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This paper aims to discuss the importance of compassion in health care and experiences of Compassion Circles (CCs) in supporting it, placing this into the national policy context of the National Health Service (NHS), whilst focusing on lessons from using the practice in mental health care.

This conceptual paper is a discussion of the context of compassion in health care and a description of model and related concepts of CCs. This paper also discusses lessons from implementation of CCs in mental health care.

CCs were developed from an initial broad concern with the place of compassion and well-being in communities and organisations, particularly in health and social care after a number of scandals about failures of care. Through experience CCs have been refined into a flexible model of supporting staff in mental health care settings. Experience to date suggests they are a valuable method of increasing compassion for self and others, improving relationships between team members and raising issues of organisational support to enable compassionate practice.

This paper is a discussion of CCs and their conceptual underpinnings and of insights and lessons from their adoption to date, and more robust evaluation is required.

As an emergent area of practice CCs have been seen to present a powerful and practical approach to supporting individual members of staff and teams. Organisations and individuals might wish to join the community of practice that exists around CCs to consider the potential of this intervention in their workplaces and add to the growing body of learning about it. It is worth further investigation to examine the impact of CCs on current concerns with maintaining staff well-being and engagement, and, hence, on stress, absence and the sustainability of work environments over time.

CCs present a promising means of developing a culture and practice of more compassion in mental health care and other care contexts.

CCs have become supported in national NHS guidance and more support to adopt, evaluate and learn from this model is warranted. This paper is a contribution to developing a better understanding of the CCs model, implementation lessons and early insights into impact.

The purpose of this paper is to understand whether a woodland-based intervention might offer something helpful and engaging for people affected by dementia. In total, 18 people came to Woodland Wellbeing groups over summer and autumn in 2016.

The authors made observations during the groups, kept some notes and conducted some interviews around three months after people had participated in Woodland Wellbeing.

Feedback from participants indicated themes around connection with nature and to one another; the joy in new learning and activities; and the inspirational impact of feeling part of nature.

This paper adds to the growing literature on natural approaches in supporting the wellbeing of people affected by dementia, and highlights the value of partnership working.

Focuses on the utilization of machine vision in three areas of electronic assembly. Looks at odd‐shaped component placement covering part location, target location and placement. Discusses LCD display inspection, including LCD, LED and Plasma technologies. Also examines machine vision in automated die and wire bond inspection for multi‐chip module manufacturing. Considers the benefits of automating inspection processes and concludes by looking at how useful measurements can be extracted from the analysis of images of wire bonds.

Describes a new identification code for marking products which attempts to solve the limitations of linear symbologies such as barcodes which are currently used throughout the packaging industry. The code, called a Data Matrix is read by a two dimensional CCD [charge couple device] camera and can contain up to 500 characters in a 0.05 in area. Describes the advantages of the Data matrix code, the process of “reading” the code and how the image is analysed and converted. Concludes that the Data Matrix code and reader represent significant technological advancements in the field of automatic identification.

An Automatix AV90 vision system has been installed at Lucas Engine Management Systems, of Birmingham, to inspect automotive distributors as they are manually assembled, to ensure both correct assembly sequence and the presence of all parts.

A new event held in October 1990 in Nuremberg, Germany, designated Opto7, was intended to combine seven different aspects of the application of electro‐optics, with conferences on each topic with an exhibition embracing them all. At the exhibition, three items of technology stood out (considered from the sensing aspect).

The title of this chapter was inspired by Martin, a prisoner the author met while conducting fieldwork. Martin remarked that, despite the common rhetoric around prisoners ‘maintaining’ their family ties, the reality was that during imprisonment it became more about trying to cling on to them. Imprisonment is perhaps one of the most brutal disruptions a family can undergo, leaving them little choice but to adapt to this enforced transition. Immediately, the spaces where family life can happen narrow severely and become dictated by the prison environment and the plethora of rules that regulate it. The immediate physical separation, onerous restrictions on physical contact and the heavily surveilled nature of family contact during imprisonment constricts space for emotional expression, often rendering romantic relationships clandestine and fatherhood attenuated. Further, the temporal space for family is reduced as limited opportunities for visits lead prisoners to eschew contact with wider family members and prioritise their ‘nuclear’ family. Drawing on empirical research conducted at two male prisons in England and Wales, this chapter then, will detail the complexities of how families navigate this transition and the limitations on what family can mean in the prison environment. The chapter will conclude with the implications of these restrictions for the ultimate transition when prisoners return ‘home’.

There has been growing interest in narrative ethics over the last three decades. However, narratology, or the study of narratives, has a much longer history dating back to Plato and Aristotle.³ Structural linguistics, and its formal study of grammar and structure of language, was a major contributor to the development of the classification and interpretation of narratives.⁴ This structuralist period was followed by an increased interest in the relationships between narratives and social and historical dynamics and ideologies. Key social theorists, such as Derrida, Bakhtin and Ricoeur, have urged us to consider the relationship of the text to the way we understand ourselves and the worlds we inhabit. In summary, the study of narratives long preceded its association with ethics, and it was only recently that the interest in narratives has been adopted by the health-care disciplines, notably medicine and nursing.