Experiences of mental health services for 'black' men with schizophrenia and a history of disengagement:a qualitative study

Whilst mental disorders can be disabling they are also treatable, yet engagement with services is often poor and disengagement from treatment is a major concern for mental health nurses. Participants were service users typically perceived as the most disengaged from mental health services, yet they were willing to engage in the research interviews. The seven participants were all male with a diagnosis of schizophrenia, a history of disengagement from mental health services and described their ethnicity as 'black'. Participants were under the care of Assertive Outreach Teams and were recruited after the researcher was introduced to them by clinicians who were working with them. After ethical approval, in-depth, semi-structured interviews were used to elicit the experiences of participants. Through interpretative phenomenological analysis, themes were developed. Interpretative Phenomenological analysis generated four themes: (i) "People just keep hounding me", (ii) Antipathy to Medication, (iii) Choice and the value of services, (iv) Stigmatisation and identity. By rigorously examining how service users with schizophrenia make sense of their experience of their relationship with mental health services, there is potential to give voice to the experiences of the recipients of mental health services. This study uncovered the complex nature of disengagement and in view of this there may never be a straightforward mechanism developed to engage all people with schizophrenia with mental health services. When the participants' experiences are considered in a broader social context it may be possible to reflect on how services can be adapted to facilitate better engagement

Forcing single-column models using high-resolution model simulations

To use single column models (SCMs) as a research tool for parametrisation development and process studies, the SCM must be supplied with realistic initial profiles, forcing fields and boundary conditions. We propose a new technique for deriving these required profiles, motivated by the increase in number and scale of high-resolution convection-permitting simulations. We suggest that these high-resolution simulations be coarse-grained to the required resolution of an SCM, and thereby be used as a proxy for the ‘true’ atmosphere. This paper describes the implementation of such a technique. We test the proposed methodology using high-resolution data from the UK Met Office’s Unified Model (MetUM), with a resolution of 4 km, covering a large tropical domain. This data is coarse grained and used to drive the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecast’s (ECMWF) Integrated Forecasting 26 System (IFS) SCM. The proposed method is evaluated by deriving IFS SCM forcing profiles from a consistent T639 IFS simulation. The SCM simulations track the global model, indicating a consistency between the estimated forcing fields and the ‘true’ dynamical forcing in the global model. We demonstrate the benefits of selecting SCM forcing profiles from across a large-domain, namely robust statistics, and the ability to test the SCM over a range of boundary conditions. We also compare driving the SCM with the coarse-grained datase to driving it using the ECMWF operational analysis. We conclude by highlighting the importance of understanding biases in the high-resolution dataset, and suggest that our approach be used in combination with observationally derived forcing datasets

Through Canadian Eyes : Trends and Influences in Canadian Art, 1815-1965

Williamson documents the history of Canadian painting through an East/West Canada division. Biographical notes on 115 artists. 34 bibl. ref

Visions de l'Atlantique : Artisanat des quatre provinces atlantiques du Canada = Atlantic Visions : Crafts from Canada's Four Atlantic Provinces

Williamson offers an extensive history of Canadian crafts. Biographical notes on the 137 Maritime exhibitors. 4 bibl. ref. bibl