Pub Date : 2019-11-20DOI: 10.1177/1363459319886112
Kevin Hall, Meike Wolf
Public health authorities in Germany regard communication as a crucial part of infectious disease prevention and control strategies. Communication becomes even more important during public health crises such as pandemics. Drawing on Briggs and Hallin’s concept of biocommunicability, we analysed the German National Pandemic Plan and key informant interviews with public health experts, critical infrastructure providers and ambulance services. We examined the projected expectations towards the behaviour of the audiences and the projected ways of information circulation informing public health communication strategies during a pandemic. Participants shared the expectation that the population would react towards an influenza pandemic with panic and fear due to a lack of information or a sensationalist media coverage. They associated the information uptake of their target audience with trust in their expertise. While our informants from public health conceptualised trust in terms of a face-to-face interaction, they sought to gain trust through transparency in their respective institutional settings. Our analysis suggests that this moved health information into a political register where their medical authority was open to debate. In response to this, they perceived the field of communication as a struggle for hegemony.
{"title":"Whose crisis? Pandemic flu, ‘communication disasters’ and the struggle for hegemony","authors":"Kevin Hall, Meike Wolf","doi":"10.1177/1363459319886112","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/1363459319886112","url":null,"abstract":"Public health authorities in Germany regard communication as a crucial part of infectious disease prevention and control strategies. Communication becomes even more important during public health crises such as pandemics. Drawing on Briggs and Hallin’s concept of biocommunicability, we analysed the German National Pandemic Plan and key informant interviews with public health experts, critical infrastructure providers and ambulance services. We examined the projected expectations towards the behaviour of the audiences and the projected ways of information circulation informing public health communication strategies during a pandemic. Participants shared the expectation that the population would react towards an influenza pandemic with panic and fear due to a lack of information or a sensationalist media coverage. They associated the information uptake of their target audience with trust in their expertise. While our informants from public health conceptualised trust in terms of a face-to-face interaction, they sought to gain trust through transparency in their respective institutional settings. Our analysis suggests that this moved health information into a political register where their medical authority was open to debate. In response to this, they perceived the field of communication as a struggle for hegemony.","PeriodicalId":231462,"journal":{"name":"Health (London, England : 1997)","volume":"16 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-11-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"130145390","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2019-11-18DOI: 10.1177/1363459319889102
A. Paton, Ben Kotzee
Practical wisdom is a key concept in the field of virtue ethics, and it has played a significant role in the thinking of those who make use of virtue when theorising medical practice and ethics. In this article, we examine how storytelling and practical wisdom play integral roles in the medical ethics education of junior doctors. Using a qualitative approach, we conducted 46 interviews with a cohort of junior doctors to explore the role doctors feel phronesis has in their medical ethics practice and how they acquire practical wisdom through storytelling as an essential part of their medical ethics education. Through thematic analysis of the interviews, we discuss the key role storytelling about moral exemplars and role models plays in developing medical ethics education, and how telling stories about role models is considered to be one of the most useful ways to learn medical ethics. We finish by developing an argument for why practical wisdom should be an important part of medical ethics training, focusing on the important role that phronesis narratives should have in teaching medical ethics.
{"title":"The fundamental role of storytelling and practical wisdom in facilitating the ethics education of junior doctors","authors":"A. Paton, Ben Kotzee","doi":"10.1177/1363459319889102","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/1363459319889102","url":null,"abstract":"Practical wisdom is a key concept in the field of virtue ethics, and it has played a significant role in the thinking of those who make use of virtue when theorising medical practice and ethics. In this article, we examine how storytelling and practical wisdom play integral roles in the medical ethics education of junior doctors. Using a qualitative approach, we conducted 46 interviews with a cohort of junior doctors to explore the role doctors feel phronesis has in their medical ethics practice and how they acquire practical wisdom through storytelling as an essential part of their medical ethics education. Through thematic analysis of the interviews, we discuss the key role storytelling about moral exemplars and role models plays in developing medical ethics education, and how telling stories about role models is considered to be one of the most useful ways to learn medical ethics. We finish by developing an argument for why practical wisdom should be an important part of medical ethics training, focusing on the important role that phronesis narratives should have in teaching medical ethics.","PeriodicalId":231462,"journal":{"name":"Health (London, England : 1997)","volume":"60 7","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-11-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"120816972","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2019-07-24DOI: 10.1177/1363459319860572
E. McDermott, Jacqui Gabb, Rachael Eastham, Ali Hanbury
Conflict with the family about sexual orientation and gender diversity is a key risk factor associated with poor mental health in youth populations. Findings presented here derive from a UK study that employed an interdisciplinary critical mental health approach that de-pathologised emotional distress and conceptualised families as social and affective units that are created through everyday practices. Our aim was to explore how family relationships foster, maintain or harm the mental health and well-being of LGBTQ+ youth. Data were generated through exploratory visual, creative and digital qualitative methods in two phases. Phase 1 involved digital/paper emotion maps and interviews with LGBTQ+ youth aged 16 to 25 (n = 12) and family member/mentor interviews (n = 7). Phase 2 employed diary methods and follow-up interviews (n = 9). The data analytic strategy involved three stages: individual case analysis, cross-sectional thematic analysis and meta-interpretation. We found that family relationships impacted queer youth mental health in complex ways that were related to the establishment of their autonomous queer selves, the desire to remain belonging to their family and the need to maintain a secure environment. The emotion work involved in navigating identity, belonging and security was made difficult because of family heteronormativity, youth autonomy and family expectations, and had a stark impact on queer youth mental health and well-being. Improving the mental health of LGBTQ+ youth requires a much deeper understanding of the emotionality of family relationships and the difficulties negotiating these as a young person.
{"title":"Family trouble: Heteronormativity, emotion work and queer youth mental health","authors":"E. McDermott, Jacqui Gabb, Rachael Eastham, Ali Hanbury","doi":"10.1177/1363459319860572","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/1363459319860572","url":null,"abstract":"Conflict with the family about sexual orientation and gender diversity is a key risk factor associated with poor mental health in youth populations. Findings presented here derive from a UK study that employed an interdisciplinary critical mental health approach that de-pathologised emotional distress and conceptualised families as social and affective units that are created through everyday practices. Our aim was to explore how family relationships foster, maintain or harm the mental health and well-being of LGBTQ+ youth. Data were generated through exploratory visual, creative and digital qualitative methods in two phases. Phase 1 involved digital/paper emotion maps and interviews with LGBTQ+ youth aged 16 to 25 (n = 12) and family member/mentor interviews (n = 7). Phase 2 employed diary methods and follow-up interviews (n = 9). The data analytic strategy involved three stages: individual case analysis, cross-sectional thematic analysis and meta-interpretation. We found that family relationships impacted queer youth mental health in complex ways that were related to the establishment of their autonomous queer selves, the desire to remain belonging to their family and the need to maintain a secure environment. The emotion work involved in navigating identity, belonging and security was made difficult because of family heteronormativity, youth autonomy and family expectations, and had a stark impact on queer youth mental health and well-being. Improving the mental health of LGBTQ+ youth requires a much deeper understanding of the emotionality of family relationships and the difficulties negotiating these as a young person.","PeriodicalId":231462,"journal":{"name":"Health (London, England : 1997)","volume":"41 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-07-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"128802307","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2017-02-08DOI: 10.1177/1363459316677624
Mohammad Marie, B. Hannigan, Aled Jones
The aim of this article is to provide an overview of theoretical perspectives and practical research knowledge in relation to ‘resilience’, the resilience of Palestinians in particular and the related concept of ‘Sumud’. ‘Sumud’ is a Palestinian idea that is interwoven with ideas of personal and collective resilience and steadfastness. It is also a socio-political concept and refers to ways of surviving in the context of occupation, chronic adversity, lack of resources and limited infrastructure. The concept of ‘resilience’ has deep roots, going back at least to the 10th century when Arabic scholars suggested strategies to cope with life adversity. In Europe, research into resilience extends back to the 1800s. The understanding of resilience has developed over four overlapping waves. These focus on individual traits, protective factors, ecological assets and (in the current wave) social ecological factors. The current wave of resilience research focuses on the contribution of cultural contextualisation and is an approach that is discussed in this article, which draws on Arabic and English language literature located through a search of multiple databases (CINAHL, British Nursing Index, ASSIA, MEDLINE, PsycINFO and EMBASE). Findings suggest that ‘Sumud’ is linked to the surrounding cultural context and can be thought of as an innovative, social ecological, approach to promoting resilience. We show that resilience is a prerequisite to ‘Sumud’, meaning that the individual has to be resilient in order to stay and not to leave their place, position or community. We close by pressing the case for studies which investigate resilience especially in underdeveloped countries such as Palestine (occupied Palestinian territories), and which reveal how resilience is embedded in pre-existing cultural contexts.
{"title":"Social ecology of resilience and Sumud of Palestinians","authors":"Mohammad Marie, B. Hannigan, Aled Jones","doi":"10.1177/1363459316677624","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/1363459316677624","url":null,"abstract":"The aim of this article is to provide an overview of theoretical perspectives and practical research knowledge in relation to ‘resilience’, the resilience of Palestinians in particular and the related concept of ‘Sumud’. ‘Sumud’ is a Palestinian idea that is interwoven with ideas of personal and collective resilience and steadfastness. It is also a socio-political concept and refers to ways of surviving in the context of occupation, chronic adversity, lack of resources and limited infrastructure. The concept of ‘resilience’ has deep roots, going back at least to the 10th century when Arabic scholars suggested strategies to cope with life adversity. In Europe, research into resilience extends back to the 1800s. The understanding of resilience has developed over four overlapping waves. These focus on individual traits, protective factors, ecological assets and (in the current wave) social ecological factors. The current wave of resilience research focuses on the contribution of cultural contextualisation and is an approach that is discussed in this article, which draws on Arabic and English language literature located through a search of multiple databases (CINAHL, British Nursing Index, ASSIA, MEDLINE, PsycINFO and EMBASE). Findings suggest that ‘Sumud’ is linked to the surrounding cultural context and can be thought of as an innovative, social ecological, approach to promoting resilience. We show that resilience is a prerequisite to ‘Sumud’, meaning that the individual has to be resilient in order to stay and not to leave their place, position or community. We close by pressing the case for studies which investigate resilience especially in underdeveloped countries such as Palestine (occupied Palestinian territories), and which reveal how resilience is embedded in pre-existing cultural contexts.","PeriodicalId":231462,"journal":{"name":"Health (London, England : 1997)","volume":"402 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2017-02-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"115226953","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2016-10-01DOI: 10.1177/1363459316674786
A. Geraghty, M. Santer, S. Williams, J. Mc Sharry, P. Little, R. Muñoz, T. Kendrick, M. Moore
General practitioners are tasked with determining the nature of patients’ emotional distress and providing appropriate care. For patients whose symptoms appear to fall near the ‘boundaries’ of psychiatric disorder, this can be difficult with important implications for treatment. There is a lack of qualitative research among patients with symptoms severe enough to warrant consultation, but where general practitioners have refrained from diagnosis. We aimed to explore how patients in this potentially large group conceptualise their symptoms and consequently investigate lay understandings of complex distinctions between emotional distress and psychiatric disorder. Interviews were conducted with 20 primary care patients whom general practitioners had identified as experiencing emotional distress, but had not diagnosed with major depressive disorder. Participants described severe emotional experiences with substantial impact on their lives. The term ‘depression’ was used in many different ways; however, despite severity, they often considered their emotional experience to be different to their perceived notions of ‘actual’ depression or mental illness. Where anxiety was mentioned, use appeared to refer to an underlying generalised state. Participants drew on complex, sometimes fluid and often theoretically coherent conceptualisations of their emotional distress, as related to, but distinct from, mental disorder. These conceptualisations differ from those frequently drawn on in research and treatment guidelines, compounding the difficulty for general practitioners. Developing models of psychological symptoms that draw on patient experience and integrate psychological/psychiatric theory may help patients understand the nature of their experience and, critically, provide the basis for a broader range of primary care interventions.
{"title":"‘You feel like your whole world is caving in’: A qualitative study of primary care patients’ conceptualisations of emotional distress","authors":"A. Geraghty, M. Santer, S. Williams, J. Mc Sharry, P. Little, R. Muñoz, T. Kendrick, M. Moore","doi":"10.1177/1363459316674786","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/1363459316674786","url":null,"abstract":"General practitioners are tasked with determining the nature of patients’ emotional distress and providing appropriate care. For patients whose symptoms appear to fall near the ‘boundaries’ of psychiatric disorder, this can be difficult with important implications for treatment. There is a lack of qualitative research among patients with symptoms severe enough to warrant consultation, but where general practitioners have refrained from diagnosis. We aimed to explore how patients in this potentially large group conceptualise their symptoms and consequently investigate lay understandings of complex distinctions between emotional distress and psychiatric disorder. Interviews were conducted with 20 primary care patients whom general practitioners had identified as experiencing emotional distress, but had not diagnosed with major depressive disorder. Participants described severe emotional experiences with substantial impact on their lives. The term ‘depression’ was used in many different ways; however, despite severity, they often considered their emotional experience to be different to their perceived notions of ‘actual’ depression or mental illness. Where anxiety was mentioned, use appeared to refer to an underlying generalised state. Participants drew on complex, sometimes fluid and often theoretically coherent conceptualisations of their emotional distress, as related to, but distinct from, mental disorder. These conceptualisations differ from those frequently drawn on in research and treatment guidelines, compounding the difficulty for general practitioners. Developing models of psychological symptoms that draw on patient experience and integrate psychological/psychiatric theory may help patients understand the nature of their experience and, critically, provide the basis for a broader range of primary care interventions.","PeriodicalId":231462,"journal":{"name":"Health (London, England : 1997)","volume":"23 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2016-10-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"114409665","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2016-03-15DOI: 10.1177/1363459316638542
G. Creighton, J. Oliffe, M. Lohan, J. Ogrodniczuk, Emma Palm
In Canada, it is young, rural-based men who are at the greatest risk of suicide. While there is no consensus on the reasons for this, evidence points to contextual social factors including isolation, lack of confidential services, and pressure to uphold restrictive norms of rural masculinity. In this article, we share findings drawn from an instrumental photovoice case study to distil factors contributing to the suicide of a young, Canadian, rural-based man. Integrating photovoice methods and in-depth qualitative, we conducted interviews with seven family members and close friends of the deceased. The interviews and image data were analyzed using constant comparative methods to discern themes related to participants’ reflections on and perceptions about rural male suicide. Three inductively derived themes, “Missing the signs,” “Living up to his public image,” and “Down in Rural Canada,” reflect the challenges that survivors and young rural men can experience in attempting to be comply with restrictive dominant ideals of masculinity. We conclude that community-based suicide prevention efforts would benefit from gender-sensitive and place-specific approaches to advancing men’s mental health by making tangibly available and affirming an array of masculinities to foster the well-being of young, rural-based men.
{"title":"“Things I did not know”: Retrospectives on a Canadian rural male youth suicide using an instrumental photovoice case study","authors":"G. Creighton, J. Oliffe, M. Lohan, J. Ogrodniczuk, Emma Palm","doi":"10.1177/1363459316638542","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/1363459316638542","url":null,"abstract":"In Canada, it is young, rural-based men who are at the greatest risk of suicide. While there is no consensus on the reasons for this, evidence points to contextual social factors including isolation, lack of confidential services, and pressure to uphold restrictive norms of rural masculinity. In this article, we share findings drawn from an instrumental photovoice case study to distil factors contributing to the suicide of a young, Canadian, rural-based man. Integrating photovoice methods and in-depth qualitative, we conducted interviews with seven family members and close friends of the deceased. The interviews and image data were analyzed using constant comparative methods to discern themes related to participants’ reflections on and perceptions about rural male suicide. Three inductively derived themes, “Missing the signs,” “Living up to his public image,” and “Down in Rural Canada,” reflect the challenges that survivors and young rural men can experience in attempting to be comply with restrictive dominant ideals of masculinity. We conclude that community-based suicide prevention efforts would benefit from gender-sensitive and place-specific approaches to advancing men’s mental health by making tangibly available and affirming an array of masculinities to foster the well-being of young, rural-based men.","PeriodicalId":231462,"journal":{"name":"Health (London, England : 1997)","volume":"5 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2016-03-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"128410202","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2015-12-09DOI: 10.1177/1363459315617311
N. Armstrong, S. Kenyon
Choice and patient involvement in decision-making are strong aspirations of contemporary healthcare. One of the most striking areas in which this is played out is maternity care where recent policy has focused on choice and supporting normal birth. However, birth is sometimes not straightforward and unanticipated complications can rapidly reduce choice. We draw on the accounts of women who experienced delay during labour with their first child. This occurs when progress is slow, and syntocinon is administered to strengthen and regulate contractions. Once delay has been recognized, the clinical circumstances limit choice. Drawing on Mol’s work on the logics of choice and care, we explore how, although often upsetting, women accepted that their choices and plans were no longer feasible. The majority were happy to defer to professionals who they regarded as having the necessary technical expertise, while some adopted a more traditional medical model and actively rejected involvement in decision-making altogether. Only a minority wanted to continue active involvement in decision-making, although the extent to which the possibility existed for them to do so was questionable. Women appeared to accept that their ideals of choice and involvement had to be abandoned, and that clinical circumstances legitimately changed events.
{"title":"When choice becomes limited: Women’s experiences of delay in labour","authors":"N. Armstrong, S. Kenyon","doi":"10.1177/1363459315617311","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/1363459315617311","url":null,"abstract":"Choice and patient involvement in decision-making are strong aspirations of contemporary healthcare. One of the most striking areas in which this is played out is maternity care where recent policy has focused on choice and supporting normal birth. However, birth is sometimes not straightforward and unanticipated complications can rapidly reduce choice. We draw on the accounts of women who experienced delay during labour with their first child. This occurs when progress is slow, and syntocinon is administered to strengthen and regulate contractions. Once delay has been recognized, the clinical circumstances limit choice. Drawing on Mol’s work on the logics of choice and care, we explore how, although often upsetting, women accepted that their choices and plans were no longer feasible. The majority were happy to defer to professionals who they regarded as having the necessary technical expertise, while some adopted a more traditional medical model and actively rejected involvement in decision-making altogether. Only a minority wanted to continue active involvement in decision-making, although the extent to which the possibility existed for them to do so was questionable. Women appeared to accept that their ideals of choice and involvement had to be abandoned, and that clinical circumstances legitimately changed events.","PeriodicalId":231462,"journal":{"name":"Health (London, England : 1997)","volume":"21 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2015-12-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"130958035","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}