Sustaining community-university partnerships

In recent years there has been a huge growth in the academic literature on community-university partnership working. However, much of this is practice based and the issue of how such partnerships can be sustained over time is not adequately reflected in the literature. This introductory chapter lays the foundations for the subsequent thirteen articles by first discussing notions of sustainability, in part by providing a brief overview of the Community University Partnership Programme (Cupp) at the University of Brighton, UK. After a period of rapid growth, we are increasingly concerned with how to sustain the reciprocal relationships that underpin long-term engagement, a situation exacerbated by potential looming funding cuts. Paradoxically, however, this article suggests that while funding is an important element of sustainability, the current economic challenges may help to generate sustainability as community-university partnerships are forced to examine what other factors contribute to lasting relationships. It is these ‘other factors’ that the articles in this collection fruitfully explore. Coming from the United States, the United Kingdom and Australia, they examine the core research question that concerns us: how do we address the challenges of building sustainable community-university partnerships, especially with disadvantaged and excluded communities, at a time of diminishing resources? Despite the wide range of community needs and methodological diversity involved, the articles suggest that some common characteristics underpin sustainability. These include: genuine reciprocity; mutual learning; and a creative approach to partnership building that recognises the diverse purposes of partners. This introductory chapter concludes that there is a need to further refine our understanding of community-university partnerships through the development of more theoretical models of sustainability. Keywords: sustainability, partnerships, reciprocal relationships, mutual learnin

Evaluating resilience-based programs for schools using a systematic consultative review

Resilient approaches to working in school contexts take many different forms. This makes them difficult to evaluate, copy and compare. Conventional academic literature reviews of these approaches are often unable to deal with the complexity of the interventions in a way that leads to a meaningful comparative appraisal. Further, they rarelysummarise and critique the literature in a way that is of practical use to people actually wishing to learn how to intervene in an educational context, such as parents andpractitioners. This includes teachers and classroom assistants, who can experience reviews as frustrating, difficult to digest and hard to learn from. Applying findings to their own particular settings, without precisely replicating the approach described, presents serious challenges to them. The aim of this paper is to explain how and why school-basedresilience approaches for young people aged 12-18 do (or do not) work in particular contexts, holding in mind the parents and practitioners who engage with young people on a daily basis, and whom we consulted in the empirical element of our work, as our audience.Further, we attempt to present the results in a way that answer parents’ and practitioners’ most commonly asked questions about how best to work with young people usingresilience-based approaches. The review is part of a broader study looking more generally at resilience-based interventions for this age group and young adults. We offer a critical overview of approaches and techniques that might best support those young people who need them the most.Resilient approaches to working in school contexts take many different forms. This makes them difficult to evaluate, copy and compare. Conventional academic literature reviews of these approaches are often unable to deal with the complexity of the interventions in a way that leads to a meaningful comparative appraisal. Further, they rarelysummarise and critique the literature in a way that is of practical use to people actually wishing to learn how to intervene in an educational context, such as parents andpractitioners. This includes teachers and classroom assistants, who can experience reviews as frustrating, difficult to digest and hard to learn from. Applying findings to their own particular settings, without precisely replicating the approach described, presents serious challenges to them. The aim of this paper is to explain how and why school-basedresilience approaches for young people aged 12-18 do (or do not) work in particular contexts, holding in mind the parents and practitioners who engage with young people on a daily basis, and whom we consulted in the empirical element of our work, as our audience.Further, we attempt to present the results in a way that answer parents’ and practitioners’ most commonly asked questions about how best to work with young people usingresilience-based approaches. The review is part of a broader study looking more generally at resilience-based interventions for this age group and young adults. We offer a critical overview of approaches and techniques that might best support those young people who need them the most

Turned on or turned off? Accessing health information on the Internet

It is often claimed that Internet access provides people with more and better health information, resulting in better-informed patients who engage in more reflexive and equal negotiations with their doctors. Counter arguments suggest that Internet information overload will increase levels of anxiety and confusion amongst health care consumers, resulting in their disempowerment. This paper discusses on-going research investigating the ways Internet users and non-users access and manage information about specific health treatments. The paper describes how our research design and methodology is enabling us to avoid the generalisations and tendencies towards technological determinism found in much previous research in this field

Youth Resilience to Drought:Learning from a Group of South African Adolescents

Exposure to drought is on the increase, also in sub-Saharan Africa. Even so, little attention has been paid to what supports youth resilience to the stressors associated with drought. In response, this article reports a secondary analysis of qualitative data generated in a phenomenological study with 25 South African adolescents (average age 15.6; majority Sepedi-speaking) from a drought-impacted and structurally disadvantaged community. The thematic findings show the importance of personal, relational, and structural resources that fit with youths’ sociocultural context. Essentially, proactive collaboration between adolescents and their social ecologies is necessary to co-advance socially just responses to the challenges associated with drought.UK Natural Environment Research Councilhttp://www.mdpi.com/journal/ijerphpm2021Educational Psycholog

The digital divide, health information and everyday life

Abstract Survey data confirms that health information is very popular with internet users yet relatively little qualitative social science research has been conducted about how people incorporate information from the internet into their everyday information practices. This article reports on an empirical study of the role of the internet in people's efforts to inform themselves about menopause and hormone replacement therapy (HRT) in the case of women, and erectile dysfunction and Viagra in the case of men. These experiences are used to interrogate the notion of the 'digital divide'. We develop the concept of access to incorporate not only physical connection and information literacy, but also gendered and generational social relations. We also develop Barkardjieva's concept of the 'warm expert' to draw attention to the different types of information that people need in order to make sense of generic medical information that is relevant to their own circumstances

‘It is still coming from the centre and coming out’:The material conditions adding to over‐bureaucratised patient and public involvement for commissioning health and care in England

Abstract Objective To understand how materiality affects patient and public involvement (PPI) for commissioning and leading health and care services in the English National Health Service (NHS) context. Context From April 2013 groups of general practitioners (GPs) became members of NHS clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) to assess needs and procure core health services for and with local communities. Since July 2022, integrated care systems (ICSs) have subsumed this responsibility. NHS reorganisations have been driven by the promise of more effective and efficient health care and have led to a long history of PPI on economic, political, and moral grounds. Few studies researching PPI in clinical commissioning exist and fewer still have explored a more agentic understanding of materiality and its impact on PPI. Study Design A focused ethnography was used to examine PPI for clinical commissioning within two CCG case study sites in England. Three CCG Governing Body lay representatives, nine GP commissioners and seven service user representatives took part in focus groups and/or were interviewed. Fifteen nonparticipant observations were also carried out at CCG meetings and the associated materiality was examined. Findings The materiality of activities involved in clinical commissioning influences and shapes the nature of PPI. These forms of materiality may dilute and subvert meaningful engagement and involvement that relies on trust, leadership, learning, and partnership working. Conclusion System leaders in ICSs should consider the significance of materiality in centrally driven processes involved in PPI commissioning to reduce barriers and ensure meaningful partnerships within local communities. Patient and Public Contribution The study design ensured PPI throughout the research process in keeping with contemporary research practice guidance. The project steering committee included service users with current or recent PPI clinical commissioning experience outside of the study sites. There was PPI involvement in the original study proposal and its development including the bid for doctoral funds on which this study is based. All were involved in assessing the rigour of the data collection, interpretation of the findings and ensuring the project remained true to the aims of the study. Two members have also participated in presentation of the study findings

How Adolescent Students with Disabilities and /or Complex Needs Perceive the Notion of Resilience:A Study in Greece and England

Adolescents with behavioral and learning difficulties are at increased risk in relation to psychological and social well-being. This study aimed to investigate the views and experiences of adolescent students, diagnosed with a variety of complex needs such as behavioral, emotional and learning difficulties, to explore potential risk and protective factors that they perceive can enable or constrain resilience. Participants in the study were adolescents both from the UK (n=12) and Greece (n=14), all of whom were receiving additional learning and psychological support in their school settings. A qualitative research design employed the ‘draw and write’ technique in addition to face-to-face semi-structured interviews. Data analysis identified the protective and risk factors that adolescents associated with resilience. Two distinct categories of protective factors emerged from the data: a) personal (positive thoughts, nutrition and achievements) and b) socio-ecological factors (significant others, activities, pets, places). Risk factors were also divided into two categories: a) personal (negative thoughts and feelings and health problems) and b) socio-ecological factors (relational problems). Findings highlight the complex interplay between personal and socio-ecological factors in building resilience in adolescents who are at increased risk in relation to psychological and social well-being