Collection of links on bundlr.

This collection of Burning Issues has been compiled by the Mental Health in Higher Education project (mhhe) and the Higher Education Academy (subject centres1) Special Interest Group for Mental Health (MHSIG). It provides a snapshot of the views of educators - from across the disciplines - about key issues that they face in teaching.

There is strong evidence that involving patients and service users in healthcare professionals' education has short-term benefits for all involved. Longer term, there has been little evaluation to discover whether this involvement has an effect on the behaviour or practice of health professionals or on health outcomes. This newly published Health Foundation report aims to describe the current state of active patient involvement in the education of health and social care professionals, both in the literature and in practice. It aims to highlight areas for further research and development.

This resource sheet has been developed by the Mental Health in Higher Education project (mhhe), in conjunction with the Social Policy and Social Work Subject Centre of the Higher Education Academy (SWAP). It aims to raise awareness of the need for a focus on: developing emotional intelligence, enhancing resilience and those qualities that underpin it, and maintaining personal wellbeing for students who will become practitioners in health and social care. It outlines the rationale for highlighting these issues across the disciplines, and provides some pointers to examples of current practice and resources.

'Psychosis Revisited' is a two day workshop, based upon the British Psychological Society (BPS) report (2000): 'Recent advances in understanding mental illness and psychotic experiences'. It encourages mental health workers to take a fresh look at psychosis and psychotic experiences. Mark Hayward (academic tutor at the University of Surrey/ Clinical Psychologist) describes how he and an Occupational therapist, in conjunction with user trainers from the CAPITAL project, delivered this workshop to a Community Mental Health/Assertive Outreach team. This case study focuses in particular on one session entitled "service user perspectives". It outlines in detail how the session was planned and delivered, offering useful insights into how a safe learning environment was created, and reflects on learning gained. Discussions are ongoing that may lead to the embedding of 'Psychosis Revisited' within prequalifying training within a range of disciplines.

Tina Coldham and Steve Tee describe a piece of action research, involving pre-registration nursing students and service users in a process known as "co-operative inquiry". This model is introduced, together with some reflection on how it was used on a pre-registration nursing programme at the University of Southampton. Includes reflection on the efficacy of this approach in facilitating the meaningful involvement of service users in learning and teaching about mental health.

An increasing number of Higher Education Institutions now employ people whose remit is to recruit, train and support service users and carers to contribute to professional programmes. In turn, service user and carer involvement development worker posts need to be well constructed and supported. That is the focus of these guidelines, which it is hoped will be of use both to universities considering or planning such posts and to those with a worker already in post.

The Guide contains a general introduction to the topic and, drawing on a range of current initiatives, pointers towards good practice in relation to each of the components of effective involvement. A range of evaluation tools are offered which may be useful in charting progress and identifying the next steps to be taken.