Editorial

Citation

Pozner, A. (2012), "Editorial", Mental Health and Social Inclusion, Vol. 16 No. 4. https://doi.org/10.1108/mhsi.2012.55716daa.001

Editorial

Article Type: Editorial From: Mental Health and Social Inclusion, Volume 16, Issue 4

Welcome to the November issue of Mental Health and Social Inclusion. Sophie Corlett kicks off this issue with her Policy Watch, outlining recent developments linked to realisation of the mental health strategy, No Health Without Mental Health. These include the mental health implementation framework, draft mandate to the NHS Commissioning Board, and proposals on shared decision-making and integration of social and health care.

In her excellent Research Watch, Sue Holttum reviews two papers examining recent research into recovery. The first summarises the way 87 studies described recovery when asking people about their recovery experiences, and is the first to pull together studies of recovery as a personal journey rather than cure of symptoms. The second describes two major research projects which focus on supporting mental health services to implement a recovery approach.

The Remarkable Lives series continues with an inspiring profile of Julie Leibrich, a psychologist, poet and someone with “lived experience” of mental health problems. Julie tells us about the historical problems of implementing community care, here and in New Zealand, and provides a unique perspective on recovery, though she prefers the term discovery.

An old age psychiatrist by trade, Peter J. Gordon raises concerns that, despite recent campaigns, stigma has not been fully addressed by the psychiatric profession and that evidence suggests it may have unwittingly contributed to iatrogenic stigma.

The development of powerful, evidence based, employment support services that are effective in helping individuals with severe and enduring mental health problems find and keep jobs is one of the most positive developments in the mental health world in the last two decades. The next three articles examine employment issues from a number of different perspectives.

Graham Durcan describes an investigation by the Centre for Mental Health into employment opportunities for offenders with mental health problems on release from prison. It reveals that, although offenders with mental health problems are less likely than other prisoners to be included in employment programmes, evidence-based approaches such as individual placement and support (IPS) offer huge potential.

Continuing the focus on IPS, Becky Priest and Kate Bones argue that occupational therapists are well placed to play a central role in supporting people with severe and enduring mental health problems to get and keep mainstream employment. They explore the unique contribution of occupational therapy to the IPS approach through a case study of implementation within Sussex Partnership NHS Foundation Trust.

Alex Williams provides a personal account of finding employment by someone with long experience of mental distress and use of secondary services. She reflects on her hard fought journey towards paid work and identifies what were the key factors in making her transition to employment successful.

Rhian Beynon and Simon Wafula profile the perinatal support project (PSP), an innovative voluntary sector solution to the twin problems of perinatal mental health and social exclusion. The article explores the success of the PSP model in alleviating maternal depression, improving mother-baby attachment and reducing social isolation, as well as the benefits of effective multi-agency partnerships more generally.

And finally, Susan Gray, who has a been a user of mental health services in the UK for four decades, reflects on how people with mental health problems who are ostensibly in the community can still feel excluded. It is a sobering reminder of what progress has been made, but also what challenges still remain.

Adam PoznerSenior Researcher at TriNova Research.