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Elder abuse results in high rates of morbidity and mortality. It has longstanding physical and psychological effects and is difficult to detect. Due to fear or embarrassment, victims may make attempts to hide it rather than to disclose and professionals are often reluctant to report it as they may worry about worsening a situation. If detected early enough, serious harm can be prevented and lives saved. Screening and screening tools can assist health and social care practitioners to detect abuse. This review of screening tools was undertaken as part of an MSc in clinical research, funded by the National Institute for Health Research; the purpose of this paper is to report on the review and its findings.

This was a systematic review with eligibility inclusion and exclusion criteria decided in advance. Keywords and their synonyms were combined and then used to search health and social care databases. Data items were collected from the included studies. The preferred reporting item for systematic reviews and meta-analysis was followed for the reporting of the results. A narrative synthesis approach was applied to the analysis.

A total of 34 full text studies were downloaded, read and analysed. In all, 11 met the inclusion criteria and were included in the final analysis. Of these, three studies reported sensitivity and specificity, with the remainder reporting validity and reliability testing. In total, 12 tools of varying length and quality were found. The length and characteristics of tools affects the efficacy of their use. The clinical environment will determine choice of screening tool to be used. Screening tools should be used within an overall system of detection and management of abuse.

The synthesis of results was challenging due to the lack of homogeneity between the included studies. The variations in tool characteristics and qualities added to this challenge. A further limitation was the lack of a gold standard tool in elder abuse.

This systematic review highlights a lack of robust evidence in the development and validation of screening tools to detect elder abuse. Though there is an increasing awareness and knowledge about elder abuse, its detection remains problematic and the lack of research in this area is worth emphasising. Specific tools, centred on the clinical setting in which they are used, are recommended.

This article reports on a national project being developed by the Royal National Institute of the Blind. It is aimed at improving health and social care for older people with sight problems, by focusing on some of the standards of the National Service Framework for older people and applying them to older people with sight problems. The project will identify, develop and disseminate good practice by establishing two pilot sites and conducting desk research.

White nationalist groups have recently been at the forefront of American sociopolitical life, as demonstrated by the events in Charlottesville, Virginia in 2017. The purpose of this paper is to explore the historical roots and various waves of the Ku Klux Klan (KKK).

This paper offers high school teachers age-appropriate, evocative texts and disciplinary-specific, engaging tasks organized in a guided inquiry on the KKK, America’s most prominent hate organization.

Students are positioned to utilize newly-constructed understandings to take informed action on the local, state and national level.

Recently-published research has explored late-nineteenth century and early-twentieth century manifestations of the Klan, but not mid-twentieth and twenty-first century outbursts.

To describe the role one classroom writing community played in shaping students’ understandings of the analytical writing genre; and to discuss the impact the community had on students’ developing academic writing identities.

While research has demonstrated the impact of classroom writing communities on student writing practices and identities at the elementary level (Dyson, 1997) and for secondary students engaged in fiction writing (Halverson, 2005), less is known about the role classroom writing communities may play for secondary students who are learning to write in academic discourses. This chapter explores the practices of one such classroom community and discusses the ways the community facilitated students’ introduction to the discourse of analytical writing.

The teacher turned the classroom writing community into an authentic audience, and in so doing, he developed students’ understandings of the analytical writing genre and their growing identities as academic writers. First, he used the concept of immediate audience (i.e., writing to persuade real readers) as the primary rationale for students to follow the outlined expectations for analytical writing. Second, he used inquiry discussions around student work (i.e., interacting with other members of the writing community) to prepare students for a future audience of prospective independent school English classrooms.

By turning the classroom writing community into an authentic audience through inquiry discussions, teachers can develop students’ deep and flexible understandings of a potentially unfamiliar writing genre. Furthermore, by employing the classroom writing community as a support for moving students through moments of struggle, teachers implicate students’ expertise as academic writers, thereby facilitating their willingness to take on academic writing identities.

This chapter draws on data from an empirical study investigating ethical challenges and dilemmas in inclusive classrooms in order to consider the ways in which such issues may impact the effective implementation and measurement of inclusion. Data from interviews conducted with 12 classroom teachers show that teachers frequently face ethical problems in their practice. Most concerning are those related to the discriminatory behaviors and practices of colleagues. While teachers acknowledge that these behaviors and practices disadvantage students, most elect to compromise their beliefs, professional responsibilities, and ethical principles in order to protect fellow professionals for fear of negative reprisals. Electing loyalty to colleagues over the best interests of students raises questions regarding the measurement of inclusive education. Responses on measurement tools may reflect a desire for teachers to protect colleagues or themselves, providing an inaccurate picture of the situation. On the other hand, honest responses to measurement initiatives may come at the expense of collegial relationships, potentially undermining the very inclusive practices such measurement processes are trying to encourage.

Formulaic in both their narrative and character development, buddy-cop films are unique in their ability to present ideas about masculinity and the journey towards manhood without sacrificing the likeability or relatability of their male leads. The focus of this chapter is how aspects of masculinity are depicted when there are two or more male protagonists in an action film. Examples I have selected for analysis are the highly successful franchises Beverly Hills Cop (1984–1993) and Lethal Weapon (1987–1998). In the case of Beverly Hills Cop, the male dynamic is unique in that there are a trio of male leads (as opposed to the traditional duo), each of which depicts masculinity in different ways, often resulting in the lead characters jostling for the role of the alpha-male. In contrast, the Lethal Weapon franchise explores the dynamics of age and the importance of mateship and mentoring in the construction of relationships between men. In both examples the necessity of vulnerability in the dynamic of solid man-to-man peer relationships is also paramount. The enduring popularity of these films and their subsequent sequels is indicative of the fact that while pop-cultural ideas around masculinity may be in a constant state of flux, elements of the stereotypical action hero remain prominent.

Discussions about the male action hero will be informed by Susan Jeffords Hard Bodies (1994), while concepts of maturing will be explored through the lens of Joseph Campbell's construct of the Hero's Journey and Carl Jung's archetypes, which, as I will demonstrate, are central components of the relationship dynamics present in each film.

The purpose of this paper is to argue for the widening of attention in healthcare improvement efforts, to include an awareness of the humanity of people who work in the sector and an appreciation of the part human connection plays in engagement around good quality work. Theoretical frameworks and research approaches which draw on action-based, interpretive and systemic thinking are proposed, as a complement to current practices.

The paper describes the early stages of an action research (AR) project, which used the appreciative inquiry “4D” framework to conduct participative inquiry in Hamad Medical Corporation’s ambulance service in Qatar, in which staff became co-researchers.

The co-researchers were highly motivated to work with improvement goals as a result of their participation in the AR. They, and their managers, saw each other and the work in new ways and discovered that they had much to offer.

This was a small-scale pilot project, from which findings must be considered tentative. The challenges of establishing good collaboration across language, culture and organisational divides are considerable.

Appreciative and action-oriented inquiry methods can serve not only to find things out, but also to highlight and give value to aspects of humanity in the workplace that are routinely left invisible in formal processes. This, in turn, can help with quality improvement.

This paper is a challenge to the orthodox way of viewing healthcare organisations, and improvement processes within them, as reliant on control rather than empowerment. An alternative is to actively include the agency, sense-making capacity and humanity of those involved.