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The roots of educational psychology can be traced back to mental health. Some recent national and government publications have focused attention upon mental health services for children and adolescents. This paper assesses the evidence for educational psychologists’ involvement in mental health services and evaluates the extent of the knowledge base shown in the professional literature. The paper concludes that the profession cannot claim competencies that it does not possess without further training and education if it wishes to be recognized as a provider of mental health services.

This paper attempts to answer the question: What accounts for the universal rise in interest in complementary and alternative medicine (CAM), the growth of practitioners and potential patients seeking them out? It is recognised that there is great diversity both within CAM (in terms of philosophy, methodology, research) as well as between CAM and orthodox medicine. The limited empirical research concerning why people choose a CAM practitioner is reviewed. Six major reasons are given to answer the above question recognising their relationships to one another and that other reasons do exist. There is no typical patient, although the results do suggest that certain individuals based on their demography, medical history and belief system are most likely to choose CAM.

Inappropriate sexual behaviour (ISB) as a sequela of neurological impairment is often overlooked in comparison to other challenging behaviours such as agitation and aggression, yet the impact on patients and carers can be equally significant and pervasive. Inconsistencies in terminology and lack of standardised measurement tools for ISB limit the degree to which such behaviour can be objectively and consistently identified, reported and managed within and between services. This paper proposes a new ISB scale, the St Andrew's Sexual Behaviour Assessment (SASBA) based on the Overt Aggression Scale--Modified for Neurorehabilitation (OAS-MNR: Alderman, Knight,Morgan, 1997). The validity and reliability of the SASBA for use with people who have both progressive neurological conditions and acquired brain injury admitted to in-patient services is explored. This scale allows continuous observations of four categories of ISB, each of which has four levels of severity, that were developed with reference to relevant literature (Johnson, Knight,Alderman, 2006). Statistical properties of the scale were obtained using written descriptions and video enactments of ISB generated by clinicians. Results indicate strong construct and content validity, and good inter-rater and test-retest reliability. Some preliminary field data are presented with 924 incidents of challenging behaviour captured by the OAS-MNR and SASBA over a 10-week period for 36 patients; 16.34% of incidents were sexual behaviour. Clinical uses of the scale and perceived concerns or benefits for staff are discussed.