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1 – 10 of 102Biza Stenfert Kroese, Sara Willott, Frances Taylor, Philippa Smith, Ruth Graham, Tara Rutter, Andrew Stott and Paul Willner
Trauma-focussed cognitive-behaviour therapy (TF-CBT) is the most effective treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Individuals who present with complex PTSD are among…
Abstract
Purpose
Trauma-focussed cognitive-behaviour therapy (TF-CBT) is the most effective treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Individuals who present with complex PTSD are among the most complex and challenging patients seen by intellectual disability psychology and psychiatry services. The purpose of this paper is to study TF-CBT intervention for people with intellectual disabilities and complex PTSD.
Design/methodology/approach
Three groups of adults with intellectual disabilities (ID) presenting with complex PTSD (n=3, n=5 and n=4) were treated using a 12-week manualised intervention adapted from a procedure routinely used in adult mental health services. Participants completed the Impact of Event Scale as adapted for people with intellectual disabilities (IES-ID) before and after the intervention, and interviews conducted to ascertain their experiences of the group were analysed using interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA).
Findings
The ten participants who completed the intervention showed a 27 per cent decrease in median Impact of Event Scale Intellectual Disabilities scores, equivalent to a medium effect size (d=0.50). Five themes were identified from the interviews: being listened to; it is nice to know you are not the only one; being in a group can be stressful; the importance of feeling safe; achieving and maintaining change. Participants also provided constructive feedback to promote improvements to the manual.
Research limitations/implications
A feasibility study followed by methodologically robust clinical trials is now needed to establish the effectiveness of the intervention and its utility in clinical practice.
Practical implications
This small study has confirmed the potential of TF-CBT as an intervention for extremely vulnerable individuals with ID who present with complex PTSD.
Social implications
The findings indicate that a group intervention is both feasible for and acceptable to adults with ID.
Originality/value
To date, no study has investigated the effectiveness and feasibility of a TF-CBT group intervention for adults with mild ID.
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Muhammad Bilal Farooq, Asem Saad Ali Azantouti and Rashid Zaman
This study aims to review the literature on non-financial information (NFI) assurance including external assurance of sustainability reports (SRA) and integrated reports (IRA)…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to review the literature on non-financial information (NFI) assurance including external assurance of sustainability reports (SRA) and integrated reports (IRA). The objectives are as follows: provide an overview of academic research; understand the nature of NFI assurance engagements by organising the literature around the five key elements of an assurance engagement; develop a framework for understanding NFI assurance; and provide directions for future research.
Design/methodology/approach
The study undertakes a structured literature review of 179 articles published from 1999 to 2023.
Findings
The review identified 324 researchers located in 35 different countries who published 179 articles on SRA and IRA. The researchers, their locations, journals, methods, theories and themes are examined. The literature is structured around the definition of an assurance engagement including a tripartite arrangement, subject matter, a suitable criterion, sufficient appropriate evidence and a written assurance report. A framework for understanding NFI assurance is offered. Avenues for future research, structured around the five elements of an assurance engagement, are presented.
Practical implications
Researchers will benefit from an overview of the literature and guidance on areas for future research. Lecturers can use the findings to develop content for their auditing courses. Reporting managers will benefit from a better understanding of this new form of assurance. Regulators can use this study’s insights to better inform the development of laws and corporate governance codes mandating NFI assurance. Standard setters can use these findings to guide the emergence of the new assurance standards. Assurance practitioners may use this research to inform practice.
Social implications
The findings may prove useful in addressing capture, which deters NFI assurance from enhancing disclosure credibility and fulfilling its transparency and accountability role. This is to the detriment of the wider society.
Originality/value
The consolidation of the literature around the five key elements of an assurance engagement is unique. The framework devised offers useful insights into the dynamics of assurance generally and NFI assurance more specifically. The study is timely given the new European Union regulations on NFI reporting and assurance and the work of the International Audit and Assurance Standards Board in developing a specialist NFI assurance standard.
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Kay Whitehead and Kay Morris Matthews
In this article we focus on two women, Catherine Francis (1836‐1916) and Dorothy Dolling (1897‐ 1967), whose lives traversed England, New Zealand and South Australia. At the…
Abstract
In this article we focus on two women, Catherine Francis (1836‐1916) and Dorothy Dolling (1897‐ 1967), whose lives traversed England, New Zealand and South Australia. At the beginning of this period the British Empire was expanding and New Zealand and South Australia had much in common. They were white settler societies, that is ‘forms of colonial society which had displaced indigenous peoples from their land’. We have organised the article chronologically so the first section commences with Catherine’s birth in England and early life in South Australia, where she mostly inhabited the world of the young ladies school, a transnational phenomenon. The next section investigates her career in New Zealand from 1878 where she led the Mount Cook Infant’s School in Wellington and became one of the colony’s first renowned women principals. We turn to Dorothy Dolling in the third section, describing her childhood and work as a university student and tutor in New Zealand and England. The final section of our article focuses on the ways in which both women have been represented in the national memories of Australia and New Zealand. In so doing, we show that understandings about nationhood are also transnational, and that writing about Francis and Dolling reflects the shifting relationships between the three countries in the twentieth century.
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The Internet may well come to provide many members of the public with their best chance of access to public information. This article serves to update readers on two different…
Abstract
The Internet may well come to provide many members of the public with their best chance of access to public information. This article serves to update readers on two different approaches to assist public libraries to connect to the Internet; the Library Association Millennium Bid and Project EARL (Electronic Access to Resources in Libraries). In the first section of the article, the LA/EARL/UKOLN Public Libraries Networking Adviser reviews the exploratory Library Association Millennium Bid, the response by the Millennium Commission and the subsequent development of the new joint Library Association and Library and Information Commission bid. In the second section, she reviews the accelerating momentum of Project EARL, a consortium of 40% of UK public library authorities, and the establishment of Development/Special Interest Groups. The Millennium Bid and Project EARL seek to provide public access to the resources of the Internet, and to create new resources and services, through the UK public libraries community. Both projects have the potential to impact on public libraries into the next century and to deliver public information into the heart of every UK community.
Nicole Butterfield, Tim Schultz, Philippa Rasmussen and Michael Proeve
The purpose of this paper is to examine the role of yoga in the management of anxiety and depression, development of mindfulness and self-compassion and implications for mental…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine the role of yoga in the management of anxiety and depression, development of mindfulness and self-compassion and implications for mental health care delivery and mental health professionals, with a specific focus on nursing practice.
Design/methodology/approach
A search of electronic databases Scopus, CINAHL, EMBASE, Medline and Cochrane Library was undertaken.
Findings
There is growing research evidence supporting the use of yoga as an adjunct or combination therapy for the management of stress, anxiety and depression. Mindfulness has been indicated as a potential mechanism of change but needs further research. Health care professionals may play an important role in supporting consumers to engage in yoga as part of their mental health care.
Research limitations/implications
Yoga research to date has been limited by methodological weaknesses including wide variation of yoga practices, styles and teaching methods; difficulties in double-blinding, suitable placebo-control; lack of randomised controlled trials and small sample sizes. The literature highlights that more high-quality yoga and mental health research is needed.
Practical implications
The paper introduces the potential role of yoga for anxiety and depression in the health care system and the role of mental health professionals in implementing and promoting holistic yoga-based therapies.
Originality/value
This paper proposes a yoga model for mental health and provides insight into a proposed new direction for future mental health care and the role of nursing practice and other mental health professionals.
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Philippa Miskelly, Ngaire Kerse and Janine Wiles
Managing patients in advanced age is complex, especially when it comes to multi-morbidities and polypharmacy. The purpose of this qualitative study is to investigate challenges…
Abstract
Purpose
Managing patients in advanced age is complex, especially when it comes to multi-morbidities and polypharmacy. The purpose of this qualitative study is to investigate challenges, opportunities and potential solutions from a primary healthcare provider perspective.
Design/methodology/approach
Fifty-seven participants joined in group discussions on challenges and opportunities of working with advanced age. Participants included general practitioners (GPs), practice nurses, students and administration staff working in ten general practices. A thematic analysis was developed, supported by NVivo software.
Findings
Poor lines of communication and fragmentation of services between differing levels of health care services available for older people were highlighted. This has implications for quality of care and equity of services. Participants also reported challenges in treatment and funding regimes.
Research limitations/implications
The small sample size and regional nature of the study, along with the semi-structured nature of the group discussions and rigorous thematic analysis, indicate that this qualitative data is transferable, dependable, confirmable and credible. Comparing the views of tertiary and community services would be useful.
Practical implications
A range of potential strategies and solutions to the current fragmented services was offered by GPs. For example, adequately funded and staffed community-based health hubs; IT platforms enabling timely flow of patient information between primary and tertiary health providers and creation of medical, nursing and allied health roles aimed at improving synergy between GP and tertiary services.
Originality/value
Obtaining the perspectives of general practice highlights the challenges and complexities of caring for those in advanced age brings. These insights have not been previously been explored in-depth within this setting in New Zealand.
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The purpose of this paper is to respond to Coombs and Holladay’s (2012a) concern that textbooks have had a powerful and negative influence on public relations’ curricula because…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to respond to Coombs and Holladay’s (2012a) concern that textbooks have had a powerful and negative influence on public relations’ curricula because they have positioned public relations as a function of business, rather than as a field of knowledge and practice that plays an emancipatory role in society.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper is a diachronic, thematic analysis of public relations textbooks dating from 1981 to 2017. This methodology is valid because textbooks not only disseminate the knowledge base associated with a community of practice, but they are also influential legitimisers of curricula and bodies of knowledge.
Findings
The findings show that public relations textbooks are slowly evolving to include activist studies as a content area from both a strategic business perspective and a critical perspective.
Research limitations/implications
The sample size is small but sufficient to indicate the beginnings of a trend. While the influence of textbooks on curricula is waning as students look beyond prescribed texts to a wider array of readings, they remain the most influential educational medium worldwide (Fuchs and Bock, 2018).
Practical implications
The paper calls for a greater inclusion of activist studies in contemporary public relations curricula to prepare practitioners for changes to the communications environment, as well as an opportunity for public relations to reposition itself as an emancipatory field of knowledge and practice.
Social implications
Activism studies, as a curriculum field, provide a foundation for positioning public relations as an emancipatory practice.
Originality/value
The paper proposes that incorporating activism studies into public relations curricula is a way for public relations to reframe itself as a field of knowledge and practice that plays an emancipatory role in society.
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Caroline Robertson, Tabitha Jones and Philippa Southwell
As a model of integrated care (IC), deliberate team-based care (DTBC) can help address workforce shortages facing rural communities by improving the health and wellbeing of…
Abstract
Purpose
As a model of integrated care (IC), deliberate team-based care (DTBC) can help address workforce shortages facing rural communities by improving the health and wellbeing of healthcare providers. This study focuses on a GP practice implementing DTBC in rural Australia. The aim of this research was to understand the perspectives of the healthcare workers involved and to ascertain factors impacting on the day to day running of the model, patient care and clinician work-life. The authors conducted a qualitative study on the experiences of the DTBC workers.
Design/methodology/approach
Team members were invited to participate in semi-structured interviews (n = 9). Interviews were analysed using an iterative thematic analysis, summarised, collated and explored for emergent themes.
Findings
Key themes included: creating change from old ways of doing things, development and implementation processes outlining how the model evolved and how it ran from day to day, model outcomes for patients and clinicians, as well as practical considerations like funding, technology and time.
Originality/value
Building DTBC from the ground up has produced a high functioning team who demonstrate trust and equality, share information freely and all have a voice which is heard and respected. By acting as a champion and a leader, the GP has created a psychologically safe environment allowing the team to share knowledge, collaborate in problem solving and provide effective patient care which is holistic and community grounded. This work environment holds promise for creating improved work-life for rural clinicians and potential for workforce retention.
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Income and wealth in Brazil is distributed as unequally and unjustly as in any other nation or region of the world. This chapter examines how wealth and income has been, is, or…
Abstract
Income and wealth in Brazil is distributed as unequally and unjustly as in any other nation or region of the world. This chapter examines how wealth and income has been, is, or might be made available to the population. Using the conceptual framework of the substantive economics developed by Karl Polanyi, Conrad Arensberg, and their colleagues, the distribution of goods and services is analyzed as a socially “instituted process,” separate from production and other factors generally included in studies of economics. Four approaches are presented as they were elaborated in the thinking of authors who wrote at different times in history: The Infante Dom Pedro of Portugal in the early 15th century, Adam Smith in the late 18th century, Karl Marx in the 19th century, and Louis Kelso in the mid-20th century. Each approach, three of which have been, and one which might be instituted, is explored in terms of its potential for reducing poverty and correcting distributive injustice.