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A range of professionals and services are often involved in supporting parents with mental health needs where there are child protection concerns. However, they do not always meet the needs of this population who tend to experience inadequate support and mistrust of services. This review aimed to synthesize parent and practitioner experiences of support for parents with both mental health needs and children's social services involvement. We performed electronic searches of the following databases: PsycINFO, CINAHL, HMIC, MEDLINE, Embase, Social Policy and Practice, Social Services Abstracts, Social Science Citation Index, OpenGrey, Social Care Online, and ProQuest. Following searching and screening, 41 studies were identified including 359 parents and 1370 practitioners. We worked with a Lived Experience Advisory Group to develop the following themes: (1) a downward spiral of service intervention; (2) working with parents, not against them; (3) support wanted versus support provided; and (4) constrained by service rigidity. We found that families were often parenting amidst trauma and adversity. However, service involvement could trigger a "downward spiral" of stressful processes over which parents felt they lacked control. Instead of improving their situations, support sometimes added to families' difficulties, worsening parents' mental health and making them feel marginalised, criticised, and retraumatised. There were, however, also examples of positive practice, where practitioners and parents developed trusting, open, and mutually respectful relationships. Practitioners often felt that they were limited in their ability to offer collaborative, holistic care because services were fragmented, underfunded, crisis driven, and inflexible. Difficulties mentioned most often by parents, such as financial issues, tended not to be a focus of available interventions. We conclude that the key issues identified must be targeted to improve support. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The long‐term effects of childhood abuse have been well studied though the effects of abuse of specific types in adult psychiatric service users are less known. This study aimed to assess the association between childhood abuse and the development of harmful social and behavioural outcomes among adult psychiatric service users. Adult psychiatric service users were accessed from secondary mental health services in South London. A retrospective analysis was conducted of a randomly selected sample of 342 mental health records. Chi‐square tests and logistic regression models were used to examine associations between childhood abuse – sexual abuse, physical abuse and psychological/emotional abuse – and health and behavioural outcomes. This study identified that 109 (31.8%) psychiatric service users had some history of childhood abuse and more often presented with high‐risk or severe behaviours. Sexual abuse in childhood was linked with social isolation related to loss of friends (odds ratio (OR) = 2.68, P < 0.01), risky behaviours such as binge drinking (OR = 2.15, P < 0.05) and self‐harming (OR = 2.86, P < 0.01), while childhood physical abuse was associated with drug abuse in adulthood (OR = 1.88, P < 0.05). Revictimization (adult domestic violence) also impacted on service users' quality of life in terms of loss of housing (OR = 2.21, P < 0.05) and loss of friends/family contact (OR = 2.73, P < 0.01). These findings suggest childhood abuse may play an important role in shaping risk and vulnerability for mental health problems across a lifespan. In acute mental health services, the incorporation of a trauma‐informed nursing care model is necessary to generate a shift in culture in the delivery of care. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background Stigma related to mental illness affects all ethnic groups, contributing to the production and maintenance of mental illness and restricting access to care and support. However, stigma is especially prevalent in minority communities, thus potentially increasing ethnically based disparities. Little is known of the links between stigma and help-seeking for mental illness in African-descended populations in the UK. Objective and study design Building on the evidence that faith-based organizations (FBOs) can aid the development of effective public health strategies, this qualitative study used semi-structured interviews with faith groups to explore the complex ways in which stigma influences help-seeking for mental illness in African-descended communities. A thematic approach to data analysis was applied to the entire data set. Setting and participants Twenty-six men and women who had varying levels of involvement with Christian FBOs in south London were interviewed (e.g. six faith leaders, thirteen 'active members' and seven 'regular attendees'). Results Key factors influencing help-seeking behaviour were as follows: beliefs about the causes of mental illness; 'silencing' of mental illness resulting from heightened levels of ideological stigma; and stigma (re)production and maintenance at community level. Individuals with a diagnosis of mental illness were likely to experience a triple jeopardy in terms of stigma. Discussion and conclusion 'One-size-fits-all' approaches cannot effectively meet the needs of diverse populations. To ensure that services are more congruent with their needs, health and care organizations should enable service users, families and community members to become active creators of interventions to remove barriers to help-seeking for mental illness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Teenage pregnancy is associated with adverse health and social outcomes, even after adjusting for prior disadvantage, and is recognized as a major public health issue. Rates of teenage pregnancy in the UK are among the highest in Europe. Interventions introduced in the past decade to address the problem, such as improved sex and relationships education in schools, have been accompanied by a fall in teenage pregnancy rates in the UK. However, this decline has not been mirrored among looked‐after children. In this paper, we discuss why this may be the case. We suggest that a system of peer mentoring, involving a young person, whose experience of life post‐care has been positive, may be an effective approach to tackling the problem of pregnancy in this group. Peer mentoring has the potential to assist young people in developing self‐esteem, confidence and in making choices regarding their education, personal development and relationships. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the last decade, Britain has undergone reforms to promote engagement in local structures of governance. These reforms have encouraged the promotion of active citizenship and have been central to the government's public service modernisation agenda. This article presents the findings from a study evaluating a pilot outreach intervention which adopted a community engagement model to address the mental health needs of African and African Caribbean groups, which entailed a partnership between faith-based organisations, local public services and community organisations to co-produce the pilot project. Lay people were trained to raise awareness about mental health among these communities in South London. Between 2012 and 2013, a qualitative participatory approach was used to evaluate the pilot project, which enabled a researcher to take part in the engagement phase of the pilot project, and the project co-ordinators to be involved in the research process. Semi-structured, one-to-one interviews were carried out with 13 community and well-being champions ( CWBCs) recruited from African and African Caribbean communities (seven male and six female). This study examines the impact of the relationship between the intervention and community through the participants' engagement in the pilot outreach project and the action undertaken as champions. We found that although CWBCs used circles of influence to share ideas about mental health and well-being and to encourage change, they encountered resistance on the part of the people they engaged with, which resulted from a lack of knowledge about mental health, taboos and ascribed stigma. We argue that CWBCs acted as healthy examples to communicate mental health knowledge to those approached, but that they needed to be equipped with bespoke communication skills to be able to talk about such sensitive issues as mental health. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

'Looked after' young people are among the most disadvantaged members of our society. While their disadvantaged status should not be ignored, poor outcomes are often emphasised at the expense of good ones. This article reports a study that adopts the concept of resilience to understand the narratives of the participants' experience of care and foster care. A total of 15 young mothers, aged 16-19 and mainly from black African backgrounds, were interviewed. Despite lacking a 'secure base', informants invested in a sense of moral identity and a source of self-directedness, which enabled them to move from victim of circumstances to individuals who overcome their circumstances. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 1996, the Royal College of Psychiatrists recommended that all psychiatric facilities in the UK develop policies concerning sexuality and sexual expression for persons contained in those facilities. This paper analyses the prevalence and content of such policies in English forensic psychiatric facilities. While the College recommends an individualised approach to sexual and emotional relationships, most hospitals in fact either prohibit or actively discourage such expression as a matter of policy. The paper considers the advantages and disadvantages of that approach. The paper also considers the legal issues surrounding these policies, and in particular the legal authority for governing the sexual and emotional expression of hospital residents and the relevant human rights implications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although the UK has the highest levels of teenage pregnancy in Western Europe, and while adolescent mothering has received considerable recent attention from researchers, there is a paucity of research literature about the particular experiences of young women who become mothers in or following local authority care. Findings from our empirical study reveal the significance of risk and vulnerability faced by a group of fifty-five young mothers following their exit from care. This paper explores the impact of risk and vulnerability and also highlights that although pregnancy may not be a planned activity, young women demonstrate choice and rationality in their decision to become mothers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]