An Exploration of Military Ex-service and Veterans’ Experiences of Mental Health Services and the Support Needs of Their Families: An Evaluation of Engagement with Services in South Staffordshire - Executive Board Report for the South Staffordshire and Shropshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust

This report summarizes the pilot stage results of an evaluation study of veterans’ engagement with and experience of Veterans Support Service at the South Staffordshire and Shropshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust over a period of 6 months, during 2014-15. It was envisaged that the study will enable better understanding of veteran’s needs and experiences of mental health difficulties, as well as the emotional support needs of their families. The results of the pilot stage of the evaluation study supports the following conclusions: • The South Staffordshire Veterans' Support Service (VSS) has undergone a positive change: by comparison with the conclusions of the previous evaluation (Dent-Brown et al, 2010) the service was unanimously evaluated by service users as being a very useful resource. • Veterans’ appreciated that the service staff had military background and/or knowledge about military and felt that this facilitated their engagement with the service especially in the early stages of attending the service; Moreover, the service users found that the personal and professional qualities of the clinical staff were of vital importance and made a significant contribution to their better outcomes. • Majority of service users felt able to talk to their GPs about their difficulties and be referred to VSS by their GPs, and an important role was played by the GPs willingness to understand the special circumstances of veterans. • The service users felt that major barriers in their positive transition were the lack on employment, connection with community and support. The pilot evaluation study makes the following recommendations for future developments: - Whilst service users’ positive evaluation of the service is an important premise to its effectiveness, in order to ascertain the effectiveness of the service, an audit of service users’ outcomes, including measure pre- and post- treatment is of essence. - Whilst maintaining a model of service led by a professional with military background appear a preferred option, this should be coupled with training and education for professionals in the specific circumstances of the veterans as well as succession and cover plans in place to preserve the relationships of the service with service users. - Family involvement in the assessment and treatment of veterans’ difficulties in their transition is vital to increase sustained engagement with the service and interventions and to support the family of veteran. - To consolidate the above conclusions the pilot study should be expanded to include a higher number of participants – ideally an entire 1 year cohort of service users attending the service

Challenges in Evaluation of Intervention Programmes with Children: Reflections from a Research(er) Perspective

This paper will review some of the challenges that researchers, evaluators and designers of intervention programme for vulnerable children may encounter. The challenges considered in the present paper are around methodological issues, specifically the issues of validity of outcome measures; and service users’ involvement, particularly children’s perspectives, in research evaluation. The author draws on extensive experience of conducting research on evaluating the outcomes of interventions for looked after children in the UK and the article invites the reader to reflect upon some of these challenges

Filling the Gap? Romanian Social Workers’“Migration” Into the UK

The recent past decades have seen an increased transnational mobility among internationally educated social workers. For example, the UK social work system has seen an increased level of social workers recruited from abroad in certain fields of practice, mainly due to the staff shortage. This opinion paper aims to draw attention to the challenges faced by internationally qualified social workers in their efforts to integrate and adapt their practice to the UK system, with a focus on Romanian social workers, identified as a numerically significant group of ‘trained abroad’ social workers. The paper also highlights the lack of research available to understand the factors contributing to the social work professional immigration into the UK and is examining the connection between professional acculturation and successful practice. The article aims to act as a call for research and collaboration between social work providers and professional regulatory bodies, both in Romania and UK, as well as employers in order to develop focused research and practice guidance in this area

The Changing Face of Adoption in England: Opportunities and Dilemmas

The Coalition Government in England has recently undertaken a radical review of adoption services. Informed by business and managerial principles, the government strategy, ‘An Action Plan for Adoption: Tackling Delay’ (DfE, 2012a), is designed to increase the number of adoptions, widen the pool of adoptive applicants and reduce the costs occurred by keeping children unnecessarily in the looked after system of care. The new strategy has been opposed by many in the social work profession who fear that a speeding up of the adoption process will erode social work values and practice. Previous governments have attempted to bring about radical change in adoption practices across England, but with little success. The paper reviews some of the dilemmas raised by the new adoption proposals, such as the opportunity to bring about success and to change the outcomes for children needing adoption as supported by the body of research into the potential positive effects of adoption on children’s outcome. However the paper is questioning whether managerialist tools such as league tables of local authority performance have any place in child-centred adoption practice

A Taste of Research: Reflections on a Summer Vacation Research Assistantship

Research is closely intertwined in teaching and learning psychology as a science-based discipline and various methods are used to enable psychology students to grasp the nature of psychological research. VRA (Vacation Research Assistantship) schemes give students the unique opportunity to ‘taste’ what research is truly about, and develop important skills and knowledge in the process and ‘test’ their interest in a research career. VRAs provide a research-based teaching providing an experiential approach to learning, where both the student and educator are engaged as partners in the research process, reducing the role division between student and educator. This paper reflects on a VRA process and outcomes in respect of student learning and experience using as framework the teaching –research nexus (Griffiths, 2004). Both student’s and educator’s reflections are discussed as well as directions for future developments and research

Parenting Under Fire: An Ecological Perspective on Understanding Child Maltreatment in Military Families

Child maltreatment in any family or family-substitute context is a matter of great and on-going societal concern due to its negative consequence upon the child’s development and well-being. An emerging body of research primarily from the US argues the need to address child abuse and neglect in the military family context (McCarroll et al, 2008) suggesting that certain features of military family life may act as risk factors (Gibbs et al, 2007, 2008; Rentz et al., 2006, 2007). However, its occurrence has to be understood in the context of previous abuse pattern and/or experience prior to the individual being enrolled in military service (Martin et al., 2007) as well as other forms of family violence. The paper will propose an ecological model (Bronfenbrenner, 2005) for conceptualizing the risk and protective factors for child abuse and neglect in military families along with a strategy for operationalizing its basic tenets through a process of systematic review and meta-analysis of research findings. The findings will be discussed in light of their implications for practice, further research and methodological challenges

Romania's "orphans" : developmental adjustment of adolescents growing up in childcare institutions in Romania

The fall of Ceausescu in 1989 drew attention from the Western media to the plight of children raised in Romanian `orphanages'. Over a decade later, Romania is still fighting the `institutionalised children crisis', despite receiving Western help to improve its childcare system, and having repeatedly undertaken failed reforms. Since its application for EU membership in 1995, Romania has been asked to address this problem as a matter of priority, owing to concerns about the negative impact of institutional rearing upon child development. This research addressed these concerns through a study of 100 adolescents (50 boys and 50 girls, aged 12 to 16) growing up in state childcare institutions in Romania. They were compared with 100 teenagers of similar age and gender distribution growing up with both their parents and attending the same schools as the institutionalised teenagers. Developmental outcomes (attachment to adult figures and peers, behavioural and emotional strengths and difficulties, intellectual development, school performance and family connectedness) were assessed using both quantitative and qualitative methods. The outcome variables were further examined in relation to potential mediating factors, such as: age at admission into institutional care and length of institutional placement; family experience prior to admission; and amount of contact with parents/families during institutional placement and the presencelabsence of a sibling within same the residential unit. The research examined past and present childcare policies and practices in Romania, exploring the factors leading to high numbers of children being in institutional care, and the quality of childcare. This research is particularly important because no systematic studies have previously been conducted with children living in state care institutions in Romania. It enables comparison with studies of Romanian `orphans' adopted internationally in the early 1990s, and the findings reflect a configuration of adjustment difficulties which differs from that reported by these studies. Age at admission into institutional care and length of time spent in institutional care were not related to any of the measured outcomes, suggesting that assumptions of `institutional deprivation' should be reconsidered. Moreover, the quality of relationships with caregivers, family members and teachers can act as important mediating factors suggesting that emphasis must now be placed on a multi-disciplinary, problem-solving approach to childcare in Romania.EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceNewcastle Centre for Family Studies : Committee of Vice-Chancellors and Principals of the Universities of the United Kingdom : University of Newcastle upon Tyne : Open Society Institute, New YorkGBUnited Kingdo

Navigating the Same Storm but Not in the Same Boat: Mental Health Vulnerability and Coping in Women University Students During the First COVID-19 Lockdown in the UK

Having a mental health diagnosis in both general and student populations has been found to be a risk factor for negative coping and increased psychological distress during the COVID-19 pandemic. Drawing on a subset of data from a large contemporaneous research study, this report explores the experiences of 36 women students with and without reported pre-existing mental health diagnoses during the first UK lockdown, in spring 2020. Specifically, the data explored self-reported coping with the restrictions, with the abrupt move to online learning, and the loss of support; as well as students' perceived strengths and difficulties in balancing their student role with family roles such as being a partner and/or a parent. Students with a pre-existing mental health diagnosis reported higher levels of loneliness compared to a matched sample of non-students, and more avoidant coping and negative emotional coping than students without a diagnosis. Qualitative data illustrate how parenting intersects with well-being and stress as both a protective and risk factor for women university students. This research report adds to the evidence base on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the student population, and how pre-existing mental health diagnoses intersect with coping behaviours and vulnerability in women students. Exploration of potential vulnerabilities can provide opportunities for targeted support, and identifying effective coping has the potential to inform effective interventions