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The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the usefulness and relevance of the Mental Health Professional Online Development (MHPOD) training package in further developing the skills in mental health and recovery-informed practice of the Australian non-government community mental health workforce. MHPOD is an evidence-based, self-paced, online learning resource that consists of 58 mental health topics.

A total of 349 e-learners were recruited from seven non-government community mental health services across Australia. E-learners were invited to complete up to twelve online surveys, a baseline survey, a topic completion survey for each completed topic, and a follow-up survey towards the end of the pilot.

The majority of e-learners indicated that MHPOD was useful for professional development and relevant to their current employment. E-learners identified that MHPOD led to significant improvement in their knowledge and confidence in their ability. A number of enabling factors such as managerial and organizational supports, technical supports and up-to-date and relevant content materials need to be present for the successful implementation of online programs such as MHPOD.

Online training packages such MHPOD that a relatively easy to use are helpful in developing knowledge, and confidence in the skills of the mental health workforce. The evaluation findings suggest that MHPOD is a relevant and appropriate training tool for the non-government community mental health sector within Australia.

The European Union‐supported Child and Adolescent Mental Health in an Enlarged Europe (CAMHEE) project aimed to provide an overview of the challenges, current practice and guidelines for developing effective mental health promotion and mental illness prevention policy and practice across Europe. As part of this work, an analysis was undertaken of the situation in England, making use of a bespoke data collection instrument and protocol.Our analysis suggests that there has been significant effort and investment in research, needs assessment, policy, human resource and service developments in CAMHS over the last 20 years, leading to a more detailed understanding and availability of services. Much of the emphasis has been on assessment and management of difficulties, however in recent years attention has begun to focus on mental health promotion. National standards and programmes such as Every Child Matters (Department for Education and Skills, 2004) have acted as catalysts for a number of national initiatives.

Prisoners are supposed to receive health care that is equivalent to that provided in the community. There is a high prevalence of mental ill health in prisons, and prisoners tend to have complex needs. Prison mental health care has received only limited attention until recently. The impact of the new in ‐reach teams appears to have been positive, but primary mental health care is weak across the prison estate and the vast majority of prisoners with mental health problems still receive little or no service. The development of prison mental health care has not been evidence‐based and there has been no policy implementation guidance that compares to that provided for reforms in services for the wider community. There is no model for prison mental health care and the role of the prison mental health practitioner is not well defined, nor is the health care workforce prepared for the task.

Traditional methods of addressing workplace violence have relied almost solely on reactive measures. Methods of de‐escalation, strategies to calm the already distressed person down by means of positive communication, or responding to an actual or potential act of violence by means of physical control have formed the focus of training initiatives provided for staff. This approach has suggested an acceptance of the premise that violence in certain services is an inevitable problem that must be managed. This paper proposes that many incidents can be prevented and outlines the emerging evidence to support a structured, holistic approach. Additionally, it provides an overview of the recent policy agenda, the evidence base and examples of some recent and ongoing development work that attempts to change practice.

New Zealand is not alone in facing challenges for the building and sustaining of a future health workforce that can meet the needs of a diverse population. In this article, the author describes how New Zealand has begun to build on models developed from the UK and elsewhere to attend to workforce issues in the child and adolescent mental health and addictions sector. The workforce planning development model being implemented by the Werry Centre for Child and Adolescent Mental Health has a solid pedigree, with a very New Zealand focused process for implementation.

Mental model convergence occurs as team members interact. By collecting information and observing behaviors through their interactions, team members’ individual mental models evolve into shared mental models. This process requires a cognitive shift in an individual's focal level. Specifically, the individual assigned to the team must shift his or her focus from thinking about the team domain using an individual perspective to thinking about it from a team perspective. Thus, mental model convergence may be the key to understanding how individuals are transformed into team members. This chapter presents a framework describing the mental model convergence process that draws on the extant research on group development and information processing. It also examines temporal aspects of mental model convergence, the role of mental model contents on the convergence process, and the relationship between converged mental models and team functioning. Preliminary evidence supporting the framework and the important role that converged mental models play in high-performing teams is provided. The chapter concludes with a discussion of the implications of this mental model convergence framework for research and practice.

The aim of the paper is to describe the “organisational lifecycle” of the New Zealand Mental Health Commission (NZ MHC) including factors that led to it being established, the evolving phases of the work it undertook and its key achievements, the critical success factors, the rationale behind its disestablishment and transfer of its core functions to another entity.

The methodology is a review of relevant documents and interviews of previous Commissioners, and insights of the final two Chair Commissioners and authors.

The NZ MHC was established to provide government with independent advice on how to develop the capacity and capability of mental health and addictions services for those people with the highest and most complex needs, estimated to be approximately 3 percent of the population. Having successfully led changes to achieve this goal as set out in The Blueprint of 1998 it is now influencing government policy and services to achieve better mental health and well‐being for the whole population as per Blueprint II, published in 2012. The NZ Government clearly values the role of Mental Health Commissioner which has been transferred to the Office of the Health and Disability Commissioner from July 2012 at the time the Commission is disestablished.

The paper relies on insights of those in Commission leadership roles.

Other Commissions may gain insight into their own evolutionary pathways and proactively manage them.

Optimal mental health and wellbeing for society requires policy that simultaneously takes a “whole of society” approach and focuses on responding to people with the highest needs.

The paper shows that there are significant concerns about the disestablishment of the Mental Health Commission in New Zealand and little understanding of the underlying rationale for the organisational changes.

This paper aims to explore the role of mental models in knowledge development in order to demonstrate how the type and strength of the mental models held by a team contribute to its success in general and to innovation in particular.

Two cases are analysed (a successful and an unsuccessful team) which were developed via observation and interviews. The mental models in each case were analysed to map them to the success or otherwise of the teams.

The first case demonstrates that mental models in a multidisciplinary team can provide opportunity for a shared generation of knowledge for process innovation while open to external influence. The second case demonstrates that, where there are strongly shared mental models that prevent the team from constructing an accurate picture of their present by closing out external influences and pre‐selecting desired knowledge, opportunities for innovation are shut down.

Where mental models provide a sharing framework without closing out the networks and systems that sustain them, they can foster and support innovation. Managing team openness becomes a priority for supporting innovation. Team leaders will need to consider what types of mental models are developing and foster a focus on innovative outcomes and not processes. A concentration on understanding the current context via challenging given assumptions is recommended.

The paper offers clear, practical examples of the results of teams being encouraged to utilise open and closed systems of mental models.

Many First Nations and Inuit communities in Canada confront historical, cultural, socioeconomic and geographic barriers that have a profound impact on mental wellness. In 2006, a Senate Committee reported on mental health, mental illness and addiction. A key result has been the creation of the Mental Health Commission of Canada (MHCC). Around the same time, Health Canada established a Mental Wellness Advisory Committee (MWAC) in collaboration with the representative bodies of Canada's First Nations and Inuit ‐ the Assembly of First Nations and the Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami ‐ to develop a strategic action plan to improve mental wellness outcomes of First Nations and Inuit. A participatory, inclusive and consensus‐based approach to the MWAC work has been key to the successful development of the strategic action plan and has brought credence and legitimacy to the process. MWAC, the strategic action plan and the ready linkages with the MHCC are important guides for moving forwards to improve the mental wellness outcomes of Canada's First Nations and Inuit.

This article provides an overview of the literature on the impact of ‘the Troubles’ on mental health in Northern Ireland. It identifies three main phases of professional and policy response from concerns about the effects of the violence in the early 1970s, through many years of collective denial and neglect, until acknowledgment, following the Good Friday Agreement in 1998 (Northern Ireland Office, 1998), of high levels of trauma and unmet need. The issues of inequality and stigma are also considered and it is argued that peace is necessary but insufficient for promoting mental health. The development of mental health services in Northern Ireland and the relatively recent focus on promoting mental health are also outlined and examined. It is suggested that attempts to address the needs arising as a result of ‘the Troubles’ and more general mental health promotion strategies have, to some extent, developed in parallel and that it may be important to integrate these efforts. The relative under‐development of mental health services, the comprehensive Bamford Review (2005; 2006) and the positive approach of the Public Health Agency mean that, even in the current economic climate, there are great opportunities for progress. Routine screening, in primary care and mental health services for trauma, including Troubles‐related trauma, is recommended to identify and address these issues on an individual level. It is also argued, however, that more substantial political change is needed to effectively address societal division, inequality and stigma to the benefit of all.