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Perceptions of ageing towards the self and towards others can positively and negatively impact an older adult’s mental wellbeing. This paper aims to consolidate literature examining the relationship between perceptions of ageing and depression in older adults to inform both practice and policy for older adult mental health services.

Quantitative research articles examining perceptions of ageing and depression in older adults were identified through searches on three electronical databases, alongside forward and backwards citation searches. A total of 14 articles involving 31,211 participants were identified.

Greater negative attitudes towards ageing were associated with higher levels of depressive symptoms and greater positive attitudes towards ageing were associated with lower levels of depressive symptoms or higher levels of happiness. However, the causal direction of this relationship could not be determined. Studies demonstrated that perceptions of ageing also act as a moderator in the relationship between depression and health status, hopelessness and personality traits. Future research should attempt to examine the relationship between perceptions of ageing and depression in older adults to attempt to identify the causal direction of this relationship.

This is the only systematic review the authors are aware of consolidating literature which explores the relationship between older adults’ perceptions of ageing and depression. It is hoped that these findings will be able to inform both policy and practice to improve older adults’ care and support for depression.

The COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in health services adapting the delivery of routine assessments, with many operating remotely. This paper aims to explore the lived experiences of individuals undertaking remote autism assessments during the COVID-19 pandemic.

A mixed-methods service evaluation was completed in an adult autism and neurodevelopmental service based in the north of England. A total of 24 participants, who had undergone remote autism assessments between March 2020 and July 2020, completed a questionnaire about their experiences. Thematic analysis was performed, and additional quantitative data were analysed descriptively to allow contextual information to be included.

The evaluation identified three main themes. The first, practical and sensory issues of remote assessment, indicated that internet connectivity problems were common and sometimes impeded a successful assessment. Additionally, participants identified some elements of the videocall impacted their sensory sensitivities. The second theme, emotional responses to remote assessment, demonstrated relief and exhaustion to be common following sessions. The ability to complete assessments from a safe space were favoured by most. The final theme, pros and cons of different assessment methods, highlighted the preference for video assessments above telephone and in person sessions.

This study provides an original contribution to the literature by gathering autistic adults’ perspectives on remote autism assessments. The findings suggest that video assessments were the most preferable, over face-to-face and then telephone. Services should offer video and face-to-face assessments while keeping telephone assessments to a minimum.

The purpose of this paper is to explore involving doctors in shared leadership. It examines the policies that have led to the focus on shared leadership and the implications for practice.

This is a conceptual paper, examining policy developments and key literature to understand the move towards shared leadership. It focuses on UK NHS, and in particular doctors, although the concepts will be relevant to other disciplines in healthcare, and healthcare systems in other countries.

This paper suggests that the shared-leadership approach for doctors has potential given the nature of clinical practice, the inherently collaborative nature of healthcare and the demands of new healthcare organisations. Health policy reform, generally, will mean that all doctors need to be engaged with leadership, albeit, perhaps, at different levels, and with different degrees of formality. Leadership will remain an important precondition for the success of the reforms. This is likely to be the case for other countries involved in healthcare reform.

To highlight the benefits and barriers to shared leadership for doctors.

Offers an alternative to traditional approaches to leadership.

Females with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) may display superficial social skills which may mask their ASD symptomology impacting on the identification of the disorder – known as the “camouflage” hypothesis. Compared to males with ASD, it is increasingly recognised that females with ASD have a stronger ability to imitate behaviour which is socially acceptable, particularly those females who have higher cognitive abilities (i.e. intelligence considered to be within the normal range) (Ehlers and Gillberg, 1993). The paper aims to discuss this issue.

This paper will explore the literature on camouflaging or masking behaviour in females with ASD. A systematic PRISMA review was conducted.

The capacity to “camouflage” social difficulties in social situations is considered to be one of the main features of the female phenotype of ASD (e.g. Kenyon, 2014). Social imitation or camouflaging enables some level of success and coping, which results in some females never receiving a diagnosis of ASD. They typically may not exhibit any observable functional impairments. However, under the surface of the camouflage, females may experience high levels of subjective stress, anxiety and exhaustion and a need to re-charge or recuperate by withdrawing from any social interaction.

There is relatively little understanding and knowledge of the female phenotype of ASD. This lack of understanding and knowledge impacts significantly on the ability to identify females with ASD (Lai et al., 2015; Bargiela et al., 2016), which can have a number of negative consequence (Adamou et al., 2018; National Collaborating Centre for Mental Health (UK), 2012).

There is a need for the development of a camouflaging measure.

There is a real need for further research exploring the positive and negative impact of the phenomenon of “camouflaging”, or “pretending to be normal” in females with ASD.

The purpose of this paper is to consider the use of beauty blogging selfies in conveying consumer authenticity. The authors used an under-researched consumer-based authenticity approach.

The authors adopt a practice theory approach to selfies as both objects and practices. The study combines depth-interviews with a review of the participants’ blogs and selfies.

This research shows that bloggers use selfies as records of product trial, success and failure via specific sub-types. These selfies function as authenticating consumer acts, intertwined with key life narratives and as records of communal events, where bloggers identify as a community.

This research is limited to beauty bloggers. Further research on consumer authenticity could be extended to other product categories and other media channels. The widened definition of selfies proposed enables further research on self-representational practices in consumption contexts. Likewise, the practice theory approach could be extended to other online contexts.

As social media and peer endorsement become ever more important to marketers, brands are seeking to leverage bloggers as brand ambassadors as well as the authenticity they convey. Maintaining this authenticity and credibility among peer networks and audiences is crucial for influencers and for marketers.

This study contributes to the understanding of consumer-based authenticity, self-representational practices using selfies and beauty blogging communities. Practice theories are applied in an online context, suggesting an opening for further research into mediated practices.