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How can clinical psychologists promote social inclusion in their practice? Mark Hayward, Emily Brown, Rufus May and Emma Harding offer a variety of perspectives from professional and service user viewpoints.

For over 100 years biomedical psychiatry has dominated the way people throughout the western world understand their sadness and distress, despite the lack of empirical evidence that distress has a biological basis. Now, the interests of the global pharmaceutical industry and trans‐national professional elites such as the World Health Organisation and the World Psychiatric Association are extending these biomedical accounts across the globe. This paper briefly describes biomedical psychiatry and its origins before considering how this project is closely aligned to the interests of the pharmaceutical industry. It ends with a call for a new agenda in mental health, driven by the concerns and interests of ordinary people in local communities, and an outline of recent developments in Britain and elsewhere that illustrate this challenge to the biomedical hegemony.

The emerging role of the consumer movement in shaping the reform of mental health services in New Zealand since the mid‐1980s, and in particular in the last five to 10 years, has been considerable. This article suggests that challenges now face a consumer movement born out of institutional oppression, as the successful evolution of community‐based service delivery increasingly becomes a reality ‐ changing not just the location, but also the culture, understandings, expectations and exclusivity of mental health services. The experience of being a ‘consumer’ of mental health services now takes place not so much at the extremities of social life following acute rejection, but within communities that are increasingly diverse, complex, reflective ‐ and often unsure and contradictory. A challenge, then, is for a consumer leadership to remain inclusive of diversity and dynamism of community life.

The purpose of this paper is to provide a profile of Maddi Faith.

In this single case study, Maddi gives a short background and the origins of her mental health issues and is then interviewed by Jerome.

Maddi tells the authors how her problems developed in her childhood and of the journey she has been on since.

Single case studies provide a single perspective. Yet are they of any less value than a commentary by an academic? On the contrary, many offer unique insights into how the authors provide services for people with mental health problems, and of better ways to help them.

Maddi raises the issue of “falling between services”, with the result that the individual concerned does not receive the help they need.

The persistent stigma of mental health problems is an issue that will need to be addressed for decades if it is to be overcome. Personal witness is vital in tackling this issue. Maddi has already done a lot to address this through her work at University.

The Trust the second author worked for, for many years used to have a staff “Made a Difference” award. Maddi surely deserves such an award for her own efforts to develop our understanding of the realities of mental health problems.

The authors offer up an example of recovery in a high-secure setting. The purpose of this paper is to highlight how an individual account of recovery and the academic literature offer up related and important perspectives that have serious clinical utility.

First the context is outlined. The biographical account is then deployed to describe the experience of being detained in an English high-secure facility using recovery as a framework for elucidation. This is often referred to in recovery as accessing the views of the “expert by experience”. In a thematic way this author details his understanding of recovery, what worked and what did not. This account is then contrasted with the academic literature and research at the same site. Social anthropology acts as the theoretical backdrop. This debate informs some clinical implications and issues for practice.

Recovery can be a highly relevant concept in a high-secure context. The author found that the biographical account of the “patient” can offer the observer some insights for practice. The authors noted that the collective themes of previous research where consistent to this account. The authors found the use of recovery principles helped the person receiving care fulfil his potential. Nevertheless, forensic recovery implies a forensic past. This complicates recovery and placed limits on the own use of the principles.

The authors argue that recovery is highly relevant to the context and particularly important to people who are often stigmatized for multiple reasons including their, “illness”, their “crime”, and their social situation. The paper implies that forensic recovery is more problematic than mainstream recovery. Key events mark out issues.

This is the first co-produced paper surrounding recovery in high-secure care.

Discriminatory attitudes to (ex) service users may threaten modernisation as they limit and shrink the workforce and prevent committed workers from succeeding. The report of the 1st National Conference of Survivor Workers gives senior managers the knowledge needed to increase the size and capability of the workforce.

This article aims to focus on the role of lived‐experience in mental health education and practice as perceived by undergraduate students.

A small qualitative survey was conducted among Social Work and Mental Health Nursing students who were asked about their own experiences of mental ill health and its possible impact on their practice.

The article is contextualised in the concept of “Wounded Healers” as a number of students had previously (and were currently) experiencing mental distress.

There is a strong sense that students believe that their personal experiences inform their practice, and that this may assist them in empathising constructively with service users, within the boundaries of a professional relationship.

The purpose of this paper is to offer a profile of Caitlin Jenkins.

Caitlin gives a short biographical account and is then interviewed by Jerome. Areas covered in the interview include her interest in psychiatric diagnosis, the helpfulness of counselling and personal narrative.

Caitlin believes that her recovery was only really possible when she was allowed to tell her own story, to be allowed the time and space to talk about events in her life. She mentions how psychodynamic therapy and CBT prevented her from truly exploring her personal story.

While this is of course one person's account, it will find resonance with many others.

Reinforces the central role of narrative and its role in personal recovery.

It stresses the importance of a truly therapeutic relationship. As Caitlin states, this enabled her to begin, “joining the dots of my experience to construct a meaningful personal narrative”.

Counselling is often undervalued in contrast to more established therapies. This account demonstrates that what really matters to individuals recovering from mental health problems, is being listened to and being helped to make sense of their experiences.

Recovery has been debated in mental health for some time. Attempts to clarify and make recovery operational have served to add confusion and uncertainty. This has failed to unite service users and service providers due to differing approaches, despite the rhetoric. The purpose of this paper is to offer an overview and to position the context from a humanistic and salutogenic perspective appreciating new approaches and influences for people in their journey of recovery having been given a diagnosis of schizophrenia.

All literature available could not be included and therefore the author did not select papers purely demonstrating outcome statistics. The preference was to address papers looking at the connections people have and the important factors they feel contribute towards recovery.

An agreed definition of recovery cannot be established, but differing perspectives need to be appreciated and considered if recovery is to be successfully achieved. Some mental health practitioners may feel they have an understanding of recovery, yet evidence continues to point to the uncertainty in practice and delivery of services. Newer incentives and recovery networks are establishing themselves to meet areas missed by traditional approaches.

The value of this literature review is to highlight some of the areas already observed and to provoke the potential for fresh thinking in relation to a salutogenic approach taking into account the perceptions of the stakeholder groups. This would enable people to re-evaluate their thoughts and practice and contextualise where we are in relation to recovery for people diagnosed with schizophrenia.