Field-based monitoring and evaluation tool

Field-based monitoring and evaluation too

Understanding people's willingness to implement measures to manage human-bear conflict in Florida

Moderator: Stewart Breck.Presented at the 8th international congress for wildlife and livelihoods on private and communal lands: livestock, tourism, and spirit, that was held on September 7-12, 2014 in Estes Park, Colorado.Video presenter: Elizabeth Pienaar.In 2009 the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) began surveying individuals who reported human-bear conflicts. The purpose of this survey is to assess whether individuals take actions recommended by the FWC to reduce or eliminate conflicts. Using this data set, we determined which factors influence the likelihood that surveyed individuals will follow the advice provided by the FWC for managing human-bear conflicts. We find outreach efforts by the FWC increase the probability that people who report conflicts to the agency adopt recommended measures to reduce these conflicts. Our results suggest that outreach efforts by wildlife agencies increase the likelihood that people will alter their behavior to reduce human-bear conflicts

Challenging the addiction/health binary with assemblage thinking: An analysis of consumer accounts

Critical analyses of drug use and 'addiction' have identified a series of binary oppositions between addiction and free will, independence, self-control, responsibility, productivity and autonomy. This critical work has also examined how science, policy and popular discourses frequently characterise addiction as antithetical to health and well-being. Furthermore, those diagnosed with addiction are often understood as indifferent to health and well-being, or as lacking the knowledge or desire required to maintain them. In this article, we draw on data from 60 qualitative interviews with people who self-identify as living with an 'addiction', 'dependence' or 'habit', to argue that the binary opposition between addiction and health struggles to attend to their rich and varied health perspectives and experiences. We explore three themes in the interview data: reinscribing the binary opposition between addiction and health/well-being; strategies for maintaining health and well-being alongside addiction; and alcohol and other drug consumption as aiding health and well-being. Perhaps because addiction and health have been so thoroughly understood as antithetical, such perspectives and experiences have received surprisingly little research and policy attention. Yet they offer fertile ground for rethinking the strengths and capacities of those who self-identity as living with an addiction, dependence or habit, as well as untapped resources for responding to the harm sometimes associated with alcohol and other drug use

Development of the health system in the Western Cape: experiences since 1994

Provincial governments in South Africa have a critical responsibility in terms of population health, yet few provincial-level analyses of health-system development have been undertaken. This chapter reports on research being conducted in the Western Cape to understand the province’s particular experience of health-system transformation since 1994, set against wider national experience. The research is being undertaken collaboratively by the authors of this chapter, a team of Western Cape provincial health managers and researchers. The chapter is structured to reflect the Western Cape’s 22-year experience. The situation that faced the province in 1994 is outlined briefly, followed by a description of key features of the three health strategies that have driven provincial health-system development over time. An assessment is then presented of the overall nature and patterns of Western Cape health-system change, and the achievements and limitations of this transformation are considered. The chapter concludes with some early lessons from this experience, and relevant, international experience is considered.DHE

Addiction stigma and the biopolitics of liberal modernity: A qualitative analysis

Definitions of addiction have never been more hotly contested. The advance of neuroscientific accounts has not only placed into public awareness a highly controversial explanatory approach, it has also shed new light on the absence of agreement among the many experts who contest it. Proponents argue that calling addiction a 'brain disease' is important because it is destigmatising. Many critics of the neuroscientific approach also agree on this point. Considered from the point of view of the sociology of health and illness, the idea that labelling something a disease will alleviate stigma is a surprising one. Disease, as demonstrated in that field of research, is routinely stigmatised. In this article we take up the issue of stigma as it plays out in relation to addiction, seeking to clarify and challenge the claims made about the progress associated with disease models. To do so, we draw on Erving Goffman's classic work on stigma, reconsidering it in light of more recent, process oriented, theoretical resources, and posing stigmatisation as a performative biopolitical process. Analysing recently collected interviews conducted with 60 people in Australia who consider themselves to have an alcohol or other drug addiction, dependence or habit, we explore their accounts of stigma, finding experiences of stigma to be common, multiple and strikingly diverse. We argue that by treating stigma as politically productive - as a contingent biopolitically performative process rather than as a stable marker of some kind of anterior difference - we can better understand what it achieves. This allows us to consider not simply how the 'disease' of addiction can be destigmatised, or even whether the 'diseasing' of addiction is itself stigmatising (although this would seem a key question), but whether the very problematisation of 'addiction' in the first place constitutes a stigma process

Novel 1-hydroxypyridin-2-one metal chelators prevent and res-cue ubiquitin proteasomal-related neuronal injury in an in vitro model of Parkinson’s disease

Ubiquitin proteasome system (UPS) impairment, excessive cellular oxidative stress and iron dyshomeostasis are key to substantia nigra dopaminergic neuronal de-generation in Parkinson's disease (PD); however, a link between these features remains unconfirmed. By using the proteasome inhibitor lactacystin we confirm that nigral injury via UPS impairment disrupts iron homeostasis, in turn increasing oxi-dative stress and promoting protein aggregation. We demonstrate the neuroprotec-tive potential of two novel 1-hydroxy-2(1H)-pyridinone (1,2-HOPO) iron chelators, compounds C6 and C9, against lactacystin-induced cell death. We demonstrate that this cellular preservation relates to the compounds’ iron chelating capabilities and subsequent reduced capacity of iron to form reactive oxygen species (ROS), where we also show that the ligands act as antioxidant agents. Our results also de-monstrate the ability of C6 and C9 to reduce intracellular lactacystin-induced α-synuclein burden. Stability constant measurements confirmed a high affinity of C6 and C9 for Fe3+ and display a 3:1 HOPO:Fe3+ complex formation at physiological pH. Reducing iron reactivity could prevent the demise of nigral dopaminergic neurons. We provide evidence that the lactacystin model presents with several neuropatho-logical hallmarks of PD related to iron dyshomeostasis and that the novel chelating compounds C6 and C9 can protect against lactacystin-related neurotoxicity

An Evaluation of the Role of an Intermediate Care Facility in the Continuum of Care in Western Cape, South Africa

Abstract Background: A comprehensive primary healthcare (PHC) approach requires clear referral and continuity of care pathways. South Africa is a lower-middle income country (LMIC) that lacks data on the role of intermediate care (IC) services in the health system. This study described the model of service provision at one facility in Cape Town, including reason for admission, the mix of services and skills provided and needed, patient satisfaction, patient outcome and articulation with other services across the spectrum of care. Methods: A multi-method design was used. Sixty-eight patients were recruited over one month in mid-2011 in a prospective cohort. Patient data were collected from clinical record review and an interviewer-administered questionnaire, administered shortly after admission to assess primary and secondary diagnosis, referring institution, knowledge of and previous use of home based care (HBC) services, reason for admission and demographics. A telephonic questionnaire at 9-weeks post-discharge recorded their vital status, use of HBC post-discharge and their satisfaction with care received. Staff members completed a self-administered questionnaire to describe demographics and skills. Cox regression was used to identify predictors of survival. Results: Of the 68 participants, 38% and 24% were referred from a secondary and tertiary hospital, respectively. Stroke (35%) was the most common single reason for admission. The three most common reasons reported why care was better at the IC facility were staff attitude, the presence of physiotherapy and the wound care. Even though most patients reported admission to another health facility in the preceding year, only 13 patients (21%) had ever accessed HBC and only 25% (n=15) of discharged patients used HBC post-discharge. Of the 57 patients traced on follow-up, 21(37%) had died. The presence of a Care-plan was significantly associated with a 62% lower risk of death (hazard ratio: 0.38; CI 0.15–0.97). Notably, 46% of staff members reported performing roles that were outside their scope of practice and there was a mismatch between what staff reported doing and their actual tasks. Conclusion: Clients understood this service as a caring environment primarily responsible for rehabilitation services. A Care-plan beyond admission could significantly reduce mortality. There was poor referral to and poor articulation with HBC services. IC services should be recognised as an integral part of the health system and should be accessible

Socio-cultural, environmental and behavioural determinants of obesity in black South African women

South Africa (SA) is undergoing a rapid epidemiological transition and has the highest prevalence of obesity in sub- Saharan Africa (SSA), with black women being the most affected (obesity prevalence 31.8%). Although genetic factors are important, socio-cultural, environmental and behavioural factors, as well as the influence of socio-economic status, more likely explain the high prevalence of obesity in black SA women. This review examines these determinants in black SA women, and compares them to their white counterparts, black SA men, and where appropriate, to women from SSA. Specifically this review focuses on environmental factors influencing obesity, the influence of urbanisation, as well as the interaction with socio-cultural and socio-economic factors. In addition, the role of maternal and early life factors and cultural aspects relating to body image are discussed. This information can be used to guide public health interventions aimed at reducing obesity in black SA women.Department of HE and Training approved lis