"I thought it would just be, like, older men in white coats": A qualitative exploration of first encounters with mental health services

Individuals whose mental health is becoming a concern may not receive the care they require. Although efforts have been made to reduce barriers to accessing services, including stigma reduction campaigns and healthcare practitioner training, there remains a lack of understanding of individual perspectives regarding help-seeking behaviour. The aim of this study was to explore people's first experiences accessing mental health services. A qualitative descriptive approach was adopted. Interviews were conducted with eight service users. Data were analysed using reflexive thematic analysis. The COREQ checklist guided this study (Tong et al., 2007, International Journal for Quality in Health Care, 19, 349). Three themes were identified: learning to navigate an unfamiliar system, making sense of mental health services, and promoting a positive image for those in need of care. Uncertainty about mental health services and stigmatizing images could be mitigated by developing positive media-based interventions. Systemic barriers need to be addressed and services need to be better resourced to ensure the benefits of early intervention are available to those experiencing mental health challenges. To encourage people to access services earlier, services need to be promoted in a positive way.

Adaptive Social Innovation Derived from Digital Economy and Its Impact on Society and Policy

The traditional concept of innovation focuses on significant changes in products and services. However, today’s innovation derived from the digital economy environment is transforming our way of life, values, and even social relations. The economic benefits of the digital economy and technology have a wide range of impacts derived from the rapid socio-economic transformation. The negative impact on jobs and incomes is a typical problem that threatens socioeconomic fundamentals. This phenomenon is the reason that we must have a new perspective about innovation that connects technology, economy, society and policy beyond the traditional perspective. Based on the new perspective, this study categorizes social innovations using an expanded concept. One of them is “adaptive social innovation”, and this study focuses on its key motive and impact. In this paper, a theoretical discussion is adopted from integrating discussions in macroeconomics, social psychology, political science, etc. The key motive can be found in transformation of production, consumption, and distribution due to the digital economy. Based on this, the detailed operation mechanism of adaptive social innovation that transforms public perceptions and systems are analysed. At the same time, the process in which formal institutions and the output of adaptive social innovation, affect society and policy was explored.

What Makes Resource Provision an Effective Means of Poverty Alleviation? A Resourcing Perspective

Adequately addressing the grand challenge of poverty requires addressing resource scarcity. However, efforts to provide resources as a means of poverty alleviation have met with mixed success. We explore what makes resource provision effective as a means of poverty alleviation. We adopt a resourcing perspective, which focuses on the relationship between potential resources and schemas, or shared understandings, that shape how resources are used. Consistent with prior research, we find that schemas shape how resources are used in practice. However, we also find that who can access the resources is as consequential as how they are used. In exploring this issue, we identify a new category of schemas related not to use but to access, which we refer to as access schemas. We define access schemas as shared understandings regarding who can appropriately access potential resources. We find that different social groups have distinct schemas regarding access, and we identify three mechanisms—precedence, complementarity, and scaffolding—that shape the way that access schemas are enacted in resource-scarce settings. Our study contributes to the literature on grand challenges by clarifying the link between resource provision and resource use. We also contribute to the literature on resourcing by uncovering mechanisms that shape schema enactment in the presence of conflicting access schemas held by different social groups.