Death Under Control: The Portrayal of Death in Mass Print English Language Magazines in Canada

The purpose of this article is to discuss the portrayal of death in modern North American society in the highest circulating English language magazines available in Canada and published either in the United States or in Canada, in 1991, 1996, and 2001. The prevailing underlying frame/discourse of which there were a number of sub-variants, was the notion of the control of death. Stories focused on people taking control of death by 1) passive and active euthanasia, 2) suicide with political and social motivations and messages, 3) suicide deaths among celebrities and the families of celebrities, 4) dramatic murders, 5) issues in the “right to die movement,” and 6) new techniques and technologies for life extension. There was a very small minority of articles on miscellaneous issues such as death rates and their variation across geographic region, social class, environmental condition, and cause. The article ends with discussion of the ways that this portrayal of death obfuscates the real lack of control most North Americans, particularly those who are poor or “racialized,” have over the timing, or circumstances of death. In addition, as a critical discourse analysis, it discusses the interests that are served by this perspective

"There's no place like home" A pilot study of perspectives of international health and social care professionals working in the UK

Background Many countries are reporting health workforce shortages across a range of professions at a time of relatively high workforce mobility. Utilising the global market to supply shortage health skills is now a common recruitment strategy in many developed countries. At the same time a number of countries report a 'brain drain' resulting from professional people leaving home to work overseas. Many health and social care professionals make their way to the UK from other countries. This pilot study utilises a novel 'e-survey' approach to explore the motives, experiences and perspectives of non-UK health and social care professionals who were working or had worked in the UK. The study aims to understand the contributions of international health and social care workers to the UK and their 'home' countries. The purpose of the pilot study is also in part to test the appropriateness of this methodology for undertaking a wider study. Results A 24-item questionnaire with open-ended and multiple choice questions was circulated via email to 10 contacts who were from a country outside the UK, had trained outside the UK and had email access. These contacts were requested to forward the email to other contacts who met these criteria (and so on). The email was circulated over a one month pilot period to 34 contacts. Responses were from physiotherapists (n = 11), speech therapists (n = 4), social workers (n = 10), an occupational therapist (n = 1), podiatrists (n = 5), and others (n = 3). Participants were from Australia (n = 20), South Africa (n = 10), New Zealand (n = 3) and the Republic of Ireland (n = 1). Motives for relocating to the UK included travel, money and career opportunities. Participants identified a number of advantages and disadvantages of working in the UK compared to working in their home country health system. Respondents generally reported that by working in the UK, they had accumulated skills and knowledge that would allow them to contribute more to their profession and health system on their return home. Conclusion This pilot study highlights a range of issues and future research questions for international learning and comparison for the health and social care professions as a result of international workforce mobility. The study also highlights the usefulness of an e-survey technique for capturing information from a geographically diverse and mobile group of professionals

The critical events for motor-sensory temporal recalibration

Determining if we, or another agent, were responsible for a sensory event can require an accurate sense of timing. Our sense of appropriate timing relationships must, however, be malleable as there is a variable delay between the physical timing of an event and when sensory signals concerning that event are encoded in the brain. One dramatic demonstration of such malleability involves having people repeatedly press a button thereby causing a beep. If a delay is inserted between button presses and beeps, when it is subsequently taken away beeps can seem to precede the button presses that caused them. For this to occur it is important that people feel they were responsible for instigating the beeps. In terms of their timing, as yet it is not clear what combination of events is important for motor-sensory temporal recalibration. Here, by introducing ballistic reaches of short or longer extent before a button press, we varied the delay between the intention to act and the sensory consequence of that action. This manipulation failed to modulate recalibration magnitude. By contrast, introducing a similarly lengthened delay between button presses and consequent beeps eliminated recalibration. Thus it would seem that the critical timing relationship for motor-sensory temporal recalibration is between tactile signals relating to the completion of an action and the subsequent auditory percept

A Narrative Approach to the Evaluation of Supportive Housing: Stories of Homeless People Who Have Experienced Serious Mental Illness

We present the findings of a narrative approach to the evaluation of supportive housing for formerly homeless people who have experienced serious mental illness. According to the accounts of 11 men and 9 women, their youth and adult years were piled with personal problems, troubled relationships, and a lack of adequate social resources. Since entering supportive housing, participants noted more stability in their lives and the beginning of journeys to recover positive personal identities, restore or develop new supportive relationships, and reclaim resources vital to leading lives with dignity and meaning. The findings add to the literature on housing interventions for this population in suggesting many positive gains beyond reductions in hometessness and hospitatization

Artist's Statement: Continuum

  Artist’s Statement for the cover art of IJPS volume 8, issue 1: Continuum, quilt &nbsp

From Ancestral Knowledge to Clinical Practice: The Case of \u3cem\u3eAgonias\u3c/em\u3e and Portuguese Clinicians in America

Cultures have varying notions about symptom expression and the treatment of mental health issues. Consequently, clients and psychotherapists may or may not share a similar worldview. In the psychotherapy literature there has been increased attention to these complex processes. This survey descriptive study aims to understand how therapists working with culturally diverse clients incorporate sensitivity to cultural differences. Fifteen culturally sensitive mental health care providers working with the Portuguese immigrant community were interviewed about their practices. Specifically, we investigated their understanding of the symptoms, causes and cures for agonias, a culture specific phenomenon. It was found that even though the providers are all Portuguese themselves, the meaning that they ascribed to agonias (anxiety and/or depression) was very different than the meaning ascribed to agonias by community members. The community member’s meanings ranged from indigestion to being on the brink of death. A cluster analysis revealed that clinicians who stated that agonias is anxiety, conducted cognitive behavioral therapy or psychopharmacology, and those that stated agonias had a depressive component tended to use family therapy or psychoanalysis

Sociology of Medicine for Whom?: Feminist Perspectives in a Multi-Paradigmatic Sociology of Medicine

My mother was a nurse, always called on when the neighbor’s child fell out of a high chair, woke up with spots or red eyes or had a fever. But, like others with whom I’ve talked whose parents offer health care services, I learned to feel that sickness was a weakness. I grew to feel ashamed of being sick; to have to rationalize and justify my own indisposition or to ignore or hide it. Through this, I learned that sickness and health were not biological events only but were constructed out of a web of social relations and meanings. And I developed an interest in the social-psychological aspects of health and illness. Later, I was swept away with feminist awareness and concerns and asked myself in what ways women and men and health and illness intersected. From these experiences and my academic education came thoughts such as those explored in this paper

Putting the body back in social work : how social workers experience and differ in levels of personal body awareness

This study was undertaken to determine whether or not and if so, to what degree social workers are aware of their personal body awareness in sessions with clients. The corollary question was whether or not those with higher reported body awareness would have similar socio-demographic indicators, environmental factors, or clientele to each other. Based on current literature, it was hypothesized that social workers in general would report a low body awareness and those reporting a higher body awareness would have similar correlates of individual factors. Smith School for Social Work graduates and current students were solicited for participation in an online survey. After data collection, there were 310 participants. These clinicians were required to complete the personal body awareness scale, socio-demographic questions, with the option to complete three qualitative, written responses. The major findings are as follows: The vast majority of social workers reported both being aware of their bodies and bodily responses in assessment and practice with clients and of taking these factors into account in sessions. Also, there were few correlations between body awareness and individual factors, such as years of experience or gender. Only one significant finding emerged: clinicians who reported being non-heterosexual had a higher personal body awareness compared with their heterosexual colleagues. Clinicians also reported specific types of body awareness, such as sleepiness and thirst, more readily than others. Finally, the new Clinician\u27s Body Awareness Scale had a strong internal reliability with a coefficient alpha of .87, indicating possible future use for this scale

Qualitative evaluation of the implementation of the interdisciplinary management tool: a reflective tool to enhance interdisciplinary teamwork using structured, facilitated action research for implementation

Reflective practice is used increasingly to enhance team functioning and service effectiveness; however, there is little evidence of its use in interdisciplinary teams. This paper presents the qualitative evaluation of the Interdisciplinary Management Tool (IMT), an evidence-based change tool designed to enhance interdisciplinary teamwork through structured team reflection. The IMT incorporates three components: an evidence-based resource guide; a reflective implementation framework based on Structured, Facilitated Action Research for Implementation methodology; and formative and summative evaluation components. The IMT was implemented with intermediate care teams supported by independent facilitators in England. Each intervention lasted 6 months and was evaluated over a 12-month period. Data sources include interviews, a focus group with facilitators, questionnaires completed by team members and documentary feedback from structured team reports. Data were analysed qualitatively using the Framework approach. The IMT was implemented with 10 teams, including 253 staff from more than 10 different disciplines. Team challenges included lack of clear vision; communication issues; limited career progression opportunities; inefficient resource use; need for role clarity and service development. The IMT successfully engaged staff in the change process, and resulted in teams developing creative strategies to address the issues identified. Participants valued dedicated time to focus on the processes of team functioning; however, some were uncomfortable with a focus on teamwork at the expense of delivering direct patient care. The IMT is a relatively low-cost, structured, reflective way to enhance team function. It empowers individuals to understand and value their own, and others' roles and responsibilities within the team; identify barriers to effective teamwork, and develop and implement appropriate solutions to these. To be successful, teams need protected time to take for reflection, and executive support to be able to broker changes that are beyond the scope of the team

"GROw"ing up: tweenagers' involvement in family decision making

Practitioners in particular have noted that kids are growing older younger (KGOY) and academic research has in parallel shown that children are becoming more involved in the final stages of purchase decisions, albeit in a limited number of product categories studied. This quantitative and qualitative study examines the relatively under-researched but increasingly important tweenager market across a number of product categories and the extent to which 10-12 year olds are involved in the final stages of purchase decision making. Further to this, the paper considers whether a liberal versus traditional approach to decisions made within the family (Gender Role Orientation) affects the degree of involvement. The findings suggest that gender role orientation (GRO) is indeed a factor in family decision making but that the relationship is far from a simple one. The authors posit why perceptions of involvement are sometimes inconsistent and why some kids may not be growing older younger (KGOY) in the way previously thought but may simply believe they are more involved in purchase decision making as a consequence of parental strategies as well as the influences of media, school and peers. The authors describe the implications for marketing practitioners and academic researchers. Key Words