To what extent does current policy and practice pay adequate attention to the needs of the sons and daughters of foster carers, particularly in the context of planned or unplanned placement endings?

"Overall aim: To undertake an initial scoping study of current knowledge, policy and practice (including aspects of relevance to integrated working) in relation to the impact of placement endings for sons and daughters of foster carers... the work of the team has highlighted the invisibility of sons and daughters in policy, research and practice in fostering services. The research project was designed to test this knowledge base more empirically." - pp. 7-8

It “helped keep me sane – when the world is turned upside down”: Parents’ experiences of support during a child protection investigation

Background: Child protection systems exist around the world to safeguard children from harm. These systems inevitably involve participation from parents, with parents often being the focus of safeguarding interventions aimed at protecting children. Research has illustrated that parents experience involvement in child protection as distressing and often traumatic, and that supporting parents can improve engagement in social work processes, leading to better working relationships and outcomes for children, and the whole family.Aims: The present study approaches the subject for the first time from a counselling psychology perspective, and explores parents’ subjective experiences of support during a child protection investigation. It aims to identify parents’ sources of support, including if parents considered counselling or therapy and why, to generate implications for practice for clinicians working with this population, and other health and social care professionals, in order to help improve child safeguarding and welfare.Methods: Qualitative data was collected from twenty parents who had experienced a child protection investigation which had now ended. Participants completed an online survey, with six parents participating in follow up interviews over Skype and email. A reflexive thematic analysis was conducted of the data.Findings: Under the overarching theme ‘Child protection investigations are a personal attack’, three main themes were developed. The first theme: ‘Whose side are you on?’, explores parents’ views of the divisive nature of child protection investigations, often splitting parents and social workers into two ‘sides’. The second theme: ‘Keeping it in versus letting it out’, captures parents’ ambivalence in seeking external support and the final theme ‘The aftermath: “We will spend our lives trying to recover”, acknowledges parents’ experiences of the long-lasting impact and need for continual processing after the investigation ends.Conclusion: These findings have implications for both social work and therapeutic practice. Firstly, parents may benefit from talking therapy, and this study considers the advantages and barriers for parents in engaging with this support, and what clinicians may need to be mindful of during therapeutic practice. Secondly, parents’ experiences of strong emotions and divisive dynamics elicited in child protection often creates an adversarial dyad that can arguably lose focus of the child. Counselling psychologists and other professionals, such as advocates, peer support and therapists, can act as an important ‘third position’ in mediating and providing a space to think, potentially improving parent and child experiences of child protection. Thirdly, this study highlights that different forms of support might be beneficial at different times to parents, with there often being a need for support after child protection processes, which could be provided by counselling psychologists. This study contributes new knowledge to this area by highlighting parents’ voices on what support they most needed when their world was “turned upside down” , and suggests that counselling psychology can play a part in improving the current child protection system in the UK, enabling more children and families to be supported

An Exploration of the Department of Health’s Human Papillomavirus Policy to Vaccinate Girls aged 12-18 years with the Cervarix Vaccine: A Critical Review.

This critical review explores the debates that surround the English NHS funded human papillomavirus policy. At present girls aged 12-18 years are being vaccinated with the bivalent vaccine (Cervarix). It aims to reduce the incidence of cervical cancer due to the connection between HR HPV and cancer development. The critical review method was justified because it enabled a large amount of literature to be critically analysed. It was found that there are two main debates that surround the current HPV vaccination policy: vaccination of males and vaccination of women older than 18 years. The review was able to conclude that males are not included within the HPV programme because the added benefit of herd immunity is not needed as there is a high vaccine uptake among 12-18 year old girls. Also, the added protection against male associated cancers is not justified because they are uncommon. It was also discovered that vaccinating women over the age of 18 years is not cost effective because these women are likely to be sexually active, meaning that they are likely to be infected with HPV already. It was found that some women may benefit from vaccination because they may not be infected with the HPV types that the Cervarix vaccine covers. This means that older women may benefit from paying privately for vaccination. This review emphasises the importance of evidence based practice. Nurses can use this review to explain to patients who are not included within the present vaccination programme about the benefits and limitations of paying privately for HPV vaccination

A model for predicting dissolved organic carbon distribution in a reservoir water using fluorescence spectroscopy

A number of water treatment works (WTW) in the north of England (UK) have experienced problems in reducing the dissolved organic carbon (DOC) present in the water to a sufficiently low level. The problems are experienced in autumn/ winter when the colour increases and the coagulant dose at the WTW needs to be increased in order to achieve sufficient colour removal. However, the DOC content of the water varies little throughout the year. To investigate this further, the water was fractionated using resin adsorption techniques into its hydrophobic (fulvic and humic acid fractions) and hydrophilic (acid and non-acid fractions) components. The fractionation process yields useful information on the changing concentration of each fraction but is time consuming and labour intensive. Here, a method of rapidly determining fraction concentration was developed using fluorescence spectroscopy. The model created used synchronous spectra of fractionated material compared against bulk water spectra and predicted the fraction concentrations to within 10% for a specific water. The model was unable to predict fraction concentrations for waters from a different watershed

Socioeconomic factors and other sources of variation in the prevalence of genital chlamydia infections: A systematic review and meta-analysis

BACKGROUND: The success of chlamydia screening programmes relies on their ability to effectively target those with greatest need. Young people from disadvantaged backgrounds may be at greater need for chlamydia screening, but existing evidence on the variation of prevalence with social position is inconclusive. We carried out a systematic review to examine variation in chlamydia prevalence in populations and possible sources of this variation. METHODS: Studies were eligible if they reported chlamydia prevalence derived from population-based samples that included young people aged 15–24 years from Europe, North America or Australia. Systematic searches of the following databases were undertaken from their inception to November 2014: MEDLINE, Embase, Web of Science and PsychINFO. There were no restrictions by language or publication date. Independent screening for eligibility and data extraction were carried out by two reviewers. Where possible, data were pooled in a meta-analysis using a random effects model. Heterogeneity was further investigated using meta-regression techniques. RESULTS: Of 1248 unique titles and abstracts and 263 potentially relevant full texts, 29 studies were eligible for inclusion. There was relatively strong evidence that disadvantaged young people had an increased risk of having a chlamydia infection across multiple measures of disadvantage, including lower educational attainment (OR 1.94, 95 % CI: 1.52 to 2.47), lower occupational class (OR 1.49, 95 % CI: 1.07 to 2.08) and residence in deprived areas (OR 1.76, 95 % CI: 1.15 to 2.71) with an overall OR of 1.66 (95 % CI: 1.37 to 2.02). Socioeconomic disadvantage was associated with chlamydia infection in both men and women. There was weaker evidence that prevalence estimates also varied by gender and age. CONCLUSIONS: This review provides evidence of a consistent association between socioeconomic disadvantage and higher risk of Chlamydia infection. This association may reflect a number of factors including social variation in engagement with Chlamydia control programmes. Chlamydia screening could therefore reduce or increase health inequalities, depending on service provision and uptake by different socioeconomic groups. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12889-015-2069-7) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users

Effectiveness of a diabetes education and self management programme (DESMOND) for people with newly diagnosed type 2 diabetes mellitus: three year follow-up of a cluster randomised controlled trial in primary care

Objective To measure whether the benefits of a single education and self management structured programme for people with newly diagnosed type 2 diabetes mellitus are sustained at three years

Pilot clinical observations between food and drug seeking derived from fifty cases attending an eating disorder clinic

Background The reward deficiency syndrome hypothesis posits that genes are responsible for reward dependence and related behaviors. There is evidence that both bulimia and anorexia nervosa, especially in women, have been linked to a lifetime history of substance use disorder (SUD). There are difficulties in accepting food as an addiction similar to drugs; however, increasingly neuroimaging studies favor such an assertion. Case presentations We are reporting the evidence of comorbidity of eating disorders with SUD found within these case presentations. We show 50 case reports derived from two independent treatment centers in Florida that suggest the commonality between food and drug addictions. In an attempt to provide data from this cohort, many participants did not adequately respond to our questionnaire. Discussion We propose that dopamine agonist therapy may be of common benefit. Failure in the past may reside in too powerful D2 agonist activity leading to D2 receptor downregulation, while the new methodology may cause a reduction of “dopamine resistance” by inducing “dopamine homeostasis.” While this is not a definitive study, it does provide some additional clinical evidence that these two addictions are not mutually exclusive. Conclusion Certainly, it is our position that there is an overlap between food- and drug-seeking behavior. We propose that the studies focused on an effort to produce natural activation of dopaminergic reward circuitry as a type of common therapy may certainly be reasonable. Additional research is warranted

Delivery of a Mental Health First Aid training package and staff peer support service in secondary schools: a process evaluation of uptake and fidelity of the WISE intervention.

BACKGROUND: Improving children and young people's provision for mental health is a current health priority in England. Secondary school teachers have worse mental health outcomes than the general working population, which the Wellbeing in Secondary Education (WISE) cluster randomised controlled trial aimed to improve. The WISE intervention comprised a Mental Health First Aid (MHFA) training package delivered to at least 16% of staff, a short mental health awareness session to all teachers and development of a staff peer support service. Twenty-five schools were randomised to intervention or control arms. This paper reports findings regarding the extent of uptake and fidelity of the intervention. METHODS: Mixed methods data collection comprised researcher observations of training delivery, training participant evaluation forms, trainer and peer supporter interviews, peer supporter feedback meetings, logs of support provided, and teacher questionnaires. Quantitative data were summarised descriptively, while thematic analysis was applied to the qualitative data. RESULTS: In the 12 schools assigned to the intervention arm, 113 (8.6%) staff completed the 2-day standard MHFA training course, and a further 146 (11.1%) staff completed the 1-day MHFA for schools and colleges training. In seven (58.3%) schools, the required 8% of staff completed the MHFA training packages. A 1-h mental health awareness-raising session was attended by 666 (54.5%) staff. Delivery of the MHFA training package was achieved with high levels of fidelity and quality across schools. All schools set up the peer support service following training, with a majority adhering to most of the operational guidelines developed from the pilot study at the outset. Teachers reported limited use of the peer support service during follow-up. At the 1-year follow-up, only three (25.0%) schools indicated they had re-advertised the service and there was evidence of a reduction in support from senior leadership. CONCLUSION: The MHFA training package was delivered with reasonably high fidelity, and a staff peer support service was established with general, but not complete, adherence to guidelines. In some schools, insufficient staff received MHFA training and levels of delivery of the peer support service compromised intervention dose and reach. TRIAL REGISTRATION: ISRCTN 95909211 . Registered on 15 January 2016

The Iowa Homemaker vol.25, no.4

Autumn Scene, Jeanne Meyers Haas, page 2 Keeping Up With Today, Jeanne O’Connor, page 3 Practice Fourfold Living, Harriet Breckenridge, page 4 Out of the Freezer Into the Oven, Marian Hoppe, page 6 Ingenuity Solves Gift Problems, Mary S. Smith, page 7 Vicky Anticipates a Social Season, Rosalie Riglin, page 9 What’s New in Home Economics, Doris Adams, page 10 Veteran’s Wife: Student and Homemaker, Jean Larson, page 12 Navy Enjoys Menus at Friley, Charlene Stettler, page 15 Notions, page 16 Alums in the News, Philomena Beck, page 17 Home Economist Serves the Consumer, Dorothy Campbell, page 19 Across Alumnae Desks, Etha Schipull, page 2