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Elder mistreatment (EM) is a complex, universal health and social problem predominantly studied in the indigenous (white) populations of Western countries. This has led to consideration of dominant explanations as universal, potentially masking crucial cultural and ethnic differences. This study aims to fill the gap in elder mistreatment literature for the Pakistani community, offering unique perspectives to inform culturally sensitive policy recommendations.

A qualitative approach, anchored in the philosophical basis of constructivist grounded theory, was used to investigate understandings of EM among Pakistanis in Sheffield, UK. This involved two gender-based focus groups (male = 1; female = 1) and 22 in-depth individual interviews, engaging a diverse participant pool, including older people, family caregivers and community stakeholders.

This study reveals diverse understandings of elder mistreatment (EM) among Pakistani adults, varying across age and gender groups, with distinguished key forms identified. Reporting EM is crucial, but victims face complex decision-making, hindered by societal and individual barriers, including moral and cultural dilemmas. Access to formal support is limited, emphasising the need for targeted interventions.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first to delve into the perspectives of Pakistanis on elder mistreatment. It emphasises the importance of policymakers and service providers integrating considerations of race, ethnicity, culture and gender to develop inclusive services, as indicated by the study’s findings.

The purpose of this paper is to perform a review of the literature of empirical studies on elder mistreatment (EM) in South Asians, and to discuss key implications for policy, practice and research.

For this review, multiple electronic databases in the international health and social science were searched and supplemented by grey literature and cross-references. Quality of papers was assessed by two authors against the standard checklists.

In total, 16 studies met the inclusion criteria of this review, of which 11 were cross-sectional design, and only six of them used standard instruments to measure EM. The prevalence estimates of overall EM retrieved from general population-based studies ranged from 9.3 per cent in India to 49.1 per cent in Nepal. Age, gender, residential settings, socioeconomic status, health, education, and social structures and processes were key risk factors for EM in South Asian communities. Reporting and action taking were culturally rooted.

While the review is not systematic, there are limitations associated with the paper in covering the diverse range of databases and studies. However, this review provides a valuable synthesis of the empirical papers on the incidence, culturally specific risk factors and reporting trends of EM in South Asians. Additionally, the review presents the papers evaluated for a quality to ensure the validity of empirical data. Finally, the review includes several implications for policy, practice and future research on EM which may ultimately contribute in improving the health and wellbeing of elder South Asians.

This article describes the processes undertaken to implement change in East Lancashire adult mental health services through New Ways of Working. The views of users, carers and staff of the services at the start of the project are described, and an overview offered of the development work that took place to support the change. Barriers to change are also described.

The aim of this paper is to describe the development of a suite of social inclusion outcome measures and how they are being applied in practice within Stockport.

The paper gives a description of the development approach; the development of the measures and how the data collection systems have been established.

A suite of practical measures of social inclusion has been developed that are being used to inform local service delivery, commissioning and service redesign with the purpose of evidencing the effectiveness of provision in delivering social inclusion for people who have used mental health services in Stockport.

The paper does not contain data. It is anticipated that the data will inform a business case for commissioning in new ways and which may be the subject of a further paper.

The paper describes the practical approaches that have led to the development of the measures.

The measures will be able to demonstrate the social impact of services for people who use them.

Mental health services are striving to develop meaningful measures that are embedded in day‐to‐day practice and are meaningful to people who use services. These measures and the way they are being used in services will provide evidence to service commissioners of effectiveness and have been signed off as such by commissioners. The outcomes framework will have implications locally for the implementation of payment by results in mental health.

This study of community mental health teams (CMHTs) in Knowsley aimed to provide information about changes to the service user group and the nature of work undertaken in the teams following the implementation of the national service framework for mental health. Clear changes in the balance of work undertaken were identified, reflecting successful implementation of the new policies and appropriate selection of cases. Issues raised by such developments are summarised in view of their relevance to other localities.

The search for alternatives to inpatient mental health care in the UK and further afield has been going on over the last few decades of the previous century. Amongst the range of alternatives that have been developed are community‐based mental health crisis houses that seek to work with people, who may otherwise have been admitted to hospital. Amethyst House is a four‐bed mental health crisis house based in inner city Liverpool and works solely with the local Crisis Resolution Home Treatment Team (CRHTT) to work with people who require support that could not be delivered at home. The purpose of this paper is to report the findings of one element of a service evaluation: the effectiveness of the service in relation to the mental health needs of people admitted.

The paper describes the service model, which integrates the crisis house and the CRHTT, with the latter acting as gatekeepers to the service.

Findings showed improvements in mental health symptomatology and disabilities associated with the crisis between admission and discharge from the service.

The paper describes the profile of the people who used the service over a six‐month period in 2009, their care pathways through the service and their clinical outcomes between admission and discharge.

Commissioning has been a central plank of health and social care policy in England for many years now, yet there are still debates about how effective it is in delivering improvements in care and outcomes. Social inclusion of people with experience of mental health is one of the goals that commissioners would like to help services to improve but such a complex outcome for people can often be undermined by contractual arrangements that fragment service responses rather than deliver holistic support. The purpose of this paper is to discuss a form of commissioning, Alliance Contracting, and how it has been allied with a Social Inclusion Outcomes Framework (SIOF) in Stockport to begin to improve services and outcomes.

The paper is a conceptual discussion and case description of the use of Alliance Contracts to improve recovery services and social inclusion in mental health care in one locality.

The paper finds that the Alliance Contracting approach fits well with the SIOF and is beginning to deliver some promising results in terms of improving services.

This is a case study of one area and, as such, it is hard to generalise beyond that.

The paper discusses a promising approach for commissioners to develop locally to guide service improvements and better social inclusion outcomes for people.

Rather than developing good services but fractured pathways of care across providers and teams, the Alliance Contracting approach potentially delivers more holistic and flexible pathways that ought to better help individuals in their recovery journeys.

This is the first paper to set out the use of Alliance Contracting and social inclusion measures to help improve services and outcomes for people experiencing mental health problems.

Successive government policies over the past 15 years have encouraged the growth of the independent sector (not for profit and for profit) and its involvement in the delivery of mental health care. Not for profit and for profit sectors are currently working both alongside and in competition with NHS provider organisations. How all parts of the service system interconnect will in future be crucial for service users and carers. This paper describes the developmental approach in response to many of these issues by agencies in the West Midlands.