Hodges' Model: Welcome to the QUAD: 2010

Hodges' model is a conceptual framework to support reflection and critical thinking. Situated, the model can help integrate all disciplines (academic and professional). Amid news items, are posts that illustrate the scope and application of the model. A bibliography and A4 template are provided in the sidebar. Welcome to the QUAD ...

Wednesday, December 29, 2010

Musings... axes in hand and mind

...

Axes in hand and mind
[Accounting for the I-G (individual-group) axis and the need for the H-M axis]

Clearly there is a need for a basic scaffold. One that reflects the real world and the real time to which we are all exposed and are a part; and one that can also represent the model(s) we wish to create - the products of our health care, nursing activities. The scaffold we build must be one on which we can hang concepts and for simplicities sake human (care) concerns. Specifically a conceptual scaffold and a human scaffold. The latter can be represented simply as a continuum from INDIVIDUAL to GROUP, hereafter referred to as I-G.

The other, the conceptual scaffold, calls for what might be termed conceptual inflation. If we imagine the I-G as the vertical challenge (remember the health & safety issue!) and draw with the 'individual' at the top, then there is much we can model based on this basic dichotomy. This is too simple however. We cannot capture the part of the rich tapestry that is life - well-being, health - and death. For this another axis is needed.

(Which begs me to ask myself:
is there a law that suggests that one axis however oriented invites another?)

With this further partition and heralding of a further dichotomy what is lost? What is gained, if anything? In scribing this first line we explicitly separate the 'one' - the self from the other. The addition of another axis is where and how we define a center. With this center and from it we can find the energy to fuel our conceptual inflation. We literally draw out the foundation by considering what these persons do? ...

Conceptual inflation: Four-fold nursing agnostics
...
PJ Dec 2010

Monday, December 27, 2010

Musings... building models, health & safety, group and individual

....

Basic foundations and minimal defaults
[Accounting for the I-G (individual-group) axis]

Since nurses and technologists are concerned with communication then the foundation from which they begin to (build and model their) work is of fundamental importance. The foundation needs to be generic in the first instance. Generic in the sense of the commonality that language instills, enables and facilitates within and between communities. Not only that, but if we take the property of 'generic' to its extreme then the foundation must be stripped down to the barest of defaults: there are no 'types'.

To use the safety analogy we need to risk assess the extent of our model building activities.

We can do this by asking: is this a one, or at most two dimensional venture; such that we can rest secure on terra firma? Or are we above 'ground' floor and immediately required to address health and safety legislation?

Since medicine and nursing are concerned with safety and so must be evidence based, there is an immediate vertical challenge in the hierarchies inherent in the sciences and the structure of knowledge.

Science is not the only influence here. The foundation of what we are modelling and building must reflect the ultimate subjects (the person - patients, carers, communities, whole populations) must incorporate the individual and collective nature of our activities. So, the individual (whose very safety is our concern!) must be factored in and the public's health. Systems of assurance are then needed and founded in human rights. This in turn is a measure of the level of social coherence, coherence through a level of social and political organisation that allows leaders to effect positive change and betterment. The person, the individual is built not upon the shoulders of giants, but ordinary people - our ancestors and peers. ...

Axes in hand and mind
...
PJ Dec 2010

Monday, December 20, 2010

Shared Approach: 3 keys (and a certain conceptual framework)

Before we trip into 2011 let's make a quick return to 2008 and the three keys to the Shared Approach in mental health assessment [NIMHE, 2008] which are copied below.

In between each one I have highlighted how the Health Care Domains Model can contribute ...

1) active participation of the service user concerned in a shared understanding with service providers and where appropriate with their carers;

In the end (or at the beginning!) a model of care or assessment tool is only as good as the person using it.

To progress with key #1 there are in fact two locks to open. These are in the form of 'using' and 'user'. H2CM incorporates the individual from the outset. The model encourages consideration of the client's beliefs, preferences, and experiences ... Can the client and carer actually use the model themselves to help understand their needs, their care plan and interventions? Is there a homework exercise there for them?

Do they have capacity to decide? Do they need support - an advocate? How do we ensure the carer is factored into the care equation? Well, in h2cm that's through the social domain.

2) input from different provider perspectives within a multidisciplinary approach, and;

Do you know what "different provider perspectives within a multidisciplinary approach" look like?

Well just envisage that for a few moments. ...

A scary exercise, eh?

In order to take those different perspectives and integrate them a common framework is surely needed?

Artists are lucky they use perspective as an integrative lever on paper, canvas, or whatever medium.

Clients, carers, health and social care professionals need a canvas of their own, BUT one that is sufficiently generic and agnostic to be 'owned' by all. 

3) a person-centred focus that builds on the strengths, resiliencies and aspirations of the individual service user as well as identifying his or her needs and challenges. NIMHE (2008)

H2CM can support and foster person-centred care. The model is situated: there is one (changing) situation with the person at the center. Whatever the context -

strengths, resilience, stresses, vulnerabilities, aspirations, needs, challenges

- the care domains model is fit for purpose. Health and social care is dynamic, in person-centred care that focus needs to change accordingly. Our assessments and evaluations need to resolve the SCIENTIFIC, SOCIOLOGICAL, POLITICAL, INTERPERSONAL and SPIRITUAL dimensions of care while assuring the BIG picture.

Reference:
The National Institute for Mental Health in England (NIMHE) and the Care Services Improvement Partnership. 3 Keys to a shared approach in mental health assessment. London: Department of Health; 2008.

Sunday, December 19, 2010

Call for Maps: Mapping Science Exhibit, 7th Iteration on "Science Maps as Visual Interfaces to Digital Libraries" (2011)

Background and Goals

The Places & Spaces: Mapping Science exhibit was created to inspire cross-disciplinary discussion on how to best track and communicate human activity and scientific progress on a global scale. It has two components: (1) physical exhibits enable the close inspection of high quality reproductions of maps for display at conferences and education centers and (2) the online counterpart (http://scimaps.org) provides links to a selected series of maps and their makers along with detailed explanations of how these maps work.

Places & Spaces is a 10-year effort. Each year, 10 new maps are added, which will result in 100 maps total in 2014. Each iteration of the exhibit attempts to learn from the best examples of visualization design. To accomplish this goal, each iteration compares and contrasts four existing maps with six new maps of science. Themes for the different iterations/years are:

  * 1st Iteration (2005): The Power of Maps
  * 2nd Iteration (2006): The Power of Reference Systems
  * 3rd Iteration (2007): The Power of Forecasts
  * 4th Iteration (2008): Science Maps for Economic Decision Makers
  * 5th Iteration (2009): Science Maps for Science Policy Makers
  * 6th Iteration (2010): Science Maps for Scholars
  * 7th Iteration (2011): Science Maps as Visual Interfaces to Digital Libraries
  * 8th Iteration (2012): Science Maps for Kids
  * 9th Iteration (2013): Science Maps for Daily Science Forecasts
  * 10th Iteration (2014): Telling Lies With Science Maps

Places & Spaces was first shown at the Annual Meeting of the Association of American Geographers in April 2005. Since then, the physical exhibit has been displayed at more than 175 venues in over 15 countries, including eleven in Europe, plus Japan, China, Brazil, Canada, and the United States. A schedule of all display locations can be found at http://scimaps.org/exhibitions

Submission Details

The 7th iteration of the Mapping Science exhibit is devoted to science maps that serve as visual interfaces to digital libraries. These maps might communicate the

  * quality and coverage of data sets,
  * the structure (ontology, taxonomy, classification hierarchy) of data sets,
  * (semantic) linkages between data sets,
  * the evolution of a data set, or
  * access and usage patterns of data sets.

They are intended to support the navigation, management, and utilization of mankind’s scholarly knowledge and to make it more readily available to researchers, educators, industry, policy makers and/or the general public.

We invite maps that show a visual rendering of a dataset together with a legend, textual description, and acknowledgements as required to interpret the map. Science map dimensions can be abstract, geographical, or feature-based, but are typically richer than simple x, y plots. Scientific knowledge can be used to generate a reference system over which other data, e.g., funding opportunities or job openings, are overlaid or be projected onto another reference system, e.g., a map of the world, but must be prominently featured.


Each initial entry must be submitted by Jan 30th, 2011 and needs to include:

  * Low resolution version of map
  * Title of work
  * Author(s) name, email address, affiliation, mailing address
  * Copyright holder (if different from authors)
  * Description of work: Scholarly needs addressed, data used, data analysis, visualization techniques applied, and main insights gained (100-300 words)
  * References to publications in which the map appeared
  * Links to related projects/works

Entries should be submitted via email to the curators of the exhibit: Katy Börne (katy at indiana.edu) and the exhibit designer Michael J. Stamper (mstamper at indiana.edu) using the email subject header “Mapping Science Entry”.

Please feel free to send any questions you might have regarding the judging process to Katy Börner (katy at indiana.edu). Please keep subject header (as used here).

This call - with additional details -  is also available at http://scimaps.org/call

Monday, December 13, 2010

h2cm = Bayesian Quarters?

INTERPERSONAL : SCIENCES
SOCIOLOGY : POLITICAL
"The Bayesian approach allows human insight, subjective though it is, to be combined with statistical information, limited though it may be. It is not surprising that this blurring of the line between the methodologies of the sciences and the humanities has attracted passionate supporters as well as furious enemies on both sides of the cultural divide."
Von Baeyer (2003) p.79.

von Baeyer, H.C. (2003) Information: The New Language of Science, Weidenfeld and Nicolson, London.

Friday, December 10, 2010

Recipe for tension: Left-of-center values - Human (lower) Rights

Sometimes the invisible is most visible ...

INTERPERSONAL : SCIENCES
SOCIOLOGY : POLITICAL
Person
visible - invisible
in the conceptual frame 
Where
is
your
science
now?
'Peace'
the
ultimate
meme?
Discuss.
"Human (lower) Rights"

Image source: Heiko Junge [20/27] Kansas City Star
http://www.kansascity.com/2010/12/09/2509904/empty-chair-left-for-jailed-chinese.html

Thursday, December 09, 2010

Recipe II: Holistic care - Care pebble overhere!

...

WouldBeUser: Well there's no shortage of pebbles, the referrals come thick and fast.

ActualUser: That's why reflecting on that particular pebble is important, turning it - them, their situation over. Asking yourself is there anything I and the team have missed?

WouldBeUser: OK, the beach is still full of them!

ActualUser: Is it the pebble you are trying to see?

WouldBeUser: Ah, of course! Individualised care?

ActualUser: That's right. Nursing, health, social care and in fact good governance everywhere is about seeing the person. Sometimes it isn't easy; but if you pick that person out then you can count the rewards as you would the pebbles on the beach ...

Original image sources - see Recipe I

Sunday, December 05, 2010

Recipe: Holistic care - Care pebble turnover*

WouldBeUser: How can you sum up use of the health career - care domains - model?

ActualUser: Well it's a bit like you are picking and throwing some pebbles on the care plan or game board.

WouldBeUser: What - as simple as that!

ActualUser: Yes, but - NEVER underestimate the value of turning each of those pebbles over and reflecting, sharing...

*Also great for a game of nudge - nudge.

Original image sources:

http://imagecache.artistrising.com/artwork/lrg//4/417/7CV9000A.jpg
http://www.crglass.ca/images/dark%20green%20pebbles.jpg
http://www.crglass.ca/images/dark%20blue%20pebbles.jpg
http://www.crglass.ca/images/red%20pebbles.jpg

Saturday, December 04, 2010

h2cm and clinical equipoise

The past few weeks reading the Journal of Evaluation in Clinical Practice - I've encountered the concept of equipoise: specifically the clinical form.

The Health Career - Care Domains - Model is all about 'poise'.

The model's care domains provides the perfect workout.

Medicine, health and social care constantly exercises us. We are, whether or not we recognize it, on a balance board. In fact if you consider that image and then factor in the complexity of health care today you realise just how much stuff (technology), how many people (subjects, agents) need to be on that same board. Who does the board belong to though? Well of course it's -

Jo Public's (... and often off-balance, strengths depleted, sick (and tired), relapse prone...)

The April 2010 issue of the above journal is a fascinating read. I noticed today that some of our placement students were not aware of the recent and current position regarding health policy: that is the 'long view' of decades such as: Health of the Nation, the National Service Frameworks, Darzi ... They need to address that and I'm sure they will.

This journal issue prompts me to consider evidence based medicine anew, especially:
  • Its history spanning 20 years.
  • Its occupying the SCIENCES domain, with its weight threatening to overbalance all (you could say it's a significant singularity).
  • The realization that the Emperor is short on clothes.
  • Given the above it can mature. Bogdan-Lovis and Holmes-Rovner (2010)
Back to that board: and stepping onto the health care domains - all four of them so spread your feet - you can see instantly (feel that feedback) how EBM, shared decision making and (person) patient-centered care are all related. As Bogdan-Lovis and Holmes-Rovner (2010) highlight:
Equipoise is the heart of the shared decision making movement, and it embodies the problems for which patient decision aids are most often developed to explain the risks and benefits of competing alternatives. p.377.
h2cm is well suited to this task on so many levels.

The past week or two I've also noticed several mentions of the need to nudge people - here and there - both in the media and in Bogdan-Lovis and Holmes-Rovner's paper and references.

More to follow - and as you step-off take care ....

Wilson, K. (2010) Evidence-based medicine. The good the bad and the ugly. A clinician's perspective. Journal of Evaluation in Clinical Practice, 16, 398-400.

Bogdan-Lovis, E., Holmes-Rovner, M. (2010) Prudent evidence-fettered shared decision making. Journal of Evaluation in Clinical Practice, 16, 376-381.

And for the week ahead:

One mind, many minds - ONE PLANET. One need, many needs - ONE PLANET: what price stability?

http://hodges-model.blogspot.com/2009/02/one-mind-many-minds-one-planet-one-need.html

Wednesday, December 01, 2010

Rhinos, evidence based medicine and 'out-reach'

It would be be marvellous to be able to introduce h2cm to the nursing, health and social care communities in Asia, including China of course.

Working in health we are surely aware of the need to base what we do on evidence. Although nurses are not necessarily independent as the patient advocate. Advocacy is still an important part of the nursing role and one requiring specific advice in some instances.

Earlier this month a Guardian article related the ever more precarious position of the South African rhino and how claims about the curative properties of rhino horn as a medicine fuels poaching. The UK is nowhere near South Africa or China so what gives? What gives is the Planet, the tiger too and the biosphere in general. Apparently rhino horn is just compacted keratin and has no medicinal properties.

Nurses tend to be a green, ecologically minded group and the best source of change comes from within. It is never easy to change the beliefs of others, especially when your culture venerates its elders. Belief also remains a powerful factor in health. Despite this do nurses not have a duty to challenge beliefs that are wrong, to educate their communities even while taking tradition into account?

What price true literacy: spiritual, 3Rs, ICT, health, environmental and cultural ...?

There must be a way for nurses to unite on this - 
across cultures, borders, traditions, animal welfare standards,
digital barricades, politics, beliefs ...

As nurses there is always the question of dignity and respect and being non-judgemental and sensitive to cultural attitudes and practices that differ from our own. A 'truth' here is that you do not have to travel far for your own values and opinions to be challenged.

As we make a difference individually with patients and carers ... collectively can we extend our reach to other communities too? While there's still time - and we try not to bite our nails.

Sunday, November 28, 2010

Buller and Butterworth: Skilled nursing practice - four domains?

The health care domains model identifies four domains within health and social care and medicine. What evidence is there to support the model's inclusion of:

INTERPERSONAL : SCIENCES
SOCIOLOGY : POLITICAL

- plus the spiritual within and without? Steve Buller and Tony Butterworth undertook a ethnographic study in 2001 'Skilled nursing practice - a qualitative study of the elements of nursing'. With skilled nursing practice at the center (Fig. 5.) they identified:

relating and communicatingdoing the job
being professionalmanaging and facilitating

There is some overlap, reflection arises in relating and communicating and doing the job. Overall however there is a definite correspondence between these domains and those within h2cm - the health care domains conceptual framework. I have equated being professional with the SOCIOLOGY domain as for the authors this includes being with patients, conveying confidence, handling situations, being informed. Managing and facilitating is undoubtedly POLITICAL with supervising, auditing, making sure things get done. Doing the job - is based upon planning, informing, assessing, intervening, and being confident (with equipment, procedures, manual dexterity..?).

Having been thinking and writing about h2cm for many years it is a shame that other models have benefitted from funding and gain "ward and community (research) cred" while here evidence is retrofitted. Looking at the paper just in the decade since submission and publication I wonder which elements remain local, and where other elements of the skills base (care concepts) have migrated to ethnographically?

Steve Buller, Tony Butterworth (2001) Skilled nursing practice — a qualitative study of the elements of nursing. Int. J. of Nursing Studies. 38, 4, 405-417.

Wednesday, November 17, 2010

The Beauty of Diagrams: Vitruvian Man BBC Four

Tomorrow a new six part series begins on BBC Four.

Diagrams, conceptual frameworks and cognitive spaces have driven my interest in models of care and h2cm for decades:

1996 Peter attends 'Thinking with Diagrams' Colloquium, IEE, Savoy Place, London. 18 Jan BCS-SGES et al.
Professional Group C4: Digest No: 96/010


I also maintain a 'diagrams' listing on the sciences domain listing, suggestions welcome.

So, really looking forward to this!

Saturday, November 13, 2010

Comets, holistic care and peripheral vision


Comet Hartley 2 is still bright and yet throughout its visit by Earth quite diffuse, so I have yet to try to find it with my binoculars. To effectively use binoculars, a telescope (or even a microscope) and enjoy the astronomical delights (especially as Councils save money and switch off street lights) it helps to develop your peripheral vision.



Nursing, medicine and social care calls for its own kind of peripheral vision. Peripheral vision that nonetheless enables us to really see. It is ironic that in order to see the big picture that includes the person, that allows us to coherently assess, plan, deliver and evaluate person-centred care we must look off-center.




Comet image source: http://maineastro.com/2010/10/binocular-comet-now-high-in-the-sky/

Wednesday, November 10, 2010

Grand Challenges for Global Health: 15th - access to clean, clear, knowledge

Dear HIFA2015 colleagues,

The news item below is forwarded from the Global Health Council, which reports the mHealth Summit taking place this week in Washington DC. It is especially good to see that Bill Gates is giving a keynote address. This suggests that the Gates Foundation may be poised to address the 15th Grand Challenge for Global Health, as proposed by international health leaders in The Lancet:

"The Gates Foundation identified fourteen challenges [Grand Challenges for Global Health] but a fifteenth challenge stares us plainly in the face: The 15th challenge is to ensure that everyone in the world can have access to clean, clear, knowledge - a basic human right, and a public health need as important as access to clean, clear, water, and much more easily achievable."
Tikki Pang (WHO), Muir Gray (NHS, UK), and Tim Evans (WHO): 'A 15th grand challenge for global public health.' The Lancet 2006; 367:284-286.
http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140673606680501/fulltext

When HIFA was in planning back in 2006, the lead author of the above paper, Dr Tikki Pang (Director of Research policy and Cooperation at WHO) said: 'HIFA2015 is an ambitious goal but it can be achieved if all stakeholders work together'. Bill and Melinda Gates are critical stakeholders. I look forward to see Bill Gates' presentation. Will the Gates Foundation take up the 15th Challenge? Will the Gates Foundation prioritise the challenge of health information for all by 2015?

Bill Gates keynote yesterday is not yet available on the web, but it will be soon at: http://mhealthsummit.org/conference/live-webcast

I hope that Bill Gates will use this opportunity to articulate a clear and specific vision from the Gates Foundation: a vision of a world where people are no longer dying for lack of access to appropriate, reliable healthcare information. With their support, there is no doubt this vision can and will be realised.

With best wishes,
Neil

HIFA2015 profile: Neil Pakenham-Walsh is the coordinator of the HIFA2015 campaign and co-director of the Global Healthcare Information Network. He started his career as a hospital doctor in the UK, and has clinical experience in rural Ecuador and Peru.  For the last 20 years he has been committed to improving the availability of healthcare information for health workers in developing countries. He has worked with the World Health Organization, the Wellcome Trust, Medicine Digest and INASP (International Network for the Availability of Scientific Publications). www.hifa.org  neil.pakenham-walsh AT ghi-net.org

My source:  www.hifa2015.org

Thursday, November 04, 2010

Drupal musings 19: DrupalCamp Edinburgh, Panels, another prize book! and a 'mu'.

DrupalCamp Edinburgh was just one day, but a Drupal drenched day. So, camping can be fun even when it rains - community spirit and ethos, tips and things you never knew.

The first session on PHP namespaces with Jonathan was on the technical side, but this is a topic to watch for Drupal 8.

Up RPC - upgrading was also technical in the sense of being for people with sites to upgrade. Joachim went through the process from Drupal 5 to 6.

Drush - the DRUpal SHell (Mac) was presented by snufkin and with the frequency Drush crops up at Drupal events, inc. NW England it's a mu - must use.

A question was raised around multimedia in Drupal, this centred upon images.

The afternoon was built around Chris Muktar's session on WikiJob. Chris described the site's birth, growth and move to Drupal. Wikijob utilises the PressFlow distribution of Drupal optomised for performance and scalability. What was fascinating here were the insights into the use of Pantheon and Amazon Web Services. The good news for Chris and WikiJob is that hosting costs are dropping month-on-month while the lessons: you need to know what you're doing and AWS is self-service.

Providing for mobile users came up and here I was actually able to contribute (well sort of) with my notes from Copenhagen and Martin Joergensen's session.

At the end there was a prize draw. I won another book! Drupal 6 Panels Cookbook, Bhawin (Vin) Patel, Packt. Having read this there's no doubt that combining Views and Panels packs some punch, especially as in Chapter 10 a travel website is created and the recipe uses the PressFlow distribution. This chapter also uses the Location and GMap modules, which I am currently looking at. Since first hearing there were modules called Panels, Views and Context I've automatically attributed h2cm related functionality to them. The care domains are 'panels'. Organic Groups, another example has proved quite different to what I thought and I only learned that this summer (that's why using really is learning). What the book brings home - without picking up the shovel - is the way these modules leverage each other.

At 10am when everyone first met with two sessions scheduled with the rest of the 10-5 day a blank I worried: 200 miles! (I didn't attend, but the morning also saw Addison Berry of Lullabot running a "Beginners Track"). My faith deserted me only for a moment. Great job Duncan and all.

Wednesday, November 03, 2010

h2cm: Globalization, Accommodation theory and Relativism (Grayling, 2010)

From A.C. Grayling's Ideas that Matter, 2010, Phoenix.

Globalization: p. 235-236.

A more neutral account of globalization describes it as the process of making things known, done, available or possessed worldwide - such as Internet access, telecommunications, medical knowledge and benefits such as vaccines, transport technologies, political ideas, art and music, books and much besides.
Grayling also explains how the increased distribution associated with globalization is unequal, hence the sense of injustice that is felt resulting in protest.

The health care domains model is concerned with making things known - helping to make knowledge available on a personal, group and family level. This is no Mercator projection, not even Peter's projection but it is a global map.

Accommodation theory: p. 3-5.
Accommodation theory states that when people talk to each, they adjust their behaviour and manner of speech to take account of (to accommodate themselves to) the topic, the circumstances, and the other people engaged with them in conversation.
There are many theories to explain how we communicate and thereby model(?) ourselves, others and the world. Imagine a doctor's surgery and the morning's clinical consultations, it is easy to envisage the role that accommodation routinely plays. The one-to-one conversation (dialogue, argumentation, debate) can be extended, and viewed as the combined chatter, the whole series of multidisciplinary Q&A with the breaks (the silences when we are listening!). Accommodation theory has proved of value in multiculturalism, especially on policy concerning immigration and integration. p.5

The care domains provide an ethnoculturally neutral space (it could be argued) for the accommodations that are demanded in the 21st Century. 

Relativism: p.433.
There is a distinction to be drawn between moral or cultural relativism, on the one hand, and cognitive relativism on the other. The former concerns the difference between cultures, or between different historical phases of the same culture, with respect to religious, social, and moral values and practices, that is, with respect to what might be called the 'superstructure' of the culture's conceptual scheme. Cognitive relativism concerns the 'infrastructure', the level of basic beliefs about the world, such as that there are perception-independent, re-identifiable and individually discriminable objects or events, occupying space and time, interacting causally, and bearing properties of various kinds.
Much is said of the games that people play. Whether the care domains model provides a game board that can accommodate both the super- and infrastructural conceptual levels is open to question. In the health career model the infrastructure level concepts are light - as we find that they reside in the upper part of the model: perceived, individually discriminable (INTRApersonal) objects occupying space and time (SCIENCES) with mass, weight, inertia. ... The political domain prompts access to values and how these shape the total conceptual landscape(s), the conversations and silences that go on there ...

Saturday, October 30, 2010

HCI 2011 Health, Wealth and Happiness Call for Papers



The 25th British Conference on Human-Computer Interaction (HCI2011)

July 4th - 8th, 2011 at Northumbria University, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, UK.

The HCI Educators conference, Workshops and Tutorials will be held on 4th and 5th July, 2011 and a Doctorial Consortium on the 5th July. The main conference runs from the 6th-8th July, 2011. HCI 2011 is organised by the PaCT Lab (Northumbria University) in cooperation with the British Computer Society.

This year we will be looking for papers to put in our alt.hci sessions. So if you think your work doesn't usually make it into this conference then maybe this year is your year.

Accepted papers will be published by BCS in the annual conference proceedings, freely available online in BCS Electronic Workshops in Computing (eWiC) and will also be included in the ACM digital library.

Important Dates:
  • Full Paper and Workshop submission: 21st January, 2011
  • Workshop notification of acceptance: 11th February, 2011
  • Work in Progress and alt.chi submission: 18th February, 2011
  • Short and Posters  submission: 18th February, 2011
  • Demos and Experiences submission: 18th February, 2011
  • Doctoral Consortium 18th February, 2011
  • Panels: 18th February, 2011
  • Notification of Acceptance for all other categories: 8th April 2011
  • Camera-ready copy for proceedings required by 6th May 2011
Deadline for author registration: 4th May 2011

Conference: 4th July - 8th July, 2011

Conference Scope and Description:

Human Computer Interaction is a key area of computing. This is the leading conference in the field of Human Computer Interaction in the UK. It covers the design, evaluation and application of techniques and approaches for interacting with devices and services.  HCI is now on its 25th conference and at this anniversary we ask you to reflect on our theme of Health, Wealth and Happiness. Technology is posed to play a growing part in our health and maintaining well being into older age; wealth manifests itself in many ways, many of which we do not always recognise - relationships, richness of life experience, creativity and innovation, knowledge and qualities of character. Lastly is there a relationship between happiness and technology use, will more gadgets increase our well being? And as ever contributions in any aspect of HCI are welcome.

Suggested topics:

We solicit original research and technical papers not published elsewhere including the following topics:
  • Affective interaction
  • Aesthetic interaction
  • Art and interaction
  • Bodily interaction
  • Cyber-relationships, sex and eroticism
  • Design and Evaluation methods
  • Ethnographic and field studies
  • Ethics and HCI
  • Experience Design
  • Fun and Play
  • Health informatics and technology
  • Human values
  • Information visualization and presentation
  • Interaction Criticism
  • Moods, meditation and relaxation
  • Musical and audio interaction
  • Novel interaction techniques and devices
  • Privacy, Security and Trust
  • Social networking
  • Spirituality and Beliefs
  • Sustainability and HCI
  • Ubiquitous, pervasive, and mobile interaction
  • Universal design
  • Usability studies
  • User Experience
  • Wearables and fashion
  • Wellbeing and technology
Keynote Speakers
  • Abigail Sellon, Microsoft Research, UK
  • Gregory Abowd, Georgia Tech, USA
Paper Submission:

Submissions must be in an electronic form as PDF format. All submissions should be formatted to the ACM standard, see http://www.acm.org/sigs/publications/proceedings-templates , and will appear on-line in the BCS EWiCS series and the ACM Digital Library.

Submissions should be made through the EasyChair system, which will open for submissions in November and will be linked from the conference website http://www.hci2011.co.uk/ with detailed instructions. We have put together an international review panel. Submissions will be peer-reviewed by at least 3 peer-reviewers, selected by the appropriate chairs. Additional guidelines can be found on the conference's website.

It is a condition of acceptance that at least one author must register for each accepted paper, no later than the early bird deadline of 4th May 2011.

Thursday, October 28, 2010

Fran Biley's video: Students on nursing theory

I came across this great video created by Francis Biley Bournemouth University through the Martha Rogers list:


Quite some time ago I wondered about having dummy - animated heads to carry out a dialogue. It is great to see how e-media forms and tools have developed now.

I have my own thoughts and ideas on nursing, perhaps over time I am drafting them in the bibliography and here on W2tQ?

Additional links:

Nursing theory resources SCIENCES links
Virtual Reality in Nursing: A dialogue from 1991
Nursing Telemachus and Computers: A dialogue from 1995

[The above are no longer available but the dialogues may reappear in an archive.]

Saturday, October 23, 2010

Drupal musings 18: healthcare group, DrupalCamp and #183

It's a fair trip to Edinburgh from NW England just for one day on the 30th October, but DrupalCamp looks like it will be worth it. I've just booked a room for the Friday night and will set out straight from work.

There's been a Drupal healthcare group for quite a while, now there's also a list of health sites using Drupal:

http://groups.drupal.org/healthcare-sites

One day, one day....!

I'm not sure if this post is contrived: a means of getting to post #183. That was the total for 2009 and here we are already.

If one day, one day is going to happen then this blog is going to slow down soon. No suspended animation though. There will be a pulse.

The involvement of a few link partners on W2tQ is very helpful. It seems the archives are of interest. This not only supports the IT side - future hosting ... but attending events (DrupalCamp travel, B&B) and possibly conferences...

As a full-time nurse I sometimes have to rely on holidays to attend events. Drupalcons are a case in point. It's not easy trying to simultaneously span nursing, education and informatics, but it really is fascinating [and it makes me :-) ]. Take the following 'local' conference:

Celebrating the Past and Embracing the Future:
Evolution and Innovation in Problem-based Learning

March 30th and 31st 2011 in Grange-Over-Sands, Cumbria, UK

I raise this because problem-based learning is a real gift for the health career model, but this gift runs to £235 (which of course for two days training / education is very reasonable - there is a free half-day workshop too). 

Friday, October 22, 2010

Care origin(s) and open access #OAW2010

The most striking and ubiquitous presence in the health career model is its basic diagrammatic form. The image at left provides some mathematical additions and there at the center is the origin.

In this respect the model (literally) draws our attention to the identification of the care problems, constraints, strengths, solutions that affect the individual with whom we are engaged. We are immediately aware that there is inevitably more than one aspect to consider.

To save repetition I am only going to refer to problems. So, the model's form highlights that there is no single origin of problems, but many. At some time a problem, for example physical, may become the priority. Then the SCIENCES domain is critical. Deprivation of liberty concerns may split the priority creating tension across the INTER-intraPERSONAL and POLITICAL domains.

As priorities are dealt with there needs to be a return to the -

origin.

The question is asked: in which care domains do the problems lie? We call this re-assessment and evaluation.

In Open Access Week the health care model is also 'open access'. Not just in terms of being a free, accessible resource available to all, but being discipline agnostic, neutral and applicable across cultures and ethnic groups. The model is also open in terms of mindset. The users of h2cm provide that and as they do open* and origin-al care unique to the individual has a chance to follow.

*Open care? Mmm...


Image source: origin - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Coordinate_with_Origin.svg

Monday, October 18, 2010

Drupal musings 17: PHPNW 2010, HTML5, DrupalCamp Edinburgh


PHPNW 2010 on the w/e 9th - 10th October was well worth attending. Sessions for me after the keynote included:

Let your toolchain set you free

Debugging – Rules and Tools

The curious case of php|architect

Designing HTTP URLs and REST Interfaces

All the sessions where very informative, but the latter proved the most interesting. I noticed REST interfaces kept coming up at the Ruby conferences in '08 and '09 and also in reading about Ajax. So David Zuelke's session was very interesting both with his critique of how REST is applied (twitter) and his humour. I look f/w to the videos appearing.

A dinner date with friends meant I had to leave early and so I missed the prize draw. The past week started with a smile when Emma Parker, PHPNW10 Events Team emailed to say I'd won a book in the prize draw. Last Thursday the book arrived:

Pro HTML5 Programming

Magic! Thanks to the conference team and Apress.


I have just learned about DrupalCamp Edinburgh on the 30th and have registered.

Saturday, October 16, 2010

New to nursing? after Jules (just scratchin the skin)

If you are new to nursing (social care, learning disability, forensic nursing... ) we have some amazing guests on this weeks show, appearing especially for you, because of you: because you care - on four stages .... [with apologies: Jules Holland, BBC 2]


Interpersonal : Sciences
Sociology : Political
Self Awareness
orientation
communication
rapport, empathy
anxiety
values, beliefs
mood, risk
knowledge & skills
aptitude and attitude
anatomy and physiology
(The) Make the Beds
 TPR [BP]
hygiene
birth...........................................death
drugs
journals, books
nutrition
assess, plan, actions, evaluate
tech & equipment
community
family

relationships
culture
traditional medicine
social networks
public involvement
HUMAN RIGHTS
Consent, Choice, Capacity
health economics
Law
DoH, NLM, WHO
health social care services
professionalism
policy

Friday, October 15, 2010

Blog Action Day 2010 - Water: conceptual drops in the health career model

Today is Blog Action Day and the theme is water.

Below I have added a selection of water related links across the domains of the health career model:

Interpersonal : Sciences
Sociology : Political
Water use - You?

Water Encyclopedia

water in Philosophy

National Geographic

the Water project
Properties of water

The water cycle

Water, sanitation & health: WHO

 Water on the Sun

SI water


Homeostasis
Water mythology
WaterWired

Water development photos

Costing the Earth BBC:
Cleaning Up the Ganges
Waternet:
Geopolitics of water scarcity in the Middle East
World Water Day
Water, health and economics:
WHO
Water.org
UNESCO


Thursday, October 14, 2010

ERCIM News No. 83 Special Theme: "Cloud Computing"


Dear ERCIM News Reader,

ERCIM News No. 83 has just been published at http://ercim-news.ercim.eu/

Special Theme:
"Cloud Computing"
- coordinated by: Frédéric Desprez, Ottmar Krämer-Fuhrmann and Ramin Yahyapour
- featuring the keynote "Cloud Computing: The Next Big Thing?" by Burkhard Neidecker-Lutz, Keith Jeffery, Maria Tsakali and Lutz Schubert.

Next issue: January 2011 - Special Theme: "Intelligent and Cognitive Systems"

Thank you for your interest in ERCIM News.
Feel free to forward this message to others who might be interested.

Best regards,
Peter Kunz
ERCIM News central editor
Follow us on http://twitter.com/ercim_news

Of note in ERCIM #83 :

An Infrastructure for Clinical Trials for Cancer – ACGT Project Successfully Terminated; by Jessica Michel Assoumou and Manolis Tsiknakis


Mastering Data-Intensive Collaboration and Decision Making through a Cloud Infrastructure; by Nikos Karacapilidis, Stefan Rüping and Isabel Drost

Finally, the first issue of 2011 #84 sounds a great prospect!

Wednesday, October 13, 2010

Balanced Care: Safe Landings and Recovery

In health and social care patient, family and the health care team are united in what is constantly described as a journey. Sometimes there are several, care pathways into territories unknown.

Unknown?

Well yes, if care delivery is personalised (who are we to assume ...?); and yes again even if the patient - the individual concerned is an 'expert' in their condition.

Apart from the metaphysics of life's journey our physical environment can present dangers and yet fewer and fewer corners are truly  unknown. We leave it to astronauts (and oceanographers) to adventure on our behalf. Prior to the Apollo missions it was essential to confirm the nature, solidity of the lunar surface. Would a spacecraft sink and possibly tilt to the extent that return to lunar orbit and Home was impossible?

The Apollo Lunar Module's four legs provided support for a safe landing and take off. A base in every sense.

In health and social care the health career model can provide a base and re-assurance too. Each of the four care domains allied with knowledge and skills - holistic competence - can bring about a successful mission: however the crew and 'success' are defined.

Image source and original text below from:
http://www.robertaonthearts.com/id763.html
Cartier Replica of a Lunar Module
Three individual 18-karat-gold models of the American lunar module were made in 1969 by the jeweler Cartier of Paris on behalf of the French newspaper Le Figaro and presented to the three Apollo 11 astronauts during their post-flight tour in Paris. This model was presented to astronaut Michael Collins.
Image ©Nick Welsh/Cartier Collection 2006

Tuesday, October 12, 2010

Naivety [I] ever unfolding : ever present - SCIENCES

naivety [naɪˈiːvtɪ], naiveté, naïveté [ˌnɑːiːvˈteɪ]n pl -ties, -tés

1.
the state or quality of being naive; ingenuousness; simplicity

2. a naive act or statement

My source:
http://www.thefreedictionary.com/naivety

There are times when we are all naive. It can be so embarrassing! When you realise, or more severely are made aware by others the abrupt learning is suddenly resolved. Within the bounds of the health career model, naivety can be found and is expressed in so many ways.

Hodges' model may appear naive in its simplicity, but behind that simplicity there are several assumptions. When you act as scribe, reader or doer you exercise the model's structure. You potentially demonstrate several levels of literacy.

If the health career model can represent most 'everything', then naivety should be no problem. So, if we visit each of the care domains in turn what can we find?

SCIENCES

I came across a post: 'We are all naive scientists' on The Financial Philosopher blog which includes this quote:
"It is clear, then, that the idea of a fixed method, or a fixed theory of rationality, rests on too naive a view of man and his social surroundings." ~ Paul Feyerabend
Regularly, I ask myself if I am naive in this particular domain. Am I right to assume that there are questions in nursing that can be answered (or at least reflected upon) using Hodges' model? Furthermore, can this use, this application be demonstrated in a scientific (evidenced) way?

Does experience of programming in BBC Basic as an enthusiast really help equip me now to get to grips with PHP, using Drupal and even Ruby?

Is information (and informatics) really the all encompassing Swiss army knife of a concept I take it to be?

The most extreme naivety here is not mine, however; it is as Feyerabend suggests the one that is in diagonal opposition. It is the scientific naivety of the masses in the social domain. Is this ignorance? In some cases, yes. But the tabloid (gutter) press shouts aloud when science gets it wrong; or, more accurately industrial processes based on science totally mess up.

The masses are not divorced from science. True, there was (still is?) a promised intimate relationship borne of equality and egalitarian ideals (education), but this naivety matures in real (social) time also known as life-chances. Its cost is not just red-faced, but illiteracy and exclusion at a time when literacy, inclusion and engagement are paramount.

Friday, October 08, 2010

FROM: A community mental health context TO: Acute EMR/EHR and other ...

or: Will 21st Century health and social care informatics truly begin on Sunday 10 10 10 ?

I've been a nurse AND info tech / informatics enthusiast since 1981. As an advocate of info-tech as a means to improve the quality, effectiveness and safety of health care - I must confess; I feel I have let down those colleagues purely there to 'nurse'. .

After 20+ plus years the nearest we (the team and I) got to a system that answered our questions was a small PICK database and a later MS Access database. These focused on referrals and data capture - demographics, problems, interventions (WHO and what) and outcomes. Although the number of data items was not great, no more than 30 the insights we could glean from queries was surprising. People versed with databases, datasets and research readily appreciate how even small datasets, carefully thought out and planned, can answer a diverse range of questions (and generate countless new ones too!).

I noticed in the mid-1980s to mid-1990s the development of customer management software and recognised that clinicians have a need: caseload management.

Even now the requirement of 'X' visits per day, the number of information systems and lack of integration (health - social care) mean that in many instances there is still no readily accessible caseload manager for the individual practitioner. This is an outcome and amid all the talk around 'engagement' (with a 'E').

Perversely, ironically, paradoxically (take your pick) at a time when Lean is (presented and) needed, there are scarce resources to do the things that should now be embedded (routinised) into the life history of the professional. This includes what the professionals do WITH the patients, carers, data, information ...

I speak to student nurses (and other disciplines) regularly as a nurse mentor and sign-off mentor. Their exposure to health care informatics to me is minimal, adhoc, and when it has happened it has signally failed to strike a cord. A very small (and so non-significant*?) sample admittedly.

Informatics remains an academic 'must do'.
Perhaps 21st century informatics only begins on Sunday -
101010
Whatever:
as it stands informatics is a management pursuit.


Slippage is a fact of project management, but words present their own challenge when target driven 'secondary' uses become 'primary'.

*surely not.

[A version of this post first appeared on the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society HIMSS group on LinkedIn.]

Thursday, October 07, 2010

Lean machine(s): chasing the contexts

There is a perennial game in health and social care called assessment and evaluation: the game could also be called 'CTC' - 'chasing the context'.

Relativity lies not only in the realm of physics and philosophy.

When I say relativity I am referring of course to the influence and impact of a health and social care situation from the constantly changing perspective of each of several different players:

  • the patient;
  • carer;
  • nurse;
  • doctor;
  • manager;
  • medical ward;
  • community mental health team;
  • commissioner.
Usually, the context collapses to a specific problem (a situation) and the players set to solve a care problem presented by an individual -
  • a client, resident or patient;
and their -
  • relatives;
  • residential care home manager;
  • residential care home staff nurse and team;
  • community mental health nurse;
  • medical personnel.
Context directs, dictates, and shapes health and social care theory, practice, management and policy.

This relativism can also subvert, sublime, confuse and stymie plans, common sense notions, creativity, innovation and management directives.

Like a tide this relativity picks us up and re-figures, re-paints and shifts the location of everything - including measures and how they are used.

Context is all! - so the saying goes. But context never wholly reveals itself. For that is another situation, another context, another side, another coin.

For context there are key defining parameters (location, diagnoses, risk, need, physical, mental, holistic ...) all of these are couched or spring from time.

So, the game calls for us and the tide teases us to measure and evaluate. This coast is never clear, but how long is it now? Where are the pathways now? Where will they be again?

As we travel (and travail) to and from this context to that - thresholds are also altered: up and down and always around; the way of life and ..... .

Image source:
http://www.esd112.org/edtech/no_limit/rs_archive.cfm

Monday, October 04, 2010

Mother Pelican ~ Vol. 6, No. 10, October 2010

FYI ... the pelican journal of sustainable development has been renamed
*Mother Pelican* in honor of the *Human Being* she represents.

The October 2010 issue has been posted:
http://www.pelicanweb.org/solisustv06n10page1.html

Going Forward After the UN MDG Review Summit

1. Current Status of the Millennium Development Goals
2. Review of the "Keeping the Promise" Declaration
3. Timidity of National Governments and Global Citizens
4. Ms. Michelle Bachelet and the UN Women Entity
5. Sustainable Human Development and the MDGs
6. Links to Key UN and MDG Documents and Resources
7. Links to News and Reports about the MDG Summit
8. Current Research on Sustainable Human Development
9. A Meditation on Sustainable Human Development

Supplements:

Supplement 1: Advances in Sustainable Development
Supplement 2: Directory of Sustainable Development Resources
Supplement 3: Sustainable Development Simulation (SDSIM)

Articles:

Socioeconomic Democracy: A Psycho-Politico-Socio-Economic System, by Robley George.

Composition and Trends of Homestead Agroforestry in Bangladesh, by Sourovi Zaman et al.

Will Working Mothers' Brains Explode? The Popular New Genre of Neurosexism, by Cordelia Fine.

A Paradise Built in Hell: Communities that Rise to the Challenge of Disaster, by Rebecca Solnit.

We Need Millennium Development RIGHTS, Not Just Goals, by Phyllis Bennis.

Feedback is cordially invited!

Sincerely,
Luis

Luis T. Gutierrez, Ph.D.
The Pelican Web
Editor, Mother Pelican: A Journal of Sustainable Development
http://pelicanweb.org
A monthly, CC license, free subscription, open access e-journal

My source:
e-Network of Academia in Social Sciences (e-NASS)

Friday, October 01, 2010

Older People with High Support Needs want more Choice and Control in How they Live their Lives

A new paper has been published today (to coincide with International Older Person's Day) by the National Development team for Inclusion (NDTi) to share findings from a two year project which is aiming to increase the voice, choice and control of older people with high support needs. This includes older people living in care homes and those living at home with a lot of support.

Around 1 million older people live in residential care and sheltered / supported housing. Older people want to have a broad range of options for their care and support, yet there seems to be widespread reluctance to develop and adopt new ways of thinking about and working with older people with high support needs. Traditional forms of service provision still dominate. As our society ages, the way we think about ageing, older people and disability needs to change to reflect with this demographic reality and the expressed wishes and desires of older people themselves.

The paper is from a 2 year project taking place in 3 local authorities in the South East Region of England. Local organisations and communities are working together to ensure options and opportunities are developed which support independent living and increase voice, choice and control for older people with high support needs. (See notes to editors for more information on the project and NDTi). The project is supported by ODI as one of the commitments in the Independent Living Strategy, which states:

Older disabled people must have the same options and opportunities for independent living as anyone else and the Strategy contains a number of commitments which will help achieve this goal.

The paper is :

- 'South East Regional Initiative on Increasing the Voice, 
Choice and Control of Older People with High Support Needs - Emerging Lessons'.

It summarises the findings to date from this project and has been written particularly to inform local authorities and partners about the work, to help them to achieve better outcomes for older people as well as best value in the use of public services and resources.

The paper highlights findings and messages about the priorities for ensuring older people can exercise greater choice and control over their support, including where and how they live. It also identifies some of the issues and barriers which get in the way of this happening.

A summary of the paper has been produced as an 'NDTi Insight' - part of a series of 2 page highlights of the most important learning from pieces of work carried out by NDTi.

...

Helen Bowers, Head of the Older People and Ageing Programme at NDTi and author of the paper said:
"The same level of commitment given to transforming health and social care is now required to transform expectations and experiences of older people with high support needs across all public services, including in residential care. Current debate in this area tends to focus on funding pressures and extending traditional services, rather than how we conceptualise, design and deliver support that promotes citizenship and transfers power from professionals and organisations to individuals, their families and friends."
To find out more, contact:- Helen Bowers, Head of Older People & Ageing Programme, National Development Team for Inclusion Magnolia House, 21a Stour Road, Christchurch, BH23 1PL Tel. 01220 471423 helen.bowers at ndti.org.uk
or
Rob Greig, Chief Executive, National Development Team for Inclusion - Head Office, Montreux House, 18a James Street, West Bath, BA1 2BT Tel: 01225 789135 rob.greig at ndti.org.uk

My source:
The Choice Forum

Healthy Active Ageing Virtual Global Discussion Forum: Int. Day of Older Persons 2010

Dear Colleagues,

The World Health Organization, Departments of Reproductive Health and Research, Human Resources for Health, University of Iowa Hartford Center of Geriatric Nursing Excellence, and Partners would like to invite you to join Healthy Active Ageing Virtual Global Discussion Forum - 1-12 October 2010.

Join us in creating an interprofessional network involving representatives from health professions, policy makers, programme managers, international organizations/agencies, universities, research institutes and our clients to share our knowledge and experience on issues that affect healthy ageing.

REGISTER NOW! http://knowledge-gateway.org/ahaa

Share your experience, your opinion on issues that affect us all, as individuals, families and health practitioners. Contribute through this forum to the policy and practice dialogue.

During this twelve day forum you will receive two emails per day; one email to introduce the day’s questions and one daily digest of the contributions. Daily questions will be disseminated within three topic areas:

  • Challenges and opportunities to support healthy active ageing
  • Sharing of success stories
  • Caring for older persons with dementia
Once you have registered you can participate in the forum simply by responding to the daily emails or sending a message directly to ahaa at knowledge-gateway.org

You can also log into http://knowledge-gateway.org/ahaa to browse the archived discussions and resource materials.

For any questions on this Virtual Global Discussion Forum please contact the forum facilitator: 

Christina Fusco christyfusco at gmail.com

Please pass this invitation onto your colleagues and networks.

With kind regards,

Maggie Usher-Patel
Scientist/IBP Secretariat
WHO/RHR


My source: HIFA2015

Additional links:
Full of Life  - http://www.dwp.gov.uk/policy/ageing-society/full-of-life/
International Day of Older Persons - http://www.timeanddate.com/holidays/un/international-older-persons-day

Caution! spanning the Theory - Practice Gap




As a new academic year begins and we endeavour to bridge the theory - practice gap we need to be cautious:


While we may not burn our bridges we need to be aware of which bridge spans are redundant and which are still active and serving their purpose.

As ever - standards, inspection, audit and governance are critical.

So in our efforts to bridge the theory - practice gap do we also maintain it?

Wednesday, September 29, 2010

Global health: Care logistics in-deed

Although the previous post -

Care Logistics: have model will travel ...


- differentiated between what we might term mechanistic and humanistic logistics, there is a great deal of overlap:

communications, time, priorities, purposes, service, quality, processes ....

Global health has featured on W2tQ and it is here that the true dimensions of logistics can be defined. I may be confusing logistics and scale, but if I am then the challenge of logistics presents itself by virtue of scale and in global health the focus upon populations, nations, medical conditions and physical environments, climates and topography.

While the Wikipedia page on global health does not explicitly refer to logistics it is there in the shadows: it contributes to inequality, illiteracy, poverty, public ill-health (and mental too), pandemics ...

Logistics is there in the light too; the torch of disaster relief, the many development organisations, the ethos and values of the Millennium Development Goals. ...

Monday, September 27, 2010

'Well-being' and the dilution of 'caring'

This blog post was originally drafted on 15 October 2008. Back then I'd noticed how in the media - newspaper, internet, radio and journals - there was increasing references to 'well-being'. It was everywhere. Even now it graces lips, airwaves, video, digital and conference platforms.

I was prompted to write because I actually felt that perhaps the public were being somehow sold a pup. I mean 'well-being' - it sounds wholesome, reassuring and cuddly so go on - take hold, give it a hug and look after it. Maybe it literally is a case of - get up and take it for a walk. You know you need to!

What well-being does do is it forces acknowledgment of physical AND mental well-being. In the summer I bought a copy of the British Journal of Wellbeing [BJW]. BJW features physical and mental health with some really interesting features, reviews and interviews. So, I raised my hands, sighed, stretched (felt much better) and accepted "OK well-being (or wellbeing*) it looks like you will go far."

I just have a worry though. Because the concept of well-being is fuzzy, there is a risk that the care agenda could be diluted at a time when specific health and social care populations and issues arising need to be kept in clear and unequivocal focus. Looking at the content I am reassured - there is depth here too. I say this recognising that the concept of well-being can also serve the health career model very well.

More to follow on BJW and well-being ...

http://www.dictionary.net/well-being

*I like hyphens as in socio-technical

Friday, September 24, 2010

Drupal musings 16: 1% digital and analogue memories

At Drupalcon in his keynotes Dries Buytaert has highlighted that Drupal now powers approximately 1% of the web. While 1% is not much especially given the total size of the internet with its day on day, hour by hour growth this is nonetheless a significant milestone. Especially when Dries speculates on the growth of Drupal projected ahead to 2020.

Like all digital media Drupal is a tool that extends our personal and cultural memories. As all the keynotes showed Drupal, PHP, HTML[5] all have histories of their own and a role to play in providing a surrogate memory. The media and technology [IBM] regularly predict how technology will change our lives, including how we remember.

Amid such speculation memory still makes us who we are. You and I have a yesterday, today - and we pray - a tomorrow.

This is the bootstrap that counts

Bootstrapping or booting refers to a group of metaphors that share a common meaning:
a self-sustaining process that proceeds without external help. ...
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bootstrap

Striking then the news this week that - dementia costs 'equal to 1% of global GDP'.

Thursday, September 23, 2010

Care Logistics: have model will travel ...

From: NHS Logistics -

supplies, v4m, corporate, orders, consultancy, catalogue, process, delivery, stock, just in time, service, quality, priority, efficiency, customers, finance, contracts ...
To: Care Logistics -

access, choice, attitude, empathy, communication, values, outcomes, human rights, dignity and respect, quality care, professionalism, purpose, roles, holistic competency, standards, personal, measures, equity ...