For some time there has been concern among dietitians, the medical profession, teachers, parents and others about the use of proprietary diets which severely restrict the energy…
Abstract
For some time there has been concern among dietitians, the medical profession, teachers, parents and others about the use of proprietary diets which severely restrict the energy intake in order to achieve weight losses that had previously been thought impossible. Now the Department of Health and Social Security has published a report of a working party which reviewed the evidence about their use. Fiona Hunter BSc, SRD, summarises this report and its recommendations
Very low calorie diets, or more precisely, commercially prepared diets, which provide less than 600Kcals a day, are estimated to have been used by 7 million people throughout the…
Abstract
Very low calorie diets, or more precisely, commercially prepared diets, which provide less than 600Kcals a day, are estimated to have been used by 7 million people throughout the world. In the UK alone approximately half a million people are thought to have tried such a diet. However despite a recent government report, on the use of VLCDs in obesity, which concludes that there is no real evidence to suggest that VLCDs cause any serious damage to health or life, the use of them remains controversial.
The National Food Survey results for January to March 1993 show that expenditure on household food was £13.03 per person per week. This was virtually unchanged from the fourth…
Abstract
The National Food Survey results for January to March 1993 show that expenditure on household food was £13.03 per person per week. This was virtually unchanged from the fourth quarter of 1992, but 59p (4.8 percent) higher than in the first quarter of 1992. A further £1.62 per person per week was spent on home consumption of soft and alcoholic drinks and confectionery.
The purpose of this paper is to describe what it is like to be a midwife in the professionally isolated and marginalised arena of home birth in Ireland and to explore whether the…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to describe what it is like to be a midwife in the professionally isolated and marginalised arena of home birth in Ireland and to explore whether the organisation of home birth services and professional discourse might be undermining the autonomy of home birth midwives.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper is drawn from auto-ethnographic field work, with 18 of the 21 self-employed community midwives (SECMs) offering home birth support to women in Ireland from 2006 to 2009. The data presented are derived from field notes of participant observations and from interviews digitally recorded in the field.
Findings
Home birth midwives must navigate isolated professional practice and negotiate when and how to interface with mainstream hospital services. The midwives talk of the dilemma of competing discourses about birth. Decisions to transfer to hospital in labour is fraught with concerns about the woman's and the midwife's autonomy. Hospital transfers crystallise midwives’ sense of professional vulnerability.
Practical implications
Maternity services organisation in Ireland commits virtually no resources to community midwifery. Home birth is almost entirely dependent upon a small number of SECMs. Although there is a “national home birth service”, it is not universally and equitably available, even to those deemed eligible. Furthermore, restrictions to the professional indemnification of home birth midwives, effectively criminalises midwives who would attend certain women. Home birth, already a marginal practice, is at real risk of becoming regulated out of existence.
Originality/value
This paper brings new insight into the experiences of midwives practicing at the contested boundaries of contemporary maternity services. It reveals the inappropriateness of a narrowly professional paradigm for midwifery. Disciplinary control of individuals by professions may countermand claimed “service” ideologies.
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Emma Audrey Adams, Desmond Hunter, Joanne Kennedy, Tony Jablonski, Jeff Parker, Fiona Tasker, Emily Widnall, Amy Jane O'Donnell, Eileen Kaner and Sheena E. Ramsay
This study aims to explore the experiences of living through the COVID-19 pandemic for people who faced homelessness and dealt with mental health and/or substance use challenges.
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to explore the experiences of living through the COVID-19 pandemic for people who faced homelessness and dealt with mental health and/or substance use challenges.
Design/methodology/approach
This qualitative study was comprised of 26 1:1 interviews (16 men and 10 women), conducted between February and May 2021 with people who experienced homelessness in North East England during the COVID-19 pandemic. An inductive reflexive thematic analysis was undertaken, with input from individuals with lived experience who were involved throughout the study.
Findings
Four themes were developed. The first theme, lack of support and exacerbation of mental health and substance use difficulties, highlighted how the lack of in-person support and increased isolation and loneliness led to relapses or new challenges for many people’s mental health and substance use. The second theme, uncertainty and fear during the pandemic, explored how the “surreal” experience of the pandemic led to many people feeling uncertain about the future and when things would return to normal. The third theme, isolation and impacts on social networks, discussed how isolation and changes to relationships also played a role in mental health and substance use. Finally, opportunity for reflection and self-improvement for mental health and substance use, explored how some people used the isolated time to re-evaluate their recovery journey and focus on self-improvement.
Practical implications
The experiences shared within this study have important implications for planning the future delivery and commissioning of health and social care services for people facing homelessness, such as sharing information accessibly through clear, consistent and simple language.
Originality/value
As one of the few papers to involve people with lived experience as part of the research, the findings reflect the unique narratives of this population with a focus on improving services.
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Carlos Costa, Zelia Breda, Fiona Eva Bakas, Marilia Durão and Isabel Pinho
This paper aims to investigate the ways in which gender influences entrepreneurial motivations and barriers in the Brazilian tourism sector. As an economic process, tourism…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to investigate the ways in which gender influences entrepreneurial motivations and barriers in the Brazilian tourism sector. As an economic process, tourism entrepreneurship is widely spread in Brazil, with tourism development programs promoting it as a strategy to empower women, however limited research exists on how gender roles influence entrepreneurial ideals. This nationwide study aims to provide a contemporary insight into how tourism entrepreneurs in Brazil are situated within current entrepreneurship theorizing by questioning the complexity caused as gender roles influence entrepreneurial conceptualizations of what constitute motivations and barriers.
Design/methodology/approach
This study uses online questionnaires aimed, for the first time, at a large variety of tourism sub-sectors in Brazil. Having nation-wide scope, the questionnaires produce knowledge on what motivates and what constrains Brazilian tourism entrepreneurs through a gender lens. Quantitative analysis using SPSS statistical software tests the statistical significance of results and is complemented by the integration of feminist economic theories into the analytical framework.
Findings
The current study’s findings highlight the invisibility of gender’s workings, as the majority of participants did not conceive gender as playing a role in their entrepreneurial experience. Entrepreneurial motivations and barriers show a departure from past literature, such as the fact that similar numbers of male and female tourism entrepreneurs perceive networking as a significant entrepreneurial barrier. This and other interesting findings prompt for alternative conceptualizations of discourses surrounding women’s involvement in tourism entrepreneurship.
Originality/value
This study consists of an original contribution to knowledge on tourism entrepreneurship in Brazil as this is the first time an empirical study has been made on a nation-wide scale regarding the role of gender in Brazilian tourism entrepreneurs’ motivations and constraints.