Biography as empowerment or appropriation: Research and practice issues

Biographical methods are increasingly recognised as making a positive contribution to research and practice in health and social care, in particular claims for empowerment are frequently made. The authors evaluate this contribution and these claims, using a matrix with axes 'bottom up' to 'top down' and 'research' to 'practice', to position and reflect on examples of their own use of biographical methods in research

Living in Sandwell: An Exploratory Study into the Key Issues and Challenges that Affect a Small Group of People with Mild Learning Disabilities

This paper is concerned with a small group of people with a mild learning disability; who they are and what their lives are like. This group is not typically known by the label of mild learning disability in research, social policy or in service provision, due to a lack of suitable assessment or identification methods. This small study, using focus groups as a data collection method and undertaken as a pilot study for further research, has shown this group experienced wide ranging social disadvantage, and difficulties and challenges in daily living due to their learning disability. These included travel, shopping, parenting, lack of IT skills, plus experiencing local anti-social behaviour on a regular basis. Lack of recognition and appropriate support can leave them vulnerable to a range of difficulties and issues including social isolation and harassment

Widening Access to Palliative Care for People with Learning Disabilities

This publication represents an important step towards greater partnership by sharing some of the thinking, good practice and resources that have been developed throughout learning disability and end of life care services in a form that will be accessible to all practitioners but especially those in a hospice setting. It includes sections on the definition and incidence of learning disability, healthcare for people with learning disability, as well as a glossary and an extensive section on resources

From changeling to citizen: learning disability and its representation in museums

This paper examines why museums, both currently and historically, have excluded material relating to people with intellectual impairments. The national picture is examined briefly before the focus shifts to three UK museums in York, Leeds and Colchester where curatorial attitudes to including and presenting material on learning disability are compared and contrasted. Curatorial anxieties about the subject, a lack of national guidance on how to address learning disability in museum collections and displays and the elusive nature of available sources of material appears to discourage museums addressing the issue. Nevertheless, a few examples show that with organizational and professional commitment and the adoption of facilitative and consultative approaches, museums can present the history of learning disability in exciting and thought provoking ways that challenge pre-conceptions about intellectually impaired people. Given museums’ responsibilities under the Disability Discrimination Act (2005), the significance of the social inclusion agenda and calls for new museological practices, there has never been a better time for museums to reevaluate their approaches to learning impairment

Rofecoxib and cardiovascular adverse events in adjuvant treatment of colorectal cancer

Background Selective cyclooxygenase inhibitors may retard the progression of cancer, but they have enhanced thrombotic potential. We report on cardiovascular adverse events in patients receiving rofecoxib to reduce rates of recurrence of colorectal cancer. Methods All serious adverse events that were cardiovascular thrombotic events were reviewed in 2434 patients with stage II or III colorectal cancer participating in a randomized, placebo-controlled trial of rofecoxib, 25 mg daily, started after potentially curative tumor resection and chemotherapy or radiotherapy as indicated. The trial was terminated prematurely owing to worldwide withdrawal of rofecoxib. To examine possible persistent risks, we examined cardiovascular thrombotic events reported up to 24 months after the trial was closed. Results The median duration of active treatment was 7.4 months. The 1167 patients receiving rofecoxib and the 1160 patients receiving placebo were well matched, with a median follow-up period of 33.0 months (interquartile range, 27.6 to 40.1) and 33.4 months (27.7 to 40.4), respectively. Of the 23 confirmed cardiovascular thrombotic events, 16 occurred in the rofecoxib group during or within 14 days after the treatment period, with an estimated relative risk of 2.66 (from the Cox proportional-hazards model; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.03 to 6.86; P = 0.04). Analysis of the Antiplatelet Trialists’ Collaboration end point (the combined incidence of death from cardiovascular, hemorrhagic, and unknown causes; of nonfatal myocardial infarction; and of nonfatal ischemic and hemorrhagic stroke) gave an unadjusted relative risk of 1.60 (95% CI, 0.57 to 4.51; P = 0.37). Fourteen more cardiovascular thrombotic events, six in the rofecoxib group, were reported within the 2 years after trial closure, with an overall unadjusted relative risk of 1.50 (95% CI, 0.76 to 2.94; P = 0.24). Four patients in the rofecoxib group and two in the placebo group died from thrombotic causes during or within 14 days after the treatment period, and during the follow-up period, one patient in the rofecoxib group and five patients in the placebo group died from cardiovascular causes. Conclusions Rofecoxib therapy was associated with an increased frequency of adverse cardiovascular events among patients with a median study treatment of 7.4 months’ duration. (Current Controlled Trials number, ISRCTN98278138.

European working time directive for doctors in training. Profession needs to modernise surgical training.

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Unearthing the English common reader: working class reading habits, England 1850-1914

A thesis submitted to the University of Bedfordshire in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy.Gerrard, T. (2004) 'Unearthing the English common reader: working class reading habits, England 1850-1914'. PhD thesis. University of Bedfordshire

An investigation of pastoral care as exemplified in the life and ministry of Richard Baxter with a consideraton of its relevance for today

https://place.asburyseminary.edu/ecommonsatsdissertations/2393/thumbnail.jp

Objects of Worth, Objects of Desire: Toward A Dictionary of Traded Goods and Commodities, 1550-1800

Obsolete specialist vocabularies of interest to economic and cultural historians are ill served by the major dictionaries, whose sources are largely literary and whose brief illustrative quotations are taken out of context. A project at the University of Wolverhampton, England, is attempting in part to rectify this deficiency by producing a specialized dictionary of com-modity terms, 1550-1800. This paper is con-cerned not with the project's history, but with some of the issues that it needs to address. These are discussed within the framework of the three principles that underpin the project's work: the use of a wide range of sources acces-sible between the word and the object. An appendix details the computing infrastructure and gives some examples of possible dictionary entries. Résumé Les termes spécialisés désuets qui intéressent les historiens de l'économie et de la culture ne figurent pas suffisamment dans les grands dic-tionnaires, dont les sources sont principale-ment littéraires et dont les brèves citations offertes en exemples sont prises hors contexte. Un projet de l'Université de Wolverhampton (Angleterre) vise à rectifier la situation en pro-duisant un glossaire des termes relatifs aux produits en usage entre 1550 et 1800. Cet ar-ticle ne fait pas l'historique du projet, mais aborde certaines questions à régler. Ces der-nières sont examinées en fonction de trois prin-cipes qui sous-tendent le projet : l'utilisation de nombreuses sources qui permettent de rattacher le mot et l'objet. Une annexe décrit en détail l'infrastructure informatique du projet et donne des exemples d'unités lexicales

Hold on: physical restraint in residential child care

Guidance for developing best practice, policy and improved outcomes for children and young people in residential child care. Children in residential care can exhibit disturbed and violent behaviour which can result in them being aggressive to themselves and to others. Over many years practitioners, managers and policy-makers have tried to find ways of dealing with children whose behaviour is dangerous with a range of interventions such as crisis intervention and crisis de-escalation, as well as the use of sanctions such as restricting leisure activities and control of pocket money. There has also been some debate about the use of physical restraint by residential child care staff when the child or those around him or her need to be protected from the child's aggression without hurting or humiliating the child