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Background: The Health Service is among the largest employers in Britain and has the potential to provide supported work for significant numbers of people who have been long-term unemployed as a result of mental health problems.Aims: The study set out to investigate the feasibility and impact of employing mental health service users as health care assistants within an assertive outreach team.Method: Forty-five clients of the assertive outreach team were randomly assigned to receive either standard case management (n = 21) or to case management plus additional input from a consumer-employee (n = 24) working as a health care assistant (HCA) to the team.Results: Clients allocated to the HCAs were more engaged with treatment as reflected in lower rates of non-attendance at appointments, higher levels of participation in structured social care activities and significantly fewer unmet needs in the domains of daytime activity, company, finances, transport and access to benefits. There were no differences between groups in terms of social networks (size or subjective quality) or in satisfaction with the service received.Conclusions: Employing service consumers in front-line caring roles is feasible and may contribute to improved client engagement with services. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Reports of the benefits of employing consumers of mental health services as mental health workers tend to focus on the views of other professionals.Aim: To provide a first hand account of the experience of being a consumer-employee healthcare assistant (HCA) within an assertive outreach team and to examine the effect on other team members.Method: Semi-structured interview schedules were administered to the HCAs (n = 2) and a range of measures given to other team members (n = 10).Results: Perceived benefits to clients include a positive role model and having a worker with personal understanding of pertinent issues. Benefits to the team included effects on attitudes to, and practices with, clients. Concern was expressed about sickness level and its impact on the service.Conclusion: The employment of consumer-employees has much to offer mental health services but issues for consideration include appropriate support. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Flipping the classroom involves delivering video material - or alternatives such as print materials or audio recordings - prior to a lecture/ class session. The session is then dedicated to active learning. Our study evaluated this format during the teaching of rheumatology to third year medical students. Students were sent relevant video materials before the lecture sessions. During the sessions they were divided into groups and engaged in patient scenario problem solving. Each group was provided with 'A to E' response cards in order to answer SBA questions relevant to the patient problem. 87/106 students evaluated this format via a strongly disagree (1) to strongly agree (5) Likert scale and provided mean scores of 3.7 to 4.1 for statements allied to better understanding, preparedness, peer and teacher interaction, peer to peer problem solving, motivation, usefulness, achievement of learning outcomes and a desire for future classes to be delivered in this way. Qualitatively, students commented that this format allowed for active engagement, discussion, consolidation of knowledge, immediate feedback, application of theory to real life patient problems and the ability to watch and revisit the video material as necessary. Potential downsides included the lack of an electronic voting system, the perceived heavy workload and that this form of interaction may not be best suited to East Asians. The flipped classroom allows for worthwhile reflection of clinical knowledge and subsequent application. The findings from this initial study are encouraging and we plan to continue work on evaluating this format alongside other forms of delivery. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]