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1 – 10 of 84Emily Samuels and Nicola Moran
Physical health inequalities and mortality rates are higher amongst individuals with severe mental illness (SMI), including among forensic populations, than the general…
Abstract
Purpose
Physical health inequalities and mortality rates are higher amongst individuals with severe mental illness (SMI), including among forensic populations, than the general population. This paper aims to explore the experiences of individuals accessing primary health care following discharge from secure services, and the practitioners who support them.
Design/methodology/approach
Face-to-face qualitative interviews were conducted with service users (n = 4) and mental health practitioners (n = 4) within a forensic community mental health team in one NHS Trust in England in 2019. Data were analysed using the Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis.
Findings
Four super-ordinate themes emerged: perceived importance of physical health, agency, responsibility and relationships. Service users mostly saw themselves as passive recipients of health care and prioritised their mental health over their physical health. Close working relationships meant that mental health practitioners were often the first contact for service users with any health issue and thus felt a sense of responsibility for their physical health care. Service users who did access primary care reported that consistency of professional, feeling understood and listened to without judgement or stigma were important.
Practical implications
Interventions for service users that include practicalities and strategies to facilitate independence in physical health care, and collaborative working between primary care and forensic mental health services, are encouraged.
Originality/value
This study highlights some of the unique challenges in forensics around improving physical health outcomes for individuals with SMI.
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Kuldip Kaur Kang and Nicola Moran
This paper aims to explore inpatient staff experiences of seeking to meet the religious and cultural needs of Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) inpatients on mental health…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to explore inpatient staff experiences of seeking to meet the religious and cultural needs of Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) inpatients on mental health wards.
Design/methodology/approach
Nine semi-structured interviews were undertaken with inpatient staff in one NHS Trust in England to explore their views and experiences of supporting BAME inpatients to meet their religious and cultural needs. Anonymised transcripts were analysed thematically.
Findings
Inpatient staff reported lacking the confidence and knowledge to identify and meet BAME inpatients’ religious and cultural needs, especially inpatients from smaller ethnic groups and newly emerging communities. There was no specific assessment used to identify religious and cultural needs and not all inpatient staff received training on meeting these needs. Concerns were raised about difficulties for staff in differentiating whether unusual beliefs and practices were expressions of religiosity or delusions. Staff identified the potential role of inpatients’ family members in identifying and meeting needs, explaining religious and cultural beliefs and practices, and psychoeducation to encourage treatment or medication adherence.
Practical implications
Potential ways to address this gap in the knowledge and confidence of inpatient staff to meet the religious and cultural needs of BAME patients include training for inpatient staff; the production and updating of a directory of common religious and cultural practices and needs; local resources which can help to support those needs; and religious and cultural practices and needs being documented by mental health practitioners in community teams such that this information is readily available for inpatient staff if a service user is admitted.
Originality/value
This is the first study to consider inpatient staff views on meeting the religious and cultural needs of BAME informal patients and patients detained under the Mental Health Act 1983.
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Susan Clarke, Patricia Sloper, Nicola Moran, Linda Cusworth, Anita Franklin and Jennifer Beecham
Drawing on a wider study about the effectiveness and costs of different models of multi‐agency transition services, this paper aims to present new evidence on the ways in which…
Abstract
Purpose
Drawing on a wider study about the effectiveness and costs of different models of multi‐agency transition services, this paper aims to present new evidence on the ways in which such services meet the priorities and concerns of young people identified in previous research.
Design/methodology/approach
The evidence is based on qualitative interviews with 130 managers and staff in five transition services across England, and a quantitative survey of parents and young people receiving these services (pre‐transition), or having received the services in the last‐two years (post‐transition). In total, 110 pre‐transition and 33 post‐transition parents, and 73 pre‐transition and 24 post‐transition young people, completed questionnaires. Statistical analysis included calculating frequencies and mean values for the responses that measured met and unmet need, and qualitative results were analysed thematically. The consequence of, and reasons for, the low response rate to the family survey are also discussed.
Findings
The research found examples of good practice and innovative services to meet young people's needs. However, provision of such services was patchy, and unmet need for transition support remained high in all the priority areas studied both during and after transition: ranging from 52 to 84 per cent in parent reports and 59 to 82 per cent in young people's reports.
Originality/value
With the onset of public service cutbacks, the paper concludes that improved multi‐agency commissioning of services, based on the priorities and concerns of disabled young people, and greater engagement of transition services with a broader range of agencies, will help to address these deficiencies.
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This paper considers cash for care as reflected in direct payments and the more recent development of individual budgets in England. While the momentum to roll out individual…
Abstract
This paper considers cash for care as reflected in direct payments and the more recent development of individual budgets in England. While the momentum to roll out individual budgets gathers pace in England, Wales has embarked on a more cautious approach in wishing to evaluate the impact of individual budgets on social services. The paper identifies some of the far reaching implications of cash for care in general and individual budgets in particular, for service users, carers ‐ both paid and informal ‐ and for the social work profession. The policy incoherence in relation to risk and safeguarding is highlighted. This paper supports the approach currently adopted by the Welsh Assembly Government in relation to the ‘rolling out’ of individual budgets. The Assembly's 10‐year strategy for social services focuses on the rights of citizens and the needs of communities. This paper argues that fulfilling that vision should not be wholly contingent upon an unproven extension into the field of individual budgets.
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Melanie Henwood and Bob Hudson
As the social care system ‐ and potentially the health care system and other public services ‐ move increasingly towards a model of personalised support, questions arise about…
Abstract
As the social care system ‐ and potentially the health care system and other public services ‐ move increasingly towards a model of personalised support, questions arise about whether and how it can work for people with multiple and complex needs. The evidence is that it is possible to achieve this, and that the outcomes and quality of life can be dramatically improved, but many councils and their partners have yet to move into this demanding activity, and face considerable obstacles in the form of conventional approaches to policy and practice if and when they do. This article draws on the findings of a special study undertaken for the Commission for Social Care Inspection. Alongside some of the difficulties of personalising support for people with multiple and complex needs are inspirational stories of innovative developments which have transformed the lives of people and their carers.
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Graziele Fonseca Cysneiros, Judith Libertad Chavez Gonzalez, Amanda Alves Marcelino da Silva, Taisy Cinthia Ferro Cavalcante, Omar Guzman Quevedo, Eduardo Carvalho Lira, Juliana Kessia Soares, Eryvelton de Souza Franco, Elizabeth do Nascimento and Héctor Eduardo Flores Martínez Flores
The purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of a 15-week dietary intake of cactus flour on metabolic parameters, body weight and dietary intake of rats.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of a 15-week dietary intake of cactus flour on metabolic parameters, body weight and dietary intake of rats.
Design/methodology/approach
Male Wistar rats were divided into four experimental groups (n = 8-10): control or westernized diets added or not of cactus flour. The following parameters were evaluated during the period of dietary manipulation: body weight, food intake, glycemic and lipid profile (oral glucose tolerance test, metabolic parameters, hepatic and muscular glycogen dosage), visceral and body fat (relative weight to body weight). Data were analyzed using Graphpad Prism®5, p = 0.05.
Findings
Animals fed on a Western-style diet together with flour cactus presented lower weight gain (335.7 ± 20.0, p = 0.05) over the evaluated period, even when the volume of food intake was not different among the groups. The addition of cactus flour to a Western-style diet appears to lower glucose levels at 30 and 60 min (p = 0.05), as shown in the glucose tolerance curve. There was a downward trend does fat stores, cholesterol levels and triglycerides. Therefore, it was concluded that this addition cactus flour is effective even when the diet is hyperlipidic, demonstrating its ability to attenuate risk parameters for the occurrence of metabolic syndromes such as sub fraction high cholesterol levels and glucose tolerance.
Originality/value
The addition of functional foods to diets may work to improve the harmful effects of this type of diet. Opuntia ficus indica has high nutritional value and has hypoglycemic and hypolipemic properties besides being antioxidant.
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Matteo Mura, Emanuele Lettieri, Giovanni Radaelli and Nicola Spiller
The purpose of this paper is to provide arguments and empirical evidence that different knowledge sharing behaviours – i.e. sharing best practices, sharing mistakes, seeking…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to provide arguments and empirical evidence that different knowledge sharing behaviours – i.e. sharing best practices, sharing mistakes, seeking feedbacks – are promoted and enabled by different types of knowledge assets, and differently affect employees’ innovative work behaviours.
Design/methodology/approach
The research framework includes four sets of constructs: employees’ innovative work behaviour, knowledge sharing, knowledge assets, psychological safety. The literature-grounded hypotheses were tested collecting data from healthcare professionals from three hospice and palliative care organisations in Italy. In all, 195 questionnaires were analysed using structural equations modelling technique.
Findings
First, findings show that the linkage between knowledge assets and knowledge sharing is both direct and indirect with psychological safety as relevant mediating construct. The linkage between relational and structural social capital and seeking feedbacks and sharing mistakes is fully mediated by psychological safety. Second, findings show that each dimension of knowledge sharing affects the different dimensions of employees’ innovative work behaviour – i.e. idea generation, idea promotion, idea implementation – in a distinct manner. While sharing of best practices influences all of them, seeking feedbacks affects idea promotion and sharing mistakes influences idea implementation.
Practical implications
The results provide operations managers with a clearer picture of how to pursue improvements of current operations by leveraging on knowledge sharing among employees through the creation of numerous, high-quality interpersonal relationships among employees, based on rich and cohesive network ties.
Originality/value
This study, by adopting a micro-level perspective, offers an original perspective on how knowledge assets and knowledge sharing initiatives may contribute to the engagement of innovative work behaviour by employees.
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Stefano Amato, Valentina Pieroni, Nicola Lattanzi and Giampaolo Vitali
A burgeoning body of evidence points out the importance of spatial proximity in influencing firm efficiency besides internal characteristics. Nevertheless, the family status of…
Abstract
Purpose
A burgeoning body of evidence points out the importance of spatial proximity in influencing firm efficiency besides internal characteristics. Nevertheless, the family status of the firm has been traditionally overlooked in that debate. Therefore, this study aims to investigate productivity spillovers stemming from the geographical closeness to innovators and family firms.
Design/methodology/approach
Using secondary data on Italian technology-intensive manufacturing firms, the paper exploits spatial econometric models to estimate productivity spillovers across firms.
Findings
As regards the presence of spatial dependence, this study reveals that a firm's level of efficiency and productivity is influenced by that of nearby firms. Specifically, three main results emerge. First, spatial proximity to innovators is beneficial for the productivity of neighbouring firms. Second, closeness to family firms is a source of negative externalities for spatially proximate firms. However, and this is the third result, the adverse effect vanishes when the nearby family firms are also innovators.
Research limitations/implications
As the study relies on cross-sectional data, future research should explore productivity spillovers in a longitudinal setting. Additionally, the channels through which productivity spillovers occur should be measured.
Practical implications
The study highlights the importance of co-location for public policy initiatives to strengthen the competitiveness of firms and, indirectly, that of localities and regions. Moreover, the findings show the crucial role of innovation in mitigating the productivity gap between family and non-family firms.
Social implications
Notwithstanding the advent of the digital era, spatial proximity and localized social relationships are still a relevant factor affecting firms' performance.
Originality/value
By exploring the role of family firms in influencing the advantages of geographical proximity, this study contributes to the growing efforts to explore family enterprises across spatial settings.
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