Oral histories of the Nottinghamshire mental hospitals: exploring memories of giving and receiving care

The closure of the mental hospitals in the UK in the twentieth century has potentially obscured the relevance of psychiatric hospitals as therapeutic environments. The thesis explores the impact of closing the large-scale mental hospitals in the latter part of the twentieth century and the move to care in the community on service users and staff 30 years since their closure. This research has gathered the oral histories of older mental health service users who received care in Nottingham’s mental hospitals and those of the staff that provided it in order to understand what has been lost through the modernisation of mental health services, where the relationships between staff and patients are typically short-term and veer towards crisis management. Participatory Action Research has informed the overall research involving participants in all stages of the research project in order to co-construct a history of giving and receiving care with former patients and staff in the now closed psychiatric hospitals in Nottinghamshire. The findings provide new insights into the value of inpatient care within psychiatric institutions and how it has been affected in the shift away from asylum care. Despite elements of social control within the mental hospitals reported by participants, the Nottingham mental hospitals were largely perceived as therapeutic environments, providing rich sources of social, emotional and practical support through the social networks that existed therein, including the social and spatial value of internal and external spaces in the provision of structured rehabilitation for recovery. Participants experienced a sense of dispossession with the advent of care in the community,which did away with the hospital communities that offered valuable occupation, structured social activities, refuge, asylum, and a place of belonging for many

Learning and doing oral history in Higher Education in interdisciplinary contexts in the midst of the COVID

This article discusses the opportunities and challenges that arose from delivering the ‘Hidden Memories of Mental Healthcare’ heritage project remotely rather than in person in the midst of the pandemic. Postgraduate students in higher education were taught oral history methodology at a distance in order to collect oral history interviews remotely. This article seeks to highlight innovative and collaborative approaches to teaching oral history methodology to young people in higher education in order to generate primary source material and co-produce digital mental healthcare histories at a distance. It discusses how the project met its stated outcomes by pivoting to online delivery. It examines the practical and ethical challenges and the unexpected outcomes and rewards that arose from this process

Deinstitutionalisation and the move to community care: comparing the changing dimensions of mental healthcare in the Republic of Ireland and England post-1922

The advent of deinstitutionalisation and the introduction of community care in the latter part of the twentieth century have revolutionised mental health service provision across Europe, although implementation, timing and services have varied widely in different countries. This article compares the changing dimensions of mental-health provision in post-independence Ireland with England, and will shed light on the current state of mental healthcare in both countries. The article calls for more research into the impact of deinstitutionalisation, such as the challenges faced in the community for those in need of continuing care

Políticas de Inclusión Social para los Grupos Etarios más Vulnerables: Plan de Inclusión Previsional y Asignación Universal por Hijo para Protección Social

Resumen En este trabajo se analizan dos políticas de protección social implementadas en la Argentina con énfasis en aquellos sectores más vulnerables: el Plan de Inclusión Previsional (2005) destinado a adultos mayores y la Asignación Universal por Hijo para Protección Social (2009), destinado a niños, niñas y adolescentes menores de 18 años, cuyos padres no estén amparados por el sistema de asignaciones familiares contributivas. Los resultados obtenidos muestran que ambos programas han tenido importantes impactos en la ampliación de la cobertura de la seguridad social, y la reducción de la pobreza y la indigencia, que se extienden a todo el núcleo familiar. 

Effects of the antioxidant crocin on frozen-thawed buffalo (Bubalus bubalis) sperm

This work aimed to evaluate the effect of crocin on frozen-thawed sperm quality in buffalo. Spermatozoa were incubated in Tyrode’s Albumin Lactate Pyruvate medium supplemented with 0, 0.5, 1, and 2 mM crocin for 2 h. Sperm motility was evaluated by phase-contrast microscopy, viability and acrosome integrity by Trypan blue Giemsa staining, and membrane functional integrity by the hypoosmotic swelling test. The DNA fragmentation was evaluated by Tunel and ROS levels by spectrofluorometric analysis. The treatment with 2 mM of crocin increased (P <.05) sperm membrane functional integrity compared to the control group (59.1 ± 1.6 vs 53.3 ± 1.5) and reduced sperm DNA fragmentation, compared to the other groups (11.3 ± 1.1, 13.3 ± 1.2, 13.6 ± 1.2 and 6.0 ± 0.7, respectively in 0, 0.5, 1 and 2 mM crocin; P <.01). Finally, a dose-dependent decrease (P <.01) in superoxide anion production in the presence of crocin was observed, as indicated by Dihydroethidium values (922.6 ± 13.0, 596.8 ± 7.4, 498.9 ± 5.3 and 421.4 ± 5.0 a.u., respectively in 0, 0.5, 1 and 2 mM crocin; P <.01). The results of this study demonstrated a positive effect of 2 mM crocin on frozen-thawed buffalo sperm, as indicated by the improvement of sperm membrane integrity and the reduction of DNA fragmentation and ROS levels.Highlights Crocin improves buffalo sperm quality. Crocin improves sperm membrane integrity and reduces DNA fragmentation. Crocin decreases oxidative stress in buffalo sperm

CMS endcap RPC gas gap production for upgrade

The CMS experiment will install a RE4 layer of 144 new Resistive Plate Chambers (RPCs) on the existing york YE3 at both endcap regions to trigger high momentum muons from the proton-proton interaction. In this paper, we present the detailed procedures used in the production of new RPC gas gaps adopted in the CMS upgrade. Quality assurance is enforced as ways to maintain the same quality of RPC gas gaps as the existing 432 endcap RPC chambers that have been operational since the beginning of the LHC operation

A real-world study on unmet medical needs in triptan-treated migraine: Prevalence, preventive therapies and triptan use modification from a large Italian population along two years

Although migraine is a disabling neurological condition that causes important disability, it remains an area of underdiagnosis and undertreatment worldwide. The aim of this study was to depict the burden of the unmet medical needs in migraine treated with triptans in a large Italian population

Performance of the Gas Gain Monitoring system of the CMS RPC muon detector and effective working point fine tuning

The Gas Gain Monitoring (GGM) system of the Resistive Plate Chamber (RPC) muon detector in the Compact Muon Solenoid (CMS) experiment provides fast and accurate determination of the stability in the working point conditions due to gas mixture changes in the closed loop recirculation system. In 2011 the GGM began to operate using a feedback algorithm to control the applied voltage, in order to keep the GGM response insensitive to environmental temperature and atmospheric pressure variations. Recent results are presented on the feedback method used and on alternative algorithms