Recovery or stagnation?: Britain’s older industrial towns since the recession

Britain’s older industrial towns have long been known to face economic problems. However, in the aftermath of the recession triggered by the 2008 financial crisis, recorded unemployment in the towns has fallen to relatively low levels. This paper deploys labour market accounts to measure the contributions of changing levels of employment, population, national and international migration, commuting, and labour market participation to the pattern of change in the towns between 2010 to 2016. The paper also places older industrial towns in their regional context by comparing recent trends in the towns with those in the main regional cities, London, and the UK as a whole. The paper concludes that the reduction in recorded unemployment since 2010 paints an overly positive picture of labour market trends in Britain’s older industrial towns

Caregiver awareness of reproductive health issues for women with intellectual disabilities

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Limited attention has been paid to the issue of reproductive health as it affects women with intellectual disabilities, despite reproductive health being a vital issue in public health policy for women in the general population. This paper describes caregiver awareness of reproductive health issues relative to women with intellectual disabilities who are being cared for in welfare institutions in Taiwan.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>The study employed a cross-sectional, questionnaire-based study which recruited 1,152 caregivers (response rate = 71.87%) from 32 registered disability welfare institutions in Taiwan. We classified their understanding/awareness of reproductive health issues into four domains: menstrual (1) and menopause (2) issues, sex education (3), and reproductive health services (4). Each domain had five associated yes/no questions and the total score for the four domains was out of a maximum of 20. Data were analyzed using SPSS 15.0 software.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>We found that most of the caregivers were familiar with matters concerning sex education, menopause, and reproductive health services, but they lacked adequate understanding of issues associated with menstruation in women with ID. Many aspects of reproductive health such as "menstrual pain", "age at menarche", "masturbation", "diet during perimenopause", and "publicly available reproductive health services" were issues in which caregivers lacked adequate knowledge and required further instruction. Logistic regression analysis revealed that female caregivers with a university degree, and those who had experience assisting with reproductive health care were more inclined to have higher reproductive health awareness scores than their counterparts.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>This study highlights that service providers should offer appropriate reproductive health education to institutional caregivers, and that more attention be focused on the personal experiences and concerns of intellectually disabled women in future research.</p

HIV issues and people with disabilities: A review and agenda for research

The recent AIDS and Disability Partners Forum at the UN General Assembly High Level Meetings on AIDS in New York in June 2011 and the International AIDS Conference in Washington, DC in July 2012 underscores the growing attention to the impact of HIV and AIDS on persons with disabilities. However, research on AIDS and disability, particularly a solid evidence base upon which to build policy and programming remains thin, scattered and difficult to access. In this review paper, we summarise what is currently known about the intersection between HIV and AIDS and disability, paying particular attention to the small but emerging body of epidemiology data on the prevalence of HIV for people with disabilities, as well as the increasing understanding of HIV risk factors for people with disabilities. We find that the number of papers in the peer-reviewed literature remains distressingly small. Over the past 20 years an average of 5 articles on some aspect of disability and HIV and AIDS were published annually in the peer-reviewed literature from 1990 to 2000, increasing slightly to an average of 6 per year from 2000 to 2010. Given the vast amount of research around HIV and AIDS and the thousands of articles on the subject published in the peer-reviewed literature annually, the continuing lack of attention to HIV and AIDS among this at risk population, now estimated to make up 15% of the world’s population, is striking. However, the statistics, while too limited at this point to make definitive conclusions, increasingly suggest at least an equal HIV prevalence rate for people with disabilities as for their nondisabled peers

Social networks of adults with an intellectual disability from south Asian and white communities in the United Kingdom: a comparison

Background: Little research exists comparing the social networks of people with intellectual disability (ID) from south Asian and white backgrounds. This UK study reports on the barriers that south Asian people with ID face in relation to social inclusion compared to their white counterparts. Materials and Methods: A mixed-methods research design was adopted to explore the social lives of 27 men (15 white; 12 South Asian) and 20 women (10 white; 10 South Asian with ID). Descriptive and parametric tests were used to analyse the quantitative data. Results: The average network size of the whole group was 32 members. South Asian participants had more family members whilst white participants had more service users and staff in their networks; 96% network members from white ID group were also of white background, whilst the south Asian group had mixed ethnic network members. Conclusions: Social networks of individuals with ID in this study were found to be larger overall in comparison to previous studies, whilst network structure differed between the white and south Asian population. These differences have implications relating to future service planning and appropriateness of available facilities