Depression and persistent effects on work: an 'expert patient' survery of 500 social workers

Widespread effects are reported on UK economic productivity through poorly managed depressive illness in the workplace. Starting in 1999, the authors have investigated the onset, treatment and recovery from depression as experienced personally by members of the caring professions, using first-hand accounts to generate a composite picture of ‘what works for me’ in managing depression, and in particular ‘what works’ in maintaining or returning to employment in health and social care. This paper reports findings from a survey of 500 social workers. Negative perceptions of previous help from professional sources (such as general practitioner, psychiatrist or psychotherapist) were related specifically to three persisting, negative effects at work: lack of concentration, low confidence, and irritability (with tiredness). These occupational effects were strongly associated with each other. In relation to occupational health, inadequate treatment of depression may allow these negative effects on performance to persist. The findings are discussed in relation to conceptual frameworks about well-being taken from ‘positive psychology’ that suggest future approaches to both prevention and rehabilitation of these occupational problems

Managers' and Practitioners' Experiences of Depression: A unifying phenomenon?

This article reports the findings of a survey of social work professionals, both managers and practitioners, who reported their experiences of depression and the workplace response. The study identified a high degree of commonality in the accounts of practitioners and managers and some indication that managers have particular difficulties in eliciting a flexible response from their employers. A performance-orientated culture places particular demands on managers to reduce ‘poor performance’. Managers need to be aware of how depression can affect performance and the crucial role of the workplace in responding to this phenomenon

'The Indians of every denomination were free, and independent of us’: White Southern Explorations of Indigenous Slavery, Freedom, and Society, 1772-1830

In arguing against Indian slavery, plaintiff’s attorneys in the 1772 Virginia General Court case Robin v Hardaway faced a dilemma: how could they condemn enslavement while mollifying public conviction that Indigenous “savagery” made them dangerous to community stability? Their solution, rooted in a nearly two-century discourse of slavery and freedom, was to insist that Indians derived from independent polities (unlike other enslaved communities). As such, they were both inherently free and outside the evolving Anglo-American body politic, and whites could legitimately deprive them of property, happiness, and safety. Subsequent Virginia freedom cases contributed to the discourse employed in Robin, as did early-nineteenth-century US Supreme Court decisions. It came to underpin civilization policies as well as removal, once older understandings of Anglo-American “civility” became untenable to Southern whites

Analysis of Outcomes in Ischemic vs Nonischemic Cardiomyopathy in Patients With Atrial Fibrillation A Report From the GARFIELD-AF Registry

IMPORTANCE Congestive heart failure (CHF) is commonly associated with nonvalvular atrial fibrillation (AF), and their combination may affect treatment strategies and outcomes