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Understanding mental health for health and social care
No full textThe primary focus in health and social care has historically been on physical health and trying to heal physical health problems. However, we now know that having good mental health is very important to what we can do from day to day and our wider relationships with friends, family and the community we live in, which means that focusing on mental health is beneficial to health and social care practice. This chapter presents key issues for health and social care in relation to mental health. It outlines the current context of mental health, two key definitions of mental health, the importance of distinguishing between mental health, mental illness and mental disorder, key mental health legislation and diagnoses, and the significance of mental health stigma. The chapter concludes with a brief outline of key mental health treatments
Introduction: Festivalling with Shakespeare in Craiova 2024
No full textBriefly charting the journey of the Craiova International Shakespeare Festival (CISF) from a post-communist venture, in 1994, to a leading global Shakespeare festival, this introduction examines its 30th anniversary edition, ‘Communities Build Festivals’, both in terms of continuity and innovation, focusing on new programming and community engagement initiatives. It explores the Festival's mission, as articulated by director Vlad Drăgulescu, and its emphasis on a ‘Shakespeare for everyone’ by fostering community building and challenging the traditional roles of audience and artists. Finally, it reflects on how festivals build communities and collaborations, highlighting the CISF's role as a cultural incubator, an international platform, a space for artistic expression and community support, particularly for artists from Ukraine and Moldova, and as a catalyst of new festival initiatives
Ensuring Survival through Business Process Re-Engineering (BPR) in the Manufacturing Industry: The Case of a UK SME
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The British plastics processing industry is facing increasing pressures from competition, new technologies and increasing globalisation. This research investigates how a British family-owned plastics injection mouldings manufacturer uses Business Process Re-engineering (BPR) and Kaizen to ensure improvements in operational performance and their ability to compete with firms from overseas.
Design/Methodology/Approach
This case study investigates the processes of operational performance improvements in the case organisation. Primary data was collected from semi-structured interviews with key experts from the company and document analysis. This identified key themes that were related to strategic decisions to radically redesign their business processes in order to achieve improvements in critical performance indicators.
Findings
The firm’s radical redesign of business processes achieved improvements in critical performance indicators such as cost, quality and service, as well as ensuring their financial and market position in the face of the competition from the Far East and Eastern Europe. Business Process Re-Engineering (BPR) brought transformational change in the key areas of people, process, planning, product, and price. They also took account of the human side of re-engineering by shifting from a top-down autocratic approach to a flat company structure.
Originality
Access to a family-owned Small and Medium Enterprise (SME) offered a rich contextualised knowledge and understanding of BPR implementation practices. These practices are seldom documented in the literature and manufacturing firms find it challenging to implement BPR. The conclusion emphasises the contradictions between general BPR theory and actual practical implementation. One reason for these inconsistencies may be the vast academic differences and lack of consensus as to what constitutes ‘pure’ BPR. This work addresses the paucity of empirical studies of BPR in family-owned SMEs. It also meets calls to investigate the processes of lean manufacturing and continuous improvement (CI) in specific contexts.
Keywords
Kaizen, Business Process Re-engineering, Operational performance, Continuous improvement, Lean manufacturing, Plastics processing, SM
A clarion call to the addiction science community: It's time to resist the anti-scientific policies of the US Trump administration
Get PDFThis editorial is written by a group of 28 present and former editors of peer reviewed scientific journals specializing in the publication of addiction research. The authors have signed this editorial as individuals, not as representatives of any organization. Institutional affiliations are listed to demonstrate the authors' academic credentials.
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Babor, T. F., Adinoff, B., Clark, L., Crockford, D., Demetrovics, Z., Dietze, P., Fallu, J., Gainsbury, S., Gilchrist, G., Gorelick, D. A., Graham, K., Grebely, J., Heim, D., Hellman, M., Laslett, A., McCuistian, C., Miovsky, M., Morojele, N. K., Moskalewicz, J., Obot, I. S., Pates, R., Room, R., Rychert, M., Sultan, A., Treloar, C., Turner, N. E., Wells, S., Williams, E. C., & Witkiewitz, K. (2025). A clarion call to the addiction science community: It's time to resist the anti-scientific policies of the US Trump administration. Journal of Behavioral Addictions, 14(2), 567-570. https://doi.org/10.1556/2006.2025.00033
Babor, T., Adinoff, B., Clark, L., Crockford, D., Demetrovics, Z., Dietze, P., Fallu, J., Gainsbury, S., Gilchrist, G., Gorelick, D., Graham, K., Grebely, J., Heim, D., Hellman, M., Laslett, A., McCuistian, C., Miovsky, M., Morojele, N., Moskalewicz, J., Obot, I., Pates, R., Room, R., Rychert, M., Sultan, A., Treloar, C., Turner, N., Wells, S., Williams, E., and Witkiewitz, K. (2024). A clarion call to the addiction science community: It’s time to resist the anti-scientific policies of the US Trump administration. Alcoholism and Drug Addiction/Alkoholizm i Narkomania, 37(3), pp.133-140. https://doi.org/10.5114/ain.2024.149923
Babor, T. F., Adinoff, B., Clark, L., Crockford, D., Demetrovics, Z., Dietze, P., … Witkiewitz, K. (2025). A clarion call to the addiction science community: it’s time to resist the anti-scientific policies of the US Trump administration. The American Journal of Drug and Alcohol Abuse, 51(5), 535–538. https://doi.org/10.1080/00952990.2025.255513
Development, Rasch Analysis and Validation of the Kidney Symptom Burden Questionnaire (KSB-Q)
No full textBackground
Increasingly, patient-reported outcome measures (PROMs) are used to monitor chronic kidney disease (CKD) symptoms in routine clinical practice. However, such symptom measurement currently requires completion of multiple, often lengthy, PROMs, which may lead to questionnaire fatigue, lower levels of completion and missing data. Moreover, many CKD-specific PROMs lack evidence of important measurement properties and few were developed using contemporary psychometric methods. The study objective was to develop and validate a short-form kidney symptom burden questionnaire (KSB-Q).
Methods
A cross-sectional item pool survey was distributed to adults (≥18years) with CKD stages 3-5 (including individuals not receiving kidney replacement therapy (KRT), those receiving dialysis and those with a functioning kidney transplant) in England (Birmingham, London, Sheffield and Nottingham), March to September 2022. Rasch measurement was used to assess the psychometric properties of the item pool. Cognitive debriefing interviews were conducted to evaluate content validity.
Results
In total, 419/1,464 participants responded (29% response rate), with 28% receiving dialysis and 30% in receipt of a kidney transplant. Rasch analysis indicated that 9 items, 1 for each of 9 symptom domains (fatigue, pain, memory/concentration, poor sleep, skin problems, gastrointestinal problems, dizziness, restless legs and shortness of breath), formed a PROM with strong psychometric properties (including statistically acceptable reliability, test-retest reliability and validity). Cognitive debriefing and survey responses confirmed content validity encompassing relevance, comprehensiveness and clarity.
Conclusions
The KSB-Q is a 9-item PROM measuring somatic symptoms. The KSB-Q demonstrates strong psychometric properties in patients with CKD stages 3-5, including those not receiving KRT, individuals receiving dialysis and those with a functioning kidney transplant
We hear from those teaching Psychology at pre-university level: 'We can make the educational experience not just intellectually enriching but also personally transformative'
No full textEight teachers share how they got their start in and their love for Psychology education
The Impact of Court Orientation and Bout-Ending Mechanism on the External and Internal Loads of Female Basketball Players During Small-Sided Games
No full textThe impact of court orientation and bout-ending mechanism on the external and internal loads of female basketball players during small-sided games. J Strength Cond Res XX(X): 000–000, 2025—The aims were to examine the impact of court orientation and bout-ending mechanism on external and internal loads during small-sided basketball games (SSG) in female players and examine performance-related fatigue associated with SSG formats. Twelve female basketball players participated in 4 SSG formats over a 4-week period. External (measured using local positioning system) and internal (measured using heart rate) load variables were collected. Countermovement jump and 20-m sprint were assessed pre and post each SSG. Each SSG involved 3vs3 and 3 bouts. Small-sided games formats included: (a) fixed time (3 minutes) in half-court orientation (15 × 14 m with 1 basket); (b) fixed time (3 minutes) in stretched-court orientation (7.5 × 28 m with 2 baskets); (c) fixed point (first to 5 points) in half-court orientation; and (d) fixed point (first to 5 points) in stretched-court orientation. Stretched-court SSG formats resulted in significantly greater external loads (p < 0.01, effect size [ES] = 1.89–4.42). Countermovement jump height increased (p < 0.05; ES = 0.40–0.43) across all SSG except the stretched-court fixed-point format, with 20-m sprint time unaffected across all SSG (p ≥ 0.05; ES = 0.11–0.27). Stretched-court 3vs3 SSG formats elicit greater external loads than half-court, whereas fixed-time and fixed-point bout-ending formats yield comparable demands
Integrative educational leadership: Foundations, core concepts and principles for practice
Get PDFThis article explores the notion of integrative educational leadership, explains the ideas that underpin it and sets out the key principles for practice. Integrative educational leadership seeks out, understands, engages with and holds together the full range of individual and organisational characteristics, capabilities and motivations so that the institution can bring its full authority to the institutional primary task. Integrative educational leaders should: work to bring about integration in themselves; aim to develop integration in their teaching colleagues; extend their integrative educational leadership practice to those in the other systems – the students, the administrative staff, parents and other systems in the institution's wider environment; interact with those around them in a way that enables integration; endeavour to create and sustain an inclusive culture where different standpoints/perspectives are valued and included; seek to minimise all social defences; have a clear sense of the institutional primary task; seek to develop a 'holding environment' which works at the personal, inter-personal and the organisational levels and understand the complexity of their leadership environment
Learner Voices, Perspectives, and Positionings: Providing Agency to Empower Learning
No full textThis book explores the multifaceted concept of learner voice in education, emphasising its significance across various contexts and historical periods. It brings together diverse perspectives from multiple authors, addressing how learner agency can shape educational practices and policies, particularly in contemporary settings. The chapters delve into critical themes such as the influence of teachers' beliefs on student learning, the impact of polarisation in our current educational discourse and the historical voices of children in Victorian schools. Notable case studies include a narrative approach to understanding higher education students' experiences and the examination of learner voice within prison education. The book also addresses pressing issues such as the representation of marginalised voices and the importance of inclusive practices in school leadership and curriculum design. Groundbreaking content includes discussions on "epistemic violence", highlighting the need for a more nuanced, considered and critically aware approach to learner representation. This important collection will be essential reading for educational studies students and trainee teachers, as well as educators working in further or higher education. It provides practical insights and theoretical frameworks that constitute a roadmap for strengthening diverse learners' voice and agency, thereby advancing educational equity and inclusion for all