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Mental health services are increasingly employing peer workers (PWs), individuals who have lived experiences with mental health problems, to support patients and be part of mental health care teams. While the employment of PWs continues to increase, little is known about how the function unfolds in practice. This paper explores the broader context in which the PWs navigate and the concrete outcomes and everyday issues that exist at the individual level. Methodologically, the paper draws on 22 interviews with PWs employed in the mental health services in Denmark. Theoretically, it combines Lipsky's (1980) theory on street-level bureaucrats with sociological discussions concerning the lay-expert divide. The analysis shows that PWs experience both role ambiguity and goal uncertainty and that they use substantial discretion in determining the nature, amount and quality of their peer practices. This – combined with the PWs' diverse lived experiences – calls for a heterogeneous understanding of peer work and therefore the analysis presents three categories of peer workers: PWs as (1) a representative of patients' lifeworld, (2) an interdisciplinary professional and (3) an 'expert by experience'. These categories display PWs different enactments of their lived experiences and reveal ambiguities tied to the lay-expert divide. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This qualitative study investigates health care practitioners’ approaches to early childhood obesity in Denmark and their view on their own ability to initiate processes of change in affected families, and it asks the overall question of whether perceived barriers become real through practitioners’ reluctance to intervene in families labelled as ´problematic’. The paper identifies three approaches in the practitioners’ narratives: the socially oriented, the individually oriented, and the mixed. The individually oriented approach was based on a logic resembling individualistic explanatory models of behaviour change, and was related to a positive perspective on their own ability to move families towards healthier habits by health care practitioners. The socially oriented approach borrowed elements from a sociological perspective, which seemed to lead to resigned pessimism in the face of the complexity of the problem of childhood overweight and a reluctance to address early childhood overweight in some families. In practitioners of all three types, widespread cultural essentialism was found. Non-western, ethnic minority background was seen as determining family habits and making preventive action especially difficult. Based on this, the current paper discusses whether individual actions and choices are being ascribed too much explanatory power, and the health system's biased perceptions too little. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although an increasing number of studies emphasise migrants' knowledge about their healthcare rights as crucial for their healthcare usage, almost none examine the conditions under which migrants acquire this knowledge. This study contributes to the literature by studying the main determinants of migrants' knowledge about their healthcare rights: Self-interest and necessity, human capital, and social capital. I use unique data collected through the project Migrants' Welfare State Attitudes (MIFARE), where we surveyed 10 different migrant groups within Denmark, the Netherlands, and Germany on their relation to the welfare state, including healthcare. Analysing a total sample of 6,864 migrants using multinomial logistic regression analyses I find that migrants' knowledge about their healthcare rights depends mainly on their education and language skills. Both factors enable migrants to grasp health-related information and to become informed about their healthcare rights. I also observe a network effect since healthcare experiences of family members contribute to migrants' healthcare knowledge. Social ties to the co-ethnic community, however, do not explain why some migrants know more about their healthcare rights than others. Lastly, I find large differences between migrant groups, which remain even after controlling for all relevant factors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sperm donor profiles in catalogues exhibited in commercial sperm bank websites provide health information about each donor, both explicitly and implicitly. Donors' anonymity poses a great challenge to signalling credibility. Inspired by both Spence's signalling theory and Walther and Park's warranting theory, the study explores the way sperm donors add credibility to their self-presentations. Profiles of 135 donors from nine sperm banks in Europe and North America were content analysed; 36 of these donors' baby photos were visually analysed. Donors compensated for the paucity of usable warrants by adding intensified emotional context to the profile and inviting potential recipients to join a fantasy family. The article concludes with some practical recommendations aimed at facilitating the process of donor selection for the benefit of donor insemination users, as well as fertility practitioners, and sperm donors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]