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Background: Early childhood teachers (ECTs) play a significant role in equipping children with oral language and emergent literacy skills ahead of school entry. They are well positioned to play a vital role in ensuring preschool children receive a high‐quality preschool curriculum to prepare them for later literacy learning. Aims: The purpose of this study was to explore early career ECTs' views and confidence regarding their role in providing preschoolers with oral language and emergent literacy support and to examine their perceptions of their preservice preparation. Methods & Procedures: Nine Australian early career ECTs were recruited via purposive sampling for an in‐depth, semi‐structured interview. Data were analysed using an inductive thematic analysis approach. Outcomes & Results: Participants attached strong significance to their role in facilitating children's oral language growth and emergent literacy skills and reported a range of practices to support children's learning. However, they rarely referred to using established language facilitation strategies or using dialogic book reading prompts. Further, emergent literacy concepts such as phonological awareness and print awareness were not routinely described as features of participants' classroom activities. Participants did not consistently make a clear conceptual distinction between the constructs of oral language and emergent literacy and often used these terms interchangeably. Notably, participants indicated that they did not feel confident in their ability to identify preschool children who were not meeting developmental language milestones and reported that they felt poorly equipped to do so by their preservice training. Conclusions & Implications: ECTs' strong willingness to support preschool children's oral language and emergent literacy skills may be hindered by gaps in their knowledge; these may contribute to important and missed opportunities for identifying and supporting preschoolers' oral language and emergent literacy growth. What this paper adds: What is already known on this subject?: High‐quality learning experiences in preschool are important for maximising preschoolers' oral language and emergent literacy growth. Early childhood teachers can play an important role in facilitating this development and preparing children for later literacy learning. What this paper adds to existing knowledge?: The study findings provide insight into ECTs' perceptions of their role and support in developing children's oral language and emergent literacy skills. The results indicated ECTs did not feel confident with their knowledge of children's language milestones or identifying children with language difficulties. Participants reported that their preservice training left them underprepared in the area of oral language. What are the potential or actual clinical implications of this work?: ECTs demonstrated a strong willingness to support preschoolers' oral language and emergent literacy skills. However, their self‐reported knowledge gaps and low confidence may have implications for the early detection of children who are not reaching language developmental milestones in a timely way. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Alcohol and other drug (AOD) nurse practitioners have an advanced scope of practice that allows them to diagnose, prescribe pharmacological treatments for alcohol and other substance use disorders, and monitor physical and mental health. The Behaviour Change Wheel (BCW) is used to understand barriers and facilitators to implementation by applying three conditions of behaviour change (capability, opportunity, and motivation—the COM‐B framework). The aim of this paper is to describe the current AOD nurse practitioner workforce, and to explore barriers and facilitators to AOD nurse practitioner uptake in Australia. A mixed method approach was used in this study: a survey to determine the current state of the AOD nurse practitioner workforce (n = 41) and qualitative interviews with 14 participants to determine barriers to endorsement and ongoing work as a nurse practitioner. Interview transcripts were analysed using thematic analysis and mapped to the COM‐B framework. The AOD nurse practitioner is a highly specialized provider of holistic care to people who use alcohol and other drugs, with AOD nurse practitioners performing advanced roles such as prescribing and medication management. However, there are several barriers to the further uptake of AOD nurse practitioners in Australia, including varied organizational support, a lack of support for the higher study required to become a nurse practitioner and a lack of available positions. Arguably, nurse practitioners are key to addressing prescriber shortages inherent in AOD treatment settings. In addition, they are equipped to provide true holistic care. We recommend that barriers are addressed to expand the AOD nurse practitioner workforce in Australia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Within Australia, the introduction of the National Disability Insurance Scheme has led to a growth in paediatric occupational therapists working in community settings. This growth has increased the demand for support from more senior paediatric occupational therapists to novice clinicians. Mentoring has long been valued by occupational therapists as a means to provide this support. Despite its apparent benefit, there is limited research on the contribution of mentoring as distinct from supervision, and its impact on mentees' skills and confidence in providing care. This study examined the contribution of mentorship to the development of professional capability in paediatric occupational therapy practice from the perspective of mentors and mentees. Methods: Interpretive description methodology was used. In‐depth interviews were conducted with nine mentors and eight mentees from three Australian states. Data were analysed inductively and thematically. Findings: All participants reflected on the challenges presented by the complexity of practice, requiring a knowledge base that mentees perceived they did not possess. The essential nature of non‐judgemental, emotional support allowed mentees to feel safe to discuss their concerns when they were often overwhelmed by practice. Mentorship was viewed as capacity building, building competence by scaffolding clinical reasoning and supporting theory to practice translation while developing resilience to cope with complexity. Conclusion: Study participants reported that successful mentorship assisted novice practitioners to integrate knowledge and skills required for complex clinical and professional reasoning. The emotional support provided through the relationship supported novice therapists to build their confidence and resilience while promoting professional identity and socialisation into the profession. The study raised questions related to how the profession best supports novice paediatric therapists in the current employment contexts, and the need to review how bodies of knowledge relevant to paediatrics are brought together to be used by both novice clinicians and senior therapists, who support them, for translation to effective practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Access to treatments for mood disorders may pose a challenge to individuals with compromised communication ability. Speech–language pathologists (SLPs) have previously reported that their clients with aphasia decline formal psychological support; however, their role in their clients' help‐seeking has not been explored. Aims: To investigate SLPs' perspectives on how they currently support help‐seeking for mood problems in people with aphasia and factors they perceive to be impacting service uptake. Methods & Procedures: A qualitative interview study was conducted. SLPs in Australia working with people with aphasia in a clinical role were recruited. Transcripts of the interviews were subject to qualitative analysis to identify relevant themes. Outcomes & Results: Eighteen interviews were conducted. One overarching theme and three sub‐themes were identified as central to SLPs' experience. The overarching theme was of a 'double whammy' impact on help‐seeking: people with aphasia were subject to universal barriers associated with seeking help as well as additional barriers imposed by compromised communication. Three themes contributed to the overarching theme: (1) SLPs' understanding of barriers and facilitators to patients with aphasia seeking help; (2) the role of the SLP as a skilled helper for mood management; and (3) mood and communication as competing rehabilitation priorities. Conclusions & Implications: SLPs report both universal barriers to help‐seeking and those specific to their clients with aphasia and attempts to overcome these; however, there appears to be a dearth of accessible mental health services for people with aphasia known to SLPs, including psychological/counselling professionals who are skilled in communicating with people with aphasia. Health professionals working within and across post‐stroke and mental health services should recognize that people with post‐stroke aphasia are susceptible to a decline in mental health, are amenable to formal (and tailored) psychological support, and can be supported to seek help. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Depression is the most prevalent mental illness among older adults. However, help‐seeking by older adults is frequently delayed, resulting in longer duration of untreated symptoms, poorer health outcomes, and consequent higher healthcare use. Early help‐seeking and access to appropriate support benefits individuals, while providing better outcomes from health systems constrained by limited resources. The aim of this study, which is abstracted from a larger study, was to identify the factors that inhibited and enabled formal help‐seeking in older adults with a diagnosis of moderate depression. Corbin and Strauss' approach to grounded theory informed data collection and analysis. Two themes and related subthemes concerning help‐seeking barriers and facilitators were abstracted from the data. Help‐seeking barriers were attributable to stigma, self‐motivation, accessing formal support, ageism, and difficulty obtaining an initial diagnosis. Help‐seeking facilitators were accepting personal responsibility, mental health literacy, therapeutic alliances, and informal support. Findings have implications for the role of mental health nurses, who are well‐placed to provide support to community‐based older adults with depression. More broadly, mental health nurses and other clinicians should seek to reduce help‐seeking barriers and implement ways to facilitate help‐seeking in this cohort. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]