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There is a long history of dissension among legal and mental health professionals about the value of child custody evaluations. Despite frequent use by the courts, the lack of adequate empirical research impedes the ability to validate the efficacy of child custody evaluations. This study investigated the overall value of court‐ordered child custody evaluations by surveying a diverse, national sample of judges to gather data regarding the usefulness, and validity of child custody evaluations. Two hundred and sixty‐eight judges from 42 states completed an anonymous survey. The results indicated that judges find information voiced by the child in question, data obtained from the parent–child observations, and collateral data obtained about the litigants as most useful. Survey findings suggested judges perceived there to be a shortage of trained evaluators and also consider child custody evaluations too expensive and too time‐consuming. Overall, judges find child custody evaluations useful and clearly desire experts to include recommendations on legal custody and parenting time schedules in their reports. Key points for the family court community: Survey results indicated that judges find information voiced by the child in question, data obtained from the parent–child observations, and collateral data obtained about the litigants as the most useful elements of child custody evaluations.Judges perceived there to be a shortage of trained child custody evaluators and also considered child custody evaluations too expensive and too time‐consuming.Judges concluded that child custody evaluations are useful and clearly desire experts to include recommendations on legal custody and parenting time schedules in their reports.Most judges reported they would exclude a child custody evaluation or parts of it if convincing evidence were presented that the evaluator did not meet legal standards or ethical guidelines, even though most had never done so.Evaluators should reexamine the focus of child custody evaluations to present more child‐centered reports to the court based on the data obtained in this study that judges want to know more about the child or children in question. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Accessible Summary: Many people with learning disabilities need mental health services at some point in their lives.This paper looks at how health and social care professionals (e.g. doctors, nurses and psychologists) think about people with learning disabilities who also have mental health problems.The research shows that health and social care professionals who do not work in learning disability services are not comfortable working with people with learning disabilities because they do not know enough about them and have not had proper training.Health and social care professionals also have negative views of people with learning disabilities. They prefer it if a specially designed mental health service takes on the work with people with learning disabilities.Having more training can help health and social care professionals to become more confident in this work. Background: People with learning disabilities have poorer access to mental health services. It is important for health and social care professionals to have adequate knowledge and skills combined with positive attitudes to work with this population. This review focuses on the knowledge, attitudes and perceptions of health and social care professionals who provide mental health services to people with learning disabilities. Method: A systematic literature search was carried out to identify quantitative studies published in the English language between 2006 and 2020. Results: Thirteen studies were identified that met the inclusion criteria. The studies identified a lack of knowledge and competency among health and social care professionals to address the mental health needs of people with learning disabilities. Health and social care professionals in these studies viewed people with learning disabilities are more vulnerable and suggested specialist mental health services to cater to their specific mental health needs. Conclusions: Health and social care professionals appear to hold negative views of people with learning disabilities, which adversely influences their willingness to work with them. It is recommended that health and social care professionals receive more training opportunities to increase their skills and develop confidence in providing services to this population. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mental illness is a neglected issue all over the world. The development of negligence towards mental illness could be due to the stigmatized attitudes. Also, social stigma due to mental illness is prevalent in many south Asian countries. In Bangladesh, the condition is even worse than regional data in Asia. The general people consider media as a primary source of information about mental health. However, mental health professionals (MHP) have direct contact with psychiatric patients and their family members. Therefore, both MHP and media professionals (MP) have a role in reducing social stigma due to mental illness. The present study aimed to identify attitudes of MHP and MP towards each other in reducing social stigma due to mental illness. We conducted a cross‐sectional online survey among 174 participants (80 MHP and 94 MP). We used two sets of self‐reporting questionnaires to assess the attitudes of MHP and MP towards one another. Also, we collected and analyzed sociodemographic profiles of study participants. We observed significant differences in terms of their profession‐related statements between MHP and MP. Also, we have seen significant gaps between MHP and MP in terms of their complete agreement on attitude‐related aspects. However, most respondents agreed that stigma due to mental illness is a vital problem in Bangladesh. Moreover, maximum participants accepted that the current public images about psychiatry and media role in reducing social stigma need to be improved. We observed gap between MHP and MP in their roles and beliefs in reducing social stigma due to mental illness in Bangladesh. Reciprocal training and awareness programs would help them in reducing social stigma due to mental illness. The findings of the present study would help to sort out the possible areas for interventions. However, the present study has few limitations; therefore, we recommend further studies with more homogeneous and large samples to make better conclusion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: To systematically review evidence regarding prevalence and choices of disclosure of psychological distress, by mental health professionals within the workplace. Methods: Six databases were searched in June 2020. Studies were included if they were published in English language and included empirical quantitative, qualitative or mixed‐methods data. Studies were excluded if they focused on general healthcare professionals or the general population, or on stress or physical health problems. Study quality was assessed using the Mixed Methods Quality Appraisal tool. Results: Nine studies, with a total of 1891 participants, were included. Study quality varied, with studies generally reporting descriptive surveys using hypothetical disclosure scenarios. Distress was often conceptualized in psychiatric terms. These limitations mean conclusions should be treated with caution. Individuals were less likely to disclose in work and had negative experiences of doing so compared to social circles. Fear of stigma inhibited disclosure. There were differing levels of disclosure relating to recipient, trust, quality of supervision, how distress was conceptualized, and type of problem. Disclosure was experienced by some as valuable. Conclusion: There is a need for further research, which addresses the nuanced complexities surrounding disclosure choices for mental health professionals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Unaccompanied refugee minors (URMs) are a population at risk of mental health problems and a population with whom the therapeutic alliance can be difficult to set up. The therapeutic alliance's quality can impact the result and effectiveness of psychotherapeutic interventions. The aim of the present study was to gather URMs' points of view about mental health services and mental health professionals (MHP) in the host country. A summary of interviews conducted with URMs will allow a better understanding of their perception and expectations. Methods: Seven databases were searched with English and French keywords. In the end, nine studies were selected. Results: The review of the interviews shows that URMs do not have a clear perception of MHP – it seems difficult for them to trust MHP, but also to understand the value of sharing past painful experiences to reduce current symptoms. They can have a negative perception of mental health and consider that this is not a priority. URMs prefer to focus on day‐to‐day problems, do activity‐based interventions and do group sessions to value social interactions. Conclusions: Clinical and methodological implications are discussed. The development of an instrument to evaluate therapeutic care for URMs could be interesting for future research and for clinicians. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mental health recovery is an enabling process encouraging consumers to live a productive life, notwithstanding the presence of debilitating symptoms of illness. The recovery model has been integrated into all areas of mental health. However, literature shows that mental health professionals are not equipped to provide recovery‐oriented care to consumers. Researchers have recommended recovery‐based interventions to develop knowledge, attitudes, and skills to promote recovery‐oriented practice in mental health, yet there is a paucity of research regarding the effect of recovery‐oriented interventions on the knowledge and attitudes of mental health professionals to improve recovery‐oriented practice. Therefore, the purpose of the current review is to understand the effectiveness of interventions on recovery knowledge and attitudes of mental health professionals regarding recovery‐oriented practice. The papers were identified through the Population Intervention Comparison and Outcome strategy. The heterogeneity of the selected papers led to a narrative review instead of a systematic review with meta‐analysis. The analysis suggested that recovery‐based interventions are effective in enhancing the recovery knowledge and attitudes of mental health professionals. Recovery‐based interventions have the potential to reduce the use of physical restraints and improve work satisfaction among mental health professionals. The limitations of the studies were the heterogeneity of the selected populations and the absence of strong methodologies to assess the effect of the interventions. Therefore, future investigations should be focused on the effect of interventions on a homogeneous group using randomized controlled trials. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recovery is internationally recognized as a concept to improve the well‐being of consumers. Compared with the numerous measures assessing consumer perspectives of recovery, only a few measures have been developed to assess Mental Health Professionals' (MHPs) perspectives of recovery to inform practice. The present study aims to systematically review the literature to identify existing measures designed to assess MHPs' perspectives of recovery and evaluate their psychometric properties, and the methodological considerations of the design and use of these measures. We searched literature across eight electronic databases: MEDLINE, Web of Science, PsycINFO, PsyArticles, CINAHL, Scopus, EMBASE, and Google scholar. We identified 2631 articles across all databases. Of these, 40 articles met the inclusion criteria, which comprised 14 original measures assessing mental health recovery and 26 articles reassessing the psychometric properties of the original 14 measures. Our results suggested that while there are existing measures for assessing MHPs' perspectives of recovery, only a few of these measures met standard evaluation criteria for psychometric properties. Specifically, the validation of the identified measures is still in its infancy. For example, the easiness of applying the measures differs among the studies, and only a few of the measures fully involved consumers in the scale development phase. The implication of the findings for future use and development of recovery measures in mental health practice and research are discussed and recommended. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Though growing numbers of peer support workers are employed in the UK National Health Service (NHS), conflicts persist between core values of peer support and values which exert power within these services. Objectives: To explore what NHS mental health professionals value about the peer support worker role. Design: Five professionals from different professions and mental health settings were interviewed twice. The first interviews explored their experiences of working with peers. Transcripts were analysed using discourse analysis and psychosocial theory. Second interviews allowed participants to respond to the analysis and influence subsequent analysis. Results: Mental health professionals valued peers for the deeply empathic, relational approach they brought, based in their subjective experience. Peer work was also valued for the affect‐focused quality of this work, and the challenge peers pose to existing values in mental health services. The values of peer support troubled dominant ways of working based in forms of knowledge that favour objectivity and hence encountered challenges. Conclusions: Peers fulfil the role of amplifying the status of diverse forms of knowledge, values and related ways of working that have become marginalized in NHS mental health services. It is important that peers are not seen as an isolated solution to the marginalization of these forms of knowledge and values, but that their way of working becomes reflected in other roles whilst evoking change throughout these services. Patient or Public Contribution: Patient and Public Involvement groups were consulted both in the design and analysis stages of the study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on a survey conducted in 2018 in collaboration with the Association of Family and Conciliation Courts' (AFCC) Task Force on Parenting Coordination, this paper explores issues related to the process and perceived outcomes of parenting coordination for families post separation and divorce. The views expressed emerge from a diverse and multidisciplinary sample (n = 289) from legal, mental health, and conflict resolution backgrounds. Almost half of all participants (46%) were mental health professionals (psychologist, psychiatrist, social worker), followed by attorneys (28%), family mediators (17%) and judges (5%). Over half of all participants identified as a parenting coordinator (PC) (53%). Based on the results, participants had the highest level of agreement that the goal of parenting coordination should be to assist in sheltering the children from parental conflict and to help the coparents reduce interparental conflict. Participants assigned greater success to parenting coordination when there was demonstration that coparenting conflict decreased. Several differences were noted among professional disciplines and specifically between legal and mental health professionals. Mental health professionals rated higher on the effectiveness of PCs to help children adjust and limit their involvement in the parental conflict, while legal professionals focused on PCs' ability to help families resolve legal disputes. The implications of the results are discussed, including how best to measure the success of parenting coordination and to prioritize outcomes related to the success of parenting coordination across disciplines to create greater consistency in the field. Key Points for the Family Court Community:The role and functions of parenting coordination varies across jurisdictions.There remains a lack of agreement on the use of standard and objective outcomes to measure the effectiveness of parenting coordination.There are various types of interventions and approaches used by PCs to assist families post separation and divorce.PCs with mental health backgrounds tend to focus on helping children adjust to parental conflict, while PCs who are legal professionals are more likely to focus on the PCs' ability to help families resolve legal disputes.Despite recent calls to involve children within the parenting coordination process, children largely remain excluded from the process.The current study is important because it responds to the calls for empirical evidence to examine the process and outcomes related to parenting coordination and demonstrates the need for additional research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This review was conducted to synthesize and critically appraise the literature on knowledge, attitudes, understanding, perceptions, and expectations of mental health professionals (MHPs) and mental health professional (MHP) students' regarding recovery. A systematic search in Scopus, CINAHL, PsycINFO, Web of Science, Medline, and Embase as well as Google scholar and web‐based repositories was conducted. The searches were conducted using a combination of key terms: "mental health professionals", "students", 'knowledge', "understanding", "perception" "attitude", "expectation", "recovery". After screening and quality assessment, the review included 29 studies (18 quantitative, 8 qualitative, and 3 mixed‐method studies) published in English, from January 2006 to June 2019, and was analysed systematically using a mixed‐method synthesis. The findings revealed that there is increasing evidence (especially among MHPs) of knowledge, attitudes, understanding, perceptions, and expectations regarding recovery. However, there are disparities in how MHPs perceive and understand recovery. While some understood it to mean a personal process, others explained it as a clinical process. In addition, there was limited knowledge among the MHPs and MHP students regarding the nonlinearity nature of the recovery process and expectations regarding recovery. The implications from these findings are the need for more in‐service training for MHPs, and examination of the curriculum used to educate MHP students. In particular, they should be sufficiently informed about the nonlinearity nature of the recovery process and how to develop hopeful and realistic expectations for consumers throughout the recovery process. The review was preregistered with PROSPERO (Registration No: CRD42019136543). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: Evidence suggests that only a minority of service users experiencing psychosis have access to Cognitive Behavioural Therapy for psychosis (CBTp). Normalization Process Theory (NPT) is a theoretical framework which focuses on processes by which interventions are implemented and normalized in clinical practice. This study explored the views and experiences of mental health professionals regarding the implementation of CBTp. Barriers and facilitators to implementation were explored using the NPT framework. Design: A qualitative methodology was adopted involving semi‐structured focus groups and individual interviews. Methods: A total of 14 members of staff working in the community and crisis mental health teams were recruited. Thematic analysis was used to generate initial themes. The framework approach was utilized to map initial themes to the NPT framework. Results: Inductive coding generated five overarching themes consisting of 15 individual subthemes which captured the perceived barriers to engagement; contextual barriers to implementation; optimization of implementation; positive attitudes towards implementation; and expectations of implementing CBTp. All but two subthemes mapped on to the NPT framework. The deductive analysis suggested that difficulties in making sense of CBTp among professionals were reflected as service level barriers which impeded wider implementation. Conclusion: The results of this study suggested a mixture of barriers and facilitators to CBTp implementation. Interpreting our findings within an NPT framework indicates the importance of strong clinical leadership to address difficulties in sense‐making and service investment in CBTp. Practitioner points: Findings indicate a mixture of barriers and facilitators to CBTp implementation.NPT analysis indicates difficulties in coherence among stakeholders regarding the purpose and value of CBTp.Difficulties making sense of CBTp translates into service level barriers and impede the collective action of stakeholders.The role of clinical leadership is crucial in increasing coherence and collective action in services. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mental health professionals (MHPs) are in a central position to provide support for mental health service users (MHSUs) in regard to parental needs, from preconception to caring for children. This study aims to examine whether mental health nurses and psychiatrists regard the issue of having children and being a parent as relevant to be considered in a clinical setting, how they describe the MHPs' roles and responsibilities in this regard, and to what extent they feel willing and able to fulfil these demands. A qualitative approach was undertaken by conducting four focus groups with 30 MHPs (15 nurses and 15 psychiatrists) within an inpatient mental health service in south Germany. We found that MHPs generally acknowledged the importance of parenting issues for psychiatric treatment. However, they assessed the talks between MHPs and MHSUs about parenting as less relevant in routine practice; the issue of the desire for children in particular was seen as generally not important. Addressing parenthood issues was restricted to mainly two areas: clarifying children's situations during inpatient treatment and considering medication issues among (potentially) pregnant service users. MHPs' focus on the adult service user, privacy, and historical issues were the main arguments against addressing parenthood issues. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

I offer some psychoanalytic perspectives and hypotheses to contribute to understanding why family interventions are rarely offered in psychosis. This is despite decades of evidence that family difficulties often predate onset of psychosis and that skilled family interventions are at least as effective as medication in reducing relapse rates. I contend that it is often unbearably disturbing for some families to even consider the possibility of having contributed to the vulnerability of a member to psychosis and that professionals fear accusations of 'blaming'. Multisystem defences, involving both families and professionals, shift explanations for psychosis, reducing them as a disorder of brain chemistry and somewhat exclusively allowing the logical consequence that only pharmacological interventions 'make sense'. I summarize the unfortunate consequences of these defences and suggest that there is denial of the important difference between describing possible family environmental contributing factors in psychosis and attributing 'blame'. Whole team training that involves families and social networks in a highly respectful and humane manner overcomes some of these obstacles. Several decades of increasingly successful research in the Finnish psychodynamically orientated 'need-adapted approach to psychosis' resulting in recent more global interest in open dialogue indicate an effective way of engaging families and of achieving superior outcomes in returning individuals to social engagement as students or to employment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aimed to determine the nature of the relationship between job burnout and personal wellness among mental health professionals. The authors performed intercorrelations and multivariate multiple regression analyses to identify the relationship between subscales of job burnout and personal wellness. Results showed that all subscales of job burnout, except for the Negative Work Environment subscale, significantly predicted a large amount of the variance in the collective personal wellness subscales. Implications for mental health professionals' clinical practice, training, and supervision and limitations and prospects for future studies are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We surveyed a national sample of family law attorneys (N = 192) regarding their beliefs and opinions about child custody evaluations, particularly those performed by independent/private practitioners. Findings revealed participants' strongly preferred court-ordered evaluations performed by doctoral-level psychologists who assumed a neutral position. The participants expressed concern regarding procedures used by evaluators, the application of evaluation data to the Best Interests of the Child Standard, and certain report components. A clear majority supported evaluators making recommendations about custody and parenting time, but their satisfaction with these evaluations varied widely. Specific concerns and suggestions noted by the participants are highlighted; we conclude with recommendations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract The purpose of the present study was to investigate the mental health professionals’ attitudes to drug and substance abuse in Victoria, Australia. The drug- and alcohol-related attitudes of clinicians were examined in order to develop a relevant training curriculum for clinicians. A questionnaire on knowledge, skills, attitudes and practises was distributed to mental health clinicians (n = 378) in Victoria. One hundred and seventy-three clinicians returned the questionnaire, giving an overall response rate of 46%. The survey results show that the attitude of mental health professionals to drug and substance abuse is generally a positive one. The majority of respondents held positive views on treatment interventions and they are optimistic that drug and alcohol dependence are treatable illnesses. A positive and more optimistic attitude towards treatment interventions should enable health professionals, particularly nurses, to provide the necessary care for those in need of medical care. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Consistent observations suggest that denial of PTSD and blaming of its victims are not isolated omissions or distortions but a pattern that spans over time, crosses national and cultural boundaries, and defies accumulated knowledge. This article traces the origins of these attitudes and offers three explanations: (a) mental health professionals are unable to transcend prevailing cultural and social norms; (b) they are "blinded" by professional theories; and (c) denial may stern from a fundamental human difficulty in comprehending and acknowledging our own vulnerability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]