaluated participant confidence and compassion. Pre-, post- and six-month follow-up questionnaires were completed. Qualitative interviews were conducted across both phases to gain in-depth feedback on this programme (Phase 1: N = 7 students, Phase 2: N = 2 students, N = 5 leaders). Data from Phase 1 (face-to-face) and Phase 2 (online) are synthesised for comparison.

In Phase 1 (N = 52), confidence in working with people with personality disorder or associated difficulties improved significantly, while compassion did not change. In Phase 2 (N = 66), these results were replicated, with statistically significant improvements in confidence reported. Compassion, however, was reduced in Phase 2 at the six-month follow-up. Results have been integrated and have assisted in shaping the future of modules to meet the learning needs of students.

Further research into the impact of different modes of delivery is important for the future of education in a post-pandemic digitalised society. Comparisons of blended learning approaches were not covered but would be beneficial to explore and evaluate in the future.

This comparison provided informed learning for consideration in the development of non-related educational programmes and, hence, was of use to other educational providers.

This paper provides a comparison of a student-evaluated training programme, thus providing insights into the impact of delivering a relational-focused training programme in both face-to-face and online distance learning delivery modes. From this pedagogic research evaluation, the authors were able to derive unique insights into the outcomes of this programme.

The current library outsourcing debate began in 1993 when Wright State University completely outsourced its cataloging operation. It reached a new high in 1995 when the Hawaii State Public Library System decided to outsource its selection, cataloging, and processing functions to Baker & Taylor, its online journals to Information Access Company, and its automation to Ameritech. A steady stream of articles and a handful of books, covering theoretical and ethical issues, as well as the practical aspects of outsourcing, have appeared in the last decade. This bibliography addresses the broad issues of outsourcing, especially in academic libraries. Outsourcing of public, special, and federal libraries is covered only tangentially. The list is divided into four sections: books on outsourcing in libraries; general articles on the history, theory, and impact of outsourcing on libraries and librarianship; opinion pieces; and articles that relate to individual libraries’ experiences with outsourcing.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the long-term conditions affecting the administration workforce of a regional Australian health service, and their self-management of these conditions.

A cross-sectional survey design was used. The sample consisted of all administration staff members employed in 2018 across a large regional health service in Northern Australia.

Of the 328 respondents, 167 (51 per cent) reported having at least one long-term condition. Of these, 136 (81.4 per cent) indicated a single main condition for which management strategies were used. Musculoskeletal conditions were the most commonly nominated category (59.6 per cent), followed by mental health (10.3 per cent). Respondents with musculoskeletal conditions were statistically more likely to have a co-existing mental health long-term condition, χ²(1) = 95.64, p<0.001. There was also a statistically significant association between respondents reporting a mental health condition and being overweight, χ²(1) = 54.27, p< 0.05.

The response rate of 35 per cent, whilst relatively low, is a slight increase on similar surveys within this organisation. The reliability of the self-report data, presence of study bias and a weakening of the study’s external validity is acknowledged.

Targeted workplace intervention strategies, such as holistic wellness programs, should complement personal approaches, promote an ergonomic environment and create opportunities for increased dialogue between employees and their line managers, particularly regarding the complex interplay between long-term physical and mental health.

This is the first study of self-reported long-term conditions among administration staff within a health service, and augments findings from previous studies involving health professional groups in the same organisation.

The purpose of this paper is to explores the influence of socialization upon the constitution and integration of learning leading to the development of entrepreneurial competence while at university, from the learner perspective. Self-reported learning is analyzed to illustrate ways in which students make use of institutional and social contributions of the university context.

The study investigates entrepreneurial journeys of 18 participants, either currently attending or recently graduated from three universities in three countries with both comparable and distinctive contextual elements. In depth analysis of individual life stories, focusing on self-identified critical incidents, is used to illustrate ways in which students, while at university, develop entrepreneurial competence for current and future practice.

Formal and non-formal learning remain important foundations for entrepreneurial competence development, delivered through designed content-centric structures. Informal learning – particularly mentor supported socialised learning – centring around the learner is key to solidifying learning towards entrepreneurial competence, through know-how and access to resources. The university emerges as an entrepreneurial learning space where students constitute and integrate learning gained through different forms.

Cross-cultural analysis is limited as the paper emphasizes the individual’s learning experience relative to the immediate university context.

Universities play a critical role as entrepreneurial learning spaces beyond formal and non-formal learning. This includes dedicating resources to orchestrate informal learning opportunities and enabling interaction with the different agents that contribute to socialised situated learning, supporting entrepreneurial competence development. Universities need to take responsibility for facilitating the entirety of learning.

Socialised learning in combination with other forms of learning contributes to student development of entrepreneurial competence while situated in the university context.