“I'm Still Fighting for the Two of Us”: How Partners of UK Veterans Construct Their Experience of Living with Combat‐Related Trauma

There has been little qualitative research into the experiences of UK partners of veterans with PTSD. This study therefore aimed to explore how partners constructed their experiences of living with the condition. Fifteen female partners of male UK veterans were recruited and interviewed. Using a social constructionist thematic analysis, five themes were constructed: the women's need to subdue own emotional and behavioral responses; dilemmas about whether the veteran was unwell or ‘bad’; attempts at negotiating multiple roles; challenging the narrative of veterans as heroes; and the relational struggle with the transition to nonmilitary life. This study highlighted the importance of considering the veteran as existing within a relational and cultural context, and the need to include partners in therapeutic interventions

Life satisfaction amongst police officers working in the area of child abuse investigation

Child abuse investigation is an area of work reported to be associated with high levels of work stress. This potentially places professionals at risk of psychological harm and may lead to lower life satisfaction than in the general population. The current study examined this issue within a large sample of Australian police officers. Specifically, 214 officers working in the area of child abuse investigation responded to a single global measure of life satisfaction (LS) known to be highly related to other measures of subjective wellbeing as well as clinical depression. The results revealed that, irrespective of the officers&rsquo; gender or degree of exposure to child abuse cases, the mean score from LS score was within the expected adult normative range. Further, the overall incidence of low LS in this sample (1.9 per cent) was not significantly different from the general population (4.3 per cent). The implications of these findings for police organisations are discussed.<br /

Compassion Stress and the Qualitative Researcher

Human subjects are carefully protected in the research process. However, the same consideration is not currently being given to the qualitative researcher, even those investigating topics that are likely to elicit powerful emotions. The role of researcher’s emotional responses and the self-care strategies that, in some circumstances, are appropriate for the researcher and other research support personnel have not received the attention they deserve in qualitative research literature. Based on experience in conducting research on the topic of self-directed learning and breast cancer, and on the limited literature available, the author makes the case for the use of strategies such as counseling, peer debriefing, and journal writing as means of dealing with the potential for “compassion stress” as experienced by the researcher and other research support personnel. She also suggests that the preparation of social science researchers should include information on appropriate self-care strategies.Yeshttps://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/manuscript-submission-guideline

The development of the British Red Cross' psychosocial framework: 'calmer'

This paper presents the history, development and approach of the new psychosocial framework which in 2008 was adopted by the British Red Cross, and a piece of research designed to review its fitness for purpose as an educational tool. The framework CALMER is a single, overarching approach for considering and delivering psychosocial services across all of the British Red Cross. It is being included in all relevant training programmes, such as within first aid and psychosocial support and within services in emergency response, event first aid, health and social care, international tracing and message and refugee services and across human resources. The framework includes six prompts which should be followed sequentially, with guidance on facilitative behaviours within each. The research considered the levels of confidence and worry of participants on one day training programmes delivered to three different groups of personnel in three different countries. While finding support for the CALMER framework, further recommendations are made for future research

Abnormal cognition, sleep, EEG and brain metabolism in a novel knock-in Alzheimer mouse, PLB1

Peer reviewedPublisher PD

How are compassion fatigue, burnout, and compassion satisfaction affected by quality of working life? Findings from a survey of mental health staff in Italy

BACKGROUND: Quality of working life includes elements such as autonomy, trust, ergonomics, participation, job complexity, and work-life balance. The overarching aim of this study was to investigate if and how quality of working life affects Compassion Fatigue, Burnout, and Compassion Satisfaction among mental health practitioners. METHODS: Staff working in three Italian Mental Health Departments completed the Professional Quality of Life Scale, measuring Compassion Fatigue, Burnout, and Compassion Satisfaction, and the Quality of Working Life Questionnaire. The latter was used to collect socio-demographics, occupational characteristics and 13 indicators of quality of working life. Multiple regressions controlling for other variables were undertaken to predict Compassion Fatigue, Burnout, and Compassion Satisfaction. RESULTS: Four hundred questionnaires were completed. In bivariate analyses, experiencing more ergonomic problems, perceiving risks for the future, a higher impact of work on life, and lower levels of trust and of perceived quality of meetings were associated with poorer outcomes. Multivariate analysis showed that (a) ergonomic problems and impact of work on life predicted higher levels of both Compassion Fatigue and Burnout; (b) impact of life on work was associated with Compassion Fatigue and lower levels of trust and perceiving more risks for the future with Burnout only; (c) perceived quality of meetings, need of training, and perceiving no risks for the future predicted higher levels of Compassion Satisfaction. CONCLUSIONS: In order to provide adequate mental health services, service providers need to give their employees adequate ergonomic conditions, giving special attention to time pressures. Building trustful relationships with management and within the teams is also crucial. Training and meetings are other important targets for potential improvement. Additionally, insecurity about the future should be addressed as it can affect both Burnout and Compassion Satisfaction. Finally, strategies to reduce possible work-life conflicts need to be considered

The current state-of-the-art of spinal cord imaging: methods.

A first-ever spinal cord imaging meeting was sponsored by the International Spinal Research Trust and the Wings for Life Foundation with the aim of identifying the current state-of-the-art of spinal cord imaging, the current greatest challenges, and greatest needs for future development. This meeting was attended by a small group of invited experts spanning all aspects of spinal cord imaging from basic research to clinical practice. The greatest current challenges for spinal cord imaging were identified as arising from the imaging environment itself; difficult imaging environment created by the bone surrounding the spinal canal, physiological motion of the cord and adjacent tissues, and small cross-sectional dimensions of the spinal cord, exacerbated by metallic implants often present in injured patients. Challenges were also identified as a result of a lack of "critical mass" of researchers taking on the development of spinal cord imaging, affecting both the rate of progress in the field, and the demand for equipment and software to manufacturers to produce the necessary tools. Here we define the current state-of-the-art of spinal cord imaging, discuss the underlying theory and challenges, and present the evidence for the current and potential power of these methods. In two review papers (part I and part II), we propose that the challenges can be overcome with advances in methods, improving availability and effectiveness of methods, and linking existing researchers to create the necessary scientific and clinical network to advance the rate of progress and impact of the research

A qualitative exploration of mental health professionals' experience of working with survivors of trauma in Sri Lanka

This study explored the struggles and rewards of trauma work and the notion that individuals are changed in some way by the work they do with survivors of traumatic events. Interpretative phenomenological analysis of interviews with twelve mental health professionals working in Sri Lanka has shown these changes to have both an accumulated negative emotional impact but also to simultaneously contain positive, growth-promoting and personally satisfying aspects. There is a bias prevalent in the trauma literature towards focusing on the many negative aspects of the impact of working with survivors of trauma or surveying the moderating factors for managing secondary trauma. The present research, instead, uses the paradigm of adversarial growth to demonstrate that when mental health professionals rebuild their assumptive world in light of their experiences of working with survivors of trauma there are valuable opportunities for personal, and by implication, professional growth. This study is of a qualitative nature and explores phenomenologically grounded knowledge seeking to gain an understanding of the lived experiences reported by mental health professionals working with survivors of trauma, and the subjective and collective meanings that shape these experiences

What’s missing from legal geography and materialist studies of law? Absence and the assembling of asylum appeal hearings in Europe

This is the final version. Available on open access from Wiley via the DOI in this recordData availability statement: Due to the ethical and legally sensitive nature of the research, ethnographic notes taken in court could not be made openly available. Appellant interviewees were not asked for their permission to share their interview transcripts in an online open archive because of concerns that they could misunderstand what was being asked for, or feel obliged to agree but subsequently feel less able to conduct free conversation in research interviews as a result, thereby negatively impacting on the quality of the data generated. Additional details relating to, and data resulting from, to a survey taken during observations of British asylum appeals between 2013 and 2016 are available from the UK Data Archive (persistent identifier: 10.5255/UKDA-SN-852032).There is an absence of absence in legal geography and materialist studies of the law. Drawing on a multi‐sited ethnography of European asylum appeal hearings, this paper illustrates the importance of absences for a fully‐fledged materiality of legal events. We show how absent materials impact hearings, that non‐attending participants profoundly influence them, and that even when participants are physically present, they are often simultaneously absent in other, psychological registers. In so doing we demonstrate the importance and productivity of thinking not only about law's omnipresence but also the absences that shape the way law is experienced and practiced. We show that attending to the distribution of absence and presence at legal hearings is a way to critically engage with legal performance.Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC)European Research Council (ERC