STRATEGIC COMMUNICATIONS AND THE DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY: IMMIGRATION POLICIES, MIXED MESSAGING, AND INFORMATION FRATRICIDE

Under President Trump, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) rolled out the controversial parent-child separation policy, also known as zero tolerance, and the Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP) program in 2018–19. How DHS conducts strategic communications about such controversial policies is directly related to public and stakeholder perception of these policies. A newly developed stakeholder-centric measurement and evaluation model used to evaluate these two policy case studies demonstrates that Trump’s DHS used messaging which was, at times, inconsistent and even contradictory. While communications on MPP showed an evolution in DHS’s ability to successfully engage in strategic communications related to these enforcement efforts, the parent-child separation policy represents the prototypical example of information fratricide. The research methodology adopts an outsider viewpoint and employs a media content analysis of high-level public communications of DHS officials. Identification and future use of DHS’s top communications strengths, as displayed in these sample communications, can lead to more effective strategic communications and improved stakeholder engagement. The thesis concludes with generalized recommendations for future communications policy within DHS based on lessons learned from this thesis research.Outstanding ThesisCivilian, Department of Homeland SecurityApproved for public release. distribution is unlimite

Political Propaganda or Political Imperative? An Inquiry into the Legacy of the NHS Zero Tolerance Campaign for Forensic Mental Health Nurses

The government response to high levels of patient violence and aggression towards NHS staff was the introduction of the NHS Zero Tolerance Campaign in 1999. The aim was to reinforce to the public that violence towards NHS staff was unacceptable, and clear working relationships with the Police and prosecution services were to be established. This study explores the impact of the NHS Zero Tolerance Campaign and its subsequent iterations to understand if the political attempts to reduce patient violence and aggression in a Forensic Low Secure Hospital have succeeded. Moreover, have the attempts been made as a matter of necessity, or have they merely been rhetoric to garner favour with the public that they are managing a situation which receives regular media attention are also considered in the study. Research MethodologyFor this qualitative small-scale study, I followed a Heideggarian-Gadamerian philosophy of a hermeneutic phenomenology theoretical framework and applied Structuration Theory as the conceptual framework. This facilitated listening to the voices of Forensic Mental Health Nurses working in the Hospital through a series of research conversations. Following transcription ofthe conversations, I was enabled to become an active participant in the interpretive process by joining my voice with theirs, together with a circle of reading and reflective writing, to reveal deep understandings of their experiences.Several major understandings emerged, underpinned by insights into the world of the Forensic Mental Health Nurses. These included understanding their experiences of patient physical aggression and verbal abuse and the changes in training and response to patient aggression since Zero Tolerance Campaign. The relationship with the Police and Crown Prosecution Service in preventing and responding to patient violence was also revealed, together with the impact the environment had on patients. Fusion of HorizonsDrawing together the understandings and insights with my own experiences enabled interpretation. This revealed what it is like being a Forensic Mental Health Nurse working in a Low Secure Hospital, caring for some of the most mentally unwell individuals. What was strongly evidenced was a working environment of fear and conflict within which they continued to provide the best care they are able, putting the patients’ needs before their own. Interestingly, there was lack of political awareness in relation to the nursing profession and the impact on their roles as subsequent politicians introduced measures to tackle patient violence. This was seen as management driven rather than government initiatives and directives and often viewed with cynicism.Recommendations and ConclusionThe key recommendation is the need to address the lack of political awareness in nurse education as it was clear that the research Conversationalists felt unable to effect change that they viewed as being driven my Senior Management rather than the Government. There is still a lack of protection from the Police and their understanding of mental health remains poor. The Crown Prosecution Service continue to rarely progresses the prosecution of patients detained in the Low Secure Hospital.The Low Secure Hospital is not a prison, patients can be responsible for their aggression and justice does not have to stop at the doors. Nurses are entitled to state protection and politicians need to listen to the Forensic Mental Health Nurses but, to do so, there needs to be a strong nurse voice

Coastal progress: eastern North Carolina's war on poverty, 1963-1972

This dissertation puts forward a new and broader understanding of the factors that contributed to greater economic opportunity and declining poverty rates during the Great Society years and beyond through a study of the nation's first rural Community Action Agency (CAA) to receive federal funds as a part of President Lyndon Johnson's War on Poverty. Craven Operation Progress, Inc. (COP), located in mostly rural Eastern North Carolina, also was one of the eleven sites funded by the private non-profit North Carolina Fund, whose antipoverty programs both predated and served as models for the national War on Poverty. Aside from just the timing and source of its funding, the experiences of COP reveal a refreshingly different and far more encompassing story than has been told. In addition to focusing primarily on the fight to eradicate poverty in America's largest urban centers (many of which, like Mayor Daley's Chicago, were exceptional cases), scholarship on the War on Poverty has generally assumed that middle-class whites on CAA boards were either uninterested or unable to truly meet the needs of the poor, biracial agreement and cooperation was essentially impossible, and that confrontation and direct protest led by the poor and their liberal advocates was the primary and the most consistently effective means behind social change. "Coastal Progress: Eastern North Carolina's War on Poverty, 1963-1972" challenges these assumptions. With few exceptions, scholars have not looked beyond episodic conflicts and controversies to assess the wide-ranging interactions between whites and non-whites and between the poor and non-poor in their evaluations of CAAs. The research conducted for this study, which relies heavily on several untapped primary sources including 1960s and 1970s-era oral interviews of antipoverty workers and local citizens, records from the U.S. Office of Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO), and written communications between COP and the North Carolina Fund as well as the Office of Economic Opportunity (OEO), confirms that negotiation and moderate white and black leadership in combination with manpower and economic development were key to the creation of economic opportunities for poor people in Eastern North Carolina and also to making those opportunities accessible to the poor, blacks in particular

Examining the occurrence of verbal and non-verbal positive emotional expression during discussion of interpersonal trauma in psychotherapy: a case study

Recent theories of positive emotion, including the broaden and build theory, propose that positive emotion can broaden one\u27s range of thoughts and actions and build long-lasting personal resources (Folkman & Moskowitz, 2000; Fredrickson & Levenson, 1998). However, little research exists on how positive emotion is expressed in the context of discussing interpersonal trauma in psychotherapy. The current study explored the expression of positive emotion during discussions of interpersonal trauma over the course of an individual case of psychotherapy as related to the broaden and build theory. The client-participant in this single-case study was a 28-year-old African American female who presented to treatment reporting difficulties in relationships and work problems. The course of therapy was 21 sessions, 15 of which were videotaped, with 6 of the videotaped sessions containing discussions of childhood sexual abuse (CSA) and workplace psychological harassment (WPH). In these 6 sessions, the Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count (LIWC; Pennebaker, Chung, Ireland, Gonzales & Booth, 2007) was used to identify positive emotion words; smiles and laughter were coded to identify expression of positive affect; and assessment measures and qualitative themes were analyzed to better understand the context and course of therapy. The findings of the current case study supported previous literature in that positive emotion was expressed during discussion of trauma. Results were also consistent with the broaden and build theory in that the client-participant demonstrated behaviors consistent with the theoretical components of broadening; although other variables may have contributed to this result. Limitations included the LIWC\u27s potential inability to identify all of the positive emotions that the client-participant expressed verbally and its lack of consideration of cultural context in verbal expression of emotion. Yet, the findings of this study not only provide potential ways to operationally define/identify broaden and build constructs, but also can inform therapists working with trauma survivors that the expression of positive emotion during discussion of trauma may occur more often than not, and could be normative, an indication of avoidance, or a sign of strength or resilience, which could help to promote quality of life and possibly flourishin

Preventing Homelessness: Exploring the Role of Clinical Psychology in Adult Mental Health Services

Aims: With homelessness rates continuing to rise, the government have attempted to address this issue over recent years by turning to public authority employees to take preventative action to those faced with threat of homelessness. How clinical psychology can contribute to the reduction of homelessness in adult mental health services is yet to be explored. This study aimed to better understand the role of clinical psychologists working in adult mental health services to prevent homelessness. Secondly, this study aimed to understand the facilitators and barriers that may get in the way of the profession contributing to the prevention of homelessness. Method: Twelve clinical psychologists working within adult mental health services in the UK participated in individual semi-structured interviews. Thematic analysis was used to identify the participants’ ideas on the role of clinical psychology in the prevention of homelessness within adult mental health services. Results: Three themes were identified through thematic analysis; (1) ‘Understanding Homelessness’ describing how clinical psychologists define and understand homelessness in addition to what influences their understanding. (2) ‘System Structures’ describing NHS structures which may create barriers to prevention, how clinical psychologists have learnt from other organisations and professions and the role of professional bodies, and (3) ‘Clinical Psychologists’ Skills and Relevance’ describing the skills clinical psychologists have to prevent homelessness in the profession before considering reasons why it may not be appropriate for clinical psychologists to intervene in this social issue. Conclusion: This study reviewed the role of clinical psychology in the prevention of homelessness from the perspective of clinical psychologists working in adult mental health services. Clinical psychologists can intervene at an individual, service and political level to prevent homelessness. The profession is encouraged to work at all levels to address the distress caused by social issues that perpetuate homelessness

Restrictive Practices: The Impact of Seclusion and Restraint Events on Inpatient Staff in Psychiatric Facilities

The purpose of this qualitative descriptive phenomenological study was to explore how staff cope with the experience of SR events at designated receiving facilities within Florida. By examining the experience of staff, the researcher aimed to understand the impact of those experiences on their attitudes toward SR, their use and knowledge of alternatives, and the factors that contribute to the decision to implement SR in the inpatient psychiatric environment. The research question explored how psychiatric staff describe their lived experiences in SR events within a designated Baker Act receiving facility. Participants were staff employed at Baker Act receiving facilities in Florida who participated in or witnessed seclusion and restraint events during their employment. Each participant was interviewed separately via Zoom utilizing a broad set of interview questions. Interviews were recorded and then transcribed for the purpose of reading, coding, and identifying emerging themes. The study identified four major themes that reflected underlying experiences of conflict, concerns for safety, ideas for improvement of practices, and an acceptance of responsibility for the failure of interventions leading to seclusion and restraint practices

University of Montana Report of the President 1931-1932

An annual report of the activities of the University, published by University of Montana Office of the President and submitted to the Montana State Board of Education.https://scholarworks.umt.edu/presidentsreports_asc/1036/thumbnail.jp

A survey of research in television by graduate students in speech and cognate fields, 1968-1969

The purpose of this study was to assemble, classify, analyze, and evaluate the contribution of research in television which was completed by graduate students in speech and cognate fields during the two-year span 1968-69. This was done in order toi (l) fill a gap in the existing literature on the assessment and criticism of television research; (2) refine future research in television by identifying research territory already covered, and by suggesting new directions for this research; and (3) help define the place of television research within the speech field. A master list of data to be analyzed was drawn from recent indices of graduate research by students in speech and related fields. Abstracts of 102 theses and dissertations on this list were then either extracted from existing sources or from the studies themselves as they were secured through interlibrary loan. Content and method categories of classification were then established and applied to the collection of abstracts, and the results of the classification were analyzed to determine the general nature of the body of research

1993-1995-UNM CATALOG

Course catalog for 1993-1995https://digitalrepository.unm.edu/course_catalogs/1096/thumbnail.jp

Exploring Hospital Policy Makers’ Understandings of Forensic Inpatient Sexualities

Background: UK professionals’ understandings of their roles with regards to service users’ sexualities is an under-explored area in clinical research and training, particularly within forensic mental health pathways where they may be exclusively conceptualised in terms of their potential negative underpinnings and outcomes. Secure services typically have no policies governing or promoting sexual expression, and tend to prohibit sexual intimacy. However, recent developments in national guidance and findings emerging from UK-based and international research raise questions as to this approach’s utility in providing rehabilitative care. To date, no research has investigated forensic hospital policy-makers’ sense-making practices around detainees’ sexualities. Aims: This study aims to examine hospital policy-makers’ understandings of forensic detainees’ sexualities, and how these relate to their experiences of practice and their vision of a policy governing sexual expression in hospital. The research is one part of a broader project that has previously explored detainees’ and professionals’ understandings of how sexualities operate within forensic institutions, and aims to support the development of policy and training materials. Methods: The present research draws upon a social constructionist epistemology, using a qualitative, thematic decomposition approach to examine the socially-sedimented discourses at play within the forensic hospital. Ten policymakers were recruited the largest provider of forensic inpatient services in the UK, and participated in semi-structured interviews. Findings: Three themes were identified: 1) Risk and Uncertainty, 2) Artificial Realities, 3) Detained Bodies. The implications of each of these are discussed in terms of their sub-themes. Conclusion: Despite being broadly consistent with policy-makers’ understandings of holistic, rehabilitative practice, the prospect of lessening restrictions on detainees’ sexual expression presents a number of challenges and concerns. ‘Traditional’ institutional and populist discourses concerning forensic professionals’ responsibility to prevent harm tended to supersede those supporting positive risk-taking and human rights-based approaches. The propensity for UK tabloid media to depict forensic detainees and professionals in an unfavourable light, and the accompanying potential for increased government scrutiny, was understood as a primary barrier to enacting less restrictive practices. The hospital itself was positioned as vulnerable to the predations of wider society