International Women's Day 2021#ChooseToChallenge

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choose	Bulgaria 1957 Women’s Day
Algeria 2004 International Women's Day	to CHALLENGE

 

Images: https://www.stampsoftheworld.co.uk/wiki/Category:International_Women%27s_Day

WHO: 1 in 4 people projected to have hearing problems by 2050

"When unaddressed, hearing loss impacts many aspects of life at individual level"

 and collective too.

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"Communication and speech Cognition   Education and Employment: In developing countries, children with hearing loss and deafness often do not receive schooling. Adults with hearing loss also have a much higher unemployment rate. Among those who are employed, a higher percentage of people with hearing loss are in the lower grades of employment compared with the general workforce."

"Nearly 2.5 billion people worldwide ─ or 1 in 4 people ─ will be living with some degree of hearing loss by 2050, warns the World Health Organization’s (WHO) first World Report on Hearing, released today. At least 700 million of these people will require access to ear and hearing care and other rehabilitation services unless action is taken."

"But the most glaring gap in health system capacity is in human resources. Among low-income countries, about 78% have fewer than one ear, nose and throat (ENT) specialist per million population; 93% have fewer than one audiologist per million; only 17% have one or more speech therapist per million; and 50% have one or more teacher for the deaf per million. This gap can be closed through integration of ear and hearing care into primary health care through strategies such as task sharing and training, outlined in the report."

"Impact on society and economy Years Lived with Disability (YDLs) and Disability Adjusted Life Years (DALYs) WHO estimates that unaddressed hearing loss poses an annual global cost of US$ 980 billion. This includes health sector costs (excluding the cost of hearing devices), costs of educational support, loss of productivity, and societal costs. 57% of these costs are attributed to low- and middle-income countries."

Sources:

https://www.who.int/news/item/02-03-2021-who-1-in-4-people-projected-to-have-hearing-problems-by-2050

https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/deafness-and-hearing-loss

 

Dear colleagues,

We have recently published an article that presents some insights from Canada 

(full-text available from ResearchGate https://www.researchgate.net/publication/343400636_Here's_to_sound_action_on_global_hearing_health_through_public_health_approaches )

Shroff, F.M. and Jung, D. (2020), "Here's to sound action on global hearing health through public health approaches", International Journal of Health Governance, Vol. 25 No. 3, pp. 235-244. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJHG-01-2020-0004 

Abstract Purpose – A global pandemic, non-occupational noise-induced hearing loss (NIHL) is a completely preventable public health problem, which receives limited air time. This study has dual purposes: to contribute to scholarly literature that puts non-occupational NIHL on the global priority map and to effect change in the City of Vancouver’s policies toward noise. 

Design/methodology/approach – Experts in public health and hearing health were contacted in addition to a scoping literature search on PubMed. Information pertaining to both developed and developing countries was obtained, and comparison was made to Canada where possible. The authors met with elected officials at the City of Vancouver to inform them of the win–win aspects of policies that promoted better hearing.

Findings – Non-occupational NIHL is an underappreciated issue in Canada and many other countries, as seen by the lack of epidemiological data and public health initiatives. Other countries, such as Australia, have more robust research and public health programs, but most of the world lags behind. Better hearing health is possible through targeted campaigns addressing root causes of non-occupational, recreational noise–positive associations with loud noise. By redefining social norms so that soft to moderate sounds are associated with positive values and loud sounds are negatively attributed, the societies will prevent leisure NIHL. The authors recommend widespread national all-age campaigns that benefit from successful public health campaigns of the past, such as smoking cessation, safety belts and others. Soft Sounds are Healthy (SSH) is a suggested name for a campaign that would take many years, ample resources and sophisticated understanding of behavior change to be effective.

Research limitations/implications – A gap exists in the collection of non-occupational NIHL data. Creating indicators and regularly collecting data is a high priority for most nations. Beyond data collection, prevention of non-occupational NIHL ought to be a high priority. Studies in each region would propel understanding, partly to discern the cultural factors that would predispose the general population to change favorable attitudes toward loud sounds to associations of moderate sounds with positivity. Evaluations of these campaigns would then follow.

Practical implications – Everyday life for many people around the world, particularly in cities, is loud. Traffic, construction, loudspeakers, music and other loud sounds abound. Many people have adapted to these loud soundscapes, and others suffer from the lack of peace and quiet. Changing cultural attitudes toward loud sound will improve human and animal health, lessen the burden on healthcare systems and positively impact the economy. Social implications–Industries that create loud technologies and machinery ought to be required to find ways to soften noise. Regulatory mechanisms that are enforced by law and fines ought to be in place. When governments take up the banner of hearing health, they will help to set a new tone toward loud sounds as undesirable, and this will partially address the root causes of the problem of non-occupational NIHL.

Thanks

Irina Ibragimova, PhD

Co-editor, International Journal of Health Governance

HIFA profile: Irina Ibraghimova is a medical librarian, based in Croatia, and works with health care professionals in the countries of the Former Soviet Union, Central and Eastern Europe, and Africa. Her interests include evidence-based practice (both in health care and in library/informatics field). She is a HIFA Country Representative for Croatia. https://www.hifa.org/support/members/irina www.lrcnetwork.org www.healthconnect-intl.org ibra AT zadar.net

Source:

HIFA https://www.hifa.org/

(Posted a little late...)

The Great Green Wall

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The Great Green Wall

"Africa's history with the west is littered with examples of plunder masquerading as benevolence, and science is no exception. Doctors and researchers who came to help during Ebola flew out with more than 269,000 blood samples from patients in Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia. That has meant that researchers in those countries cannot access samples that in many cases they had collected.    'All those superpowers, all those parachute researchers ... they pretended as if they want to help, but the real agenda was to control samples, so they can do all kinds of research on them'".

 

https://www.greatgreenwall.org/

Munshi, N. (2021) Lunch with the FT Christian Happi: With pathogens, we need to play offence. FT Weekend, Life&Arts, 20-21 February, p.3. (A rewarding read.)

Image source: https://africaresearchonline.wordpress.com/2013/05/21/the-great-green-wall/

gameChange VR therapy

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"The issue is an urgent one: all too often, individuals with psychosis find day-to-day life so anxiety-provoking that they simply withdraw. Everyday tasks — getting on a bus, doing the shopping, speaking to other people — become very challenging. Work and home life suffer. And mental and physical health deteriorate. Psychological therapy can be very beneficial here. But it needs to be the right kind of therapy. What works best is active coaching in the situations that trouble people, helping patients move beyond their fears. However, this is difficult without a skilled therapist who has the time to get out and about with patients. And patients often find the idea frightening. The result is that a potentially powerful treatment is seldom actually delivered."

VIRTUAL REALITY

Source: Flyer from Salford - Early Intervention Team, Sept-Dec 2020 (Great team too!).

VR on archived site 1998-2015:

https://web.archive.org/web/20110903071731/http://www.p-jones.demon.co.uk/linksTwo.htm 

https://web.archive.org/web/20110727043926/http://www.p-jones.demon.co.uk/Introvrn.htm

The Practical Origins of Ideas by Matthieu Queloz

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A few years ago 2018, I noticed a conference on conceptual engineering, if you browse this blog you may see the attraction that included New York. I never got there in person and of course back then virtual conferences were less 'popular'. This afternoon I joined an online presentation with Q&A on this topic and my interest was renewed. A subsequent search also revealed this book which is open access.

"The second strategy is what might be called the dynamic model interpretation advanced by Martin Kusch (2009b, 2011, 2013). On this view, genealogies are not just elaborate ways of describing our actual practices. They involve genuine historicization and fictionalization, because they are best interpreted as models which at first involve strong idealization, but are then gradually de-idealized to approximate their target system. They provide models with a time axis — dynamic models — explaining why we came to think as we do." pp.12-13.

"The genealogical model helps us situate, contextualize, and account for each of the different functions a practice acquired in different contexts, thereby imposing a form of order on the irreducibly varied synthesis that Nietzsche describes. The measure of the quality of that model will be its ability to make sense of the internal diversity of the practice and of the multiplicity of functions laid up in it." p.63.

"Often, our needs shape the space of reasons the way our eyes shape the field of vision: they render us sensitive to certain aspects of the world without themselves showing up in it." pp.246-247.

My source:

My first book, *The Practical Origins of Ideas: Genealogy as Conceptual Reverse-Engineering*, is coming out today with @OUPAcademic, just in time for #WorldBookDay. It's available fully #openaccess at: https://t.co/2WwRgfZyz9#OxfordUniAuthors pic.twitter.com/RxDbo0FkIH

— Matthieu Queloz (@matthieu_queloz) March 4, 2021

Fully funded PhD opportunity: Power

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	'Power' How power is exercised here ...

[The above is my addition, and is not an endorsement]

Power as a social determinant of health inequalities (supervised by Mhairi Mackenzie and Sharon Greenwood at the University of Glasgow and Dr Gerry McCartney, Head of the Scottish Public Health Observatory at Public Health Scotland).

This PhD aims to deliver academic and policy learning about how power shapes health and health inequalities at a societal level and methodological learning about collaborative autoethnography as a means of generating data from/with elite participants. The findings will be used to develop learning materials for those engaged in the health inequalities field and to contribute to Public Health Scotland’s ongoing work programme in understanding power as a fundamental driver of health inequalities (HI).

In its proposed focus and methodological approach, the PhD draws on three ideas within the health inequalities literature:

• Power is not properly understood as a determinant of health and HI – it appears as a relatively amorphous concept whose multiple mechanisms have not been sufficiently delineated; this means that potential policy levers remain obscured.
• Those working within HI themselves sit within power structures and, as such, are a group whose understanding of power is important to explore. They have opportunities to influence policy debates, experience barriers created through power structures and, it is argued, despite commitment to resolving the problem, themselves benefit from the so-called ‘poverty industry’.
• Researching concepts such as HI with professional elites is difficult when professionals have well-practiced repertoires of responses.

There is evidence that using non-standard research approaches in the field of HI can bring original perspectives to bear.

Using a novel methodological approach (collaborative autoethnography) the study will:

• Explore how academic/policy elites working within the HI field:

1. Understand the mechanisms through which different types of power impact on health outcomes and HI.
2. Reflect on and conceptualise the power which they deploy or otherwise benefit from within their own personal/professional lives.

• Generate learning about hidden and actionable levers of power relevant to HI. 
• Develop learning sets for use with professionals in the HI field.
• Generate learning about researching with elite participants.
  

https://www.sgsss.ac.uk/studentship/power-as-a-social-determinant-of-health/

Mhairi Mackenzie,
Professor of Public Policy,
Urban Studies, School of Social & Political Sciences, University of Glasgow,
Email: mhairi.mackenzie AT glasgow.ac.uk

AND:

Deputy Director (Studentships and External Communications) of the Scottish Graduate School Social Sciences: Doctoral Training Partnership
Sgoil Cheumnaichean Saidheans Sòisealta na h-Alba: Com-pàirteachas Trèanaidh Dotaireachd
University of Edinburgh


A selection of recently published papers:

Mackenzie, M., Skivington, K., Fergie, G. (2020) “The State They’re In”: Unpicking Fantasy Paradigms of Health Improvement Interventions as Tools for Addressing Health Inequalities. Social Science & Medicine. 256. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2020.113047

Mackenzie, M., Gannon, M., Stanley, N., Cosgrove, K., Feder, G. (2019) ‘You certainly don't go back to the doctor once you've been told, “I'll never understand women like you.”’ Seeking candidacy and structural competency in the dynamics of domestic abuse disclosure. Sociology of Health & Illness 41(6): 1159-1174. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-9566.12893

Mackenzie, M., Bradley, L., Gannon, M., Cosgrove, K., Barton, D., Feder, G., Stanley (N) (2019) What might normalisation process theory bring to policy implementation studies? Learning lessons and uncovering questions through a case study of the profound implementation failure of a new policing policy’. Social Policy & Administration 53 (3): 449-463 DOI: 10.1111/spol.12467

Mackenzie, M., Hastings, A., Babbel, B., Simpson, S. and Watt, G. (2017) Proportionate universalism as a route to mitigating health inequalities? Exploring political, policy and practice uncertainties in times of austerity. In: Fee, D. and Kober-Smith, A. (eds.) Inequalities in the UK: New Discourses, Evolutions and Actions. Emerald Publishing Limited. ISBN 9781787144804,

Mackenzie, M., Collins, C., Connolly, J., Doyle, M. and McCartney, G. (2017) Working-class discourses of politics, policy and health: 'I don't smoke; don't drink. The only thing wrong with me is my health'. Policy and Politics, 45(2), pp. 231-249. (doi:10.1332/030557316X14534640177927)

Mackenzie, M., Hastings, A., Babbel, B., Simpson, S. and Watt, G. (2017) Tackling and mitigating health inequalities – policymakers and practitioners 'talk and draw' their theories. Social Policy and Administration, 51(1), pp. 151-170. (doi:10.1111/spol.12154)

My source: POHG

Hodges' model: What is the Question? (i)

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Can Hodges' model assist student nurses in assessment and  evaluation of their well-being through their course of study? What sort of 'spaces' do we find in Hodges' model and do they matter or meta?	What is Hodges' model? Is there a theory implicit in Hodges' model? What theories might underpin this 'model'? The Demarcation problem: Hodges' model - is this science or non-science?
Does Hodges' model display consistency when used within a specific cohort of students and across disciplinary student groups? What is a 'span' and 'career' in the 21st century, and why do they matter to the individual and group?	Created in the 1980s is there a political need for Hodges' model in the 2020s? What are 'legacy' problems in healthcare and nursing, and how can Hodges' model characterise them?

 

Prompted by post-graduate study and avoiding reference to methods and/or methodology, plus:

How come so many researchers can't clearly specify the questions they are trying to answer? How come so many people are happy to bandy methods and sample sizes around in research bids without ACTUALLY STATING THE QUESTIONS THEY ARE TRYING TO ANSWER? Drives me absolutely 🥜🥜🥜🥜

— Nicky Cullum 🇪🇺 (@nicolacullum) December 15, 2020

 

Over many years, many questions have arisen.

Resnik, David B. A pragmatic approach to the demarcation problem. Stud. Hist. Phil. Sci., 2000, 31: 2, 249-267.

Rare Diseases Day 2021 28th February

We are asking #healthcare professionals who have worked with people with rare #dementia to complete a short survey to help us understand what we can do to help you support people with rare dementias: https://t.co/8Vfw0RmI6A. The deadline for responses is 5th March 2021. ☑️🗳️

— RareDementiaSupport (@RareDementia) February 23, 2021

And from:

https://www.rarediseaseday.org/

 

The mechanics of Empire (or Not) c/o Yinka Shonibare

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	Yinka Shonibare MBE – End of Empire, 2016, Turner Contemporary

 

"The Salzberg show, at the Museum der Moderne in Monchsberg, will show works going back to the mid-1990s, and though still in development, its title - End of Empire - is secured. This refers to a work Shonibare created for the 14-18 Now project, which commemorated the 100 years since the end of the first world war: two figures with globes for heads sit either end of a moving see-saw, their precarious balance representing the fragile conditions of conflict. 'It's this idea that the arguments are shifting constantly; I didn't want it to be didactic or simplistic,' he says."

Yinka Shonibare

Image: https://publicdelivery.org/yinka-shonibare-end-of-empire/

My source: Roux, C. All a question of power, Life&Arts, FTWeekend. 20-21 February, 2021. p.13.

 

'Design Thinking' in and out of four boxes...

In 2019 Charles Orton-Jones gave a brief (single page) account of design thinking in sales, with a description of its five components:

Empathise

Define the problem

Ideate

Prototype

Testing

Below, I've mapped each to Hodges' model (and in parallel):

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Empathise Ideate Define the Problem Prototype	Define the Problem Prototype Testing
Empathise Ideate Define the Problem Prototype Testing	Empathise Ideate Define the Problem Prototype Testing

 

There is often conceptual overlap and relationships when considering the most mundane, taken-for-granted of phenomena and events. This overlap increases rapidly with more complicated situations. This applies in the case of 'design thinking'. Ideate I take as a mental activity, but it is the flow and interplay of ideas: communication that counts. Empathy is imbued individually, but it is delivered and is realised in the social domain - as empathise suggests. Hopefully, from empathy with group rapport, trust, dignity and respect coherence will follow.

Politically, funding, team constraints, leadership may all influence defining the problem, prototyping and testing. Ideation is 'political' too. We forget this at our peril. Are we sure the protected characteristics have been factored in? You might also test the prototype against the original idea(s): thereby bringing in values. While this application is commercial sales, you are in personalised and specialised 'sales' in healthcare. 

While the above looks like duplication, the parallel approach can help assure the design thinking process as a whole. There is an open question here, but I'm sure despite the duplication and 'travel' to-and-fro within the model the structure helps instill some discipline with efficiency - economy of effort? The model acts as a marshalling (classification) yard.

As an example, this was brought home today on twitter, with a question about dealing with people who have a fear of needles. This may be children, a percentage of the general population and people with a learning disability. We see then how this overlap can be important. By default then working with the above design thinking + h2cm approach to achieve (variously) individualised, integrated, collaborative care then you might also be doing co-design and co-creation. Now that is sales ...!

My source: Orton-Jones, C. Design thinking is making an impact, Raconteur, 20.6.19. p.18.