The phenomenon of aggression experienced by community mental health staff is explored in the present study. Qualitative and quantitative data were elicited in a self-report questionnaire completed by 92 community mental health workers from a metropolitan Area Health Service. Findings indicate that 96% of community mental health workers experienced some form of aggression in the course of their work, 25% felt that their life had been threatened and 7% sustained physical injuries. Issues in need of attention are the normalization of aggression and subsequent lack of incident reporting, and the appropriateness of staff safety training for community mental health settings.

The relationship between mental health services and police and people who have mental health problems, are suicidal or are drug- and/or alcohol-affected is examined in this paper. A survey of 131 police officers in Sydney, Australia, revealed that more than 10% of police time is spent dealing with people with mental health problems. Nevertheless, police felt unsupported in this role, unprepared for it and torn between the competing demands experienced in their work. A lack of confidence in dealing with suicidal people and a belief that work with mentally disturbed people does not constitute valid police work are also reported. Managing people with mental disturbance is a major concern for police. Specifically, there are difficulties relating to: inadequate training and education; deficiencies in services/resources; time and resource over-utilization; communication, liaison and feedback problems, and frustration related to accessing mental health facilities/services. It is argued that police work involving mentally disturbed people is a valid and necessary role that complements law enforcement. In order to facilitate this aspect of police work, recommendations are made regarding education and collaborative working relationships between police and mental health professionals, which, in turn, could improve the care of mentally disturbed people in the community.

The theoretical influence of self-concept on cognitive and emotional aspects of behaviour was tested in an exploratory survey of 187 Australian and Vietnamese student nurse participants. Symptoms of depression were depicted in either a family scenario or a context-free list and were rated for perceived depression utilizing the Hopkins Symptom Checklist-25 (HSCL-25). Narrative data were also obtained. Australians perceived significantly more depression than the Vietnamese who normalized the behaviours. There was a significant interaction between culture and the context of depression, whereby the Vietnamese, in contrast with the Australians, perceived greater depression in the family scenario than in the list. Thematic analysis of narrative data assisted interpretation by revealing Vietnamese themes of family and disruption of social harmony, philosophical and temporal approach to life and judgementalism. Australians were more focused on individual concerns such as psychological disturbance and the need for independence. Implications for transcultural nursing were drawn.

Nurses have a wealth of tacit and explicit knowledge, the value of which remains hidden because of a fear of authorship. How can nurses overcome their intimidation by the pen? In this paper, the personal and intrinsic are integrated with the public and literary as key issues on nurses' authorship are explored. Motivation and disincentives are balanced against helpful strategies for new writers such as cultivating a positive attitude, linking with a critical colleague, consulting 'how to' books, and journal keeping. In addition, originality, creativity, ethics and the shadow side of publishing are discussed.