‘Look, I have my ears open’: Resilience and early school experiences among children in an economically deprived suburban area in Ireland

Children from economically disadvantaged communities frequently lack the socio- emotional, cognitive and behavioural skills needed for successful early school adjustment. Assessments of early school experience often rely on parent and teacher perspectives, yet children’s views are essential to design effective, resilience-promoting school ecologies. This mixed methods study explored children’s appraisals of potential stressors in the first school year with 25 children from a disadvantaged suburban community in Ireland. School scenarios were presented pictorially (Pictorial Measure of School Stress and Wellbeing, or PMSSW), to elicit children’s perspectives on social ecological factors that enable or constrain resilience. Salient positive factors included resource provision, such as food, toys and books; school activities and routines, including play; and relationships with teachers. Negative factors included bullying; difficulties engaging with peers; and using the toilet. Drawing on these factors, we indicate how school psychologists can develop resilience-fostering educational environments for children in vulnerable communitie

Pegademase bovine (PEG-ADA) for the treatment of infants and children with severe combined immunodeficiency (SCID)

Adenosine deaminase deficiency (ADA) is a rare, inherited disorder of purine metabolism characterized by immunodeficiency, failure to thrive and metabolic abnormalities. A lack of the enzyme ADA allows accumulation of toxic metabolites causing defects of both cell mediated and humoral immunity leading to ADA severe combined immune deficiency (SCID), a condition that can be fatal in early infancy if left untreated. Hematopoietic stem cell transplant is curative but is dependent on a good donor match. Other therapeutic options include enzyme replacement therapy (ERT) with pegademase bovine (PEG-ADA) and more recently gene therapy. PEG-ADA has been used in over 150 patients worldwide and has allowed stabilization of patients awaiting more definitive treatment with hematopoietic stem cell transplant. It affords both metabolic detoxification and protective immune function with patients remaining clinically well, but immune reconstitution is often suboptimal and may not be long lived. We discuss the pharmacokinetics, immune reconstitution, effects on systemic disease and side effects of treatment with PEG-ADA. We also review the long-term outcome of patients receiving ERT and discuss the role of PEG-ADA in the management of infants and children with ADA-SCID, alongside other therapeutic options

Australian Teachers’ Perceptions and Experiences of Food and Nutrition Education in Primary Schools: A Qualitative Study

Teacher delivered food and nutrition education (FNE) can be effective in improving children’s food literacy and eating habits. However, teachers are known to face some barriers to the delivery of FNE globally. To obtain a deeper understanding of Australian primary school teachers’ experiences and views, 17 teachers were interviewed. The results of the thematic analysis showed that teachers acknowledged the importance of FNE and were willing to include more FNE content into their teaching. We also identified the FNE topics taught, resources used, their teaching partners, and barriers encountered. The discussion presents strategies to overcome these barriers

Does YSP Make You Happy? Investigating Situated Narratives of Wellbeing at the Yorkshire Sculpture Park

This thesis investigates the question ‘Does Yorkshire Sculpture Park make people happy?’ through a methodological approach which draws on critical epistemologies of situated lived experience, phenomenological approaches to landscape and aesthetic experience, participatory research paradigms and narrative inquiry. Using Yorkshire Sculpture Park (YSP) as a case study, this collaborative PhD project finds that the aesthetic and social encounters facilitated in its environment provide potential ways to wellbeing that have been underexplored in current literature on wellbeing in cultural organisations. The thesis proposes that wellbeing in an organisation needs to be considered from the ground up, rooted in the lived experiences of the communities that it serves. The research uncovers four distinct wellbeing narratives. Firstly, the organisational story of respite, creative learning and access to art experiences embedded within the founding mission of the YSP. Secondly, the biographical narratives of the visitors in which life events, family memories and new experiences are embedded within its landscape. Thirdly, the experiential, temporal narratives of experiencing sculpture in the landscape through the journeys around the park. Finally, the intersubjective sculpture stories collectively produced within the project. Through the collection and collation of these different narratives, it places the wellbeing experience in its biographical, temporal, spatial and social contexts in order to illuminate its specificity and contingency. It argues that the potential for wellbeing experiences to occur at YSP is contingent on particular environmental conditions, here proposed as two sets of axes between openness and safety and continuity and change. Furthermore, it suggests that it is the specific sociality constructed within the aesthetic encounter through which these experiences are made meaningful. In doing so, it offers an original contribution to knowledge for the study of the situated experiences of wellbeing within the aesthetic encounter, including its impact upon research and planning for wellbeing programming within an art gallery context and understandings of wellbeing in the cultural sector

Creative Heath in Communities:Supporting People to Live Well in West Yorkshire

Creating Change involves using a collaborative action inquiry approach working with stakeholder organisations and people with lived experience to explore how to evolve effective and meaningful creative health approaches across West Yorkshire. Rooted in stories from people with lived experience of community-based creative health approaches and the challenges encountered in practice by partner organisations, the project has co-generated in-depth learning about challenges and potential of sustaining creative health provision. Research team: Barry Percy-Smith, Rowan Bailey, Nic Stenberg, Claire Booth-Kurpnieks, Deborah Munt, David McQuillan, Liz Towns-Andrews. Contact Creating Change for further information: https://research.hud.ac.uk/institutes-centres/cacs/projects/creatingchang

Walking the Food Security Tightrope-Exploring the Experiences of Low-to-Middle Income Melbourne Households

© 2018 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).There is limited evidence of how Australian low-to-middle income (AUD $40,000–$80,000) households maintain food security. Using a sequential explanatory mixed methods methodology, this study explored and compared the food security (FS) and insecurity (FIS) experiences of these households. An initial quantitative survey categorised participants according to food security status (the 18-item United States Department of Agriculture Household Food Security Survey Module) and income level to identify and purposefully select participants to qualitatively explore food insecurity and security experiences. Of the total number of survey participants (n = 134), 42 were categorised as low-to-middle income. Of these, a subset of 16 participants (8 FIS and 8 FS) was selected, and each participant completed an in-depth interview. The interviews explored precursors, strategies to prevent or address food insecurity, and the implications of the experience. Interview data were analysed using a thematic analysis approach. Five themes emerged from the analysis: (i) food decision experiences, (ii) assets, (iii) triggers, (iv) activation of assets, and (v) consequences and emotion related to walking the food security tightrope. The leverage points across all themes were more volatile for FIS participants. Low-to-middle income Australians are facing the challenges of trying to maintain or improve their food security status, with similarities to those described in lower income groups, and should be included in approaches to prevent or address food insecurity

Case report: Novel treatment regimen for enterovirus encephalitis in SCID

Most non-polio enterovirus infections in immunocompetent individuals are acute and self-limiting in nature; however, infection can be severe, chronic and have devastating outcomes in immunocompromised hosts. Therapeutic strategies have predominantly involved supportive care, with the lack of approved antiviral treatments proving challenging for management. We report a case of an 8-month-old child who presented with severe enterovirus encephalitis following gene therapy for X-linked severe combined immunodeficiency (X-SCID) and who demonstrated clinical and microbiological improvement after a novel regimen of favipiravir, fluoxetine, and high-dose intravenous immunoglobulin (IVIg). The patient presented 6 weeks post–gene therapy with rapid neurological deterioration in the context of incomplete immune reconstitution, with microbiological and radiological evidence confirming enterovirus encephalitis. His neurologic examination stabilised 8 weeks after treatment, and he subsequently demonstrated excellent immune recovery. This is the first case report of combined therapy with favipiravir, fluoxetine, and high-dose IVIg in the context of severe enterovirus encephalitis in an immunocompromised host. This case highlights the importance of considering enterovirus encephalitis in immunocompromised patients presenting with both acute and chronic neurological signs, as well as developmental regression. The demonstrated treatment success and the associated low risk of toxicity warrant further investigation of this therapeutic regimen