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Patients with severe asthma were choosing not to use the emergency department (ED) in extremis and were self-medicating when experiencing severe asthma, putting their lives at risk. This local issue reflected a nationwide situation. The purpose of this paper is to better understand the reasons behind patients’ reluctance to attend ED and to consider practical solutions in a structured way.

Systems thinking (soft systems methodology) was used to examine the issues resulting in this reluctance to attend the ED. Once this tame (well-defined) problem was revealed, a potential solution was developed in co-production with patients.

Patients feared attending the ED and felt vulnerable while in the ED for several reasons. This appeared to be a well-defined and solvable problem. The solution proposed was an asthma patient passport (APP), which increased patient’s confidence in their ability to communicate their needs while in severe distress. The APP decreases (from 12 to 5 steps) the work patients had to do to achieve care. The APP project is currently being evaluated.

The APP should be offered to all people with severe asthma.

By revisiting systems thinking and identifying problems, a solution was identified. Although methods such as soft systems methodology have limitations when used in wicked (difficult or impossible to resolve) problems, such methods still have merit in tame problems and were applicable in this case to fully understand the issues, and to design practical solutions.

Although limited, there is emerging evidence of the value of peer support for people with mental health issues. We report an evaluation of a training experience introducing intentional peer support (IPS) to people who use mental health services. IPS is a well developed, specific approach in which the central concept of mutuality redefines help as a co‐learning and growing process. This paper aims to explore participants' initial understandings of peer support, assess the impact of the course in terms of subsequent peer support activities and gather reflections from participants concerning what helped and hindered putting IPS into practice.Thirty people attending a five‐day residential course run by the originator of IPS, Shery Mead, were invited to take part in two refresher/follow‐up workshops. An independent evaluator (first author) collected data at the start and end of the residential phase, at two months and at five months. Findings are based on 26 people who provided data on at least two occasions.The course was enthusiastically received and successfully conveyed the fundamentals of IPS. Proportions of people involved in general peer support at the start and end of the evaluation remained similar. At five months, 15 people reported involvement in IPS and one person had set up an IPS group. Being connected to an existing group or network, including maintaining connection with course participants was the most helpful feature in putting IPS into practice. Hindrances included isolation and lack of opportunity. The paper concludes that ongoing support is essential to encourage the post‐course development and practice of IPS.

Support groups are a common feature of the mental health support engaged by carers and consumers. The purpose of this paper is to update and consolidate the knowledge and the evidence for the effectiveness of mental health support groups.

This paper is based on a systematic literature review of relevant databases around support groups for mental health. Support groups are defined as meetings of people with similar experiences, such as those defined as carers of a person living with a mental illness or a person living with a mental illness. These meetings aim to provide support and companionship to one another.

The results show that there is a consistent pattern of evidence, over a long period of time, which confirms the effectiveness of mental health support groups for carers and people living with mental illness. There is strong, scientifically rigorous evidence which shows the effectiveness of professionally facilitated, family-led support groups, psychoeducation carers support groups, and professionally facilitated, program-based support groups for people living with mental illness.

This research implies the use of support groups is an important adjunct to the support of carers and people with mental illness, including severe mental illness.

This research brings together a range of studies indicating the usefulness of support groups as an adjunct to mental health therapy.

The purpose of this study is to describe the current practice of corporate social responsibility (CSR) in South Africa, its linkage to corporate social investment (CSI), the impact of new Black Economic Empowerment (BEE) legislation and the contribution that South African public relations practice can have on the development challenges facing the continent of Africa.

Empirical data and reports drawn from various industry and evaluative sources is interpreted in the context of key contemporary elements of practice. The last part of the article provides a theoretical discussion of the public relations role as a “change” agent in South Africa and for the continent of Africa as a whole.

The South African Government’s prescriptive stance on transformation and BEE has thrust the reconsideration of CSR onto every corporate agenda in South Africa. With set targets and expenditure requirements, CSI has become a performance-driven pursuit among businesses seeking to improve their overall BEE scores. At the Pan-African level, a generic model of African public relations with a strong developmental focus is required for the education and training of public relations professionals.

African public relations practice challenges accepted normative approaches in the conceptualisation of a sustainable new global model of the profession. More research will be needed to show how the African humanist approach might impact on the debate about the political, social and economic relevance of the profession in society and the reputation of the profession worldwide.

This study provides historical context for recent developments in public relations in South Africa, providing insights into the direction of the development of public relations practice in Africa.

In this chapter, I provide a brief history of campus sexual violence awareness-raising on college campuses, followed by an analysis of a few current awareness-raising strategies. I examine social media, poster campaigns, and awareness months, as well as prevalence, consequences, and resources related to the awareness ring of the prevention, response, and awareness trifecta. I problematize best practices and advocate for campuses to spend fewer resources on awareness and more resources on prevention.

This paper aims to study the role of non-corporeal Actant theory in historical research through a case study of the trajectory of the New Deal as one of the foremost institutions in the USA since its inception in the early 1930s.

The authors follow the trajectory of the New Deal through a focus on Vice President Henry A. Wallace. Drawing on ANTi-History, the authors view history as a powerful discourse for organizing understandings of the past and non-corporeal Actants as a key influence on making sense of (past) events.

The authors conclude that non-corporeal Actants influence the shaping of management and organization studies that serve paradoxically to obfuscate history and its relationship to the past.

The authors drew on a series of published studies of Henry Wallace and archival material in the Roosevelt Library, but the study would benefit from an in-depth analysis of the Wallace archives.

The authors reveal the influences of non-corporeal Actants as a method for dealing with the past. The authors do this through the use of ANTi-History as a method of historical analysis.

The past is an important source of understanding of the present and future; this innovative approach increases the potential to understand.

Decisions are often black boxes. Non-Corporeal Actants are a new tool with which to see the underlying inputs of choice.

It may be daunting for those who do not know or care for Shakespeare, but Othello is a compelling case study of destructive emotions in an organizational setting. Iago's chilling words from The Tragedy of Othello, The Moor of Venice are the title of this chapter, “I am not what I am”. Passed over for promotion, Iago wreaks havoc in the personal and professional life of the General who chose not to appoint him. We use this play as a case study of destructive emotions – specifically jealousy, anger, and shame – in an organizational hierarchy. The premise is that those who are passed over present a special managerial problem, one that we address at the end of the chapter after carefully looking at how revenge came to manifest from the emotions of the principal characters in the play. In addition, this chapter contributes to the growing literature on specific emotions as experienced in organizational life as well as advancing the links between management and the humanities by using one of Shakespeare's best-known tragedies as a case study.

A critical commentary on policy and practice over time in English health and social care. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

Personal reflections based on prior experience as a senior leader in the English health and care system, combined with insights and relevant evidence from other senior leaders and health and care “think-tanks”.

Shifting the balance of care from a hospital to a community setting can potentially be cost-effective as well as improving quality for service users. However, it will require a change in the approach to planning and implementation, by focussing on service users and communities, rather than on statutory organisations. It will also require a greater level of integration between primary care, community health services, social care and the voluntary sector, and greater levels of “co-production” with service users and the public.

Front-line health and care leaders are generally unaware of the evidence base in this field. Emergent findings in this field need to be rapidly evaluated and then communicated to front-line leaders and practitioners.

Incorporates direct experience of senior leaders in the field together with the existing and emerging evidence base.

Let us submit the following proposition for consideration: the essence of socialist construction lies in the bid to appropriate the future and is therefore expressed politically, in the organised manipulation of time. What we ordinarily take to be the sine qua non of socialist relations, namely central planning, totalitarian rule and the abolition of private property are, in fact, epiphenomena. They exist as real influences on people's lives in the presently existing socialist societies, but they derive in esse, from the basic organising principle of socialist relations which is to restructure the popular experience of time.