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Despite the substantial body of international research exploring the effects of forced migration on mental health and the obstacles faced by refugee cohorts in accessing mental health services, there is a lack of in-depth studies specifically focusing on Bosnian refugees in Australia – one of the largest ethnic groups of displaced peoples. This qualitative investigation seeks to convey the experiences of mental health services by five Bosnian refugees in Melbourne, highlighting perceived pathways and barriers to service utilisation. This study aims to address two primary research questions: firstly, what characterises the experiences of Bosnian refugees in Australia when accessing mental health services? Secondly, what are the main barriers encountered by this population when seeking mental health services?

This study used qualitative inquiry and in-depth interviews to investigate the experiences of Bosnian refugees with mental health services in Australia. Data was collected through face-to-face interviews with five Melbourne-based Bosnian refugees who had previously accessed mental health services. Participants were recruited from community groups or associations using purposive sampling. Thematic analysis was used.

Key themes were revealed, such as the crucial role of social and community services, preferences for individual vs group therapy, potential re-traumatisation from therapeutic engagement, distrust of government-run mental health services and concerns regarding psychopharmaceutical prescription practices. Addressing barriers to mental health service access necessitates a multifaceted approach, including flexible social and community service support, an increased number of co-ethnic professionals and a recognition of cultural variations for effective service provision. Implementing these strategies can enhance help-seeking behaviours, provide culturally appropriate mental health services and improve the experiences of Bosnian refugees in Australia.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first to qualitatively explore how Bosnian refugees in Melbourne perceived the adequacy and availability of mental health services upon arrival to Australia. They are a large and potentially vulnerable community, due to experiences of war trauma and dislocation from country of origin. A lack of understanding regarding how this cohort engage with mental health services can lead to persistent inequities and ineffective service provision. This study identifies unique experiences and perspectives of Bosnian refugee participants, including distrust of government-run mental health services, and concerns regarding psychopharmaceutical prescription practices. This research is expected to contribute positively to the discourse on mental health service provision for Bosnian refugees and wider refugee communities in Australia.

This paper aims to focus on the involvement of mental healthcare professionals in a co-design process of a digital healthcare platform. Many people with severe mental disorders need constant support and monitoring, and with long waiting lists and scarce resources in mental healthcare, there is a dire need for innovative digital solutions to counteract those issues. This paper elaborates on a co-design process of a digital platform and mobile app designed for people with mental disorders. The platform primarily considers two perspectives: i) the patients and ii) the healthcare professionals.

This paper is based on canonical action research, where the co-design involvement with 13 healthcare professionals is analyzed and their interactions with three primary scenarios are focused.

The main contribution of this paper is three co-design principles: i) clarity and information accessibility regarding the patient's side, ii) efficiency and flexibility when it comes to the healthcare professional's side and iii) a notification function in the mobile application.

The theoretical contribution is the conceptualization of the three co-design principles that others can use when designing digital platforms in healthcare in general and psychiatric care in particular. The practical contributions are firstly outlined through the co-design process itself, where scenarios to guide the work are used, and secondly, the improvements made in the digital platform derived from the results of the co-design process.

While the research literature on Recovery Colleges is relatively well-established, comprehensive research concerning Recovery Education for young people is currently scarce. The purpose of paper is to provide an overview of determinants of, and barriers to, the successful implementation of youth-adapted Recovery Colleges, known as Discovery Colleges, and to explore the wider impact of Discovery Colleges and Recovery Colleges.

In consultation with a Recovery College Peer Educator, three undergraduate applied psychology students conducted a literature review with no date limits on publications in the Google Scholar and PubMed electronic databases.

A total of 15 publications were included. Determinants for successful implementation included the importance of previously established Recovery College foundations, service and content accessibility and evaluative feedback. Barriers were primarily related to differences in how development, identity and environment between adults and young people impact positive educational outcomes. The wider impact of Discovery Colleges highlighted an improvement in relationships between service users and health-care professionals, an improved attitude towards education; improvements in well-being, self-worth and social connection; and promotion of transformative learning and personal autonomy. Through this, Discovery Colleges also continue to challenge the contemporary medical model of mental health.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this was the first literature review conducted specifically focussing on important factors in establishing Discovery Colleges. This literature review provides an important overview for both service users and staff members in how the development and implementation of this exciting and relatively new initiative can be further explored and enhanced going forward.

Institutional abuse is a worldwide phenomenon with the UK also subject to several high-profile abuse scandals perpetuated on people with learning disabilities and/or mental health conditions living within institutional settings. This study aims to provide a broad perspective of safeguarding practices within institutional care to inform practice and service development in this area.

A narrative overview was undertaken of a range of empirical evidence, discussion papers, enquiry reports, reports from regulatory bodies and professional guidance to explore safeguarding practices within institutional care for individuals with learning disabilities and/or mental health conditions.

A range of literature was identified that exposed and explored abuse in this context. Three key themes were identified: failings within institutional care; safeguarding issues and concerns; and good practice within institutional care. Whilst guidance is available, standards are explicit and protocols facilitate improvement potential in this area, a consistent message was that statutory recommendations for reform have not been effective.

This paper provides an important resource for practitioners and service providers involved in institutional care. An accessible overview of both the empirical evidence and grey literature on adult safeguarding within institutional settings is provided, along with a range of standards and resources that specify practice in these settings.

Peer support work is increasingly becoming part of the delivery of health and social care services. However, in an Irish context, there is a paucity of research in this area. This study aims to investigate the experiences of peers and other key stakeholders across four sectors in Ireland.

Qualitative interviews (N = 35) were conducted with key respondents in mental health, substance use, migrant health and homelessness sectors. Data were analysed using thematic analysis and reported using an ecological framework.

Peer work is a slowly emerging area of practice, although mental health is further ahead in this journey. Findings suggest that peers are important additions to service delivery but also have various support and development needs. Organisations can encourage and support peers into employment through enacting human resource policy and practices, effective supervision, management and maintaining a positive working culture. Helping other professionals to understand the peer role and how it can function within the wider team is highlighted. National policy and governance structures can also support the emergence of the peer role, which exists in a highly complex arena.

Peers can play a meaningful role in supporting service users in four sectors of health and social care in Ireland. Structures and processes to help embed these roles into systems are encouraged across micro, meso and macro levels. Implications and limitations are discussed for moving forward with peer work.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study to include these four areas of practice simultaneously.

This study aims to use the dual-continuum model of mental health to explore mental health in Australian construction apprentices from the perspective of key stakeholders in the apprenticeship model. In particular, this study explored how construction apprentices, Vocational Education and Training (VET) teachers, industry employers and mental health workers understood the construct of mental health, factors associated with the dimension of psychological distress/symptoms of mental illness, and factors associated with the dimension of mental wellbeing.

This study used an exploratory qualitative research design. Data from 36 semi-structured interviews were analysed using thematic analysis. Participants comprised 19 Australian construction apprentices, 5 VET teachers, 7 industry employers and 5 mental health workers.

In total, 14 themes were generated from the data set. Participants across stakeholder groups reported a limited understanding about mental health. Participants cited a range of negative personal, workplace and industry factors associated with psychological distress/symptoms of mental illness, but only reported a few factors associated with mental wellbeing.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is one of the first to use the dual-continuum model of mental health to explore the mental health of Australian construction apprentices, and to explore the factors associated with both dimensions of this model from the perspective of key stakeholders in the Australian construction apprenticeship model.

Impoverished employee mental health is harmful to employees and organisational performance. There is emerging interest in employee mental health in the human resource management (HRM) field. The majority of these studies mainly focus on the organisational and individual levels from the psychological and managerial perspectives without considering the sectoral characteristics and societal context.

This perspective paper draws on extant literature as well as 10 informal interviews with medical professionals, organisational leaders in the public sector, teachers and HR professionals to shed light on employee mental health research, practice and challenges in the Chinese context.

This paper reveals national, sectoral, occupational and individual factors that shape mental health problems, individual coping mechanisms and organisational interventions. It also shows international influence on employee mental health in the form of institutional pressure and knowledge transfer.

There is limited research on employee mental health and HRM in the Chinese context, which restricts the scope of discussion in this paper, but at the same time presents rich future research opportunities that may be relevant to other national settings.

Managing the mental health of the workforce is part of the mental health management of the population, which means a holistic approach to building a mental health eco-system needs to be adopted. The authors call for more research on employee mental health in the Chinese context to provide evidence to support policy development and organisational efforts to scale up mental health services at the national and organisational levels. The authors also provide practical recommendations for policymakers and employing organisations.

The authors present a multi-level and multi-factor overview related to employee mental health in the Chinese context. The authors argue for a resource-based and multi-stakeholder approach, which will help inform and improve mental health policy and practice. The authors present several avenues for future scholarship and research. The authors extend the research frontiers of employee mental health issues by calling for the inclusion of a broader range of theoretical lenses including institutional theory, cultural and spiritual perspective and critical sociology to understand more fully how employee mental health conditions may be undermined or improved.

The objective of this paper is to examine the profound repercussions of workplace bullying (WB), emotional exhaustion (EE), and psychological distress (PD) on poor job performance (PJP) within the intricacies of Thailand’s healthcare sector. It also seeks to elucidate the moderating influence of COVID-19 burnout (CBO) on these variables.

This paper utilized a quantitative research approach. A total of 230 responses were collected from healthcare workers using convenience sampling during a significant surge of the coronavirus in March 2022. To assess the reliability and correlations between constructs, a dual-stage structural equation modeling (SEM) technique was applied.

During the global health crisis caused by COVID-19, WB and PD were found to positively predict PJP, except for EE. The presence of WB elevated EE and PD among Thai hospital staff. PD and EE partially mediated the relationship between WB and PJP. The positive moderating role of CBO among hospital employees significantly buffered the relationship between WB and EE.

The originality of this study lies in the examination of the poor mental health of Thai healthcare workers during the COVID-19 pandemic. Healthcare reforms are required to protect the mental health of Thai healthcare staff to prevent poor job performance following unprecedented circumstances.

This paper aims to describe the unique health challenges facing female commercial sex workers (FSWs), including issues related to their marginalisation and difficulty accessing health care. It proposes solutions to some of these problems.

This paper addresses this sensitive subject through the methodology of a literature review, drawing on a variety of relevant published literature to inform a modern understanding of the current health challenges faced by this population.

This paper discusses issues around criminalisation of commercial sex workers, complexities of family planning, sexually transmitted infection prevention, mental health and substance abuse and how increasing health-care worker awareness of the health needs of this vulnerable population can be a positive step in building trust within this relationship. Although adoption of the proposed recommendations put forth in this paper may help to eliminate some of the barriers encountered by female sex workers, further research is recommended.

The subject of commercial sex worker health care is neglected in the academic literature. This review explores the topic in an open and balanced manner and presents a broad and updated overview of the current health-care challenges faced by FSWs as well as opportunities for optimising access and quality of sex worker health care.

The objective of this study is to examine developments in the discursive practice of non-financial reporting in the public healthcare sector. In doing so, the authors investigate how the main reform foci of productivity and quality are represented, with a specific focus on the patient.

Drawing on critical discourse analysis (CDA), the authors conduct a longitudinal study (2007–2018) of healthcare reporting foci across the five administrative regions responsible for public hospitals in Denmark. The study analyses sixty annual reports and draws on contemporary reform documents over this period. CDA enables a micro-textual analysis, combined with macro-insights and discussions on social practice.

The findings show complex webs of presentation strategies, but in particular two changes occur during the period. First, the patient is centred throughout but the framing changes from productivity and waiting lists to quality and dialogue. Second, in the first years, the regions present themselves as actively highlighting financial and quality concerns, which changes to a passive and indirect form of presentation steered by indicators and patient legislation enforced by central government. This enhances passivity and distance in healthcare regional non-financial reporting where the regions seek to conform to such demands. Simultaneously, however, the authors find a tendency to highlight very different local initiatives, which shows an attempt to go beyond a pure automatic mode of reporting found in earlier studies.

Responding to the literature on both healthcare and financial reporting, this study identifies novel links between micro-level texts and macro-level social practices, enabling insights into the potentially intertwined impacts of public-sector reporting. The authors offer insights into the complexity of the construction of non-financial reporting in the public sector, which has a wider impact and different intentions than private-sector reporting.