Social inclusion through ageing-in-place with care?

The onset of ill-health and frailty in later life, within the context of the policy of ageing-in-place, is increasingly being responded to through the provision of home care. In the philosophy of ageing-in-place, the home provides for continuity of living environment, maintenance of independence in the community and social inclusion. The provision of assistance to remain at home assumes continuity in the living environment and independence in the organisation of daily life and social contact. This paper explores the changes that occur as a result of becoming a care recipient within the home and concludes that the transition into receiving care is characterised by discontinuity and upheaval which tends to reinforce social exclusion. We draw on the rites of passage framework, which highlights social processes of separation, liminality and reconnection, in analysing this transition to enhance understanding of the experience and gain insights to improve the policy and practice of home care. Separation from independent living leads to a state of liminality. The final stage in the rites of passage framework draws attention to reconnections, but reconnection is not inevitable. Reconnection is, however, an appropriate goal for the care sector when supporting frail or disabled older people through the transition into becoming a home-care recipient

Najas guadalupensis (Spreng.) Magnus

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The Role of Perception on Water Allocation and Conservation Management in Western North Carolina

Western North Carolina (WNC) has traditionally given limited attention to conservation in water management primarily due to the fact that the area is a water rich region, with high annual rainfall and low population. Recent droughts and high population growth have put stresses on many water supply systems. In order to effectively deal with the new stresses on water supply, many new management practices were initiated, prompted by both state mandates and local pressure. Decision-makers are apt to make decisions based on perceptions, personal beliefs, and historical practice rather than on relevant data. Therefore, there is a need to understand the perceptions of decision-makers which influence management decisions. Results from eighty-five surveys and nine interviews are used to understand how decision-maker perceptions relate to active conservation policies. Water use, climate, and population data are also used to understand the effects of increased water management in the two case study towns of Boone and Hendersonville. Results indicate that while water management in WNC encompasses many aspects of sustainability, the region still has much room to improve to ensure that all current and future needs are met

Evaluating the Effects of Symptom Monitoring on Menopausal Health Outcomes: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Evidence suggests that monitoring and appraising symptoms can result in increased engagement in medical help-seeking, improved patient-doctor communication, and reductions in symptom prevalence and severity. To date, no systematic reviews have investigated whether symptom monitoring could be a useful intervention for menopausal women. This review explored whether symptom monitoring could improve menopausal symptoms and facilitate health-related behaviours. Results suggested that symptom monitoring was related to improvements in menopausal symptoms, patient-doctor communication and medical decision-making, heightened health awareness, and stronger engagement in setting treatment goals. Meta-analyses indicated large effects for the prolonged use of symptom diaries on hot flush frequencies. Between April 2019 and April 2021, PsychInfo, EMBASE, MEDLINE, CINAHL, Cochrane, ProQuest, PsychArticles, Scopus, and Web of Science were searched. Eighteen studies met the eligibility criteria and contributed data from 1,718 participants. Included studies quantitatively or qualitatively measured the impact of symptom monitoring on menopausal populations and symptoms. Research was narratively synthesised using thematic methods, 3 studies were examined via meta-analysis. Key themes suggest that symptom monitoring is related to improvements in menopausal symptoms, improved patient-doctor communication and medical decision-making, increased health awareness, and stronger engagement in goal-setting behaviours. Meta-analysis results indicated large effects for the prolonged use of symptom diaries on hot flush frequency: 0.73 [0.57, 0.90]. This review is limited due to the low number of studies eligible for inclusion, many of which lacked methodological quality. These results indicate that symptom monitoring has potential as an effective health intervention for women with menopausal symptoms. This intervention may be beneficial within healthcare settings, in order to improve patient-doctor relations and adherence to treatment regimes. However, findings are preliminary and quality assessments suggest high risk of bias. Thus, further research is needed to support these promising outcomes. Systematic Review Registration Number: https://www.crd.york.ac.uk/prospero/display_record.php?, PROSPERO, identifier: CRD42019146270

Numerical Regularization of Electromagnetic Quantum Fluctuations in Inhomogeneous Dielectric Media

Electromagnetic Casimir stresses are of relevance to many technologies based on mesoscopic devices such as MEMS embedded in dielectric media, Casimir induced friction in nano-machinery, micro-fluidics and molecular electronics. Computation of such stresses based on cavity QED generally require numerical analysis based on a regularization process. A new scheme is described that has the potential for wide applicability to systems involving realistic inhomogeneous media. From a knowledge of the spectrum of the stationary modes of the electromagnetic field the scheme is illustrated by estimating numerically the Casimir stress on opposite faces of a pair of perfectly conducting planes separated by a vacuum and the change in this result when the region between the plates is filled with an incompressible inhomogeneous non-dispersive dielectric.Comment: 5 pages, 2 figures, submitted to PR

Banner News

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Immigrant legal status and health : legal status disparities in chronic conditions and musculoskeletal pain among Mexican-born farm workers in the United States

We gratefully acknowledge support from the Western Center for Agricultural Health & Safety, which is funded by National Institute of Occupational Health and Safety Grant No. 2U54OH007550, and from the Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research.Immigrant legal status determines access to the rights and privileges of U.S. society. Legal status may be conceived of as a fundamental cause of health, producing a health disparity whereby unauthorized immigrants are disadvantaged relative to authorized immigrants, a perspective that is supported by research on legal status disparities in self-rated health and mental health. We conducted a systematic review of the literature on legal status disparities in physical health and examined whether a legal status disparity exists in chronic conditions and musculoskeletal pain among 17,462 Mexican-born immigrants employed as farm workers in the United States and surveyed in the National Agricultural Workers Survey between 2000 and 2015. We found that unauthorized, Mexican-born farm workers have a lower incidence of chronic conditions and lower prevalence of pain compared with authorized farm workers. Furthermore, we found a legal status gradient in health whereby naturalized U.S. citizens report the worst health, followed by legal permanent residents and unauthorized immigrants. Although inconsistent with fundamental cause theory, our results were robust to alternative specifications and consistent with a small body of existing research on legal status disparities in physical health. Although it is well known that Mexican immigrants have better-than-expected health outcomes given their social disadvantage, we suggest that an epidemiologic paradox may also apply to within-immigrant disparities by legal status. We offer several explanations for the counterintuitive result.PostprintPeer reviewe

Committed Partners and Inheritance: An Empirical Study

There is widespread recognition that U.S. households have changed dramatically in the latter half of the twentieth century. 1 The changes include an increased number of blended families, 2 single-parent households, 3 and unmarried same-sex and opposite-sex committed couples, including some with children. 4 The transformation taking place in U.S. households implicates property law and vice versa. In recognition of the changing U.S. household and the symbiotic relationship between wealth transmission and family, we undertook an empirical study designed to assess public attitudes about the inclusion of surviving committed partners as heirs. This Article reports our findings