Participatory theatre and mental health recovery: a narrative inquiry.

Aims: To identify the potential relationship between participation in theatre and mental health recovery. To give voice to the stories told by participants of Teater Vildenvei, a theatre company that has been part of the rehabilitation programme for mental health service users in Oslo since 1995.

Methods: Twelve narrative interviews were conducted among participants of Teater Vildenvei, and the data were subject to a narrative analysis process following the philosophy of Paul Ricoeur and the specific methods of thematic, event and relational analysis as identified by Riessman.

Preparing master-level mental health nurses to work within a wellness paradigm: Findings from the eMenthe project.

Mental health promotion remains an important component of mental health nursing practice. Supporting wellness at both the individual and societal levels has been identified as one of the key tenets of mental health promotion. However, the prevailing biomedical paradigm of mental health education and practice has meant that many nurses have not been equipped to incorporate a wellness perspective into their mental health practice.

Arts, health & wellbeing: reflections on a national seminar series and building a UK research network.

An account is provided of a UK national seminar series on Arts, Health and Wellbeing funded by the Economic and Social Research Council during 2012-13. Four seminars were organised addressing current issues and challenges facing the field. Details of the programme and its outputs are available online.

A critical narrative analysis of shared decision-making in acute inpatient mental health care.

Shared decision-making (SDM) is a high priority in healthcare policy and is complementary to the recovery philosophy in mental health care. This agenda has been operationalised within the Values-Based Practice (VBP) framework, which offers a theoretical and practical model to promote democratic interprofessional approaches to decision-making. However, these are limited by a lack of recognition of the implications of power implicit within the mental health system.

No hope without compassion: the importance of compassion in recovery-focused mental health services.

Background: Whilst current policy is replete with recovery language and references to the need for services to create a sense of hope and optimism, there is less understanding about how such hope may be engendered within services. We propose that an understanding of compassion is necessary to appreciate what actually stimulates hope-inspiring practices.

Aims: An examination of the continuing relevance of compassion to mental health care and an exploration of its place within modern mental health policy and practice.

How do nurses cope when values and practice conflict?

Background: A lack of opportunity to express values in nursing practice and a conflict of ideals with organisational constraints are associated with low job satisfaction and high attrition rates.

Aim: To explore the stories of mental health nurses to find how values influence their experience of nursing practice.

Method: Twelve participants, who had between six months', and three years' experience of post-registration practice, were interviewed.