Criminalization of women accessing abortion and enforced mobility within the European Union and the United Kingdom

The chapter explores the impact of criminalization and restricted abortion access in Poland, Italy, and parts of the United Kingdom. We look at the ways in which the partial and extensive criminalization of abortion in the European Union and in the United Kingdom forces women to travel to access abortion care. At the core of our considerations is the interconnection of issues pertaining to criminalization and movement with citizenship, bodily integrity and autonomy, and the nation-state. By tracing these connections through an analysis of existing laws and scholarship, our concern here is to ask what discursive, narrative and theoretical resources feminist scholars might draw on and help co-produce in framing the interstices of criminalization of abortion and enforced mobility

Increasing the public awareness of justification

One of the requirements of the UK Ionising Radiation (Medical Exposure) Regulations 2017 is that all medical exposures must be justified before the exposure can proceed. One of the main elements of justification is a determination that the medical benefits from the exposure will exceed the associated radiation detriment. The field of medical exposure to ionising radiation is in the rare position of having this explicit legal requirement for net benefit. In this article it is argued that, although separate information on benefit and detriment is also required for implied or explicit informed consent prior to exposure, justification comes first, is simple to explain, and is easily related to the commonly understood basis of medical ethics. It seems reasonable, therefore, to make patients and the public more aware of the protection that UK law already provides for them. A proposal for a single-sentence general statement on justification is made

Professionalising the police pragmatically

The College of Policing has stated its intention to have policing recognised as a profession. In pursuit of this ambition, they have created a Code of Ethics and introduced a graduate entry requirement for new recruits. These changes reflect common features of established professions such as medicine and the law. Another common feature of established professions is an established body of knowledge that informs professional practice. The College has developed a Crime Reduction Toolkit as the genesis of a knowledge base for policing. The evidence presented on the toolkit is generally based on random control trials and their systematic review. While this is accords with the evidence-based approach supported by the College and others it has been criticised as being too quantitative. Some commentators have argued that it overlooks the qualitative approaches such as ethnography which have been the traditional research approach to the study of policing and ignores the voice of practitioners. It is generally accepted that to date research has had little impact on policing practice. This article argues for the adoption of a pragmatic philosophical framework for the development and application of a professional knowledge-based for policing. Pragmatic philosophy would facilitate the incorporation of both qualitative and quantitative research into the creation of a knowledgebase. Furthermore, pragmatism is an action-oriented philosophy that accords with the College of Policing’s ‘what works’ agenda, and would not only accommodate practitioner research but provides a structure for changes to current practices that are needed if the police are to become a profession

Introduction to the special issue – men as victims of violence and abuse in intimate relationships

This special issue presents a range of articles that represent the under-researched phenomenon of men as victims of violence and abuse in intimate relationships in a globalized world where men are often viewed as incapable of being victimized. This special issue presents the work of scholars from diverse backgrounds and locales. The contents of this Special Issue are an acknowledgment that men are also victimized in intimate relationships and in need of intervention. Despite the wide range of scholars from disparate geographical locations, the authors present articles from multi-disciplinary vantage points that are focused on a central theme, men’s victimization and abuse in intimate settings. In so doing, the authors have pushed back against the historic yet still prominent narrative that men are solely perpetrators and women are solely victims of violence and abuse in intimate settings

Making Sense of Here: revealing multiple narratives of place through artistic process and integrating art and artists into transdisciplinary research

The celebrated English Lake District, a national park and World Heritage Site, embraces complexity and tension. In landscape decision-making, farmers, landowners, policy makers, ecologists, residents, tourists and businesses have vested interests, as do the land and other-than-humans; yet the challenge remains in considering voices equitably and integrating complex environmental data. The art project Sense of Here (Citation2018–2020), incorporating learning from local experts, scientists and land managers, and using walking, poetry, photography, film and installations, aimed to portray and connect multiple perspectives. Learning from Sense of Here was instrumental in the establishment of the multi-artist PLACE Collective within the UK Centre for National Parks and Protected Areas; and contributed to the Windermere Accord, formed through the Ensemble Fellowship to improve pathways to better understand, mitigate and adapt to environmental change. This paper shares insights from Sense of Here and considers the role of art in shifting patterns of dialogue across different silos

“I’ll meet you at our bench”: adaptation, innovation and resilience among VCSE organisations who supported marginalised and minoritised communities during the Covid-19 pandemic in Northern England – a qualitative focus group study

Background: The Covid-19 pandemic has exacerbated pre-existing inequalities and increased adversity and challenges for vulnerable and marginalised communities worldwide. In the UK, the Voluntary Community and Social Enterprise (VCSE) sector play a vital role in supporting the health and wellbeing of people who are marginalised or experiencing multiple complex needs. However, only a small number of studies have focused on the impact that Covid-19 had on the VCSE sector. Methods: As part of a Health Inequalities Impact Assessment (HIIA), we conducted qualitative focus groups with staff and volunteers from five organisations to examine short, medium and longer-term impacts of Covid-19 upon the VCSE sector in Northern England. Nine online focus groups were conducted between March and July 2021. Findings: Focus group transcripts were analysed using Framework Analysis and yielded three central themes: (1) exacerbation of pre-existing inequalities, adversity and challenges for vulnerable and marginalised populations; (2) the ‘price’ of being flexible, innovative and agile for VCSE staff and volunteers; and (3) the voluntary sector as a ‘lifeline’ - organisational pride and resilience. Conclusions: While the voluntary sector ‘adapted at pace’ to provide support during Covid-19 and in its continued aftermath, this resilience has potentially come at the cost of workforce and volunteer wellbeing, compounded by political obstacles and chronic shortage in funding and support. The VCSE sector has a vital role to play in the post-lockdown ‘levelling up’ agenda. The expertise, capacity and resilience of VCSE organisations, and their ability to respond to Covid-19, should be celebrated, recognised and supported adequately to maintain its resilience. To not do so threatens the sector’s sustainability and risks jeopardising attempts to involve the sector in addressing the social determinants of health

The concept of neuromuscular repatterning in dancers: a systematic review

Repatterning is a term that can be used in different fields, including genetics, molecular biology, neurology, psychology, or rehabilitation. Our aim is to identify the key concept of neuromuscular repatterning in somatic training programmes for dancers. A systematic search of eight databases was conducted using the PRISMA (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis) guidelines. The Quality Assessment Tool for Quantitative Studies and the Oxford Levels of Evidence scales were used. The search yielded 1218 results, of which 5 met the inclusion criteria. Five studies (n = 5) were related to psychosomatic health (n = 5), two studies highlighted integration and inter-articular connectivity in movement (n = 2), four studies investigated the neurological component of alignment and efficiency in dance practice (n = 4), and two studies investigated self-confidence (n = 2). Five studies (n = 5) used imagery based on the anatomical and physiological experience of body systems as the main analytical method. Four studies (n = 4) used developmental movement through Bartenieff fundamentals as the main technique for this methodology. Developmental movement and imagery are two methodologies strongly connected to the concept of neuromuscular repatterning in somatic training programmes for dancers. The acquisition of further quantitative experimental or quasi-experimental studies is warranted to better define the level of improvement or impact of neuromuscular repatterning in dancers

Identifying longitudinal healthcare pathways and subsequent mortality for people living with dementia in England: an observational group-based trajectory analysis

Background: The number of people living with dementia (PLWD) continues to increase, particularly those with severe symptomatology. Severe symptoms and greater ill-health result in more acute care need. Early healthcare interventions can prove beneficial. Healthcare use has not been analysed as a holistic set of interlinked events. This study explores different healthcare pathways among PLWD, social or spatial inequalities in healthcare pathways and subsequent mortality risk. Methods: Group-based trajectory models (GBTM) were applied to electronic healthcare records. We generated clusters of PLWD with similar five-year, post-diagnosis trajectories in rates of primary and secondary healthcare use. Potential social and spatial variations in healthcare use clusters were examined. Cox Proportional Hazards used to explore variation in subsequent mortality risk between healthcare use clusters. Results: Four healthcare use clusters were identified in both early- (n = 3732) and late-onset (n = 6224) dementia populations. Healthcare use variations were noted; consistent or diminishing healthcare use was associated with lower subsequent mortality risk. Increasing healthcare use was associated with increased mortality risk. Descriptive analyses indicated social and spatial variation in healthcare use cluster membership. Conclusion: Healthcare pathways can help indicate changing need and variation in need, with differential patterns in initial healthcare use post-diagnosis, producing similar subsequent mortality risk. Care in dementia needs to be more accessible and appropriate, with care catered to specific and changing needs. Better continuity of care and greater awareness of dementia in primary can enhance prospects for PLWD. Research needs to further illuminate holistic care need for PLWD, including health and social care use, inequalities in care, health and outcomes

Enablers and barriers to hearing aid use in people living with dementia

Hearing loss is highly prevalent in dementia; however, people with dementia are less likely to use hearing aids consistently than people with intact cognition are. This qualitative study is the first of its kind to explore factors that influence hearing aid use from the perspective of community-living people with mild to moderate dementia and their care partners. Eleven UK-based dyads from the European SENSE-Cog Randomized Controlled Trial of a sensory intervention for people with dementia completed semi-structured interviews based on the Theoretical Domains Framework (TDF). Our findings suggest that the TDF domains environmental context and resources, behavioral regulation, reinforcement, and social influences are of greatest relevance to hearing aid use in dementia. Within these domains, we identified a range of factors that may influence the target behavior of hearing aid use. The findings suggest that adoption of multifaceted, flexible intervention approaches may support hearing aid use in dementia

Appraisal of National Institute for Health and Care Research activity in primary care in England: cross-sectional study

Background: The National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) was set up to enhance clinical and health research activity in a variety of National Health Service (NHS) healthcare settings, including primary care. Objective: To appraise how overall General Practitioner (GP) practice performance, location, and staffing levels may interact with NIHR Portfolio activity in primary care in England. Methods: Cross-sectional summary of GP practice research activity and practice descriptors; complete data from 6,171 GP practices was collated from NIHR (using data for 2013–2023 for Portfolio studies), Public Health England, Care Quality Commission, and NHS Digital sources, respectively. Results: In primary care, 1 million patients have been recruited into NIHR Portfolio studies in the last decade. The top 10% of practices—measured by different studies recruited to—contributed over 50% of that accrual. When the top decile of GP practices is compared to the 20% least active GP practices, research activity is significantly and individually linked with larger GP practices. Furthermore, it is significantly yet modestly associated with GP practice performance (positive patient feedback, Care Quality Commission rating), lower locality deprivation levels, and lower patient to GP ratios. Conclusions: Research activity in GP practices is—as seen previously with hospitals—significantly linked with better GP practice performance and patient feedback. Practice list size and staffing levels in particular interact with the aforementioned. This should be taken into account when determining strategies to increase patient and GP practice participation in NIHR Portfolio research studies