An evaluation of professional networks, co-ordination, cooperation and collaboration in the West Midlands Paediatric Palliative Care Network

Introduction: This is a report on Strand 3 of the Big Study, which studied the West Midlands Paediatric Palliative Care Network. The Big Study was funded by The Big Lottery Fund and Strand 3 of the Big Study was researched by the Centre for Nursing and Healthcare Research in the School of Health and Social Care at the University of Greenwich. 1.1 Background: The West Midlands Paediatric Palliative Care Network began as an interest group which started in the year 2000, with 6 to 10 members and grew. At one stage it was allied to the Birmingham Cancer Network and funded by the NHS Strategic Health Authority and at this stage it became more representative of services and West Midlands geography. It has existed in its current format, as a voluntary clinical network to promote paediatric palliative care and share best practice since 2009. The membership is wide and inclusive which means 30 to 40 people may attend the meetings which are held on a bimonthly basis and are hosted and supported charitably. Subgroups are now used to manage work in specific areas e.g. transition or clinical standards. There are links to other related networks with reciprocal membership and informal links to NHS commissioners who may seek advice. 1.2 Scope: This strand of the Big Study focused on the West Midlands Paediatric Palliative Care Network. The geographical area of the West Midlands Paediatric Palliative Care Network includes Birmingham, Coventry, The Black Country, Herefordshire, Shropshire, Solihull, Staffordshire, Stoke-on-Trent, Telford and Wrekin, Warwickshire and Worcestershire. All members of the WMPCCN and the organisations they represent were included in the study. Both NHS and non-NHS organisations offering clinical services to any children requiring palliative care were represented. Excluded from this study was the detailed examination of any of the other networks, e.g. children’s speciality networks or networks covering smaller geographical areas, to which members belonged. 1.3 Report: This report will present the results of an analysis of the responses to an online questionnaire and Social Network data from semi structured telephone interviews. This data was collected during the period February to June 2012. The approach included analysing the online survey data in order to understand the benefits and constraints of the network for individual members and Social Network Analysis of data derived from telephone interviews to explore the flow of knowledge, communication and information within the network. This report will consist of 3 different sections, with Section 1 focusing on children’s palliative care policy, the development of clinical networks and social network analysis concepts. Section 2 will focus on the research design and methods. Section 3 presents the results of the study and the final section provides a summary and conclusions of the analysis

Life events and acute cardiovascular reactions to mental stress: a cohort study

Objective: This study addressed the issue of whether frequent exposure to life events is associated with aggravation or blunting of cardiovascular reactions to acute mental stress. Methods: In a substantial cohort of 585 healthy young adults, systolic and diastolic blood pressure and pulse rate were recorded at rest and in response to a mental arithmetic stress task. Participants indicated, from a list of 50 events, those they had experienced in the last year. Results: There was an overall association between life events and blunted cardiovascular reactivity that was driven by variations in the frequency of exposure to desirable events. The total number of events and the number of personal events were negatively associated with systolic blood pressure and pulse rate reactions to acute stress, whereas the number of work-related events was negatively associated with diastolic blood pressure and pulse rate reactivity. The negative association between total events and systolic blood pressure reactivity was stronger for women than men, whereas men exposed to frequent undesirable events showed enhanced diastolic blood pressure reactivity. The blunting of pulse rate reactivity associated with frequent personal life events was evident particularly for those who had a relatively large number of close friends. Conclusions: The nature and extent of the association between life events exposure and stress reactivity in young adults depends on the valence of the events together with the sex of the individual and their social network size

Alien Registration- Maslen, Helen L. (Madison, Somerset County)

https://digitalmaine.com/alien_docs/7096/thumbnail.jp

"Everything Has Changed" or has it? Swift's Accent Shifts

This public-facing interactive exhibition displays our results of our real-time sociophonetic investigation of Swift's accent in her country and pop-style music.Unfunde

Child Domestic Work

The definition of Child Domestic Work (CDW) is contested. Whilst international law defines children as any person under the age of 18 years old, in some countries, the national minimum age to work can be as low as 14 years old. Furthermore, socio-cultural patterns and national level policies add an additional dimension to how CDW is viewed, measured and reported. Despite these variations, as an overview, child domestic work is a general reference to children’s work in the domestic work sector in the home of a third-party or employer. The International Labour Organisation’s (ILO) and UNICEF conventions provide the main framework for definitions. This Helpdesk Report discusses the following questions: What different approaches exist to defining child labour in domestic work? What data is available regarding the numbers of children and households that are involved in domestic child labour? How does the prevalence of domestic child labour differ across countries? What approaches of data collection methods have been used and what are the data limitations

Interconnectedness, place and growth: a visual essay on transformative learning

In this visual essay, personal growth, experienced by the authors, is explored and communicated through combined images and words. A theoretical framework – that of Mezirow’s (1994) transformative learning – is adapted to structure the essay, and images communicate the transformative growth experienced by the four authors through involvement in a transnational education project. Images were all taken in Bruges, a significant place for all the authors in respect to interconnectedness and growth. Bruges was the location for the culmination of the transnational project, and was a new place to all authors before their involvement in the project. Images are accompanied by captions to add a layer of meaning, but neither image nor caption is truly narrative and represents the growth experienced, rather than illustrating the activities of the project. A reflective conversation, held in Bruges, provided the captions. The visual essay provides a reflection of the interconnectedness between place, experience, growth, words and image

Building effective system-wide disability research capacity in Australia

This research was commissioned by the National Disability Research Partnership (NDRP) and was designed to examine strategies to develop disability research capacity in Australia. Building research capacity across all stakeholders involved in disability research will require resources to develop both individual research capacity and wider system change. It will require improved partnerships and information sharing between stakeholders, additional resources, and valuing multiple sources of knowledge and skills. It will also require power sharing and, in some cases, relinquishing power. In this report, the authors have outlined several steps that may be taken to achieve this. Most of all, building effective system-wide disability research capacity in Australia will require changes in mindsets so that more people with disability can become sector leaders, high-level researchers and direct and lead programs of disability research – as the saying goes, ‘nothing about us without us’

A longitudinal study of alcohol use and antisocial behaviour in young people

Aims: To examine the direction of causation between young people's antisocial behaviour and alcohol (mis)use in the longer and shorter term, together with their joint effects on alcohol-related trouble. Methods: A longitudinal study (2586 pupils) supplied data, allowing exploration of the causal effects of alcohol (mis)use and antisocial behaviour between ages 11 and 15, using structural equation models of longer and shorter-term relationships and joint-effects models in respect of alcohol-related trouble at age 15. This method allowed us to evaluate which of three hypotheses, described as ‘disinhibition’ [alcohol (mis)use causes or facilitates antisocial behaviour], ‘susceptibility’ [antisocial behaviour causes alcohol (mis)use] or ‘reciprocal’ [alcohol (mis)use causes antisocial behaviour and the reverse] receives most support, both overall and by gender, social class, and drinking context. Results: Overall, the results support the susceptibility hypothesis, particularly in the longer-term models. There is no support for ‘pure’ disinhibition. However, in the shorter-term and joint-effects models (i.e. as the time lag becomes shorter), there is evidence that in some gender, social class, or drinking contexts, in addition to antisocial behaviour causing alcohol (mis)use, the reverse also applies. Conclusions: Antisocial behaviour is the main predictor of alcohol (mis)use and alcohol-related trouble, with alcohol (mis)use impacting only modestly on antisocial behaviour and alcohol-related trouble in the shorter term