The economics of health

This report presents results from the Economics of Health project funded by the East Midlands Development Agency. The work was undertaken between November 2007 and February 2008. The main aim of the project was to examine the relationship between mental and physical health and employability, labour market participation and economic performance, with specific attention given to the direction of causal relationships

Hidden in Plain Sight: Homeless Students In America's Public Schools

Student homelessness is on the rise, with more than 1.3 million homeless students identified during the 2013-14 school year. This is a 7 percent increase from the previous year and more than double the number of homeless students in 2006-07. As high as these numbers seem, they are almost certainly undercounts.Despite increasing numbers, these students - as well as the school liaisons and state coordinators who support them - report that student homelessness remains an invisible and extremely disruptive problem.Students experiencing homelessness struggle to stay in school, to perform well, and to form meaningful connections with peers and adults. Ultimately, they are much more likely to fall off track and eventually drop out of school more often than their non-homeless peers.This study:provides an overview of existing research on homeless students,sheds light on the challenges homeless students face and the supports they say they need to succeed,reports on the challenges adults - local liaisons and state coordinators - face in trying to help homeless students, andrecommends changes in policy and practice at the school, community, state and national level to help homeless students get on a path to adult success.This is a critical and timely topic. The recent reauthorization of the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) provides many new and stronger provisions for homeless students (effective Oct. 1, 2016); requires states, district and schools for the first time to report graduation rates for homeless students (effective beginning with the 2016-17 school year); and affirms the urgency and importance of dealing with homelessness so that all children can succeed

The institutional foundations of medicalization : a cross-national analysis of mental health and unemployment

In this study, we question (1) whether the relationship between unemployment and mental healthcare use, controlling for mental health status, varies across European countries and (2) whether these differences are patterned by a combination of unemployment and healthcare generosity. We hypothesize that medicalization of unemployment is stronger in countries where a low level of unemployment generosity is combined with a high level of healthcare generosity. A subsample of 36,306 working-age respondents from rounds 64.4 (2005-2006) and 73.2 (2010) of the cross-national survey Eurobarometer was used. Country-specific logistic regression and multilevel analyses, controlling for public disability spending, changes in government spending, economic capacity, and unemployment rate, were performed. We find that unemployment is medicalized, at least to some degree, in the majority of the 24 nations surveyed. Moreover, the medicalization of unemployment varies substantially across countries, corresponding to the combination of the level of unemployment and of healthcare generosity

Incentive Structure, Civil Service Efficiency and the Hidden Economy in Nigeria

Nigeria, Oil boom, Civil service reform, Corruption

NEET in Essex: A Review of the Evidence

This report reviews the published research evidence on the factors and processes that lead some young people into becoming ?Not in Employment, Education or Training? (NEET), and the policy interventions that are deemed to prevent this. It also includes a previously conducted Latent Class Analysis (LCA) of the 2009 Essex NEET cohort, which is analysed alongside the more general published evidence. The literature reviewed was generated from wide rage of bibliographic search engines, academics, policy makers and practitioners working in this field The review will contribute towards the development of more effective policy interventions, and provide an initial foundation for the development of a possible multi-method research project. A primary research project will be able to provide more robust inferences on the causes and processes of becoming NEET and on the interventions designed to prevent this. This will enable Essex County Council to better target and implement effective policy interventions, ultimately reducing the social and economic costs of youth unemployment in Essex

Integrating Women and Girls With Disabilities Into Mainstream Vocational Training: A Practical Guide

[From Foreword] This guide has been developed as an ILO contribution to implementing the Agenda for Action of the Asian and Pacific Decade of Disabled Persons, 1993-2002, and to the Platform for Action adopted by the 1995 United Nations Fourth World Conference on Women held in Beijing which has called specifically for action by Governments, in cooperation with employers, workers and trade unions, international and on-governmental organizations, including women’s and youth organizations, and educational institutions to ensure access to quality education and training for, among others, women with disabilities, to improve their employment opportunities. It is also part of the ILO strategy to promote the observance of the ILO Vocational Rehabilitation and Employment (Disabled Persons) Convention, 1983 (No. 159), and Recommendation, 1983 (No. 168). These are the main reference documents for the ILO activities on the employment and training of disabled persons, along with the ILO Recommendation on Vocational Rehabilitation of the Disabled, 1995 (No. 99). This guide is intended primarily for instructors and administrators in vocational training institutes in both the public and private sectors

Poverty, institutions and interventions: a framework for an institutional analysis of poverty and local anti-poverty interventions

At a time when technological innovations are making our world increasingly smaller and our production systems are becoming increasingly more efficient, the benefits of economic growth and development as a whole have not been able to reach all of society. Indeed, many poor countries, characterised by their disadvantageous position in the global society and continuously plagued by weak governments, internal strife and natural disasters have missed out on many of the benefits of growth and development. Within countries that do gain advantage from the various developments of globalisation, significant groups continue to be excluded from the benefits of this new-found prosperity. It is quite significant that a generalised conclusion such as this is still a reality at the turn of the century, despite decades of national and international effort to promote development and combat poverty.

Creative approaches to mental health: a critical analysis of the mindfulness agenda in Sussex

Mindfulness is a packaged intervention with current popularity in East Sussex, and this study explores how it is embedded in mental health services, the processes of the gathering and presentation of evidence, how the experience of patients is organizationally shaped and the importance of indirect interventions. These forms of interventions are what has been termed ‘choice architecture’ by proponents of the ‘nudge agenda’, describing the way that decisions and behaviour are influenced by how the choices are presented or designed . I want to explore the feasibility of applying indirect interventions to mindfulness in order to increase take-up rates, evaluative mechanisms and follow-up support, based on the patient perspective. Mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT) was recommended by NICE in their guidelines in 2004, was brought fully into the mainstream and has now been specifically adapted for psychosis. My research is on the interaction between mindfulness as an innovative therapy, a marginalised group of people who experience psychosis, and the currently popular behavioural economics (nudge) agenda. The nudge agenda is being promoted on the basis of cost-effectiveness, the aptness of its ideology to the current political climate, and its evidence base in particular case studies. The use of creative indirect interventions such as nudge, ‘when carefully crafted and applied’, can be ‘a positive means of communication between physician and patient’

Silent voices : supporting children and young people affected by parental alcohol misuse

Main table of contents: • Summary of Key Messages and Recommendations • Section One: Background • Section Two: Methodology • Section Three: Consultation with children and young people • Section Four: Review Findings • Research Question One: What is known about the experiences of children and families where there is parental alcohol misuse and to what extent is this informed by the views of children and young people themselves? • Research Question Two: What are the key wider issues associated with PAM (e.g. unemployment, domestic abuse, mental health) and how do they relate to risk/protective factors for children and families? • Research Question Three: What is known about protective factors and processes in this population and how they can minimise risk/negative outcomes? • Research Question Four: What is known about services, and their delivery, and the impact/benefit of such services for children (and families) where there is PAM and to what extent is this informed by the views of children and young people themselves? • Research Question Five: What is the current policy context for children and families where there is PAM and how might it be improved? • Research Question Six: Thinking about questions 1 to 5 above, what are the gaps in our knowledge about children affected by PAM and services for these children