To develop a service development plan supporting recovery-based practice through collaborative service user-led methodology, and contribute to the National Institute for Mental Health in England (NIMHE) pilot evaluation of recovery sensitive measures. Staff, residents and service user group representatives collaborated in implementing the Developing Recovery Enhancing Environments Measure (DREEM) in a residential rehabilitation service.

Staff and residents demonstrated a shared vision of recovery. Many areas were being addressed to a high level but others showed areas of deficiency, and illustrated discrepant views between staff and residents, which provided a focus for the development of a clinical service action plan.

As an experimental measure DREEM provides a user-led structure, which enables services to measure their commitment to, and effectiveness in, providing recovery-based care. It focuses service development and enhances collaborative work with service users, thus mirroring the principles of recovery it measures. It merits further evaluation and consolidation.

To describe the formation and function of ‘stress-busting’ groups and report a survey on work-related stress among a small cohort of consultant psychiatrists.

Of 37 questionnaires, 25 were returned and 16 respondents (64%) rated their overall level of stress at work as moderate or severe. Stressful factors included lack of staff, paperwork, high-risk patients, difficult/hostile relatives and job demands interfering with family life. The most helpful stress-reducing strategies were talking to colleagues for support and catharsis, outside interests, support from family and friends, effective time management and exercise. Among 15 current members of ‘stress-busting’ groups, 14 (93%) found these to be helpful. The most successful format in the ‘stress-busting’ groups was one of ‘problem-solving with ventilation of stresses'.

‘Stress-busting’ groups may constitute a helpful approach to work-related stress and a utilisation of the skills of psychiatrists to our mutual benefit.

The aims of the project were to develop a simple, low-cost patient satisfaction questionnaire with face validity and to obtain patient feedback on a range of service areas in a community addiction team. A questionnaire was designed and revised after feedback from multidisciplinary team members and a pilot sample. The questionnaire was distributed until 100 correctly completed forms were received.

The survey took approximately 30 h of authors' time from commencement to completion and costs were minimal. The majority of the 12 areas evaluated were rated by patients as good or very good. Overall quality of care was rated as good or very good by 88% of participants. There was no enthusiasm in this sample for more active participation in service development.

All National Health Service staff and services are now enjoined to engage with service users and carers for the purposes of evaluation and development. Simple, affordable methods for obtaining such information about community services can contribute to this process.

To explore the impact of adults with personality disorder on the professional groups that support them. Staff (n=72) from five agencies participated in interviews focusing on reactions to short case vignettes representing the three personality disorder clusters.

Each presentation was relatively consistent in its impact on staff irrespective of the agency or setting. Several agency-specific themes were also identified, some illustrating areas of potential difficulty in inter-agency working. Many non-mental health workers reported considerable contact with this client group, although most felt dissatisfied with the training available and suggested solutions.

Findings from this study may help to match the content of training courses to need. Similar vignette-based surveys could be used to investigate the impact of staff training over time.