Acceptance and Commitment Training (ACT) for Mental Health Promotion was developed as a comprehensive handbook for the Strength-In-Unity capacity-building action research project. The project engaged men in the Asian diasporic communities in Calgary, Vancouver, and Toronto with the goal of reducing mental illness stigma and promoting mental wellbeing and collective resilience. The handbook provides step-by-step instructions for implementing Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) as a group intervention. It has been found to be effective in supporting project team members and group facilitators to deliver ACT experiential activities seamlessly. In this handbook, the authors place a strong emphasis on adhering to core ACT principles and philosophies, as well as to the project implementation processes, which are essential for delivering and evaluating the effectiveness of ACT in reducing mental illness stigma and promoting mental wellbeing.

Background

The aim of this study is to explore the practice experiences of new graduate nurses (NGNs) in publicly funded acute healthcare settings in the Greater Toronto Area, their perspectives on the determinants of their desire to stay or leave the nursing profession, and to identify action-oriented strategies to promote retention of NGNs.

Design

Qualitative, descriptive

Methods

Fifteen NGNs participated in focus group sessions, where a semi-structured interview guide was created to generate discussion on NGNs’ lived and professional experiences. We utilised the Social Ecological and Intersectionality frameworks to guide data analysis with an emphasis on social identities, power relationships, and the personal, interpersonal, organizational, and structural determinants of nursing retention.

Results

Participants contextualized their major challenges within four professional development phases: 1.) accessible nursing education and practicum placement; 2) preparedness, orientation and mentorship during entry to practice; 3) navigating transition to independent practice and multi-level structural violence; 3.1) retention strategies; and 4) perspectives on professional trajectory for NGNs.

Conclusion

NGNs experience major challenges throughout their nursing education and career. The study findings indicate that further research and systemic reform is essential to support, develop, and retain nursing leaders in the acute care setting. Furthermore, the findings can inform the development of evidence-based nursing curriculum reform.

The CHAMPs-In-Action Training Manual is a resource developed to support effective facilitation of the CHAMP intervention in real-world settings to reduce HIV and related stigma, promote individual and collective resilience, and mobilize community action for social justice and equity.

Mental health is a vital aspect of wellbeing in each and everyone of us. The term itself, however, is sometimes associated with negative stigmatizing connotations. There is work to be done to eliminate mental stigma and all other kinds of stigma in society and within ourselves. Our manual will help you as trained facilitators to deliver group sessions to promote mental wellbeing, increase resilience, decrease mental health stigma, and increase activism and advocacy to promote mental health using our intervention model, Acceptance and Commitment to Empowerment (ACE), rooted in Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) and Group Empowerment Psychoeducation (GEP).

Introduction/Background

Methodology

Results

Conclusion

Disclosures

Background:Black men and their communities are more affected by HIV. Although they constitute less than 5% of the Ontarian population, they accounted for 26% of new HIV diagnoses in 2015, nearly half of which (48.6%) were attributed to heterosexual contact. HIV stigma and discrimination reinforce African, Caribbean, and Black men’s HIV vulnerability by creating unsafe environments that deter them from testing and disclosure, resulting in isolation, depression, delayed diagnosis and linkage to treatment and care, and poor health outcomes. In response to these challenges, intergenerational strategies were identified from previous community-based participatory studies as best practices to reduce HIV vulnerabilities and promote resilience among heterosexual Black men and communities. The proposed intervention is premised on this recommendation of intergenerational intervention.

Objective:The overarching objective is to engage heterosexual Black men and communities in cocreating a community centered, culturally safe intergenerational intervention to reduce HIV vulnerabilities and related health disparities.

Methods:We will engage 12 diverse community stakeholders in Ontario, inclusive of heterosexual Black men, in 8 weekly sessions to evaluate existing evidence of effective HIV health literacy interventions, identify essential and relevant aspects, and work collaboratively to co-design the HIV-Response Intergenerational Participation (HIP) intervention for use with Black men and communities. Next, we will recruit 24 self-identified heterosexual Black men aged 18-29, 29-49, and ≥50 years. We will pilot and evaluate the HIP intervention with 24 heterosexual Black men from these 3 age groups (split as 2 events: a total of 12 participants in person in Toronto and 12 participants on the web in Windsor, London, and Ottawa). We will use the data obtained along with questionnaires from validated scales and focus groups to evaluate the effectiveness of HIP. The data will include HIV knowledge, perceived stigma toward people living with HIV, acceptance and uptake of HIV testing, preexposure prophylaxis (PrEP), postexposure prophylaxis (PEP), and condom use. We will also collect data related to perceptions about system-level factors such as discrimination, socially misconstrued masculine identity, etc. Quantitative analysis will essentially be a univariate descriptive analysis. We will use thematic analysis to highlight the results of the focus group discussions. Finally, we will disseminate the evaluation results and engage researchers, leaders, Black men, and communities to expand the project team and scale up the intervention in Ontario and across Canada.

Results:Implementation commences by May 2023, and by September 2023, we should have produced, among others, an evidence-informed HIP intervention that can be adapted for use by heterosexual Black men and communities beyond Ontario.

Conclusions:The pilot intervention will strengthen critical health literacy and build resilience against HIV through intergenerational dialogue among heterosexual Black men of all ages.