The responses of young people to their experiences of first-episode psychosis: harnessing resilience.

There is a burgeoning literature on first-episode psychosis, the focus of which is early intervention. Little emphasis has been placed on the responses of young people to their experiences of psychosis. This study, therefore, aimed to describe and explain the responses of young people to their first episode of psychosis.

The impact of social cognition training on recovery from psychosis.

Purpose Of Review: Social cognition training is an emerging intervention, which aims to ameliorate impairment in social interaction and improve functional outcomes in persons with a psychosis. This article reviews the research conducted on the impact of this intervention published in English language journals over the past 2 years.

Recent Findings: Social cognition training comprises three types of programs; targeted, broad-based, and comprehensive - targeted programs being the most effective.

Australian consumer perceptions of peer support.

Introduction: Peer support in mental health service delivery is a relatively new development in Western Australia, occurring only in the last decade. Consequently, what is known about peer support in mental health has been largely drawn from the overseas literature. The purpose of the present study was to identify how consumers of mental health services in Western Australia viewed the impact that peer support workers had on their life.

Too little, too late: mental health nursing education in Western Australia, 1958-1994.

Mental health nursing education in Australia has undergone a significant transition in the last 50 years, influenced by national inquiries, national decisions, and international trends in nursing education. But mental health nursing education had also accumulated decades of history in each state, including sometimes unequal relations with general nursing. Complex inter- and intra-professional relationships at state level influenced this educational transition in each state, and Western Australia provides an example of this influence.

Challenges faced by mental health peer support workers: peer support from the peer supporter's point of view.

Objective: This study aimed to identify the various challenges encountered by peer support workers in Western Australia in the course of their work and to identify possible solutions to those challenges.

Method: We used the nominal group technique to collect and analyze the data.

Results: The main challenge encountered by participants was a lack of understanding of the peer support worker role which caused them to experience a sense of exclusion.

A substantive theory of recovery from the effects of severe persistent mental illness.

Background: This study investigated Western Australian consumer perspectives of recovery from the effects of a severe mental illness.

Method: The grounded theory method was used to collect and analyze data acquired through 15 face-to-face interviews.

Discussion: Participants described recovery as a three-phase process of overcoming loss in biomedical, psychological and/or social dimensions.