There are no feminist borders

This blog is part of the WPS Forum on 15 Years of UK WPS Hannah Wright discuss how feminists must resist gendered and racialised bordering practices towards migrants and asylum seekers of all genders who cross UK borders. She calls on feminist advocacy and grassroots action for halting these practices and build strong movements against them in the present moment

Money Buys Happiness: A Psychoanalytic Reading of O\u27Connor

In the year 1946 when Flannery O’Connor was about twenty-one years old, she and her mother Regina signed a document emancipating Flannery from her mother’s care so that she could attend the creative writing program at the University of Iowa (Release of Guardianship). In this determined show of independence, Flannery chose to move away from her mother and take responsibility for herself. However, this responsibility became too much for O’Connor to handle when she was diagnosed with lupus shortly after her twenty-sixth birthday. She was forced to move back in with her mother in Milledgeville and relinquish a great deal of the control that she had when she lived alone. Reading in a psychoanalytic context, I see O’Connor writing many characters who lose their self agency, as she did, desiring to unconsciously foist their responsibilities onto a caregiver; rather than voicing their desire, however, the characters project their wishes onto the process of making and saving money. According to psychoanalytic theorist Jacques Lacan, such displacement of direct desires can be explained by the way O’Connor’s characters push their wants to the side in favor of a symbolic desire

La Bete Noire et le Beau

Betrayed by the one who is supposed to care for her most Marceline must find a way to reverse her curse before she loses everything that makes her human and her mind reverts to that of a beast

Developing an Instrument to Measure Food Insecurity among College Students

The purpose of this research was to develop a reliable and valid survey instrument to measure the prevalence and degree of food insecurity among college students with respect to their demographic characteristics. This survey instrument was piloted to a sample of college students at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. The College Student Food Insecurity (CSFI) survey instrument was designed using a Likert format with 5 levels of agreement. Items for the CSFI were created through brainstorming, a review of the USDA Food Insecurity Modules, and a review of the literature with a focus on three concepts: access or awareness of food insecurity, behaviors of food insecurity, and support or resources for food insecurity. Content validation was assessed via a panel of experts. An exploratory factor analysis was performed to identify factors that comprised the construct of food insecurity in college students. The construct of food insecurity loaded on four components: behaviors of food insecurity, access to food options, support and resources for food insecure students, and food purchasing behaviors. The internal consistency for each factor was acceptable ranging from 0.35 to 0.83. Test-retest reliability was also completed with 20 students (p = 0.043, r = 0.74). The survey was distilled into 18 items and was emailed to 1,414 students with a return of 14.7%. A binary logistic regression was performed using the survey data to determine the food insecurity probability unique to the individual students and whether there existed significant differences between levels of demographic variables, chi-square tests were performed to assess the relationships among the categorical demographic variables with food insecurity status. Being a male student, working 1 or more part-time job(s), and receiving a Pell grant were positively associated with being food insecure (p \u3c 0.05). These findings may be limited by an over-representation of females in the sample and a positive bias that food insecure students would be more likely to complete the survey than others. From a higher education administrative view, both academic professionals can assist in accelerating a growing body of support resources and improved environment for food insecurity college students in the United States

Screening for Mental Health Difficulties in Looked After Children referred to a Specialist CAMHS Team using the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire: a Mixed Methods Study

Looked after children (LAC) are at high risk of developing mental health difficulties. In England, 45 percent meet the criteria for psychiatric diagnosis (Ford, Vostanis, Meltzer & Goodman, 2007), while levels of emotional and behavioural difficulties may be significantly higher (Sempik, Ward, & Darker, 2008). The UK Government requires local authorities in England to use the Strengths & Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) to assess and monitor looked after children’s (LAC) mental health and emotional wellbeing. However, there is growing concern that this measure alone is not sufficient (Social Care Institute of Excellence, 2017). This mixed-methods study aimed to assess the extent to which the single-informant SDQ accurately identified mental health difficulties in looked after children referred to a specialist CAMHS team. A further aim was to explore clinicians’ understanding of the reasons why some looked after children’s mental health difficulties are not identified by the SDQ. SDQ total difficulties scores for 144 children referred to a specialist LAC CAMHS team were compared to referral outcomes. Using a Total Difficulties Score of 17 (Youden’s Index), parent-report SDQs (n=97) predicted CAMHS treatment recommendations with a sensitivity of .67 and a specificity of .57. For teachers (n=41), a score of 17 yielded a sensitivity of .79 and specificity of .71. For self-reports, a lower Total Difficulties Score of 13 (Youden’s Index) achieved a sensitivity of .79 and specificity of .42. Overall, the number of children whose mental health difficulties were not identified was unacceptably high. Interviews with clinicians working in the LAC CAMHS team (n=9) were analysed using Thematic Analysis. Four themes were identified: ‘Developmental trauma & attachment’, ‘A different kind of patient?’, ‘Seeing the “bad” but neglecting the sad’, and ‘The importance of clinical judgement’. Overall, the results support SCIE recommendations that the SDQ alone does not provide a sufficiently robust assessment of looked after children’s mental health. Low SDQ score should not prevent access to LAC CAMHS services

Silicone Wristbands as Passive Samplers for Quantitative Measurement of Wood Smoke Exposure

Human exposure to biomass smoke is a health concern worldwide. Although many studies have measured particulate matter in wood smoke as a health concern, exposure to mutagenic and carcinogenic volatile and semivolatile compounds remains understudied. This research introduces a novel method of quantitative measurement of exposure to these compounds using silicone wristbands. The study developed a method to extract analytes of interest from the wristbands and quantify a few volatile organic compounds and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons with known ill health effects, and then performed linear regressions between extracted levels and exposure to those analytes using controlled exposure studies. Results indicate good and statistically significant correlations between recovered analytes from the wristbands and average exposure over time, making these wristbands a potentially useful tool for quantitatively testing exposure to wood smoke

Florpyrauxifen-benzyl Use in Arkansas Rice (Oryza sativa L.)

Florpyrauxifen-benzyl is a synthetic auxin herbicide which was commercially released in 2018 to combat troublesome grass, broadleaf, and sedge weed species in rice. Many factors may influence cultivar response to a new herbicide; hence, it is important to understand factors contributing to crop sensitivity to an herbicide in order to make appropriate recommendations. Prior to the onset of this study, research had been conducted on florpyrauxifen-benzyl in a flooded environment; however, none had been executed in a non-flooded environment. Experiments were conducted to evaluate the response of a long-grain variety ‘CL111’, a medium-grain variety ‘CL272’, and a long-grain hybrid ‘CLXL745’ to florpyrauxifen-benzyl as influenced by herbicide rate, environmental conditions, growth stage, days between sequential applications, and applications with an acetolactate (ALS)-inhibiting herbicide and a cytochrome P450-inhibiting insecticide. Additionally, weed control experiments were conducted to evaluate florpyrauxifen-benzyl as part of a full-season herbicide program in furrow-irrigated rice and in mixtures with other herbicides on rice levees. Generally, florpyrauxifen-benzyl at the field rate of 30 g ae ha-1 did not cause excessive injury or yield loss. However, the hybrid CLXL745 was most sensitive to florpyrauxifen-benzyl, especially sequential applications made at the labeled rate, resulting in yield loss. Data from these tolerance studies indicate the long-grain variety CL111 is most tolerant to florpyrauxifen-benzyl, while CLXL745 is most sensitive, thus caution should be exercised when applying florpyrauxifen-benzyl to this cultivar. Florpyrauxifen-benzyl applied at mid-season provided 96 to 98% control of Palmer amaranth in a furrow-irrigated rice system. Comparable levels of Palmer amaranth control were observed between florpyrauxifen-benzyl and a standard treatment of 2,4-D, offering another herbicide to control weeds on rice levees in areas where 2,4-D use is restricted. Results from these experiments indicate florpyrauxifen-benzyl will provide a valuable weed management tool for rice farmers

Use of the Strengths & Difficulties Questionnaire to identify treatment needs in looked after children referred to CAMHS

© The Author(s) 2019Background: In England and Wales, the Strengths & Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) is used to assess and monitor looked after children’s (LAC) mental health; and some targeted CAMHS teams use it to decide who can access services. However, the ability of the single-informant SDQ to identify LAC who need mental health treatment is insufficiently understood. Methods: 144 LAC referrals to a Targeted CAMHS Team were screened as part of a larger study. To establish how well the SDQ identified children who required treatment, Total Difficulties Scores (TDS) from single-informant SDQs submitted at referral were compared to treatment recommendations following routine CAMHS assessment in a real-world setting. To explain the results, clinicians (n=9) from the team were interviewed and key themes identified using Thematic Analysis. Results: Optimal accuracy calculations for SDQs completed by carers (TDS=17, sensitivity .67, specificity .57), teachers (TDS=17, sensitivity .79, specificity .71) and young people (TDS=14, sensitivity.79, specificity .42) compared to the outcome of routine CAMHS assessments indicated that the number of children whose treatment needs were not identified by their SDQ score may be unacceptably high. Key themes from clinician interviews identified possible gaps and limitations: Developmental Trauma and Attachment Difficulties, A different kind of ‘patient?’, Seeing the bad but neglecting the sad, and The importance of clinical judgement. Conclusions: Contrary to UK Government policy, this study suggests that the single-report SDQ should not be relied upon as a sole means of identifying mental health difficulties in this vulnerable, high-risk population.Peer reviewedFinal Accepted Versio

The Wave Project: Evidencing Surf Therapy for Young People in the UK

Sport and exercise are known to have long-term, positive consequences for the physical and mental health and wellbeing of the individual and society as a whole. In the UK, a quarter of young people experience long-term illness, disability or mental ill-health. However, understanding the impact of surfing on physical and mental health is complex, not least because there are different pathways by which surfing can improve health and wellbeing  including: playing, being in nature, socialising, taking risks and identifying as a surfer. The Wave Project is a UK-wide surf therapy charity which provides vulnerable young people aged 8-21 with an opportunity to surf once a week for six weeks. At The Wave Project, clients ‘do’ surfing with the one-to-one assistance of a volunteer overseen by a surf coordinator. After completing The Wave Project clients are invited to become members of a follow-on Surf Club staffed by volunteers or become a Wave Project volunteer themselves. This paper provides an overview of the Wave Project evaluation programme between 2013-2017. During this period there have been three evaluation phases centred around Wave Project delivery: Spring 2013, Summer 2014-Autumn 2015 and Spring-Summer 2017. Each phase has employed a mixture of qualitative and quantitative methods to assess the experience of clients, parents/carers, referrers and Wave Project staff. These methods have included pre- and post-intervention client surveys, focus groups, interviews and log books. The results to-date show that surf therapy can improve the health and wellbeing of vulnerable young people in the UK

The Wave Project: Evidencing Surf Therapy for Young People in the UK

Sport and exercise are known to have long-term, positive consequences for the physical and mental health and wellbeing of the individual and society as a whole. In the UK, a quarter of young people experience long-term illness, disability or mental ill-health. However, understanding the impact of surfing on physical and mental health is complex, not least because there are different pathways by which surfing can improve health and wellbeing  including: playing, being in nature, socialising, taking risks and identifying as a surfer. The Wave Project is a UK-wide surf therapy charity which provides vulnerable young people aged 8-21 with an opportunity to surf once a week for six weeks. At The Wave Project, clients ‘do’ surfing with the one-to-one assistance of a volunteer overseen by a surf coordinator. After completing The Wave Project clients are invited to become members of a follow-on Surf Club staffed by volunteers or become a Wave Project volunteer themselves. This paper provides an overview of the Wave Project evaluation programme between 2013-2017. During this period there have been three evaluation phases centred around Wave Project delivery: Spring 2013, Summer 2014-Autumn 2015 and Spring-Summer 2017. Each phase has employed a mixture of qualitative and quantitative methods to assess the experience of clients, parents/carers, referrers and Wave Project staff. These methods have included pre- and post-intervention client surveys, focus groups, interviews and log books. The results to-date show that surf therapy can improve the health and wellbeing of vulnerable young people in the UK