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Carlisle in northwest England suffered its worse floods for more than 180 years in 2005. A study, reported here, was undertaken to assess the health and social impacts of these floods via in-depth, taped individual and focus-group interviews with people whose homes had been flooded and with agency workers who helped them. Respondents spoke of physical health ailments, psychological stress, water health-and-safety issues related to the floods, and disputes with insurance and construction companies, which they felt had caused and exacerbated psychological health problems. Support workers also suffered from psychological stress. Furthermore, it was found that people had low expectations of a flood and were not prepared. The findings are presented in five sections covering flood risk awareness, water contamination issues, physical health, mental health, and impact on frontline support workers. The discussion focuses on the implications of the findings for policy and practice vis-à-vis psychological health provision, contamination issues, training and support for frontline support workers, matters relating to restoration, and preparation for flooding.

This study was set within the UK inter-professional multi-centre randomized controlled PACE Trial of manual-based therapy (BMC Neurology, 2007, 7: 6). The aim of supervision within 'the trial' was to maintain specificity of manual-based therapy, sustain retention of therapists, manage quality control and assurance of the therapy, monitor competence in delivering therapy and enhance professional development. The rationale for the study was that the approach to supervision within the trial appeared to be different from the previous experience of supervision for many of the therapists, especially occupational therapists and physiotherapists. A self-report questionnaire utilizing survey methodology identified differences in therapists' previous clinical supervision and current supervision experience within the trial. All respondents (n = 14) indicated that they liked and preferred supervision that was agenda structured, one to one and regular (at least once a month), interspersed with group (team supervision), peer support meetings, review of taped therapy sessions by supervisor and ⁄ or peer for feedback and competency rating. In the main this combination of supervision methods had not been previously experienced. This has implications for practice and future therapy research that both therapists and managers will need to consider. In particular the implementation of group supervision and review of audio taped therapy sessions for analysis, review and feedback in practice to enhance learning and client care. RationaleThis survey was set within the UK inter-professional multi-centre randomized controlled PACE Trial of manual-based therapy. The PACE Trial aims to compare the efficacy, for adults with chronic fatigue syndrome, of three manual-based therapies: adaptive pacing therapy (APT), cognitive behaviour therapy (CBT) or graded exercise therapy (GET) when added to specialist medical care against specialist medical care alone (White et al. 2007). The aim of supervision within 'the trial' was to maintain specificity of manual-based therapy, sustain retention of therapists, manage quality control and assurance of the therapy, monitor competence in delivering therapy and enhance professional development.The study rationale was that the types of supervision used within the trial appeared to be different ª

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