When two worlds collide: Critical reflection on co-production

Purpose: This paper reports the findings from reflexive data collection on the evolving co-production research relationship between the two ‘worlds’ of community and academia: people with lived experience and community their intermediaries and academic researchers. It reports analysis of reflections on experience as the different partners explore and evaluate their own experiences of co-productive research within the context of substance use recovery co-production research. Design/methodology/approach: The research uses reflexive data from perspectives of an intermediary community partner, academic partners, and community researchers on experiences of a series of co-productive research projects. The aim is to identify thematic features of the co-productive experiences from different positions and through the process of adaptation to a co-productive relationship. Findings: This paper outlines what has been learnt from the experience of co-production and what has ‘worked’ for community and academic partners; around the nature of co-production, barriers to performance, and its value to participants and the wider recovery research agenda. Originality/value: This paper reports a unique perspective on a developing methodology in health and social care, contributing to a growing body of knowledge pertaining to experiences of co-production research. Co-production, recovery, substance use, reflection, research

Biographical Research: Inequality and Innovation

European Sociological Association; This project of the Baltic-German University Liaison Office is supported by the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) with funds from the Foreign Office of the Federal Republic German

The role of social workers in palliative, end of life and bereavement care

Social work has an important role in the delivery of meaningful palliative, end of life and bereavement care. Some social workers are palliative care social workers, working in services which specialise in this area of support. All social workers will encounter people who are experiencing loss, the end of life or bereavement. This resource aims to ensure that people benefit from good social work at the end of their life, and that those close to them are supported during this time and into bereavement

Designing a consequentially based study into the online support of pre-service teachers in the UK

This paper reports on the design of a pilot doctoral study into the online support of pre-service teachers. It highlights the significance of a consequential, rather than deontological, perspective in guiding the development of a study's design. The study initially aimed to explore pre-service teachers’ perceptions and use of social media on their school placements by setting up groups on Facebook and Twitter. However, several problems occurred in relation to the recruitment of participants. It became increasingly clear that there was significance in the positionality of the researcher as an “outsider” to the research context and the potential role for gatekeepers in understanding remote research sites. An ethical framework was used to make a more comprehensive analysis of the issues at play, which helped identify ways of proceeding. A redesign of the study followed with a stronger rationale for the way consequential considerations can help address deontological concerns

Survey Methodology in Violence-prone Khayelitsha, Cape Town, South Africa

This article discusses the methodological challenges of a service delivery survey in Khayelitsha, a township in Cape Town, South Africa. The survey aimed to gain a better understanding of the relationship between citizen participation and the environmental challenges facing residents in this urban area. Khayelitsha is a township prone to violence. Encountering violence during fieldwork can alter the way researchers execute research, yet this often remains unacknowledged in ‘objective social science’, especially in probability sampling. The article examines the effects of the risk felt by researchers on the research method employed in quantitative surveys. It shows that deliberating on this aspect of the research process is both necessary and useful, especially in terms of recognising the need to factor fear or uncertainty into the ways in which research processes unfold

On the relevance of the “genetics-based” approach to medicine for sociological perspectives on medical specialization

This paper draws on a study on the development of medical genetics as a medical specialism in the UK and Canada to reflect on how local and national contexts affect specialty formation. The paper begins by supporting earlier findings in the literature that stress, first, technological innovations as driving specialty formation, and, second, the domination of physicians in the division of medical labour. Beyond this, however, the paper explores the specific circumstances under which geneticists set about turning their work into a medical specialism based on a “genetics-based approach” to illness and how “medical genetics” as a specialism was assessed and configured to fit national and regional health service requirements

Drawing the Line: How African, Caribbean and White British Women Live Out Psychologically Abusive Experiences

The final, definitive version of this paper has been published in Violence Against Women, 19 (9):1104-32, Sept 2013 by SAGE Publications Ltd, All rights reserved. © The Author(s) 2013. The online version of this article can be found at: http://vaw.sagepub.com/content/19/9/110

Randomized controlled trial of a lay-facilitated angina management programme

AIMS: This article reports a randomized controlled trial of lay-facilitated angina management (registered trial acronym: LAMP). BACKGROUND: Previously, a nurse-facilitated angina programme was shown to reduce angina while increasing physical activity, however most people with angina do not receive a cardiac rehabilitation or self-management programme. Lay people are increasingly being trained to facilitate self-management programmes. DESIGN: A randomized controlled trial comparing a lay-facilitated angina management programme with routine care from an angina nurse specialist. METHODS: Participants with new stable angina were randomized to the angina management programme (intervention: 70 participants) or advice from an angina nurse specialist (control: 72 participants). Primary outcome was angina frequency at 6 months; secondary outcomes at 3 and 6 months included: risk factors, physical functioning, anxiety, depression, angina misconceptions and cost utility. Follow-up was complete in March 2009. Analysis was by intention-to-treat; blind to group allocation. RESULTS: There was no important difference in angina frequency at 6 months. Secondary outcomes, assessed by either linear or logistic regression models, demonstrated important differences favouring the intervention group, at 3 months for: Anxiety, angina misconceptions and for exercise report; and at 6 months for: Anxiety; Depression; and angina misconceptions. The intervention was considered cost-effective. CONCLUSION: The angina management programme produced some superior benefits when compared to advice from a specialist nurse