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This paper discusses the contribution of systemic family therapy and theory within the context of a statutory community alcohol service. Systemic couples and family therapy is integrated with conventional models of intervention for alcohol related problems. Potential problems and solutions in developing a multi‐modal approach is discussed, primarily establishing well defined pathways and communication between the various facilities within the same service.

Destructive changes in body shape can happen slowly over a long period of time and may affect any person who has difficulty moving efficiently, irrespective of diagnosis or age. Supporting the body in symmetrical supine lying has been found to protect and restore body shape, muscle tone and quality of life for people who would otherwise be left to become static in destructive lying postures. Those described as having complex and continuing health care needs or profound and multiple learning disabilities are likely to be at risk of developing changes in body shape. This article will consider predictable patterns of chest distortion and reduction of internal capacity of the abdomen and thorax with key characteristics for those supporting individuals at risk, non‐invasive measurement of body symmetry as a relevant outcome measure in the effort to protect body shape, the consequences for individuals, their families and service providers, positive feedback from families about the benefits of night positioning, the preventable nature of changes in body shape and the practical steps that may be taken to ensure the safety of the individual. Case studies will be presented which demonstrate that the body is a mobile structure which is vulnerable to distortion but also susceptible to restoration as long as the correct biomechanical forces are applied. It is proposed that therapeutic night positioning is an effective intervention which should be made available to those at risk of body shape distortion from an early age, or as a matter of urgency for those with late onset or temporary immobility.

Purpose – Religious addiction treatment has experienced a rise both in its reach and exposure to attention from medical professionals. Largely autonomous conversion-based programs have received unprecedented support and legitimacy. We investigate “Victory Ministries,”11The organization ‘Victory Ministries’ is a pseudonym. Any resemblance to actual locales of this name or similar is entirely coincidental. All names have been change to protect the identity of the participants. a large Midwestern evangelical rehab facility, exploring the similarities and differences between formulations of addiction-as-disease found in “secular” rehab and the moral binaries that guide Victory's program.

Methodology/approach – Qualitative case study: Interviews and ethnography.

Findings – Working from in-depth interviews, we explore the inner workings of Victory's curriculum and program design, as it transmutes dominant therapeutic concepts and methods into its own Manichaean frame. Aided by superior financial resources and support of a tight-knit network of churches, it delivers its most successful clients into a new life “redeemed by Christ.”

Social implications – Proponents of conversion-based service provision position religious institutions as the primary agents of willing compassion and generosity beyond the family compass, stripping the rest of civil society of any claims to promote the greater good. In Victory's metaphor of “invisible war,” a Manichaean vision is quite explicit. Every definition of recovery and reintegration in terms of conversion and submission to religious authority inherently suggests that substance use stems largely from immorality and that the unsaved in general are sinful and dangerous. By funding a conversion-based shadow welfare apparatus, we argue, the US government is intensifying the criminalization of poverty, the steady downgrading of more inclusive institutions, and ultimately the materialization of Victory's Manichaean vision in a polarized nation.

The purpose of this paper is to describe the role of the expert by experience, and its benefits and challenges.

Review of the relevant literature and a case study has been performed.

The role of the expert by experience is fluid and complex. Staff need to understand the ambiguities of the role.

Experts by experience (XBXs) play an important role in TC practice. They need support and supervision. Staff need to learn about the complexities and fluidity of the role, and to be aware of its transitional position between service user and staff member.

XBXs challenge the binary notion of staff and service user. The role calls for a different relational rather than procedural conceptualisation.

This is the first description of the lived experience of an expert by experience, working in a therapeutic community setting, with the analysis of the helpful and unhelpful aspects of the role.

This paper explores the central role a language interpreter can play in the process of the therapeutic relationship. Although others have described the changes to the therapeutic dyad that the presence of a third party (an interpreter) brings, little attention has been paid to the advantages and additional opportunities of this altered therapeutic situation. This paper details these gains and further argues that clinicians who are willing to gain experience of working with interpreters will find that benefits accrue at the micro and macro levels: at the micro level, through enhancement of their work with individual non English speaking clients, and at the macro level through learning about different cultural perspectives, idioms of distress and the role of language in the therapeutic endeavour. This is in addition to developing skills to fulfil legal and professional requirements relating to equity of service provision. Some ideas are offered to explain the negative slant than runs throughout the literature in this area and tends to colour the overall discussion of therapeutic work with interpreters and, before the final section, makes some specific suggestions which may help maximise the gains possible in such work while reducing difficulties.

Electrochemotherapy (ECT) is an outstanding technique for treatment of tumor nodules which is currently used for treatment of skin metastases, and now it is being developed for treatment of internal organs such as, bone, liver, etc. In this work the authors' goal was finding a simple and proper needles configuration, allowing electroporation of whole cancer cell membranes, possibly minimizing direct cell death of healthy tissue.

This work shows numerical analysis of the ECT of a deep-seated tumor, like in bone tissue of human limb. The tumor is excited by a sequence of square-wave electric pulses (5 kHz), inducing a 1,000 V/cm electric field through a suitable configuration of 30 mm long steel needle electrodes inserted in a part of limb long 20 cm. Treated element is numerically modeled in a very simplified 3D geometry. All materials are assumed as homogeneous, linear and isotropic mediums.

Electrochemotherapy is based on the local application of short and intense electric pulses that transiently permeabilizes neoplastic cells membrane, thus allowing cytotoxicity increase of a chemotherapeutic drug, bleomycin, and reducing its dosage. The local field in target tissues depends on geometry and position of electrodes, that have to be placed according cancer shape and size, and excited by electric pulses of opportune amplitude. Current efforts are aimed to test whether electric pulses can be applied to bone through invasive needles without affecting the recovery of osteogenetic activity.

The results of the simulation study can help to establish the appropriate geometric and electric setup for treatment of bone metastases in clinical ECT trials. This paper reports results from different needles configurations and show that a proper needle positioning allows complete electroporation of the whole tumor

The purpose of this paper is to present a study assessing residents’ satisfaction with the integration of natural environment in public housing designs in Enugu urban, Nigeria.

The study followed qualitative and quantitative strategies. Personal observations and one-on-one interviews were conducted where necessary. A survey of 898 households residing in two main prevalent residential building typologies, systematically selected based on quota of their existence in seven public housing estates, was conducted, with a questionnaire as the key data collection instrument. A five-point Likert scale was used in measuring residents’ level of satisfaction of three key housing environment sub-components. Data collected were analyzed using descriptive statistics.

Residents expressed dissatisfaction with overall housing estate environment in terms of naturalness in the estate landscaping and availability of green areas, and also with immediate dwelling unit environments in terms open spaces and naturalness in external finishes. Many of the residents, however, claimed to be indifferent about the extent of response of layout designs to natural factors, and street layout concepts to climatic influences. This reveals a high level of apathy of residents to their estates designs.

Collecting relevant data from the government agency that are the providers of the public housing studied was a herculean task, as there was no existing organized data bank. Consequently, the researcher depended more on extensive field work. In addition to the above, getting the questionnaire respondents to agree to participate in the study was another major challenge, as they were not used to participating in such studies before the current study.

Findings from the study imply that residents’ are adaptable to whatever housing environment they are provided with; therefore, therapeutic housing environment, if provided, would enhance healthy living for public housing residents in Nigeria.

This work is a pioneering effort at evaluating public housing environment in the study area in relation to residents’ perception.

Discusses some aspects of power and powerlessness of contemporary leaders from four different areas of experiences: psychoanalysis, therapeutic communities, Tavistock conferences on group relations, and as a consultant in organisations. Some common trends of narcissism from these areas are seen and it is concluded that the importance for leaders to be able to combine rationality and emotionality, strength and weakness, and the male and female part in us – that is, to be complete human beings – is paramount.

Even though there is much information available with regard to the development of the therapeutic community (TC) for addictions in Europe, little is known about the particular situation in Denmark.The paper aims to discuss this issue.

In order to address this dearth, the methodology of the following historical account is largely based on an interview and personal contacts with Hanne Holm Hage-Ali, current director of TC Opbygningsgården and star witness of the development of TC in Denmark.

In 1971, the Freetown “Christiania”, Copenhagen, where TC Opbygningsgården started up, was based on communal, anarchic and hippie ideas and values. In the beginning, TC Opbygningsgården was not well accepted by TC pioneers promoting the classic hierarchical TC, as it was seen as a social experiment with anti-authoritarian roots. Later, in its turn, it became influenced by TCs Veksthuset and Phoenix House Haga, Norway, which were part of the common European TC movement. At this moment, TC Opbygningsgården functions as a well-accepted member of the European Federation of Therapeutic Communities.

The interview revealed information that it is line with current trends in and challenges for TC throughout Europe, as outlined in a recent EMCDDA study: TC in Europe can be considered as “children of the late sixties”; TCs are embedded in the anti-psychiatric movement, existentialism and the promotion of alternative community living; European TC leaders had different origins and professional background; and the TC never belonged to one religion or ideology. The common human value system always transcended the different visions.

This paper aims at addressing the dearth in knowledge on the development of TCs in Denmark.

As the use of drugs and alcohol by clients accessing mental health services becomes increasingly common, members of staff working within psychiatric inpatient areas often encounter drug and alcohol misuse among their client group. The safe and effective management of this issue has become a priority for many inpatient services. This paper outlines a policy for the management of substance misuse on psychiatric inpatient wards developed by Manchester Mental Health and Social Care Trust. The fundamental principles underpinning the policy are highlighted, and the key sections of the policy are described. There is a detailed description of how the policy has been applied in practice by members of staff working on inpatient wards, with clinical examples being presented.