The present study sought to investigate the current levels of psychological wellbeing in three immigrant groups to New Zealand. In addition, we sought to determine whether aspects of the acculturation process were related to mental health outcomes. This is a cross–sectional study from the fifth wave of annual in-depth interviews with three groups of recently arrived skilled immigrants from India, the People's Republic of China and South Africa. Interviews focused on international contacts and the migration of relatives and friends, housing, language, qualifications and employment, and social participation. Participants were also asked about health difficulties, homesickness, and whether they felt settled in New Zealand. The SF-36 Health Status Questionnaire (Ware, 1997), assessed the respondent's functional status and wellbeing in relation to four health concepts: vitality, social functioning, role limitations due to emotional health, and general mental wellbeing. The immigrant group differed significantly from the New Zealand population on only one of the four mental health scales, Vitality, with immigrants reporting higher levels. Different acculturation factors were found to predict different mental health subscales in regression analyses. Gender, home contact and health difficulty explained 22% of the unique variance in Vitality; employment status and health difficulty explained 18% of the variance in Social Functioning; health difficulty significantly contributed to the explained variance (14%) in the Role limitations due to emotional health subscale; gender, home contact and health difficulty explained 27% of the variance in the Mental Health subscale. There was little evidence for lower levels of psychological wellbeing for the three immigrant groups compared to the general New Zealand population, nor for differences between the three groups. However, results highlight the importance of differential predictors in the understanding of psychological health in migrant groups.

The evidence-based practice movement has led to higher quality intervention studies being reported in the health sciences literature (see, for example, Mosely et al., 2002), and consequently being available for uptake by practising health professionals. Yet interventions in applied settings need to satisfy more than the methodologically-based criteria associated with being categorised as a ‘well-established treatment’ (Chambless et al., 1996). Some of these additional criteria were recently described by King and Ollendick (2007). The current article extends these criteria so as to include attributes of interventions that (ideally) are required when designing or delivering services within rehabilitation settings.

Where reflexivity is the process of ‘being aware in the moment of what is influencing our internal and external responses’ (Etherington, 2004), this literature review was aimed at exploring the extent to which rehabilitation counsellors could use the core competencies outlined by the Australian Society of Rehabilitation Counsellors (ASORC) for their own career development. Reference was given to two specific competencies: (1) Vocational counselling, and (2) Counselling and interpersonal skills to not only determine whether the espoused skills in these areas could be used to advance career development but to also address the issue of compassion fatigue. In addition to these competencies, the role of the organisation was also brought into question regarding its influences on the career development for rehabilitation counsellors and the extent it to which it can minimise burnout.

Australia is preparing for a population increase in persons aged over 65 years, which will likely result in increased mental health needs for this group. Sub-clinical levels of depression, anxiety and loneliness are common in older adults. Older adults are also more likely than any other age group to live alone. Research has suggested that older adults living on their own often report companion animals as providing important social support. Thirty-two community-dwelling older adults, between 60 and 75+ years of age, took part in this study examining attachment to pets in an older cohort. Previous or current pet ownership was a requirement for inclusion in the study in order to account for possible bias of nonpet owners on reporting pets as a positive influence on wellbeing. Results found support for the psychometric properties of a relatively new attachment scale designed for older adults. Results also indicated limited support for a relationship between pet attachment and quality of life in the study group. Implications for clinical work with older adults and areas for future research are discussed.

This study was designed to investigate the effects of giving choices on the level of enjoyment experienced by children with severe disabilities in a recreational activity, without compromising safety. The children were attending a horse-riding program, designed to be both therapeutic and enjoyable. Initial observations, however, indicated that the lack of choices, and the high level of physical assistance provided to the children resulted in minimal benefit or pleasure for the children. In the role of consultants, we introduced a simple intervention in which two meaningful riding routines were taught and choices of game activities were offered during the riding itself. Affording choices (intervention condition) and program-as-usual (control condition) were randomly alternated within riding sessions. The children's indices of pleasure increased over sessions as they mastered basic riding routines. Seven of the 8 children showed differential increases in enjoyment during the choice condition, without an increase in unacceptably risky behaviour. The study demonstrated the value for leisure programs of emphasising choice and autonomy within safety margins, although there is likely to be an additional, and desirable, influence on the children's enjoyment by virtue of their selecting their preferred or more successful activities when offered choices.