What does leisure have to do with mental health – arts, creative and leisure practices and living with mental distress

There is a growing interest in the role of leisure, arts and creative activities in cultivating health and wellbeing across different contexts. Leisure sports have historically been considered beneficial for achieving health, and similar focus has recently been placed on arts and creativity. Recent research into the role of arts and creative engagement for wellbeing highlights the benefits of these modes of engagement on emotional wellbeing and social connectedness. In this article, we examine the ways arts, creative and leisure practices and mental health converge, co-exist and collide. We draw on feminist leisure studies scholarship and Sarah Ahmed’s work on emotion to discuss insights from our research into the everyday experiences of people living with a diagnosis of borderline personality disorder (BPD). We utilise qualitative methods to investigate people’s experiences of meaningful leisure practices and the dynamics between leisure practices and living well with the distress. We explore how leisure activities initiate complex processes of discovery and production of meanings, identity and wellbeing. Our discussion emphasises that leisure practices contribute to producing everyday forms of self-care and provide transformative space for self-discovery yet are simultaneously inseparable from the politics of living with mental distress while navigating accumulated effects of distress

EFFECTS OF PLANTING SPACE AND HARVEST TIME ON THE NUMBER, WEIGHT AND DIAMETER OF MARIGOLD (CALENDULA OFFICINALIS L.) FLOWERS

Istraživanje je provedeno tijekom 2010. godine u nasadu nevena (Calendula officinalis L.), kako bi se utvrdio utjecaj tri različita sklopa (sklop A - 65 cm x 35 cm; sklop B - 65 cm x 25 cm; sklop C – 55 cm x 25 cm) i vremena berbe na broj, masu i promjer cvjetova nevena. Dobiveni rezultati pokazali su da je sklop značajno utjecao na broj cvjetova po biljci i masu cvijeta, pa je najveći broj cvjetova po biljci zabilježen kod sklopa B (13,2), a najmanji (9,87) kod sklopa C. Najniža masa cvijeta zabilježena je kod sklopa C (1,31 g) te je bila statistički značajno niža od mase cvijeta kod sklopa A (1,42 g) i B (1,38 g). Sklop je značajno utjecao i na broj cvjetova na bočnim granama, koji je bio najviši u sklopu B. Nije bilo značajnog utjecaja sklopa na promjer cvijeta. Ukupno je tijekom pokusa ostvareno 13 berbi. Najveći broj cvjetova po biljci ubrano je u osmoj, devetoj i desetoj berbi, dok je najveća masa cvijeta izmjerena u petoj i dvanaestoj berbi. Prosječno, broj cvjetova po biljci/berbi iznosio je 11,63, a masa 1,38 g. Promjer cvijeta nevena kretao se od 2,89 cm u trinaestoj do 3,59 cm u trećoj berbi, a broj cvjetova na bočnim granama po biljci/berbi iznosio je 11,61.The study was conducted during 2010 in marigold (Calendula officinalis L.) to determine the effects of three plant densities (plant density A - 65 cm x 35 cm; plant density B - 65 cm x 25 cm; plant density C – 55 cm x 25 cm) and harvest time on the number, weight and diameter of marigold flowers. The results showed that the plant density significantly influenced the number of flowers per plant and flower weight. The largest number of flowers per plant was recorded in the plant density B (13.2) and the lowest (9.87) in the plant density C. The lowest flower weight was recorded in the plant density C (1.31 g) and was statistically lower than the flower weight in the plant densities A (1.42 g) and B (1.38 g). The plant density significantly influenced the number of flowers on side branches, being the highest in the plant density B. The diameter of the marigold flower was not significantly influenced by the plant density. During the experiment, a total of 13 harvests were achieved. The greatest number of flowers per plant was harvested in the eighth, ninth and tenth harvest, while the largest flower weight was measured in the fifth and twelfth harvest. On the average, the number of flowers per plant / harvest was 11.63 and the weight of flowers was 1.38 g. Diameter of marigold flowers ranged from 2.89 cm to 3.59 cm in the thirteenth and the third harvest, respectively. The number of flowers on side branches per plant / harvest was 11.61

Personhood, belonging, affect and affliction

What does migrancy mean for personhood, and how does this flow through caring relations? Drawing on life history interviews and photo elicitation with 43 people who identify as migrants and live with cancer, here we argue for the significance of recognising complex personhood as it inflects illness and care. Drawing on social science theory around temporalities, moralities and belonging, we assemble a series of cross-cutting themes at the intersection of personhood and care; relations that transcend cultural origins yet are vividly illustrated in relation to migrant pasts. In seeking a multidimensional view of personhood, we attend to the intersecting layers of complexity that make up care in this context vis-a-vis an emphasis on forms of difference, vulnerability and otherness. In this way, we develop an approach to personhood and care that broadens the lens on migrancy and cancer, but also, one that speaks to the importance of recognition of complexity and how it shapes care more generally

Depression at Work, Authenticity in Question: Experiencing, Concealing and Revealing

Australia and the UK have both introduced policies to protect employees who experience mental illness, including depression. However, a better understanding of the issues workers face (e.g. sense of moral failure) is needed for the provision of appropriate and beneficial support. We analysed 73 interviews from the UK and Australia where narratives of depression and work intersected. Participants encountered difficulties in being (and performing as if) ‘authentic’ at work, with depression contributing to confusions about the self. The diffuse post-1960s imperative to ‘be yourself’ is experienced in conflicting ways: While some participants sought support from managers and colleagues (e.g. sick leave, back to work plans), many others put on a façade in an attempt to perform the ‘well’ and ‘authentic’ employee. We outline the contradictory forces at play for participants when authenticity and visibility are expected, yet moral imperatives to be good (healthy) employees are normative

Care(less) encounters: early maternal distress and the haunted clinic

In this paper we consider early maternal distress and clinical care, drawing on narratives of women interviewed to populate an Australian health information website. We consider the notion of 'care barriers', which has become popular in the biomedical literature as a means of explaining why 'not enough' women seek out clinical care. As an alternative to barriers we propose 'care entanglements', offering a way of conceptualizing socioculturally situated and biographically embedded formalized care. In part we argue that clinical encounters are 'haunted' by women's biographies, circulating discourses, and the relational clinical moment, which accounts for why some women reject formalized care. However we also contend that many women have in fact already 'slipped through' to the clinic, whether this be in their adoption of medical language to describe their distress, or in their enactments in designated clinical spaces. Finally we reflect more broadly on the maternal, care and distress

The antidepressant in women’s lifeworlds: feminist materialist encounters

This article examines how a particular class of material objects—antidepressants—circulate in women’s social, cultural and intimate lifeworlds. Following the action of antidepressants in their encounters with bodies and brains by way of the agencies they express and the specific work they perform reveals much of the social, affective and material gendering of depression, along with the everyday activities by which this gendering is resisted. Drawing on data from a qualitative research project, we examine how women conceptualise their brains as needing ‘work’ through antidepressants, and then consider the particular kinds of ‘work’ that these objects perform. In instances where they refuse antidepressant medication, women co-constitute antidepressants as objects to be resisted and objects that resist, reframing in the process relationships between corporeality, diagnosis and pharmaceutical matter. The ‘female’ brain emerges in our study as a potent site for the gendering of depression as antidepressants become entangled in the social, material and affective dynamics of women’s everyday lives

Using crystallization to understand loneliness in later life: integrating social science and creative narratives in sensitive qualitative research

This article draws on crystallization, a qualitative framework developed by Laurel Richardson and Laura Ellingson, to show the potential of using sociological narratives and creative writing to better analyze and represent the lived experiences of loneliness among older people living in Australian care homes. Crystallization uses a multi-genre approach to study and present social phenomena. At its core is a concern for the ethics of representation, which is critical when engaging with vulnerable populations. We use two case studies from research on loneliness to illustrate an application of crystallization through different narrative types. To supplement our sociological narratives, we invited author Josephine Wilson to write creative narratives based on the case studies. Josephine was awarded the prestigious Miles Franklin Literary Award in 2017 for Extinctions, a novel exploring themes such as later life and loneliness. By contrasting the two approaches—sociological and creative narratives—we discuss the implications of crystallization for qualitative research.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

“Live Gerontology”: Understanding and Representing Aging, Loneliness, and Long-Term Care Through Science and Art

This article proposes an expansive conceptualization of gerontological research by engaging with a “live gerontology” that combines sciences and arts to better understand and represent aging and its diverse meanings and contexts. Borrowing the sociological concept of “live methods,” we argue that gerontology can benefit from a “live” approach—not only methodologically, but also conceptually. To guide pathways between artistic and gerontological fields and frame its practices and outcomes, we suggest four propositions for a live gerontology: (1) using multiple genres to artfully connect the whole—interweaving micro-, meso-, and macrolevels to contextualize aging within various sociocultural milieus; (2) fostering the use of the senses to capture more than just what people say—what they do, display, and feel; (3) enabling a critical inventiveness by relying on arts’ playfulness to design/refine instruments; and (4) ensuring a constant reflection on ethics of representation and public responsibility. To apply and experiment with a live gerontological approach, we describe collaborations with an award-winning writer and an illustrator. The collaborations drew on qualitative data from a study on lived experiences of loneliness in long-term care through ethnography and interviews with residents of 2 Australian facilities. The writer explored participants’ accounts as creative stories, which were then illustrated. Motivated by an ethics of representation, we aimed to represent findings without othering or further marginalizing participants. The creative materials offered more than appealing representations, shining new light on the intricate nature of aging, loneliness, institutionalization, and gerontology research and practice.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

UTJECAJ RAZMAKA SADNJE I VREMENA BERBE NA BROJ, MASU I PROMJER CVJETOVA NEVENA (CALENDULA OFFICINALIS L.)

Istraživanje je provedeno tijekom 2010. godine u nasadu nevena (Calendula officinalis L.), kako bi se utvrdio utjecaj tri različita sklopa (sklop A - 65 cm x 35 cm; sklop B - 65 cm x 25 cm; sklop C – 55 cm x 25 cm) i vremena berbe na broj, masu i promjer cvjetova nevena. Dobiveni rezultati pokazali su da je sklop značajno utjecao na broj cvjetova po biljci i masu cvijeta, pa je najveći broj cvjetova po biljci zabilježen kod sklopa B (13,2), a najmanji (9,87) kod sklopa C. Najniža masa cvijeta zabilježena je kod sklopa C (1,31 g) te je bila statistički značajno niža od mase cvijeta kod sklopa A (1,42 g) i B (1,38 g). Sklop je značajno utjecao i na broj cvjetova na bočnim granama, koji je bio najviši u sklopu B. Nije bilo značajnog utjecaja sklopa na promjer cvijeta. Ukupno je tijekom pokusa ostvareno 13 berbi. Najveći broj cvjetova po biljci ubrano je u osmoj, devetoj i desetoj berbi, dok je najveća masa cvijeta izmjerena u petoj i dvanaestoj berbi. Prosječno, broj cvjetova po biljci/berbi iznosio je 11,63, a masa 1,38 g. Promjer cvijeta nevena kretao se od 2,89 cm u trinaestoj do 3,59 cm u trećoj berbi, a broj cvjetova na bočnim granama po biljci/berbi iznosio je 11,61