Health Benefits of Urban Agriculture

Health professionals increasingly recognize the value of farm-and garden-scale urban agriculture. Growing food and non-food crops in and near cities contributes to healthy communities by engaging residents in work and recreation that improves individual and public well-being. This article outlines the benefits of urban agriculture with regard to nutrition, food security, exercise, mental health, and social and physical urban environments. Potential risks are reviewed. Practical recommendations for health professionals to increase the positive benefits of urban agriculture are provided

Smarter choices ?changing the way we travel. Case study reports

This report accompanies the following volume:Cairns S, Sloman L, Newson C, Anable J, Kirkbride A and Goodwin P (2004)Smarter Choices ? Changing the Way We Travel. Report published by theDepartment for Transport, London, available via the ?Sustainable Travel? section ofwww.dft.gov.uk, and from http://eprints.ucl.ac.uk/archive/00001224/

Without a Net: A Study of Early Impacts of Supplemental Security Income Benefits Elimination for Persons with Disabilities due to Drug and Alcohol Abuse in Cook County, Illinois

This is the first published study of its kind attempting to track the impact of the cuts in SSI/DI on the drug and alcohol addicted. Many of the findings in this study confirm the predictions of advocates. Ironically, much of what we learned flies in the face of stated goals of welfare reform - moving people into work and promoting self-sufficiency. In addition to the loss of cash benefits, beneficiaries also lost eligibility for both Medicaid and Medicare because their primary disability was substance abuse

Barnes Hospital Bulletin

https://digitalcommons.wustl.edu/bjc_barnes_bulletin/1265/thumbnail.jp

Occupational Therapy: Addressing Mental Health Needs in Permanent Supportive Housing

Title: Occupational Therapy: Addressing Mental Health Needs in Permanent Supportive Housing Introduction: The availability and implementation of occupational therapy services in supportive housing are limited. According to Schultheis (2018), out of the 550,000 people in America who experienced homelessness on a given night in 2017, 1 in 5 had a mental illness. Choy-Brown, Padgett, Smith, and Tiderington (2016) found that 92% of individuals with mental illness stated that secure housing was the foundation of their recovery. When housing acts as a cornerstone to recovery, it is important, as occupational therapists, to capitalize on the opportunity and resources stable housing provides to encourage residents to lead meaningful and independent lives (Tiderington, 2017). There is a need for evidence-based, client centered programs for individuals with SMI as the importance of community based mental health becomes more crucial to promote independence and preserve well-being in the community. The purpose of this scholarly project was to develop an intervention protocol to address the need for occupation-based interventions for individuals with SMI living in supportive housing. Methodology: An extensive literature review on the identified population and factors affecting the population’s wellness was conducted using the search databases PubMed and CINAHL Psychinfo, and OT search. Government and non-profit centers for information regarding individuals with SMI living in supportive housing were also used for the literature review and the development of educational materials for this population. To guide the creation of the product, the Person - Environment - Occupation (PEO) and recovery models were used. Results: An intervention protocol consisting of four intervention guides was created to promote independence and occupational engagement in individuals with SMI living in supportive housing. Each intervention guide focuses on an occupation that research has shown to be a need of the identified population. This group protocol is intended to be implemented by occupational therapists working in supportive housing with a community-based mental health focus. Information is included for the facilitator regarding the incorporation of Cole’s 7 steps and facilitation techniques

Healthcare workers’ beliefs, motivations and behaviours affecting adequate provision of sexual and reproductive healthcare services to adolescents in Cape Town, South Africa: a qualitative study

BACKGROUND: Adolescents’ sexual and reproductive healthcare (SRH) needs have been prioritized globally, and they have the rights to access and utilize SRH services for their needs. However, adolescents under-utilize SRH services, especially in sub-Saharan Africa. Many factors play a role in the under-utilization of SRH services by adolescents, such as the attitude and behaviour of healthcare workers. The aim of this study therefore, was to explore and gain an in-depth understanding of healthcare workers’ beliefs, motivations and behaviours affecting adequate provision of these services to adolescents in South Africa. METHODS: Twenty-four healthcare workers in public SRH services in Cape Town, South Africa participated in this qualitative study through focus group discussions. To fulfill the aims of this study, nine focus group discussions were conducted among the SRH nurses. RESULTS: SRH nurses indicated that they are experiencing challenges with the concept and practice of termination of pregnancy. They explained that this practice contradicted their opposing beliefs and values. Some nurses felt that they had insufficient SRH skills, which hinder their provision of adequate SRH services to adolescents, while others described constraints within the health system such as not enough time to provide the necessary care. They also explained having limited access to schools where they can provide SRH education and pregnancy prevention services in the surrounding area. CONCLUSIONS: Nurses are faced with numerous challenges when providing SRH services to adolescents. Providing the nurses with training programmes that emphasize value clarification may help them to separate their personal beliefs and norms from the workplace practice. This may help them to focus on the needs of the adolescent in a way that is beneficial to them. At the health systems level, issues such as clinic operating hours need to be structured such that the time pressure and constraints upon the nurse is relieved

Smarter choices - changing the way we travel

Summary: In recent years, there has been growing interest in a range of initiatives, which are now widelydescribed as 'soft' transport policy measures. These seek to give better information and opportunities,aimed at helping people to choose to reduce their car use while enhancing the attractiveness ofalternatives. They are fairly new as part of mainstream transport policy, mostly relativelyuncontroversial, and often popular. They include:. Workplace and school travel plans;. Personalised travel planning, travel awareness campaigns, and public transport information andmarketing;. Car clubs and car sharing schemes;. Teleworking, teleconferencing and home shopping.This report draws on earlier studies of the impact of soft measures, new evidence from the UK andabroad, case study interviews relating to 24 specific initiatives, and the experience of commercial,public and voluntary stakeholders involved in organising such schemes. Each of the soft factors isanalysed separately, followed by an assessment of their combined potential impact.The assessment focuses on two different policy scenarios for the next ten years. The 'high intensity'scenario identifies the potential provided by a significant expansion of activity to a much morewidespread implementation of present good practice, albeit to a realistic level which still recognisesthe constraints of money and other resources, and variation in the suitability and effectiveness of softfactors according to local circumstances. The 'low intensity' scenario is broadly defined as aprojection of the present (2003-4) levels of local and national activity on soft measures.The main features of the high intensity scenario would be. A reduction in peak period urban traffic of about 21% (off-peak 13%);. A reduction of peak period non-urban traffic of about 14% (off-peak 7%);. A nationwide reduction in all traffic of about 11%.These projected changes in traffic levels are quite large (though consistent with other evidence onbehavioural change at the individual level), and would produce substantial reductions in congestion.However, this would tend to attract more car use, by other people, which could offset the impact ofthose who reduce their car use unless there are measures in place to prevent this. Therefore, thoseexperienced in the implementation of soft factors locally usually emphasise that success depends onsome or all of such supportive policies as re-allocation of road capacity and other measures toimprove public transport service levels, parking control, traffic calming, pedestrianisation, cyclenetworks, congestion charging or other traffic restraint, other use of transport prices and fares, speedregulation, or stronger legal enforcement levels. The report also records a number of suggestionsabout local and national policy measures that could facilitate the expansion of soft measures.The effects of the low intensity scenario, in which soft factors are not given increased policy prioritycompared with present practice, are estimated to be considerably less than those of the high intensityscenario, including a reduction in peak period urban traffic of about 5%, and a nationwide reductionin all traffic of 2%-3%. These smaller figures also assume that sufficient other supporting policies areused to prevent induced traffic from eroding the effects, notably at peak periods and in congestedconditions. Without these supportive measures, the effects could be lower, temporary, and perhapsinvisible.Previous advice given by the Department for Transport in relation to multi-modal studies was that softfactors might achieve a nationwide traffic reduction of about 5%. The policy assumptionsunderpinning this advice were similar to those used in our low intensity scenario: our estimate isslightly less, but the difference is probably within the range of error of such projections.The public expenditure cost of achieving reduced car use by soft measures, on average, is estimated atabout 1.5 pence per car kilometre, i.e. £15 for removing each 1000 vehicle kilometres of traffic.Current official practice calculates the benefit of reduced traffic congestion, on average, to be about15p per car kilometre removed, and more than three times this level in congested urban conditions.Thus every £1 spent on well-designed soft measures could bring about £10 of benefit in reducedcongestion alone, more in the most congested conditions, and with further potential gains fromenvironmental improvements and other effects, provided that the tendency of induced traffic to erodesuch benefits is controlled. There are also opportunities for private business expenditure on some softmeasures, which can result in offsetting cost savings.Much of the experience of implementing soft factors is recent, and the evidence is of variable quality.Therefore, there are inevitably uncertainties in the results. With this caveat, the main conclusion isthat, provided they are implemented within a supportive policy context, soft measures can besufficiently effective in facilitating choices to reduce car use, and offer sufficiently good value formoney, that they merit serious consideration for an expanded role in local and national transportstrategy.AcknowledgementsWe gratefully acknowledge the many contributions made by organisations and individuals consultedas part of the research, and by the authors of previous studies and literature reviews which we havecited. Specific acknowledgements are given at the end of each chapter.We have made extensive use of our own previous work including research by Lynn Sloman funded bythe Royal Commission for the Exhibition of 1851 on the traffic impact of soft factors and localtransport schemes (in part previously published as 'Less Traffic Where People Live'); and by SallyCairns and Phil Goodwin as part of the research programme of TSU supported by the Economic andSocial Research Council, and particularly research on school and workplace travel plans funded bythe DfT (and managed by Transport 2000 Trust), on car dependence funded by the RAC Foundation,on travel demand analysis funded by DfT and its predecessors, and on home shopping funded byEUCAR. Case studies to accompany this report are available at: http://eprints.ucl.ac.uk/archive/00001233

Africa's Wealthy Give Back: A Perspective on Philanthropic Giving by Wealthy Africans in sub-Saharan Africa, with a focus on Kenya, Nigeria, and South Africa

Over the last few years we have begun to see the emergence of more strategic philanthropy, the growth of formal vehicles for its practice, and the rise of new platforms that reflect African voices. There is also a growing interest to better understand African philanthropy and learn from the experience of African philanthropists so as to achieve greater impact. This research forms part of that effort by providing a pan-African view of a specific group of philanthropists from Africa. It focuses on Kenya, Nigeria, and South Africa, countries that are in the spotlight due to their respective positions within their regions, their economic status and their levels of giving by the wealthy. However, individuals from countries such as Uganda, Ghana and the Democratic Republic of the Congo as well as from the African Diaspora also participated in the stud

Occupational Perspectives on Health in People with Schizophrenia

The thesis has provided with systematic information about how people with schizophrenia live their everyday life, and the results have shown significant relationships between occupational perspectives and health. The thesis departed in two in-depth studies that concerned time use and occupational engagement in relation to what people with schizophrenia do in their everyday life, with whom they are with, where they are and how they perceive and experience what they do, as reflected by time-use diaries. The first study showed that most time was spent alone, at home, where few occupational situations worked as a routine, providing a structure in terms of familiarity of habits. The second study showed that the participants functioned at different levels of occupational engagement, which ranged from performing mostly quiet activities alone, at home, with few routines and a little sense of meaning, to having ongoing occupational engagement that were interpreted as having meaning, in a greater variety of social and geographical environments. In particular, the function of performing quiet activities, the different ways of being social and of interpreting on experiences, have provided with new aspects that concern the occupational behaviour in people with schizophrenia. Based of these findings elucidated so far, the third and fourth study concerned the development of a reliable and valid instrument, the Profiles of Occupational Engagement in people with Schizophrenia. In study four and five, the POES was used to assess occupational engagement in relation to health related variables. The results showed that a high level of occupational engagement was related to higher ratings of self-related variables, fewer psychiatric symptoms, and better ratings of quality of life, and vice versa. The results of this thesis add a new dimension to understanding mental health. Consequently, identifying the level of occupational engagement in clients with schizophrenia is imperative to, understanding occupational balance and disability, the forming of a supporting relationship, providing appropriate occupational challenges and environmental support with intention to facilitate self-definition