This is the second bumper issue of 2024 of Mental Health and Social Inclusion. Increasing numbers of submissions had led to a backlog in papers waiting to appear in an issue of the journal. The publishers have very kindly agreed to allow us to publish these papers in two batches. Once again, we have many articles from across the globe. COVID-19 continues to cast its long shadow and is directly addressed in two of our papers. Professor Nigel MacLennan contributes two very thoughtful papers on whistleblowing and the trans debate. We hope he will continue to share his insights on other topics. Dr Freda Gono-Schoupinsky contributes two further papers on positive autoethnography. This brings together the fields of positive psychology and autoethnography. Patrick Hopkinson and Dr Mats Niklasson describe the development of IDCAP, which combines collaborative autoethnography with psychobiography. Emerald has just commissioned a book from Patrick and Mats on this topic which is a way of bringing together international scholars. Thus far their work in this journal has looked at the musicians Syd Barrett, Peter Green and Brian Wilson. Hopefully they will now extend their work beyond the field of music.
Mental Health and Social Inclusion has always championed the lived experience perspective, and this issue is no exception. Kirsty Lilley talks about “falling through the cracks”, Jo Mullen writes about co-production in community mental health nursing, Benjamin Gray discusses peer support in a men’s ward and Rosalind Austin about “Emily’s voices”. Robert Hurst continues to curate the long-running Remarkable Lives series. It disappoints us that many of these articles are not downloaded as frequently as empirical papers, as they often offer unique insights into the field of mental health services. We commented in the last editorial about Kirsty Lilley’s powerful writing style. Her papers are all written in a highly engaging and very descriptive style. Jo Mullen has also written a number of papers for MHSI. Her work highlights the critical need for mental health professionals and community mental health nurses to work in partnership. This was an issue Professor Tony Butterworth highlighted in the 1990s. Students at the University of Bolton have benefitted from lectures with Peter Bullimore, Matt Ward and in more recent times Andrew Voyce. Indeed, the University awarded Andrew an honorary doctorate in July 2024, for his contributions to educating the public and professionals about mental health problems. Apart from producing a number of scholarly papers on his own, Andrew has also collaborated with a number of mental health professionals and will hopefully continue to do so.
So, what lies ahead for Mental Health and Social Inclusion in 2025? As we highlighted in the last editorial, we are expanding to ten papers per issue. We still attract many submissions which are not suitable for the journal as they fail to address the issue of mental health! These papers will not be sent for review and will be a ‘desk reject.’ Julie and I are now both more experienced as journal editors and are becoming more discerning about the quality of submissions. While we champion lived experience contributions, these will not be accepted if they are poorly written. As editors we are asked to nominate the best paper for each year. For 2023 it was a paper by Professor Carol Ryff entitled, “Contributions of eudaimonic well-being to mental health practice”. This paper has been downloaded over 4,000 times. Choosing the best paper for 2024 is going to be even harder, given the two last bumper issues has hugely increased the pool of papers to select from. Julie and I are grateful to Emerald for their continued support and to Jo Sharrocks and Caitlin Murphy and also to Vidhi Tyagi and Ruchita Chavan from KW Global, who all ensure the production process is as smooth as possible. We are excited to be bringing our readers and contributors many more new developments and insights in the mental health field in 2025. Wishing you all a very happy and relaxing festive period.
Professor Jerome Carson, Editor-in-Chief Dr Julie Prescott, Co-Editor.
November 2024.
