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Drawing on the job demands-resources (JD-R) model, this study aims to examine which job demands individuals with diagnosed mental illness perceive to be most challenging as they navigate the workplace, why this is the case and which resources individuals tend to mobilize to meet these demands.

The authors draw on 257 qualitative surveys filled out by individuals with mental illness in various parts of the world.

The findings show that job demands that are common in today's workplace such as a high workload and a stressful environment are considered challenging by individuals with mental illness. Further, the authors show that this is the result of the ideal worker norm consisting of the need to be a steady performer that is confident, resilient and social with which the performer cannot comply on the one hand and the particularities of this population, such as performers' self-perceived low self-esteem, sensitivity to stress, fluctuating symptoms and difficulties with the social aspects of organizational life on the other hand.

The study points to the unique challenges of individuals with mental illness in the workplace and highlights the role human resource management (HRM) can play in providing support to allow this population to meet the demands of one's job more easily and thrive at work.

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.

The paper examines the historical shifts in policing strategies towards individuals with SMI and vulnerable populations, highlighting the development of co-response models, introducing the concept of “untethered” co-response.

This paper conducts a review of literature to trace the evolution of police responses to individuals with serious mental illness (SMI) and vulnerable populations. It categorizes four generations of police approaches—zero-policing, over-policing, crisis intervention and co-response—and introduces a fifth generation, the “untethered” co-response model exemplified by Project SCOPE in Philadelphia.

The review identifies historical patterns of police response to SMI individuals, emphasizing the challenges and consequences associated with over-policing. It outlines the evolution from crisis intervention teams to co-response models and introduces Project SCOPE as an innovative “untethered” co-response approach.

The research acknowledges the challenges in evaluating the effectiveness of crisis intervention teams and co-response models due to variations in implementation and limited standardized models. It emphasizes the need for more rigorous research, including randomized controlled trials, to substantiate claims about the effectiveness of these models.

The paper suggests that the “untethered” co-response model, exemplified by Project SCOPE, has the potential to positively impact criminal justice and social service outcomes for vulnerable populations. It encourages ongoing policy and evaluative research to inform evidence-based practice and mitigate collateral harms associated with policing responses.

Given the rising interactions between police and individuals with mental health issues, exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic, the paper highlights the urgency for innovative, non-policing-driven responses to vulnerable persons.

The paper contributes to the literature by proposing a fifth generation of police response to vulnerable persons, the “untethered” co-response model and presenting Project SCOPE as a practical example.

The goal of this study was to understand which employee-focused workplace practices and priorities – more formally known as human resource (HR) practices and priorities – employees with mental health and/or addiction challenges (MHAC) valued and how they perceived the day-to-day implementation of those practices and priorities in the workplace integration social enterprises (WISEs) that employed them.

Twenty-two WISE workers who self-identified as having serious MHAC participated in semi-structured interviews. Interviews were transcribed and coded to identify ways that employees did or did not feel supported in their WISEs.

Participants identified three HR practices and two HR priorities as important to establishing an inclusive workplace that accommodated their MHAC. The extent to which individual participants felt included and accommodated, however, was shaped by interactions with their supervisors and coworkers.

By evaluating the salience of WISEs’ employee-focused workplace practices and priorities through the lens of the employees themselves, our study articulates the critical role that interactions with coworkers and supervisors have in determining whether HR practices and priorities have the intended effect on worker experience.

People with pre-existing mental health conditions are more likely to be affected by global crises. The Covid-19 pandemic has presented them with unique challenges, including reduced contact with the psychiatric rehabilitation and support systems. Thus, understanding the emotional experience of this population may assist mental health organizations in future global crises.

In this paper, researchers analyzed the discourse of the mentally ill during the Covid-19 pandemic, as reflected in Israeli Facebook groups: three private groups and one public group. Researchers explored the language, reactions, emotions and sentiments used in these groups during the year before the pandemic, outbreak periods and remission periods, as well as the period before the vaccine’s introduction and after its appearance.

Analyzing groups’ discourse using the collective emotion theory suggests that the group that expressed the most significant difficulty was the Depression group, while individuals who suffer from social phobia/anxiety and PTSD were less affected during the lockdowns and restrictions forced by the outbreak.

Findings may serve as a tool for service providers during crises to monitor patients’ conditions, and assist individuals who need support and help.

Eating disorders (EDs) remain a major health concern, and their incidence has further increased since the COVID-19 pandemic. Given the equally increasing demands on treatments and service provision and the high levels of relapse post-treatment, it is important that research explore novel and innovative interventions that can further support recovery for individuals with EDs. There is growing evidence that arts interventions are beneficial for recovery from EDs. This study aims to evaluate the feasibility of conducting a stand-up comedy course to support ED recovery.

The study used a qualitative interview study design to evaluate the recovery benefits of participating in stand-up comedy workshops for a pilot group of people in recovery from EDs (n = 10).

The comedy intervention was well-attended and had high acceptability and feasibility. For most individuals, participating in the course had a positive impact, including promoting personal recovery (PR) outcomes across all five elements of the CHIME framework. Unique assets of the course included providing participants with an opportunity to distance themselves from everyday worries of living with an ED; the opportunity to cognitively reframe situations by making them the object of humour; and providing a safe space to (re-)build a positive sense of self.

This is the first study, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, that evaluates stand-up comedy workshops for ED recovery and further demonstrates the potential of arts interventions and the relevance of PR frameworks in this field.

Parents ‘matter’ to schools for their child’s education and parents ‘matter’ in relation to their child’s wellbeing. Indeed, in his synthesis of over 800 studies, Hattie (2008) equated the benefits of parental engagement with schools as being equivalent to adding two or three further years to their education. The aim of this chapter, therefore, is to look at parents in relation to wellbeing through positive education and, as part of this, the concept of positive psychology parenting too. Drawing on scientific research, the benefits of positive psychology to parents and families, alongside some of the ‘why’ and ‘how’ parents can better engage with schools, will be presented. A Positive Psychology in Practice case study of Bounce Back, a freely available, online introduction to positive psychology designed to give parents and carers an introduction to several different concepts, approaches, and hands-on techniques, based on the principles of positive psychology, will also be provided. This case study will also present Bounce Back as an intervention, giving parents and carers practical advice on how best to use this online resource, as well as information on how to implement some of the wider ideas from positive education at home to help them better understand, and intervene in, their own and their family’s wellbeing.

The early care and education (ECE) workforce plays a pivotal role in shaping early childhood developmental trajectories and simultaneously experiences significant mental health disparities. The purpose of this study is to investigate how social determinants of health and external stressors are associated with the mental health of ECE staff, which represent a low-resourced segment of the workforce; how psychological capital (psycap) can mitigate these associations.

The authors administered an 89-item survey to 332 ECE staff employed in 42 Head Start centers in the USA. The authors ran three hierarchical linear regression models to analyze associations between social determinants of health, external sources of stress, psycap and potential moderation effects and mental health outcomes.

Individuals experiencing greater finance-related stress reported 0.15 higher scores on the depression scale and 0.20 higher scores on the anxiety scale than those experiencing less finance-related stress (p < 0.05). Individuals experiencing greater work-related stress reported 1.26 more days of poorer mental health in the past month than those experiencing less work-related stress (p < 0.01). After controlling for all sociodemographic variables and sources of stress, psycap was significantly and negatively associated with depressive symptomology (b-weight = −0.02, p < 0.01) and the number of poor mental health days reported in the past month (b-weight = −0.13, p < 0.05). Moderation models suggest that higher levels of psycap may mitigate the association between work-related stress and the number of poor mental health days reported in the past month (b-weight = −0.06, p = 0.02).

The implications of these findings suggest a need for policy change to mitigate social determinants of health and promote pay equity and multi-level interventio ns that target workplace-related stressors and psycap to combat poor mental health of the ECE workforce.

This paper aims to explore the roles of psychologists in seclusion in adult mental health services in Ireland, their perspectives on seclusion and its use in recovery-oriented practice and related professional practice issues.

A qualitative hermeneutic phenomenological study was conducted from a social constructivist perspective. Semi-structured interviews with 17 psychologists were analysed using reflexive thematic analysis.

Twenty-four themes were identified, which were clustered into four overarching themes. Participants viewed themselves and psychology in Ireland more broadly as peripheral to seclusion. They believed that seclusion possessed no inherent therapeutic value but viewed it as an uncomfortable and multi-faceted reality. Participants regarded seclusion and recovery as largely inconsistent and difficult to reconcile, and they perceived systemic factors, which had a pervasive negative impact on seclusion and recovery in practice.

The findings highlight the perceived complexity of seclusion and its interface with recovery, and the need to conscientiously balance conflicting priorities that cannot be easily reconciled to ensure ethical practice. The findings suggest psychologists are well-suited to participate in local and national discussions on using seclusion in recovery-oriented practice.

This study offers a unique insight into psychologists’ perceptions of seclusion and considers the implications of these views. Participants’ nuanced views suggest that psychologists can make valuable contributions to local and national discussions on these topics.