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Identity erasure: women’s experiences of living with domestic violence and abuse
Get PDFThis article explores the process of ‘identity erasure’ that is a feature of domestic violence and abuse. Data are taken from semi-structured narrative-style interviews with 14 women who had experienced abuse from a male partner. I draw on Erving Goffman’s (1968) work on ‘total institutions’. Goffman uses the term ‘mortification’ in describing the attacks on identity and self that occur in ‘total institutions’ such as psychiatric hospitals, prisons and concentration camps. These attacks take the form of: loss of contact with the outside world, ritual degradation, the removal of possessions, and lack of control. Their effect is to erase the inmate’s prior identity, and render them compliant. For the women who participated in this study, their abusers attempted to achieve compliance by adopting many of the tactics that Goffman describes. Drawing on participants’ words, I discuss some of the behaviours adopted by their abusive partners: isolation from support networks, surveillance, deprivation of privacy, and dispossession. I argue that, for women, the home/abusive relationship becomes a total institution. Understanding the abusive household as a ‘total institution’ can help friends, family and professionals to more fully appreciate, and therefore provide women with more appropriate help to overcome, the barriers to leaving
Music at the end of the land: reflections on the Pembrokeshire Music Network
No full textFocussing on a creative network in rural Pembrokeshire (rather than a wider ‘scene’ juxtaposing creativity and ‘fandom’), this chapter examines music as emerging from – and representative of – the people, developed within bounded locales, and involving traditional practices and cultural reproductions, investments and self-reflections (Williams, 1961; Miles, 2019). The research examines an extant, fluid, and occasionally incongruous musical collective dissociated over time and genres, but not necessarily geographical spaces of locale and venues, highlighting a contrast between rural and urban creativity, the strategies of self-empowerment, collective ambition and personal satiation, and the distinctions between what are termed ‘embedded’, ‘parallel’ and ‘ephemeral’ strategies of music-making that highlight both the longevity of the scene and the omnipresent geographical, social and economic forces that continually threaten its existence
Development, acceptability and feasibility of a community-based intervention to increase timely initiation of antenatal care in an area of high ethnic diversity and low socio-economic status in the UK
Get PDFBackground Antenatal care plays an important role in preventing adverse maternal and new-born outcomes. Women from ethnic minority backgrounds and of low socio-economic status are at greater risk of initiating antenatal care later than the recommended 10 weeks. There is a paucity of research exploring the development and evaluation of community-based interventions to increase the timely initiation of antenatal care. Objective To develop and evaluate the acceptability and feasibility of a co-produced community-based intervention to increase uptake of antenatal care in an area with high ethnic diversity and low socio-economic status. Design The intervention was developed using co-production workshops and conversations with 20 local service users and 14 stakeholders, underpinned by the theory of Diffusion of Innovation. The intervention was evaluated, on the domains of acceptability, adoption, appropriateness, and feasibility. Questionnaires (n=36), interviews (n=10), and focus groups (n=13) were conducted among those who received the intervention. Observations (n=13) of intervention sessions were conducted to assess intervention fidelity. Quantitative and qualitative data were analysed using SPSS and NVivo software respectively. Results Over 91% of respondents positively ranked the intervention. Qualitative findings with respect to ‘acceptability’ included four subthemes: how the intervention was communicated, the characteristics of the person delivering the intervention and their knowledge, and the reassurance offered by the intervention. The ‘adoption’ theme included three sub-themes: being informed helps women to engage with antenatal care, the intervention provides information for future use, and onwards conveyance of the intervention information. The ‘appropriateness’ theme included three sub-themes: existing gap in information, nature of information given as part of the intervention, and talking about pregnancy in public. The ‘feasibility’ theme included two sub-themes: value of delivering the intervention in areas of high footfall and relational aspect of receiving the intervention. Observations showed intervention fidelity of 100%. Conclusion The community-based intervention, coproduced with women and maternity care stakeholders, was positively evaluated, and offered an innovative and promising approach to engage and educate women about the timely initiation of antenatal care in an ethnically diverse and socio-economically deprived community
Intersectionality, vulnerability and foot health inequity
Get PDFFoot health and wellbeing in the UK are often overlooked in healthcare. Foot health outcomes are strongly interlinked to the social determinants of health, in that the way these determinants intersect can impact an individual's vulnerability to foot pain and disorders. In this commentary we explore some social determinants that hinder individuals from improving their foot health behaviour and ultimately reducing foot pain and foot disorder vulnerability. We focus on socioeconomic status, gender, disability, age, culture and ethnicity, and footwear quality; we also highlight the potential impact of the Covid-19 pandemic and the cost-of-living crisis on foot health inequities; rises in inflation have resulted in footcare becoming less affordable among vulnerable groups, like those with intellectual disabilities and chronic illness, older people, those living in rural and inner-city communities, and the ethnically and linguistically diverse population living in the UK. There is an urgent need to raise awareness of the social determinants of foot health, their intersectionality, and their impact on foot pain and disorder vulnerability. Despite the Black Report and both Marmot Reviews, little progress has been made in raising this awareness. It is recommended to widen the range of foot health interventions, by including it in GP consultations, developing cultural sensitivity within foot health services, creating more comprehensive educational foot health programmes, and developing a more sustainable footwear industry
A systematic review and thematic synthesis of inpatient nursing staff experiences of working with high-risk patient behaviours
Get PDFIntroduction Nursing staff are frequently exposed to high-risk patient behaviours within inpatient health services, yet staff commonly report a lack of training and support in managing these behaviours.AimThe aim of the study was to examine nursing staff experiences of high-risk behaviours in inpatient mental health settings.MethodsFour electronic databases (CINAHL, Medline, PsycINFO, EMBASE) were searched. The protocol for this review was prospectively registered in PROSPERO (Ref: CRD42022334739). A meta-synthesis of nursing staff's experiences of high-risk behaviours in inpatient mental health settings was conducted.ResultsWe identified 30 eligible studies. Six themes were constructed from the meta-synthesis: the social contract of care; the function of risk behaviours; the expectation of risk; risk as a relational concept; navigating contradictions in care; the aftermath.DiscussionNursing staff conceptualize risk as a meaningful behaviour shaped by patient, staff and environmental factors. Managing risk is an ethical dilemma for nursing staff and they require more training and support in ethical risk decision-making.Implications for PracticeInpatient mental healthcare services should formulate and manage risk as a relational concept comprising staff, patient and environmental factors. Future research and clinical practice should place further consideration on the varied experiences of different types of risk behaviours.Relevance StatementNursing staff are frequently exposed to high-risk patient behaviours within inpatient health services, yet staff commonly report a lack of training and support in managing these behaviours. This systematic review offers insights into how high-risk behaviours are experienced by nursing staff and makes recommendations about how to improve the understanding and management of them. Inpatient mental healthcare services should formulate and manage risk as a relational concept comprising staff, patient and environmental factors. Future research and clinical practice should place further consideration on the varied experiences of different types of risk behaviours
The voice of the victim in police service design
No full textThis research explores how the voices of vulnerable victim-survivors and those experiencing structural inequalities contribute to police service design. The project has four overarching research questions: 1. What processes enable victim-survivor voices to influence and shape service design in policing, i.e. how are victim-survivor voices sought, collected, recorded and reported? 2. What changes are made to service design as a result of victim-survivor voices? 3. What impact do these processes and changes have on victim-survivors and on policing? 4. What needs to be in place for this type of work to be effective
Boosting smarter digital healthcare with 5G and beyond networks
Get PDFWith 5G and beyond on the horizon, ultra-fast and low latency data transmission on the cloud and via the Internet will enable more intelligent and interactive medical and health-care applications. This paper presents a review of 5G technologies and their related applications in the health-care sector. The introduction to 5G technology includes software defined network, 5G architecture and edge computing. The second part of the paper then presents the opportunities provided by 5G to the health-care sector and employs medical imaging applications as central examples to demonstrate the impacts of 5G and the cloud. Finally, this paper summarize the benefits brought by 5G and cloud computing to the health-care sector
Steps towards decolonising contact improvisation in the university
Get PDFTo engage critically in a process of decolonisation is complex in a postcolonial, globalised world in which migration, knowledge exchange, hybridity and fusion are commonplace. What is it to look openly to other cultures for inspiration and guidance while also holding anti-racist decolonising attitudes? How can contact improvisation (CI), for example, be decolonised? How are its foundations in postmodern dance, Buddhism and martial arts made sense of in current contemporary discourses of decolonisation? What is interesting about the development of CI is that despite its roots in the inclusive politics of the 1970s American counterculture, the form is acknowledged as predominantly white and yet it draws heavily upon aikido, and in the approaches developed by Nancy Stark Smith, Tibetan Buddhism. Recent thinking and research invite deeper examination of what it might mean to decolonise CI as a practice for the twenty-first-century curriculum. This chapter discusses the decolonisation of the teaching of CI in the university. When oppressions and obstacles are institutionally and systemically inherent, as with racism, it is not only ethically agile to develop teaching and learning dialogues that deconstruct such oppressions but ethically necessary.</p
Exploring the relationship between digital initiatives, dynamic capabilities and market performance: a conceptual framework
No full textThis chapter delves into the impact of digital initiatives on firms and sheds light on how they can be explained through market reactions and the resource/capabilities mechanism. By providing a novel conceptual framework that reflects the potential impact of digital initiatives on the sensing, seizing and transforming capabilities of dynamic capabilities, this chapter reveals the tremendous potential of digital initiatives to help firms become more adaptive to their environment and create sustainable competitive advantages that elicit positive market responses. This conceptual framework represents an original contribution to the literature. It enhances the understanding of the resource-based view and efficient market hypothesis, providing a fresh perspective on the influence of digital initiatives on firm performance and the dynamic capabilities mechanism that has hitherto been overlooked. As a result, this chapter enables researchers to develop testable hypotheses that examine the causal relationships between digital initiatives, dynamic capabilities and market performance using robust quantitative research methods. Furthermore, this chapter offers valuable insights for managers seeking to develop a more focused approach to digital transformation and enhance their competitive advantage. By exploring the impact of digital initiatives on sensing, seizing and transforming capabilities, managers can gain a deeper understanding of how they can leverage digital initiatives to improve their organisational performance and respond more effectively to the demands of an ever-changing landscape
Generation of visualized medical rehabilitation exercise prescriptions with diffusion models
No full textVisualization of medical rehabilitation exercise prescriptions is to provide a more intuitive and understandable way of conveying medical guidance through visual means. Currently, the generation of visualized medical rehabilitation exercise prescriptions is largely based on the manual use of software for hand drawing. However, not only does this production method exhibit the drawbacks of complexity and high labor costs, but it also suffers from low production efficiency. In this study, we present four novel methods that aim to harness the potential of existing Stable Diffusion to generate visualized medical rehabilitation exercise prescription outputs, as well as to exemplify the generation of visualized rehabilitation exercise prescriptions for frozen shoulders. Experimental results demonstrate that our approaches achieve high-quality and more precise visualized rehabilitation exercise prescriptions
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