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This study aimed to explore, from peer workers' perspectives, the supports and strategies they use to optimise their wellbeing and effectiveness in their roles. A qualitative descriptive study was conducted using semi-structured interviews with nine peer workers from a community managed organisation in New South Wales, Australia in 2022. Data were analysed using qualitative content analysis. Peer workers described four types of personal strategies: looking after myself; increasing my peer-related skills; recognising and using my skills; and advocating for and promoting peer work. They described five types of organisational support that helped them to use these strategies and influenced their wellbeing and performance: professional development opportunities; a mental health friendly environment; place of peer work in the organisation; team dynamics and support; and logistical support. This research can help stakeholders recognise the strategies and supports that are beneficial to peer workers and facilitate understanding and support between mental health staff. While a small, contextualised study, it could provide strategies for peer workers new to the industry and for organisations seeking to ensure the sustainability of their peer workforce and the quality of services supplied to consumers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: The purpose of this article is to explore the lived experience of having a child removed by child protection services for mothers living with mental illness. Method: This phenomenological study collected data from eight mothers through in-depth interviews. Data were analysed using interpretive phenomenological analysis. Results: The overall phenomenon of living with child removal was found to consist of four overarching essential components: chaotic lives pre-removal; pain and loss; protecting myself; and constrained mothering. Discussion: Mothers need support to manage the suffering associated with child removal in the context of already chaotic lives. Parenting and mental health services are in a position to assist mothers to develop adaptive coping strategies and minimise maladaptive strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: The aim of this study was to identify aspects of the consumer-provider relationship that consumers saw as important in a care coordination service model. Method: Semi-structured interviews were conducted, between October 2015 and March 2016, with 20 people living with severe and persistent mental illness who used a care coordination service in Sydney, Australia. Data were analysed using constant comparative analysis. Results: Participants described five specific aspects of the consumer-provider relationship that they deemed important within their care coordination service experience: rapport and listening; an individualised approach; collaboration and partnership; reliability; and genuine care and respect. These were not independent, but rather, interdependent elements that collectively described a ‘good’ consumer-provider relationship. Discussion: While previous literature has examined the consumer-provider relationship in high-intensity and therapeutic models of service, this study confirms that similar relationship features are important in low-intensity or brokerage type models. Aspects such as the provider being easy to talk to and reliable appear to be of additional importance in this particular model. Findings suggest that the ability to develop trusting and collaborative relationships within a short timeframe is a critical consideration for recruitment and training of service providers working within care coordination models of service. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective:The aim of this study was to understand the strategies women living with mental illness use to balance the demands of mothering with mental health recovery. Method:Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 10 Australian women who self-identified as managing to balance mothering with mental health recovery. The data were analysed using constant comparative analysis, and other techniques informed from grounded theory. Results:Mothers used four interconnected balancing strategies: prioritising in the present; looking after myself; buffering children; and using supports. Awareness of the crucial interconnectedness of mothering and recovery was the foundation for these balancing strategies. Developing this awareness was essential in order to value, develop and therefore implement these strategies. Supports and resources played a critical role in helping mothers to develop awareness of, as well as use, strategies to balance motherhood and mental health recovery. Discussion:Mental health services can support mothers to develop an understanding of the inextricable connection between their own recovery needs and the needs of their child. Mothers can also be supported to successfully identify and employ their own strategies within each of the four categories developed in this study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Parents of young people with mental illness use a variety of strategies to try to positively influence young people's mental health-related behaviours. Evidence suggests that these parents can influence young people's well-being and mental health trajectories. However little is known about how young people perceive and are affected by the strategies parents use. In-depth qualitative interviews focussing on parental involvement in mental health were conducted with 26 young people with mental illness. The data were analysed using constant comparative analysis. Young people described parents as directly influencing their mental health-related behaviour through facilitative, persuasive and controlling practices. Young people's behavioural and emotional responses to these practices were influenced by when the incident occurred; what they believed about the attitudes and motives behind their parents' actions; whether they agreed in principle with the practices; the degree to which they accepted their parents' authority and anticipated their own increasing autonomy; and whether other support was provided alongside the behavioural practices. Understanding how young people view their parents' influence on their mental health-related behaviour under different circumstances is a vital step towards promoting the best possible parental support for these young people. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Parents' encounters with health professionals can influence their ability to cope with having a daughter with anorexia nervosa. Using qualitative analysis of in-depth interviews with 24 parents, we examine the question "What support do parents of teenage girls with anorexia want from clinicians?" The analysis shows that parents wanted clinicians to include them in treatment, support and guide them in their daughters' care, and demonstrate positive attitudes toward them. The implications for clinicians are discussed, including being sensitive to parents' vulnerability, ensuring congruence between clinicians' and parents' expectations about treatment, and strengthening formal channels of communication. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we posit a radical retheorization of anorexia as a form of deviance. We examine how the disciplinary practices and moral technologies typical of contemporary secondary schooling signify and enter into the articulation of three ‘virtue discourses’ (discipline, achievement and healthism), and tease out how these ‘virtue discourses’ play into the formation of the ‘anorexic’ subject. Informed by Foucauldian theory, our analysis draws on our life history interview study with teenage girls diagnosed with anorexia nervosa and their parents. We argue that anorexia can be understood not as a form of deviance but as a ‘paradox of virtue’ involving zealous compliance with and taking up of socially and culturally sanctioned ‘virtue discourses’ that are immanent in schooling and wider society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines parents’ actions in response to anorexia nervosa, and how these are shaped by the ways they construct or understand the eating disorder. The findings indicate that parents try to influence their daughters by searching for help, providing practical support, avoiding confrontation, complying with special requirements, persuading, explaining, and pressuring, using ploys and force, providing emotional support, and mediating interactions. Parents’ actions are influenced by how they construct anorexia, such as whether they see it as an eating issue, an illness, a psychological problem, a choice, or a mystery. Understanding parents’ actions and constructions can help clinicians develop collaborative partnerships with parents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The developmental status of 37 pre-school aged children born to mothers with intellectual disability was assessed and the relationship between developmental status and selected chil4 maternal and home/environment characteristics was examined. The developmental status of the children varied markedly. Controlling for possible organic pathology, the development of these children did not vary significantly from age-norm expectations in four domains: physical self-help, social and academic. No statistically significant correlation was found between developmental status and characteristics of the mother or home environment. The key to prevention may lie in the provision of suitable antenatal and maternity services to ensure the best possible birth outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]