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In recent years, the Australian federal government has sought to increase the diversity of students attending higher education through supporting students that have traditionally been under represented. This is due to a perception that the attainment of a higher education can enhance a graduate's life as they have greater access to professional positions, which may also lead to higher wages and better career stability. Most of the existing research is focussed on the student's process of deciding to enrol, and how to support students to succeed once they are enrolled, but fails to explore in-depth narratives of students' stated reasons of why they enrol, and if they consider these preconceptions to have been met or challenged. The current research contributes knowledge by investigating factors that lead students to enrol in higher education. The study aimed to examine how the Australian federal government's 'Widening Participation' agenda has affected Australians' perception of higher education. It is important to examine how enrolment of non-traditional students has changed throughout the last fifty years, whether and how the Widening Participation agenda influenced enrolment of students and students' perceptions of the factors that led to their enrolment post completion of an enabling program. The research argues that the concept of a 'traditional' student enrolled in higher education is outdated and that 'non-traditional' students are now the majority.

Background: Through an in‐depth exploration of mental health family carers' experiences during the COVID‐19 pandemic in Australia, this co‐produced study identified recommendations for advocacy, practice and policy implications to uphold family carer wellbeing. Government‐enforced restrictions, changed service availability and difficulties accessing hospitals, led to additional anxiety, depression and elevated distress, especially for people experiencing mental health challenges before the pandemic. The National Mental Health Consumer and Carer Forum alongside two academic researchers aimed to discern the impact of care provision, levels of distress, unmet needs, challenges and benefits of providing support, across geographic locations and diverse communities. Methods: This article reports on the survey component of a co‐designed mixed‐methods exploratory study of family carer experiences. A project steering group worked with two academic researchers, members of SWITCH Research Group, Monash University, to develop the 71‐question online survey across 9‐domains. Results: Family carers were relied upon to provide support and care when mental health services changed or closed. Carers support more than one person and typically people with daily and high‐level needs. Caring levels increased from 26‐h to an average of 40‐h a week of support provision, with changed roles and increased complexity. Heightened demands became stress‐inducing to the point of mental ill health and suicidality for some family carers. Conclusion: Government policy and pandemic responses failed to address the financial, practical or emotional resources needed to fulfil the role of care provision and support to unwell and extremely distressed people with new or ongoing mental and psychological ill‐health. Patient or Public Contribution: From its inception, this project was co‐produced and co‐designed with mental health family carers and service users based on their expertise in understanding their experiences and ways to best explore these to the benefit and wellbeing of families in distress. The academic research partners both have active experience of supporting people with mental health challenges. Through each of the identified phases, lived experience expertise (family carers and service users) co‐designed and co‐facilitated the process. At times leading the process, such as in recruitment strategies, and at other times acting as guides. Guidance was provided by lived experience expertise in reflecting upon the literature review to understand what had been researched internationally and what would be important to understand in Australia. The academic partners advised on the possible processes for data collection, and the lived experience experts decided on the methodology based on that advice. Both the focus group and survey questions were developed and scrutinised from the perspective of the service users and carers in the project team. Difficult conversations were handled with respect, service users within the project team gently addressed areas of enquiry that may suggest stigma or feed into societal stereotypes of people with mental health challenges. Carers were able to consider the wording of questions to still be able to address areas of concern including domestic violence within the family unit and suicide. Dissemination strategies were planned together with the carer and service user representatives being co‐presenters at conferences. The report for submission to the National Mental Health Commission (Australia) was written and reviewed with all partners. A committee of service users and carers, alongside the academic partners, planned the launch of the report in August 2023. The co‐authorship of peer‐reviewed articles has included family carers and service users from the National Mental Health Consumer and Carer Forum. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

LGBTIQ people are at greater risk of mental health challenges, compared to the general population, and are overrepresented in mental health services. Past research has sought to understand how mental health workforce rate their knowledge to meet the needs of LGBTIQ consumers. However, this past research has largely aggregated the LGBTIQ identities, despite evidence that rates of mental health challenges vary within the LGBTIQ community. Using semi-structured interviews, this study sought to explore how seven mental health staff members from an Australian public health service rated and described their knowledge to responsively meet the needs of the different LGBTIQ identities. While participants tended to rate and describe themselves as having some knowledge about most of the LGBTIQ identities, there was a divide between sexual orientation, gender identities and intersex variations, with the former typically being rated and described as being better understood. This is the first known study to place central focus on disaggregating the LGBTIQ identities in mental health research and provides initial insights into how mental health workforce rate and describe their knowledge for nuanced and responsive practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The United Nations Special Rapporteur has called for 'a revolution in mental health care to end decades of neglect, abuse and violence...enabl[ing] a long overdue shift to a rights-based approach' (United Nations Human Rights Office of the High Commissioner, 2017). Principles underpinning social work practice with people living with mental distress who receive diagnoses such as schizophrenia, personality disorders and bipolar disorder, align with sought after changes. Using Cooperative Inquiry and referring to the Model of Holistic Competence in Social Work, this study investigated mental health social work seeking to foster this shift. Findings confirmed inherent discordance between social work values and mental health care dominated by biomedical and neoliberal views. Upholding social work values in this context involves complex practice, integrating procedural and meta-competencies. By incorporating skills in relational practice and advocacy; knowledge of multiple explanatory frameworks for mental health and mental health systems literacy; self-regulation; fostering tenacity whilst addressing 'othering'; and judgement informing choices around conformity and confrontation, social work navigates tensions associated with this discordance. This paper highlights the nature of values-based social work practice as aligned with mental health reforms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Within mental health systems, families are often poorly integrated into planning and treatment yet tasked with unsustainable care and support responsibilities. The COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated impacts on families' social and mental wellbeing. This study explores understanding family experiences through a co-operative inquiry methodology with staff who facilitated 26 meetings with over 300 mental health family, carer, and supporter participants. Deeper listening of challenges experienced by families, strengths and creativity in coping and recommendations for system reform have been reflected on through three cycles of inquiry: 1. Sharing experiences, 2. Discerning key messages, and 3. Consensus building towards the final text. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Service users and their families have raised concerns about safety in current acute mental health service delivery. Restrictive interventions are routinely used across mental health settings despite increasing awareness of the negative impacts. Underfunding and risk-averse management practices are implicated as key challenges. Utilizing a scoping review and thematic analysis method, this review explored the existing literature of mental health staff perspectives across various settings (including psychiatric wards and emergency departments), focusing on their experience of restrictive interventions. Four themes were developed: 1. Safety (both staff and patient); 2. Barriers to staff reducing their restrictive interventions; 3. Strength in current practice; 4. Recommendations for change. Key gaps in the literature were the limited perspectives of emergency and crisis clinicians (despite these areas being settings where restrictive interventions are utilized) and limited perspectives from allied health disciplines (despite their employment as clinicians in these settings). It also noted a divide between staff and patient safety, as though these concerns are mutually exclusive rather than cooccurring, which is the experienced reality. Advocacy bodies, governments and the media are calling for a reduction in restrictive interventions in crisis settings. This research synthesis proposes that, to achieve this, clinical staff must be involved in the process and their perspectives actively sought and drawn upon to enable reform. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Australian social work course accreditation standards aim to ensure graduates have an understanding of the social, cultural, and political structures that influence psychosocial wellbeing. Unlike the previous standards, the current standards do not require the curricula to address specific knowledge and skills for working with people who live with severe mental distress or mental health conditions that might result in diagnoses such as schizophrenia, personality disorders, and bipolar disorder. Anticipating the revision of curricula resulting from these recent changes to the accreditation standards, four social work academics from across three Australian universities engaged in a peer review of mental health social work curricula. By exploring the purpose, emphasis, and challenges in curriculum design, this stage of the review aimed to identify the positioning of future curricula to prepare graduates who embrace the complex array of opportunities and demands of social work practice in this field. Our investigations confirmed diversity in mental health social work practice, revealing mental health social work curricula must meet multiple and evolving agendas. IMPLICATIONS International calls for transformative approaches to mental health present opportunities for enhanced recognition of the social justice orientation of social work. The absence of an accreditation requirement to address social work practice with people who live with severe mental distress or low prevalence mental health conditions might prove a regrettable gap in Australian Social Work Education Accreditation Standards 2021. Further collegial discussion and debate about the beneficial outcomes of mental health social work curricula are desirable. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Internationally, people experiencing mental health challenges and psychosocial distress faced service disruptions, increased uncertainties and isolation, during the COVID-19 pandemic. Mental health family carers in turn experienced high levels of demand to fill gaps in service responses within a context of fear and uncertainty. A scoping narrative review methodology was undertaken to account for the varying methodologies of studies and the recency of the COVID-19 pandemic. Six databases were searched : Proquest, Ovid, Psych Info, CINAHL, Scopus, WHO COVID-19 database in January 2022. A total of 147 articles were identified, with 19 included in the final review. Findings revealed few studies focused on the experiences of mental health family carers during the pandemic. Studies that elevated mental health family voices identified they were more likely to provide emotional support than other carers, and less likely to receive government income support. Higher distress was present in family carers who lived with people with low independence, supported more than one person and provided higher levels of care. Family carers experienced concerns about—family members becoming infected during hospitalisations, accessing services, inappropriate and early discharges, care provision if family carers became unwell and the need for targeted responses and quality for online services. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To report on implementing a workforce education and development initiative to enhance LGBTIQA+ literacy and responsiveness. An instrument of 7 questions was administered to staff who attended a 1-hour introductory training session on LGBTIQA+ literacy and responsiveness held across an Australian inner metropolitan clinical mental health service. In total, 113 questionnaires were received. Overall 68% of staff agreed, or strongly agreed that they had adequate knowledge and attitudes to meet the support needs of LGBTIQA+ people. There were 75% who felt confident working with LGBTIQA+ people. A strong 91% reported the training to be useful to their clinical practice. Overall, 45% neither agreed nor disagreed their service was set up clinically and culturally for LGBTIQA+ persons, with 18% disagreeing or strongly disagreeing. Organizational commitment in the form of training and education supports staff to become equipped with knowledge and skills in providing inclusive and responsive practice to LGBTIQA+ people. Training and education are reported to contribute to service improvement and staff capacity to better respond to community needs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Without accurate information, personal recovery will remain in the shadow of other clinical measures of the mental health experience, such as severity of symptoms and degree of risk. This study examined utility of the Questionnaire about the Process of Recovery (QPR) to highlight personal recovery preferences and needs, from a service user perspective, within a sub-acute setting in Australia. Fifty-seven QPRs were completed and the results were evaluated against the CHIME framework. The QPR highlighted the interpersonal and intrapersonal factors that support and impede personal recovery. The QPR helps service users to identify and build on their own strengths and encourages clinicians to focus on service users' personal aspirations, rather than predefined treatment goals. No single scale will provide a full picture of someone's emotional wellbeing. A range of outcome measures should be used to get a more complete picture. The QPR could be standardized as one of the routine outcome measures used in Victorian mental health services. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]