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Lived mental health experience (LMHE) is a term describing the direct impact of a mental health problem or being a mental health carer. This study aims to qualitatively explore how UK-based trainee clinical psychologists with LMHE navigate doctoral training.

Trainee clinical psychologists (TCPs; N = 12) who self-reported LMHE completed a semi-structured interview which was analysed using constructivist grounded theory (CGT).

The end model had six main categories: the pressured system; narratives about LMHE within the profession; developing trainee identity and sense of self; disclosing LMHE within the professional context; building safe, balanced and reciprocal relationships with other professionals; drawing upon LMHE within clinical practice. The end model is visually depicted as an hourglass to represent receiving and internalising external information which influences identity development and bidirectionally filters outwards to shape interactions and relationships.

Findings have implications for TCPs, course centres and using trusts.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first CGT study to qualitatively explore how TCPs with LMHE navigate the holistic trajectory of doctoral clinical psychology training.

This research designed, optimized and tested a context-specific scale to evaluate public sector employees' pension choices.

The authors developed the scale using a comprehensive process of interviews and focus groups with experts across academia and finance. The authors used the refined scale to collect data from 564 faculty members in public sector universities following a multistage systematic cluster sampling technique. The findings revealed diversity in choice across different socio-economic and demographic variables.

The results revealed that items related to the defined benefit pension system explain most of the data variance and are preferred widely. This is followed by a preference for monetizing pension benefits and a defined contribution system. These findings indicated the need for flexible pension plans.

Therefore, the progressive movement towards monetization and the shift from defined benefit to a defined contribution pension system due to economic pressures must be accurately calculated and introduced where it is suitable.

Although the theory of introducing a defined contribution pension system and monetization system is appealing, its practical implementation may not be encouraging for all employees.