Search

Aims: To gain a deeper understanding of rural health social workers' professional judgement and decision-making in the complex rural and regional environments within which they work. Methods: In-depth semi-structured interviews were undertaken with South Australian rural health social work leadership team members (n = 10), with focus groups (n = 14) before and after the interviews. Findings: Rural health social workers drew on both spatial and temporal understandings of their professional judgements and decision-making when explaining their rural health social work practice. Concepts of rural time, rural social space and acts of resistance were identified within the rich descriptions of professional judgement and decision-making in practice provided by the rural health social workers. ‘Rural time’ refers to the additional work that is done by rural health social workers across both their rural personal and professional social spaces. Conclusions: Institutional, systemic and spatial factors, constituted as they are of power dynamics, have implications for the skills needed to maintain a social justice practice. Clear-sighted analysis of these complexities, in the context of social power, can support this ongoing and longer-term project. Refereed/Peer-reviewed

Purpose Research can be an influential driver in raising care home standards and the well-being and human rights of residents. This paper aims to present a case for how a relational research capacity building programme could advance this agenda. Design/methodology/approach This study uses Axel Honneth’s Recognition Theory as a lens through which to explore organisational and institutional factors (such as research capacity and investment) that can either enable or limit “recognition” in the context of research in care homes. This paper draws on recent evidence from the COVID-19 pandemic in the UK and worldwide, to argue that such a relational capacity building agenda is even more pressing in the current context, and that it resonates with evidence from existing relational capacity building initiatives. Findings A lack of relevant research arguably contributed to the crisis experienced by the care home sector early in the pandemic, and there are only tentative signs that residents, care home providers and staff are now informing the COVID-19 research agenda. Evidence from pre COVID-19 and insights from Honneth’s Recognition Theory suggest that relational approaches to building research capacity within the care home sector can better generate evidence to inform practice. Originality/value This is a novel application of recognition theory to research in the care home sector. Drawing on theory, as well as evidence, has enabled the authors to provide a rationale as to why relationship-based research capacity building in care homes warrants further investment.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explore interprofessional and multidisciplinary working between health and social care practitioners providing services to older people through the prism of how risk is assessed and managed. It proposes that whilst interprofessional and multidisciplinary working is a broad and commonly researched topic, there is a relative paucity of evidence specifically regarding how health and social care practitioners work together across structural, cultural and ideological divides. The study aims to expand the domain of integrated health and social care by including perceptions, understanding and use of the concept of risk by professionals from different disciplines. Design/methodology/approach This paper is based upon an exploratory study using an interpretivist phenomenological perspective, including 23 semi-structured individual interviews with health and social care practitioners and 2 non-participant observations of multidisciplinary team meetings. Findings The paper provides empirical insights around the complex dynamics of interprofessional and multidisciplinary working between health and social care practitioners, in particular the saliency of the interconnectedness of individual practitioner Personalities with the Process of interprofessional and multidisciplinary working under the auspices of relevant Policy drivers. Research limitations/implications The research was conducted in Wales and, due to the increasingly divergent policy context within the UK, the research results may lack generalisability from a wider UK or international perspective. Therefore, researchers are encouraged to test the propositions of this research further. Practical implications The paper includes implications for both interprofessional and multidisciplinary policy and practice with older people. With new models of integrated care being sought, the findings of this study may offer a timely and valuable contribution, particularly from the inclusion of a social care perspective and in better understanding the interconnectedness of practitioner personalities with process and policy. Originality/value This paper fulfils an identified need to study the complex dynamics and interconnectedness between health and social care practitioners who work together to provide services to older people.

Prevention has become increasingly central in social care policy and commissioning strategies within the United Kingdom (UK). Commonly there is reliance on understandings borrowed from the sphere of public health, leaning on a prevention discourse characterised by the 'upstream and downstream' metaphor. Whilst framing both structural factors and responses to individual circumstances, the public health approach nonetheless suggests linearity in a cause and effect relationship. Social care and illness follow many trajectories and this conceptualisation of prevention may limit its effectiveness and scope in social care. Undertaken as part of a commissioned evaluation of the Social Services and Wellbeing Act (2014) Wales, a systematic integrative review was conducted to establish the key current debates within prevention work, and how prevention is conceptually framed, implemented and evaluated within the social care context. The databases Scopus, ASSIA, CINAHL and Social Care Online were initially searched in September 2019 resulting in 52 documents being incorporated for analysis. A further re-run of searches was run in March 2021, identifying a further 14 documents, thereby creating a total of 66. Predominantly, these were journal articles or research reports (n = 53), with the remainder guidance or strategy documents, briefings or process evaluations (n = 13). These were categorised by their primary theme and focus, as well as document format and research method before undergoing thematic analysis. This highlighted the continued prominence of three-tiered, linear public health narratives in the framing of prevention for social care, with prevention work often categorised and enacted with inconsistency. Common drivers for prevention activity continue to be cost reduction and reduced dependence on the care system in the future. Through exploring prevention for older people and caregivers, we argue for an approach to prevention aligning with the complexities of the social world surrounding it. Building on developments in complexity theory in social science and healthcare, we offer an alternative view of social care prevention guided by principles rooted in the everyday realities of communities, service users and caregivers.

Background mortality in care homes has had a prominent focus during the COVID-19 outbreak. Care homes are particularly vulnerable to the spread of infectious diseases, which may lead to increased mortality risk. Multiple and interconnected challenges face the care home sector in the prevention and management of outbreaks of COVID-19, including adequate supply of personal protective equipment, staff shortages and insufficient or lack of timely COVID-19 testing. Aim to analyse the mortality of older care home residents in Wales during COVID-19 lockdown and compare this across the population of Wales and the previous 4 years. Study Design and Setting we used anonymised electronic health records and administrative data from the secure anonymised information linkage databank to create a cross-sectional cohort study. We anonymously linked data for Welsh residents to mortality data up to the 14th June 2020. Methods we calculated survival curves and adjusted Cox proportional hazards models to estimate hazard ratios (HRs) for the risk of mortality. We adjusted HRs for age, gender, social economic status and prior health conditions. Results survival curves show an increased proportion of deaths between 23rd March and 14th June 2020 in care homes for older people, with an adjusted HR of 1.72 (1.55, 1.90) compared with 2016. Compared with the general population in 2016–2019, adjusted care home mortality HRs for older adults rose from 2.15 (2.11, 2.20) in 2016–2019 to 2.94 (2.81, 3.08) in 2020. Conclusions the survival curves and increased HRs show a significantly increased risk of death in the 2020 study periods.

Background In low-income settings with limited social protection supports, by necessity, families are a key resource for care and support. Paradoxically, the quality of family care for people living with Severe Mental Illness (PLSMI) has been linked to support for recovery, hospital overstay and preventable hospital readmissions. This study explored the care experiences of family members of PLSMI with patients at the national mental hospital in Kampala, Uganda, a low income country. This study was undertaken to inform the development of YouBelongHome (YBH), a community mental health intervention implemented by YouBelong Uganda (YBU), a registered NGO in Uganda. Methods Qualitative data was analysed from 10 focus groups with carers of ready to discharge patients on convalescent wards in Butabika National Referral Mental Hospital (BNRMH), Kampala. This is a subset of data from a mixed methods baseline study for YouBelong Uganda, undertaken in 2017 to explore hospital readmissions and community supports for PLSMI from the Wakiso and Kampala districts, Uganda. Results Three interrelated themes emerge in the qualitative analysis: a range of direct, practical care provided by the caregiver of the PLSMI, emotional family dynamics, and the social and cultural context of care. The family care giving role is multidimensional, challenging, and changing. It includes protection of the PLSMI from harm and abuse, in the context of stigma and discrimination, and challenging behaviours that may result from poor access to and use of evidence-based medicines. There is reliance on traditional healers and faith healers reflecting alternative belief systems and health seeking behaviour rather than medicalised care. Transport to attend health facilities impedes access to help outside the family care system. Underpinning these experiences is the impact of low economic resources. Conclusions Family support can be a key resource and an active agent in mental health recovery for PLSMI in Uganda. Implementing practical family-oriented mental health interventions necessitates a culturally aware practice. This should be based in understandings of dynamic family relationships, cultural understanding of severe mental illness that places it in a spiritual context, different family forms, caregiving practices and challenges as well as community attitudes. In the Ugandan context, limited (mental) health system infrastructure and access to medications and service access impediments, such as economic and transport barriers, accentuate these complexities.

BackgroundMortality in care homes has had a prominent focus during the COVID-19 outbreak. Multiple and interconnected challenges face the care home sector in the prevention and management of outbreaks of COVID-19, including adequate supply of personal protective equipment, staff shortages, and insufficient or lack of timely COVID-19 testing. Care homes are particularly vulnerable to infectious diseases.AimTo analyse the mortality of older care home residents in Wales during COVID-19 lockdown and compare this across the population of Wales and the previous 4-years.Study Design and SettingWe used anonymised Electronic Health Records (EHRs) and administrative data from the Secure Anonymised Information Linkage (SAIL) Databank to create a cross-sectional cohort study. We anonymously linked data for Welsh residents to mortality data up to the 14th June 2020.MethodsWe calculated survival curves and adjusted Cox proportional hazards models to estimate hazard ratios (HRs) for the risk of mortality. We adjusted hazard ratios for age, gender, social economic status and prior health conditions.ResultsSurvival curves show an increased proportion of deaths between 23rd March and 14th June 2020 in care homes for older people, with an adjusted HR of 1·72 (1·55, 1·90) compared to 2016. Compared to the general population in 2016-2019, adjusted care home mortality HRs for older adults rose from 2·15 (2·11,2·20) in 2016-2019 to 2·94 (2·81,3·08) in 2020.ConclusionsThe survival curves and increased HRs show a significantly increased risk of death in the 2020 study periods.

There are significant barriers to the development of a ‘balanced model’ of mental health in low-income countries. These include gaps in the evidence base on effective responses to severe mental health issues and what works in the transition from hospital to home, and a low public investment in primary and community care. These limitations were the drivers for the formation of the non-government organization, YouBelong Uganda (YBU), which works to contribute to the implementation of a community-based model of mental health care in Uganda. This paper overviews an intervention protocol developed by YBU, which is a combined model of parallel engagement with the national mental hospital in Kampala, Uganda, movement of ‘ready for discharge’ patients back to their families and communities, and community development. The YBU programme is theoretically underpinned by a capabilities approach together with practical application of a concept of ‘belonging’. It is an experiment in implementation with hopes that it may be a positive step towards the development of an effective model in Uganda, which may be applicable in other countries. Finally, we discuss the value in joining ideas from social work, sociology, philosophy, public health and psychiatry into a community mental health ‘belonging framework’.

Therapeutic communication is a relatively new area of research in Indonesia. It is widely known that the success of therapeutic communication is largely influenced by the medical providers’ communication effectiveness when dealing with their clients. This paper reports on research that aimed to explore the connection between therapeutic communication and satisfaction and dissatisfaction as experienced by families of child cancer patients. It used a quantitative approach with a cross-sectional design. The sample was the families of child cancer patients who were acccompanying the patients during hospital stay treatment at an Indonesian public hospital in Jakarta over the period December of 2014 – March 2015. There were 23 respondents for the research. The statistical test used was chi-square with an 0.05 level of significance. The result indicated that 56.5% of the respondents were satisfied with the therapeutic communication provided by nursing staff and that those who praticed therapeutic communication well, were 22 times more likely to provide a satisfactory level to the families of child cancer patients compared with those who did not apply good therapeutic communication (the value of p=0.003 and Odds ratio= 22). Thus, the research indicated that the medical providers’ communication effectiveness was associated with the patients’ satisfaction. We suggest that medical providers be given workshops on how to improve their communication skills to make their clients more satisfied with the medical services.

Issue addressed Partnerships were used to increase healthy eating and active living in children for the Obesity Prevention and Lifestyle (OPAL) program, a systems-wide, community-based childhood obesity prevention program in South Australia. This part of the multi-component evaluation examines stakeholders' perceptions of how OPAL staff worked in partnership and factors contributing to strong partnerships. Methods Pre- and post-interviews and focus groups with multi-sector stakeholders (n=131) across six OPAL communities were analysed using NVivo8 qualitative data analysis software. Results Stakeholders reflected positively on projects developed in partnership with OPAL, reporting that staff worked to establish co-benefits. They identified several factors that contributed to the strengthening of partnerships: staff skills, visibility, resources and sustainability. Conclusions Rather than implementing projects with stakeholders with shared organisational goals, local shared projects were implemented that included a breadth of co-benefits, allowing multi-sector stakeholders to meet their own organisational goals. Practitioners who have the capacity to be flexible, persistent, knowledgeable and skilled communicators are required to negotiate projects, achieving benefit for both health and stakeholders' organisational goals. So what? Engaging in partnership practice to broker co-benefits at the micro or program level has been an effective model for community engagement and change in OPAL. It foregrounds the need for the inclusion of value to partners, which differs from situations in which organisations come together around common goals.

The social care context is changing in many Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development countries due to demand pressures. In this changing context, social care digital technologies are increasingly championed as a way to support the social care of older adults. We argue that if social care digital technologies are going to benefit older adult social care users then a broader discussion about how social care is received and provided needs to take place. We believe if this broader dialogue does not take place then it is unlikely that policy ambitions about digital technologies ‘transforming’ social care will be realised. In fact, in this scenario it is unlikely that technologies will meet the social care needs of older adults and could actually exacerbate existing issues. In the paper we draw on the policy context and the evidence base for social care technologies and their limitations to support this argument. We conclude by signposting current work underway to instigate a broader and more inclusive dialogue around social care digital technologies.

During the period 2009–2012, Prita Mulyasari, a resident of Tangerang, Indonesia, was embroiled in a defamation dispute with Omni International Hospital. The legal case was instigated by the Hospital in response to a specific e-mail Prita sent to family, friends and colleagues about her health-care experience that subsequently went viral. In this paper, we discuss health consumer participation, medical dominance and digital ethics in a context of changing social norms and expanding use of digital technology in Indonesia. We argue that digital technology is changing health consumer participation and opening up avenues for challenge to medical privilege; however, this development is set against the use of the law to reinforce privilege and limit participation.

Until now, research into the effects of domestic violence on the formation of relationships between women and their babies has been from an attachment theory perspective. The research reported in this article takes a different approach. Innovative qualitative research methods are used to uncover knowledge about the formation of such relationships from the lived experiences of sixteen women who have mothered babies while enduring domestic violence. Analysis of the findings in this study identifies domestic violence constitutes an environment of sustained hostility where women respond with maternal protectiveness to maximise their babies’ physical and psychological safety whether or not they had attained a secure relationship. However, women recognize domestic violence constricts space to form close mother/ baby relationships. Supported by these findings, this research suggests policy and practice concerned with relationships between women and babies subjected to domestic violence address protectiveness and space to attach. The article concludes with suggestions for further research. Refereed/Peer-reviewed

Copyright © 2013 Paul R. Ward et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited., Healthy food is becoming increasingly expensive, and families on low incomes face a difficult financial struggle to afford healthy food. When food costs are considered, families on low incomes often face circumstances of poverty. Housing, utilities, health care, and transport are somewhat fixed in cost; however food is more flexible in cost and therefore is often compromised with less healthy, cheaper food, presenting an opportunity for families on low incomes to cut costs. Using a “Healthy Food Basket” methodology, this study costed a week’s supply of healthy food for a range of family types. It found that low-income families would have to spend approximately 30% of household income on eating healthily, whereas high-income households needed to spend about 10%. The differential is explained by the cost of the food basket relative to household income (i.e., affordability). It is argued that families that spend more than 30% of household income on food could be experiencing “food stress.” Moreover the high cost of healthy foods leaves low-income households vulnerable to diet-related health problems because they often have to rely on cheaper foods which are high in fat, sugar, and salt.

Issue addressed Partnerships were used to increase healthy eating and active living in children for the Obesity Prevention and Lifestyle (OPAL) program, a systems-wide, community-based childhood obesity prevention program in South Australia. This part of the multi-component evaluation examines stakeholders' perceptions of how OPAL staff worked in partnership and factors contributing to strong partnerships. Methods Pre- and post-interviews and focus groups with multi-sector stakeholders (n=131) across six OPAL communities were analysed using NVivo8 qualitative data analysis software. Results Stakeholders reflected positively on projects developed in partnership with OPAL, reporting that staff worked to establish co-benefits. They identified several factors that contributed to the strengthening of partnerships: staff skills, visibility, resources and sustainability. Conclusions Rather than implementing projects with stakeholders with shared organisational goals, local shared projects were implemented that included a breadth of co-benefits, allowing multi-sector stakeholders to meet their own organisational goals. Practitioners who have the capacity to be flexible, persistent, knowledgeable and skilled communicators are required to negotiate projects, achieving benefit for both health and stakeholders' organisational goals. So what? Engaging in partnership practice to broker co-benefits at the micro or program level has been an effective model for community engagement and change in OPAL. It foregrounds the need for the inclusion of value to partners, which differs from situations in which organisations come together around common goals.

The evaluation of complex systems-wide public health interventions requires evaluation research that is underpinned by theory. This article presents and discusses the trans-disciplinary evaluation research framework developed to support the evaluation of a South Australian program called OPAL (Obesity Prevention and Lifestyle). The aim is to provide insights into the research design, methods and implementation of the evaluation and contribute to the debate on how to evaluate community-based interventions with complicated and complex aspects. In an attempt to capture the complexity of childhood obesity and the intervention, the OPAL evaluation research employs post positivist, interpretive and critical epistemologies, valuing epistemological pluralism. Each component of the multi-phase mixed methods evaluation captures different yet complementary information concerning the context, process, cost effectiveness and outcomes providing a more complete understanding of the impacts of the complex program. Evaluation research is not without challenges. Some of the tensions and challenges that arose in the establishment, planning and conduct of the OPAL program and evaluation are discussed. Refereed/Peer-reviewed

This paper reviews literature on the relationship between food supply and obesity. The focus is on the supply, cost, and variety of food through various types of food outlets and the impact of these factors on obesity in developed countries. The article reveals complex relationships between food supply factors and obesity. A numer of factors related to lifestyles including the mobility of populations and the use of motor vehicles greatly reduce the impact of the local environment on family and individual eating patterns. However, obesity is also affected by factors such as the type and density of food outlets, the cost of food, the travel distance and means of transport to the food outlet. While the relationship between food supply and obesity in the literature reveals complex and mixed findings, this paper concludes obesity is complex and food supply is only part of this phenomenon’s predictors. Because the relationship between food supply and obesity is mediated by such multiple and complex factors including population behaviours, beliefs, lifestyles, knowledge and both food and physical environments; multiple strategies including policy development and other strategies aimed at manipulating food environments, physical environments, populations’ beliefs, behaviours and practices must be considered in searching for evidence to effectively combat obesity.

Aim: To investigate the cost, affordability, availability and quality of a healthy food basket in high and low household income areas of Adelaide, and to investigate food promotion in supermarkets. Methods: A cross-sectional survey was undertaken in May 2009 with a sample of 61 supermarkets, 27 greengrocers and 34 butchers in metropolitan Adelaide. Samples were selected based on household income for extreme tertiles across Adelaide. Results: Low-income families were significantly worse off in comparison with high-income families (P < 0.05) regarding affordability of the healthy food basket. The data analysis demonstrated that families on welfare payments and low incomes would need to spend 28–34% of their income in order to be able to afford a healthy food basket. However, there was no significant difference in the cost, availability, and quality of the healthy food basket and food promotions between high and low household income areas. Conclusion: The present study examined the cost, affordability, availability and quality of the healthy food basket, as well as an assessment of food promotions in supermarkets, finding no difference between high and low household income areas. The study provides valuable information to assist in a deeper understanding of food security in Adelaide. It is recommended that a longitudinal study would assist in establishing a reliable healthy food basket monitoring system that could lead to more robust policy outcomes.

Restorative justice as popularly conceived is intertwined with 'community'. Building trust within 'communities', restoring damaged social and interpersonal relations, widening the ways in which conflict and violence are understood and responded to are all elements of restorative justice. There are parallels here with the activities of community-development workers working in conflicted neighbourhood level communities. Might some of the practices within a typical restorative justice initiative be useful to community development? We highlight the potential benefits of dialogical processes and structured 'healing' relationships that are inherent in restorative justice work. We argue that some longstanding understandings within community development could usefully extend the ways in which restorative justice is typically enacted.

Urban entrepreneurialism reflects recent changes to economic and political sensibility and emphasises the regulation of urban space in ways that promote market-based approaches to the restructuring of the built environment. The contradictions and controversy surrounding the Mt Barker foundry and the Pelican Point power station in South Australia provide an opportunity to revisit the place of urban social movements in this 'entrepreneurial' politic of a state Liberal government in the late 1990s.

It should come as no surprise that when women who have raised babies in domestic violence come together to discuss the formation of relationships with their babies they raise issues of fear. Yet in current attachment studies about the formation of relationships between women and their babies, knowledge of fear based in lived experiences is undervalued. This article draws on a qualitative study of such experiences to explore ways in which fear impacted on 16 women and their babies. From this study it is discerned that fear impacts in diverse ways on women, babies, and their relationships with each other. Women’s experiences show that fear is a complex emotion that cannot be understood outside of context, relations, and subjectivity. Furthermore, fear can be the motivation for protection, whereby actions by women are in the interests of safety of their babies. These insights look beyond attachment theory to the manifestations of and responses to fear identified by women who have raised babies while enduring domestic violence. Refereed/Peer-reviewed

This article describes the core elements of the authors' radical social work practice at the Parks Community Health Service in Adelaide, South Australia. The context of the practice is a disadvantaged community in Adelaide's western suburbs. The underpinnings of their practice is nothing more than what ought to occur, given social work's original and core values. The approach is illustrated by describing the work with a local environmental action group. The importance of this approach is emphasised in the current climate of conservatism and economic rationalism which serves to increase injustice.

Background In order to improve the health of the most vulnerable groups in society, the WHO Commission on Social Determinants of Health (CSDH) called for multi-sectoral action, which requires research and policy on the multiple and inter-linking factors shaping health outcomes. Most conceptual tools available to researchers tend to focus on singular and specific social determinants of health (SDH) (e.g. social capital, empowerment, social inclusion). However, a new and innovative conceptual framework, known as social quality theory, facilitates a more complex and complete understanding of the SDH, with its focus on four domains: social cohesion, social inclusion, social empowerment and socioeconomic security, all within the same conceptual framework. This paper provides both an overview of social quality theory in addition to findings from a national survey of social quality in Australia, as a means of demonstrating the operationalisation of the theory. Methods Data were collected using a national random postal survey of 1044 respondents in September, 2009. Multivariate logistic regression analysis was conducted. Results Statistical analysis revealed that people on lower incomes (less than $45000) experience worse social quality across all of the four domains: lower socio-economic security, lower levels of membership of organisations (lower social cohesion), higher levels of discrimination and less political action (lower social inclusion) and lower social empowerment. The findings were mixed in terms of age, with people over 65 years experiencing lower socio-economic security, but having higher levels of social cohesion, experiencing lower levels of discrimination (higher social inclusion) and engaging in more political action (higher social empowerment). In terms of gender, women had higher social cohesion than men, although also experienced more discrimination (lower social inclusion). Conclusions Applying social quality theory allows researchers and policy makers to measure and respond to the multiple sources of oppression and advantage experienced by certain population groups, and to monitor the effectiveness of interventions over time.

Andrew Beer, Paul Delfabbro, Kristin Natalier, Susan Oakley, Jasmin Packer and Fiona Verity

Introduction As in many other countries, Australian consumers have recently had to accommodate increases in costs of basic food, and during the financial year 2007-2008 overall food prices rose by nearly 4%. Food costs are mediating factors in food choice, especially for low-income groups, where food security is often tenuous. There are reports that rural populations may have higher levels of food insecurity, although the evidence is often contradictory. Methods To assess cost and affordability of food in rural areas this study used the Healthy Food Basket (HFB) methodology, which has been applied in a number of settings. The HFBs were costed at supermarkets and stores in different locations with different degrees of rurality. Results Compared with metropolitan areas, healthy food is more expensive in rural areas; costs are even higher in more remote areas. The overall affordability of HFB in rural areas was not significantly different from metro areas. The main difference concerned low socio-economic status (SES) groups, where the proportion of household income spent on the HFB was three times that of higher SES groups. Conclusions The unaffordability of healthy food, or 'food stress' in low SES groups is a concern, especially when this group carries the greatest burden of diet-related disease. Findings suggest that there is a need to consider both rurality and SES when developing policy responses to decrease the cost and increase the affordability of healthy foods in rural and remote areas.