'Think football': exploring a football for mental health initiative delivered in the community through the lens of personal and social recovery

The practice and discourse of mental health recovery is evolving, with increasing appreciation given to personal recovery and now social recovery. It therefore follows that we need initiatives that enhance levels of social capital, positive social identities and social inclusion within the community, not just within mental health services. These initiatives must bring people together in ways that allow them to feel that they have ownership of any new social infrastructures and use evidence-based frameworks to evaluate them. One context that has been given some consideration is the use of community sport. This paper therefore contributes to the steadily growing literature in this area by exploring the specifics of a community mental health football project, through the utilisation of the personal and social recovery frameworks that have been established within the ‘mainstream’ mental health evidence base. This relativist study utilised seventeen semi-structured interviews (with participants and staff) and, as a deliberate departure from existing research, chose to adopt a deductive, theoretical approach to the analysis that located the data within the personal recovery and social recovery literature. Both participants and staff were considerably positive about the sessions, and data suggested an adherence to the empirically based CHIME personal recovery framework. In terms of alignment with the social recovery concepts, the data was particularly robust in supporting active citizenship processes, which can increase levels of social capital and enhance social identities. Future work is required to further explore the contextual impact of poverty and employment, and the role that sport can potentially play

An ethnographic study exploring football sessions for medium-secure mental health service-users: utilising the CHIME conceptual framework as an evaluative tool

A key part of developing an understanding of ‘what works’ within the evolving mental health recovery evidence base is finding ways of service-users (and their friends and family) and practitioners working collaboratively. This interaction is slowly shifting practice, whereby care is potentially co-constructed in a setting between those involved to facilitate recovery-oriented processes. Increasingly, mental health services are appreciating the potential role of sport. This study adds to this body of literature by providing analysis of a football project in a medium-secure service context. This study also expands the methodological and theoretical scope of the literature by adopting an ethnographic approach and by utilising the CHIME conceptual framework as an evaluative tool. 47 participants were involved in the study, which included service-users, staff and volunteers. The data demonstrated that these sessions have considerable links to the CHIME processes, and can therefore be considered to enhance personal recovery for those involved

Using student data: Student-staff collaborative development of compassionate pedagogic interventions based on learning analytics and mentoring

UK Universities are increasingly being ‘encouraged’ to focus on student engagement, retention and performance, with learning analytics becoming commonplace. Based on inter-related student-staff partnerships, this study adopted a human and compassionate approach to the use of student data and subsequent interventions. Analysis of focus group and interview data from 86 student participants explored key themes: peer-mentoring increasing engagement with the communal-habitus; increased confidence and engagement; and the demystification and humanisation of the university environment. Findings highlight the importance of emphasising human and compassionate support for students within rapidly developing learning analytics approaches, with subject-specific peer-mentoring found here to be beneficial

Embedding physical activity into community-based peer support groups for those severely affected by mental illness

Despite a growing evidence base on the effectiveness of community-based physical activity interventions for mental health, there is a lack of studies that focus on those affected by severe mental illness (SMI), who often experience poorer physical health, and are less physically active than the wider population. The use of peer support groups in this context is also understudied, despite benefits being documented in other contexts. This study examined the impact and process of a nationwide project to embed physical activity into peer support groups for those affected by SMI. Following the embedding of physical activity within peer support groups, interviews and focus groups were conducted to explore the experiences of those involved with the project and analysed using reflexive thematic analysis. The key findings related to: 1) the social aspects of embedding physical activity in the groups; 2) the focus on peer support and informal physical activity (rather than organised sport) being beneficial; 3) doing things differently and lessons to learn; and 4) the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. Overall, we found that peer support is an important feature to include in projects encouraging those severely affected by mental illness to become more physically active

Regional microbial signatures positively correlate with differential wine phenotypes: evidence for a microbial aspect to terroir

Many crops display differential geographic phenotypes and sensorial signatures, encapsulated by the concept of terroir. The drivers behind these differences remain elusive, and the potential contribution of microbes has been ignored until recently. Significant genetic differentiation between microbial communities and populations from different geographic locations has been demonstrated, but crucially it has not been shown whether this correlates with differential agricultural phenotypes or not. Using wine as a model system, we utilize the regionally genetically differentiated population of Saccharomyces cerevisiae in New Zealand and objectively demonstrate that these populations differentially affect wine phenotype, which is driven by a complex mix of chemicals. These findings reveal the importance of microbial populations for the regional identity of wine, and potentially extend to other important agricultural commodities. Moreover, this suggests that long-term implementation of methods maintaining differential biodiversity may have tangible economic imperatives as well as being desirable in terms of employing agricultural practices that increase responsible environmental stewardship

Setting up a Recovery College: Exploring the Experiences of Mental Health Service-Users, Staff, Carers and Volunteers

Following the first recovery college being established in 2009, there has been considerable growth in the number of colleges internationally as they have become established features of service transformations. This is the first study that has holistically explored setting up a recovery college from the combined perspectives of service-users, staff, carers and volunteers involved in the development process. An interpretative phenomenological analysis was undertaken following 25 semi-structured interviews. Results included three key themes of ‘Challenges in the early stages of development’; ‘Having a shared understanding of recovery’; and the ‘Conceptualisation of Recovery Colleges’. This study demonstrated that, as well as future groups seeking to set up a recovery college having clear conceptualisations of personal recovery and the underpinning approach of their recovery college, they should actively manage the level of integration between the college and its host organisation, with open conversations about the power imbalances and roles of service-users, staff, carers and volunteers involved. Those planning to develop a college should also be mindful that although there will be the early challenges as outlined in this study, there are broader benefits for both individuals and the wider organisation via the process of planning and discussions of how to implement co-produced, recovery-oriented practice such as a recovery college