A Century of Violence in a Red City

In A Century of Violence in a Red City Lesley Gill provides insights into broad trends of global capitalist development, class disenfranchisement and dispossession, and the decline of progressive politics. Gill traces the rise and fall of the strong labor unions, neighborhood organizations, and working class of Barrancabermeja, Colombia, from their origins in the 1920s to their effective activism for agrarian reforms, labor rights, and social programs in the 1960s and 1970s. Like much of Colombia, Barrancabermeja came to be dominated by alliances of right-wing politicians, drug traffickers, foreign corporations, and paramilitary groups. These alliances reshaped the geography of power and gave rise to a pernicious form of armed neoliberalism. Their violent incursion into Barrancabermeja's civil society beginning in the 1980s decimated the city's social networks, destabilized life for its residents, and destroyed its working-class organizations. As a result, community leaders are now left clinging to the toothless discourse of human rights, which cannot effectively challenge the status quo. In this stark book, Gill captures the grim reality and precarious future of Barrancabermeja and other places ravaged by neoliberalism and violence

The mini-PAT as a multi-source feedback tool for trainees in child and adolescent psychiatry: assessing whether it is fit for purpose

This paper discusses the research supporting the use of multi-source feedback (MSF) for doctors and describes the mini-Peer Assessment Tool (mini-PAT), the MSF instrument currently used to assess trainees in child and adolescent psychiatry. The relevance of issues raised in the literature about MSF tools in general is examined in relation to trainees in child and adolescent psychiatry as well as the appropriateness of the mini-PAT for this group. Suggestions for change including modifications to existing MSF tools or the development of a specialty-specific MSF instrument are offered

The normative power of food promotions: Australian children\u27s attachments to unhealthy food brands

The formation of food brand associations and attachment is fundamental to brand preferences, which influence purchases and consumption. Food promotions operate through a cascade of links, from brand recognition, to affect, and on to consumption. Frequent exposures to product promotions may establish social norms for products, reinforcing brand affect. These pathways signify potential mechanisms for how children\u27s exposure to unhealthy food promotions can contribute to poor diets. The present study explored children\u27s brand associations and attachments for major food brands. A cross-sectional online survey was conducted. Fourteen study brands were used, with each child viewing a set of seven logos. The questionnaire assessed perceptions of food brands and perceptions of users of brands, using semantic differential scales, and perceived brand \u27personalities\u27, using Likert scales. New South Wales, Australia, October-November 2014. Children aged 10-16 years (n 417). Children demonstrated strong positive affect to certain brands, perceiving some unhealthy food brands to have positive attributes, desirable user traits and alignment to their own personality. Brand personality traits of \u27smart\u27 and \u27sporty\u27 were viewed as indicators of healthiness. Brands with these traits were ranked lower for popularity. Children\u27s brand associations and attachments indicate the potential normative social influences of promotions. While children are aware of brand healthiness as an attribute, this competes with other brand associations, highlighting the challenge of health/nutrition messaging to counter unhealthy food marketing. Restricting children\u27s exposure to unhealthy food marketing and the persuasive nature of marketing is an important part of efforts to improve children\u27s diet-related health

Investigating the prevalence of malnutrition, frailty and physical disability and the association between them amongst older care home residents

BACKGROUND: Malnutrition, frailty and physical disability are inter-related, more prevalent in the older population and increase the risk of adverse health outcomes. Thus, screening is essential, especially in the understudied care home setting where the population is vulnerable and at higher risk of malnutrition. Furthermore, prevalence may vary depending upon screening tools used. The aims of this study were to: 1) investigate the prevalence of 1) malnutrition risk using Mini Nutritional Assessment - Short Form (MNA-SF) and Malnutrition Universal Screening Tool (MUST), 2) frailty using the Edmonton Frailty Scale (EFS), 3) physical disability using the Barthel Index (BI) and (4) examine the association between variables and coexistence of states. METHODS: Screening for malnutrition (MNA-SF and MUST) and frailty (EFS) was performed as part of a comprehensive geriatric assessment (CGA) in 527 residents from 17 care homes in Lincoln, UK. Mean age of the group was 85.6 ± 7.6 years and body mass index, BMI 23.0 ± 5.1 kg/m2. RESULTS: A high prevalence of malnutrition risk was detected: 41.4% by MNA-SF and 25.5% by MUST (high risk/malnourished). Furthermore, there was a clear discordance between MNA-SF and MUST scoring of malnutrition; for example, the percentage of those identified as being at low risk was 18.8% using the MNA-SF and 57.0% using the MUST. In addition, there was a high prevalence of severe frailty by EFS (69.6%) and functional impairment by BI (62.0%). There was good association between some variables (P < 0.001) and 33.4% of residents had coexistence of all three states of malnutrition, frailty and physical disability. CONCLUSIONS: Malnutrition risk, frailty and physical disability are highly prevalent in care home residents and interrelated. However, prevalence varies depending on the screening tool used. More research should be conducted in the care home setting to improve daily clinical practice as screening may impact upon subsequent treatment and care modalities and clinical outcomes

When Empathy Works: Towards Finding Effective Ways of Sustaining Empathy Flow

The need for developing empathy skills in the workplace continues to challenge organisations today. Findings from earlier research highlighted the need for developing these empathy skills. Interviews were undertaken in early 2017 with a mix of empathy trainers and managers of organisations where empathy is signalled as a key skill. The purpose of the inquiry was to explore their perspectives of empathy so as to discover emerging themes that increase our understanding of empathy in the workplace, elucidate optimal ways for developing one’s empathy and for reducing or mitigating empathy burnout. Challenges that emerged from the findings were: maintaining empathy across professional and personal environments; generally participants found they had energy for one of other, not both; caring too much; having time to empathise; managing expectations; professional boundaries; empathy equality i.e. to victim and offender; communicating empathy, and desensitisation. This paper explores these challenges. Four themes emerged from the findings: interpretations of empathy, context; including theory of mind, empathy burnout, and strategies for developing empathy. These themes informed the development of a Flow Model of Empathy

Practice Report: Story of Place, 2023

This Practice Report was co-written by Community Development Officers (Kate Lockhart and Gill Gray) and University Researchers (Dr Lesley Deacon and Zeta Bikova) to report on the work of Story of Place, over the last four years. The research conducted by Kate and Gill was a piece of live fieldwork that took place over a period of four years (2019–2023), to understand a community. The research was active as the approach taken moved with the community itself based on where the community was, at the time of data collection, and what was needed for the community’s voice to be heard. The project itself had four core stages of data collection and analysis – these, along with findings, will be set out in the rest of this report

Realising the Ambition - Being Me : National Practice Guidance for Early Years in Scotland

Since 2013 there has been a determined focus by the Scottish Government to work towards realising the ambition for Scotland to be the best place for children to grow up in and learn. Changes to the Children and Young People (Scotland) Act 2014, have resulted in our youngest children, particularly those from birth to starting school, being at the heart of significant new developments. In 2014 Scottish Government started to increase the number of hours of funded provision to 600 hours for 3 and 4 year olds and some two year olds. The national practice guidance, “Building the Ambition” was commissioned at this time to complement the new policy developments and to support practitioners. The further expansion of funded Early Learning and Childcare (ELC) to 1140 hours per year for all 3 and 4 year olds, and for around a quarter of 2 year olds will be available from August 2020. This expansion to 1140 hours seeks not only to extend funded places, but to also improve the quality of our ELC provision across Scotland. We know that the earliest years of life are crucial for every child. Evidence tells us that, if our early learning and childcare offer is to help children fulfil their potential and contribute to closing the poverty related gap in children’s outcomes, it has to be high quality. To support the expansion it was decided to refresh the original Building the Ambition, incorporating and updating relevant aspects of the Pre-Birth to Three guidance and extending across the child’s learning journey into the early years of primary school. This new guidance, Realising the Ambition: Being Me, reflects the original principles and philosophy of Building the Ambition and complements the current policy direction of ELC and early primary education. It aspires to support practitioners in delivering what babies and young children need most and how we can most effectively deliver this in Scotland to give children the best start in life. The practice guidance aims to support anyone who works with and for babies and young children across all areas of Scotland. It has been designed to: build confidence and capability of those who work with children and families from pre-birth to starting school and beyond; make links between practice, theory and policy guidance to reinforce aspects of high quality provision and the critical role practitioners play; clarify some aspects of current practice and provide a reference which practitioners can easily use; support improvement and quality by encouraging discussion, self reflection and questioning about relevant practice in each setting, and; provide advice on achieving the highest quality of ELC and early primary provision that will enable young children to experience and to play their own part in Scotland being the best place in the world to grow up

"Engaging with birth stories in pregnancy: a hermeneutic phenomenological study of women's experiences across two generations"

BACKGROUND: The birth story has been widely understood as a crucial source of knowledge about childbirth. What has not been reported is the effect that birth stories may have on primigravid women's understandings of birth. Findings are presented from a qualitative study exploring how two generations of women came to understand birth in the milieu of other's stories. The prior assumption was that birth stories must surely have a positive or negative influence on listeners, steering them towards either medical or midwifery-led models of care. METHODS: A Heideggerian hermeneutic phenomenological approach was used. Twenty UK participants were purposively selected and interviewed. Findings from the initial sample of 10 women who were pregnant in 2012 indicated that virtual media was a primary source of birth stories. This led to recruitment of a second sample of 10 women who gave birth in the 1970s-1980s, to determine whether they were more able to translate information into knowledge via stories told through personal contact and not through virtual technologies RESULTS: Findings revealed the experience of 'being-in-the-world' of birth and of stories in that world. From a Heideggerian perspective, the birth story was constructed through 'idle talk' (the taken for granted assumptions of things, which come into being through language). Both oral stories and those told through technology were described as the 'modern birth story'. The first theme 'Stories are difficult like that', examines the birth story as problematic and considers how stories shape meaning. The second 'It's a generational thing', considers how women from two generations came to understand what their experience might be. The third 'Birth in the twilight of certainty,' examines women's experience of Being in a system of birth as constructed, portrayed and sustained in the stories being shared. CONCLUSIONS: The women pregnant in 2012 framed their expectations in the language of choice, whilst the women who birthed in the 1970s-1980s framed their experience in the language of safety. For both, however, the world of birth was the same; saturated with, and only legitimised by the birth of a healthy baby. Rather than creating meaningful understanding, the 'idle talk' of birth made both cohorts fearful of leaving the relative comfort of the 'system', and of claiming an alternative birth