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Since the 1990s, New Zealand mental health policy has shifted from a focus on the management of symptoms and risk to the recovery of psychological, social, cultural, and physical well‐being. Despite a vision for recovery‐oriented services being integrated within national and regional policies, there is growing concern that barriers to recovery‐oriented service provision continue to exist. Such barriers include the attitudes, skills, and knowledge of front‐line staff, as well as system issues. This study explored the experience and meaning of recovery‐oriented practice for 10 nurses working in an acute inpatient mental health service. A phenomenological and hermeneutic lens was used to explore the nurses' experience of working in a recovery‐focused manner alongside service users. Stories of practice were collected from participants through open‐ended conversational interviews. Transcribed narratives were analysed to explore taken‐for‐granted aspects of working in acute mental health care and to uncover the meaning of being recovery‐oriented in this setting. Findings revealed that although the experience and meaning of recovery‐focused care varied among nurses, there were common elements in the practice accounts. The accounts highlighted the nurses' role in creating different therapeutic spaces to promote safety, relational commitment, and healing for service users. However, the nurses faced challenges to recovery‐oriented care within the team hierarchical culture and the broader service systems. The nurses were, at times, fearless in advocating for service users and recognized that this was essential for developing recovery‐focused services. The findings have implications for nursing practice, as well as training and service development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Conducting and documenting a mental health assessment is considered a central activity from a clinical and organizational perspective. In recent years, thinking and practice in mental health service delivery has changed considerably to embrace principles of recovery, trauma‐informed care, and strengths‐based approaches. The aim of the present study was to determine the degree to which these concepts are reflected in the content of assessment formats across mental health services in Australia and New Zealand. Copies of mental health assessments used in each state and territory in Australia, and three District Health Boards in New Zealand were obtained. Assessment formats were compared for similarities and differences, and to determine whether concepts of recovery, trauma‐informed care, and strengths‐based approaches were incorporated. The assessment formats analysed (n = 11) contained many traditional features targeted at identifying harms, problems, risks, and pathology. Some attempts to redress this discrepancy were evident. Overall, assessment formats did not adequately voice the individual's perspective or promote a truly comprehensive assessment through an exploration of individual strengths, skills and abilities, past successes, and future hopes. Assessment formats across Australia and New Zealand are not currently aligned with contemporary thinking and practice in mental health care. Given the heavy influence that mental health assessment has on clinical decision making in particular, a reappraisal of the focus and content of formats used is urgently required. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]