Patient blood management in Europe

Preoperative anaemia is common in patients undergoing orthopaedic and other major surgery. Anaemia is associated with increased risks of postoperative mortality and morbidity, infectious complications, prolonged hospitalization, and a greater likelihood of allogeneic red blood cell (RBC) transfusion. Evidence of the clinical and economic disadvantages of RBC transfusion in treating perioperative anaemia has prompted recommendations for its restriction and a growing interest in approaches that rely on patients' own (rather than donor) blood. These approaches are collectively termed ‘patient blood management’ (PBM). PBM involves the use of multidisciplinary, multimodal, individualized strategies to minimize RBC transfusion with the ultimate goal of improving patient outcomes. PBM relies on approaches (pillars) that detect and treat perioperative anaemia and reduce surgical blood loss and perioperative coagulopathy to harness and optimize physiological tolerance of anaemia. After the recent resolution 63.12 of the World Health Assembly, the implementation of PBM is encouraged in all WHO member states. This new standard of care is now established in some centres in the USA and Austria, in Western Australia, and nationally in the Netherlands. However, there is a pressing need for European healthcare providers to integrate PBM strategies into routine care for patients undergoing orthopaedic and other types of surgery in order to reduce the use of unnecessary transfusions and improve the quality of care. After reviewing current PBM practices in Europe, this article offers recommendations supporting its wider implementation, focusing on anaemia management, the first of the three pillars of PBM

Public expectations of critical infrastructure operators in times of crisis

Maintaining a minimum level of service and recovering quickly after a shock are key components of critical infrastructure (CI) resilience. Nevertheless, recent literature indicates that there is an ‘expectation gap’ in relation to the services CI operators should provide to members of the public in the immediate aftermath of a disaster. However, few of these studies have empirically investigated what members of the public expect. As such, this paper explores this under-researched area by drawing on key themes that emerged from a literature review, results from an online questionnaire-based study (N = 403), and analysis of 22 semi-structured interviews with CI operators and other relevant stakeholders. Results indicate that the public appear willing to tolerate reductions in service during crisis. The public also expect CI operators to keep them informed about progress to restore these services and answer direct queries via both traditional and social media. Based on these findings, resilience recommendations are presented

The changing landscape of disaster volunteering: opportunities, responses and gaps in Australia

There is a growing expectation that volunteers will have a greater role in disaster management in the future compared to the past. This is driven largely by a growing focus on building resilience to disasters. At the same time, the wider landscape of volunteering is fundamentally changing in the twenty-first century. This paper considers implications of this changing landscape for the resilience agenda in disaster management, with a focus on Australia. It first reviews major forces and trends impacting on disaster volunteering, highlighting four key developments: the growth of more diverse and episodic volunteering styles, the impact of new communications technology, greater private sector involvement and growing government expectations of and intervention in the voluntary sector. It then examines opportunities in this changing landscape for the Australian emergency management sector across five key strategic areas and provides examples of Australian responses to these opportunities to date. The five areas of focus are: developing more flexible volunteering strategies, harnessing spontaneous volunteering, building capacity to engage digital (and digitally enabled) volunteers, tapping into the growth of employee and skills-based volunteering and co-producing community-based disaster risk reduction. Although there have been considerable steps taken in Australia in some of these areas, overall there is still a long way to go before the sector can take full advantage of emerging opportunities. The paper thus concludes by identifying important research and practice gaps in this area

Is resilience socially constructed? Empirical evidence from Fiji, Ghana, Sri Lanka, and Vietnam

The objective of this paper is to better understand the various individual and household factors that influence resilience, that is, people⬢s ability to respond adequately to shocks and stressors. One of our hypotheses is that resilience does not simply reflect the expected effects of quantifiable factors such as level of assets, or even less quantifiable social processes such as people⬢s experience, but is also determined by more subjective dimensions related to people⬢s perceptions of their ability to cope, adapt or transform in the face of adverse events. Data collected over two years in Fiji, Ghana, Sri Lanka and Vietnam confirms the importance of wealth in the recovery process of households affected by shocks and stressors. However our results challenge the idea that within communities, assets are a systematic differentiator in people⬢s response to adverse events. The findings regarding social capital are mixed and call for more research: social capital had a strong positive influence on resilience at the community level, yet our analysis failed to demonstrate any tangible positive correlation at the household level. Finally, the data confirm that, like vulnerability, resilience is at least in part socially constructed, endogenous to individual and groups, and hence contingent on knowledge, attitudes to risk, culture and subjectivity

Bright futures: reconciliation action plan 2015 - 2018

Red Cross will launched a second Reconciliation Action Plan during NAIDOC Week with an aspiration to increase the number of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander staff in the organisation from the current 6.3 per cent to 9 per cent. We currently employ more than 140 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander staff who know and understand their communities and are helping them drive and lead their own solutions.   Employment = empowerment   Red Cross wants Australia\u27s First Nations peoples to share a prosperous, safe and healthy future with all other Australians. Employment is key to creating that future and we aim to increase the number of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples working across all levels from Board and senior management right through to our work on the ground in communities, and even in international programs. Red Cross\u27 second RAP also aims to build on our partnerships with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities across the country, including Wallaga Lakes, Horsham, Kempsey, Woorabinda, Kalgoorlie, Tiwi Islands, Ceduna and Cairns. In Woorabinda, we are working with the local community and seeing improved rates of primary school attendance and reduced levels of offending. In Victoria, the Wominjeka Leadership Group has engaged with the Wurundjeri Traditional Owners, which is leading to increased access by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples of Red Cross programs. In Katherine, Red Cross operates Kalano Aged Service for older Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, in partnership with the Kalano Aboriginal Community. Red Cross is increasing the capacity for Aboriginal organisations in the Flinders Rangers, Port Lincoln and Port Augusta to respond to and prepare for emergencies by delivering culturally competent training

Valentine's Day February 14th, 1916

Single-leaf flier calling for produce and various articles to be donated to the Red Cross for sending to "sick and wounded soldiers at home and abroad, as "Valentine gifts"

Psychoanalytic psychotherapy

A map of the prisoner of war and internee camps in Asia showing international boundaries and populated places.