The Black Majority Church: exploring the impact of faith and a faith community on mental health and well-being

The study explores interpretations of problems, coping strategies and help-seeking behaviour of black Christians attending a Black Majority Church (BMC). BMCs (Pentecostal churches) are the fastest-growing group of Christians in the UK (Christian Research 2006). At the same time, black people continue to be over-represented in the mental health system compared to their white counterparts; are more likely to be diagnosed as ‘schizophrenic’; more likely to be sectioned under the Mental Health Act and, since 2009, are more likely to be placed on community treatment orders (Mental Health Foundation 2014). A growing body of research exists on the role of BMCs in supporting individuals in distress (Bhugra 1997; Leavey 2004; Edge 2010). The qualitative study examines participants’ perspectives on whether there are links between faith and belonging to a faith community, and mental health and well-being. Fifty-six participants (eleven males and forty-five females) took part in the study. A broad range of BMCs were represented, including New Testament, Apostolic, Independent and Catholic denominations. Eleven focus groups and eight subsequent individual interviews were conducted and transcribed verbatim, data was analysed using Thematic Analysis and Narrative Inquiry. Findings suggest that music, prayer, The Word (preaching, quoting/reading The Holy Bible) and belonging to a church provide a positive sense of well-being. Lack of understanding of mental health issues within the church, distrust, ignorance and leaders lacking adequate training and qualifications were cited as areas impacting negatively on mental health and well-being. Faith in God emerges as central to mental stability and well-being and was considered more effective and appropriate than therapy in some cases. Mistrust and suspicion of psychiatrists and mental health services was expressed by participants, often based on first- and second-hand experiences of the effects of medication, negative encounters, lack of understanding and little or no access to talking therapies. Participants recovering from, or living with, mental health difficulties voiced a wish to be respected, to be treated with kindness, to receive a warm welcome when they attend church services and to be contacted regularly. A culture of acceptance, openness and destigmatising mental health problems, rather than spiritualising and demonising them, was emphasised. Participants stressed that leaders should be better equipped to deal with both the congregants’ and their own mental health concerns. Examples of good practice and in-house counselling initiatives within black churches are identified. Products of the study include: the development of Sozo Therapeuo (N.B. not affiliated to any other similarly worded organisation), a mental health resource to promote, improve and maintain good mental health within BMCs; a therapist directory of qualified counsellors and psychotherapists; bespoke training packages and workshops designed to meet the needs of individual churches; Mental Health Awareness for Churches and Counselling Skills for Pastors training manuals following two pilot training events; Consultancies to churches setting up counselling services, such as Bethel Church, Bristol; ‘Speak your Mind’ radio show host promoting mental health on award-winning Ruach Radio; a church-based therapy forum and a network of church-based mental health champions who have received mental health awareness training

Colorblind Ideology and Perceptions of Minority Children During a Fictionalized Parent-Child Discipline Scene

Belief in colorblind ideology among 200 social service providers and its associations with their evaluations of a fictionalized minority family were examined. Perceptions of the family in the first scenes of the movie Crooklyn included the mother’s competency, abusiveness, supportiveness, and irresponsibility, as well as her children’s respectfulness, obedience, lack of control, and aggressiveness. Colorblind ideology was operationalized as participants’ reported degree of belief that differences should be ignored when encountering others. Significant associations were found between degree of belief in ignoring differences and perceptions of the children as aggressive and out-of-control. Therefore, as the tendency to believe in ignoring differences increased, the tendency to see the Crooklyn children as aggressive and out-of- control also increased. Imposing colorblind ideologies when evaluating minority children may be associated with increasingly negative perceptions, and therefore may not be in the children’s best interest. Implications for improving social service-provision also are discussed

Layered horizons: A geospatial humanities research platform

© 2019 Copyright held by the owner/author(s). In this demo we showcase Layered Horizons, a Virtual Reality (VR) experience we have developed for use in an ARC-funded research project, Waves of Words: Mapping and Modelling Australia's Pacific Past. This platform allows users to connect different geospatial datasets (for our purposes, from the humanities and social sciences) into layers that can then be explored by the use of natural gesture and body movement. This kind of interaction design in VR takes full advantage of the media's affordances, without relying on metaphors from other interactive media, yet being familiar enough as to engender intuitive and meaningful use. We demonstrate how the platform is currently being used to connect linguistic data (word lists) with archaeological data (e.g. on the spread of bananas through the Asia-Pacific region, or canoe styles found in different locations) and anthropological data (e.g. shared cultural features like chieftainship systems or kinship systems). Taking into account what we also know about Pacific navigation and simulated canoe travel, we can therefore build a complex layered map of the region over time that allows us to better discover probable human migration and contact patterns

‘I’m a red-blooded male’: Understanding men’s experiences of domestic abuse through a feminist lens

The ways in which gendered expectations of women are used to maintain power and control by male perpetrators of domestic abuse are now well understood. It is also increasingly recognised that men can be victims of domestic abuse. This has led to calls to de-gender theories of violence and abuse, and arguments that the feminist theories which underpin many interventions are outdated. We draw on the experiences of 344 men using a helpline for male victim–survivors of domestic abuse to show that patriarchal constructions of relationships, femininity and masculinity, which underpin women’s experiences of domestic abuse by men are also central to understanding men’s experiences of domestic abuse by women. We propose that men’s victimisation by women perpetrators is not incompatible with feminist understandings of domestic abuse. Rather, that the influence of patriarchal norms in men’s victimisation accentuates the importance of gender in understanding and responding to domestic abuse

Non-continuous and variable rate processes: Optimisation for energy use

The need to develop new and improved ways of reducing energy use and increasing energy intensity in industrial processes is currently a major issue in New Zealand. Little attention has been given to optimisation of non-continuous processes in the past, due to their complexity, yet they remain an essential and often energy intensive component of many industrial sites. Novel models based on pinch analysis that aid in minimising utility usage have been constructed here through the adaptation of proven continuous techniques. The knowledge has been integrated into a user friendly software package, and allows the optimisation of processes under variable operating rates and batch conditions. An example problem demonstrates the improvements in energy use that can be gained when using these techniques to analyse non-continuous data. A comparison with results achieved using a pseudo-continuous method show that the method described can provide simultaneous reductions in capital and operating costs