Serious nonfatal physical injuries and burns are common occurrences that can have substantial implications for personal, social, and occupational functioning. Such injuries are frequently associated with significant mental health issues, and compromised quality of life and well-being. The purpose of this review is to summarize the current literature on physical, psychological, and social risk factors for mental health issues post-injury and to contextualize findings using Engel's biopsychosocial framework. We distinguish between pre-injury, injury-related, and post-injury risk factors for mental health problems. Female sex, history of mental health problems or trauma, type of injury, and level of pain are among the strong risk factors for mental health problems post-injury. We highlight inconsistent findings in the literature, identify directions for future research, and explore the implications of the risk factors identified for treatment and prevention.

Older adults who experience challenges related to mental health are unlikely to seek professional help. The voices of older adults who have navigated through mental health issues and systems of care to arrive at psychological treatment are less well understood. We conducted individual interviews with 15 adults aged 61 to 86 who sought psychological treatment. Interviews were audio-recorded, transcribed, and analyzed using narrative methods. We identified several main storylines that describe the meaning-making and treatment-seeking journeys of older adults: resistance to being labeled with mental health problems (telling stories of resistance, defining mental health issues in mysterious and uncontrollable terms, and experiencing internal role conflict); muddling through the help-seeking process (manifestations of chaos and system-level barriers); and emotional reactions to psychological treatment (hope, fear, and mistrust). Findings add to the literature base in the area of narrative gerontology, and highlight the complex experiences that older adults face when seeking psychological treatment.

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In serious illness or disability, individuals commonly say that their sense of self has dramatically changed. One might expect that the experience of a radically altered sense of self would be even more profound in individuals after neurotrauma because it is the brain itself that suddenly, and often literally, becomes "strange." The aim of this study was to investigate how people left with autobiographical memory impairments--impairments that also affect the capacity to organize complex linguistic productions such as autobiographical narratives--experience themselves and, specifically, their sense of self. Seven adults who had primarily anterograde memory impairments for 1 year were interviewed. Regardless of the profound changes in their everyday functioning and lives, the stories the participants told evoke a surprising sense of a continuous self. Employing several narrative and discursive techniques, they emphasized sameness and an unbroken connection between their pre- and post-morbid lives. We believe that most individuals felt they did not have to recover their former sense of self because they subjectively seemed to have never lost it.

The present study examined community/tribe, peer/family, and individual correlates of suicidal behaviour in a representative on-reserve sample of First Nations Bivariate logistic regression analyses were used to examine the relationships between a range of factors and lifetime suicidal ideation, suicide attempts, and any suicidality. A multivariate logistic regression analysis identified those correlates most strongly related to any suicidality. Findings showed that several correlates were found to be associated with an increased likelihood of suicidal behaviour, including being female, depressed mood, abuse/fear of abuse, a hospital stay, and substance use. Results of this study will likely be of importance in informing First Nations and government policy related to the implementation of suicide prevention strategies in Manitoban First Nations communities.Correlates of Suicidality iii Acknowledgements

Community programmes have been shown to provide social and emotional benefits for older adults. The vast majority of community programmes for older adults are either mixed-sex or female-oriented in their activities and composition. As such, there is a scarcity of both opportunities for, and research focusing on older male adults’ participation in community programmes geared towards men. The present study describes the experiences of older male adults throughout their involvement in a male-oriented community programme. Participants described their involvement in the community programme on the basis of their characteristics and experiences that preceded their involvement, the characteristics of their current involvement, and aspects of the programme and their participation that promoted their continued involvement. The findings of this study have potential utility for community organisations aiming to increase the involvement of older men in their programmes. Furthermore, the findings indicate that community programme participation has the potential to promote social engagement and healthy, active ageing among older men.