Garden Court North's James Stark and Anna Watterson will be speaking at this year’s North West Housing Annual Conference on 7 November 2025.

Background Service users living with severe mental illness are often in need of treatment from different health care professionals. Their family members play an important but underreported role in their treatment and care. Following the implementation of the flexible assertive community treatment (FACT) model in Norway since 2013, FACT teams have been evaluated from different perspectives. The overall aim of this study was to explore how family members of people living with SMI experience their situation and the follow-up provided by FACT teams. Methods Forty-one family members aged 31 to 78 years took part in nine focus groups representing seven FACT teams from both rural and urban areas in Norway. Most of the participants had parental roles. The data was analysed using qualitative content analysis. Results The results revealed the following two main themes and five sub-themes: (1) An all-consuming and demanding role (A life of love, care and despair and A life affecting health and well-being), and (2) A turning point after FACT (From a patchwork to more integration and continuity, Family involvement as a vital part of care and Availability of support outside regular opening hours). Conclusions Being family members of service users with SMI are experienced as an all-consuming and demanding role. The family members experience the FACT team as an important support in their day-to-day life. However, they wish to receive more support and inclusion in the treatment than they currently do. Further strengthening the involvement and collaboration between the family members and the FACT teams is recommended. Psychoeducational interventions arranged by the FACT team could support family members’ situations. To share their stories with professionals and/or peers would further contribute to their well-being. Extending the opening hours of FACT is recommended as it might mitigate family members’ everyday challenges and improve their subjective well-being.

Background Interdisciplinary collaboration is critical for improving healthcare delivery through coordinated care and streamlined healthcare navigation. Community health workers (CHWs) and social workers (SWs) are uniquely positioned to address the needs of individuals with complex social and health challenges. Despite the integration of CHWs and SWs into health and community settings, there is a paucity of literature on what facilitates successful collaboration between these two workforces. This qualitative study, conducted from April 2022 to June 2023, explores multilevel factors related to CHW-SW collaboration in health and community settings. Methods We conducted eight, 90-min virtual focus groups with CHWs (n = 20) and SWs (n = 17) collaborating in four healthcare and community health settings across the United States (California, Texas, New Jersey, and South Carolina). Focus groups were conducted between April 2022 and June 2023. Results Themes were thematically organized according to the socio-ecological model. Individual and relationship-level factors included: roles and scopes of practice, communication, mutual respect, supportive supervision, and power dynamics. Organizational and community-level factors comprised: commitment to equity, leadership buy-in, standardized training, clear workflows, and shared documentation and physical space. Societal-level factors included: power dynamics, supportive policies and sustainable funding. Conclusions Findings highlighted that CHW-SW collaboration can promote patient-centered care and address social determinants of health when both workforces are well integrated in healthcare systems. Key organizational commitments, community rapport, and relational dynamics should be established to optimize interdisciplinary collaboration and advance health equity.

We warmly invite people working in mental health care with interest in quality improvement to the #MHimprove meeting in Oslo.

Question This scoping review aimed to examine the state of research on patient engagement in forensic mental health (FMH) care to inform future research, practice and policy development.Study selectio...

Targeted interventions to improve the social and economic circumstances of people with mental ill-health from marginalised communities: a systematic review - Volume 55

This report shares the learning gained from our investigation activities and education programme about patient safety incident investigations under the Patient Safety Incident Response Framework (PSIR...

Working to prevent deaths in custody.

Drawing upon my experience as a justice social worker within a Scottish local authority, the following text presents a fictionalised account of a supervisory br...

Understanding autism prevalence within the Criminal Justice System (CJS) and forensic settings has implications for identifying clinical/forensic needs, planning responses, potentially improving ou...

Background Statutory guidance relating to the prevention of institutional abuse, neglect and harm does not reflect the contemporary organisation of UK community mental health services. Historical as...

Prisoners have disproportionately poorer health and complex needs compared to the general population. Prisons should provide care that is equivalent to community care to achieve equitable health outco...

Elevated rates of psychosis are consistently identified in people from racialised backgrounds, with growing evidence from the systematic review literature that suggests a role for racial/ethnic discri...

This publication contains official statistics about uses of the Mental Health Act in England. People may be sectioned for their own health or safety, or for the protection of other people. They can al...

Race in Prisons Learning from the past, shaping the future About Tuesday, October 28 · 9am – 5pm GMT | Central London Exploring the trajectory of race equality work in prisons since Zahid’s murder, in...

This study aimed to understand the role of a national patient safety policy, the Serious Incident Framework, on local organisational practices of resp…

AbstractBackground. Observations on mental health inpatient wards account for a large amount of staff time and cost to organisations. Ideally, observations

Background Globally, up to 17% of hospitalised people suffer a patient safety incident. Learning from adverse events through patient safety investigation is critical to prevention; however, their util...

Guidance on the powers that the police, local authorities and other local agencies can use to tackle antisocial behaviour.

Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) was once thought to be solely a childhood condition. Now it is well established that it can persist into adulthood, with an estimated worldwide prevale...

Supporting youth mental health is a priority; currently, one in 10 young people experience a mental health disorder. Accordingly, integrated youth health services are a focus for service development ...

Introduction Forensic mental health nursing (FMHN) is a subspeciality of psychiatric nursing. An area of mental health nursing care that is situated at the intersection of health, social and criminal ...

BackgroundIndividuals with severe mental illness (SMI) experience significantly higher rates of poor oral health, including dental caries, periodontal diseas...