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The Recovery Self-Assessment (RSA–R) in Revised Version is an instrument designed to assess the degree to which mental health programs and services implement recovery-oriented practices. The purpose of this paper is to conduct a cross-cultural adaptation of the RSA–R instrument for use in local mental health services in the city of Campinas, State of São Paulo, Brazil.

This method for cross-cultural adaptation of the instrument included a series of iterative steps including preparation, translation, back translation, harmonization, expert evaluation, focus groups, in-depth interviews, expert opinion and pilot study.

A multi-rater assessment of the equivalence of content between the original RSA–R and the translated version revealed that each of the 32 items achieved at least 88% agreement in terms of equivalency. A multi-step harmonization process revealed additional suggestions for improvements in readability, comprehension and applicability to Brazilian context. An expert in youth and adult education provided additional stylistic recommendations. Combined, this iterative approach to cross-cultural translation resulted in an adapted version of the instrument that was well understood, culturally appropriate and adequate for further verification of psychometric properties.

The recovery process in Brazil and in the USA has culturally determined differences in terms of the way mental disorders are understood, diagnosed and treated. Moreover, there are different notions of what constitutes desirable results of recovery, health care and welfare. At the present time, there are few, if any, available cross-cultural instruments to assess the recovery-orientation of services between Brazil and the USA.

The purpose of this paper is to gain understanding about the effectiveness of a forensic peer support program’s impact on reducing criminal recidivism. People with histories of mental illness returning to the community following incarceration face tremendous challenges in jails and prisons and in successful reentry to community. Transitioning from jails and prisons is fraught with additional challenges such as reconnecting or connecting with mental health and substance abuse treatment, finding adequate housing, finding employment, reuniting with family and friends, etc. Unfortunately, recidivism remains high, principally because of these challenges. Many state and local authorities have supported the development of the forensic peer specialist.

Kaplan–Meier survival analyses were conducted to examine time to re-incarceration.

The population served was determined to be a particularly high risk of re-incarceration population, when released from prison. All had a mental illness diagnosis, with 80 percent diagnosed with at least one serious mental illness, and more than 50 percent had three or more anterior incarcerations. Utilizing Kaplan–Meyer survival analysis, the chance of re-incarceration for participants after one year was of 21.7 percent. Surprisingly, in the first year after release from prison, participants did much better than those in the general US prison population when in terms of re-incarceration rates (21.7 percent vs 43.4 percent).

While preliminary findings of this approach, this study reaffirms the idea that forensic peer support programs are beneficial in reducing recidivism rates for people diagnosed with a mental illness coming out of prison, offering individuals supports to maintain their lives in the community.

People with lived experience of mental health problems (MHPs) are often marginalised and have difficulty achieving community inclusion. Citizenship, a relatively novel concept in mental health, provides a means of understanding what is necessary for marginalised individuals and groups to gain a sense of belonging within their communities. By exploring the “what, why, how and who” of citizenship, the purpose of this paper is to provide a rationale for the inclusion of citizenship as part of a person-centred and holistic mental health strategy.

A community-based participatory research (CBPR) approach, with peer researchers, was adopted to develop a model of citizenship within a Scottish context. The aim of the model is to link the concept of citizenship with specific strategies that systems, agencies and individuals can use within mental health policy and practice to promote greater inclusion and participation. Concept mapping was used as part of a mixed-methods participatory methodology and data were then analysed using multivariate statistical methods of multidimensional scaling and hierarchical cluster analysis.

It is argued that using a CBPR approach, utilising concept mapping, encourages the development of a model of citizenship that is entirely grounded in the perspectives and lived experiences of people with MHPs. The need for adequate resources, preparatory work, training, research management and reflexive practice are key to the success of a CBPR approach with peer researchers.

Working with peer researchers and key stakeholder groups is central to a CBPR approach and the implementation of a model of citizenship within mental health policy and practice. Developing a model of citizenship derived specifically from the experiences of people with lived experience is likely to promote their inclusion. It provides a means of challenging the structural deficits and inequalities that cause distress and prevent people with lived experience of MHPs of recovering their citizenship.

Much of the existing literature on shared decision making (SDM) in mental health has focused on the use of decision aids (DAs). However, DAs tend to focus on information exchange and neglect other essential elements to SDM in mental health. The purpose of this paper is to expand the review of SDM interventions in mental health by identifying important components, in addition to information exchange, that may contribute to the SDM process in mental health.

The authors conducted a systematic literature search using the Ovid-Medline database with supplementary scoping search of the literature on SDM in mental health treatment. To be eligible for inclusion, studies needed to describe (in a conceptual work or development paper) or evaluate (in any type of research design) a SDM intervention in mental health. The authors included studies of participants with a mental illness facing a mental health care decision, their caregivers, and providers.

A final sample of 31 records was systematically selected. Most interventions were developed and/or piloted in the USA for adults in community psychiatric settings. Although information exchange was a central component of the identified studies, important additional elements were: eliciting patient preferences and values, providing patient communication skills training, eliciting shared care planning, facilitating patient motivation, and eliciting patient participation in goal setting.

The review indicates that additional elements, other than information exchange such as sufficient rapport and trusting relationships, are important and needed as part of SDM in mental health. Future SDM interventions in mental health could consider including techniques that aim to increase patient involvement in activities such as goal settings, values, and preference clarification, or facilitating patient motivation, before and after presenting treatment options.

The aims of this paper are to measure the impacts of subsidy, work experience and training programmes on New Zealand male registered unemployed, and to examine the sensitivity of these estimates to the amount of time that participants are followed after an intervention.

The impact of an intervention on those who participate in an active labour market programme is the key question addressed in this paper. A New Zealand panel data set is used, which includes both intervention and individual characteristics of the unemployed. Both a potential outcomes and single nearest‐neighbour difference‐in‐differences matching approach are used to estimate the impact of participation.

The key findings are that work experience programmes are the most effective in the short‐term. Training programmes are the least effective. Programmes are more effective for the long‐term unemployed than for short‐term unemployed. The results are sensitive to the point of time examined in the post‐intervention period, with short‐term benefits disappearing completely three years after the intervention.

This paper examines the relative effect of active labour market programmes in New Zealand using a consistent evaluation framework. The sensitivity of the results to different time periods, and matching estimator specifications are examined.

There is substantial evidence that young people moving from child and adolescent mental health services to adult services are more likely to experience poor transitions. However, little is known about the care pathways of young people transitioning from forensic services. This retrospective case note review sought to examine the clinical characteristics, transition pathways and psychosocial indicators of transition outcomes amongst young people in forensic medium secure services discharged to adult services.

The electronic records of 32 young people, who transitioned from six adolescent medium secure units in England to adult services between May 2015 and June 2016, were examined.

Approximately 65% of young people were between 18 and 19 years at the time of transition and the average waiting time from referral to discharge was six months. A total of 63% young people transitioned to community placements and adult medium secure services. Four pathways describing the journey into and out of adolescent medium secure services were identified in a subsample of 12 young people. A total of 25% young people with neurodevelopmental problems moved to specialist services.

The results suggest that diagnosis, severity of offence and clinical background are associated with transition pathway. Promoting a person-centred approach and gradual independence of the young person may improve current practice.

These results inform existing policy and clinical practice in an effort to reform transition guidelines around young people’s needs during transition times. Further studies in adolescent forensic services are needed to understand complex neurodevelopmental problems and comorbidities.

This paper provides more insight into the assumption of human capital theory that the productivity of job-related training is driven by the improvement of workers’ skills. We analyze the extent to which training and informal learning on the job are related to employee skill development and consider the heterogeneity of this relationship with respect to workers’ skill mismatch at job entry. Using data from the 2014 European Skills and Jobs Survey, we find – as assumed by human capital theory – that employees who participated in training or informal learning show greater improvement of their skills than those who did not. The contribution of informal learning to employee skill development appears to be larger than that of training participation. Nevertheless, both forms of learning are shown to be complementary. This complementarity between training and informal learning is related to a significant additional improvement of workers’ skills. The skill development of workers who were initially underskilled for their job seems to benefit the most from both training and informal learning, whereas the skill development of those who were initially overskilled benefits the least. Work-related learning investments in the latter group seem to be more functional in offsetting skill depreciation than in fostering skill accumulation.

This study aims to understand the extent to which packaging influences Brazilian parents' purchasing willingness based on children's food preferences for unhealthy food products.

Parents, with children up to 12 years old, answered questions about the positive influence of the packaging on the children, the preferences of the children in their willingness to buy and the propensity to give in to the desires of the children. Data analysis was performed with the statistical software SPSS and Stata used for structural equations modeling.

The results back the outlined hypotheses and point out that the characteristics of the packaging positively influence children's preferences as well as parents’ who are prone to give in to such influences. In some relationships, there was a minute moderating effect of social desirability and social class.

The research presents as a limitation the nature of the sample, parents, to the extent that the influences of the packages on the children were analyzed from their perspectives.

Findings from the research can be used to think about preventive public policies to protect children as highly vulnerable subjects. Another practical implication is that the same marketing strategies that are used for unhealthy foods can also be used for healthy foods, improving their linkage to the children once there are evidences that packaging can positively influence their preferences.

The originality of this study is to focus on children's food preferences for unhealthy products and in parents with children up to 12 years old, which is not often investigated by researchers.

This paper aims to analyze the determinants of Portuguese energy companies' performance.

To achieve our objective, we have used data from 457 Portuguese energy companies, in the period between 2011 and 2018. Three dependent variables were tested using panel data, through the generalized method of moments (GMM) estimation method.

The results point out that the determinants of companies' performance change according to how different stakeholders appreciate corporate performance. In general, shareholders are concerned with maintaining their levels of profitability over time as well as with the company's market image. Managers are centered on maintaining solid margins on EBITDA through good management of cash flow, leverage and current assets. For the rest of the stakeholders, including global society, debt and investments in tangible fixed assets reduce profitability while investments in immaterial assets help to create value and performance for energy companies.

As far as the authors are aware, this is the first time that a study has been carried out in the Portuguese energy sector using the GMM-system model for three different stakeholders' views of corporate performance determinants.

The purpose of this paper is to present the Italian validation of the standards for communities for children and adolescents (SCIA) Questionnaire, an evaluation tool of communities quality standards, based on the “Service Standards for Therapeutic Communities for Children and Young People – 2nd edition” of the Community of Communities (2009), that enables an empirical, multidimensional and complex evaluation of the therapeutic community (TC) “system”. It is a self-report that sets out and measures variables that allow to get an overview of organisational models and the possible development areas to improve the effectiveness of the protection of child and adolescents in community treatment. The validation and a preliminary analysis to develop a short version of the SCIA are presented.

The questionnaire (composed, in the extended form, by 143 items) was administered to 101 community workers, 20 males (19.8 per cent) and 81 females (81.2 per cent) aged between 24 and 61 years (M=36.20, SD=8.4). The analysis of reliability (Cronbach’s α) and a series of exploratory factor analysis allowed to eliminate redundant or less significant items.

The short form of the self-report consists of 67 items, divided into seven subscales, which explore different areas of intervention in TCs. Despite the limitations due to the small sample size, the utility of this tool remains confirmed by its clinical use and the development of good operating practices.

The SCIA Questionnaire responds to the need to adopt empirical variables in the process of evaluation of the communities. The SCIA is also a useful tool for clinical evaluation, as it allows a detailed observation of residential community treatment with children and adolescents that allows to analyse and monitor the structural and organisational aspects and the quality of practices that guide the interventions.