Search results

Advocacy has long been identified as a valuable mechanism for providing support to individuals who experience difficulties in accessing services and whose voices often remain unheard in decisions relating to meeting their individual needs. However, the advocacy needs of older people age 65 and over with mental health problems remains a relatively under‐researched area.This paper presents findings from a small study undertaken in partnership with Sandwell Advocacy, a voluntary sector organisation, and researchers from Coventry University in one local authority area in the West Midlands. The aims of the study were to explore the advocacy needs of people aged 65 years and over with mental health problems and to determine the current level of demand or need for advocacy among this user group. A key motivation for this study was to explore the ways in which advocacy could provide a ‘voice’ to those whose needs are often marginalised in both social care service provision and wider society.

This paper aims to report on an exploratory study exploring the provision of dementia advocacy.

The study adopted a qualitative approach. Data is based on 17 semi‐structured interviews with a range of key stakeholders, and observations of the practice of advocates working in third sector organisations. The study was conducted in five localities across the UK.

The study draws attention to the benefits of advocacy as a means of supporting older people with dementia and illuminates internal and external challenges encountered by third sector organisations providing this type of support.

The study captures the additional dimension that austerity brings to third sector organisations working in this field and the ways in which financial constraints are shaping the field of dementia advocacy.

This paper contributes to ongoing debates in relation to a contradiction between the current coalition government's Big Society ideas and the reality as it unfolds in a specific part of the third sector.

When Eugene O'Neill died, theatre critic Brooks Atkinson said of him, “A giant writer has dropped off the earth….He shook up the drama as well as audiences and helped to transform the theatre into an art seriously related to life.” (New York Times, 30 December 1953).

Volume 8 Number 5 of Women in Management Review contains three articles. In the first, entitled “Gender Effects in Salary Increases: A Shifting Pendulum?” by Kenneth W. Thornicroft, the author maintains that a large number of studies suggest that in experimental reward allocation scenarios, females tend to under‐reward themselves vis‐a‐vis similarly situated males. However, the principal studies date from the 1970s and early 1980s. In the past decade there has been a substantial public policy effort, reflected in employment equity legislation and organisation‐level initiatives, targeting direct and systemic gen‐der‐based discriminatory practices. There is some evidence that gender‐ based discriminatory employment practices are receding. In this study, involving 127 undergraduate business administration students, the student allocator's gender was not a significant predictor of reward allocation behaviour. Even more provocative, the results suggest that a reward allocation bias systematically operated in favour of women.

Purpose – This chapter reflects on the importance of being reflexive as a socio-legal researcher whilst seeking to address the practicalities, challenges and methods of being reflexive during the research process. The chapter demonstrates ‘doing it’ by reporting on the use of an internal dialogue of the researcher’s feelings and choices during research encounters to reflect on the status of insider knowledge in the interview process. It also charts the unexpected emotional reactions of participants, and in doing so, highlights the challenges of reflection in and on everyday practice as a physiotherapist.

Methodology/Approach – The research reported here was an empirical ethics study using in-depth interviews and the voice-centred relational method as practical means of doing and being reflexive.

Findings – The chapter sheds light on the role of emotion in the research process, the author’s emotional position as researcher and the unexpected emotional reactions of participants.

Originality/Value – The chapter presents a practical method of reflexivity in qualitative research and considers the personal and ethical issues that arise during the research process from the competing perspectives of both insider and researcher. The key lesson learnt is the importance of reflecting on ethically important, and at times uncomfortable, moments in the research process so that other researchers can learn about the ‘how to’ of reflexivity and reflexive writing.

This paper aims to reports on an academic–industry service development innovation to advance the symptom monitor and track feature within the CogniCare app to support family carers of people living with dementia. Expert opinion from dementia care professionals identified key monitoring strategies for enhanced carer competence and confidence in the early identification of relevant symptoms that would help facilitate meaningful hospital/social care consultations.

A co-production approach between industry and academia included stakeholder representation from NHS Highland and Alzheimer Scotland. Dementia care experts validated items to be included for symptom monitoring and tracking using a newly developed A²BC²D²EF² framework as part of this project and recommended additional strategies for monitoring symptom change, including carer well-being.

Dementia care experts perceived the symptom monitoring and track feature to have the potential to support family carers with dementia care at home and foster a relationship-centred approach to dementia care to facilitate meaningful hospital/social care consultations.

The CogniCare app is the first platform of its kind that aims to support family carers to care for people living with dementia at home. This unique service development collaborative combined dementia and digital expertise to create innovative digital solutions for dementia care. The proposed monitoring and tracking feature is perceived by dementia care experts as a tool with the potential to enhance carer confidence and thus enable safe and effective dementia care within the home environment.

In the UK, the Children and Families Act aims to create one assessment process for children with special educational needs or disability, through Education, Health and Care Plans. It also aims for greater participation from children and young people in decisions about their own lives. Current evidence suggests that children’s needs and desires across education, health and social care are not being fully met, partly because adult agendas drive policy, practice and standards of care. Furthermore, little attention is paid to the way in which disabled children and young people are included either within decisions about their own support or within research processes. The purpose of this paper is to present a research process designed to address these issues.

Six disabled young people co-led this participatory research project; for the first time, disabled young people had the opportunity to define a research agenda which spoke to what “quality” might look like in planning for their own future and that of other disabled children and young people.

This paper presents findings from this process, addressing important ethical issues relevant for policy, practice and research, identified through this rights based, collaborative way of working in partnership. Three key issues were identified and are explored here. They include first, tensions between young people becoming leaders and dominant ideas about safeguarding and child protection; second, being empowered through engagement within the project yet restricted in other areas of personal life and, finally, the emotional impact on new researchers of gathering evidence of a continuing lack of autonomy for disabled children and young people. We argue that challenging dominant notions concerning the participation and protection of disabled children is required in order to ensure that they access their right to be decision-makers in their own lives, and to being empowered within research processes.

This is the first disabled young people-led study to investigate quality and rights for disabled children and young people using this rights-based methodology.

Many entrepreneurs are enthralled with their company's technologies, products and potential markets. Invariably these emerging ventures present bedazzling business plans with industry-wise vernacular, detailed market research, and sophisticated financial spreadsheets. They often flaunt their “optimized business models.” Investors, however, typically want to know when and how the sales will start meeting the Plan. “Whereʼs the purchase order?” is the refrain. In this article, our “Practitionerʼs Corner” associate editor Joe Levangie collaborates with a long-time colleague, Deaver Brown, to address how businesses should “make sales happen.” Levangie warns that Brownʼs elitist education (Choate, Harvard College, Harvard Business School) should not be interpreted as a lack of “street smarts”; Brownʼs more entrepreneurially friendly credentials include winning Golden Gloves boxing medals and selling Fuller Brush products door-to-door! To ascertain how the entrepreneur can wrest an order from a prospective customer, read on.