Jolene King and Dwayne Devonish
The purpose of this study is to examine the mental health challenges of residents of Barbados during the COVID-19 pandemic and the relationships between residents’ demographics…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to examine the mental health challenges of residents of Barbados during the COVID-19 pandemic and the relationships between residents’ demographics, COVID-19 perceptions and mental health outcomes.
Design/methodology/approach
The study surveyed 450 predominantly Black Caribbean respondents to examine their mental ill-health on the various dimensions of the General Health Questionnaire (GHQ)-28 measure and the relationships with demographics and COVID-19 perceptions.
Findings
Confirmatory factor analysis confirmed the four-factor model solution of GHQ-28 over the single factor solution. Barbadians were generally mild in their mental ill-health on the somatic symptoms, social dysfunction and severe depression dimensions but were at least moderately strained on the anxiety and insomnia dimensions. Younger and unemployed Barbadian respondents reported more adverse mental health outcomes, and perceived severity of COVID-19 infection significantly predicted three of the four dimensions of mental distress (excluding severe depression).
Research limitations/implications
The study used a cross-sectional self-report survey research design which does not permit causal inferences. Further research is advised to ascertain the longitudinal effects of COVID-19 perceptions over time on mental health outcomes.
Practical implications
The study’s findings suggest the need for nation-wide, multi-stakeholder interventions or approaches in responding mental health challenges of the population during this crisis.
Originality/value
The study was the first to examine the mental health outcomes, using GHQ-28, in a small Caribbean country – which represents an underserved space in mental health research. It is the first to empirically examine the relationship between COVID-19 perceptions of Afro-Caribbean people in this region and their resultant mental health outcomes.
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This research explores the subjective health experiences of women incarcerated in a provincial detention center in Ottawa, Canada.
Abstract
Purpose
This research explores the subjective health experiences of women incarcerated in a provincial detention center in Ottawa, Canada.
Methodology/approach
Narrative interviews conducted with 16 previously incarcerated women were analyzed to explore how health issues shaped their experiences in detention.
Findings
Women identified a set of practices and conditions that negatively impacted health, including the denial of medication, medical treatment, and healthcare, limited prenatal healthcare, and damaged health caused by poor living conditions.
Research limitations/implications
Findings suggest that structural health problems emerge in penal environments where healthcare is provided by the same agency responsible for incarceration. The incompatibility between the mandates of incarceration and healthcare suggests that responsibility for institutional healthcare should be transferred to provincial healthcare bodies.
Originality/value
This research responds to the lack of research on carceral health experiences within both penal scholarship and medical sociology, particularly in relation to women and those confined in jails.
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Ruth Heilbronn and Rosalind Janssen
Care options for older people are important to individuals and to society, and currently, there is a crisis in this care. The chapter presents a research base projection onto the…
Abstract
Care options for older people are important to individuals and to society, and currently, there is a crisis in this care. The chapter presents a research base projection onto the situation in England in 2045, using Office for National Statistics (ONS) modelling based on current population reaching the age of 85-years plus. We take three The Archers characters and fantasise about their lives in 2045, Shula and Kenton Archer and Hazel Woolley. Through them, we illustrate three options for care, namely, cared for by family members, buying in care in own home and moving into a care home. The financial aspects of these choices are explored.
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This chapter explores the role that birdwatching plays in The Archers. It demonstrates some significant similarities between the way that birdwatching is portrayed in present-day…
Abstract
This chapter explores the role that birdwatching plays in The Archers. It demonstrates some significant similarities between the way that birdwatching is portrayed in present-day Ambridge, and the way it was presented in both fictional and non-fictional literature of the 1940s. These similarities suggest that birdwatching in Ambridge is an activity that tends to perpetuate traditional class and gender divisions. Particularly in terms of gender, this is a surprising discovery, given the many strong female characters in the show, and suggests that cultural assumptions about gender and birdwatching run deep in UK society today. The chapter warns that a failure to recognise these assumptions not only hampers the progress of women who aspire to be taken seriously as ornithologists, but also risks reinforcing dualistic thinking about humans and nature at a time when the environmental crisis makes it more important than ever to recognise the ecological interconnectedness of human and nonhuman worlds. However, the recent development of Kirsty Miller’s storyline, in which she is rediscovering her earlier love of the natural world, not only offers hope of a shift away from this traditional bias but also opens a space for a more nuanced examination of the importance of birds in human–nature relations.
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Kinship structures in Ambridge have been analysed using social network analysis (SNA) showing a network of a ‘small world’ type with 75 individual people linked by birth or…
Abstract
Kinship structures in Ambridge have been analysed using social network analysis (SNA) showing a network of a ‘small world’ type with 75 individual people linked by birth or marriage. Further, the network shows four major cliques: the first two centred on Aldridge and Archer matriarchies and the second where through the marriages of the third generation the Grundies, Carters, Bellamies and Snells connect together. The chapter considers the possible futures for kinship networks in the village, arguing either a version of the status quo or The Headlam Hypothesis through which Archers assume less importance and the strength of the weak ties in the network assume more prominence.
Ellen D. Sutton, Richard Feinberg, Cynthia R. Levine, Jennie S. Sandberg and Janice M. Wilson
Academic librarians are frequently called upon to provide instruction in relatively unfamiliar disciplines. This article presents introductory information for librarians providing…
Abstract
Academic librarians are frequently called upon to provide instruction in relatively unfamiliar disciplines. This article presents introductory information for librarians providing bibliographic instruction (BI) in the field of psychology. Its primary purpose is to identify key readings from the library science and psychology literature that provide a basis for informed delivery of psychology BI. These works are fully identified in the list of references at the end of this article. Because the primary purpose of discipline‐specific bibliographic instruction is to teach the skills necessary for retrieval of the products of scholarship in that discipline, we begin with a discussion of scholarly communication and documentation, which describes how scholars and researchers within psychology communicate research findings and theoretical developments in the discipline. The major emphasis of this article is on formal, group instruction rather than individualized instruction, although much of the information will be applicable to both types.