Research
From the cradle to the grave, we are forever learning
Mai i te kōpae ki te urapa, tātou ako tonu ai
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The Manchester Attack Support Group Programme: modelling a psychosocial response to collective trauma
An article discussing a support group programme initiated in response to the Manchester Arena attack in 2017 as an example of a psychosocial approach to post-disaster support. Its purpose is to highlight how a bespoke psychosocial peer-based initiative can complement and enhance mental health responses following collective trauma events. It gives an overview of psychosocial […]
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Does Gender Affect Judges’ Perceptions of Sexual Assault Cases?
There is growing recognition that females engage in harmful sexual behaviour that is similar in severity and type to males. Existing research, however, suggests that there is a bias towards leniency in judicial systems for female sexual offenders (FSOs) in comparison to male sexual offenders (MSOs). Specifically, FSOs receive shorter sentences than do MSOs and […]
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A Solitary Place: a phenomenological examination of male on-male rape and sexual abuse
Male-on-male rape is a critically under-researched area in the sexual violence literature. This is in part due to narratives that portray sexual violence as a female-only issue, which has led to substantial gaps in the current knowledge on male-on-male survivors’ experiences. However, evidence suggests that male sexual violence is prevalent and carries significant psychological consequences […]
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Disclosure of Child Sexual Abuse: Experiences of Men Survivors in India
Sexual abuse of boy children is a significant but under-acknowledged and under-addressed problem globally. The worldwide prevalence of sexual abuse of boys is estimated to be 3–17 per cent (Barth et al., 2013). In India, Ministry of Women and Child Development (2007) conducted a large-scale national study of children aged five to eighteen years and found that 52.94 […]
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Acceptability of Peer Support for People With Schizophrenia in Chennai, India: A Cross Sectional Study Amongst People With Lived Experience, Caregivers, and Mental Health Professionals
Establishing structured peer support in mental health, particularly for people with schizophrenia, as a psychosocial intervention is early in low and middle-income countries like India. Before implementing and understanding the effectiveness of peer support service and which mode of peer support delivery will be suitable for our culture, our study aimed to understand if peer […]
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What Makes Intentional Unidirectional Peer Support for Homeless People Work? An Exploratory Analysis Based on Clients’ and Peer Workers’ Perceptions
Homeless people are increasingly supported by peer workers in one-on-one mentorship relations, called intentional unidirectional peer support (IUPS). Intentional unidirectional peer support refers to “a formalized mentorship type of peer intervention where the peer is clearly more advanced and is mentoring the client in an organized fashion” (Barker et al., 2020). Research investigating the effectiveness […]
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The Best of Both Worlds”: Experiences of young people attending groups co-facilitated by peer workers and clinicians in a youth mental health service
Peer Support is an emerging discipline within mental health services (Slade et al., 2014), providing opportunities for positive role modelling and peer influence (Faulkner & Basset, 2012). The embodiment of recovery by peer workers disrupts for service users the “chronicity of their patient role” (p. 884) reinforced by models of care focusing on symptom reduction and illness […]
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Someone Who Has Been in My Shoes”: The Effectiveness of a Peer Support Model for Providing Support to Partners, Family and Friends of Child Sexual Abuse Material Offenders
This article details an evaluation of PartnerSPEAK, an organization in Victoria, Australia, that supports the non-offending partners, family and friends of CSAM offenders. PartnerSPEAK is the only support service of its kind in Australia, and one of only a few internationally. PartnerSPEAK utilizes a peer support model in which previous clients of PartnerSPEAK, who have […]
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An Update of Peer Support/Peer Provided Services Underlying Processes, Benefits, and Critical Ingredients
The purpose of this article is to delineate the current state-of-the-knowledge of peer support following the framework employed in the 2004 article (Solomon, Psychiatr Rehabil J. 2004;27(4):392–401 1). A scoping literature was conducted and included articles from 1980 to present. Since 2004, major growth and advancements in peer support have occurred from the development of new specializations […]
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Time to change course in stigma research?
As one of the world’s longest running anti-stigma campaigns, Time to Change (UK), came to an end in March 2021, policy makers, campaigners and researchers will be looking to learn lessons to take forward into the next phase in the fight against stigma. This presents the perfect opportunity to revisit the stigma research landscape and ask important […]
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The Nature and Impact of Informal Mental Health Support in an LGBTQ Context: Exploring Peer Roles and Their Challenges
Research shows that LGBTQ communities experience high levels of suicidality and mental ill health. They also face significant barriers to accessing adequate mental health treatment in service settings. In response to these factors, it is likely that LGBTQ community members turn to their peers for informal mental health-related support. Such support, however, is largely undefined, […]
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On female sexual abuse of children among religious sisters in New Zealand
There is a powerful misconception that the sexual predation of children and vulnerable adults within faith based institutions is invariably an issue of male on male or male on female assault. This is clearly not the case. Indeed, within the Catholic Church in Aotearoa entities that had the highest total figures of likely peadophiles between […]