Include 2011 : The role of inclusive design in making social innovation happen.

Include is the biennial conference held at the RCA and hosted by the Helen Hamlyn Centre for Design. The event is directed by Jo-Anne Bichard and attracts an international delegation

Health practitioners’ understanding and use of Relaxation Techniques (RTs), Mindfulness Meditation (MM) and Relaxation Music (RM) in the UK and South Korea: A qualitative case study approach

Background:The information exchange between healthcare practitioners in South Korea and the UK has so far been limited and cross-cultural comparisons of Relaxation techniques (RTs) and Mindfulness meditation (MM) and Relaxation music (RM) within the healthcare context of Korea and the UK have previously been unexplored. This has been the inspiration for this qualitative case study focussing on understanding and use of RTs/MM and RM within the respective healthcare contexts. Methods:Data were collected through qualitative semi-structured interviews with six Korean and six UK healthcare practitioners in three professional areas: medical practice, meditation, and music therapy. The interviews were transcribed and a thematic analysis was undertaken. The topics explored include: a) the value and use of RTs/MM and RM; b) approaches and methods; c) practitioners’ concerns; d) responses of interventions; e) cultural similarities and differences; and f) the integration of RTs/MM and RM within healthcare. Underlying cultural factors have been considered, including education systems and approaches, practitioner-client relationships and religious influences alongside the background of cultural change and changing perspectives within healthcare in the UK and Korea. Findings: A great variety of approaches to RTs/MM and RM were discussed among the sample group. Across a wide client spectrum common therapeutic purposes included stress reduction, emotional support and regulation, rehabilitation, personal transformation and spiritual development. The participants were both discerning and creative in terms of mind-body interventions they use. Practitioners’ training, personal experience and insights gained through practice inform their professional work and they were keen to share knowledge among colleagues. Nevertheless, practitioners’ level of competency and abilities with respect to the use of RTs/MM and RM were a common concern; training opportunities exist to varying degrees in both countries, however, and growth in the use of mind-body interventions is a significant trend. Nation-specific and cultural factors can affect the use of interventions, settings and client group. Similarities (focus on individual and subjective factors, client acceptance and practical concerns) and differences (related to historical background, educational culture, prevailing religious outlooks and the respective health services) were found between Korea and the UK.Conclusion:The value of cross-cultural and multidisciplinary research and integrated health is increasingly recognised and the use of RTs/MM and RM as mind-body interventions considered to be useful integrated treatment within healthcare context. This study shows the difference in range of RTs/MM and RM resources and the approaches in integrating practice and these may lead to cross-fertilisation within therapeutic practice. The value of knowledge sharing and integrated medicine is increasingly recognised across the globe and this study opens up a number of themes that might be taken up again and built on by future researchers. More generally, the study contributes to cross-cultural qualitative research between Korea and UK and integrating theory and practice with respect to RTs/MM and RM

The influences of gamification on user experience in the healthcare sector

Abstract. Gamification is a considerably emerging trend focusing on the application of game mechanics to a nongame context. The objective of gamification implication in serious settings is to form the positive outcomes from the patients. While education and business have been taken advantages of gamification, the digital health domain just started the journey with this prevailing trend. That is why, there is an increasing demand for scientific research on the gamification in healthcare, especially the user experience under the gamified healthcare solution from the company perspective. With this inspiration, the study is conducted aiming at exploring the user experience under the impact of gamification in the healthcare context. Study indicates that it is the affordances, which are also known as game elements that stimulate various psychological and behavioural experience for the users. The combination of the achievement-oriented, social-oriented and immersion-oriented affordances in the gamified healthcare solution triggers the various psychological and behavioural experience. These experiences are examined under three perspectives which are stimulation, interaction and sense-making. Through the stimulation lens, the psychological experiences are favourably formed and dominant the behavioural experience. While, the interaction lens indicates the dominance of the behavioural experience, especially the performance-related outcomes. The sense-making view shows the actor-related behavioural experience outweighs of the other outcomes. The exploratory qualitative research and the semi-structured interviews are utilised to investigate the game affordances in the gamified solutions and the user experience from the gamified solution providers angles. The study expectedly contributes to the literature’ body of gamification by confirming the conceptualisation of the gamification and the formation of the user experience. The empirical implications are for the gamified healthcare solution design regarding the affordance combination and the utilisation of the insights from both patients and game players

Proceedings of the 7th international conference on disability, virtual reality and associated technologies, with ArtAbilitation (ICDVRAT 2008)

The proceedings of the conferenc

DHRS 2009 Proceedings of the Ninth Danish Human-Computer Interaction Research Symposium.

Since 2001 the annual Danish Human-Computer Interaction Research Symposium has been a platform for networking, and provided an opportunity to get an overview across the various parts of the Danish HCI research scene. This years symposium was held in Aarhus, Denmark on December 14, 200

A Qualitative Study Exploring How Occupational Therapists Embed Spirituality Into Their Practice

Introduction Spirituality is a concept central to healthcare practice, and in particular to occupational therapy. As a profession, influenced from early Judeo-Christian religious beginnings, occupational therapy has retained yet translated this as a commitment to holistic, person-centred practice. Occupational therapy holds the uniqueness of the individual, and meaningful and purposeful expressions of health and well-being through occupation, as central to professional practice. Set in the context of 21st century healthcare, this thesis explored how occupational therapists (n=4) working in the English National Health Service (NHS) embedded spirituality into daily practice. Methods Two studies were undertaken, first a structured literature review and concept analysis, applying the method outlined by Walker & Avant (2011), to conceptualise spirituality as described in occupational therapy practice. Second, a qualitative study was undertaken, underpinned by an ethnographic approach, using participant-as-observer observation and follow up interviews to explore how occupational therapists embedded spirituality into everyday practice. Framework approach was used to guide analysis and interpret the large volume of unstructured textual data. Findings Despite the difficulties defining spirituality occupational therapists appeared able to apply the underpinning core values and philosophy of the profession and embed spirituality in their practice. Practitioners found it more meaningful to describe spirituality in terms of how they applied the concept in, and through, practice by comprehending the values, needs and concerns of the individual as opposed to a consistent definition. Occupational therapists engaged with spirituality by concerning themselves with supporting patients experiencing vulnerability due to disruption in their health and well-being. This support was achieved by the occupational therapist uncovering the individual needs of the patient and through delivering person-centred care by explicitly addressing spirituality. The scope to embed spirituality was on occasion limited by organisational and contextual factors that restricted the potential to practice fully. Achieving organisational targets by adopting time constrained interventions was perceived as having a particularly limiting impact on embedding spirituality in practice. Conclusion The Embedding Spirituality into Occupational Therapy (ESpiOT) model which emerged from the findings of this study is offered as a tool to guide practice, education and research into how spirituality is, and could be, embedded into occupational therapy practice