Exploring mindfulness interventions for people with dementia and their family caregivers

Evidence highlights the need to support people with dementia and their family caregivers together as a dyad and mindfulness has been suggested as one intervention. This research aimed to explore dyads’ experiences of attending an eight-week MBSR intervention. Five couples were recruited, using a mixed method multiple case study design with follow-up. Data was collected using self-report standardised measures, group observations and semi-structured interviews. Thematic analysis and descriptive statistics were used to analyse the data. Although quantitative analysis was inconclusive, qualitative analysis suggests some participants found the intervention a positive experience, benefitting from completing the intervention as a dyad and attending with people with related problems. Specific mindfulness benefits were also reported. Further larger scale research is needed to support these findings and explore specific benefits mindfulness interventions has over other interventions, before being suggested as a helpful clinical intervention

"You just sat there." A collaborative research project exploring the identities and agency of bilingual learners within an English speaking secondary school.

This study set out to ensure that the experiences of secondary school students who speak more than one language were listened to and valued. As a monolingual teacher, I felt that my own analysis of such students’ lived lives would be lacking. Therefore this study was undertaken in collaboration with eleven secondary school students. The students all speak more than one language fluently. Over the years there has been a paradigm shift in qualitative research methods. Education researchers have moved away from the positivist archetype to more pragmatic, participatory models. Such methods view the researched not as subject but as participant. In this study, eleven teenage researchers were trained in participatory data collection methods, ethics and data analysis. The research team developed their own questions, collected the data themselves and analysed that data collaboratively thus going some way to ensuring the integrity of the findings. The project therefore was twofold. The student researchers considered the identities of bilingual learners within school and the learners’ understandings of and approaches to being bilingual. The second part of the project deals with collaboration. I consider whether or not such collaborations are able to deconstruct entrenched power inequalities and empower bilingual learners

Review of strategies for modelling the environmental fate of pesticides discharged into riverine systems

International audiencePesticides are often produced and stored in large quantities near rivers posing a potential hazard for the aquatic environment. Accidental incidents such as storage facility fires are of major concern as significant amounts of pesticide chemicals can enter the nearby riverine system possibly causing considerable environmental damage (for example the Sandoz fire in Basel in 1986 which polluted the Rhine river). In order to assess the potential impact on the riverine environment of such an incident it is necessary to identify the controlling environmental fate processes that affect pesticides in freshwater systems. A strategy for mathematically modelling these processes to predict the fate of the chemical contaminants then needs to be established. This paper discuss and reviews the major environmental controlling fate processes of selected herbicides in freshwater. Strategies on how to mathematical model the environmental fate of pesticides in rivers are also considered

Addressing the Food Loss and Waste Challenge – a WRAP perspective

Unsustainable production and consumption of food constitutes one of the biggest environmental threats to our planet. Eliminating food loss and waste to the largest extent possible – at all stages from producer to final consumer – stands out as an urgent and indispensable step towards more sustainable food systems. In fact, recent research shows that tackling food waste is the third most effective intervention to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, the most important priority of our time (Hawken 2017). The United Nations Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 12.3 sets out a specific target on food waste to halve per capita global food waste at the retail and consumer levels and reduce food losses along production and supply chains, including post-harvest losses, by 2030. In order to measure global progress towards SDG 12.3, two indices have been proposed: the Food Waste Index (Global Innovation Exchange 2018) and the Food Loss Index (Fabi and English 2018). Successfully achieving SDG 12.3 requires new thinking, new partnerships and new actions to reduce resource use, and increase the efficiency of the production, preservation, processing and distribution of food at the producer, intermediary, processor and wholesale level. It needs wider education, increased awareness, and behavioural change among citizens, retailers, and policy makers across the globe. The goal is to produce more food to feed the world’s expanding population, while reducing land use, fertilizer applications and critically dramatically reducing greenhouse gas emissions (Flanagan et al. 2019). To help deliver this critical target, Champions 12.3 has been formed (Champions 12.3 2016). It is a unique coalition of executives from governments, businesses, international organizations, research institutions, and civil society dedicated to inspiring ambition, mobilizing action, and accelerating progress toward achieving SDG Target 12.3. It has produced a trajectory for delivering 12.3, what needs to happen and by when that provides the critical “roadmap for change” (Champions 12.3 2017a). In this paper we provide the perspective of WRAP (the Waste and Resources Action Programme) on the economic, social and environmental case for action, what research shows works in driving change and how these activities might be scaled to deliver SDG 12.3. WRAP is a not for profit organization, based in the UK and working in more than 20 countries worldwide, that aims to help people and planet thrive. WRAP is a leader in tackling food loss and waste effectively and supporting international food loss and waste prevention projects – including Champions 12.3. Since 2007, WRAP has been a partner in many global food loss and waste projects and initiatives and has co-authored key reports. This includes EU projects such as FUSIONS (2016) and REFRESH (2020a), as well as the development of the Food Loss and Waste Accounting and Reporting Standard (World Resources Institute 2016). In the UK, WRAP, food businesses and other partners have delivered large-scale interventions to reduce food waste across supply chains, and households for more than ten years (since 2007), supported by UK Governments and by businesses and enabled by a series of collaborative public-private partnerships. WRAP’s work in the UK with its partners has helped reduce food by 27% or 1.7 Mt/y saving food worth £5 billion/ year. Cumulatively the total food waste reduction has been 18.5 Mt worth US$50 billion (WRAP 2020a). This paper highlights the importance of tackling food loss and waste, using specific recent examples from the UK and Mexico. Second, we discuss the business case for addressing food loss and waste. Thirdly we highlighting two approaches that research shows can be particularly effective at driving change at scale, and we conclude by proposing a three-point plan for tackling food waste to deliver SDG 12.3 over the next 10 years

Harm-reduction approaches for self-cutting in inpatient mental health settings:development and preliminary validation of the Attitudes to Self-cutting Management (ASc-Me) Scale

IntroductionHarm-reduction approaches for self-harm in mental health settings have been under-researched.AimTo develop a measure of the acceptability of management approaches for self-cutting in mental health inpatient settings.MethodsStage one: scale items were generated from relevant literature and staff/service user consultation. Stage two: A cross-sectional survey and statistical methods from classical test theory informed scale development.Results/FindingsAt stage one N=27 staff and service users participated. At stage two N=215 people (n=175 current mental health practitioners and n=40 people with experience of self-cutting as a UK mental health inpatient) completed surveys. Principal components analysis revealed a simple factor structure such that each method had a unique acceptability profile. Reliability, construct validity, and internal consistency were acceptable. The harm-reduction approaches 'advising on wound-care' and 'providing a first aid kit' were broadly endorsed; 'providing sterile razors' and 'maintaining a supportive nursing presence during cutting' were less acceptable but more so than seclusion and restraint.DiscussionThe Attitudes to Self-cutting Management scale is a reliable and valid measure that could inform service design and development.Implications for practiceNurses should discuss different options for management of self-cutting with service users. Harm reduction approaches may be more acceptable than coercive measures. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.</p

Omeprazole compared with misoprostol for ulcers associated with nonsteroidal antiinflammatory drugs

Background: Misoprostol is effective for ulcers associated with the use of nonsteroidal antiinflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) but is often poorly tolerated because of diarrhea and abdominal pain. We compared the efficacy of omeprazole and misoprostol in healing and preventing ulcers associated with NSAIDs. Methods: in a double-blind study, we randomly assigned 935 patients who required continuous NSAID therapy and who had ulcers or more than 10 erosions in the stomach or duodenum (or both) to receive 20 mg or 40 mg of omeprazole orally in the morning or 200 microg of misoprostol orally four times daily. Patients were treated for four weeks or, in the absence of healing, eight weeks. Treatment success was defined as the absence of ulcers and the presence of fewer than five erosions at each site and not more than mild dyspepsia. We then randomly reassigned 732 patients in whom treatment was successful to maintenance therapy with 20 mg of omeprazole daily, 200 microg of misoprostol twice daily, or placebo for six months. Results: at eight weeks, treatment was successful in 76 percent of the patients given 20 mg of omeprazole (233 of 308), 75 percent of those given 40 mg of omeprazole (237 of 315), and 71 percent of those given misoprostol (212 of 298). The rates of gastric-ulcer healing were significantly higher with 20 mg of omeprazole (but not 40 mg of omeprazole) than with misoprostol. Healing rates among patients with duodenal ulcers were higher with either dose of omeprazole than with misoprostol, whereas healing rates among patients with erosions alone were higher with misoprostol. More patients remained in remission during maintenance treatment with omeprazole (61 percent) than with misoprostol (48 percent, P=0.001) and with either drug than with placebo (27 percent, P<0.001). There were more adverse events during the healing phase in the misoprostol group than in the groups given 20 mg and 40 mg of omeprazole (59 percent, 48 percent, and 46 percent, respectively). Conclusions: the overall rates of successful treatment of ulcers, erosions, and symptoms associated with NSAIDs were similar for the two doses of omeprazole and misoprostol. Maintenance therapy with omeprazole was associated with a lower rate of relapse than misoprostol. Omeprazole was better tolerated than misoprostol