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Domestic violence against women is a complex social phenomenon and a widely recognised issue of public health, which requires that all sectors of society, including the health sector, take the necessary action to prevent and address it. This paper aims to contribute to the discussion on the role of the primary health care in addressing domestic violence against women, by analysing health professionals' perceptions of their practice as well as the difficulties they experience in providing healthcare to victims. To fulfil this aim, a qualitative approach was chosen, using focus groups with health professionals working in the area of primary health care in an inland region of Portugal. The main findings point to the lack of a specific protocol and insufficient information and skills to respond to domestic violence situations, which hinders health professionals' confidence to intervene and tends to orientate them towards a more medical response. Resulting from these findings, implications for practice are discussed: the need for clear and specific orientations to guide health professionals' intervention; the need to offer training that enables them to provide appropriate healthcare to women experiencing domestic violence; and the need to position themselves in the context of an integrated, multi-sectoral intervention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the differential incorporation of acupuncture and homeopathy into the medical establishment in Portugal. While the former has been incorporated into the medical establishment, the latter is still banned by the Medical Council, yet remains in practice by medical doctors in the country. Drawing on the insider viewpoints of medical doctors committed to these two therapies, the findings of this paper suggest that the rhetoric of insufficient scientific evidence of homeopathy still prevails within the medical establishment. However, two other factors were emphasised: the medical prejudice or 'resistance to innovation' of the Portuguese Medical Council and the idiosyncrasies of acupuncture and homeopathy, which have made them amendable to biomedicine (or not). This paper argues that the differential responses of the Portuguese medical establishment to acupuncture and homeopathy are due to reasons beyond that given of the medical rhetoric of insufficient scientific evidence for homeopathy, and which extend to issues of professional status and power. This paper suggests that the emerging commercial interest of the pharmaceutical industry in homeopathy's pharmacopeia worldwide could enhance homeopathy's status in the country and could therefore pressurise the medical orthodoxy to redress its position towards this therapy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the past decades, public health has increasingly addressed what has been called the children's obesity 'epidemic', most notably through large-scale initiatives promoting physical activity. Through a discourse analysis the current paper critically examines such efforts in Canadian and Australian public health. Public health websites in Canada and Australia were examined for information concerning children's health, physical activity and obesity and explored for how these issues were represented in the discourse. Bacchi's (2009) 'What's the problem represented to be?' approach to discourse analysis guided our interrogation of the taken-for-granted assumptions underlying Canadian and Australian public health discourse, the ideological and political influences involved in its construction, and the knowledge base upon which it rests. The article calls for critical reflection on how children's physical and leisure activities are being advanced. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Studies that focus on the effects of both the division of household chores and of financial contributions on the mental health of couples are scarce. This paper expands on previous research by paying attention to the variation of this relationship among three types of households: Male breadwinner, one-and-a-half-earner and dual-earner. Using paired data from the 10th wave of the Panel Study of Belgian Households, collected in 2001, we perform separate linear regressions for men (N = 1054) and women (N = 1054). The results suggest that in one-and-a-half-earner households, women's employment has a negative effect on their partner's depression level and that in dual-earner households, the effect of women's employment is only negative if men are not the major breadwinner. Crossover effects of depression between partners seem to mediate part of the aforementioned associations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Combining work and family can be a significant source of tension and conflict. For young dual-earner couples especially it is a challenge to find a balance. We examine the impact of negative work-to-family and family-to-work spillover on feelings of depression and life satisfaction, as well as crossover effects between partners. Of particular interest are differences between married and cohabiting partners. Dyadic data stemming from a subsample of the Belgian survey 'Relationships in Flanders' (2010) are used (N newlywed couples = 376, N recently cohabiting couples = 344). Regressions confirm that both work-to-family and family-to-work spillover are major stressors. In line with gender role theories, men seem somewhat more affected by family-to-work spillover; women by work-to-family spillover, also when their partner allows work to interfere with family. Overall, the cohabiting do not feel more distressed, but do feel less satisfied with life. Moreover, interesting differences appear when comparing both groups. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using the stress process model with a sample of 475 Louisiana newlyweds, this research explores whether a more legally rigorous form of marriage (covenant marriage) substantially reduces depressive symptom disparities between Black and White spouses. Results suggest that Black and White wives share similar depressive symptom levels in the first few months of their marriage. Black husbands have higher levels of depression than White husbands. Life stressors substantially mediate the race gap in depressive symptoms for husbands, while buffers have little effect. After controlling for stressors, buffers and demographic measures, covenant marriage seems to buffer wives against depressive symptoms, though only weakly. For husbands, covenant marriage has no effect and does not reduce the race gap in depression. Thus, while covenant marriage may either select on wives with better mental health or buffer against depressive symptoms for some wives, covenant marriage does not have advantages for husbands, and especially distressed Black husbands. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The recent commitment to investment in continuing care services demands a sound grasp of workforce utilization in continuing care facilities. This article examines workforce utilization in continuing care as a key component of effective service delivery. We used a case study design with three continuing care facilities in Alberta, Canada. Data were collected over one year through interviews, group discussions and observations. The data revealed workforce issues around staff mix, responsibilities and role clarity that negatively affect staff and residents. Using an ecological framework, we developed 'upstream' workforce strategies targeting barriers that can be influenced by the three facilities. Limited research exists on how regulated and unregulated healthcare providers are organized and deployed in different continuing care environments. In our sociological analysis of workforce utilization at three continuing care facilities, we illuminated the relations between staff and the contextual elements surrounding them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This in-depth qualitative research examines the interplay between medicine and management. It focuses on the reasons why doctors do not always implement administrative guidelines either uniformly or in their entirety, in a context that is expanding managerial supervision. More specifically, we investigated the extent to which managerialism is shaping doctors' perceptions of their role as doctors and their perceived position towards hospital management. We follow a sociological perspective and analyse structural, contextual and individual dimensions, going back to Weber's discussion of the meaning of action, in order to interpret how doctors act in two different medical units, one conventional and one cutting-edge. Our argument for analysing individual action in its specific context is that the differences within the medical profession give rise to distinct forms of professionalism and, with this approach, a more complex articulation between managerialism and professionalism can be brought to the debate on the health professions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]