Search results

People with intellectual disabilities experience poorer health outcomes than the general population, and a significantly increased risk of mental health comorbidity. Their access to healthcare has been consistently shown as inadequate, and their access to mental health support is still largely wanting. Adequate training and education should improve these shortcomings but there is limited evidence available as to the best way to achieve this. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

This paper reports on the co-production and co-delivery of a simulation training course to support healthcare professionals to provide care for people with intellectual disabilities, with a particular focus on their mental health needs. This training was designed with actors with intellectual disabilities, who participated as simulated patients in scenarios during the course and subsequently provided feedback on their experience.

This paper focusses on the positive experiences of the simulated patients, reporting on and interpreting their direct feedback on their experience of contributing to the development and delivery of the course and being involved as co-educators.

It is highlighted that the co-production and delivery of this simulation training with people with intellectual disabilities has the potential to realise some of the key principles called upon when attempting to improve how they are treated, by illustrating concrete participation, independence, and access to fulfilling lives. The value and benefits of interprofessional education to achieve these educational aims is further highlighted, particularly for the potential to generate a sense of shared responsibility within mainstream services in caring for people with intellectual disabilities.

The purpose of this paper is to discuss the role of education and training in addressing health inequalities in intellectual disabilities, before examining innovative approaches to healthcare education. Preliminary findings of a simulation training course to support healthcare professionals to work with people with intellectual disability are then presented.

This study employed a mixed methods design to assess the impact of the simulation course. Quantitative data were collected using the Healthcare Skills Questionnaire and a self-report confidence measure; qualitative data were collected using post-course survey with free text responses to open questions.

Healthcare skills and confidence showed statistical improvements from pre- to post-course. Qualitative analyses demonstrated that participants perceived improvements to: attitudes, communication skills, reasonable adjustments, interprofessional and multi-disciplinary working, knowledge of key issues in working with people with intellectual disabilities.

Encouraging findings imply that simulation training to address health inequalities in intellectual disabilities is a valuable resource that merits further development. This training should be rolled out more widely, along with ongoing longitudinal evaluation via robust methods to gauge the impact on participants, their workplaces, and people with intellectual disabilities.

The authors believe this paper to be the first to assess an interprofessional, high-fidelity simulation course, using actors as simulated patients to address the mental and physical health needs of people with intellectual disabilities. The rigorous use of co-production and co-delivery, alongside promising findings for this training method, represent a useful contribution to the literature.

Authenticity is a key issue in any study of subcultures or groups who define themselves as alternative. I will discuss three different stages of research about ‘alternative’ women, with interviews conducted in the late 1990s, and then return interviews with some of the original participants in 2010 and 2018. At all three stages of data collection, the participants were at pains to place themselves as distanced or marginalized from the mainstream, by choice, articulated in various ways. At the same time, they placed themselves as being authentic or at the centre, with people they termed as part-timers, newbies, tourists and weekenders existing on the periphery and at the margins. How do they measure their place in the hierarchy, and whose hierarchy is it? The chapter asks, what is authenticity in alternative subcultures, why is it so important that such marginalized groups are authentic (to themselves, as well as to outsiders), and how do they achieve it. The chapter also explores how ageing and gender impacts on the participants’ identities as alternative women.

This essay asks: How can we understand and theorise the impacts of robots and Artificial Intelligence (AI) on everyday life based on Radical Humanism? How can Lefebvre's ideas be used to reveal the ideological character of contemporary accounts of the impacts of robots and AI on society? It engages with rather unknown works of the Radical Humanist Henri Lefebvre on the sociology and philosophy of technology such as Vers le cybernanthrope (Towards the Cybernanthrope). Foundations of a Lefebvrian, dialectical, Radical Humanist approach to the sociology and philosophy of technology are presented. This essay introduces Lefebvre's notion of the cybernanthrope and sets it in relation to robots and AI in contemporary society. Based on Lefebvre's critique of the cybernanthrope, this chapter develops foundations of the ideology critique of robots and AI in digital capitalism. It discusses examples of technological deterministic and social constructivist thought in the context of robotics, AI, and cyborgs and argues for an alternative, Lefebvrian, dialectical approach. This essay situates Humanism in the context of computing, AI and robotics. The chapter advances a Lefebvrian Radical Humanism by engaging in analyses of AI and robots in Post-humanism, Transhumanism, techno-deterministic approaches, social construction of technology approaches, techno-optimism, techno-pessimism, acceleratonism, the mass unemployment hypothesis and Spike Jonze's movie Her. This chapter shows that the major lesson we can learn from the Radical Humanist sociology of technology and Henri Lefebvre's works on technology is that Radical Humanism helps creating and sustaining technologies for the many, not the few. This insight remains of high relevance in the age of digital capitalism, smart robots and AI.

For some, gender remains a mechanism of marginalization within mainstream popular culture because of expectations concerning what femininity and masculinity entail. This marginalization refers both broadly to the way girls/women are marginalized as well as the marginalization of those boys/men who fail to conform to societal gendered expectations. If alternativity is synonymous with resistance to this mainstream popular culture it would be logical to then assume that alternative spaces could provide opportunities for pursuing alternative understandings of gender. But to what extent does empirical work support this proposition? Are alternative spaces created or used in ways which envision gender differently to hegemonic discourses concerning femininity/masculinity? Or do normative gendered beliefs and practices prevail? This chapter will critically explore these questions through a number of alternative spaces, drawing out key themes and emerging gaps. This exploration will take the subcultural work of the Birmingham Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies as its starting point, acknowledging the limitations of such work in theorising gender within alternative spaces, before exploring what empirical work across a number of subcultural spaces ‘offers’ in relation to gender. Before concluding the chapter will, more briefly, consider a relatively more recent consideration of online alternative spaces.

This chapter focuses on the problematic relationship between heavy metal and gender politics. While metal may be deemed as being an ‘alternative’ subculture, metal still ‘uses’ women in the same way as ‘normal’ society. Despite the nature of metal as counterculture, women’s images and morality are often inverted but not subverted and it is this nuance that we wish to explore: for example, the use of Mary, Mother of God, in ‘Amen’ by black metal band Behemoth, where though her image is a challenge to convention, she is still ‘used’ as emblems for male political ideology. In the textuality of heavy metal music, women appear as mothers (both good and bad), fetishised whores, mother earth and sexualised virgins. Where modern open sexuality is ‘praised’, anything less so is mocked. Though this ‘praise’ may come across as positive, it is nevertheless still ascribing morality/immorality/virtue to women’s bodies in a way that is not done with men. In this discussion, we will use examples of texts from metal bands who reference women, imagery associated with band merchandise as well as comments from the performers themselves (such as Dee Snider’s approval of the lyrics of ‘We’re Not Gonna Take It’ being associated with the Women’s March on Washington) to investigate the place of the female body in this cultural representation. By using textual critical analysis, we show that women in metal are still having morality written on their bodies, bringing to light the debatable nature of metal being deemed as ‘alternative’ when it comes to gender.

This chapter seeks to compare and contrast two compelling portrayals of the bisexual or ‘gender-blind’ vampire: The Hunger (1983) and American Horror Story: Hotel (2015). These texts present a number of notable differences. They were released over 30 years apart and they also diverge markedly in form: Hotel is a 12-episode television serial, whilst The Hunger is a tight 97-minute-feature film. Whilst these differences highlight shifts in the format of horror more broadly, they also facilitate the reflection on whether the portrayal of the bisexual vampire has dramatically shifted alongside these changes. Such a reflection is ripe with potential given that in addition to their differences, both texts also share significant aesthetic and narrative similarities. Both Hotel and The Hunger foreground performativity and feature female protagonists who defy heteronormative understandings of gender and sexuality. Undoubtedly, Hotel can be read as an aesthetic homage to The Hunger. However, whether Hotel also echoes some of the more conservative aspects of the earlier film’s politics is a more complex question. Focusing on the ways that these female vampire protagonists, as well as a selection of their lovers and victims, are gendered, this chapter will illuminate a number of developments and lingering issues in the ways that horror depicts (or circumvents) complex facets of the relationship between bisexuality and gender.

Purpose: This study aims to employ bibliometric analysis to condense multiple studies into a single publication that not only gives insights into the growth and advancement of the research area but also establishes a future research agenda. This study provides a summary of advances in academic research on money laundering. The research includes bibliometric analysis and visualisation of bibliographic data using the Scopus database. The results of the study show that there has been a significant increase in the number of publications in the field of money laundering research, with topics focussed on specific areas. This study will also benchmark existing and preliminary themes, designs, and methodological choices for future money laundering research.

Methodology: With the help of the ‘visualisation of similarities’ (VOS) viewer open-source software, bibliometric analysis was performed using Scopus data. Citation analysis, topic mapping, country collaboration, co-citation analysis, and keyword co-occurrence analysis are some of the approaches used in bibliometric analysis.

Findings: Based on a bibliometric analysis of 1,391 research papers retrieved from the Scopus database over the past three decades (1990–2021), the study identified the most prominent authors, studies, journals, affiliations, and countries in the field of money laundering, as well as the most co-cited authors and journals. The writers also highlight future study issues in the field of money laundering.

Practical implications: The study’s findings might provide academics and practitioners with information on the present state of money laundering research and trend subjects. It can also be used as a guideline for identifying possible research gaps in the existing literature.