Purpose Mental health conditions (MHC) are an increasing reason for claiming injury compensation in Australia; however little is known about how these claims are managed by different gatekeepers to injury entitlements. This study, drawing on the views of four stakeholders—general practitioners (GPs), injured persons, employers and compensation agents, aims to describe current management of MHC claims and to identify the current barriers to return to work (RTW) for injured persons with a MHC claim and/or mental illness. Methods Ninety-three in-depth interviews were undertaken with GPs, compensation agents, employers and injured persons. Data were collected in Melbourne, Australia. Thematic techniques were used to analyse data. Results MHC claims were complex to manage because of initial assessment and diagnostic difficulties related to the invisibility of the injury, conflicting medical opinions and the stigma associated with making a MHC claim. Mental illness also developed as a secondary issue in the recovery process. These factors made MHC difficult to manage and impeded timely RTW. Conclusions It is necessary to undertake further research (e.g. guideline development) to improve current practice in order to enable those with MHC claims to make a timely RTW. Further education and training interventions (e.g. on diagnosis and management of MHC) are also needed to enable GPs, employers and compensation agents to better assess and manage MHC claims.

Mental Health Claims Management and Return to Work: Qualitative Insights from Melbourne, Australia

The article addresses the challenges faced in the implementation of the new curriculum in Zimbabwe. The new curriculum was rolled out in the midst of various trajectories (challenges), such as lack of resources, inadequate teacher preparation and resistance from teachers and parents, among others. We used relational leadership as a theoretical lens, which buttresses a need for school leadership that prioritises relationships within the implementation context. The study was qualitative, with 25 participants chosen through purposeful sampling and snowballing from five different schools in rural Zimbabwe. Data were collected through interviews and a focus group discussion. The data were then analysed using the lens proposed by Laws, Harper and Marcus (2003), where various themes were identified responding to the research questions. The study found that healthy school relations, though overlooked, are very important in the success of any curriculum implementation process and that there is a need for curriculum planners, school heads, teachers and learners to invest in healthy relations underpinned by social justice, emancipation and improvement of school conditions as alternatives to enhance a contested curriculum implementation.

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Rethinking healthy school relations for curriculum change in Zimbabwe: A relational leadership approach

Implementation of the Pilot Program is firmly under way. Solid project implementation performance is essential. In the long run, however, the benefits of the Pilot Program will be measured by knowledge learned, not by dollars spent or the number of projects implemented. The knowledge will be gained only through a systematic learning strategy at the Program Level. Such a learning strategy will rest on five pillars: 1) strengthen the coordination among individual projects; 2) ensure that each project has in place a system for objectively monitoring and analyzing its results and for monitoring these results carefully at the Program level; 3) monitor the major physical, demographic, and economic trends in Amazon to better understand the overall context of our project-level insights; 4) use the insights from the above to structure the policy dialogue; and 5) ensure that the learning strategy has the highest level of credibility and objectivity.

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Robert Schneider

Papers

Reviewing the challenges for the pilot program