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“I’m able to function better when I know there’s a beginning and an end time”: Autistic adolescents’ experiences of lockdowns during the Covid-19 pandemic
Get PDFBackground and Aims: Survey research indicates that autistic children and young people experienced high levels of anxiety and isolation during lockdowns in response to the Covid-19 pandemic. Meanwhile, qualitative studies suggest that there may have been some benefits in the switch to home learning for this population. However, the majority of evidence to date comes from parent reports; the current study aimed to triangulate the perspectives of autistic youth and their parents in order to more fully understand the impact of periods of lockdown on education, relationships and wellbeing. Methods: Thirteen semi-structured interviews were conducted (six with adolescents; seven with parents) to explore the experiences a group of autistic youth aged 13 to 14 years (Year 9 of mainstream education in England) during a period of intermittent lockdown. Data were analysed using reflexive thematic analysis. Results: Two broad themes capturing commonality and diversity in the adolescents’ experiences of lockdown were developed. (1) ‘Different stress, not less stress’ encapsulates the finding that, despite the enforced removal from the school environment providing short-term relief, new stressors contributed to consistently high levels of anxiety for the young people throughout lockdown periods. Stressors included managing home-school within the family unit, navigating time without boundaries, and anxiety about the virus. (2) ‘A shrunken world’ reflects the heightened impact of losing access to meaningful social relationships, extracurricular pursuits, and health-promoting activities for autistic youth. Discussion: The early stages of the global response to the Covid-19 pandemic caused serious disruption to education for many children and young people globally; our findings provide further evidence that the impact was particularly salient for autistic youth in terms of social isolation, lost learning and heightened anxiety. Implications: These findings underscore the necessity of long-term support for the education, social needs and mental health of autistic young people in the aftermath of lockdowns in response to Covid-19
The Total Mountain: Nan Shepherd and the Virtual Qualities of Landscape
Get PDFThe work of author Nan Shepherd explores the relationships between nature, culture, landscape, and body. Increasingly regarded as an important figure in early 20th-century Scottish literature for her poetry and fiction, Shepherd’s work received renewed attention following the re-publication (in 2009) of her nonfiction treatise The Living Mountain, and its celebration by writers such as Robert MacFarlane. A meditation on place that draws upon experiences of the Cairngorm mountains in Scotland, Shepherd explores the different ways in which the environment and body meet, affording multiple ‘ways in’ to the plateau. This chapter develops her notion of ‘the total mountain,’ introduced within The Living Mountain, as a concept figuring the ‘virtual’ in an ontology and epistemology of landscape: always excessive and alive with potential
Exploring the perspectives of ‘young adults’ (18–24) who have been in formal care and their experiences of attending a socially prescribed community allotment gardening group
Get PDFIntroduction:Young adults who have experienced periods of time being ‘in care’ are one of the most socially deprived populations within society, with their needs largely unmet and often not fully understood. Despite the significant attempts to invest in community-based ‘social prescribing’ interventions to address such health inequalities, there is a dearth of understanding regarding how such occupation-based community groups are experienced by this particular population. This UK based qualitative study aimed to explore the experiences of young adult ‘Care Leavers’ regarding their participation in a socially prescribed community gardening group.
Method:Semi-structured online interviews were conducted with six young care leavers aged between 18 and 24 years who regularly participated in a community gardening group. Interviews were recorded transcribed verbatim and analysed Braun and Clarke’s Thematic Analysis process by two researchers to maximise validity.
Findings:Four key themes emerged: ‘Social belonging and connection’, ‘A safe space’, ‘Sense of achievement from active engagement’ and ‘The facilitatory aspects of nature’. The findings suggested nature-based co-occupation within a local group, enhanced social capital, self-identity and wellbeing.
Conclusion:This study supports the emerging scope of using community occupation-based interventions with young adult ‘Care Leavers’ and offers an insight into their particular needs.
Keywords
Community, social prescribing, young adults, care leavers, gardening, occupation-based intervention
Mapping the importance of place, identity and local ways of knowing
Get PDFThis chapter draws on empirical research carried out over a two-year period in a small coastal secondary school in the North of England. Tracing the trajectory of the academisation project in English schools, the chapter begins with an exploration of the conditions that being subject to a ‘forced academy order’ brings. Set against a background of policy which, it is argued, privileges the neoliberal ideals of competition and individualism, we see an erasure of space and place as the academy trust, which takes over the school, seeks to both regulate and colonise. Through the voices of both students and teachers, this chapter develops a counternarrative as it examines the ontological connection to place experienced by the school community. The chapter reflects upon how such a connection to place can inform pedagogy through understanding personal geographies. It leads to a questioning of whether the curriculum addresses and enables physical and emotional space for local connections and landscapes to be formed. It then offers a framework for teachers to harness concepts related to place and local ways of in their own teaching and learning
A new mode of control: an actor-network theory account of effects of power and agency in establishing education policy
Get PDFIn this paper, I argue that power promised to England’s teachers bythe 2010‘Importance of Teaching’white paper has rather playedout as a reformulation of methods of policymaking to moreindirect modes of government control. I trace the growth ofgovernment control in English schools, promised front-line powerin 2010 and a rise in non-statutory guidance after this point.Taking an actor–network theory approach to ethnographic data Ithen describe how a school takes up one such non-statutoryeducational initiative–‘Maths Mastery’. Focusing on early stagesof the school’s adoption of the initiative, I trace associations ofactors which problematize existing practices for the teaching ofmaths and how the initiative is imbued with authority in relationto these. I argue that the ways in which certain actors–statutoryeducation policy and government funding–associate with the‘optional’initiative reveals a‘back door’control of teacher agency
The Punk, the Rebel, and the Cowboy: Queering Masculine Spaces in Patti Smith's memoirs
No full textIn Patti Smith’s memoirs, the figure of the cowboy first appears in Just Kids (2010). Robert Mapplethorpe and Smith both refer to cowboys in their works and apply the familiar outlaw tropes to themselves as artists. In M Train (2015), the cowboy manifests as a recurring character. He is no longer merely conceptual and is a more fully developed element of Smith’s imagination as she incorporates dreams with reality. In this article I will argue that Smith takes a conservative, masculine figure and usurps his mythical identity. The cowboy acts as a vessel for Smith to transcend consciouses.
Just like the cowboy, Smith is striving towards a new frontier – firstly in her music as a pioneering woman in punk and secondly in her reshaping of the music memoir genre. The music memoir genre is a male-dominated arena, similar to the music industry it represents. Since 2010, Smith has innovated the genre and marked the start in the rise of women’s rock memoirs.
Patti Smith crosses conscious and unconscious realms to merge her creative life with mundane reality. Dancing through literature, dreams, and personal milestones in her writing, Smith presents the layers of consciousness that create a person and place. Mixing fiction and reality in her memoirs mirrors the bricolage aesthetic of punk. In each memoir, Smith brings these elements together to curate a version of herself to present to her reader.
Smith takes fragments of the cowboy identity and creates her own version who subverts patriarchal heteronormativity. Smith claims authority in male-dominated spaces, both in her art and who she classifies as her role models, therefore queers a masculine space. By using the existing masculine culture surrounding the cowboy, she tears it up and reattaches it to create a portal to her psyche
‘I guess the ending is the price you pay’. Working at relational depth in a seven‐session model: The impact of regular planned endings on counsellors
Get PDFBackground: Evidence suggests that the quality of the therapeutic relationship impacts the outcome of therapy, with the ending phase having the potential to elicit painful and difficult emotions. There is limited research on this phase of the therapeutic relationship. Aims: The study aimed to explore the lived experiences of counsellors when ending with clients in short‐term planned settings those relationships in which they have worked at relational depth. Method: Interpretative phenomenological analysis was used to evaluate the counsellors' lived experiences of ending therapeutic relationships. Online semi‐structured interviews took place with six trainee and qualified counsellors who volunteered as counsellors for a local charity. Findings: Three main themes were identified during the study—impact of ending, impact of short‐term work and professional issues. Findings indicated that working at relational depth in short‐term counselling could elicit unprocessed powerful emotions within the ending phase of therapy. Limitations: A small sample size limits the wider application of these findings. Implications: Further guidance and support are needed for trainee and qualified practitioners in the management and experience of ending counselling relationships within short‐term work, including the exploration of counsellors' self‐disclosure. Implications for practice include the need for supervisors and counsellors to be proactive in managing reflective practice within supervision, supervisors recognising and challenging supervisees' non‐disclosure and counsellors looking at further ways for self‐reflection on endings in counselling relationships. Conclusion: The ending phase for counsellors working at relational depth within a seven‐session model can elicit powerful emotions, positive experiences and challenges
Assimilation in Bereavement: Charting the process of grief recovery in the case of Sophie
Get PDFThis theory-building case study examined an application of the Assimilation of Grief Experiences Scale (AGES), a conceptual account of a bereaved person’s process of change in grief recovery, in a case study of a 40-year old woman in bereavement counselling. An assessment session and 44 counselling sessions were analysed intensively, comparing the description provided by the AGES with the details of the case. Results showed how the AGES tracked and described details of Sophie’s recovery
Machine learning models based on routinely sampled blood tests can predict the presence of malignancy amongst patients with suspected musculoskeletal malignancy
No full textAims
This study explores the possibility of using routinely taken blood tests in the diagnosis and triage of patients with suspected musculoskeletal malignancy.
Methods
A retrospective study was performed on results of patients who had presented for assessment to a regional musculoskeletal tumour unit. Blood results of patients with a histologically confirmed diagnosis between 2010 and 2020 were retrieved. 33 distinct blood tests were available for model forming. Results were standardised by calculating z-scores. Data were split into a training set (70%) and a test set (30%). The training set was balanced by resampling underrepresented classes. The random forest algorithm performed best and was selected for model forming. Receiver operating characteristic curves were used to find the optimum threshold. Models were calibrated and performance metrics evaluated with confusion tables.
Results
2371 patients formed the study population. 1080 had a malignant diagnosis in one of three categories: sarcoma, metastasis, or haematological malignancy. 1291 had a benign condition. Metastasis could be predicted with an accuracy of 79% (AUC 87%, sensitivity 79%, specificity 80% NPV 91%). Haematological malignancy accuracy 79% (AUC 81%, sensitivity 77%, specificity 79%, NPV 97%). Sarcoma accuracy 64% (AUC 73%, sensitivity 76%, specificity 61%, NPV 88%) and all malignancy accuracy 74% (AUC 80%, sensitivity 72%, specificity 75%, NPV 76%).
Conclusion
Routinely performed blood tests can be useful in triage of musculoskeletal tumours and can be used to predict presence of musculoskeletal malignancy