Critical incidents in a forensic psychiatric population: An exploratory study of motivational factors

This exploratory study examined the motivations for forensic clients’ engagement in critical incidents, specifically hostage-taking, barricades and roof-top protests. Using thematic analysis, a range of themes were identified. These included engaging in such incidents to seek deliberate isolation from others, gaining control, getting their needs meet, a need to communicate and being influenced by their peers. Selection of potential hostages appeared linked to feeling of grievance towards them. Yet the distress of a hostage, along with consideration as to the longer term consequences of their actions both for themselves and morally, appeared to reduce the risk of engagement in such incidents. The results are discussed in terms of Individualism, Self-Determination Theory of Motivation and Maslow’s Hierarchy of Human Needs

Removal of trace organic chemicals and performance of a novel hybrid ultrafiltration-osmotic membrane bioreactor

A hybrid ultrafiltration-osmotic membrane bioreactor (UFO-MBR) was investigated for over 35 days for nutrient and trace organic chemical (TOrC) removal from municipal wastewater. The UFO-MBR system uses both ultrafiltration (UF) and forward osmosis (FO) membranes in parallel to simultaneously extract clean water from an activated sludge reactor for nonpotable (or environmental discharge) and potable reuse, respectively. In the FO stream, water is drawn by osmosis from activated sludge through an FO membrane into a draw solution (DS), which becomes diluted during the process. A reverse osmosis (RO) system is then used to reconcentrate the diluted DS and produce clean water suitable for direct potable reuse. The UF membrane extracts water, dissolved salts, and some nutrients from the system to prevent their accumulation in the activated sludge of the osmotic MBR. The UF permeate can be used for nonpotable reuse purposes (e.g., irrigation and toilet flushing). Results from UFO-MBR investigation illustrated that the chemical oxygen demand, total nitrogen, and total phosphorus removals were greater than 99%, 82%, and 99%, respectively. Twenty TOrCs were detected in the municipal wastewater that was used as feed to the UFO-MBR system. Among these 20 TOrCs, 15 were removed by the hybrid UFO-MBR system to below the detection limit. High FO membrane rejection was observed for all ionic and nonionic hydrophilic TOrCs and lower rejection was observed for nonionic hydrophobic TOrCs. With the exceptions of bisphenol A and DEET, all TOrCs that were detected in the DS were well rejected by the RO membrane. Overall, the UFO-MBR can operate sustainably and has the potential to be utilized for direct potable reuse applications

Listening to young people’s views of the coast:Living Coast Youth Voice

We have summarised the knowledge that was co-created with young people here. However, we would like to encourage those adults who planned to read just this summary to also hear directly form the young people by reading Chapter 3. Introduction Living Coast was a national partnership pilot project developed by Natural England1 (an organisation that looks after nature and landscapes in England). Natural England wants to help people from all walks-of-life enjoy the benefits of a new long distance path around England: the England Coast Path. By 2020, the path will stretch for approximately 2,700 miles around our beautiful English coastline and open up new stretches of the coastline. Natural England wants to understand how and why young people already use and enjoy the coast, and why others do not (or cannot). They want to know what can be done to help as many young people as possible benefit from the spectacular views, sea air, exercise and nature that the path and surrounding areas offer. In this research, we worked with young people aged 11 – 18 to create new knowledge about what makes it easy or hard for them to make the most of the coast, and what they suggest would help. This is important because there is little other evidence about this, nationally. This research took place in Barrow-in-Furness in Cumbria – a place with a high quality natural environment and areas that fall in the bottom 10% and 3% nationally on measures of deprivation. Cumbria was one of three Living Coast pilot areas in 2018/19. The other two are on the Durham Heritage Coast and the Solent. All three will inform how Natural England and its partners develop work at the coast.2 Research focus The study asked the following research questions: Q What do you think of the coast? Q How do you use the coast? Q How do you benefit from the coast? Q What makes it easy to go to, and enjoy, the coast? Q What makes it hard to go to, and enjoy, the coast? Q What would help you to go more often? Q What suggestions would you make to Natural England about how they can help? Methods used Our methods mixed and blended methods, techniques and principles from participation practice and social science. To do this we: 2 1. In total, we met 59 young people from a mix of ages, genders, ethnicities, and distances from the coast, prioritising those who live in areas that fall in the lowest 3% or 10% in the Indices of Multiple Deprivation. 2. Set up a Participatory Advisory Group (PAG) of eight young people, aged 14, to be our research advisors, comment on our methods and help us interpret and analyse our findings. 3. Met with 47 young people in six groups, from a range of community and educational settings, for 90-minutes each. During these sessions, we worked with young people to create maps, discuss their good and bad experiences, ease of getting to the coast, and the influence of money, jobs, belonging and culture to their views of the coast. 4. Summarised what young people said in this first round in pictures. 5. Ran two ‘Creative Horizons’ events a fortnight later, in two sessions when 22 young people (of those who had taken part in the mapping sessions) were joined by 4 new young people. In these sessions young people took charge of which topics to explore and how to create new knowledge through art, story, rap, music, poems, drama, or discussion. 6. Faithfully reported what young people said in this report and in a film. Findings We found that young people have a mix of attitudes towards the coast, with some finding it a place of enjoyment, peace, and adventure and others finding it boring, uncomfortable and a place of natural and human dangers. Young people go to a mix of places. Some are familiar beaches, which are closer to home and easier to get to, and others are destinations young people enjoy with friends and family but require transport to get to. Walking and dog walking were most often mentioned as activities to do at the coast, with some saying they swam in the sea but many others not mentioning swimming at all or saying they couldn’t swim. For a few, cycling was a key part of enjoying the coast and a couple of young people mentioned anglin g and water sports. Young people in all groups described psychological, physical and social wellbeing benefits of being by the sea. They said that it helped them cope with stress, be fitter and enjoy time with family and friends. The things that made it easier to go included: their own attitudes and confidence, being able to get there, having someone available to go with, feeling safe and belonging and also the time of year and the weather. The barriers to going to the seaside were numerous and interconnected and particularly hard for young people living with multiple pressures and disadvantages. Negative personal attitudes and fears included boredom and anxiety, such as about risks or body shaming. A range of issues around social barriers included not feeling safe from attack, feeling they didn’t belong, that adults and peers were judging them badly as well as outright racism, sexism and homophobia. Young people also said they lacked information about where to go, how to get there, what to do once there, natural risks such as tides, quick sands and rock falls. Getting there and affording to go were practical barriers, as was having someone available to go with them. Litter and dirty beaches deter young people. At this exposed location, bad weather with fierce winds and driving rain can make it too unpleasant to go. Young peoples’ messages to the Natural England and its partners about enjoying the coast: Help make it safe (from attack and by changing adult attitudes toward us) 3 Help us get there Give us information Provide affordable events and activities Run nature trips Provide shelter

Rural men and mental health: their experiences and how they managed

There is a growing awareness that a primary source of information about mental health lies with the consumers. This article reports on a study that interviewed rural men with the aim of exploring their mental health experiences within a rural environment. The results of the interviews are a number of stories of resilience and survival that highlight not only the importance of exploring the individuals' perspective of their issues, but also of acknowledging and drawing on their inner strengths. Rural men face a number of challenges that not only increase the risk of mental illness but also decrease the likelihood of them seeking and/or finding professional support. These men's stories, while different from each other, have a common thread of coping. Despite some support from family and friends participants also acknowledged that seeking out professional support could have made the recovery phase easier. Mental health nurses need to be aware, not only of the barrier to professional support but also of the significant resilience that individuals have and how it can be utilised

Next steps in children and young people’s research, participation and protection from the perspective of young researchers

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explore young researchers perspectives on children and young people’s research, participation and protection. Design/methodology/approach The paper is co-authored by young people and academics involved in a young researcher group. This paper provides a brief introduction from the young researchers and some academic context to their work, then the young researcher group’s contribution. Their contribution is followed by a brief discussion of the issues they raise in the light of current academic debate. Findings This paper contains our critical reflection on participation and protection. Originality/value The paper presents a unique contribution capturing children and young people’s perspectives on the journal’s theme and other contributions to i

Marital resemblance for obsessive–compulsive, anxious and depressive symptoms in a population-based sample.

Background. Resemblance between spouses can be due to phenotypic assortment, social homogamy and/or marital interaction. A significant degree of assortment can have consequences for the genetic architecture of a population. We examined the existence and cause(s) of assortment for obsessive-compulsive (OC), anxious and depressive symptoms in a population-based twin-family sample. Method. OC, anxious and depressive symptoms were measured in around 1400 twin-spouse pairs and >850 parent pairs. Correlations of twins and their spouse, twin and co-twin's spouse, spouses of both twins and parents of twins were obtained to consider phenotypic assortment versus social homogamy as possible causes of marital resemblance. The association of length of relationship with marital resemblance was also investigated. Finally, we examined whether within-trait or cross-trait processes play a primarily role in marital resemblance. Results. Small but significant within-trait correlations of between 0.1 and 0.2 were seen for spouse similarity in OC, anxious and depressive symptoms. Cross-correlations were significant but lower. There was no correlation between length of relationship and marital resemblance. From the pattern of correlations for twin-spouse, co-twin-spouse and spouses of both twins, phenotypic assortment could not be distinguished from social homogamy. Both within- and cross-assortment processes play a role in marital resemblance. Conclusions. Small within- and across-trait correlations exist for OC, anxious and depressive symptoms. No evidence for marital interaction was found. Spouse correlations are small, which makes it difficult to distinguish between social homogamy and phenotypic assortment. It is unlikely that correlations of this size will have a large impact on genetic studies. © 2008 Cambridge University Press

Critical success factors in inter-institutional project collaborations

Since its establishment in 2007, Ako Aotearoa: National Centre for Tertiary Teaching Excellence has funded over 150 projects focused on changing practice and improving learner outcomes through the three Regional Hub Project Funds (RHPF): Northern Region, Central Region and Southern. Project teams are encouraged to consult and collaborate with others leveraging what Huxham (1996) calls the ‘collaborative advantage’, achieved when something new is produced - perhaps an objective is met - that no single organisation could have produced. By mid-2014, the total number of completed projects supported by the Regional Hub Project Fund and published on Ako Aotearoa’s website which had involved inter-institutional project teams had reached 44. This report outlines an evaluation of the collaboration experience within these multi-organisation projects with the purpose of determining the factors which contribute to a successful project team and sustainable community of practice. The two overarching objectives were first, to address gaps in both organisational knowledge and the literature about inter-institutional collaborations and what makes them reach, exceed, or fail their potential to deliver long term value and benefits to participants; and second, to summarise the learnings from project teams’ experience of collaborative work to produce a resource for future teams. This investigation, from its inception, was intended to be both applied and practicable in its outcomes, with a high relevance to the wider tertiary education community; this ethos has guided all aspects of the project design and reporting. A four-phase enquiry was conducted, comprising 1) a document analysis of all completed RHPF projects to determine those which had involved inter-institutional project teams (n=44); 2) a literature review; 3) an online survey (n=41, representing a 34% response rate), and 4) interviews with invited participants (n=18). In addition, the report also recounts the research team’s own experience of establishing a good interinstitutional collaborative process, placing the researchers within the project as participants themselves: a deliberate and conscious approach to generate insights into useful tools, techniques and timing. The survey was adapted from an existing instrument for measuring collaboration effectiveness, the Wilder Collaboration Factors Inventory (n.d.) which generated a series of ranked responses per factor for each project (see Appendix A). By assigning a numerical value to these responses, high, medium and low-scoring projects were identified, enabling the team to ensure a cross-section of experiences were selected for follow-up interviews. Although this comparison was undertaken as part of the team’s decision-making, rather than for any external reporting, one important outcome can be shared: all 22 projects represented in the sample scored positively (between 1 and 79) within a range of -100 to +100. The final stage of survey data analysis was to aggregate individual factor scores across projects to identify the overall weighting for each of the 24 factors. Next, the 18 candidates for the semi-structured interviews identified from the survey responses were invited to share their experiences of inter-institutional collaborative project work. Ten question prompts (Appendix B) covered four stages in the collaboration: the precondition, or relationship-building period; the beginning, when the work is planned; the process-interaction stage; and the outcomes period of reflection, evaluation and change (Gray, 1989). These interviews were transcribed and coded for emerging themes. Survey results are presented as a brief discussion of the highest and lowest scoring factors, while interview results are collated under ten topic areas, with interview participants’ voice included throughout to allow readers a sense of the variety of experiences encompassed, and the impact these have had on those involved. A key finding was that 10 of the 18 interviewees were still collaborating with some or all members of the original team in activities such as research, resource development, co-authoring, co-teaching and copresenting, meaning that just over half the collaborative networks developed through RHPF projects were sustainable and had led to long-term significant and tangible benefits for team members. Other findings discussed in this report relate to the ‘trickle-down effect’ where informants described the way practitioner involvement in collaborative change projects led to learner benefits, and to specific approaches, issues and circumstances which either enabled or restricted the success of the collaboration. Results from all phases of the project were mined to identify the most important elements that make a collaboration work, again using the adapted Wilder Collaboration Factors Inventory (n.d.), and Gray’s (1989) collaboration stages as a framework. These elements then inform the main (and separate) output from this project: “Getting on: A Guide to Good Practice in Inter-Institutional Collaborative Projects”. This guide is available at https://akoaotearoa.ac.nz/research-register/list/critical-success-factors-inter-institutionalproject-collaborations and is intended to assist teams who are embarking on a new collaborative project