Places of safety? Fear and violence in acute mental health facilities: A large qualitative study of staff and service user perspectives.

Aim: To understand violence on acute mental health units according to staff and service user perspectives and experiences.

Background: The collateral damage of violence in acute inpatient mental health settings is wide-ranging, impacting on the health and wellbeing of staff and service users, and detrimental to public perceptions of people who are mentally unwell. Despite international research on the topic, few studies have examined psychiatric unit violence from both staff and service user perspectives.

There's no smoke without fire: Smoking in smoke-free acute mental health wards.

Background: People who smoke with serious mental illness carry disproportionate costs from smoking, including poor health and premature death from tobacco-related illnesses. Hospitals in New Zealand are ostensibly smoke-free; however, some mental health wards have resisted implementing this policy.

Aim: This study explored smoking in acute metal health wards using data emerging from a large sociological study on modern acute psychiatric units.