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Objectives: Hospital in the Home models are rapidly expanding in response to increasing bed pressures. This study examined patient and multidisciplinary health professional perceptions of a new geriatric evaluation and management and rehabilitation hospital in the home service in Australia. The service was unique, as adults of all ages with a variety of rehabilitation or geriatric evaluation and management needs were within scope. Methods: A qualitative descriptive approach was used with a consumer co-researcher and a consumer advisor being integral to decision-making. Patient feedback was collected via a paper-based patient satisfaction survey between August 2020 and February 2022. Additionally, interviews with current and past staff were conducted from July to November 2021. Reflexive thematic analysis was conducted for qualitative data and descriptive statistics used for quantitative data. Results: Patient surveys were analysed (n = 199, 42.2% response rate) with 60.8% of participants aged 75 years or over and 26.6% speaking a language other than English. High satisfaction was expressed. Feelings of comfort, familiarity, convenience, and reassurance were voiced. A person-centred approach enhanced involvement in care. Challenges included carer burden and clear communication. Sixteen staff (33% response rate) were interviewed. In general, staff said the service was inclusive and responsive, and the home environment beneficial, particularly for patients from culturally diverse backgrounds. A strong hospital partnership and comprehensive multidisciplinary approach were vital. Challenges included fragmentation due to part-time roles and combining with a pre-existing acute hospital in the home service. Conclusions: This qualitative exploration of staff and patients' perceptions of a geriatrician-led, multidisciplinary geriatric evaluation and management and rehabilitation hospital in the home service demonstrated that it was person-centred and optimised patients' control and ownership of care. The inclusive service parameters ensured responsiveness to diverse needs whilst allowing earlier return home from hospital, both of which are vital for quality patient care. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Female genital fashioning practices, a term encompassing a range of temporary and permanent options for cosmetic genital alteration, are becoming an increasingly prominent part of contemporary beauty regimes. Drawing on a series of 11 small focus groups and 10 interviews with 34 Australian women aged 18–30, this paper explores the ways that cisgender young women negotiate a combination of social pressures, pleasures and influences in their decisions to engage with genital fashioning. These pressures are described by women to emanate from broad social norms, sexual partners, family members, and peer groups. The women in this study demonstrate a nuanced and critical awareness of the cultural context which they inhabit but deploy postfeminist narratives of self-care and enjoyment to make sense of genital fashioning practices. The paper contributes to scholarship on postfeminism by demonstrating the ways that women creatively use the discursive tools available to enable critical reflection on notions of choice. At the same time, the findings in this study constitute an empirical contribution to critiques of postfeminism to reveal the limitations of postfeminist reasoning which ultimately works to curtail or impede the identification of structural problems and constraints. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: From 2018, the Schools Up North (SUN) programme worked with three remote Australian schools to enhance their capability and resilience to support the wellbeing and mental health of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students and staff. This paper explores the implementation of SUN during the first two years of COVID-19 (2020–2021). Method: Using grounded theory methods, school staff, other service providers and SUN facilitators were interviewed, with transcripts and programme documents coded and interrelationships between codes identified. An implementation model was developed. Results: The SUN approach was place-based, locally informed and relational, fostering school resilience through staff reflection on and response to emerging contextual challenges. Challenges were the: community lockdowns and school closures; (un)availability of other services; community uncertainty and anxiety; school staff capability and wellbeing; and risk of educational slippage. SUN strategies were: enhancing teachers' capabilities and resources, facilitating public health discussions, and advocating at regional level. Outcomes were: enhanced capability of school staff; greater school-community engagement; student belonging and engagement; a voice for advocacy; and continuity of SUN's momentum. Conclusions: The resilience approach (rather than specific strategies) was critical for building schools' capabilities for promoting students and staff wellbeing and provides an exemplar for remote schools globally. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A distinction is often made between the “choice” of not having children and the claim that having children is “natural”. What disappears in this distinction is the fact that having children is most often a choice. This choice, however, is rendered invisible through the naturalisation of parenthood as a normatively expected aspect of adulthood. Whilst this argument is not new, the topic of how heterosexual couples come to decide to have children has received relatively little attention within the academic literature. This paper reports on findings from the first stage of a longitudinal interview study focused on Australian middle-class heterosexual couples planning for a first child. A thematic analysis of interviews conducted with 10 couples found that a paired contrast was often made between what were constructed as “childless others”, and a “natural” or “innate” desire to have children. The naturalisation of a desire to have children, however, was problematised when participants spoke about expectations from family members that participants should have children. The paper concludes by considering how the relationship between parenthood and adulthood may be a specifically class-based narrative. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Policy discussions relating to the selling of sex have tended to fixate on two spaces of sex work: the street and the brothel. Such preoccupation has arguably eclipsed discussion of the working environment where most sex is sold, namely, the private home. Redressing this omission, this paper discusses the public health and safety implications of policies that fail to regulate or assist the ‘hidden population’ of sex workers, focusing on the experiences of home-based workers in Sydney, Australia. Considering the inconsistent way that Home Occupation Sex Services Premises (HOSSPs) are regulated in this city, this paper discusses the implications of selling sex beyond the gaze of the state and the law. It is concluded that working from home can allow sex workers to exercise considerable autonomy over their working practices, but that the safety of such premises must be carefully considered in the development of prostitution policy. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Refugee young people have been identified as a group with high risk for mental health problems, due to their experience of trauma, forced migration, and stressors associated with settlement. A high prevalence of mental health problems is reported in this group, however some research suggests refugee young people have low rates of mental health service access. There is little information available on barriers and facilitators to mental service delivery for this group. Using data from 15 focus groups and five key informant interviews with a total of 115 service providers from 12 agencies in Melbourne, Australia, this paper explores barriers and facilitators to engaging young people from refugee backgrounds with mental health services. Eight key themes emerged: cultural concepts of mental health, illness, and treatment; service accessibility; trust; working with interpreters; engaging family and community; the style and approach of mental health providers; advocacy; and continuity of care. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Australian social policy and legislation in relation to gay men, lesbians and their families have been ‘revolutionized’ over recent years. Between 2008 and 2010 alone we have seen an incredible 84 separate pieces of legislation amended to recognize same sex relationships in Commonwealth legislation. For some rights activists, these reforms have been too long coming but for others they have created real disquiet about the way they position non-heterosexual relationships. This article draws on qualitative interviews undertaken with lesbian women who parent in New South Wales, Australia. Two waves of interviews are drawn on, the first occurring prior to Australian government reforms and the second after the reforms. The interviews provide an insight into the lived experiences of social policy reforms, highlighting how these women weigh up and reconcile legal recognition. These women’s experiences remind us again of the limitations of legal reform to bring about social or cultural change, particularly in the context of neo-liberalism. This paper seeks to ask what is the nature of this ‘revolution’ and, why now? [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]