Search results

The purpose of this paper is to discuss the findings from a detailed qualitative PhD study exploring experiences of stigma and discrimination in the lives of people in receipt of “mental health support” at two voluntary sector organisations in the North East of England.

Empirical material was collected during two periods of three-month long ethnographic periods of fieldwork from July to December of 2013 at two organisations providing support to their members who experience or have experienced mental distress. Along with field notes taken during and after periods of participant observation, the empirical material also included 30 interviews with staff (n=10) and members (n=20) across both organisations, along with a series of three focus groups at each organisation.

Staff at the organisations did not demonstrate obvious stigmatising or discriminatory attitudes or behaviours. However, they did attribute “self-stigma” to particular attitudes and behaviours of some of the members they support, referring to how they “made excuses”, “did not try” and/or “avoided situations”.

This paper argues that these attributions resulted from the misrecognition of members’ reactions to experiences of discrimination. The empirical material also suggests that these attributions of self-stigma may be indicative of the material limitations of the support environment, the consequent frustrations of well-intentioned staff, and, overall, as symptoms of neoliberalism. Drawing upon a Mad Studies approach and focussing on self-stigma and its attribution in contemporary mental health support, this paper provides a new perspective, which considers how stigma is linked to discrimination by rethinking what is thought of as “self-stigma”.

The sex work research field has expanded significantly in recent years, and a myriad of studies have highlighted diverse forms of injustice that sex workers endure. Sex workers are a marginalised and criminalised population and thus researchers have an ethical responsibility to undertake research that challenges existing social conditions and can help support sex worker-led campaigns for change. But what does ‘making a difference’ mean in the context of sex work research and what factors may constrain the extent to which this can be achieved? In this chapter, I explore the promise and pitfalls of undertaking politically engaged, activist research on sex work. I do so by reflecting on my experience as a researcher in the New Zealand context. The aim of this chapter is to unpack the challenges of undertaking research for social change and to explore the possibilities for strengthening the impact of research in this ideologically charged area.

This paper seeks to examine the impact of greater access to electronic information, both free and fee‐based, on reference enquiries.

The research methodology included an extensive literature review and interviews with reference services librarians both in Australia and overseas.

The assumption that greater internet access and use equal a decline in public and state library reference enquiries is not proven.

The paper concludes with a summary of trends, predictions and scenarios of usage of state and public library reference services in an increasingly electronic age, paying special attention and emphasis to the Australian environment.

The purpose of this paper is to address issues of corruption and governance for international humanitarian organisations (such as Red Cross, Greenpeace, the Salvation Army, and Médecins Sans Frontières). Any such corruption may be both an issue of governance within an organisation as well as an external issue, such as political corruption, with which such organisations must deal in relationships with stakeholders.

The analysis is derived from annual reports, news reports, and published articles.

A moral basis for operations is based on analysis, information, measuring and reporting.

In‐depth investigations of the ethical performance of humanitarian organisations are required.

The paper addresses issues of analyses of problems, the measurement of effectiveness, the moral dilemmas incurred by aid agencies, and offers some suggestions for improvement.

Transparency would encourage greater contributions to the important work undertaken by these organisations.

The moral obligations of humanitarian organisations are usually assessed in terms of their social impacts. This paper suggests that their future viability may also rest on their ability to demonstrate an ethical approach to their operations.

Few developers of school‐based health education programs actively involve the primary and secondary target audience in their program’s development. Kidskin was a sun protection intervention study involving a cohort of 1,776 children recruited from 33 primary schools in Perth, Western Australia. A formative evaluation to develop the Kidskin sun safety classroom and home education program for grades 1 to 4 children and their families was conducted. Process data collected from teachers revealed high levels of satisfaction with the program with the majority agreeing that the activities were developmentally appropriate, effective and enjoyable for students. Mailouts to students’ homes, reinforcing sun safety messages, were used to successfully reach most students and their families during the summer school holidays.

The main aim of the chapter is to propose a conceptual approach for the creation, exploitation and building of a competitive advantage through which it would be possible to create a unique place from tourism space. In the chapter we present theoretical basement for the issue of competitive advantage at the level of places, its types, factors and approaches for its creating, building and exploiting. In the chapter we specify one main hypothesis and one research question. They are verified through several scientific, statistical and mathematical methods. These methods are used for the evaluation of primary and secondary research results. In the final part of the chapter, a conceptual approach for identification and exploitation of competitive advantage aimed at building unique and competitive places was proposed.

NOW removed to Chaucer House, Malet Place, London, W.O., the Library Association is in its permanent home adjoining University College and the new National Central Library. Some strenuous work has yet to be done by the secretary and his staff before the ceremonial opening, but when Chaucer House is completed it should not only facilitate and permit the growth of the work of the Library Association; it should also form a meeting place of great value. We refer not only to meetings of a formal character, although room for these, for council and committee meetings and for examinations will, for the first time in our record, be adequate; we refer rather to the clubbable meetings that have hitherto been rather difficult. For many years librarians have advocated a professional club, where meals might be taken, friends might meet, and some of the social amenities generally be possible. There seems to be an opportunity here; but, clearly, no such club idea can be realized unless there is a definite desire for it, and, what is more, practical use made of it. If the London members dropped in regularly some catering scheme could be arranged which the provincial members could take advantage of too whenever they visited London. Can this be done? Other professions have managed it. It is merely sense to recognise that the provision of refreshments and other necessaries can only be made if there is a regular demand for them which will at least pay their cost.

DURING acceptance tests of aircraft, one of the basic data required is the rate of descent. The required information is a vertical component of the rate of descent just prior to touch‐down on a landing surface. These data are used as an aid in determining the impact imparted to the landing gear, as well as to other structures of the plane. Rate of descent information is also used during training of both military and commercial pilots. A pilot is interested in knowing immediately after touch‐down the rate of descent of his aircraft, so that he can associate his control settings and his psychological attitude with the data given him. The touch‐down rate of descent information is also important when hard landings aboard an aircraft carrier are considered. The deck of the carrier presents a second moving object with which to contend; therefore the rates of descent will be even more unpredictable and, in most cases, of higher values.

To most minds libraries exist at the periphery of debates over education and educational reform. However, the purpose of this paper is to demonstrate how, in 1910, the Melbourne Public Library (now the State Library of Victoria) was central, rather than peripheral, to a conflict which focussed on the role of the library in education and how the library and its collection could best be organised to meet this purpose. It will be argued that libraries and the way they are organised act as indices of the dominant views about education and can be seen as social and educational artefacts. As artefacts they encapsulate community beliefs about how learning could best occur at a given time and what knowledge was esteemed, made available and to whom.

To illustrate this point of view and illuminate the broader issues, this paper will use a particular set of events and a particular group of protagonists in Australian history as a case study.

This case study illuminates conflicting ideas about the place of libraries and the organisation of their collections in early twentieth‐century society and demonstrates how these ideas continued to have an impact on the place of libraries in educational reform agendas in Australia in the following decades.

The argument reported as “the disaffection in the library” was both philosophical and practical and illuminated ongoing debates surrounding the place of the library in education. The outcome influenced the shape and place of libraries in Australia and demonstrates broader concerns at work in Federation Australia.

The paper casts a new light on the relationship between libraries and education and the place of libraries in the educational process. The network of influence in Federation Australia and the impact of this on the development of institutions and professions in Australia is also examined.

This study aims to examine service quality in Nigerian general hospitals and determines possible differences in service quality perceptions between employees and patients.

Using the Servqual scale, data was collected from 328 employees and patients of two government hospitals in Abuja and Delta states. Analysis was carried out using SPSS 26 package for constructs reliability frequency, mean, standard deviation and t-statistics.

The study found significant differences in the perception of service quality between employees and patients of the Nigerian general hospitals. While employees gave a high rating to empathy, patients rated it low. Also, the patients’ poor perception of tangible did not match the employees’ high perception. Other specific findings are patients’ unfavourable assessment of the physical facilities and judged the staff to lack professional dressing. Patients felt the hospitals could not provide necessary equipment for their procedures and thus considered their services unreliable.

Reliability was perceived as a significant problem in this study; therefore, the hospitals management should ensure correct diagnoses and treatment results of the highest quality and timely services. Also, the management should invoke strong relationships between the employees and patients to earn patients’ trust. Employees should ensure to listen to patients’ complaints and find solutions promptly. Patients need health-care workers’ support and rely on their abilities; Therefore, health-care workers should be highly dependable and show empathic behaviour in discharging their duties. Health-care managers must access employees‘ and patients’ particular perceptual gaps and reconcile the difference before further quality improvement initiatives.

The findings in this study strengthen the clamour for assessing service quality from both employees and patients’ views in public hospitals. Hospital service quality is complex and primarily judged from the patients’ perspective. This study showed that health-care quality means different things to all stakeholders.