Employment support workers' experiences of motivational interviewing: results from an exploratory study.

Objective: Motivational interviewing is suggested as a means to increase the success rate for people receiving employment support. This study explored employment workers' experiences of using motivational interviewing following training in the techniques.

Method: Semistructured interviews were conducted with employment support workers after motivational interviewing training and again 9 months later.

Customers' perspectives on the impact of the Pathways to Work condition management programme on their health, well-being and vocational activity.

Aims: Pathways to Work is a UK initiative aimed at supporting customers on incapacity benefits to return to work. This qualitative study complements previous evaluations of Pathways to Work by exploring customers' perceptions of the impact of the Condition Management Programme (CMP) offered to claimants with long-term health conditions.

Methods: 39 customers took part in focus groups held at the seven sites where Pathways was originally piloted.

Waiting list-controlled evaluation of a participatory arts course for people experiencing mental health problems.

Aims: The potential for participation in creative activity to promote recovery from mental ill health is highlighted in mental health policy and guidance, alongside a perceived dearth of robust evidence of effectiveness. Open Arts has run participatory arts courses in South Essex since 2008 and a course waiting list has developed with increasing demand for places. Given the waiting list and the need to improve the evidence base for the utility of participatory arts groups in mental health, the aim of this project was to conduct a naturalistic waiting list-controlled evaluation of the 12-week courses routinely provided and to explore participants' experiences of their course.

Evaluating outcomes of therapies offered by occupational therapists in adult mental health.

Background: Attitudes towards the use of outcome measures by professionals working in mental health have been shown to be variable. Occupational therapists appear to have difficulty specifying goals and measuring the outcomes of interventions.

Aims: To measure the outcomes of therapies offered by occupational therapists and to assess concurrent validity of the Van du Toit Model of Creative Ability (VdT MoCA) assessment.

Employment advice in primary care: a realistic evaluation.

Every organisation in the UK is affected by mental distress and ill-health in the workforce. The first point of contact for most people with common mental health problems, such as mild to moderate anxiety or depression, is their general practitioner. The location of specialist employment advisers in GP surgeries is therefore a logical attempt to address the issue of people falling out of the workplace, through the provision of early intervention and combined vocational and psychological treatment packages.

The role of interprofessional working in the Pathways to Work Condition Management Programmes.

Condition Management Programmes (CMPs) were established in seven pilot sites in the UK as one strand of the Incapacity Benefit Pathways to Work programme, an initiative that exemplifies interprofessional working beyond traditional healthcare boundaries. The qualitative evaluation of the pilot sites employed a realistic evaluation approach and used focus group discussions and telephone interviews to examine stakeholders' perceptions of interprofessional working and its impact on service provision and practice. Although teething problems were experienced in establishing the interprofessional working necessary for success, a shared commitment to the CMP ethos enabled these to be largely overcome.

Employment status, aspirations and perceptions of support amongst psychiatric service users in Pavia, Italy.

Aims: To describe the employment status of people using mental health service in Pavia, Italy; to explore their employment aspirations and perceptions of support to achieve these; and to test the feasibility of working with service users as researchers.

Method: Face to face interviews carried out by two service user researchers with a consecutive sample of 200 service users attending the local psychiatric outpatient department using a translated version of a questionnaire developed for previous UK surveys.

Results: A higher proportion of survey participants (42.

SESAMI study of employment support for people with severe mental health problems: 12-month outcomes.

In the context of UK policy to promote employment for people with disability as a means to greater social inclusion, this study investigated how people with severe mental health problems fare in existing supported employment agencies. The aim of the study was to identify factors associated with successful placement in work and to test the impact of working on psychological well-being in this group. One hundred and fifty-five users of six English agencies were followed up for 1 year (2005-2006).

Evaluating the impact of participatory art projects for people with mental health needs.

Participatory art projects for people with mental health needs typically claim outcomes such as improvements in confidence, self-esteem, social participation and mental health. However, such claims have rarely been subjected to robust outcome research. This paper reports outcomes from a survey of 44 female and 18 male new art project participants attending 22 art projects in England, carried out as part of a national evaluation.

Factors influencing the delivery of evidence-based supported employment in England.

This paper assesses the extent to which the Individual Placement and Support (IPS) approach is currently adopted in England. Interviews based on the Supported Employment Fidelity Scale were conducted with staff from five of the leading providers of supported employment. One provider obtained a good IPS adherence score, three a fair score and one a non-adherence score.

The Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Well-being Scale (WEMWBS): development and UK validation.

Background: There is increasing international interest in the concept of mental well-being and its contribution to all aspects of human life. Demand for instruments to monitor mental well-being at a population level and evaluate mental health promotion initiatives is growing. This article describes the development and validation of a new scale, comprised only of positively worded items relating to different aspects of positive mental health: the Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Well-Being Scale (WEMWBS).

Mental health and arts participation: the state of the art in England.

Although participation in arts activity is believed to have important mental health and social benefits for people with mental health needs, the evidence base is currently weak. This article reports the first phase of a study intended to support the development of stronger evidence. Objectives for the first phase were to map current participatory arts activity, to identify appropriate indicators and to develop measures for use in the second phase of the research.

Qualitative evaluation of a job retention pilot for people with mental health problems.

The aim of this study was to evaluate a job retention service intended to support GPs in preventing unemployment among patients with mental health problems. Interviews with job retention clients, their employers and case managers were carried out. A group interview with GPs was also conducted.

Theories of change: what works in improving health in mid-life?

The need to promote healthy active ageing in order to offset the impact of an ageing population on national resources and ensure a high quality of life in older age is well recognized. In 2001, the English Department of Health established a national pre-retirement health initiative involving the development of eight pilot projects. A national evaluation using a 'theories of change' approach embedded within a realistic evaluation design was commissioned to draw out the lessons from across the projects.

The how and why of workplace adjustments: contextualizing the evidence.

Purpose: To identify the problems experienced in the workplace by service users returning to work and to explore how and why adjustments can help overcome them.

Method: Semi-structured interviews were carried out with 17 people in five employment projects and with their workplace managers. Interviews were tape recorded, fully transcribed and analyzed to identify and compare emerging themes.

Increasing the vocational focus of the community mental health team.

Despite increasing interest in the UK in enabling community mental health teams to support clients' vocational aspirations, surveys suggest that progress to date has been slow. This study aimed to identify factors that facilitate or create barriers to teams engaging in vocational work by exploring experiences and perceptions at three sites where progress had been made. Semi-structured interviews were carried out with on-site and off-site vocational specialists, care coordinators and other professionals identified locally as supportive of vocational work.

Discourses of blame: accounting for aggression and violence on an acute mental health inpatient unit.

The English National Service Framework for Mental Health stipulates that the highest quality of health care should be provided for mental health service users in the most efficient and effective manner. Incidents of aggression and violence militate against achieving that goal, yet such incidents are frequently reported in inpatient settings. Traditionally, research in this area has focused on the extent of the phenomenon, the individual characteristics of those involved and precursors to the incident.

Promoting mental health through employment and developing healthy workplaces: the potential of natural supports at work.

In England, policy developments in the field of mental health are stimulating interest in employment for mental health service users as a means of mental health promotion. To date, research that might assist in increasing employment rates amongst this group has focused largely on the question of which service users are most likely to benefit from vocational interventions and, more recently, on models of vocational support. Less is known about how employers can assist people in their transition or return to work.

Mental health training and development needs of community agency staff.

Emphasis has long been placed in UK national policy on providing 'seamless' mental health services to meet both the health and social care needs of service users. While attention has been paid to the training required by specialist mental health and primary care staff in order to achieve this, the needs of other community agency staff have received less attention. The present article describes a study designed to identify the training needs of staff working within a broad range of agencies.

Users' perceptions of an African and Caribbean mental health resource centre.

It has been suggested that well-documented differences in African and African-Caribbean people's contact with mental health services may stem from a spiral of disaffection, reluctance to seek help and re-admission to hospital in times of crisis. In 1997, an African and Caribbean mental health resource centre was established in the London borough of Kensington and Chelsea with the aim of ensuring that the needs of this group were better met. As part of an evaluation of the study, interviews were carried out with 26 clients of the resource centre.