Search results

The purpose of this service user narrative and viewpoint article is to describe interprofessional and interpersonal barriers to peer support on a men’s mental health ward over the course of a year from a lived experience perspective.

A reflective journal was kept and participant observation was conducted over the course of the year.

There is sometimes a fissure and binary of “Us” and “Them” on the ward. In other words, staff can sometimes perceive peer support workers to be “one of us” (a member of staff) or “one of them” (a service user). For service users, the opposite is sometimes true: “one of us” (a service user) or “one of them” (a member of staff). Peer support workers must bridge this gap and strive to be “one of us” with both these groups, which is no easy task. A good ward manager or peer team leader can smooth over interprofessional differences and support the peer worker in their efforts of care towards the recovery of people with mental health problems.

Little has been written on this topic in a mental health inpatient setting as most papers address community peer support work, which is very different from peer support in hospital. This paper addresses one of the first peer support pilot projects in hospital of its kind in NHS England so is quite innovative and perhaps even unique.

The purpose of this service user paper and narrative is to highlight that peer support is not a continuous, easy or uniform process but given to disruption, fragmentation, breakdowns in relationships and hurdles. This is illustrated in a summary of the case of “Christopher”.

A reflective journal was kept, and participant observation was conducted for just under a year on the ward where Christopher was under Section.

Peer support can be given to fissure, breakages in relationships and discontinuity. This can negatively impact the mental health of peer support workers. With this in mind, it is vitally important to ensure that the people who take up this role are appropriately trained, supported and supervised. There needs to be a focus on “restorative” supervision and supervision by someone with experience of the peer support role as well as buddying between peer workers.

There is an abundance of literature and research on peer support in the community but little in the inpatient setting, making this paper novel and a contribution to understanding peer support on mental health wards.

The purpose of this service user narrative is to highlight the stigma and prejudice that is often targeted at people with schizophrenia and severe mental illness, which causes fear and isolation. The therapeutic effect of peer support is further explored as offering hope, connection, aspirations, advocacy, autonomy and openness for service users as well as the possibility of recovery and a reduction in feelings of stigma, prejudice and exclusion.

Ben was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia in 2003, so this paper draws on over 20 years of experience of the harmful label of schizophrenia. In the last 15 months, he has been working as a peer worker on a men’s mental health ward in the East of England. He has kept a reflective journal and conducted participant observation on the ward, which informs this paper and its findings.

There are observations based on peer support on the ward in the last 15 months and over 20 years as a schizophrenic. People with schizophrenia and severe mental illness are stigmatised and experience discrimination and prejudice. This paper introduces the new idea and neologisms of schizophobia and insanophobia that people with severe mental illness will experience in their daily lives, in health and social care settings (such as the men’s ward), in education and in employment. People with mental illness are also often discriminated against as being a danger or a risk to themselves and others. They are often considered as aggressive or violent. Their diagnosis can stop them from getting a job, a mortgage or even from travelling to some places in the world. But this paper details the violent assault by a nurse on a patient while Ben was working on a long stay ward in a large psychiatric asylum in 1990. It is pertinent to note that things have progressed since the 1990's but there continues to be the stigmatisation of people with a severe mental illness, which requires societal and systemic change. In Ben’s experience, people with mental illness seem far more likely to experience violence upon their person rather than being violent towards other people, such as staff, members of the public, family or carers.

This service user narrative is a first person account, so it is original. It is of further value because it outlines the ways in which peer support can help with feelings of stigma and exclusion as well openness about hearing voices/ seeing things (hallucinations) and strange thought or beliefs (delusions).

Protein-energy wasting is a common complication among patients with kidney failure undergoing dialysis. This study aims to develop a homemade oral nutrition supplement (ONS) to fulfill the energy and protein requirements of these patients.

Three formulations of homemade ONS were developed using soybean milk, whey protein isolates and canola oil. Two of these formulations were flavored with pineapple and honeydew juices, respectively. The energy and macronutrient contents were determined using proximate analyses, and mineral contents were determined using inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectroscopy. The acceptance of homemade ONS for five attributes, namely color, taste, odor, consistency and overall acceptability, was assessed using the nine-point hedonic scale.

The homemade ONS provided 198–212 kcal and 8.4–9.6 g protein per 100 mL, which were comparable to commercial products. Similarly, the sodium (45–65 mg/100 mL) and phosphorus (56–66 mg/100 mL) contents were on par with commercial products. However, the potassium content of homemade ONS was higher, ranging from 141 to 155 mg per 100 mL. The sensory evaluation indicated that the formulation added with honeydew juice had a similar degree of acceptance as the commercial ONS, while formulations containing pineapple juice and without added fruit juice were less favored.

A few studies have investigated the development of food products for individuals with kidney failure on dialysis. However, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study to focus on developing a homemade ONS specifically tailored to meet the unique nutritional needs of hemodialysis patients. In addition, this research included a comprehensive assessment of the beverage’s nutritional content and sensory attributes.

The purpose of this paper is twofold: first, to propose a methodology to empirically investigate the longitudinal development of social media content concerning buildings characterized by iconic architecture and second, to report on the application of this methodology.

We collected and analyzed empirical data of social media content shared via Instagram between 2011 and 2019 on 16 buildings that can be considered iconic architecture projects. Using an automated pipeline, we collected and processed 264,000 posts and 140,000 images from Instagram for the selected case studies. By studying the posting activity of Instagram users through time series analysis and conducting content analysis of the social media posts by means of both image classification and topic modeling, we report on the development of users’ capturing and reception of the selected case studies on Instagram over time.

First, we identify two distinct time patterns of social media content: instantly popular buildings whose popularity fades over time and buildings that gradually gain popularity over time. Second, we distinguish differences in the content of social media posts: some buildings are primarily covered for their architectural features and others for their cultural function and facilities.

Using empirical investigation of Instagram data on iconic architectural projects, we have identified a correlation: buildings primarily posted for their architecture are generally also the ones to gain instant online popularity that subsequently faded over time. In contrast, buildings primarily posted for their function and facilities slowly gained popularity on the social media platform over time.

This study was intended to investigate a small-scale School-based Motivational Interviewing (SBMI) pilot with first-year college students. This approach honors student autonomy, supports self-determination and has the potential to impact educational outcomes in higher education. Motivational Interviewing (MI) is an evidence based conversational skill set, defined as “a collaborative conversational style for strengthening a person's own motivation and commitment to change” (Miller and Rollnick, 2013, p. 12). Student perceptions of satisfaction with the faculty-student mentoring intervention were sought. Relational aspects of MI (partnership, empathy and alliance) were also explored.

A mixed-method approach was used for the SBMI study, focused on college students with recent academic setbacks (N = 19).

The intervention was deployed with high levels of MI technical fidelity and relational quality. Participants reported high satisfaction with the intervention. The relational aspects and participant perceived alliance with their faculty were highly correlated across the intervention, adding to the discussion of the mechanisms of MI that contribute to its effectiveness.

This work is formative, yet at this point is not generalizable given the scope of the study.

Findings are encouraging for further development of this innovative pedagogical approach. Possible future applications of research are provided.

Discussed herein, SBMI has the potential to meet the needs of traditionally underrepresented student groups.

The reported study is the initial portion of a larger intervention development project.

Although there is growing critical awareness in ELT around the rise of English as a global language, studies on teachers’ investment in critical pedagogy remain limited in mainstream ELT curricula, and the impact of such investment on teachers’ identities is not clear. To address this gap, with the inclusive paradigm of Global Englishes (GE), the paper presents a case study of an English teacher’s investment in GE at a middle school in China.

This study employed a qualitative approach. Semi-structured interview was conducted with the participant – May, focusing on her reported practices and her understanding of her roles during the investment in GE. The interview process was guided by an interview protocol which was designed based on related literature on GE, the theoretical framework, and the research context. A content analysis method was utilized to generate descriptive categories concerning participant’s identities and investment in GE.

Analysis of interview data reveals that through investment in GE, May not only constructed her identity as an English teacher, but also explored identities as a student inspirer, and a peer mentor. These identities exploration and construction were primarily driven by her increased cultural and social capital, despite facing challenges such as high-stakes test policies, native-speakerism ideology, institutional requirements, and limited resources.

Future research incorporating triangulating data such as interviews, and classroom observations, would provide a more comprehensive understanding of English teachers’ identities, and investment in GE. Besides, the findings of this study are primarily from one teacher, they may not fully represent the broader population of English teachers in China.

The findings have several implications for English teaching and teacher education. First, elementary schools, the lower grades of middle schools (grades 7 and 8), or the after-school programs may have opportunities for teachers to integrate GE in teaching. Second, teacher education programs should be designed to provide more chances that enable student teachers to invest in their learning and teaching of GE. Third, proposals for incorporating GE practices in the classroom must adopt a critical perspective, so as to to expose, deconstruct, and reconstruct power dynamics that influence teachers’ investment in GE.

The originality of this study lies in its exploration of English teachers’ investment of GE in their teaching, and the impact of this investment on their identities as English teachers. By investigating these aspects, the study addresses the research gaps in English teachers’ practice of integration of GE in mainstream ELT curricula and provides insights on how to encourage English teachers to incorporate a GE-aware perspective in their teaching.