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Influential social and recovery models, de‐emphasising mental illness understandings, form key mandates for mental health education today. This paper, however, aims to question how responsive these perspectives may be to service users, and seeks to review the value of mental illness concepts to social model approaches.

In the context of recovery model concerns with the associations of mental illness notions to stigma and disempowerment, the paper first reviews research concerning service users' experiences of mental illness. It then investigates the roots of mental illness stigma, tracing these back to socio‐historical discourses predating mental illness concepts. Against this background, the evolution of mental illness theories and their value to service users is appraised.

The paper finds that mental illness experiences, linked to experiences of social inequalities, can devastate and form major barriers to recovery approaches; however, the finding that mental illness stigma connects to discourses predating mental illness concepts suggests that the value of the latter can potentially be considered afresh. Against this background, the paper draws out the significance of historical theories of mental illness and contemporary developments, for the promotion of service users' rights and recovery.

The findings have implications for the development of social approaches in mental health education which embrace mental illness alongside social understandings which are just as important in recovery.

The paper advances recognition of mental illness stigma and mental illness concepts as distinct in their origins, and in this context reviews the significance of mental illness experiences and theories for service users and mental health education.

The purpose of the paper is to report the findings of a small scale indicative research project. The project explores the assessment of detained persons in police custody by Forensic Physicians (FP).

A range of information was collected in every case where custody staff had identified a mental health concern and requested an FP assessment. As well as information about demographic factors, this would include questions regarding any links that the individuals had with community‐based mental health services. As well as this information, anonymous custody records and force adverse incident records for the month were examined.

In the month of the project, 59 FP assessments were requested. Only six members of this group had any contact with community‐based mental health services: two with a social worker, two with a CPN and two with a psychiatrist. Of this group, three had not been in contact with mental health services for over a month.

The size of the cohort and variety of arrangements for providing nursing and social care support in custody settings may limit the generalisation of the findings.

This study highlights that there is a group of individuals whose mental health causes concern to the police in a custody environment. In this study, the overwhelming majority of the group have no contact with mental health services. The research supports the recommendations of the Bradley Review for wider health care provision in custody settings.

The paper highlights that fully effective community mental health services need to consider police custody settings as a key point for intervention.

Perinatal mental health is a major concern among women of childbearing age. Women from a black and minority ethnic background are widely believed to have particular needs that are often not given the attention they deserve. NHS Croydon launched a perinatal mental health project to develop a closer and better partnership between the Primary Care Trust (PCT), Croydon Council and black and minority ethnic (BME) voluntary organisations through an action learning approach. Experience was shared to improve engagement and use of health services by mothers from BME communities in Croydon who had encountered mental health problems during pregnancy or following childbirth. By exploring and identifying such issues and problems, the action learning set endeavoured to find solutions for a joined‐up approach to achieve identifiable benefits. Some problems were encountered, such as a lack of communication between health professionals and BME community groups. The learning outcomes were to raise awareness and to recognise the cultural differences with mothers of BME background experiencing perinatal mental health problems. The learning from the project will be disseminated to a wider audience to promote best practice.

This paper aims to explore the intersection of cultural processes and immigration in parental understanding of adolescent mental health and mental health seeking behaviors among African immigrants in Western countries. The present study examines the perspectives of Congolese immigrant parents on adolescent mental health in Brussels, Belgium, and Raleigh, North Carolina, USA – two geographic regions with relatively large Congolese migrant populations. This study highlights a needed understanding of cultural and acculturative context in shaping the beliefs of Congolese immigrants and explores potential barriers of seeking health services. Additionally, it recognizes health issues among this underrepresented and underserved population.

Fifteen Congolese immigrant parents, eight in the USA and seven in Belgium, participated in structured qualitative interviews using an adapted version of Kleinman Questions and behavioral scenarios on depression, post-traumatic stress disorder and oppositional defiant disorder. Interviews were audio recorded, and participants were assigned pseudonyms to de-identify responses. English interviews were transcribed verbatim by a trained team of undergraduate research assistants, and French interviews were transcribed verbatim by the first author and a graduate research assistant. Following transcription, the first and second authors used a rapid analytic approach (Hamilton, 2013). The first and second authors conducted a matrix analysis to observe thematic patterns.

Parents interpreted adolescent behavior to be more problematic when the scenarios were overtly outside of their cultural realm of values and beliefs. Parents preferred methods of intervention through religious practices and/or family and community efforts rather than seeking mental health services in their host countries as a secondary option. The authors’ findings provide an understanding of the values and beliefs of this underrepresented demographic, which may be useful to guide health professionals on how to support this community in a culturally responsive way.

Limitations to the current study include the structured nature of the interview guide that did not allow for in-depth qualitative exploration. Interviewed participants had lived in their host countries for more than 10+ years. Thus, the authors’ findings are not reflective of new immigrants’ experiences. Parents’ perspectives were likely shaped by exposure to Western beliefs related to support for mental health (e.g. knowledge of psychologists). Future studies should focus on recent refugees due to exposure to traumatic events and experiences reflective of the Democratic Republic of Congo’s (DRC’s) current socio-political situation, and how these are understood in the context of adolescent mental health. Further, due to the hypothetical nature of the scenarios, the authors cannot be sure that participants would engage in the identified approaches with their children. Additionally, hearing from the youth’s perspective would provide a clearer insight on how mental health and seeking professional help is viewed in a parent–child relationship. Finally, the data for this study were collected in 2019, prior to the COVID-19 pandemic. Although the authors cannot speak directly to Congolese refugee and immigrant experiences during this significant historical period, given the rise in mental health concerns in refugee populations more broadly (Logie et al., 2022), the authors’ findings speak to how parents may have responded to increased mental health symptoms and point to additional barriers that these populations may have faced in accessing support. The authors’ study emphasizes the need for dedicating resources and attention to this population, especially the development of culturally tailored messaging that invites community members to support the mental health needs of their community.

The authors’ findings provide important implications for mental health professionals. This study provides a clearer understanding of how Congolese immigrant parents view mental health and help-seeking within their cultural frame. Although parents may seek professional help, a distrust of mental health services was expressed across both cohorts. This suggests that mental health professionals should acknowledge potential distrust among this population and clarify their role in supporting the mental health of adolescent immigrants. Clinicians should inquire about familial cultural beliefs that are parent- and child-centered and modify their interventions to fit these belief structures.

This paper addresses the gap in knowledge about mental health perspectives of Sub-Saharan African immigrant populations, specifically those from the DRC.

This article is a ‘taster’, and summarises the issues identified in the UK Inquiry report on Mental Health in Later Life. It looks at how the Inquiry undertook its work, how older people with mental health problems are often overlooked and what their views and experiences are of accessing services, what actions are proposed for the housing, health and care sectors, and key issues and recommendations. Age Concern is committed to auditing the response to the recommendations and will report progress in 2009.

The issue of mental health and policing is a subject that has been debated from a number of different perspectives. The purpose of this paper is to report on the findings of a case study that explored mental health difficulties and vulnerability within police custody.

The design of the study was qualitative, and it utilised telephone, semi-structured interviews with all levels of the custody staff. This approach was taken because the aim of the study was to explore how people in different roles within the organisation worked to safeguard vulnerable people in custody.

The findings from this study identified a number of interesting themes that could be explored further in later studies. Overall, the respondents expressed frustration that vulnerable people find themselves in police custody for low-level crime, when it could have been avoided with improved mental health services in the community. Additionally, the findings demonstrated that despite the processes that are designed to safeguard the detainee, tensions still exist including, timely access to mental health assessments, appropriate training and support for staff and the use of appropriate adults.

Although the study was small in scale, the custody facility delivered detainee facilities for about 5,000 individuals per year. The research and information obtained supported the police lead for mental health to identify opportunities for improving the customer journey, as well as recognising the need for further research to identify how officers and staff relate to vulnerable individuals in contact with the police service.

Despite the limitations of the study, the findings have captured interesting data from a range of professionals working in one police custody suite, and therefore it presents a holistic overview of some key issues around mental health, vulnerability and safeguarding within the context of police custody.

The coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has devastating effects around the world, influencing daily life and putting communities into unprecedented situations of anxiety, hardship and loss. It has a particularly severe effect on the mental health of individuals and highlights pre-existing challenges in mental health provision in different countries. The purpose of this paper is to examine the mental health response to COVID-19 in the occupied Palestinian territories (oPt) in relation to mental health concerns and the political situation.

This study analyzes the double struggle of Palestinians not only dealing with COVID-19 but with the ongoing Israeli occupation and human rights violations and focuses on the challenges in providing mental health services due to existing inequalities, systemic discrimination and lack of resources as a result of the political system of oppression. The findings are based on previously published articles concerning mental health related to the COVID-19 outbreak in other countries, as well as the authors’ clinical experience in the oPt and direct involvement in providing mental health services.

The paper highlights how the current pandemic is being used to further attempts of annexation and political gains in Israel and how it exacerbated human rights violations due to the occupation. Emphasis is also put on the challenges in providing a Palestinian mental health response due to the high number of actors involved and the lack of preparedness at the level of mental health response provision.

The value of the works lies in putting the current pandemic in relation to human rights violations in the oPt due to the ongoing Israeli occupation and in highlighting how a mental health response to COVID-19 can be implemented during a state of emergency and despite a lack of preparedness in response services in the oPt.

The purpose of this paper is to describe content topics and teaching methods for a new undergraduate course in business administration on managing for workplace mental health. It then discusses a preliminary evaluation of the course.

Research-supported content and teaching methods were developed and implemented. n=18 undergraduates completed pre- and post-course quantitative measures related to course goals, and a qualitative post-course survey about course content and delivery.

Analysis of pre- and post-course quantitative measures demonstrated significant increases in mental health-related knowledge; other-directed, mental health supportive behaviours; mental health promotion self-efficacy; mental health promotion intentions; and self-compassion; as well as significant decreases in stigmatising attitudes. Effect sizes were moderate to large, indicating usefulness. Qualitative, post-course data indicated that positive aspects of course content were those that enhanced knowledge of mental health conditions; skills for managing workplace mental health concerns; and attitudes towards those suffering from mental illness. Qualitative post-course data indicated that positive aspects of course delivery were specific teaching strategies and teaching qualities.

Results support the continued development and use of a course for business students on managing workplace mental health. Additional, larger scale evaluation would be helpful.

Detailed information is provided about the course structure, content, resources and teaching methods, which could be used in other settings.

The workplace is an important site for early identification and intervention of mental health concerns, regardless of their origin or cause. This research supports the usefulness of training prospective business managers in this regard.

Coverage of mental health-related topics with business students has been scant to absent. This project developed, implemented and evaluated a new course.

Mental health problems are a grave concern in construction. Although the distinction between high job demands and low job resources, as reflected in the Job Demands-Resources (JD–R) model, has been used to examine the extent to which psychosocial hazards influence mental health for construction practitioners, limited research has reflected on the nature of these psychosocial hazards by exploring experiences of site-based construction practitioners.

This study adopted a phenomenological approach to examine people’ experiences and thoughts of the complex phenomena of psychosocial hazards and mental health in construction. In total, 33 semi-structured interviews were undertaken with site-based construction practitioners in Australia to unveil construction-focused psychosocial hazards and their effects on mental health. The data were analysed via content analysis, employing an interpretation-focused coding strategy to code text and an individual-based sorting strategy to cluster codes.

Eighteen psychosocial hazards were identified based on the JD–R model. Six of these represented a new contribution, describing salient characteristics inherent to the construction context (i.e. safety concerns, exposure to traumatic events, job insecurity, task interdependency, client demand and contract pressure). Of particular importance, a number of interrelationships among psychosocial hazards emerged.

The significance of this qualitative research lies in elucidating psychosocial hazards and their complex interrelatedness in the context of the mental health of construction practitioners, enriching the understanding of this central health and safety issue in the high-risk setting of construction work. The findings contribute to addressing mental health issues in the Australian construction industry by identifying higher order control measures, thereby creating a mentally healthy workplace.

Doctors are more likely to suffer from mental illness in comparison to the wider population. This is particularly true for junior doctors, who are at increased risk in comparison to their senior colleagues. This study aims to identify whether junior doctors in North London are comfortable discussing mental health problems with their peers and supervisors and to compare how comfortable they are discussing mental and physical health problems.

An anonymous online questionnaire was designed with demographic data, multiple-choice questions and free-text boxes. This was distributed via email to core psychiatry trainees and foundation doctors in North London. Drug- and alcohol-related disorders were excluded from our definition of mental illness in this survey, as these are reportable to the General Medical Council.

A total of 51 junior doctors responded to the survey. The respondents were significantly more likely to discuss mental health problems with their peers in comparison to their supervisors. They were also less likely to discuss mental health problems in comparison to physical health problems with their peers, supervisors or general practitioner. Qualitative analysis of the free-text comments elucidated several themes including the stigmatisation of mental health.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, there has been no prior research in the UK comparing the attitudes of junior doctors towards physical and mental ill-health. The questionnaire highlights the continued stigma towards mental health within the medical profession. The difference in attitudes towards physical and mental ill-health has important implications for the training and well-being of junior doctors.