Psychoeducation courses have gained some empirical support as effective early intervention strategies. Many of these courses reflect traditional cognitive behaviour therapy (CBT) thinking but psychoeducation courses based on other approaches are beginning to emerge. One such course, ‘ACTivate Your Life’, is based on acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT). The aim of this preliminary investigation is to evaluate a four-session (eight-hour) ACT psychoeducation intervention delivered within the Abertawe Bro Morgannwg University (ABMU) Health Board. Participants were invited to complete four outcome measures (assessing depression, anxiety, self-esteem and life satisfaction) and two process measures (assessing mindfulness self-efficacy and psychological flexibility) at pre- and post-intervention. Statistical analysis indicated that participants’ scores across each of the measured domains showed highly significant changes. These results suggest that a brief psychoeducation ACT course may be useful in helping people in need of early psychological intervention, and that further research is now needed to provide a definitive evaluation of its effectiveness.

Purpose This study aimed to explore how forensic mental health service users make sense of their past adverse experiences. Secondly, it aimed to explore whether service users considered their adverse experiences to be related to their current stay in a forensic mental health setting. Design/methodology/approach Interpretative phenomenological analysis was used to analyse interviews with eight service users in low and medium secure care. Six of the participants were male and two were female. Findings Four super-ordinate themes emerged from the data: “Living amongst adversity”; “Managing adverse experiences”; “Making sense of going into secure care”; and “Coping with the past in the present”. All participants referred to multiple adverse experiences throughout their lives and used harmful coping strategies to manage these. Individual differences in how they related their past experiences to their detention in secure care were evident. Practical implications Author guidelines state that this section is optional. Implications for clinical practice are discussed at length in the discussion section. Originality/value This study offers an insight into the way in which forensic mental health service users make sense of their past traumas in relation to their current admission to secure services. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, no research has previously addressed this from the perspective of service users.

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