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Clinical leadership, researcher capacity and a culture of clinical inquiry are needed in the clinical workforce. The purpose of this paper is to report on a program which was used to develop and support clinicians to explore practice, implement innovation, translate evidence and build researcher capacity.

This pragmatic paper presents a case study of a nursing and midwifery clinician-researcher development program. The multi-site, multi-modal program focused on education, mentoring and support, communication networks, and clinician-university partnerships strategies to build workforce capacity and leadership.

Over 2,000 staff have been involved in the program representing a range of health disciplines. The study day program has been delivered to 500 participants with master classes having over 1,500 attendees. The research mentor program has demonstrated that participants increased their confidence for research leadership roles and are pursuing research and quality assurance projects. Communication strategies improved the visibility of nursing and midwifery.

This case study was conducted in one health district, which may not have relevance to other geographical areas. The small numbers involved in the research mentor program need to be considered when reviewing the findings.

The program has been a catalyst for developing a research culture, clinical leadership and research networks that strengthen workforce capacity. Building researcher skills in the workforce will better support quality healthcare and the examination of everyday practice.

Building a culture of healthcare that is based on inquiry and evidence-based practice will lead to more appropriate and consistent healthcare delivery. Consumers have the right to expect health clinicians will challenge everyday practice and have the skills and capability to translate or generate best evidence to underpin professional and service delivery.

This paper provides strategies for building workforce researcher capacity and capability. The program provides opportunity for building research networks and role modeling the value and importance of research to practice and quality improvement.

Challenges facing researcher development are explored in relation to three UK case study initiatives of building research capacity in Education. Drawing evidence from evaluations of these initiatives, we argue that expansive research workplaces build research capacity particularly effectively. The nature of expansiveness is dependent upon the range of learning opportunities, engagement with research communities and interpersonal support. The importance of inter‐institutional collaboration to promote capacity across the academic discipline is also highlighted. We conclude that the development of, engagement with, and investment in inter‐institutional, interproject communities is imperative to the effective building of research capacity.

Shortcomings in the health and social care workforce threaten the achievement of the NHS Plan. Government's recognition of the need to build workforce capacity has led to new strategies for recruiting and retaining staff and for providing the education and training required by both professional and non‐professional staff groups. The new focus on workforce issues has also opened up new opportunities to tackle inequalities regarding race, disability, gender and age. But employers face great challenges, requiring new ways of thinking and working in order to achieve change in the short and longer term.

Dissemination of good practice information to practitioners is one of the great challenges of the substance abuse treatment sector. The authors' understanding of the process by which research is translated is limited, but a whole of workforce approach is considered best practice. This paper aims to examine organisational change as a result of a workforce capacity‐building program over six months.

A total of 195 staff (nine service managers, 39 supervisors and 147 clinicians) in 13 alcohol and other drug (AOD) services across Australia participated in mental health screening and brief intervention training using PsyCheck. PsyCheck is designed to detect and address common mental health symptoms among drug treatment clients. The Dual Diagnosis Capability in Addiction Treatment (DDCAT) index was used to measure capacity before and after training.

There was no significant difference between baseline and follow‐up DDCAT scores; however, the level of PsyCheck implementation indicated improvement in DDCAT scores.

The results show that where organisations implement the program successfully, capacity improves; where the program is not well implemented, capacity reduces. Successful implementers report a number of common elements: the screening tool was implemented into routine assessment; there was a single onsite “champion” supporting the implementation; and they worked with the staff and persisted with the implementation even where there was initial worker resistance.

This paper provides the opportunity to assess workforce capacity building and the feasibility of utilising the DCCAT to measure co‐occurring mental health and substance use disorders in Australian AOD services.

Playfield Institute is a unique partnership between child and adolescent mental health services (CAMHS) and public health. The institute model is an innovative response to the national challenge to mainstream mental health. Its focus is to build the capacity of frontline workers (otherwise known as the children's workforce eg. school nurses, social workers, teachers, foster carers etc.) to promote the mental health of children and young people. It works by providing a multi‐agency forum for sharing information and developing practical skills on how to help children flourish. It also encourages reflection on practice and undertakes research that has a direct impact on the development of training and practice. To date, the Institute has achieved the following main outcomes: the facilitation of a successful training programme, the development of a well used, effective, online resource and the co‐ordination of a range of applied research projects. This paper discusses why the Institute was set up, what it is, what it has achieved and how the model is sustainable.

Between 2008 and 2011 academic teaching staff from Leeds Beckett University (UK) and Chainama Hills College of Health Sciences (Zambia) worked together on a Development Partnership in Higher Education (DelPHe) project funded by the Department for International Development (DFID) via the British Council. The partnership focused on “up-scaling” the provision of mental health education which was intended to build capacity through the delivery of a range of workshops for health educators at Chainama College, Lusaka. The project was evaluated on completion using small focus group discussions (FGDs), so educators could feedback on their experience of the workshops and discuss the impact of learning into their teaching practice. This chapter discusses the challenges of scaling up the mental health workforce in Zambia; the rationale for the content and delivery style of workshops with the health educators and finally presents and critically discusses the evaluation findings.

The value of transverse skills, including human capabilities, has been acknowledged for a significant period of time by major organisations such as UNESCO and the World Economic Forum. This paper reports on the application of microcredentials linked to the Human Capability Framework in a major telecommunications organisation that has a vision to establish a baseline to develop the levels of capability for both individual employees and the entire workforce. In this case study, capability is evidenced through learning and applied performance specified in a microcredential that carries a credit-entry score into higher education qualifications. The value of the microcredentials lies not in recognising learning outcomes; rather, it lies in an individual's ability to validate their full potential, open sustainable employment opportunities and prepare for emergent new roles.

This commentary offers a case study of how a major Australian telecommunications organisation implemented microcredentials that are aligned to the Human Capability Framework Standards reference model.

The approach in this case study demonstrates how a company that confidently invests in non-traditional learning approaches that increase the value of human capital can tangibly grow the capacity of the workforce to deliver not only its strategy but also its cultural values.

The multi-award-winning model described in this case study is novel and clearly informs current research and thinking addressing this topic.

In fast urbanizing economies such as Sri Lanka, the construction industry tends to fragment into almost separate spheres of production with little or no reciprocal connection in training, know‐how and career development paths, and consequent limitations in internal knowledge dissemination and technology transfer. This type of industrial compartmentalization is detrimental to the social acquisition of skills, and restricts the operational frameworks of given technologies, especially in low‐cost sectors. Against this backdrop, this paper sets out to speculate on how design can act as an engine of social and economic growth for those involved in its production.

Based on government statistics and building output analysis, the paper argues that architects can build labour policy‐making into the design of their buildings, provided that such an agenda is developed strategically, by examining the industrial base of the region, and by defining a design and technological vocabulary that feeds off the analysis of place‐specific conditions, limitations, and ambitions.

The integration of technological development and broad socio‐economic growth can be facilitated by “open” (or “incremental”) industrial design strategies aimed at connecting construction markets rather than keeping them separate. To this end, it is posited that technological contamination and compromise can help the labour force to increase its own skills progressively.

In practical terms, this objective translates in the definition of building implementation techniques that can adapt to the level of complexity required and the level of expenditure possible without penalizing the expected performance of the building – i.e. they must be inherently “robust” as opposed to precise and therefore more “sensitive”.

The paper is the first result of a thesis‐in‐progress that, on the basis of a technical review carried out on a small sample of ideal‐type projects in Sri Lanka, is considering ways to create and link labour development opportunities through architectural design.

Integrated care is widely supported as a means of improving treatment outcomes for people with co-occurring mental health and substance use disorders. Over the past two decades, Australian state and federal governments have identified integrated care as a policy priority and invested in a number of research and capacity building initiatives. This study aims to examine Australian research evaluating the effectiveness of integrated treatment approaches to provide insight into implications for future research and practice in integrated treatment.

This narrative review examines Australian research evaluating empirical evidence of the effectiveness of integrated treatment approaches within specific populations and evidence from initiatives aimed at integrating care at the service or system level.

Research conducted within the Australian context provides considerable evidence to support the effectiveness of integrated approaches to treatment, particularly for people with high prevalence co-occurring disorders or symptoms of these (i.e. anxiety and depression). These have been delivered through various modalities (including online and telephone-based services) to improve health outcomes in a range of populations. However, there is less evidence regarding the effectiveness of specific models or systems of integrated care, including for more severe mental disorders. Despite ongoing efforts on behalf of the Australian government, attempts to sustain system-level initiatives have remained hampered by structural barriers.

Effective integrated interventions can be delivered by trained clinicians without requiring integration at an organisational or structural level. While there is still considerable work to be done in terms of building sustainable models at a system level, this evidence provides a potential foundation for the development of integrated care models that can be delivered as part of routine practice.

Approximately 20 per cent of Australian children live with a parent who experiences mental illness. These children have poorer health and psychosocial outcomes than their peers. While family-focused practice (FFP) can improve these outcomes, family-focused service provision is inconsistent. The purpose of this paper is to understand clinicians’ experiences of FFP and associated workplace factors.

In-depth interviews were conducted with ten community mental health clinicians. Interviews were audio recorded and transcribed. Data were analysed using thematic analysis.

A global theme of “navigating rocky terrain” captured clinicians’ experiences of working with families. The rocky terrain encompassed both family complexity and workplace barriers to FFP. Clinicians navigated this terrain by using multiple strategies to support families, working in partnership with families and other clinicians and services, and drawing on personal resources. Interactive approaches to enhancing knowledge and skills were preferred over paper-based information. While an organisation-wide approach to support FFP was beneficial, clinicians continued to feel challenged in implementing FFP.

Working with families in which parents experience mental illness is affected by systemic issues at the family and organisational levels. Systemic approaches to both delivering and supporting this work are required. Partnership working and organisation-wide capacity building strategies emphasising interactive approaches to learning appear to have positive effects.

This study explores the challenges of FFP in a real-world multidisciplinary context where there has been a systemic approach to enabling this work. It highlights the challenges clinicians face in family-focused practice in spite of substantial organisational supports and suggests some approaches that might be effective. This is a topic which has received minimal attention in the literature.