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This paper considers the intersection of Spiritual Motherhood, early childhood education and child welfare in early twentieth-century Edinburgh. Its focus is St Saviour's Child Garden (SSCG), which opened in the Canongate, in November 1906, part of the Free Kindergarten movement that emerged in Europe and North America in the late nineteenth century. The paper focuses on the SSCG's founder Lileen Hardy, in order to trace the development of this new approach to child welfare and women's work in Britain. It discusses her training at the Sesame House for Home-Life Training in London, her move to Edinburgh, and the network of predominantly women reformers, whose interests ranged from urban reform to medical welfare, she found there. It shows how this network facilitated the founding of the SSCG and discusses the form it took and Hardy's implementation of a modified form of Froebelian praxis. In so doing its concern is to show how Free Kindergarten forms part of a wider history of social welfare and urban reform as well as to the history of early childhood education, and to move attention away from the men usually associated with innovations in Scottish social reform like Patrick Geddes, and onto a group of women who created a women and child-centred proto-Welfare State in pre-First World War Edinburgh. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper argues that missio Dei theology must continue to provide the basis for an ecumenical missiology, provided certain problems are revisited, in line with themes of the 2010 Edinburgh study process. Among them is the need for emphasizing the vertical dimension of a transformative spirituality, somehow neglected in earlier ecumenical theologies. Only this will prevent an over-estimation of humanity's capacities. Within a missio Dei theology the specific role of the church is to be reaffirmed: there is no way back behind integration, which remains a cornerstone of an ecumenical approach, provided it keeps a critical distance to dogmatic ecclesiologies that tend to hinder progress towards visible unity. The debate on gospel and culture has to be urgently taken up again, through a positive appreciation of syncretism and the related search for criteria in intercultural hermeneutics. This will lead to articulating pneumatological approaches to mission with Christologies. Indeed, the New Testament texts with the most universal horizon refer to Christ as Word or Wisdom and not to the Holy Spirit. The paper moves on to ask whether then the relevance of the biblical wisdom tradition should not feature more in missiology. It could provide fertile approaches to witness in a religiously plural and ecologically damaged world. Ecumenical mission should in future be shaped by wisdom as much as it has been by prophecy, and keep both traditions in creative tension. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Changes in the labour market, especially the rise in the employment of women (lone or partnered) with children, alongside an increased policy emphasis on work as a component of active citizenship for men and women, have stimulated the development of research examining the balance between work and home. Although sociologists have long been interested in the interface between the spheres of paid work and domestic life, understandings of the subjective experience of health and illness have tended to keep the domains of family and work separate. This paper addresses the construction of health and illness as operating at the interface between the worlds of work and home. Interviews were conducted with 30 mothers in paid work and having primary school aged children; the study was located in Edinburgh, Scotland. Through an analysis of the interview accounts, this paper examines respondents' experiences and constructions of health, sickness and wellbeing in themselves and in their children. Four areas are discussed: respondents' accounts of the effects of caring and providing on their own health; respondents' accounts of the influence of workplace relationships in the construction of sickness; respondents' accounts of negotiating absence for their children's sickness and how they made sense of and defined child sickness. We argue that managing sickness, itself an anticipated but unpredictable event, gives analytical purchase to understanding the values and practices that characterise the interrelationship between work and family life. The intersections of home and work operate powerfully in respondents' constructions of health and sickness, and the analysis demonstrates how these are played out in everyday life, at home and at work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Alcohol use amongst elderly people is an increasingly important area to understand, yet relatively little research has been undertaken and our knowledge remains limited. This paper contains a review of the literature, concentrating on alcohol use in community-dwelling elderly people. Both cross-sectional and longitudinal research papers are reviewed; their findings suggest high abstinence rates amongst the population under consideration, with consumption consistently associated negatively with increasing age and female gender. A summary of the largely non-specific, descriptive literature available is also included. Research concerned with elderly people and alcohol use is problematic and therefore the limitations of the available research are examined in detail. Firm conclusions are difficult to draw from the research to date because, for example, there are varying definitions of terms such as 'alcoholism' and 'heavy drinking' and instruments used for detection have not been validated with older age groups. The need for increased awareness amongst health professionals, especially nurses, about issues surrounding community dwelling elderly people and alcohol use and misuse is discussed. Finally, the importance of further research, especially amongst largely neglected groups of the elderly population, such as ethnic minority groups and elderly homeless people, is suggested. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Arguably, nursing, like all health care disciplines, is an applied science. Essentially, this refers to the application of theory in order to understand and respond to the health problems of clients. These theories may be drawn (borrowed) from any applied science, or generated inductively from clinical nursing practice. Alternatively, nurses may attempt to apply deductive theory (global theoretical frameworks) known as nursing models. In this paper, all theoretical approaches, irrespective of origin, are referred to as models used by nurses. Thirteen criteria by which clinicians, and others, can evaluate the clinical and practical utility of models used by nurses which are expressed in the form of questions are identified and discussed. The criteria are an extension, both in detail and in number, of those developed by Reynolds and Cormack and subsequently applied by those writers to the Johnson Behavioural System Model of Nursing. The value, or otherwise, of individual models, or of models in general, will not be discussed in this paper. However, the authors propose that if the evaluation criteria described here are applied to existing models, serious deficits will be identified in relation to their clinical and practical utility. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Born in Edinburgh in 1774 Sir Charles Bell, as a young man, studied anatomy and surgery in his hometown. There followed a distinguished career that culminated in his becoming the first professor of Anatomy and Surgery at the College of Surgeons in London. Renowned as a brilliant neuroanatomist he was invited, on the advice of His Grace the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Bishop of London, to contribute one of eight volumes of a work on the Power Wisdom and Goodness of God as manifested in the Creation - known as the Bridgewater Treatises. 'The Hand its Mechanism and Vital Endowments as Evincing Design' was published in 1833 and it is an account of his considering the hand as a machine that has been engineered to exacting standards to interact with the environment in which we live. In it he expressed a deep understanding of the similarity of the structure of the upper limbs of the higher orders of animals. The similarity of the paddle of a turtle and a human hand with acrosymbrachydactyly is unmistakable. This congenital abnormality, given the eponymous title of Apert's syndrome, is one of a number of congenital abnormalities that have parallels in the animal kingdom. Others who have had similar syndromes named after them include Poland, Marfan, Streeter and a number of others. The life and times of these men and their contributions to medicine will be presented in this paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reports on a research study which explored the worries and problems of young carers in Edinburgh. Sixty-one young carers took part in the study, conducted between April and June 2002. Findings indicate that young carers identify significant worries and problems in relation to their well-being, and that these come over and above any ‘normal’ adolescent difficulties. It is suggested that these findings may have important implications for young carers’ mental health, now and in the future, and contain important lessons for child and family social work in general. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose. Research in the area of i njecting risk behavi our among drug users in prison is increasing; this paper attempts to rectify the paucity of research on risk behavi our of prisoners after release. This study also assesses the impact of both in-prison and community drug services on injecting ri sk behaviour after release. Methods. This longitudinal study looked at the risk behavi our of a cohort of ex-prisoners in Edinburgh, Scotland. Two foll ow-up i nterviews were carried out after release from pri son, invol ving 56 and 40 partici pants respectively. This study built on an in-prison evaluation of a drug reduction programme, and suYcient numbers were recrui ted to compare an i ntervention and a control group. Results. There was some evidence of an ini tial flurry of i njecting risk behaviour among participants soon after release, with a minori ty reporting injecting after release from prison, but over time patterns of i njecting were variable. There was a l ow inci dence of sharing inj ecting equipment. Generally, and perhaps contrary to expectation, post-release ri sk behaviour among the present sampl e was relatively low. Neither community-based nor i n-prison drug treatment programmes were found to have a major eVect on patterns of drug use. Conclusions. Caution should be observed when generalizing from the data obtai ned in this study. That said, focusing specifically on the peri od after release as a situational factor in increased injecting risk among drug users has indicated that more enduring l ocal factors may be just as influential on levels of risk behavi our. Contact with neither in-prison nor community drug services was predictive of lower risk behavi our. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Telephone interviews were employed by nurse researchers as a means of collecting data from elderly people following their discharge from hospital. The paper reviews the literature concerning interviews with elderly patients by telephone and recounts first-hand experience of the method on the basis of over 500 telephone interviews. Although some difficulties were encountered in conducting interviews with the hearing-impaired and the unwell, the method was found to be a cost-effective and useful means of obtaining follow-up data for research purposes. The prime factor in ensuring successful use of the method was the recruitment of subjects via personal interview prior to telephone contact. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present paper describes a cross-sectional study of the psychosocial adjustment of 143 children with severe disability and their families identified from a regional case register for children with special needs. Thirty-eight per cent of the children had significant psychiatric morbidity. By contrast, the overall level of distress in carers was not that different from probable community prevalence figures. Nevertheless, distress among carers was consistently associated with increased disability in the child. Although respite care is a valuable resource for many carers, its use is indicative of underlying distress in the carer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Editorial. Reports the responsibility of senior editors in Edinburgh, Scotland. Need to attend the meetings of the Editorial Board; Improvements in the standards of papers published; Supervision of the academic editing of the papers.

Information about several papers discussed at the International Philosophy of Nursing Conference 2007 in Edinburgh, Scotland is presented. The treatment of homebound and marginalized clients were present. Danielle Blondeau tackled on the marginalization of elderly populations to the seclusion of lepers and the mad. Meanwhile, the relationship between difference, identity, equality and efficiency was explored more in several presentations.

Highlights the Health Information United, Health Libraries Group Conference held at Edinburgh Conference Center in Scotland. Speakers; Theme of the conference; Papers submitted.

The article presents information on the Second European Symposium on Suicidal Behaviour which will be held at the George Hotel, Edinburgh, Scotland, from May 29 to June 1, 1988. The symposium registration fee will be 80 pounds. Preference will be given to papers presenting empirical findings on any aspect of suicide or parasuicide, although theoretical and methodological issues will not be excluded from consideration. The symposium is open to researchers in any discipline or specialty and ills hoped that there will be a balanced mix of medical, psychiatric, and social scientists. The language of the symposium will be English.