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Since regaining its independence, the Estonian government has followed policies of fiscal consolidation when responding to economic crises. Its response to the COVID-19-crisis has been quite different – it has authorized additional expenditures, cut taxes and incurred considerable debt. This paper gives an overview of the budgetary measures adopted and explores the question: why was it different this time?

The authors draw upon policy documents to zoom in on the main political, institutional and economic factors that help to explain Estonia's departure from extreme fiscal conservatism in the midst of the global pandemic.

The authors found the key political factors to be the party composition of the government, policy diffusion and policy learning. Key economic factors included Estonia's very low level of debt prior to the crisis and credit market advantages gained from Eurozone membership.

Estonia presents an interesting case because in all previous crises it responded with fiscal consolidation, whereas it is now responding with extensive fiscal stimulus.

African feminist scholars and activists have made major contributions to our understanding of gender-based violence. This is especially the case in southern Africa, which has a long history of high rates of violence against women and girls. Their rates of gender-based violence are among the very highest in the world. While there are many forms of gender-based violence, this chapter will explore the important contributions of African gender scholars and activists to our knowledge concerning domestic violence and rape. These issues will be interrogated using Zimbabwe and South Africa as case studies, with some reference to Namibia. In the region, domestic violence and sexual assault have deeply rooted structural explanations linked to the long history of colonialism, apartheid and white minority rule, political transition, economic crises and adjustment, changes in expected gender roles and the HIV/AIDS pandemic. In the past 25 years, Zimbabwe and South Africa attempted to address violence against women through the development of laws as well as the creation of non-governmental organizations. Although these important efforts have not resulted in a major decrease in violence against women, they clearly demonstrate the long history of African women’s actions in resisting state power and patriarchy. African women as citizens, scholars and activists are responsible for bringing to the fore the critical importance of reducing gender-based violence in order to establish strong, just and sustainable societies in southern Africa.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the notion and function of silent landscape in a touristic experience by presenting the findings of a study on silent retreats in a Buddhist meditation retreat center in Northern India.

This study adopted a sensory ethnography approach applied through interviews and participant observation methods conducted during and after nine retreats in a meditation center.

This study suggests that silent landscapes are not only backdrops of touristic experiences but can be considered as inter-subjective performative and resourceful milieu of engagement that intertwine intimate embodied experiences with broader social and cultural values.

Despite landscapes having been thoroughly investigated in tourist studies, this paper underlines the pertinence of mobilizing the lens of other forms of presences such as affects, embodiment, sensoriality and sonority to understand the inter-relation between tourists-selves and the surrounding world encountered during their travels.

Mental health practitioners working with female clients diagnosed with a serious mental illness (SMI) often face client disclosures of sexual assault. Research has shown that practitioners’ responses can be complicated by the diagnosis and lack of professional training; however, less is known about the role their personal factors may play. The purpose of this paper is twofold: to further understanding of practitioners’ personal reactions and investigate how these reactions affect their professional response.

Nine mental health practitioners participated in face-to-face interviews, in which they were asked to describe their personal reactions when faced with a disclosure and to discuss how these reactions influence client assessment, treatment and referral.

The study results show that lacking training, practitioners expressed feelings of uncertainty, fear and worry about how best to respond without causing further harm. Findings serve to inform future training to support practitioners and, as a result, improve care and treatment for this population.

This study is unique because it explores the personal reactions mental health practitioners’ experience when responding to disclosures of sexual assault among women diagnosed with an SMI and how these reactions may impact their professional response.

The purpose of this paper is to elicit clinicians’ and workers’ knowledge, experiences and opinions of key issues pertaining to comorbidity service needs of people aged 12 years and over in a metropolitan region of South Australia.

As one component of a participatory action research project, this qualitative study used semi-structured interviews with mental health (MH) and alcohol and other drug (AOD) clinicians and workers (n=20).

The participants expressed concerns involving stigma towards their clients. They highlighted lack of adequate MH and AOD comorbidity service accessibility and models, regularly available clinical comorbidity workforce development, and practice supervision and skills training. These factors influenced participants’ and their colleagues’ capacity and ability to access and provide appropriate help for people needing integrated treatment and care of their co-existing comorbid conditions.

Findings highlight the need for coordinated and integrated, individualised holistic comorbidity services, including treatment and care best suited to Aboriginal people and refugees.

This study emphasises the importance of government and non-government MH and AOD services ensuring that comorbidity is responded to collaboratively and systemically. It also demonstrates the importance of professional development.