Art therapy-based groups for work-related stress with staff in health and social care: an exploratory study

Numerous approaches have been developed to address work-related stress (work-stress) but evidence of their efficacy is sparse. This is also the case for art therapy-based approaches, whose processes are also poorly explicated and understood. This study therefore attempted an initial exploration of the potential therapeutic mechanisms within art therapy-based groups for work-stress with staff in health and social care. Data were gathered from staff at four health and social care sites (N = 20) in an exploratory embedded multiple case study design. The process involved art-viewing and art-making in small groups. Art-viewing supported relational processes, expression of emotionality and playfulness, in turn facilitating therapeutic engagement. Art-making, often initially experienced as intimidating, was reported as revealing true emotions linked to work-stress issues, which for some participants led to action to alleviate their impact. This study suggests that art-viewing, hitherto a neglected component of art therapy, may be important for that practice or practices based on it. The study also suggests a greater potential for art therapy-based to be used as an approach to address work-stress in health and social care

The Contributions of Skeletal Muscle PKC Theta to Diet-Induced Obesity

Protein Kinase C- Theta (PKCθ) is a gene predominantly expressed in hematopoietic cells and skeletal muscle. In skeletal muscle, PKCθ regulates fat metabolism and insulin sensitivity. PKCθ activity increases in response to high levels of diacylglycerol in the cell, a common outcome of chronic high fat diet consumption and obesity. PKCθ is associated with skeletal muscle metabolic dysfunction, which may exacerbate weight gain and metabolic disease. The purpose of this study was to test the hypothesis that the selective deletion of PKCθ from skeletal muscle protects against diet-induced obesity. Mice lacking PKCθ in skeletal muscle were created using Cre-Lox recombination. At weaning, control (PKCθSkM+/+) and knockout (PKCθSkM-/-) mice were randomly assigned to regular or high fat diet (RD or HFD, respectively) groups. Mouse weights were taken weekly for 15 weeks. During the 15-week diet intervention, male PKCθSkM+/+ mice on a HFD became obese. Male PKCθSkM-/- mice consuming a HFD showed attenuated weight gain, which was similar to mice on a RD. This trend was not present for female mice, in which weight changed to a similar magnitude independent of diet and genotype. In conclusion, PKC-θ in the skeletal muscle may contribute to the regulation of diet-induced obesity. It is unclear whether these affects are sex specific

Reaching a UK consensus on art therapy for people with a diagnosis of a psychotic disorder using the Delphi method

Some authors have suggested there is low consensus about art therapy practice for people with a diagnosis of a psychotic disorder. This study used the Delphi survey method to seek consensus among UK art therapists. In the Round 1 online survey, 24 UK art therapists working with the client group provided statements describing their practice. These were analysed using content analysis along with statements from relevant art therapy literature and from 32 service users. The resulting list of 713 statements grouped into 13 themes were then sorted by a core group of five art therapists with extensive experience with the client group, producing 111 statements that were then rated by an augmented national UK panel of 30 art therapists in the Round 2 Delphi survey. Rating was according to perceived importance of each element of practice, and 80 items each reached 80% consensus as highly important. In Round 3, 11 items that reached high but not 80% consensus were re-rated by 26 of the panel of 30, and all but 2 reached 80% consensus. The final list of 89 statements is the first UK national consensus on art therapy practice with people with a diagnosis of a psychotic disorder

Emergence of heterogeneity and political organization in information exchange networks

We present a simple model of the emergence of the division of labor and the development of a system of resource subsidy from an agent-based model of directed resource production with variable degrees of trust between the agents. The model has three distinct phases, corresponding to different forms of societal organization: disconnected (independent agents), homogeneous cooperative (collective state), and inhomogeneous cooperative (collective state with a leader). Our results indicate that such levels of organization arise generically as a collective effect from interacting agent dynamics, and may have applications in a variety of systems including social insects and microbial communities.Comment: 10 pages, 6 figure

Double modelling of the dynamic of activities in rural municipalities.

Land use choices and activity prevalence in a selected territory are determined by individual preferences constrained by the characteristic of the analysed zone: population density, soil properties, urbanization level and other similar factors can drive individuals to make different kind of decisions about their occupations. Different approaches can be used to describe land use change, occupation prevalence and their reciprocal inter-relation. In this paper we describe two different kinds of approaches: an agent based model, centred on individual choices and an aggregated model describing the evolution of activity prevalence in terms of coupled differential equation. We use and we compare the two models to analyse the effect of territorial constraints, like the lack of employment in determined sectors, on the possible activity prevalence scenarios.SBIAgro 2009