Consumer perspectives on the therapeutic value of a psychiatric environment.

Background: Existing reports of the environmental aspects of recovery from mental illness have been confined to consideration of community spaces and the natural environment.

Aims: This paper aims to extend this literature by assessing the role of psychiatric settings in recovery.

Methods: Nineteen inpatients from the psychiatric unit of a large inner city hospital in Melbourne, Australia, took part in the study, which involved semi-structured interviews and focus groups.

Promoting recovery via an integrated model of care to deliver a bed-based, mental health prevention and recovery centre.

Objective: This research was conducted in order to explore the experience of care and outcomes for people entering a bed-based step-up/step-down Prevention and Recovery Centre (PARC).

Methods: An audit of files for PARC participants in 2010 collected demographic (age, gender, and marital, housing, employment and education/training status) and clinical measures (length of stay, entry and exit outcome measures, psychiatric hospital use). Participants were also invited to a feedback group to discuss their PARC experience.

Consumer experience of formal crisis-response services and preferred methods of crisis intervention.

The manner in which people with mental illness are supported in a crisis is crucial to their recovery. The current study explored mental health consumers' experiences with formal crisis services (i.e.

Mental health care on the streets: An integrated approach.

Background: Mental illness can be both a cause of and a reaction to being homeless. When homelessness co-exists with mental illness, the provision of care for very vulnerable people is significantly complicated. Our initiative built on a model of assertive outreach and embedded mental health staff into the daily operations of Hanover Welfare Services and Sacred Heart Mission welfare services in inner Melbourne.