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There is established evidence that discrepancy rates in referral thresholds from GPs to secondary care services as high as 10-fold exist between individual GPs. Andrew Molodynski et al looked systematically at the amount and quality of referrals to the secondary care team in order to identify any issues and develop support for referrers to make the process as smooth as possible.

Mental health studies often recruit a low number of participants and Welcome Trust data have shown that less than a third of the trials successfully achieved their recruitment targets within the time frame given. The authors at the Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust surveyed community staff to analyse the barriers to mental health research studies but also to uncover strategies for the future, which have the potential to shift the balance towards better patient recruitment into research and ultimately to secure future care informed by robust evidence.

Research is critical in advancing health care and improving outcomes for patients. The NHS constitution1 pledges to inform patients of research that they may be eligible to participate in. However, this often does not occur and can be particularly challenging in mental health services, with a number of barriers causing difficulties. Here the authors explore some of the reasons for difficulties in recruiting patients to mental health studies and offer a potential solution.

Many people with psychiatric disorders are unable to find suitable employment or adequate support to maintain it. The MINI ICF-APP allows for focused monitoring of areas where support is needed. The authors assessed the usability, acceptability and usefulness of the MINI ICF-APP within a community mental health team to establish whether this instrument really can improve identification and the targeting of evidence-based employment interventions for those with psychiatric disorders.