Facilitation of genuine occupational engagement rather than a more superficial level of participation that has minimal therapeutic benefit is a challenge within secure mental…
Abstract
Purpose
Facilitation of genuine occupational engagement rather than a more superficial level of participation that has minimal therapeutic benefit is a challenge within secure mental health settings. The purpose of this paper is to develop, pilot and evaluate therapeutic tools based on a framework of occupational engagement.
Design/methodology/approach
The study used action research with occupational therapists from two secure residential units. Focus group discussions gathered participants’ views of how the occupational engagement framework could be used to inform a therapeutic tool. Following the development and piloting of the subsequent tools, focus groups were again used to review their usefulness in practice. Discussions were audio recorded and thematically analysed.
Findings
Three tools were designed and piloted. Evaluation revealed a number of benefits and different ways in which the tools could be used in practice.
Research limitations/implications
This research has indicated that the occupational engagement framework has potential for increasing understanding of the relationship between the value and consequences of participating in occupations. The limited timescale of the research restricted the opportunity to fully explore the tools’ potential effectiveness as outcome measures.
Practical implications
The clinical tools developed within this research have provided some information to the clinical teams which has contributed to their understanding of how service users experience participating in occupations.
Originality/value
The occupational engagement framework and resulting tools have the potential to enhance understanding of occupational engagement within secure settings.
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Karen Morris and Genevieve Smyth
Occupational therapists working in mental health services in the UK are under increasing scrutiny to provide both clinically and cost-effective services. The profession has…
Abstract
Purpose
Occupational therapists working in mental health services in the UK are under increasing scrutiny to provide both clinically and cost-effective services. The profession has indicated that a stronger evidence base would help promote the unique contribution of occupational therapy when influencing service managers and government bodies. The paper aims to discuss these issues.
Design/methodology/approach
The Royal College of Occupational Therapists (RCOT) and its Specialist Section – Mental Health carried out a survey to gauge recent research capacity among occupational therapists working in mental health services in the UK and to seek their views about how to further increase research capacity and partnerships.
Findings
Of the 145 participants approximately half had been involved in research in the past five years, and most had involved research partnerships. A number had successfully applied for funding and about half of the research carried out had been disseminated. The participants felt that methods to increase research capacity and partnerships should continue to include improving research leadership and networks; promoting research skills through formal studies and increasing research dissemination.
Originality/value
A variety of methods will continue to be required to expand the evidence base. RCOT and its Specialist Sections continue to have an important role developing research capacity and partnerships.
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Ashley Lister and Karen Morris
The paper aims to gain understanding of perceived benefits and barriers to GAS-light as an occupational therapy outcome measure in community adult mental health. The study…
Abstract
Purpose
The paper aims to gain understanding of perceived benefits and barriers to GAS-light as an occupational therapy outcome measure in community adult mental health. The study explored occupational therapists’ views on the client-centred nature of GAS-light and whether it is an applicable outcome measure for group intervention. It also aimed to understand how occupational therapists use of GAS-light informed their practice and the wider multidisciplinary team perspective.
Design/methodology/approach
The study used a phenomenological design. This comprising of a focus group of occupational therapists experienced in using the tool, followed by framework analysis. Focus group questions were derived from literature.
Findings
Three main themes were identified to reflect experiences relating to the GAS-light tool as an outcome measure; value in process, occupational narrative and language and expertise.
Practical implications
The paper is indicative of practical implications regarding the use of the GAS-light tool with community mental health clients and therapists, including the perceived value in the process, the language used by the therapist and level of expertise.
Originality/value
This paper fulfils an identified need to contribute towards an evidence base for occupational therapy and mental health.
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A television comic announces a satiric Golden Fleece Award for the faux pas of some government official. The San Diego Chicken hams it up in the stands of the baseball park. A…
Abstract
A television comic announces a satiric Golden Fleece Award for the faux pas of some government official. The San Diego Chicken hams it up in the stands of the baseball park. A Swiss mime troupe advertises the services of a communications corporation. All these may be more familiar to young people today than is a circus clown. These and other entertainers are all in the business of laughter and provide commentaries on current society.
Karen C. Miller, Morris H. Stocks and Thomas Y. Proctor
Prior research that attempts to empirically correlate research activity and effective teaching generates conflicting results. These contradictory findings contribute to the…
Abstract
Prior research that attempts to empirically correlate research activity and effective teaching generates conflicting results. These contradictory findings contribute to the scrutiny that currently threatens to undermine accounting education and to impact funds currently directed toward the support of accounting research. The purpose of this study is to measure the impact of relevant research on students’ perceptions of effective teaching. This two-phase study incorporates both a between-subjects decision-making experiment and a ranking instrument to measure the importance of various faculty attributes of teaching effectiveness. The two factors of interest in this study are whether a hypothetical accounting professor (1) conducts and publishes relevant research and (2) incorporates relevant research into classroom lectures. The results of the first phase of the study experimentally demonstrate that students enrolled in accounting classes perceive the professor who does both (conducts and publishes relevant research and incorporates research into classroom lectures) to be significantly more effective than others. Specifically, the study identifies a statistically significant two-way interaction between the two factors of interest. This suggests that students perceive the professor's research to be a component of teaching effectiveness if, and only if, that research is incorporated into the classroom experience of the student. The second phase of the study finds that students generally rank both of the faculty research attributes lower in importance than other previously identified factors used to describe the professor.
The Seminar on Library Interior Layout and Design organised by IFLA's Section on Library Buildings and Equipment, and attended by people from over twenty‐two countries, was held…
Abstract
The Seminar on Library Interior Layout and Design organised by IFLA's Section on Library Buildings and Equipment, and attended by people from over twenty‐two countries, was held at Frederiksdal, Denmark, in June 1980. This present article neither reports on the Seminar's proceedings, as it is hoped to publish the papers in due course, nor describes fully the Danish public libraries seen, but rather uses the Seminar's theme and the library visits as a point of departure for considering some aspects of the interior layout—the landscape—of public libraries. Brief details of the new Danish public libraries visited are given in a table at the end of the article.
Tavishi Bhasin, Charity Butcher, Elizabeth Gordon, Maia Hallward and Rebecca LeFebvre
This paper asks how values and beliefs around gender influence social norms regarding masking. Specifically, the paper explores how the gendered meme “Karen” fits into social…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper asks how values and beliefs around gender influence social norms regarding masking. Specifically, the paper explores how the gendered meme “Karen” fits into social media discussions on support for and opposition to the wearing of masks to fight the spread of COVID-19.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors analyze tweets containing the hashtags #Masks4All and #NoMasks over a three-week period, using adjacent hashtag analysis to determine the terms most associated with Karen in the pro and anti-mask communities associated with these hashtags.
Findings
Anti-maskers reference Karen more often than pro-maskers, although she is presented in negative terms with gendered overtones by those on both sides of the masking debate.
Originality/value
The paper highlights how hypermasculinity rhetoric impedes social change that normalizes mask wearing.
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Diane K. Kovacs and Angela Elkordy
Building a Web‐based e‐library may be the most important thing a library ever does. An important role for librarians in all types of libraries is the planning and/or building of…
Abstract
Building a Web‐based e‐library may be the most important thing a library ever does. An important role for librarians in all types of libraries is the planning and/or building of Web‐based e‐libraries. Offers a practical discussion of developing and implementing a collection plan for building Web‐based e‐libraries. The starting point for developing any collection plan is an assessment of the function of and need for an information collection and the audience it will serve. Discusses some guidelines and practical strategies on where and how to find, identify, evaluate and select appropriate Web‐based information resources. Focuses on Web‐based information resources rather than other electronic information resources such as CD‐ROM or fee‐based databases that have been discussed extensively in recent literature.
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This paper seeks to position ready reference technologies as cultural artifacts that have meaning and value beyond pure functionality as a reference tool. The case study aims to…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper seeks to position ready reference technologies as cultural artifacts that have meaning and value beyond pure functionality as a reference tool. The case study aims to assert that locally created reference tools and technologies have much to offer as artifacts that encode cultural knowledge about the community, institution and profession.
Design/methodology approach
This case study consists of semi‐structural interviews with six library reference staff members about their experiences and interpretations of a collaboratively created ready reference technology that is used in their reference practice at a public library.
Findings
The results demonstrate there is value is exploring technologies as cultural artifacts in that they reveal otherwise hidden or obscured institutional values, labor practices, tensions associated with changing times in the profession, and the community culture throughout time.
Practical implications
There is benefit in exploring locally created ready reference tools as cultural artifacts to uncover hidden cultural knowledge about institutions, communities, and professional practices.
Originality/value
While there are studies of ready reference tools, they largely focus on the transition of these materials from print‐to‐digital. There was a gap in the literature about the meaning of the ready reference tools to their librarian creators/users. This study is a contribution to ready reference literature and starts to address this gap.
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This chapter explores the ethical challenges related to the study of children in highly complex and sensitive family circumstances where intimate partner violence has taken place…
Abstract
This chapter explores the ethical challenges related to the study of children in highly complex and sensitive family circumstances where intimate partner violence has taken place. Drawing on eight months of ethnographic fieldwork at a women’s refuge in Denmark, the author unpacks and discusses three key ethical aspects of conducting research with children: gatekeepers and consent, researcher positionality, and participant confidentiality. These aspects highlight the centrality of trust when undertaking sensitive research with children. In qualitative research, trust is often described as an important aspect of the research process, but research rarely takes into account that trust can vary according to the relationship or research context. What spurred these reflections was questions asked by some of the mothers about what their child had told the author. Examples of this kind illustrate the complex role and positionality of the researcher when seeking to enter and explore the everyday lives of children living in complex family circumstances. Furthermore, the notion of trust brings attention to how different relationships of power – in this case between children and mothers – can influence the research encounter. The chapter concludes with a discussion of children’s own positionality in research about their experiences and life worlds, and calls for researchers to be ethically mindful about how powerful dynamics that emerge during research can support (or hinder) children’s rights as research participants.