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The purpose of this paper is to critically examine school teachers’ experiences and beliefs regarding parenting and infant mental health (IMH) promotion, starting with the research question: How do teachers in two secondary schools view their roles regarding parenting and IMH promotion?

Qualitative, exploratory focus groups were used with two groups of teachers that delivered personal social education (PSE) in schools.

Teachers currently have varying roles in PSE delivery. Interaction within focus groups can generate changes of opinions. Teachers do not promote parenting and IMH but are keen for support and training to do so to enable them to benefit future parents.

This was a small-scale study. There was limited breadth of knowledge and experience of participants. The study highlights the need for further research and support and training for school-based staff in parenting promotion.

The significance of parenting and IMH is well evidenced by theory, practice and policies. A potential strategy to prevent child developmental difficulties is to educate young people about parenting and IMH before they become parents.

No similar research was found in this area at the time of the study.

Many individual and family hardships are associated with poorly understood palliative care needs arising from advanced dementia within India. The purpose of this paper is to explore the experiences of people in India affected by advanced dementia and to shape educational approaches for practitioners and the local community.

Three focus groups with family carers of people (n = 27) with advanced dementia were undertaken with local communities in South India. One focus group was carried out in English and two in the local language (Kannada) and translated to English.

The findings of the focus groups are presented in four themes, conditions of caring, intersecting vulnerabilities, desperate acts of care and awareness of education and training needs. These themes highlight the challenges faced by family carers of people with advanced dementia and describe the potential harm, abuse and poor mental well-being facing both the person with dementia and the family carer as a result of their situation.

There is a need to explore ways to ensure inclusivity and sensitivity in the research process and enable equal participation from all participants.

The findings highlight a lack of support for family carers of people with advanced dementia and demonstrate the need for dementia-specific integrated and palliative care approaches in India.

This paper provides insight into the experiences and challenges facing family caregivers of people living with advanced dementia in India to shape practitioner education in a way that will underpin effective dementia-specific palliation and integrated services.

Little is known about the lived experience of the older user of assistive technology. The aim of the investigation is to gain an appreciation of the experience of assistive technology (AT) in older people.

Qualitative phenomenology was conducted on individual interviews undertaken using a Husserlian phenomenological approach. The participants were six individuals, >65 years who all lived in supported housing.

Six key themes emerged from interviews: being unsure; being old; being a bother; being on my own; being neighbourly and being independent.

Reactions to assistive technology are highly individualised and salient. In order to humanise the technology it is necessary to understand the person who is using it. Further research in this area is a priority as AT evolves and matures.

This study offers a novel insight into a neglected but important area of concern for older people.

The purpose of this paper is to present a proposal for the methodology of developing rescue plans and the concepts of applying recommended response schedules in the context of the State Fire Service’s planning responsibilities (preparation) and public administration (reconciliation and approval), according to the legal order in force in Poland. In the proposed concept, recommended schedules are built on the basis of the matches and successes identified according to the criteria, i.e. the best carried out rescue actions from the register of reports.

The paper is based on the analysis of existing legal status and policy in Poland as well as the selected relevant academic literature.

The result is the formulation of a methodology for drawing up the rescue plans to the extent required by law and proposing a concept for the method of developing and applying recommended response schedules, supporting operational planning and conducting rescue operations.

The proposed methodology is to support the procedure of drawing up rescue plans by implying and implementing them into IT solutions. The suggested recommended response schedules, based on observations and conclusions from the analysis of the past rescue operations, may present circumstances and sequences of the use of forces and measures that have had beneficial effects in the past. An in-depth analysis of historical data from the conducted rescue operations may also be used to determine time indicators for the response phase.

The proposed solutions complement the methods currently used by public administration in Poland. The concept can also be inspiring for the State Fire Service (PSP) which has its own analytical tools in the form of a decision support system and registers of rescue operations carried out. The PSP may undertake the practical verification of the presented methodology for preparing rescue plans and recommended response schedules.

With the continuous development and penetration of the Internet, there have been vast amounts of changes to the traditional method of classroom teaching. The massive open online course (MOOC) shows a significant combination of network information technology and educational resources. However, in order to make up for the disadvantages which occur when making transition from classroom to online learning such as ‘large-scale’ and ‘no feedback’, the Online-to-Offline (O2O) mode was created and developed. Using the course of ‘microeconomics’ taught by Chinese university professors as a reference, this chapter aims at explaining the course design and innovation which is a modification of the outcomes-based education (OBE) theory, the introduction of O2O teaching reform and application. The process is carried out by firstly setting the expected learning goal of this course on the basis of the OBE educational goal of the university, college and the major; secondly, designing this course with ‘online 311 class’ and ‘offline 271 course’; thirdly, implementing the O2O teaching model; and lastly, evaluating the teaching result in order to provide some enlightenment for the tryout of ‘MOOC+O2O’ and OBE theory under the Internet background.

By older adulthood, the majority of individuals will have experienced at least one traumatic event. Trauma-informed care (TIC) is proposed to improve effectivity of health-care provision and to reduce likelihood of services causing retraumatisation. This study aims to assess the effectiveness of staff training in TIC in older adult services.

TIC training was delivered across eight Older Adult Community Mental Health Teams in the same UK organisation. Questionnaires were administered before and after training: a psychometrically robust measure, the Attitudes Related to Trauma-Informed Care, was used to assess TIC-related attitudes, and a service-developed scale was used to measure changes in TIC competence. Data was analysed using linear mixed effects modelling (LMM). Qualitative data regarding the impact of training was gathered one month after training through a free-text questionnaire.

There were 45 participants, all of whom were white British. LMM on pre- and post-data revealed that staff training significantly increased competencies across all measured TIC domains. Overall, staff attitudes were also significantly more trauma-informed after training. Qualitatively, staff identified time as the only additional resource required to deliver the skills and knowledge gained from training.

Training was found to be effective in increasing TIC-related skills and attitudes. Organisations aiming to become trauma-informed should consider staff training as one aspect of a wider development plan.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this paper is the first to examine TIC training for staff working in Older Adults Mental Health Services. Recommendations for services aiming to develop a trauma-informed culture have been provided.

Purpose – This chapter examines the foundations of community among youth with disabilities.

Methodology – Qualitative data on 52 youth with disabilities were analyzed, based on interviews with the youth and their parents. The sample included youth with intellectual, hidden, physical, and sensory disabilities. Data analysis was guided by grounded theory.

Findings – Four foundations of community were identified: geographic, disability-based, religious, and virtual. Disability-based contexts provided much of the basis of friendship for youth with disabilities. Just under half of youth had community connections within their home towns.

Research limitations – These analyses rely on the self-reported and parent-reported experiences of 52 youth with disabilities in Massachusetts and are not representative of youth with disabilities nationwide. Only youth who were still in high school just before graduation are represented; those who dropped out earlier were not included.

Practical implications – Community connections create opportunities for friendship and for sharing information. Youth enjoyed their connections, whether they were formal (designed and created by adults) or informal (just hanging out with other local youth).

Social implications – Youth's connections with other youth with disabilities may result in bonding social capital, creating friendships, but there are fewer opportunities for bridging social capital, creating connections with typically developing youth.

Originality – This chapter provides an overview of youth's perceptions of their participation in various social and recreational activities and explores and conceptualizes the contexts in which youth with disabilities experience community connections with other youth.

THE ANCIENT and royal burgh of Stirling, at one time the capital of Scotland, was at the turn of the century the county town of Stirlingshire and the centre of a thriving agricultural community. With the exception of a carpet and woollen mill and some neighbouring coal mines, there was little industry in the town. This was reflected in its social structure. There was growing up in the village of Raploch, beneath the castle rock, a sizeable Irish community of labourers and artisans, but of a population of around 20,000 in 1900, middle class businessmen and shopkeepers predominated. The town's structure in turn was reflected in the nature of the Town Council, which, although not always conservative in politics, was generally conservative when faced with innovation, be it a swimming pool or a modern town centre. This might explain why in Stirling the public library movement was late in starting, nearly 25 years after the Public Libraries (Scotland) Act of 1870 authorising the use for library purposes of 1 d. in the £ from the rates. It might also explain why there was some opposition from the Town Council to providing for the upkeep of the library after its foundation.

This paper uses two complementary approaches to estimate the effect of right-to-work (RTW) laws on wages and unionization rates. The first approach uses an event study design to analyze the impact of the adoption of RTW laws in five US states since 2011. The second approach relies on a differential exposure design that exploits the differential impact of RTW laws on industries with high unionization rates relative to industries with low unionization rates. Both approaches indicate that RTW laws lower wages and unionization rates. Under the assumption that RTW laws only affect wages by lowering the unionization rate, RTW can be used as an instrumental variable (IV) to estimate the causal effect of unions on wages. In our preferred specification based on the differential exposure design, the IV estimate of the effect of unions on log wages is 0.35, which substantially exceeds the corresponding OLS estimate of 0.16. This large wage effect suggests that RTW may also directly affect wages due to a reduced union threat effect.

This research assesses the economic impact of biomass plant installations on Brazilian municipalities, focusing on (1) labor income, (2) sectoral labor income and (3) income inequality.

Municipal data from the Annual Social Information Report, the National Electric Energy Agency and the National Institute of Meteorology spanning 2002 to 2020 are utilized. The Synthetic Difference-in-Differences methodology is employed for empirical analysis, and robustness checks are conducted using the Doubly Robust Difference in Differences and the Double/Debiased Machine Learning methods.

The findings reveal that biomass plant installations lead to an average annual increase of approximately R$688.00 in formal workers' wages and reduce formal income inequality, with notable benefits observed for workers in the industry and agriculture sectors. The robustness tests support and validate the primary results, highlighting the positive implications of renewable energy integration on economic development in the studied municipalities.

This article represents a groundbreaking contribution to the existing literature as it pioneers the identification of the impact of biomass plant installation on formal employment income and local economic development in Brazil. To the best of our knowledge, this study is the first to uncover such effects. Moreover, the authors comprehensively examine sectoral implications and formal income inequality.