Student-adult mentoring relationships : experiences from a Scottish school-based programme

The project on which this paper is based was funded by the Academy for Educational Development (AED), now incorporated as part of the FHI Development 360 LLC (FHI 360) in Washington, DC, USA.Peer reviewedPostprin

A Survey of Georgia Adult Protective Services Staff: Implications for Older Adult Injury Prevention and Policy

Introduction: The aging population is a rapidly growing demographic. Isolation and limited autonomy render many of the elderly vulnerable to abuse, neglect and exploitation. As the population grows, so does the need for Adult Protective Services (APS). This study was conducted to examine current knowledge of older adult protection laws in Georgia among APS staff and to identify training opportunities to better prepare the APS workforce in case detection and intervention. Methods: The Georgia State University Institute of Public Health faculty developed a primary survey in partnership with the Georgia Division of Aging Services’ leadership to identify key training priority issues for APS caseworkers and investigators. A 47-item electronic questionnaire was delivered to all APS employees via work-issued email accounts. We conducted descriptive analyses, t-tests and chi-square analyses to determine APS employees’ baseline knowledge of Georgia’s elder abuse policies, laws and practices, as well as examine associations of age, ethnicity, and educational attainment with knowledge. We used a p-value of 0.05 and 95% confidence intervals to determine statistical significance of analyses performed. Results: Ninety-two out of 175 APS staff responded to the survey (53% response rate). The majority of respondents were Caucasian (56%) women (92%). For over half the survey items, paired sample t-tests revealed significant differences between what APS staff reported as known and what APS staff members indicated they needed to know more about in terms of elder abuse and current policies. Chi-square tests revealed that non-Caucasians significantly preferred video conferencing as a training format (44% compared to 18%), [χ2(1) = 7.102, p \u3c .008], whereas Caucasians preferred asynchronous online learning formats (55% compared to 28%) [χ2(1) =5.951, p \u3c .015]. Conclusion: Results from this study provide the Georgia Division of Aging with insight into specific policy areas that are not well understood by APS staff. Soliciting input from intended trainees allows public health educators to tailor and improve training sessions. Trainee input may result in optimization of policy implementation, which may result in greater injury prevention and protection of older adults vulnerable to abuse, neglect and exploitation

A Survey of Georgia Adult Protective Service Staff: Implications for Older Adult Injury Prevention and Policy

Background: The aging population is a rapidly growing demographic. Isolation and limited autonomy render many of the elderly vulnerable to abuse, neglect and exploitation. As the population grows, so does the need for Adult Protective Services (APS). This study was conducted to examine current knowledge of older adult protection laws in Georgia among APS staff and to identify training opportunities to better prepare the APS workforce in case detection and intervention. Methods: The Georgia State University Institute of Public Health faculty developed a primary survey in partnership with the Georgia Division of Aging Services\u27 leadership to identify key training priority issues for APS caseworkers and investigators. A 47-item electronic questionnaire was delivered to all APS employees via work-issued email accounts. We conducted descriptive analyses, t-tests and chi-square analyses to determine APS employees’ baseline knowledge of Georgia’s elder abuse policies, laws and practices, as well as examine associations of age, ethnicity, and educational attainment with knowledge. We used a p-value of 0.05 and 95% confidence intervals to determine statistical significance of analyses performed. Result: Ninety-two out of 175 APS staff responded to the survey (53% response rate). The majority of respondents were Caucasian (56%) women (92%). For over half the survey items, paired sample t-tests revealed significant differences between what APS staff reported as known and what APS staff members indicated they needed to know more about in terms of elder abuse and current policies. Chi-square tests revealed that non-Caucasians significantly preferred video conferencing as a training format (44% compared to 18%), [χ2(1) = 7.102, p \u3c .008], whereas Caucasians preferred asynchronous online learning formats (55% compared to 28%) [χ2(1) =5.951, p \u3c .015]. Conclusion: Results from this study provide the Georgia Division of Aging with insight into specific policy areas that are not well understood by APS staff. Soliciting input from intended trainees allows public health educators to tailor and improve training sessions. Trainee input may result in optimization of policy implementation, which may result in greater injury prevention and protection of older adults vulnerable to abuse, neglect and exploitation

Visual art-making as a resource for living positively with arthritis: An interpretative phenomenological analysis of older women’s accounts

This is the post-print version of the final paper published in Journal of Aging Studies. The published article is available from the link below. Changes resulting from the publishing process, such as peer review, editing, corrections, structural formatting, and other quality control mechanisms may not be reflected in this document. Changes may have been made to this work since it was submitted for publication. Copyright @ 2010 Elsevier B.V.This study explored whether and how visual art-making, as a leisure activity, provided a coping resource for older women affected by arthritis. Twelve older women (aged 62–81) were interviewed. They had lived with arthritis for many years, and engaged in arts and crafts regularly. Transcripts were explored through Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis. Three main themes were identified. Firstly, most participants experienced art-making as a powerful means of controlling arthritis pain, through deep concentration, and through use of color and imagery. Secondly, participants experienced art-making as encouraging sustained attention to the outside world, offering psychological escape from the confines of the body and home. Thirdly, art-making protected and promoted identity, for example, through integrating current and former selves, enabling participants to express and re-experience certain valued memories, and engage in personal development. Some participants felt able to celebrate positive difference from others, on the basis of their art rather than their illness

Mammography screening: views from women and primary care physicians in Crete

Background: Breast cancer is the most commonly diagnosed cancer among women and a leading cause of death from cancer in women in Europe. Although breast cancer incidence is on the rise worldwide, breast cancer mortality over the past 25 years has been stable or decreasing in some countries and a fall in breast cancer mortality rates in most European countries in the 1990s was reported by several studies, in contrast, in Greece have not reported these favourable trends. In Greece, the age-standardised incidence and mortality rate for breast cancer per 100.000 in 2006 was 81,8 and 21,7 and although it is lower than most other countries in Europe, the fall in breast cancer mortality that observed has not been as great as in other European countries. There is no national strategy for screening in this country. This study reports on the use of mammography among middleaged women in rural Crete and investigates barriers to mammography screening encountered by women and their primary care physicians. Methods: Design: Semi-structured individual interviews. Setting and participants: Thirty women between 45–65 years of age, with a mean age of 54,6 years, and standard deviation 6,8 from rural areas of Crete and 28 qualified primary care physicians, with a mean age of 44,7 years and standard deviation 7,0 serving this rural population. Main outcome measure: Qualitative thematic analysis. Results: Most women identified several reasons for not using mammography. These included poor knowledge of the benefits and indications for mammography screening, fear of pain during the procedure, fear of a serious diagnosis, embarrassment, stress while anticipating the results, cost and lack of physician recommendation. Physicians identified difficulties in scheduling an appointment as one reason women did not use mammography and both women and physicians identified distance from the screening site, transportation problems and the absence of symptoms as reasons for non-use. Conclusion: Women are inhibited from participating in mammography screening in rural Crete. The provision of more accessible screening services may improve this. However physician recommendation is important in overcoming women's inhibitions. Primary care physicians serving rural areas need to be aware of barriers preventing women from attending mammography screening and provide women with information and advice in a sensitive way so women can make informed decisions regarding breast caner screening

Temporal and external validation of the fullPIERS model for the prediction of adverse maternal outcomes in women with pre-eclampsia

The fullPIERS model is a risk prediction model developed to predict adverse maternal outcomes within 48 h for women admitted with pre-eclampsia. External validation of the model is required before implementation for clinical use. We assessed the temporal and external validity of the fullPIERS model in high income settings using five cohorts collected between 2003 and 2016, from tertiary hospitals in Canada, the United States of America, Finland and the United Kingdom. The cohorts were grouped into three datasets for assessing the primary external, and temporal validity, and broader transportability of the model. The predicted risks of developing an adverse maternal outcome were calculated using the model equation and model performance was evaluated based on discrimination, calibration, and stratification. Our study included a total of 2429 women, with an adverse maternal outcome rate of 6.7%, 6.6%, and 7.0% in the primary external, temporal, and combined (broader) validation cohorts, respectively. The model had good discrimination in all datasets: 0.81 (95%CI 0.75-0.86), 0.82 (95%CI 0.76-0.87), and 0.75 (95%CI 0.71-0.80) for the primary external, temporal, and broader validation datasets, respectively. Calibration was best for the temporal cohort but poor in the broader validation dataset The likelihood ratios estimated to rule in adverse maternal outcomes were high at a cut-off of >= 30% in all datasets. The fullPIERS model is temporally and externally valid and will be useful in the management of women with pre-eclampsia in high income settings although model recalibration is required to improve performance, specifically in the broader healthcare settings.Peer reviewe

The Linkage Between Neighborhood and Voluntary Association Patterns: a Comparison of Black and White Urban Populations

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/68314/2/10.1177_089976407400300201.pd