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Mental health services in Great Britain are built predominately upon a bipolar perspective of mental health. That is, mental health is seen to exist on the opposite end of the same continuum as mental illness. The existence or degree of mental health is therefore dependent upon the existence or degree of mental illness and mental health is seen as a ‘secondary’ concept to mental illness. The aim of this paper is to review critically both the conceptual and the pragmatic implications of this position. This is achieved through an exploration of the differing (and often competing) ontological assumptions about mental illness. Second, the pragmatic repercussions that this has for mental health promotion are presented. The paper culminates by discussing the possible benefits of viewing mental health from within a two‐continua model — on both conceptual and pragmatic grounds.

The U.S. mental health service delivery system consists of a broad array of inpatient and ambulatory services operated under governmental, corporate, nonprofit, and entrepreneurial auspices. Granted this complex mixture of control patterns, a primary question to be addressed by this paper is the degree to which this set of services can be conceptualized as a system at any level of social organization beyond a single control point for a subset of services. This paper will also explore the utility of systems formulations, including cybernetic processes, for addressing the question of whether mental health services can be controlled and directed to such a degree that they act in concert across different control points. Reference will be made to exogenous systems, such as public and private reimbursement programs, that may influence control processes. Some directions for future research will also be explored.

This paper examines the impact of the Kansas Mental Health Reform Act of 1990 on the mental health care system, on the budget of the state, and on the budgets of the Community Mental Health Centers. Both the successes and the failures of Mental Health Reform suggest that coordination of institutional and financial arrangements are needed to improve the outcomes of care. From a budgetary perspective, Mental Health Reform demonstrates the central role of Medicare and Medicaid in financing services for vulnerable populations. The reform also demonstrates that shifting costs to Medicare and Medicaid is a component of prudent financial management by the states.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate Keyes’ (2007) model of mental health, the presence (flourishing) or absence (languishing) of social, emotional and psychological wellbeing, in the context of drug and alcohol misuse and the frequency and pattern of community participation (engaging in society).

Participants were 1,815 individuals (70 per cent male) who entered residential substance misuse treatment provided by The Salvation Army. Questionnaires were completed at intake assessments with The Salvation Army staff. The data were compared with population norms of community participation utilising t-tests, while multiple linear regression was used to examine continuous mental health.

Although participants have lower levels of community participation compared to Australian population norms, those participants who were experiencing flourishing mental health had higher rates of community participation than Australian norms. Keeping in touch with friends and family was the most common form of participation. Informal social connectedness and civic engagement were the strongest predictors of mental health over and above more traditional substance use outcomes such as cravings.

This is one of the first studies to describe the relationships between community participation, substance use and mental health in participants seeking treatment for substance misuse. Despite having a drug or alcohol addiction requiring treatment, those participants with flourishing mental health have higher levels of community participation than community norms. Furthermore, community participation predicts mental health. This offers promise for interventions that increase community participation but further research using longitudinal designs is needed to replicate and clarify the direction of these relationships.

This paper aims to review the background, history and results of the three Federal Commissions addressing mental illness and health in the United States of America.

This is a historical review of key articles and commentary.

Despite significant handicaps, imposed by the structure of government in the United States, the limits of knowledge and conflicts of between stakeholders, the evidence appears to suggest that Federal Commissions have been productive, even when there is little power to enact their recommendations, to the degree that they concentrate knowledge and effort in an advancing but generally quite disjointed field.

The Commissions touch on a vast number of subjects and actions and do so in the context of the moving target of time. Historical review can only capture so much and the likelihood of errors of omission are significant, as is the possibility of errors of commission due to the requirement of interpreting historical evidence.

The social implication of this study is that the political effort to create and implement Federal Commissions has been worthwhile. The question now is what kind of entity and political effort will be necessary in the future?

Federal Commissions have had a practical utility in the USA of periodically bringing the field together with a shared agenda. The question is, as behavioral health care increasingly melds into general health, what force will help the field focus on behavioral health initiatives. Will we even need such a force?

Discusses that the only true source of sustainable competitive advantage seems to be by building learning organizations. Says that, in order to ensure the survival of their organizations, managers need to focus on individual and organizational learning, the development of a shared vision, an awareness of the internal environment and the external context, and that a key requirement in this process is the ability to surface and test the mental models of people throughout the organization. Also one of the ways of testing mental models is within the context of action. States that exploration of effective action is examined using the Rosenthal stage. Uses an action‐based method using a miniature stage. The Rosenthal stage involves a five‐step process of surfacing, externalizing, reflecting, revealing, and active dialogue of people’s perceptions of their organization. Presents a case study which demonstrates the surfacing of a mental model of a senior manager in a multinational communications organization. The power of the Rosenthal stage enabled this manager, after one session, to gain contextual insight into the breadth of his organization, and the value of his contribution.

At a time of increasing interest in mental health in later life, the role of public health approaches is potentially heightened. This paper draws on interview data with older people living in London to consider the interplay between personal and public approaches to health and well‐being. The interviews were under taken as part of the midpoint review of the UK government's 10‐year strategy for older people (Healthcare Commission et al, 2006) and the social characteristics of London are considered.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the causes, processes of writer’s block experienced by a group of classroom teacher candidates and its impact on them.

The phenomenological design, which is a qualitative research design, was preferred in the research since it was aimed to investigate the causes, processes of writer’s block experienced by a group of classroom teacher candidates and its effects on the students.

As a result of the data analysis, it is possible to suggest the limitations of subject and time, problems in the process of writing teaching since primary school, anxiety of being controlled and assessed by grades, fear of being criticized, negativity of classroom settings, lack of information about writing, not being able to read and shortcomings in the vocabulary as the causes of writer’s block.

The research has some limitations. First, the research is only in the phenomenology design. Quantitative research is needed to determine the more common effects of outcomes. The other one is a limitation on the participants. A group of adult teacher candidates constitute the participants of this research. Writer’s block of students at different age levels can be examined longitudinally. Nevertheless, the results of the research have the theoretical implications for teaching writing. It specifically guides to understand and eliminate negative affective factors related to writing.

The results of this research have practical implications in terms of classroom practices. The results of the study show that there are practical implications for what should be considered in classroom writing teaching and to prevent the writer’s block.

Writer’s block is an affective state and the examination of it is important in terms of writing instruction. Many students suffer from writer’s block. However, this subject is neglected by writing researchers and educators. The authors expect the results to guide teachers and writing education researchers. Because of these reasons, this study is important and gives good contribution to literature.