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Despite the long-established importance of infant mental health, internationally this has not been mirrored in the provision of infant mental health services. Within Scotland in the UK, there has been significant recent government investment in developing infant mental health services. However, existing research identifies a massive knowledge and skills gap that could create barriers to implementation. This study aims to use qualitative methods to consider the views of relevant professional stakeholders on education and training within infant mental health.

The authors completed semi-structured interviews with 14 professional stakeholders working in a health board in Scotland. This study used purposive sampling to include a broad range of professionals across health and social care services and analysed the resulting data using Braun and Clarke’s (2006) methodology. This study adopted a reflexive stance throughout, including the research team interviewing each other as part of the process.

Within the theme of education and training, we identified four sub-themes. These included roles for public health and societal education, training for parents, training for professionals and increasing professionals’ experience of infant mental health.

The issues identified are relevant in any area of the UK or internationally in considering the role of education and training in developing and maintaining new infant mental health services. Further research with families and with wider groups of professional stakeholders would be of further benefit.

The purpose of this paper is to explore police officer perceptions of their contacts with the mentally ill and examine outcomes of an innovative police training program designed to improve police handling of cases involving the mentally ill.

The study utilizes a sample of 126 police officer respondents from five departments in northern Indiana to understand their perceptions of important aspects of their contacts with the mentally ill.

Results show the actual dispositions for the mentally ill frequently do not match the outcomes officers desire, police training on responding to the mentally ill is not sufficient, and the training component of an innovative reform holds promise for improving officers' ability to respond to situations that involve the mentally ill.

The study is limited to one community and results may not generalize to communities with distinct mental health resources. Perceptions of police contacts with the mentally ill were not obtained from mental health service providers, advocates, and persons with a mental illness.

Contacts between the police and the mentally ill pose complex challenges for officers. Advocates contend that too many persons with a mental illness end up in jail as a result of police contacts and, thus, promote jail diversion programs. For jail diversion to succeed it is critical to understand officer perceptions of the outcomes they desire for the mentally ill and the obstacles that inhibit appropriate dispositions. Evidence about the outcomes of specialized police training can improve officers' knowledge and perceived ability to respond to the mentally ill.

Although numerous national and organisational level approaches have taken to improve their mental health, Japanese workers still suffer from high rates of mental health problems. Despite its worldwide application, neuro-linguistic programming (NLP) has not been evaluated for these problems in-depth. The purpose of this paper is to examine the effects of NLP training for mental health among Japanese workers.

A pre-post test design with repeated measurements was used with 30 Japanese workers, who were undertaking NLP Practitioner Certification training. The effects on mental health were assessed with the Depression, Anxiety and Stress Scale-21 and the Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Well-being Scale at pre-training, post-training and a three-month follow-up.

The mean scores of depression and stress decreased significantly, and mental well-being increased significantly between pre-training and post-training and between pre-training and follow-up. There was no significant difference between post-training and the follow-up for any of the measures.

The results suggest this training was effective for mental health of Japanese workers, and the positive effects on mental well-being were sustained.

This is the first ever study to empirically evaluate the effects of the regulated NLP training on the mental health of Japanese workers, conducted by researchers well-versed in NLP. This training might be conducive to improving the mental health of the Japanese workforce. Larger scale and/or controlled studies are needed.

It has been identified that mental health literacy among the public is poor, with stigmatising attitudes persisting. The public frequently encounter people experiencing mental distress in the workplace, in their families and communities, and may be ill‐equipped to provide appropriate support. Mental Health First Aid is a 12‐hour mental health awareness programme that seeks to address this. The course aims to train the wider public, and staff in both statutory and nonstatutory sectors, in the knowledge and skills needed to engage with someone experiencing mental health problems. ‘Mental Health First Aid’, first developed in Australia, has now become an international training programme, and is currently being rolled out across the UK. This paper summarises the development and existing research of the programme, and its present position in the four UK regions.

The widespread provision of evidence‐based psychosocial interventions (PSI) for people who experience psychosis and their families requires that the mental health workforce has access to educational and training programmes in these treatment approaches. Such training has been available in England since 1992 when the first PSI programmes were established at The Institute of Psychiatry, London and The University of Manchester. While training is now more widely available (Brooker, 2002), little is known about the extent and distribution of training across England, or of the detail of individual programmes. To remedy this, the NIMHE National PSI Implementation Workgroup conducted a survey of university accredited PSI education/training in January 2006.Twenty‐six courses were represented in the returns from the eight regions served by CSIP regional development centres. This paper presents the findings of this survey and discusses the current provision of PSI training in England in 2006.

Specialist CAMHS provide skilled assessment and interventions for children, young people and their families who have mental health disorders. The training needs of the staff who work in specialist CAMHS are not always clear or prioritised, due to the complexities and differing contexts in which specialist CAMHS are provided. The aim of this paper was to establish stakeholders' experiences of service complexities and challenges that affect training within specialist CAMHS. The project employed interviews to gain wide‐ranging consultation with key stakeholder groups. The sample consisted of 45 participants recruited from policy departments, professional bodies, higher education providers, commissioners, service managers, and practitioners. The participants identified a number of themes that limit training, and put forward solutions on how these could be facilitated in the future. Emerging themes related to leadership and the role of service managers, strategic management of training, commissioning, levels of staff training, resources, impact of training on service users, and availability of training programmes. The findings emphasise the need for the strategic workforce planning of training to meet service delivery goals. Policy, commissioning, workforce training strategies, service needs, and delivery of training should be integrated and closely linked.

This paper focuses on a shared learning module on collaborative practice for graduate primary care mental health workers as a case study in formative evaluation that combines qualitative and quantitative methods. Evaluation data are collected across four levels in an attempt to explore issues relating to:• curriculum content• training methods and design• PCMHWs' experiences of the training• outcomes in respect of attitude change and self‐reported changes in knowledge, skills and practice.The paper draws on a review of inter‐professional education undertaken by the British Education Research Association (BERA) to explore what interactive methods of learning are employed in the delivery of the module as a means of fostering improved collaborative practice that can be transferred from the learning environment to the primary care mental health setting. According to Barr et al (2005, p31) inter‐professional education takes place on ‘occasions when two or more professions learn with, from and about each other to improve collaboration and the quality of care’.The paper concludes that although limited in its generalisability and the extent to which changes in attitudes and practice can be attributed to the training intervention, there are some useful lessons to be learned for planning and delivering training to promote collaborative working within primary care mental health.

Workplace stress is a particular issue in the fire service. Research suggests this is related to excessive demands, relationships with senior managers, changing roles and exposure to traumatic events. The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the impact on managers of three mental health promotion interventions. First, a locally developed course entitled “Looking after Wellbeing at Work” (LWW), second, an internationally developed training course: Mental Health First Aid (MHFA). Third, an hour-long leaflet session (LS).

This study used a random allocation design. In total, 176 fire service line managers were randomly allocated to one of the three training conditions: LWW, MHFA, or a control condition (LS). Participants completed The Attitudes to Mental Illness Scale (Luty et al., 2006) and a locally developed “Mental Health Stigma Questionnaire” pre- and post-intervention. Results were analysed using a MANOVA. Participants were also asked to complete a general evaluation, rating all aspects of the courses from poor to excellent. In total, 30 participants were also chosen at random to conduct telephone interviews about their experience of the course. Results were analysed using thematic analysis.

The LWW and MHFA courses were associated with statistically significant improvements in attitudes to mental illness and knowledge/self-efficacy around mental health, comparing pre- and post-scores, and comparing post-scores of the two training courses with a LS. The general evaluations of the LWW and MHFA courses indicated the mean rating for all aspects of both training conditions was good to excellent. Two themes were identified across the qualitative interviews: participants described they were more able to recognise and respond to mental health problems; and participants described changing attitudes towards mental health.

The strengths of this study are the number of participants, random allocation, and multiple facets of evaluation. The quantitative evaluation is limited, as one of the questionnaires has untested psychometric properties. The control condition was limited as it was only offered for one hour, making comparison with two-day training problematic. The qualitative evaluation was useful in gaining descriptive data, however, it may have been possible to conduct a more in-depth analysis with a smaller number of participants.

The results from this study indicate that providing training in mental health awareness and promotion was considered helpful, by managers in the Fire Service and had positive outcomes for attitudes and understanding about mental health. While there are limitations, initial results of training in mental health promotion are promising. Such training has the potential to promote the public's mental health and wellbeing, and improve the quality of life for people with mental health problems.

New Zealand is a country of many cultures and ethnicities. With a growing Asian community, cultural capability of the mental health workforce is essential to ensure that Asians have equity in access to appropriate and high quality services. Literature indicates a growing need to develop resources and enhance knowledge on cultural competence to assist health service providers to address the needs of people from diverse backgrounds. Yet, at what stage of training and/or practice are health professionals gaining access to this knowledge?Consultation with local health services and tertiary education institutions revealed a gap in the knowledge of Asian mental health being taught in the curriculum of students undertaking training to become health professionals. Further research indicated a need and desire from tertiary institutions to have access to Asian mental health material for both enhancing students' learning, and promoting the concept of continuing education following graduation. As a result, an interactive, self‐administrative CD‐rom comprising three modules: self‐reflection; Asian philosophies; and clinical issues was compiled.Early feedback indicates that the CD‐rom has tremendous potential in terms of applicability to enhancing current curriculum and for teaching students skills such as accessing articles and web based resources, valuable for the purposes of continuing education. Continuing education with regards to cultural competence is not just for qualified health professionals but needs to be integrated as part of students training as health practitioners, in order to ensure health care providers are able to provide effective and culturally responsive services.

The Bradley Report (Bradley, 2009) has raised a number of important questions regarding the treatment of individuals who are experiencing mental health problems and find themselves in the criminal justice system. One of the key recommendations is that professional staff working across criminal justice organisations should receive increased training in this area. This paper explores the experiences of two professionals, a mental health nurse and a social worker, involved in providing training for police officers. It goes on to consider the most effective models of training for police officers.