Collection and sharing of health information in mental health and related systems in Australia: perspectives of people who access mental health services.

Background: Information sharing and information privacy are important issues in mental health services. Yet the perspectives of Australians who access mental health services about these issues are poorly understood. This article addresses the research question: What are the concerns of people who use mental health services about the collection and use of their health information in mental health and related systems in Australia?

Methods: Participants were 16 people who had accessed mental health services and were involved in a series of co-design workshops as part of a larger study.

Occupational Therapy for Parenting: Perspectives of Parents With Physical Disability.

Parenting with a physical disability often brings with it a range of challenges. Occupational therapists are well positioned to support parents to address these challenges, yet occupational therapy research and practice around parenting is relatively scarce. This paper addresses the questions: (1) How should occupational therapists support parenting occupations for people with physical disability? (2) How do parents with physical disability experience occupational therapy? An anonymous survey of 62 parents, primarily mothers, with physical disability about their experiences with parenting challenges and occupational therapy was analysed using both quantitative and qualitative techniques.

Feasibility of Recovery Assessment Scale - Domains and Stages (RAS-DS) for everyday mental health practice.

Introduction: Routine use of self-rated measures of mental health recovery can support recovery-oriented practice. However, to be widely adopted, outcome measures must be feasible. This study examined the feasibility of Recovery Assessment Scale - Domains and Stages (RAS-DS) from the perspectives of mental health workers.

Preferences for telehealth: A qualitative study with people accessing a new mental health service.

Objectives: To examine preferences for telehealth versus in-person services for people who sought mental health support from an unfamiliar service during the COVID-19 pandemic and to identify the factors that influenced these preferences.

Methods: Data are drawn from semi-structured interviews with 45 participants (32 people who accessed mental health services, 7 informal support people, and 6 people who accessed services themselves as well as identifying as informal supports). Data relating to experiences of telehealth, comparisons with in-person services and preferences were coded inductively and analysed using qualitative content analysis.

Occupations and balance during the transition to motherhood with a lifetime chronic illness: A scoping review examining cystic fibrosis, asthma, and Type-1 diabetes.

Introduction: Throughout the transition to motherhood, changes are experienced across a woman's physical, mental, social, and occupational self. Maternal chronic illness adds the complexity of increased healthcare needs and navigating a high-risk, medicalised pregnancy, birth, and post-natal period. Literature concerning motherhood transitions in chronic illness generally focusses on the mother's medical health and pregnancy outcomes; little is known about the impacts on women's occupations, balance, and quality of life.

Staff perceptions of factors affecting the use of RAS-DS to support collaborative mental health practice.

Background: The Recovery Assessment Scale: Domains and Stages (RAS-DS) was designed to be both a recovery outcome measure and a tool to enhance service-user control over their recovery journey. While extensively and globally used in mental health services for the former purpose, routine use for the latter purpose is yet to be realised. The aim of this study was to identify barriers, facilitators and additional supports needed for RAS-DS to be used to support service user participation, goal setting and recovery action planning.

How do Mental Health Services Foster Hope? Experience of People Accessing Services.

Hope is essential to mental health recovery, yet little is known about how mental health services can foster hope. This paper addresses the question: How can mental health services influence the sense of hope experienced by people who access their services? Sixty-one people who accessed a new mental health service were interviewed about their experiences, including about how the service had influenced their sense of hope. Interviews were analysed using constant comparative analysis.

Predicting Housing Related Delayed Discharge from Mental Health Inpatient Units: A Case Control Study.

The aims of this study were to identify factors that a) predict whether people experience housing related discharge delay (HRDD) from a mental health inpatient unit; and b) predict the length of HRDD for people affected. By identifying the groups most affected by HRDD, clinicians and policy makers can prioritise and address barriers to timely discharge at both an individual and systemic level. A case control study using a detailed medical record review was conducted in one Australian mental health service.

'I'm institutionalised … there's not much I can do': Lived experience of housing related delayed discharge.

Introduction: Delayed discharge from inpatient mental health units is the continued hospitalisation of consumers after being assessed as ready to be discharged. This is common in adult inpatient mental health services and is usually due to a lack of appropriate housing for discharge. Research indicates a range of possible negative impacts, but no studies have explored consumers' perspectives on this issue.

Mental Health Peer Worker Perspectives on Resources Developed from Lived Experience Research Findings: A Delphi Study.

Lived experience research is potentially useful for assisting the recovery journeys of people experiencing mental health challenges, when presented in user-friendly formats. Consumer peer workers are ideally placed to introduce such resources to the people they work with. This study sought to explore the perspectives of expert consumer peer workers on the potential use of lived experience research resources in peer work practice.

'Doing' dating: A cross-sectional survey of young adults (18-35 years) in Australia and Hong Kong.

Introduction: Dating is an occupation through which people form intimate relationships with others. Despite the importance of intimate relationships for wellbeing, there is limited information available in occupational therapy literature about the activities involved in dating and little guidance for practitioners who wish to support clients from diverse backgrounds who experience difficulties with dating. To address this gap, this study sought to explore dating among young adults (18-35 years) and compare dating activities between two contexts: Australia and Hong Kong.

The parenting occupations and purposes conceptual framework: A scoping review of 'doing' parenting.

Introduction: Parenting is a valued, common and challenging adult role. Many parents, including some living with disability or difficult social circumstances, experience barriers to fulfilling their parenting roles. Yet, occupational therapy involvement in parenting is rarely documented.

How Do People Perceive and Adapt to Any Consequences of Electro Convulsive Therapy on Their Daily Lives?

Great controversy surrounds the use of electroconvulsive therapy or ECT. However, it continues to be used internationally. While research on short term effects of ECT abound, there is limited knowledge about long term impacts of ECT on individuals, especially from the lived experience perspective.

Making Lived-Experience Research Accessible: A Design Thinking Approach to Co-Creating Knowledge Translation Resources Based on Evidence.

Mental health lived-experience research illuminates the perspectives and experiences of people who live with mental illness. However, little is known about how useful people with lived experience of mental illness/distress might find lived-experience research, nor what the best formats are to bring it to their attention. This paper describes the STELLER study (Supporting the Translation into Everyday Life of Lived-Experience Research), which explores the translation of lived-experience research in the lives of people living with mental illness.

COVID-19 and Psychosocial Support Services: Experiences of People Living with Enduring Mental Health Conditions.

This paper uses secondary analysis to understand how COVID-19 shaped people's experiences with psychosocial support services in Australia. Data are drawn from questionnaires (n = 66) and semi-structured interviews (n = 62), conducted for a national service evaluation, with 121 people living with enduring mental health conditions and using psychosocial support services. Data relating to COVID-19 were inductively coded and analysed using constant comparative analysis.

Lived experience research as a resource for recovery: a mixed methods study.

Background: Lived experience research is conducted by people who have experience of mental health issues and is therefore better placed than more traditional research to illuminate participants' experiences. Findings that focus on identifying enablers of recovery from a lived experience perspective have the potential to assist people in their recovery process. However, this lived experience research is often difficult to find, access and interpret.

Parent strategies to support young people experiencing mental health problems in Australia: What is most helpful?

Parents are a critical resource in supporting young people who live with mental health problems. Qualitative research has identified that parents use a wide range of strategies to provide support. However, parents report being unsure which strategies are likely to be helpful, so often struggle in this role.

The experience of living after ECT: a qualitative meta-synthesis.

Background: Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) is a controversial treatment. Research has predominantly focused on clinician assessment of short-term efficacy and, occasionally, on participant experiences of the treatment itself. While service user accounts of the long-term impacts of ECT are reported, they are dispersed throughout the literature and typically tangential to studie's main foci.

Igniting and Maintaining Hope: The Voices of People Living with Mental Illness.

The study objective was to identify the types of experiences that consumers identify as igniting and maintaining hope, and those most frequently reported. Data were collected through an anonymous online survey. Two open-ended questions elicited reflective personal accounts regarding hope-promoting experiences.

Thriving in an expanding service landscape: Experiences of occupational therapists working in generic mental health roles within non-government organisations in Australia.

Introduction: Occupational therapists are an integral part of Australian mental health services. Recent changes in the mental health sector mean that increasing numbers of occupational therapists now work in generic, non-profession-specific roles in non-government organisations. Previous research has identified a range of challenges faced by occupational therapists in generic roles, including reduced satisfaction and loss of professional identity.

What roles do male partners play in the mothering experiences of women living with mental illness? A qualitative secondary analysis.

Background: Mothers who live with mental illness face diverse challenges. Research suggests that partner support or otherwise is likely to have a crucial influence on mothers' abilities to manage these challenges, yet little is known about how this plays out. In this study, we aimed to explore the roles played by male partners in the mothering experiences of women living with mental illness.

Family Inclusion in Mental Health Service Planning and Delivery: Consumers' Perspectives.

Family inclusion in treatment planning and delivery for people living with mental illness is advocated in government policy but is yet to be widely translated into practice. While external barriers have been identified, including concerns about consumers' best interests, little is known about consumers' own views. This study explores consumers' experiences and perspectives of including family in treatment.

The Recovery Assessment Scale - Domains and Stages (RAS-DS): Sensitivity to change over time and convergent validity with level of unmet need.

There is a need for robust outcome measures for use in psychiatric services. Particularly lacking are self-rated recovery measures with evidence of sensitivity to change. This study was established to examine the convergent validity and sensitivity to change over time (responsiveness) of the Recovery Assessment Scale - Domains and Stages (RAS-DS), in comparison to level of unmet need as measured by the Camberwell Assessment of Need - Short Appraisal Scale (CANSAS).

Developing and Sustaining Recovery-Orientation in Mental Health Practice: Experiences of Occupational Therapists.

Background/aim: Internationally, mental health policy requires clinicians to shift from a medical to a recovery-oriented approach. However, there is a significant lag in the translation of policy into practice. Occupational therapists have been identified as ideally situated to be recovery-oriented yet limited research exploring how they do this exists.