7879 research outputs found
Sort by
A New Lens on Improving Physical Health with Psychological Interventions: A Systematic Review
Get PDFBackground: Increasingly health is recognised as a holistic construct that includes both mind and body. What is more, the bidirectional relationship between psychological wellbeing (PW) and physical health (PH) is becoming clearer. Psychological interventions have been shown to be effective at increasing PW and are widely accessible. However, there has not yet been a systematic synthesis of how improving PW using psychological interventions benefit PH.Objective: To review the existing literature on how increasing PW via psychological interventions can improve PH, commenting on effectiveness and causal mechanisms, and suggesting directions for future research.Methods: A systematic review of peer reviewed studies was utilised. This took a broad search approach to include quantitative research concerning the impacts of psychological interventions on PH published between January 1998 and June 2022 in both clinical and non-clinical populations.Results:From 1647 search results a total of 74 studies were included in the review with 10305 participants in total. Studies measured 139 individual PH outcomes for which 60 statistically significant effects were observed. Cognitive behavioural therapy-based interventions were most associated with both significant and non-significant effects, commonly impacting various self-report measures of PH. Positive psychology interventions (PPIs) also showed a higher proportion of significant effects. Mindfulness-based interventions had a clear link to reductions in cortisol, demonstrating significant effects in 2/3 studies. Pathways by which interventions improved PH broadly fell into three categories: 1) protect 2) reduce, and 3) produce. Within each category improvements were driven by biological, behavioural, or social support mechanisms.Conclusions:The present review supports the notion that psychological interventions can benefit PH and corroborate potential pathways that may drive this association. Future studies could benefit from defining PW better, thus unpacking the nuance in how targeting different areas of PW appear to impact different markers of PH. Particularly, a relative lack of interdisciplinary work as well as measuring positive physiological markers in relation to PH may mean research is missing significant effects. The novel approach of the present review suggests the protect, reduce, and produce (PRP) framework which could guide future investigation into this emerging field of study
An integrated process for planning, delivery, and stewardship of urban nature-based solutions: the Connecting Nature Framework
Get PDFMainstreaming nature-based solutions in cities has grown in scale and magnitude in recent times but is still considered to be the main challenge for transitioning our cities and their communities to be more climate resilient and liveable: environmentally, economically, and socially. Furthermore, taking nature-based solutions to the next level, and scaling them out to all urban contexts to achieve a greater impact, is proving to be slow and often conflicts with other transitioning initiatives such as energy generation, mobility and transport initiatives, and infilling to combat sprawl. So, the task is neither easy nor straightforward; there are many barriers to this novel transition, especially when it comes to collaborative approaches to implementing nature-based solutions with diverse urban communities and within city authorities themselves. This paper reports on a new process that is systematically co-produced and captured as a framework for planning nature-based solutions that emerged during the Connecting Nature project. The Connecting Nature Framework is a three-stage, iterative process that involves seven key activity areas for mainstreaming nature-based solutions: technical solutions, governance, financing and business models, nature-based enterprises, co-production, reflexive monitoring, and impact assessment. The tested and applied framework is designed to address and overcome barriers to the implementation of nature-based solutions in cities via a co-created, iterative, and reflective approach. The planning process guided by the proposed framework has already yielded promising results with some of the cities of the project, though further usage and its adoption by other cities is needed to explore its potential in different contexts especially in the Global South. The paper concludes with suggestions on how this may be realised
Therapeutic work with clients living in poverty
Get PDFBackground:Financial inequalities appear to be increasing and poverty is becoming ubiquitous. Poverty affects mental health but its impact on mental health and wellbeing is rarely highlighted within health research.Aims:The Covid-19 pandemic, the Ukrainian invasion and other international and national events have led to a cost-of-living crisis for many people. This is likely to lead to an increase in related referrals and therefore active consideration of the relevant issues relating to poverty appears vital. This paper reports a study which sought to understand how therapists experienced their work with clients who self-refer due to living in poverty.Method:Eight therapists participated in semi-structured interviews analysed using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA).Results:Three superordinate themes were elicited: firstly ‘Resilience in the struggle to engage with therapeutic work’, secondly ‘Struggling to promote social activism’ and thirdly, ‘Navigating multiple challenges and barriers’. Each superordinate theme contains two or three sub themes.Conclusions:Issues of structural inequality (including but not limited to poverty) impact significantly on people’s lives but are often ignored or minimised in therapeutic work. It is important that therapists are aware of poverty and take this into account when working with clients
The WonderBread Factory: re-reading transformative data through poetic eyes as early career researchers, a poetic representation
Get PDFIn this article, the authors reflect on the experience of playing with research data in the form of poetic representation as early career researchers. The first author combined a collection of voices that intersected with her position as a transformative physical education teacher educator. Influenced by feminist thought, the principal author (re)created the research data in the form of a poem called ‘The WonderBread Factory’ rather than a traditional academic manuscript as a non-conforming piece of academic research. It was through this sense-making creative process that both authors reflected and concluded that poetry as a method can be a transformative process where scholars can transgress understandings of their role in the academy. They end with a call for others to join in solidarity
Clinical psychologists’ experiences of supporting people with aphasia as part of a multidisciplinary team
Get PDFBackground: Aphasia is a communication disability resulting from acquired brain injury and affects more than 350,000 people in the UK (Stroke Association, n.d.). People with aphasia experience numerous emotional and psychosocial challenges associated with loss of language. Psychological support for people with aphasia in the UK tends to be provided by clinical psychologists or clinical neuropsychologists working in NHS services as part of a multidisciplinary team (MDT). However, there is no research to date exploring how they experience supporting people with aphasia.Aims: This research aims to explore how clinical psychologists make sense of and address the emotional outcomes associated with aphasia, and how they experience working as part of an MDT when supporting people with aphasia, including what roles they take and what they find useful when doing this work.Methods: This is a qualitative study employing the use of individual, semi-structured interviews with seven clinical psychologists who have experience of supporting people with aphasia as part of their work in an NHS MDT context. Data was analysed using reflexive Thematic Analysis (TA).Results: Four main themes and seven subthemes were constructed through the analysis. The main themes were: 1) Working with Distress; 2) The MDT as a Resource; 3) Challenging Assumptions – Defending Capacity and Championing Psychological Support; and 4) Moving Beyond Language – (Re)Connecting with What’s Important.Conclusions/Implications: Clinical psychologists employ an individualised approach to making sense of and working with emotional responses to aphasia, including working sensitively with frustration. They discussed supporting colleagues to understand and address psychological aspects of aphasia and viewed interdisciplinary working as important, with a particular emphasis on joint working with SLT colleagues. The findings provide unique insights into how clinical psychologists work with people with aphasia and have implications relating to the development of training resource
Employee Voice in the Global North: Insights from Europe, North America and Australia
No full textTaking readers through the nature and realities of employee voice across the Global North, this book identifies the significance and effects of contexts, cultures, web and social media, and dissimilarity of institutional factors in enhancing employee voice or promoting silence. It addresses general issues affecting employee voice across the globe to give readers an understanding of employee relations that is country-specific. Readers will also have an understanding of the unique nature of employee voice in three continents – thus broadening the readers’ understanding of the subject. Covering employee voice in different countries of Europe, North America and Australasia, each chapter draws out the unique and diverse nature of employee voice in each country. The chapters discuss issues ranging from culture, activities of trade union, institutional factors, web and social media, social and organisational justice and their effects of employee voice.This book provides an invaluable resource for students and researchers of human resources and international business. It will also be of great interest to HRM practitioners, policymakers and business managers across the globe
Building the economic evidence case for social prescribing
Get PDFUnderstanding the economic impact of social prescribing remains an urgent priority for the National Academy of Social Prescribing (NASP). As yet it is unclear how much data exists within the different systems to enable economic analyses of the impact of social prescribing schemes to be conducted.The complexity in understanding the economic impact of social prescribing—and indeed all non-clinical community-based approaches to health—is compounded by the multisector nature of social prescribing. Furthermore, a variety of approaches are being used to test similar but different understandings of both cost and value, including social value, cost, benefit and economic value.There are a growing range of reports and peer-reviewed publications that focus on the impact of social prescribing on health and social care demand, some of which have economic analyses and some which remain as potential data sets for economic analyses. At least one third of all outcomes (if not more) are directly related to the social determinants of health1,2 (SDH) which are not taken into account with economic analysis focused only on health service usage.This range of outcomes experienced by service users2-4 is driving many researchers to conduct economic analyses that attempt to assign value to outcomes beyond the health sector, for instance using social return on investment (SROI) and proxy values. Other researchers have discussed the evolution in economic analyses at length and suggest additional components to existing methodologies, e.g., multi criteria decision analysis (MCDA) to account for additional complexity of social prescribing5. Further developments are also being trialled such as the Wellbeing-adjusted Life Years (WELLBY) to understand the economic value attached to wellbeing6, as opposed to the Quality Adjusted Life Years (QALY), which reports the economic value of quality of life.We are entering an era of providing personalised support to people in integrated and multidisciplinary systems with different local population needs. As such, there is a need to evolve the approaches to determining cost and value of social prescribing, and to reach agreements on methodologies that all sectors are willing to accept as sound approaches. Furthermore, as discussed by McDaid and colleagues in 2019 7, there is a need to move beyond the immediate benefits of social prescribing and to explore the longer-term benefits of sustained engagement in non-clinical activities and provision of support to address issues linked to the SDH. This would enable more data to inform the preventative role and economic impact that social prescribing may have, which is currently an evidence gap.This rapid scoping review was commissioned by NASP and additional roundtables were supported by the National Centre for Creative Health and UKRI/AHRC’s ‘Mobilising Community Assets to Tackle Health Inequalities’ research programme (led by University College London). It aims to provide an update to the first economic evidence review from NASP and explore economic data and health and social care usage data in more detail.This rapid scoping review aims to ascertain:What the current literature indicates in terms of cost or value of social prescribing schemes or parts of the social prescribing scheme.If there are potential data sets that report the impact of social prescribing on health service usage that could have economic analysis applied to them.Stakeholder opinions on the methodological approaches for creating the current economic evaluation evidence base for social prescribing and potential future developments that are needed.How these findings can inform a larger programme of research that is needed to establish the economic impact and value of social prescribing across all relevant sectors in the community.As this report contains three separate elements to it, each element will be reported with methods and results, and then key themes will be brought together with recommendations
Reclaiming the Revolution: Extraordinary Adventures in Politics and Leadership at the Inflection Point of Industry 4.0
No full textIn this illuminating book, Stephen Barber redefines the Fourth Industrial Revolution for our politics, our societies and those who seek to lead. The book argues that this is a rare opportunity to reappraise how we organise our economy, how we make decisions and how our leaders behave. Told through a series of extraordinary adventures stretching from the past and reaching into our future, the book demonstrates that the most important determinant of what comes next is not so much digital change as human values and uniquely human skills. But it warns that our politics and our leadership are far from ready for the task ahead.In Reclaiming the Revolution we meet the robot working in a care home and a champion debater who might have met his match. We discover the significance of a Teton horse in the 1990s to the state of political disruption today and what we can learn from the nineteenth century electronic telegraph about creativity and the hollowing out of the economy. The technological transformation ahead is not something that should simply be done to us. It has to mean more collaboration with humanity, more political deliberation and the injection of trust into leadership everywhere. We are at the inflection point of a fantastic revolution and it must be reclaimed
