Melissa Petrakis
Datos Biográficos
| ID | 4250285 |
|---|---|
| NOMBRE | Melissa Petrakis |
| NOMBRES | Melissa |
| APELLIDO | Petrakis |
| FIRMA | PETRAKIS M |
| AFILIACIONES | Monash University |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-4885-932X |
| VERIFICADO | Sí |
| TOTAL DE OBRAS | 33 |
| TOTAL DE CITAS | 19 |
| TOTAL COMO AUTOR | 33 |
| TOTAL COMO EDITOR | 0 |
| PRIMER AÑO DE PUBLICACIÓN | 2012 |
| AÑO MÁS RECIENTE DE PUBLICACIÓN | 2026 |
| ÍNDICE H | 3 |
Connect Coordination Victoria and the Establishment of a State‐Wide Network of Family Carer Mental Health and Well‐being Connect Centres
Values‐Led Coordination
Transformative Mental Health Social Work Practice
Purpose: Transformative mental health social work fosters participatory processes towards emancipatory changes in services and systems, addressing societal barriers to inclusion, equity, and full citizenship. This study examined how transformative practices aligned with United Nations’ calls for change/reform toward person-centered, rights-based mental health recovery across both Canada and Australia, are learned. Method: Using co-operative inqui…
Co‐Production With Mental Health Family Carers
INTRODUCTION: Family engagement in mental health service reform, design, treatment, and research is highlighted as important within government and governance guidelines; however, inconsistencies of inclusion continue to be experienced and reported. Within mental health and community research there are calls for the adoption of participatory and co-production methodologies. OBJECTIVE: To add to the informed debate about patient and public involvem…
Transformative Mental Health Social Work Practice
Transformative mental health social work fosters participatory processes that drive emancipatory changes in services and systems, addressing societal barriers to inclusion, equity, and full citizenship. This study explored how transformative practices, aligned with United Nations' calls for reform toward person-centred, rights-based mental health recovery across Canada and Australia, are learned. Using co-operative inquiry, the research captures …
Mental Health Family Carer Coresearchers
Purpose: Few studies demonstrate approaches to working with mental health family carers in research, service change or system reform. This article formulates participatory principles for co-research with mental health family carers. Method: Twenty-three members of a Project Steering Group, with different levels of experience in research and advocacy, were invited to participate in one of two focused-conversations, to reflect upon a 9-month nation…
An Initial Investigation into Mental Health Clinicians' Aims to Reduce Restrictive Practices
This study models and encourages deep dialogue toward redesigned policy and practices and for future research
Co-operative inquiry
Co-operative inquiry, pioneered by Heron and Reason, is a qualitative, participatory methodology that powerfully transforms research from inquiring about people to inquiring with people. Contemporary qualitative research is increasingly trending from studying others to engaging all participants in research processes as equal collaborators. Consequently, many qualitative researchers are looking to participatory methodologies such as co-operative i…
Knowledge Families Hold
BACKGROUND: Through an in-depth exploration of mental health family carers' experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic in Australia, this co-produced study identified recommendations for advocacy, practice and policy implications to uphold family carer wellbeing. Government-enforced restrictions, changed service availability and difficulties accessing hospitals, led to additional anxiety, depression and elevated distress, especially for people expe…
Families supporting people with mental health challenges during the Covid-19 pandemic
The significant demand for and reduction in mental health services during the COVID-19 pandemic resulted in family carers providing higher levels and increased hours of support of increased complexity. Guided conversations within seven co-designed online focus groups with 73 family carers, representing diverse communities and ages, explored the experiences of and desired changes for mental health service provision. Six themes emerged: service use…
Setting priorities for mental health family carer research and advocacy in Australia
This article reports on the recent priority agenda for mental health family carer research and advocacy developed by a new Australia-based network of stakeholders and researchers with lived and living experience of supporting someone experiencing mental distress. The Family and Carer Research and Advocacy Network (FaCRAN) emerged in the context of the Royal Commission into Victoria’s Mental Health System (RCVMHS) (State of Victoria, 2021) and sub…
Mental Health Social Work Practice
The United Nations Special Rapporteur has called for ‘a revolution in mental health care to end decades of neglect, abuse and violence...enabl[ing] a long overdue shift to a rights-based approach’ (United Nations Human Rights Office of the High Commissioner, 2017). Principles underpinning social work practice with people living with mental distress who receive diagnoses such as schizophrenia, personality disorders and bipolar disorder, align with…
Mental Health Workforce Knowledge about LGBTIQ Identities and Related Responsiveness
LGBTIQ people are at greater risk of mental health challenges, compared to the general population, and are overrepresented in mental health services. Past research has sought to understand how mental health workforce rate their knowledge to meet the needs of LGBTIQ consumers. However, this past research has largely aggregated the LGBTIQ identities, despite evidence that rates of mental health challenges vary within the LGBTIQ community. Using sem…
Employment interventions to assist people who experience borderline personality disorder
BACKGROUND: Employment is an important social determinant of health and is associated with positive health outcomes. However, individuals who have been diagnosed with borderline personality disorder (BPD) are significantly underrepresented in the workforce. Whilst there is an array of evidence based therapeutic interventions, there remains a gap in knowledge regarding the most effective ways to enhance employment outcomes for people with a diagno…
Mental Health Clinician Attitudes about Service User and Family Agency and Involvement in Recovery-Oriented Practice
This study adds to the literature on clinicians' views about ROP and shows that although clinicians are supportive of ROP, they also express substantial ambivalence about whether service users and families know what treatment is best. For ROP implementation to be successful, workforce training needs to support clinicians to reflect on these views with service users and families, and to encourage supported decision making. Future studies should fo…
Spiritual Diversity in Personal Recovery from Mental Health Challenges
Spiritual diversity and the positive role of spirituality in personal recovery have received growing attention in mental health literature. However, the spiritual experiences and views of service users from cultural communities, particularly the Chinese community, are understudied in Australia. This research explores Chinese service users' spiritual identities and their views and perspectives on the roles of spirituality in their mental health re…
Improving family social and mental wellbeing in the Covid-19 pandemic and beyond
Within mental health systems, families are often poorly integrated into planning and treatment yet tasked with unsustainable care and support responsibilities. The COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated impacts on families’ social and mental wellbeing. This study explores understanding family experiences through a co-operative inquiry methodology with staff who facilitated 26 meetings with over 300 mental health family, carer, and supporter participants. …
Mental Health Family Carer Experiences during Covid-19
Internationally, people experiencing mental health challenges and psychosocial distress faced service disruptions, increased uncertainties and isolation, during the COVID-19 pandemic. Mental health family carers in turn experienced high levels of demand to fill gaps in service responses within a context of fear and uncertainty. A scoping narrative review methodology was undertaken to account for the varying methodologies of studies and the recenc…
Using photovoice to explore women's experiences of a women‐only prevention and recovery care service in Australia
Women should be able to access mental health services that are safe, free from harassment and abuse. Yet, research indicates that women experiencing mental health issues are often not safe in mixed gender environments, and especially in inpatient settings. This qualitative study draws on a photo-elicitation method ('photovoice') and semi-structured interviews to explore women's experiences of a sub-acute women-only prevention and recovery care (P…
Teaching Mental Health Social Work
The Australian social work course accreditation standards aim to ensure graduates have an understanding of the social, cultural, and political structures that influence psychosocial wellbeing. Unlike the previous standards, the current standards do not require the curricula to address specific knowledge and skills for working with people who live with severe mental distress or mental health conditions that might result in diagnoses such as schizo…
Clinician perspectives and sense of efficacy about the implementation of recovery-oriented practice in mental health
Recovery-oriented practice (ROP) is being steadily adopted worldwide. The current research examined the perspectives of clinicians about ROP pre-implementation at a clinical mental health service. The method was a survey consisting of fourteen questions regarding implementation of ROP and clinicians reported self-efficacy about work within a ROP framework. The research design was mixed methods couched within a narrative approach. It was explorato…
Social Work Practice in Health
Engaging with Transformative Paradigms in Mental Health
When graduates of Australian social work courses embark on a career in mental health, the systems they enter are complex, fragmented and evolving. Emerging practitioners will commonly be confronted by the loneliness, social exclusion, poverty and prejudice experienced by people living with mental distress; however, social work practice may not be focused on these factors. Instead, in accordance with the dominant biomedical perspective, symptom an…
A Systematic Mapping Review of Family Perspectives About Received Mental Health Interventions
Purpose: Families experience their own journey in adjusting to the role of carer. The purpose of this review was to understand from the perspective of families and carers which practices, and health system responses meet their needs in supporting people who experience mental health challenges. Methods: A systematic evidence mapping review was conducted, through searching five electronic databases to identify peer-reviewed studies, written in Engl…
Reasons for Use Package
The objective was to explore the efficacy of a dual diagnosis resource—the Reasons For Use Package (RFUP)—to build staff capacity to work with service users and explore service user experiences. A two-state case comparison evaluation was conducted employing a mixed methods action research design, utilizing staff and service user surveys combined with focus groups involving staff trained and mentored in use of the RFUP. Results were that both staf…
Teaching Mental Health Social Work
The Australian social work course accreditation standards aim to ensure graduates have an understanding of the social, cultural, and political structures that influence psychosocial wellbeing. Unlike the previous standards, the current standards do not require the curricula to address specific knowledge and skills for working with people who live with severe mental distress or mental health conditions that might result in diagnoses such as schizo…
A Systematic Mapping Review of Family Perspectives About Received Mental Health Interventions
Purpose: Families experience their own journey in adjusting to the role of carer. The purpose of this review was to understand from the perspective of families and carers which practices, and health system responses meet their needs in supporting people who experience mental health challenges. Methods: A systematic evidence mapping review was conducted, through searching five electronic databases to identify peer-reviewed studies, written in Engl…
The Use of Common Humanity Scenarios to Promote Compassion in Healthcare Workers
The importance of compassion in healthcare is universally acknowledged. However, the factors that enhance compassion are not well understood. The perception of common humanity has been proposed as a prosocial perspective that leads to unbiased universal compassion. There has been a lack of research into the relationship between common humanity and compassion. This study examined the use of common humanity scenarios to promote compassion in health…
Investigating How Viewing Common Humanity Scenarios Impacts Compassion
Compassion is a core value in healthcare. It enables healthcare workers to respond with care and kindness to all patients. The perception of common humanity (CH) has been proposed as the central mechanism of compassion. There have been no empirical studies examining the connection between CH and compassion. The present study aimed to investigate the impact of viewing CH scenarios on compassion. Seventy-five healthcare workers participated and wer…
Consumer measures and research co-production
A clinical service and a community-managed service have collaborated to deliver a service supporting people with severe and enduring mental illness and complex needs. This study aims to evaluate the recovery-orientation of the service by means of a consumer-led program evaluation utilising validated measures and qualitative interviews. The Recovery Self-Assessment (RSA) and the Recovery Enhancing Environment measure (REE) indicated that the thing…
Implementing the Strengths Model of Case Management
Co-operative inquiry
Co-operative inquiry, pioneered by Heron and Reason, is a qualitative, participatory methodology that powerfully transforms research from inquiring about people to inquiring with people. Contemporary qualitative research is increasingly trending from studying others to engaging all participants in research processes as equal collaborators. Consequently, many qualitative researchers are looking to participatory methodologies such as co-operative i…
Using photovoice to explore women's experiences of a women‐only prevention and recovery care service in Australia
Women should be able to access mental health services that are safe, free from harassment and abuse. Yet, research indicates that women experiencing mental health issues are often not safe in mixed gender environments, and especially in inpatient settings. This qualitative study draws on a photo-elicitation method ('photovoice') and semi-structured interviews to explore women's experiences of a sub-acute women-only prevention and recovery care (P…
Implementing the Strengths Model of Case Management
Carer psychoeducation in first-episode psychosis
BACKGROUND: Carers play an important role in supporting client adjustment and relapse prevention following a first psychotic episode. The caring experience however is a stressful and demanding one, and carers require support to develop coping strategies and sustain themselves in their role. AIMS: To evaluate a psychoeducation programme provided within a public adult mental health service, designed for the families of clients experiencing first-ep…
Consumer measures and research co-production
A clinical service and a community-managed service have collaborated to deliver a service supporting people with severe and enduring mental illness and complex needs. This study aims to evaluate the recovery-orientation of the service by means of a consumer-led program evaluation utilising validated measures and qualitative interviews. The Recovery Self-Assessment (RSA) and the Recovery Enhancing Environment measure (REE) indicated that the thing…
Women in the Middle
This is an interesting, moving, and stimulating text. It is interesting due to the universality of the content: We will all age ourselves, face the aging of people we love and how that compromises
Uses of strength-based interventions for people with serious mental illness
BACKGROUND: For the past 3 decades, mental health practitioners have increasingly adopted aspects and tools of strength-based approaches. Providing strength-based intervention and amplifying strengths relies heavily on effective interpersonal processes. AIM: This article is a critical review of research regarding the use of strength-based approaches in mental health service settings. The aim is to discuss strength-based interventions within broad…
Family group interventions in an early psychosis program
INTRODUCTION: The role of family in supporting service users in coping with illness and engaging in relapse prevention in early psychosis is important. Taking on this caring though is stressful and challenging, and it has been found that support and information for carers assists in their coping and reduces isolation. AIMS: To evaluate the current utility of a psychoeducation group program in a public adult mental health service, for the families…
Reasons for Use Package
The objective was to explore the efficacy of a dual diagnosis resource—the Reasons For Use Package (RFUP)—to build staff capacity to work with service users and explore service user experiences. A two-state case comparison evaluation was conducted employing a mixed methods action research design, utilizing staff and service user surveys combined with focus groups involving staff trained and mentored in use of the RFUP. Results were that both staf…
The Use of Common Humanity Scenarios to Promote Compassion in Healthcare Workers
The importance of compassion in healthcare is universally acknowledged. However, the factors that enhance compassion are not well understood. The perception of common humanity has been proposed as a prosocial perspective that leads to unbiased universal compassion. There has been a lack of research into the relationship between common humanity and compassion. This study examined the use of common humanity scenarios to promote compassion in health…
Investigating How Viewing Common Humanity Scenarios Impacts Compassion
Compassion is a core value in healthcare. It enables healthcare workers to respond with care and kindness to all patients. The perception of common humanity (CH) has been proposed as the central mechanism of compassion. There have been no empirical studies examining the connection between CH and compassion. The present study aimed to investigate the impact of viewing CH scenarios on compassion. Seventy-five healthcare workers participated and wer…
Engaging with Transformative Paradigms in Mental Health
When graduates of Australian social work courses embark on a career in mental health, the systems they enter are complex, fragmented and evolving. Emerging practitioners will commonly be confronted by the loneliness, social exclusion, poverty and prejudice experienced by people living with mental distress; however, social work practice may not be focused on these factors. Instead, in accordance with the dominant biomedical perspective, symptom an…
A Systematic Mapping Review of Family Perspectives About Received Mental Health Interventions
Purpose: Families experience their own journey in adjusting to the role of carer. The purpose of this review was to understand from the perspective of families and carers which practices, and health system responses meet their needs in supporting people who experience mental health challenges. Methods: A systematic evidence mapping review was conducted, through searching five electronic databases to identify peer-reviewed studies, written in Engl…
Mental Health Family Carer Experiences during Covid-19
Internationally, people experiencing mental health challenges and psychosocial distress faced service disruptions, increased uncertainties and isolation, during the COVID-19 pandemic. Mental health family carers in turn experienced high levels of demand to fill gaps in service responses within a context of fear and uncertainty. A scoping narrative review methodology was undertaken to account for the varying methodologies of studies and the recenc…
Using photovoice to explore women's experiences of a women‐only prevention and recovery care service in Australia
Women should be able to access mental health services that are safe, free from harassment and abuse. Yet, research indicates that women experiencing mental health issues are often not safe in mixed gender environments, and especially in inpatient settings. This qualitative study draws on a photo-elicitation method ('photovoice') and semi-structured interviews to explore women's experiences of a sub-acute women-only prevention and recovery care (P…
Teaching Mental Health Social Work
The Australian social work course accreditation standards aim to ensure graduates have an understanding of the social, cultural, and political structures that influence psychosocial wellbeing. Unlike the previous standards, the current standards do not require the curricula to address specific knowledge and skills for working with people who live with severe mental distress or mental health conditions that might result in diagnoses such as schizo…
Clinician perspectives and sense of efficacy about the implementation of recovery-oriented practice in mental health
Recovery-oriented practice (ROP) is being steadily adopted worldwide. The current research examined the perspectives of clinicians about ROP pre-implementation at a clinical mental health service. The method was a survey consisting of fourteen questions regarding implementation of ROP and clinicians reported self-efficacy about work within a ROP framework. The research design was mixed methods couched within a narrative approach. It was explorato…
Social Work Practice in Health
Employment interventions to assist people who experience borderline personality disorder
BACKGROUND: Employment is an important social determinant of health and is associated with positive health outcomes. However, individuals who have been diagnosed with borderline personality disorder (BPD) are significantly underrepresented in the workforce. Whilst there is an array of evidence based therapeutic interventions, there remains a gap in knowledge regarding the most effective ways to enhance employment outcomes for people with a diagno…
Mental Health Clinician Attitudes about Service User and Family Agency and Involvement in Recovery-Oriented Practice
This study adds to the literature on clinicians' views about ROP and shows that although clinicians are supportive of ROP, they also express substantial ambivalence about whether service users and families know what treatment is best. For ROP implementation to be successful, workforce training needs to support clinicians to reflect on these views with service users and families, and to encourage supported decision making. Future studies should fo…
Spiritual Diversity in Personal Recovery from Mental Health Challenges
Spiritual diversity and the positive role of spirituality in personal recovery have received growing attention in mental health literature. However, the spiritual experiences and views of service users from cultural communities, particularly the Chinese community, are understudied in Australia. This research explores Chinese service users' spiritual identities and their views and perspectives on the roles of spirituality in their mental health re…
Improving family social and mental wellbeing in the Covid-19 pandemic and beyond
Within mental health systems, families are often poorly integrated into planning and treatment yet tasked with unsustainable care and support responsibilities. The COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated impacts on families’ social and mental wellbeing. This study explores understanding family experiences through a co-operative inquiry methodology with staff who facilitated 26 meetings with over 300 mental health family, carer, and supporter participants. …
Knowledge Families Hold
BACKGROUND: Through an in-depth exploration of mental health family carers' experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic in Australia, this co-produced study identified recommendations for advocacy, practice and policy implications to uphold family carer wellbeing. Government-enforced restrictions, changed service availability and difficulties accessing hospitals, led to additional anxiety, depression and elevated distress, especially for people expe…
Families supporting people with mental health challenges during the Covid-19 pandemic
The significant demand for and reduction in mental health services during the COVID-19 pandemic resulted in family carers providing higher levels and increased hours of support of increased complexity. Guided conversations within seven co-designed online focus groups with 73 family carers, representing diverse communities and ages, explored the experiences of and desired changes for mental health service provision. Six themes emerged: service use…
Setting priorities for mental health family carer research and advocacy in Australia
This article reports on the recent priority agenda for mental health family carer research and advocacy developed by a new Australia-based network of stakeholders and researchers with lived and living experience of supporting someone experiencing mental distress. The Family and Carer Research and Advocacy Network (FaCRAN) emerged in the context of the Royal Commission into Victoria’s Mental Health System (RCVMHS) (State of Victoria, 2021) and sub…
Mental Health Social Work Practice
The United Nations Special Rapporteur has called for ‘a revolution in mental health care to end decades of neglect, abuse and violence...enabl[ing] a long overdue shift to a rights-based approach’ (United Nations Human Rights Office of the High Commissioner, 2017). Principles underpinning social work practice with people living with mental distress who receive diagnoses such as schizophrenia, personality disorders and bipolar disorder, align with…
Mental Health Workforce Knowledge about LGBTIQ Identities and Related Responsiveness
LGBTIQ people are at greater risk of mental health challenges, compared to the general population, and are overrepresented in mental health services. Past research has sought to understand how mental health workforce rate their knowledge to meet the needs of LGBTIQ consumers. However, this past research has largely aggregated the LGBTIQ identities, despite evidence that rates of mental health challenges vary within the LGBTIQ community. Using sem…
Mental health (28 obras) · Psychology (27 obras) · Psychiatry (19 obras) · Medicine (18 obras) · Mental Health and Patient Involvement (15 obras) · Family Caregiving in Mental Illness (12 obras) · Nursing (11 obras) · Sociology (11 obras) · Political science (9 obras) · Social Psychology (9 obras)