Evaluation of Getting Ahead: the Symud Ymlaen/Moving Forward project Interim Report

The SY/MF project has been developed to target young care leavers and young people who have offended in Wales to enhance their chances of finding employment and accessing further learning or training. The project has been designed to reflect learning from other similar projects and take account of the complex range of needs often presented by young people who have offended and/or are in care – and who are rarely 'job ready'. It is to offer intensive, tailored support in the form of: pre-employability and basic skills training; a six month paid work placement for a minimum of 25 hours per week; and, mentor support. SY/MF is delivered through a consortium partnership led by homeless charity Llamau.This report presents the findings of an interim assessment of SY/MF during its first full year of operation, October 2013 to the end of September 2014. The interim evaluation largely focuses on understanding the processes put in place to deliver the project and whether services have been implemented as expected; it also begins to capture outcome information. A full evaluation will build on these findings and include an assessment of impact over the full project (please see Section 1 for full details of the evaluation approach and method)

Professional education and Mad Studies: Learning and teaching about service users’ understandings of mental and emotional distress

This article considers the inclusion of mental health service users’ experiences and perspectives in professional education classrooms. After brief introductions to the authors’ backgrounds, the article discusses professional expertise and knowledge and the accreditation of professional education courses. It then goes on to explore service users’ understandings of mental and emotional distress and the development of Mad Studies, which, at first sight, may appear incompatible with professional education courses. Discussion then turns to the development and trial of a living experience learning resource, which portrays the first author’s knowledge and understanding of having voices. The article concludes by arguing for the inclusion of Mad Studies knowledges in professional education classrooms.Points of interest This article discusses including mental health service users’ experiences and knowledges in professional education classrooms. The article discusses service users’ own understandings of mental and emotional distress and the international development of Mad Studies–the cooperative study of mental health service users’ experiential knowledges. The article also describes how we produced a learning resource (video film) which portrays the first author’s understanding of having or hearing voices. The learning resource was used in research with seven first-year social work students and we found that the students’ understandings of mental illness changed after viewing the resource. Mad Studies offers mental health service users hope and the possibility of change. It is therefore important that Mad Studies knowledges are included in professional education

Health literacy amongst children living with a long-term condition: ‘What I know and who I tell'

Background: Little is known about the health literacy of children living with long-term conditions. This study aimed to gain insight into the life of children with a long-term condition in the context of health literacy, specifically their understanding of their health and the barriers and facilitators to sharing information about their condition with others. Design: Child-centred qualitative arts-based approach with children aged 6–12 years. Setting: Children participating in the study came from three countries – the UK, Australia and New Zealand. Method: A participatory arts-based qualitative child-centred approach prompted children to draw, label and use stickers, body-outlines and collage to describe elements central to health literacy. This encompassed their long-term condition, their understanding of their condition, its management and decision-making associated with sharing information about their condition with others. The sessions were audio-recorded, and reflexive thematic analysis was undertaken. Results: Four central themes related to key elements of child health literacy: (1) pragmatic understanding – what it feels like and what happens in my body; (2) management regime – what do I have to do to keep on going; (3) information sharing – I don’t tell random people; and (4) benefits of sharing – they’ve got my back. Conclusion: Children indicated a pragmatic or process type understanding of their condition and its management. Children were discerning about who they shared information about their condition with, but tended to establish a network of well-informed peers capable of providing support if needed. Despite gaps in children’s health literacy, parents and families have an important role to play in checking children’s understandings and developing critical health literacy. © The Author(s) 2023

Children and young people’s participation in decision-making within healthcare organisations in New Zealand: An integrative review

There is a paucity of literature on children and young people’s participation in decision-making within healthcare organisations in New Zealand. This integrative review examined child self-reported peer-reviewed manuscripts and published guidelines, policy, reviews, expert opinion and legislation to explore how New Zealand children and young people participate in discussions and decision-making processes within healthcare settings and what are barriers and benefits to such participation. Four child self-reported peer-reviewed manuscripts and twelve expert opinion documents were retrieved from four electronic databases including academic, government and institutional websites. Inductive content thematic analysis generated one theme (a discourse in children and young people’s participation within healthcare settings), four sub-themes, 11 categories, 93 codes and 202 findings. It is evident within this review that there is a discourse between what expert opinion are stating is required to promote children and young people’s participation in discussions and decision-making processes within healthcare settings and what is occurring in practice. Despite literature reporting on how children and young people’s participation and voice were essential for healthcare provision, there was sparse literature published on children and young people’s participation in discussions and decision-making processes in healthcare delivery in New Zealand

Comparative assessment of fluorescent proteins for in vivo imaging in an animal model system.

Fluorescent protein tags are fundamental tools used to visualize gene products and analyze their dynamics in vivo. Recent advances in genome editing have expedited the precise insertion of fluorescent protein tags into the genomes of diverse organisms. These advances expand the potential of in vivo imaging experiments and facilitate experimentation with new, bright, photostable fluorescent proteins. Most quantitative comparisons of the brightness and photostability of different fluorescent proteins have been made in vitro, removed from biological variables that govern their performance in cells or organisms. To address the gap, we quantitatively assessed fluorescent protein properties in vivo in an animal model system. We generated transgenic Caenorhabditis elegans strains expressing green, yellow, or red fluorescent proteins in embryos and imaged embryos expressing different fluorescent proteins under the same conditions for direct comparison. We found that mNeonGreen was not as bright in vivo as predicted based on in vitro data but is a better tag than GFP for specific kinds of experiments, and we report on optimal red fluorescent proteins. These results identify ideal fluorescent proteins for imaging in vivo in C. elegans embryos and suggest good candidate fluorescent proteins to test in other animal model systems for in vivo imaging experiments