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Recognising current, significant rates of youth sexual violence and abuse (YSVA) and the need for more comprehensive prevention approaches to combat this social issue, new approaches are required to ensure that agency is given to the people who are most affected and who know their lives the best. This paper aims to report a youth-led (Young Voices United [YVU] Committee) participatory design approach aimed at delivering the highest level of engagement to understand what people agree is needed to reduce YSVA in their own communities.

The seven-step co-design (Trischler et al., 2019) process was implemented following ethical clearance. Over five months, 13 group co-design sessions involving 102 young people aged 12–25 years, 17 parents/caregivers (including young mums) and 9 teacher/guidance officers were conducted. Purposive sampling was undertaken to ensure that young people who had previously experienced YSVA or were most at risk of experiencing YSVA were overrepresented. Convenience sampling was used to gain wider community involvement in co-design. Four sessions were facilitated by YVU members, who were aged between 12 and 25 years, and more than 66 people helped the design team. Inductive thematic analysis identified emergent themes across completed co-design sessions.

New ideas and solutions to prevent YSVA can be identified by young people who have previously experienced violence, carers, other young people and community members. A core finding in this study is the need for positive relationship role models and an enhanced understanding of consent. Education and training, a community promotional campaign, sector involvement, capacity-building and consideration of the unique needs of different target audiences were key ideas emerging from youth-led co-design. The YVU Committee provided recommendations for resource prioritisation.

This youth-led co-design process empowered the community. Project stakeholders have since formed partnerships won funding and used that funding to co-design and trial a new programme aiming to provide a safe haven for young people at risk of YSVA. The pilot programme delivers a safe and supportive environment for young people delivered at a time when it is needed most. Other geographical areas are now seeking to replicate the programme. The co-design processes and tools detailed in this study can be adapted to the design of programmes for those already engaged with the youth justice system and should be considered as part of a public health approach to effectively prevent and respond to YSVA and other youth crimes.

This paper advances understanding, providing a practical approach that ensures youth views are given weight [audience and influence described in Lundy’s (2007) participatory framework]. This paper explains how the YVU Committee, established at the commencement of the project, oversaw the community co-design effort, which followed Trischler et al.’s (2019) seven-step co-design process. Ideas were generated, and consensus views were consolidated, delivering the highest level of engagement according to Willmott et al.’s (2022) methodology, agent of change, training and engagement taxonomy. The participatory design method led to high levels of community engagement, and the success of the project is attributed to the establishment of the YVU Committee and stakeholder support.

This study aims to describe the current conceptualisation of self-management of dementia by family carers in the literature and from the views of dementia professionals and family carers, and to establish a more comprehensive concept of self-management of dementia by family carers.

A hybrid concept analysis included three phases: the theoretical phase reviewed the literature on self-management of dementia by family carers; the fieldwork phase interviewed professionals and family carers; and the analytical phase synthesised and discussed the findings from the previous two phases.

The findings revealed that self-management of dementia by family carers encompasses four domains: supporting care recipients, self-care, sustaining a positive relationship with care recipients, and personal characteristics and skills.

The findings highlighted the essential elements of the construct of self-management of dementia by family carers. The findings can be used as a conceptual framework of self-management and are useful in designing and evaluating self-management support interventions for family carers.

The study aims to identify the predictors of depression and anxiety among carers of hospitalized patients with mental illness in Eradah Complex for Mental Health Hospital.

A descriptive correlational study design was conducted using a convenient sample of family carers of patients with mental illness (N = 216). The study used the Beck Depression Inventory and Anxiety Inventory scales.

The results of regression models revealed that the socio-demographic characteristics of the family carers showed that age is a statistically significant predictor of family carers depression and anxiety scores. In addition, the age of the family carers explained 36% of the variance in the family carers depression and anxiety scores, while marital status explained 64% of the total variance in the family carers’ depression and anxiety scores. Furthermore, having received support in caring significantly predicted depression and anxiety scores, and this was the case for occupation status and being diagnosed with any form of chronic illness.

Based on the findings of this study, the authors opine that evaluations of carers’ cognitive strategies and social support are needed to determine the risk of depression in carers of mental patients.

This study is the one of the limited studies conducted in Saudi Arabia to identify predictor of depression and anxiety among caregivers of hospitalized patients with mental illness. The study has used a validated scales to assess the main study outcomes.

Spoken service language is critical for service experiences and human welfare in many service settings. However, little is known about how spoken service language can enhance customer well-being in transformative service contexts. This paper explores spoken service language and well-being for customers experiencing vulnerability in a transformative service context, informed by an empirical account of the human welfare service of residential aged care.

Situated within transformative service research (TSR), this study was guided by a theoretical framework of service language and adopts a strengths-based approach to customer experiences of vulnerability. A qualitative multiple case study methodology was applied to explore carers’ perspectives on spoken service language and well-being from three residential aged care homes in Australia.

The findings demonstrate five spoken service language practices and four principles of spoken service language for well-being that co-create customer well-being and support the alleviation of customer experiences of vulnerability. Conceptualised as transformative spoken service language, the spoken service language practices and principles collectively recognise, support and leverage residents’ capabilities and uplift customer well-being, by enacting a process of mattering highly salient to transformative service contexts.

This study is the first to conceptualise how employee spoken service language can be used to support customer well-being and enhance transformative value for customers experiencing vulnerability to align with the goals of TSR. Practically, the study advocates for a greater awareness and more considered use of transformative spoken service language in human welfare and other transformative service contexts.

As populations are ageing and the global average life expectancy is rising, the provision of care for older people is an increasingly salient issue. This paper aims to focus on family-provided care for older immigrants, examining how older immigrants and care providers experience and construct family caregiving.

Based on interviews with care recipients, family care providers, municipal staff and representatives for migrant organisations in Sweden, this study presents a typology of family caregiving for older immigrants.

The authors found three caregiving types, namely, solely family-provided care and a combination of family care and public care (predominantly one or the other). The decision to select family-provided or publicly-funded care depends on personal and institutional factors.

The paper makes three empirical contributions to the literature on care provision for older immigrants. Firstly, this study provides insights into the structural and personal factors that shape care-giving arrangements for older immigrants. Secondly, this study examines the perspectives of care recipients and care providers on family-provided care. Care expectations differ between both groups and sometimes result in intergenerational disagreement. Thirdly, in terms of institutional support, this study finds that the Swedish state’s notion of individual needs does not match the needs of immigrant elderly and their caregivers. The paper places the care types in a broader discussion about eldercare provision in the Swedish welfare state, which has experienced a decline in publicly funded care services and an increase in family caregiving in the past 30 years. In addition, it addresses questions of dignified ageing from a minority perspective.

This preliminary study aims to examine the use of a co-designed immersive virtual reality intervention programme in improving access to health care for people with intellectual disability.

A co-production approach was used to design a virtual reality intervention in collaboration with people with intellectual disability, their families and carers. A mixed-method single sample pre-test-post-test design examined using a virtual reality intervention simulating health-care environments to improve access of attending health-care appointments. Qualitative feedback was used to understand participants’ experience and opinions of using the digital technology.

The study found that the intervention did help people access health-care appointment and reduced their fear. Improvements were also found in quality-of-life post intervention. Positive feedback was provided from participants on using digital technologies indicating the novelty of the approach and potential further applications.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study which has used virtual reality to support people with intellectual disability access health care.

Recent research has captured the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic in widening gender inequalities, by highlighting that academic women have been disproportionately affected. During the COVID-19 pandemic, women assumed most of the care labour at home, whilst working at normal patterns, leaving them unable to perform as normal. This is very concerning because of the short and long-term detrimental consequences this will have on women’s well-being and their academic careers. This article aims to stimulate a change in the current understandings of academic work by pointing towards alternative – and more inclusive – ways of working in academia.

The two authors engage with autoethnography and draw on their own personal experience of becoming breastfeeding academic mothers throughout the COVID-19 pandemic.

To understand the positioning of contemporary academic mothers, this study draws on insights from both cultural studies and organisation studies on the emergence of discursive formations about gender, that is “postfeminist sensibility”. Guided by autoethnographic accounts of academic motherhood, this study reveals that today academia creates an individualised, neutral (disembodied), output-focused and control-oriented understanding of academic work.

This paper adds to the conversation of academic motherhood and the impact of the pandemic on working mothers. The study theoretically contributes with the lens of “motherhood” in grasping what academic work can become. It shows the power of motherhood in opening up an alternative way of conceptualising academic work, centred on embodied care and appreciative of the non-linearity and messiness of life.

Parental advocacy is an emerging area of research and policy interest in Wales and across the UK. Although there is little research in the UK context to date, international research has indicated that parental advocacy can improve the relationship between parent and professional in the field of child protection social work. This paper aims to ascertain how the implementation of a parental advocacy programme supports parents to play a meaningful role in decision-making when children’s services are working with them and their families.

This study used interviews, surveys and focus groups to obtain qualitative data from 18 parents, seven parent advocates, two advocacy managers and four social workers, to explore the potential impact of parental advocacy on decision-making. The study identified challenges in implementing parental advocacy, particularly relating to awareness of the service. Participants also discussed experiences of the child protection system and how parents are supported by advocates.

Despite challenges surrounding implementation, initial findings were encouraging, and generated examples of how parental advocacy services have helped parents to understand children’s services and develop relationships of trust with social care professionals. In doing so, this study identified potential mechanisms that may be useful to support future service delivery.

This paper and research is novel as it explores parental advocacy within the Welsh context. Although there has been research conducted into parental advocacy, this has largely come from the USA. This research comes from the evaluation of an innovative and promising parental advocacy scheme in Wales.

This paper offers a reflection of a research process aimed at listening to young children's voices in their everyday school life through a play-based context in a Scottish school. Throughout the research process, the complexity of conducting this research was kept in mind as listening to children's voices presents methodological and conceptual difficulties and tensions. Reflecting on the research process after the data was collected, the process was critiqued using Deleuze-Guattarian ideas. The critique aims at opening and challenging each researcher, allowing them to think-again about the next research project aimed at listening to children's voices.

The research involved an observation study that took place over one week in a primary school in Central Scotland. As part of the educators' approach to play-based pedagogy, children had the opportunity to engage in free play throughout the day. Observations were chosen as the main approach to “capture” children's voices in their natural settings.

The empirical research brought forth two main ideas, that of children as agents, and how children amplify their voices through play. The reflective part offers the possibility of understanding the intensities and forces when conducting such research and the possibilities of engaging with these.

This paper offers a critique of research aimed at listening to children's voices. The aim is not to limit engagement in researching children's voices but to open, or make complex, such processes.

A region’s transforming care partnership identified that autistic adults without an intellectual disability (ID) may be falling through gaps in services when presenting with a significant emotional and/or behavioural need in the absence of a mental health diagnosis. The region’s intensive support teams (ISTs) for adults with ID therefore piloted a short-term “behavioural support service” for this population. The purpose of this paper is to evaluate this pilot.

This study represents a mixed-methods service evaluation over a four year pilot period. The quantitative component examined referral rates and demographic data of accepted and declined referrals; and length of referral episodes and Health of The Nation Outcomes Scores (HoNOS) for accepted referrals. The qualitative component used thematic analysis to identify key themes relating to reasons for referral, clinical/therapeutic needs, and the models of support that most informed assessments and interventions at individual and systems levels.

The ISTs accepted 30 referrals and declined 53. Most accepted referrals were male (83%), and under 24 years old (57%). Average HoNOS scores were above the thresholds generally associated with hospital admission. Key qualitative themes were: transitional support; sexual risks/vulnerabilities; physical aggression; domestic violence; and attachment, trauma and personality difficulties. Support mostly followed psychotherapeutic modalities couched in trauma, attachment and second- and third-wave cognitive behavioural therapies. Positive Behaviour Support (PBS) did not emerge as a model of preference for service users or professionals.

This project represents one of the first of this type for autistic adults without an ID in the UK. It provides recommendations for future service development and research, with implications for Transforming Care policy and guidance.