Enhancing public mental health and wellbeing through creative arts participation

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explore how participation in creative arts activity can enhance public mental health and wellbeing. It is informed by both the author’s clinical practice with service users and carers and by research. Design/methodology/approach The approach taken is to draw selectively on research in the field of creativity, creative arts and wellbeing, focusing in particular on the use of music and creative writing, and to incorporate learning from clinical experience to explore what is understood about the health and wellbeing benefits of creative arts activity. Findings There is evidence that creative arts activity is beneficial to mental health and wellbeing. Arts activities that involve active participation appear to offer the greatest benefits. Creative arts participation can help people with diagnosed mental health difficulties to recover from mental illness. Moreover, creative arts activities can also promote wellbeing in the general population. Research limitations/implications The paper does not provide a comprehensive review of the literature in this field. Practical implications The paper suggests that if nurses and other mental health professionals are to play a full role in facilitating flourishing then they will need to learn more about using creative arts in practice and will need to become involved and encourage others to do so. Social implications The paper suggests it is important that creative arts activities should be participatory, so they become a vehicle not only for self-expression but also for participation in groups and communities, increasing connectedness and social inclusion. Originality/value This paper fulfils a need for a wider understanding of the health and wellbeing benefits of creative arts activity

The potential impact of reforms to the essential parameters of the council tax

Council Tax was introduced in Britain in 1993 and represents a unique international property tax. There is a growing belief that it is time to reform the number and structure of council tax bands but such views have a minimal empirical base. This paper sets out to assess the impact on personal and local government finances, and extends the analysis to the role of the tax multipliers linked to each band. The research is based on the experience of a representative sample of local authorities in Scotland. A statistical revaluation for 2000 is estimated for the existing eight band system, and from this base a ten band system is calculated. Financial implications are then simulated for each local authority taking account of central resource equalisation mechanisms. The results indicate that increases in bands will have little impact on the burden of the council tax compared with regular revaluations. Changing the tax multiplier range has the greatest impact on local authority finances and council tax payments

Potential of wind turbines to elicit seizures under various meteorological conditions

Purpose: To determine the potential risk of epileptic seizures from wind turbine shadow flicker under various meteorologic conditions. Methods: We extend a previous model to include attenuation of sunlight by the atmosphere using the libradtran radiative transfer code. Results: Under conditions in which observers look toward the horizon with their eyes open we find that there is risk when the observer is closer than 1.2 times the total turbine height when on land, and 2.8 times the total turbine height in marine environments, the risk limited by the size of the image of the sun's disc on the retina. When looking at the ground, where the shadow of the blade is cast, observers are at risk only when at a distance <36 times the blade width, the risk limited by image contrast. If the observer views the horizon and closes their eyes, however, the stimulus size and contrast ratio are epileptogenic for solar elevation angles down to approximately 5°. Discussion: Large turbines rotate at a rate below that at which the flicker is likely to present a risk, although there is a risk from smaller turbines that interrupt sunlight more than three times per second. For the scenarios considered, we find the risk is negligible at a distance more than about nine times the maximum height reached by the turbine blade, a distance similar to that in guidance from the United Kingdom planning authorities. © 2009 International League Against Epilepsy

Impact of current steel lintels on the thermal performance of cavity wall buildings under the elemental recipe of Part L1A 2013

This study investigates the impact of current steel lintels on the CO2 emissions of a notional building when trying to comply with the new PART L1A 2013 of the Building Regulations of England and Wales. For this purpose different families of lintels were assessed under SAP2009 using 12 different cavity walls with U-value under 0.18W/m K. Any of the current steel lintels without base plate studied in this research were found to be useable under PART L1A 2013. Their impact, depending also upon the construction detail used, could vary from 3% to 0.7% of the DFEES and from 1.6 to 0.4% of the DER of the notional building here studied.

Compulsory Purchase and the State Redistribution of Land: A Study of Local Authority-Private Developer Contractual Behaviour

Purpose: The compulsory purchase of land forms the subject of much legal and urban regeneration research. However, there has been little examination of the contractual arrangements between local authorities and private sector property developers that often underpin the compulsory purchase process. This paper examines local authority/private developer contractual behaviour in this context. Design/methodology/approach: An empirical examination of property development contracts made for the “Silver Hill” project in Winchester, a small city in southern England, and the Brent Cross shopping centre extension in north London. Drawing on Macneil’s (1983) relational contract theory, the paper analyses key contract terms and reviews local authority documentation related to the implementation of those terms. Findings: The contracts had two purposes: to provide a development and investment opportunity through the compulsory purchase and redistribution of private land; and to grant the private developers participating in the projects freedom to choose if they wished to take up that opportunity. While the contracts look highly “relational”, the scope for flexibility and reciprocity is both carefully planned and tightly controlled. This exposes an asymmetric power imbalance that emerges in and is rearticulated by this type of contractual arrangement. Originality/value Empirical analysis of contract terms and contractual behaviour provides a rare opportunity to scrutinise the local authority-private developer relationship underpinning both property development practice and compulsory purchase

Developing Employment Opportunities for Care Leavers

This article describes an action research project carried out in North West England that aimed to assist Children’s Services Departments and Care Trusts in developing their strategies for supporting care leavers into employment and training. The study found a range of models and approaches that can be utilised to develop local and regional partnerships offering employment and training opportunities designed to meet the needs of care leavers. Relevant questions about the extent to which such opportunities should be ring-fenced or targeted on particular fields of employment are identified

Labour migration, communities and perceptions of social cohesion in England

Abstract The unexpected scale of labour migration from eastern Europe to the UK following EU enlargement in 2004 was thought to pose a threat to the cohesiveness of those local communities hosting larger influxes of migrants. Nevertheless, areas rich in community capacity may have been able to incorporate migrant workers in ways that sustained social cohesion. This paper explores the effects of labour migration on residents’ perceptions of social cohesion in urban areas in England using multivariate statistical techniques. The statistical results suggest that post-enlargement migration weakened social cohesion, but that the prospects of social incorporation were better in areas with stronger community capacity. Theoretical and practical implications of the findings are discussed

Public Private Partnerships in Urban Regeneration Projects: organizational form or managerial capacity

Abstract Urban Regeneration Companies (URCs) are public private entities that have begun to appear in several European nations and are set up specifically to manage and implement Urban Regeneration projects. One of the core ideas behind the establishment of these partnerships is that in order to effectively tackle the challenging process of restructuring, these organizations should function at arm’s length from the political institutions that oversee them. However, the literature on governance suggests that organizational form may be less of a factor than management capability. Using survey data obtained from individuals who are heavily involved in Dutch Urban Regeneration Partnerships, this paper shows that the organizational features of URCs (functioning at arm’s length from the government, the tightness of the organizational form) are not important to their performance, while the use of multiple management strategies is relevant to