Search results

Mental health champions (MHCs) and young health ambassadors (YHAs) are two innovative public health interventions. MHCs are practitioners who work in schools and other youth settings and aim to be the “go to” person for mental health in these settings. YHAs are a linked parallel network of young people, who champion mental health and advocate for youth involvement, which was co-produced with young people across all stages of development implementation. This paper aims to identify the potential benefits, barriers and facilitators of these interventions.

Semi-structured qualitative interviews (n = 19) were undertaken with a purposive sample of n = 13 MHCs, and n = 6 YHAs, between June 2021 and March 2022. Interviews were audio-recorded, transcribed, anonymised and then analysed following a thematic approach. Ethical approval was granted by Newcastle University’s Faculty of Medical Sciences Ethics Committee.

The findings are organised under five key themes: motivating factors and rewards for MHCs and YHAs; outcomes for children and young people (CYP) and others; impact on youth settings and culture; facilitators of successful implementation; and implementation challenges and opportunities.

These findings are intended to be of relevance to practice and policy, particularly to those exploring the design, commissioning or implementation of similar novel and low-cost interventions, which aim to improve mental health outcomes for CYP, within the context of youth settings.

The interventions reported on in the present paper are novel and innovative. Little research has previously been undertaken to explore similar approaches, and the individual experiences of those involved in the delivery of these types of interventions.

This study aims to evaluate the delivery of a virtual community-based mental health and substance use program for Filipino drug users during the COVID-19 pandemic.

It used a randomized control longitudinal design with data collected prior to the program and every two months for 10 months. The programs focused on building recovery skills, life skills and family modules. Program length ranged from a brief intervention of three sessions to 24 sessions depending on whether clients were low risk, moderate risk or those arrested for drug use.

Results revealed significant improvements in recovery skills of participants in the treatment group compared to those in the control group. Mental health illness symptoms decreased for both control and treatment groups; however, no differences were found in recovery capital and cravings.

The lack of significant changes in certain variables, such as recovery capital, requires more data to understand the barriers to enable greater recovery. The study was limited to virtual delivery of rehabilitation services conducted during the COVID-19 pandemic. Future studies may wish to compare modalities of online and onsite delivery to enable a comparison of effectiveness.

Results suggest the feasibility of virtual delivery of mental health and substance use treatment implemented by trained paraprofessionals. However, it also highlights the necessity to build the capacity of service providers and address connectivity challenges.

Stigma and discrimination prevent people who use drugs from seeking treatment. Virtual delivery of mental health and substance use treatment can provide a platform where people can seek help while maintaining some privacy.

The study provides evidence from under-represented populations – persons who use drugs in the Philippines.

This study aims to examine how an educational intervention, using the lens of the LEADS framework, can influence the development of primary care doctors’ leadership skills in Aceh, Indonesia. In order to persevere in the face of inadequate resources and infrastructure, particularly in rural and remote settings of low- and middle‐income countries, physicians require strong leadership skills. However, there is a lack of information on leadership development in these settings.

This study applied an educational intervention consisting of a two-day workshop. The authors evaluated the impact of the workshop on participants’ knowledge and skill by combining quantitative pre- and post-intervention questionnaires (based on Levels 1 and 2 of Kirkpatrick’s model) with qualitative post-intervention in-depth interviews, using a phenomenological approach and thematic analysis.

The workshop yielded positive results, as evidenced by participants’ increased confidence to apply and use the information and skills acquired during the workshop. Critical success factors were as follows: participants were curiosity-driven; the use of multiple learning methodologies that attracted participants; and the use of authentic scenarios as a critical feature of the program.

The intervention may offer a preliminary model for improving physician leadership skills in rural and remote settings by incorporating multiple teaching approaches and considering local cultural norms.

The purpose of this policy piece is to present headline evidence from the equivalent of a decade of research across three projects focused on improving the educational experiences of incarcerated or justice-involved children and young people across 14 countries. The projects demonstrated a positive impact when using the specially designed innovative methods even with disengaged justice-involved children and young people. Each project had a different focus based on the needs of the children and young people, including (re)engaging them with education and learning opportunities re-engaging young offenders with education and learning (RENYO), developing identified social and emotional competencies through sport active games 4 change (AG4C) and developing skills for when transitioning into communities (S4L).

Each of the three projects designed bespoke interventions and materials based on the focus of the project. Combined, these were piloted across a total of 14 countries with 548 children and young people, 225 educators and 21 youth justice settings (custodial and non-custodial). Qualitative and quantitative data were gathered from educators, children and young people to better understand the effectiveness and limitations of the pedagogical approaches, the materials and experiences of the users.

The findings from across the three projects demonstrated that when custodial settings or youth justice settings have greater access to specifically designed tools and resources, with appropriate training to use them, it is possible to re-engage even the most disengaged children and young people with education and learning (RENYO). It was also possible to show a statistically significant increase in social and emotional competencies (social awareness, responsible decision-making, self-awareness, self-management, relationship skills) in participating country settings (AG4C) and to engage children and young people with a Skills4Life Curriculum in preparation for moving back into the community.

Custodial and other youth justice settings vary widely in different jurisdictions with varying levels of resource. Whilst all programmes had success in implementation, this was to different degrees and extents in each of the country contexts. Much of this success will depend on the skills of educators and the willingness of the leadership.

The programmes and interventions in this policy piece can be used in a range of contexts and settings as shown by the wide range of sites they were piloted in. From a practical perspective, these programmes and interventions have been designed to fit into existing structures and timetables with custodial and youth justice settings, making them easily integrated into business as usual.

Planned and strategically delivered interventions by expert educators in a holistic way means there is real opportunity to better support justice involved children and young people to successful transitioning back into communities, thereby potentially reducing reoffending. This is done by (re)engaging them with education and learning on entry, using the authentic inquiry methodology, developing social and emotional competencies through the active games and sport programme, followed by a tailored Skils4Life Curriculum preparing them for transition back into communities.

Emerging from the COVID-19 pandemic, the Philippines has undergone the “new normal” transition, creating a strategic recovery effort to reinvigorate the industry. In tourism, these transitions aim to safeguard employees' and guests' health and safety, ensure continuity of business operations, boost tourism confidence leading to satisfaction, and establish a resilient and sustainable tourism industry in the postpandemic era. Hence, this chapter employs a system thinking leveraging a causal loop diagram (CLD) to construct a comprehensive roadmap for Philippine tourism's postpandemic resurgence through the system thinking lens. The CLD visually illustrates the inter-related factors influencing the recovery process, encompassing collaborative engagements, innovations, economic revitalization, and health and safety protocols. By analyzing the causal relationships among these variables, this chapter explicates the dynamic and interconnected nature of the postpandemic recovery leading to the recovery of the Philippine tourism industry, especially in the context of thinking small. Through this chapter, thinking small could involve a shift toward localized solutions and community-focused initiatives that allow them to foster local economies, build resilience, and create a more inclusive and sustainable postpandemic recovery.

Tourism value chain (TVC) analysis has been widely used as an alternative approach for designing sustainable and inclusive programs for tourism development in Africa, Asia, and the Pacific. This chapter looks at the experiences of three sustainable tourism initiatives in the Philippines to assess the strengths and limitations of the value chain as a framework for destination development. Short case studies describe the experiences of stakeholders in two popular destinations in the Philippines: the surfing town of San Juan, La Union, and the resort-island of Panglao, Bohol. The third case study shares the perspective of the Transforming the Tourism Value Chain (TTVC) project, a national campaign for more sustainable hotels, resort as well as meetings, conventions, incentives, and event (MICE) facilities in various destinations around the country. Stakeholders deeply involved in implementing these projects share their insights on the successes, challenges, and limitations of TVC-based approaches to resilient and sustainable destination development. The destinations' experiences suggest that the advocacy for sustainable management and operations may be comparable to a process of technology adoption or acceptance along the TVC. Practical and theoretical recommendations for leveraging the TVC toward more holistic and sustainable visitor economies are given at the end of this chapter.

This study aims to explore the experiences of newly resettled refugee-background high school students participating in the Teen Response program, a community-based initiative to assist refugee-background adolescents (RBAs) in navigating educational and career opportunities in the midwestern USA.

Using a mixed-methods approach, this study examined twenty-two RBAs through survey and focus groups.

The findings reveal significant growth and transformation in the students' self-efficacy and advocacy skills. This growth underscores the critical role of social support and community engagement in helping RBAs, empowering them to advocate for themselves and others in pursuing educational and career goals.

This study contributes new insights into the community-based support programs for RBAs, focusing on enhancing self-efficacy and advocacy. It offers valuable implications for developing effective support frameworks and recommends future research on these approaches.

Readmissions to the hospital are expensive and can have negative health consequences for patients. Older adults are at greater risk of readmission. Patient perspectives are valuable in identifying areas for improvement in the transition of care. The purpose of this qualitative study is to increase our understanding of patients’ perspectives on the transition of care from hospital to primary care.

This study employs a qualitative methodology to conduct semi-structured interviews with patients who have been discharged from hospitals in the Ireland East Hospital Group region. Remote interviews were conducted with 18 participants from eight general practices. Transcripts were analysed using thematic analysis as described by Braun and Clarke.

The three main themes identified were communication, outpatient supports and patient education. Gaps in communication do occur, but patients are often too external to comment. Patients benefit from a wide variety of outpatient supports including general practice, family, carers, allied health professionals and voluntary organisations. Access and cost are barriers to these supports. Participants were generally positive towards proposed primary care-based interventions such as follow-up appointments with general practitioners (GPs) and education sessions.

This study highlights a number of areas for improvement in the transition of care in current practice including communication between services and access to outpatient care. It also suggests directions for further research, such as explorations of healthcare provider perspectives and pilot studies of readmission reduction interventions.

Developing nations are starting to take centre stage and are becoming more conscious of their economic potential in the tourism sector. Earlier, these countries were largely left out of the tourist sector. Today, the foreign exchange reserves of these nations are mostly derived from tourism and a nation's balance of payments derived through tourism supports international trade and stabilizes the economy. The chapter adopts a case study method to evaluate the prospects of inclusive growth through socio economic well-being. In the dynamic and constantly evolving tourism industry, it is imperative to make the growth more inclusive so that there is a balanced approach to long term sustainable development. When it comes to using traditional skills and cultural heritage to participate in this economic paradigm, rural artisans face both opportunities and challenges as the global tourism landscape undergoes evolving transformations. The study commences by closely examining the current market obstacles that rural artisans in the tourism industry face, which encompass a range of issues such as shifting consumer preferences, market saturation and the aftermath of external shocks like pandemics. The chapter indicates major obstacles impeding the integration of rural artisans into the tourism value chain by means of a thorough empirical analysis. In order to overcome the obstacles, the study investigates inclusive growth and how it might act as a spur to improve the socio-economic circumstances of rural craftsmen. The findings in the chapter distil best practices that promote inclusivity, empower local communities and support sustainable tourism development by looking at successful case studies and policy interventions.

Patriotism is often described as the “love of country” that individuals display in the acclamation of their national community. Despite the prominence of this sentiment in various societies around the world, organizational research on patriotism is largely absent. This omission is surprising because entrepreneurs, human resource (HR) divisions, and firms frequently embrace both patriotism and patriotic organizational practices. These procedures include (among other interventions) national symbol embracing, HR practices targeted toward military members and first responders, the adulation of patriots and celebration of patriotic events, and patriotic-oriented corporate social responsibility (CSR). Here, the authors argue that research on HR management and organization studies will likely be further enhanced with a deeper understanding of the national obligation that can spur employee productivity and loyalty. In an attempt to jumpstart the collective understanding of this phenomenon, the authors explore the antecedents of patriotic organizational practices, namely, the effects of founder orientation, employee dispersion, and firm strategy. It is suggested that HR practices such as these lead to a patriotic organizational image, which in turn impacts investor, customer, and employee responses. Notably, the effect of a patriotic organizational image on firm-related outcomes is largely contingent on how it fits with the patriotic views of other stakeholders, such as investors, customers, and employees. After outlining this model, the authors then present a thought experiment of how this model may appear in action. The authors then discuss ways the field can move forward in studying patriotism in HR management and organizational contexts by outlining several future directions that span multiple levels (i.e., micro and macro). Taken together, in this chapter, the authors introduce a conversation of something quite prevalent and largely unheeded – the patriotic organization.