Review of decision tools and trends for water and sanitation development projects

Premature failure or abandonment of water and sanitation development interventions is a common phenomenon and one which is preventing potential benefits from being fully realised. An examination of common failure mechanisms reveals that most could have been prevented by the consideration of human health, environmental, economic, social and technical criteria during the initial decision-making process. Many tools have been proposed to support identification of a ‘most sustainable option’. However, they have not been, and often cannot be, adopted by development agencies. Strategies for improved planning need to incorporate the five criteria above in a manner practical in a developing region context. This is not a simple task. The relationships between technology choice and human health need to be better understood. Development agencies must also realise that the extra cost in time and effort of such planning is a small price to pay for projects which bring sustained benefit

Diagnostic formulations in psychotherapy

Conversation analysts have noted that, in psychotherapy, formulations of the client’s talk can be a vehicle for offering a psychological interpretation of the client’s circumstances. But we notice that not all formulations in psychotherapy offer interpretations. We offer an analysis of formulations (both of the gist of the client’s words and of their implications) that are diagnostic: that is, used by the professional to sharpen, clarify or refine the client’s account and make it better able to provide what the professional needs to know about the client’s history and symptoms. In doing so, these formulations also have the effect of shepherding the client’s account towards subsequent therapeutic interpretation. In a coda, we notice that sometimes the formulations are designed discreetly. We examine one such discreet formulation in detail, and show how its very ambiguity can lead to its failure as a diagnostic probe

“I’m over it”: survivor narratives after woman-to-woman partner abuse

This article uses qualitative data gathered through semi-structured, in-depth interviews with 40 women in the UK who identified as having experienced abuse (physical, sexual, emotional and/or financial) in a previous same-sex relationship. Participants’ narratives of ‘life after abuse’ are examined through two lenses; the first contributing to understandings of the varied and enduring material, psychological and relational impacts of abuse, and the second offering insights into the cultural values which shape such narratives. Applying Arthur Frank’s (1995) illness narratives, this article argues that narratives emphasizing recovery (‘restitution’) or transformation (‘quest’) are culturally privileged over a ‘chaos’ narrative. It also proposes a fourth narrative of ‘active recovery’. The article concludes that recovery from partner abuse is neither a linear process, nor one guaranteed to reach an end point. Further research is needed to understand how to better support survivors of partner abuse to move toward recovery

Christianity and domestic abuse

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Lifeguard Pharmacy: the co-development of a new community pharmacy response service for people in danger from domestic abuse or suicidal ideation

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Special Issue Introduction: Domestic violence and abuse in lesbian, gay, bisexual and/or transgender (LGB and/or T) relationships

Special Issue Introduction: Domestic violence and abuse in lesbian, gay, bisexual and/or transgender (LGB and/or T) relationship

Developing interventions for abusive partners in lesbian, gay, bisexual and/or transgender relationships

Developing interventions for abusive partners in lesbian, gay, bisexual and/or transgender relationship

Gender and domestic abuse victimisation amongst churchgoers in north west England: Breaking the church’s gendered silence

Domestic abuse is often hidden in church contexts. Despite a body of North American research, it has rarely been researched in the UK. This article offers new empirical findings on the nature and extent of, and attitudes to, domestic abuse among churchgoers. The data are drawn from a cross-denominational survey of 438 churchgoers in rural north-west England. The majority of the survey respondents were female and aged over 60, providing important evidence of domestic abuse victimisation among this seldom-heard group. Using a broad measure of domestic abuse encompassing physical, emotional, sexual, financial and spiritual dimensions, the results revealed that one in four had experienced at least one abusive behaviour in their current intimate relationship. While headline figures for prevalence are similar for women and men, analysis revealed gender differences in four areas: number of abusive behaviours experienced, types of abuse, frequency of victimisation and impacts of abuse, with women experiencing the most frequent and high-impact abuse. Churchgoers’ comments on the church’s response to abuse reveals silence as a key theme, and the article attributes the church’s silence to gendered power relations in the wider church

‘I wasn’t aware at the time, I could actually say “no”': Intimacy, Expectations, and Consent in Queer Relationships

Drawing on interview data collected in three projects exploring domestic abuse in LGB and/or T+ people’s intimate relationships, this chapter examines sexual consent in LGB and/or T+ people’s abusive relationships through a queer lens. Three themes are considered. First, Catherine Donovan and Marianne Hester’s two ‘relationship rules’ underpinning abusive relationships are applied. These determine that the relationship is for the abusive partner and on their terms; and that the victim/survivor is responsible for everything, including their partner’s abusive behaviour. Participants’ accounts show how these relationship rules can delegitimate victim/survivors’ attempts to exercise consent and conversely legitimate non-consensual sex. Second, Carole Pateman’s ‘sexual contract’ is drawn upon to demonstrate how abusive partners mandate sex whenever and however they wish, while victimised partners feel duty-bound to acquiesce. This, it is argued, reproduces cis-heteronormative sexual scripts based on public stories about love and intimacy and conventionally gendered binaries such as initiator/follower. Third, accounts demonstrating how more experienced LGB and/or T+ partners can exercise experiential power to instil norms about sex and intimacy are analysed. It is concluded that these abusive practices frame the context in which sexual victimisation occurs in LGB and/or T+ people’s intimate relationships and inhibit victims/survivors from recognising and naming sexual violence.</p

The Coral Project: Exploring Abusive Behaviours in Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and/or Transgender Relationships: Interim Report

This is a report on the interim findings from the first UK study exploring the abusive behaviours of lesbian, gay, bisexual and/or trans (LGB and/or T) people in their intimate relationships. Whether domestic violence and abuse (DVA) occurs in LGB and/or T relationships is no longer in question. In response to the research and activism about this issue, the UK government’s Home Office definition recognises that DVA can occur in intimate relationships ‘regardless of gender or sexuality’.1 In 1994, the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act was amended to recognise that men can be raped (by men), while the Domestic Violence, Crime and Victims Act 2004 specifically includes victims/survivors of domestic violence and abuse in same-sex relationships in measures to protect them such as restraining orders and non-molestation orders