Burnout negatively impacts the delivery of mental health services. Psychiatric nurses face stressors that are distinct from other nursing specialities. The research was conducted in Ireland and captured a relatively large sample of respondents. The results compared the stressors, coping strategies and burnout levels between hospital and community-based psychiatric nurses. Occupational stress can negatively impact on the well-being of psychiatric nurses, which in turn can lead to poor client care. There is a dearth of published research conducted in Ireland that examines stress within the discipline. A between-groups study, undertaken in February 2011, investigated stressors, burnout and coping strategies between hospital and community-based psychiatric nurses in a Dublin region. Sixty-nine participants (8 males and 61 females), aged between 18 to 60 years voluntarily completed the Mental Health Professional Stress Scale, the Maslach Burnout Inventory and the PsychNurse Methods of Coping Scale. The findings revealed that nurses were operating in a moderately stressful environment. Stressors focused on organizational issues as opposed to client issues. The main stressors identified were lack of resources, workload and organizational structures/processes. Both groups reported average levels of emotional exhaustion, low levels of depersonalization and average levels of personal accomplishment. A Mann-Whitney U-test and Independent Samples t-test found significant differences between hospital and community-based nurses regarding depersonalization and personal accomplishment, respectively. Hospital nurses reported higher depersonalization scores, and community nurses had a greater sense of personal accomplishment. The personal accomplishment scores of hospital nurses were below mental health professional norms. No significant differences emerged regarding coping strategies. Avoidant coping strategies were favoured by both groups. It is recommended that interventions aimed at increasing personal accomplishment be implemented for both groups of nurses. An investigation of perceived job control and the use of social support would also be insightful.

Healthcare professionals need to recognize the subjectivity of the dying process. Dying individuals require support and options to maintain their personhood.

Paranoid ideation is often preceded by negative interactions impacting on peoples' sense of self and wellbeing. The National Health Service in the United Kingdom is promoting wellbeing but there is a paucity of research. The authentic happiness theory and a strength intervention were drawn upon in a preliminary investigation of the relationships between strength-use, wellbeing and paranoia. In a cross-sectional study, students (N=531) completed measures of strength-use, wellbeing, self-beliefs and paranoia. Pearson's correlations, hierarchical multiple regression analysis, moderation analysis and mediation analysis were used to analyse the data. Strength-use was positively associated with life satisfaction and positive self-beliefs. There was a negative correlation between life satisfaction and paranoia, and higher positive self-beliefs were associated with lower paranoia. Paranoid ideation significantly predicted lower life satisfaction after controlling other symptoms of psychosis. Strength-use moderated the relationship between paranoia and life satisfaction. As hypothesised life satisfaction and positive self-beliefs mediated the relationship between strength-use and paranoia. The findings support delivering strength-use interventions to harness clients' wellbeing.

Mental health services are placing a greater emphasis on wellbeing and recovery. The current research investigated if positive psychology interventions (PPIs) increase peoples’ subjective wellbeing and reduce clinical depression. A systematic methodological review was conducted on randomized-control-trials with people attending clinical services. Five databases were searched. A hand search was then completed on the reference lists of the identified articles and the associated journals. Eleven research interventions were reviewed. PPIs were found to significantly increase wellbeing, relative to controls and there were fewer studies indicating a difference in decreasing depression. However, subsequent analysis revealed that the interventions were heterogeneous which limits the drawing of definitive systematic conclusions. A methodological evaluation also found that there were recurring issues: in delivering the interventions, measuring subjective wellbeing, and applying the design. Thus, the methodological quality of the research interventions, as measured by the current review was low. There is emerging evidence that PPIs improve peoples’ mental health. However, there is scope to standardize and to improve the quality of the research interventions.