An interpretative phenomenological analysis of counselling psychologists' experiences of stress in NHS child and adolescent mental health tier 3 work settings

The aim of this study was to identify and understand counselling psychologists’ individual experiences of stress in NHS Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services Tier 3. The qualitative methodology of interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA) was used to allow the emergence of each participant’s idiographic, personal experiences of the phenomenon of stress in their work settings, and the meaning each ascribed to it. Data was collected from seven counselling psychologists (six females, one male) permanently employment by NHS CAMHS. Each participant was individually interviewed on two separate occasions with a period of up to six months between interviews. Each semi-structured 60-minute interview was digitally timed, audio-recorded, transcribed in full, and analysed using IPA. All first interviews were conducted in person on NHS site locations. Some of the second interviews were done over Skype video at participants’ NHS sites or in person and the same protocol was observed as in the first interviews. Fourteen interviews were collected in total. A systematic analysis of the transcripts identified fourteen sub-themes which merged into four super-ordinate or master themes: (1) Impact of NHS changes on CAMHS Tier 3 work settings, (2) Therapy room impact, (3) Counselling psychologists’ well-being and morale, and (4) Professional identity issues. The findings showed that all the counselling psychologists were experiencing intense stress in their working lives. The study took place in the political context of National Health Service (NHS) reform and austerity based economic restructuring which is ongoing. Counselling psychologists believed such economic cuts caused contextual changes in CAMHS settings which brought new stressors into their working lives. Their experiences of stress were similar to factors consistently identified in organisational stress research as burnout risk factors or burnout itself. As a result of the increased stress, they expressed either a desire to leave their posts or they were already seeking work elsewhere. Participants also shared stress experiences related to professional identity issues involved in being the relatively new and only other psychology discipline working and competing for jobs in NHS CAMHS Tier 3. In many cases, a mitigating factor of the stress was a sense of meaning derived from their relationships and work with mentally unwell young people. Given the importance of the therapeutic relationship as a conduit for successful therapeutic outcomes, research on how best to support and protect against occupational stress experienced as impacting the early intervention work of NHS CAMHS counselling psychologists is an area for future research

A task based approach to global design education

This paper provides a new perspective for managing and delivering a global design class, and a clear alternative to the traditional joint project for participating institutes. The ‘task-based approach’ used to structure a Global Design class at the University of Strathclyde is described. This entailed the creation of a series of short design exercises to be run in conjunction with three partner institutions: the University of Malta in Msida, Malta; Swinburne University of Technology in Melbourne, Australia; and Stanford University in Palo Alto, USA. These exercises focussed on specific aspects of distributed working, including synchronous working, asynchronous working and digital library support, according to the location and facilities afforded by each institution. This provides a number of pedagogical and organisation benefits. Students are required to take a more strategic approach to their design work, developing a higher evaluative understanding of the tools and processes required to produce a successful design. Staff members have a greater level of control afforded by a shared collaborative class component, including assessment, timetabling and learning objectives, rather than simply having a joint project. This potentially makes global design classes a more flexible and viable option for institutions interested in participating in such programme

East Asia and the global/transatlantic/Western crisis

This paper introduces the special collection on East Asia and the Global Crisis. After justifying why a focus on East Asia is appropriate, it draws out the main themes that run through the individual contributions. These are the extent to which the region is decoupling from the global economy (or the West), the increasing legitimacy of statist alternatives to neoliberal development strategies, and the impact of crises on the definition of ―region‖ and the functioning of regional institutions and governance mechanisms

A Model for Integration and Interlinking of Idea Management Systems

This paper introduces the use of Semantic Web technologies for the Idea Management Systems as a gap closer between heterogeneous software and achieving interoperability. We present a model that proposes how and what kind of rich metadata annotations to apply in the domain of Idea Management Systems. In addition, as a part of our model, we present a Generic Idea and Innovation Management Ontology (GI2MO). The described model is backed by a set of use cases followed by evaluations that prove how Semantic Web can work as tool to create new opportunities and leverage the contemporary Idea Management legacy systems into the next level

Improving the effectiveness of fire prevention using the ‘premonition’ agent-based model of domestic fire risk behaviours

Purpose Understanding and predicting the behaviours of households within a community is a key concern for fire services as they plan to deliver effective and efficient public services. In this paper, an agent-based modelling approach is used to deepen understandings of changing patterns of behaviour within a community. The paper aims to discuss this issue. Design/methodology/approach This “Premonition” model draws on historical data of fire incidents and community interventions (e.g. home safety checks, fire safety campaigns, etc.) collated by South Yorkshire Fire and Rescue, UK, to unpack patterns of changing household behaviours within the region. Findings Findings from simulations carried out using the Premonition model, show that by targeting close-knit groups of connected households, the effectiveness of preventative interventions and utilisation of associated resources is enhanced. Furthermore, by repeating these interventions with the same households over time, risk factors within the wider area are further reduced. Originality/value The study thus shows that annual repeat visits to fewer and more targeted high-risk postcodes increase the overall reduction in risk within an area, when compared with a scattered coverage approach using one-off (i.e. not repeat) household visits within a postcode

Identifying the mechanisms underpinning recognition of structured sequences of action

© 2012 The Experimental Psychology SocietyWe present three experiments to identify the specific information sources that skilled participants use to make recognition judgements when presented with dynamic, structured stimuli. A group of less skilled participants acted as controls. In all experiments, participants were presented with filmed stimuli containing structured action sequences. In a subsequent recognition phase, participants were presented with new and previously seen stimuli and were required to make judgements as to whether or not each sequence had been presented earlier (or were edited versions of earlier sequences). In Experiment 1, skilled participants demonstrated superior sensitivity in recognition when viewing dynamic clips compared with static images and clips where the frames were presented in a nonsequential, randomized manner, implicating the importance of motion information when identifying familiar or unfamiliar sequences. In Experiment 2, we presented normal and mirror-reversed sequences in order to distort access to absolute motion information. Skilled participants demonstrated superior recognition sensitivity, but no significant differences were observed across viewing conditions, leading to the suggestion that skilled participants are more likely to extract relative rather than absolute motion when making such judgements. In Experiment 3, we manipulated relative motion information by occluding several display features for the duration of each film sequence. A significant decrement in performance was reported when centrally located features were occluded compared to those located in more peripheral positions. Findings indicate that skilled participants are particularly sensitive to relative motion information when attempting to identify familiarity in dynamic, visual displays involving interaction between numerous features