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Measures introduced to mitigate the spread of coronavirus-19 (COVID-19) may have contributed to an increase in waiting times for face-to-face psychological treatments. As adults with intellectual disabilities (ID) are more likely to encounter barriers when accessing remote therapies, it is important they receive appropriate support while waiting. To understand what care is needed, this service evaluation [aimed to] explored the experiences of service users with ID who have waited for treatment during the pandemic.

Seven individuals who had been waiting for psychological therapy during the COVID-19 pandemic, which included those waiting longer than the national health service target of 18 weeks, were interviewed. Data were analysed using framework analysis.

The following four key themes were identified: waiting has been “painful”, related to how service users continued to experience difficulties whilst they waited; tolerating the wait, highlighted that individuals understood the reasons for waiting; use of coping strategies where service users identified both internal and external strategies they had used to cope; and support and contact from the learning disability team, related to how individuals experienced the support they received from the service.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this service evaluation is the first to explore the experiences of service users with ID waiting for psychological therapy during the Covid-19 pandemic. Results guide suggestions on improving support whilst they are waiting to help prevent further decline.

This chapter argues the importance of ritualised family occasions in the moral economy of intergenerational families. The chapter draws on 34 semi-biographical interviews with 13 men and 21 women aged 20–90, focussing on stories about troubled or failed rituals. The analysis shows that family members depend on the support and recognition of each other to maintain their moral identities. Ritualised occasions work as magnifying glasses, focussing and intensifying the ongoing relationship work, and forcing family members to take stock and signpost the state of their social bond, and as cultural reference points, providing a window into normative expectations of how parents and adult children should perform relatedness.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of packaging design on purchasing decisions in hospitals and to identify inefficiencies in the US hospital supply chain. Recognition of inefficiencies helped to directly relate to the effects on critical factors of operation such as environment, traceability, and logistical ease which significantly add to the cost of health care.

A survey instrument was designed to be completed by purchasing agents in US hospitals and clinics. Statistical analysis was then applied to the survey data to draw inferences. In addition, existing studies of best practices of supply chain and packaging design were considered to determine what may be applied to the US hospital supply chains.

Analysis showed very little correlation between packaging requirements and hospital supply chain design. The data from the survey also supports the supply chain literature that the healthcare industry in the USA has been slow to adopt inventory efficient systems like just in time and lean development, including product tracking through bar coding and radio frequency identification devices; though most US hospitals have the capability to migrate to such a supply chain system.

A small number of respondents were involved in the survey. Such efforts were limited by the availability of participants which were primarily supply chain procurement staff in various large community hospitals in major metropolitan areas across the USA.

There is a substantial opportunity for management of hospitals to educate their purchasing agents on the benefits of collaborating with their suppliers in order to take their relationships to the next level to lower costs of the US hospital supply chain. This has been shown by the responses in support of critical factors of the supply chain. Case studies have shown some hospitals are leading the way towards efficient use of their supply chain strategies.

Analysis of survey data revealed that packaging and environmental friendly suppliers/medical products do not currently play a role in hospital purchasing decisions. Nearly, all of the community hospitals in the USA that participated in the survey do not value packaging as providing a means to a more efficient inventory management program.

The Equal Pay Act 1970 (which came into operation on 29 December 1975) provides for an “equality clause” to be written into all contracts of employment. S.1(2) (a) of the 1970 Act (which has been amended by the Sex Discrimination Act 1975) provides:

Recently, Managed Alcohol Programs (MAPs have emerged as an alcohol harm reduction model for those living with severe alcohol use disorder (AUD) and experiencing homelessness. There is still a lack of clarity about the role of these programs in relation to Housing First (HF) discourse. The authors examine the role of MAPs within a policy environment that has become dominated by a focus on HF approaches to addressing homelessness. This examination includes a focus on Canadian policy contexts where MAPs originated and are still predominately located. The purpose of this paper is to trace the development of MAPs as a novel response to homelessness among people experiencing severe AUD and to describe the place of MAPs within a HF context.

This conceptual paper outlines the development of discourses related to persons experiencing severe AUD and homelessness, with a focus on HF and MAPs as responses to these challenges. The authors compare the key characteristics of MAPs with “core principles” and values as outlined in various definitions of HF.

MAPs incorporate many of the core values or principles of HF as outlined in some definitions, although not all. MAPs (and other housing/treatment models) provide critical housing and support services for populations who might not fit well with or who might not prefer HF models.

The “silver bullet” discourse surrounding HF (and harm reduction) can obscure the importance of programs (such as MAPs) that do not fully align with all HF principles and program models. This is despite the fact that MAPs (and other models) provide critical housing and support services for populations who might fall between the cracks of HF models. There is the potential for MAPs to help fill a gap in the application of harm reduction in HF programs. The authors also suggest a need to move beyond HF discourse, to embrace complexity and move toward examining what mixture of different housing and harm reduction supports are needed to provide a complete or comprehensive array of services and supports for people who use substances and are experiencing homelessness.

Career management research and literature has been slow to respond to the rise of the gig economy. Perhaps in part due to the temporal, flexible and shifting nature of the gig economy, there could be an assumption that the boundaryless and protean career management models that have dominated careers thinking for nearly 30 years retain and extend their applicability. However, whilst there is clear resonance with discourses such as boundaryless, portfolio and protean careers within the gig economy, this chapter will argue these models cannot adequately address female career management experiences. Through a feminist poststructuralist and intersectional lens, the concept of the frayed career is advocated as a more useful approach for understanding the impact of gender and intersecting subject positions on career management experiences. With growing numbers of women employed in the gig economy and in addressing calls for a greater focus on gender and intersecting identities on the experiences of gig work, this chapter analyses the role of gender, ethnicity and class and career management outcomes in the gig economy amongst Human Resources professionals. The frayed career concept is used to demonstrate how gig work can be incorporated into the rhythmicity of a career and how shifting intersectional positions can reveal alternative discourses of privilege and precarity from the otherwise assumed position of multiple disadvantage. In doing so there is an opportunity to reflect on appropriate career management guidance for women in the gig economy beyond the dichotomous positions of privilege or disadvantage and career solutions based on Westernised linear career ideals.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the perspectives of local residents regarding the impact of the long-duration Hazelwood open cut coal mine fire in rural Australia.

A qualitative approach was undertaken involving 27 in-depth interviews with adults who lived in the town of Morwell, immediately adjacent to the coal mine fire.

Participant concerns focussed upon fear and confusion during the event, the perceived health effects of the smoke, anger towards authorities and loss of a sense of community and sense of security. One of the significant ways in which people managed these responses was to normalise the event. The long duration of the event created deep uncertainty which exaggerated the impact of the fire.

Understanding the particular nature of the impact of this event may assist the authors to better understand the ongoing human impact of long-duration disasters in the future.

It is important to provide clear and understandable quality information to residents during and after such disasters.

While there is an extensive literature exploring the direct social and psychological impacts of acute natural disasters, less qualitative research has been conducted into the experiences of longer term critical events.

In this chapter, I suggest that Connecticut’s and other states’ recent discontinuation of civil unions in the name of marriage “equality” marginalizes and demeans marriage – rejecting people who may nonetheless wish to codify their intimate partnerships – for purposes of legal “incidents,” including rights and privileges, like hospital visitation rights, testimonial privilege, inheritance rights, etc. In doing so, I also call for a rejuvenation of the practice of granting civil union licenses in these states.