Philosophy in Pubs - Liverpool Weds 25th Jan 7.30pm

Subscribed to Philosophy in Pubs for many years, I've posted to the list also in the distant past, but I've never attended a meeting. This past week I noticed a message about a new subgroup - Young Philosophers - in Liverpool from Mike (phone numbers removed). Below, I've posted some of the online chat:

On Saturday, 14 January 2023 at 14:38:50 GMT, <info AT philosophyinpubs.co.uk> wrote:

Hi everybody,

 

Its Mike from the Keith's PIP and the young philosophers group.
I am currently re-launching the latter as a new PIP group at
Thomas Rigby's in town (23-25 Dale St, Liverpool L2 2EZ)

 

The first meeting of the Philosophy group will be
Wednesday evening the 25th January at 7.30pm.

Please come along, all welcome, all ages.

 

If you need anymore  information, please email me (email below) or call me on ...

 

Thanks

Mike Green.

michaelljohngreen AT gmail.com 

This piqued my interest, given my love of Liverpool (born in Walton) and the question of at what age can younger people - children be introduced to Hodges' model?

I replied expressing interest in the possibility of contributing, once the group is established, or as a 'starter for 10', seeking critique as to what sense young philosophers would make of the model.

Responding with an introduction to Hodges' model, and expression of interest, Paul and Rob replied as per below, to which I've tried to add some clarification.

Rob's thoughts are very helpful. The upshot is, I'm looking f/w to a full day in Liverpool this Wednesday, meeting Mike, Paul, Rob and possibly others before the meeting starts at 7.30pm.

Paul's message (intended for me):

info AT philosophyinpubs.co.uk
Sunday, 15 January 2023 at 13:00:12 GMT
Subject: Re: New PIP group!

Hi Mike, Peter

Yes, you seem to be part of quite a sizeable group of people on our general members/mailing list that have not gotten round to attending one of the groups yet. But that's okay, absolutely no need for apologies, your interest is appreciated anyway.

I've had a quick glance at your attachments; found what I read very interesting and would like to know more. I don't think I've heard of the Hodges' model, or at least not in relation to what we generally practice (Community of Enquiry method).

It's great that you would like to contribute or provide a session regarding the Hodges' model, but I'm not sure if doing that would fit well with this particular opening meeting of a new PIP group. Having said that, I could be very mistaken, and an introduction in the manner you mention, might be a great way to get people thinking and herald a fruitful meeting. The meeting is due to start at 7.30pm - (meetings usually take one and a half to two hours), but if you like I could meet you there half an hour earlier. Let me know.

We have something called the Enquiry Development Series (EDS) running at the moment. It's a monthly Online event which is run for PIP members and others to learn/refresh their undertanding and practices. You would be most welcome to attend.

Best regards,

Paul ...

PS: I have cc'd some members of the EDS in with this reply.

From Rob:

On 2023-01-16 12:44, fappyhealing02 AT yahoo.co.uk wrote:

Hi Everyone,

From my very limited reading on Hodge's model. It seems to be concerned with very similar issues to those of PIPs and the CofE community, which is an expression of prior analysis, critique and reflection coming from people like Dewey, Postman, Freire, Lipman and so on. I have a basic grasp of the model as a conceptual framework and a means to better care and understanding across society. What I don't seem to have picked up so much is a more fully developed methodology rooted in practice and realisation of these ideas.

This leads me wonder whether this model/framework is mainly conceptual, with limited  methodological guidance towards how the ideas in the framework are to be expressed and realised. PIPs is at the stage where it has a very successful methodology which realises and expresses in practice the ideas that Hodge points to, along with the philosophy of education eluded to earlier and various other frameworks such as the Paul and Elder model of critical thinking.

So, we have the history and philosophical education from Socrates onwards, the comes a distillation of these ideas into a framework or model, which is where we find Piaget, Bloom, Paul and Elder, along with Hodge and others. These models then have to be cashed out in practice. At this point, we are now thinking about methodology, there is of course connection, influence and overlap with the history, philosophy and subsequent frameworks. Methodologies vary from being barely formed to being well formed and robust. I would say PIPs and CofE have a well formed and somewhat robust methodological practice. It has been well tested and critiqued for over 40 years in different countries, communities and contexts. It has stood the test of time with a good pedigree. Matt Lipman was a key figure in developing a methodology out of his research into philosophy of education and various frameworks/models. However the methodology he produced to deliver in practice was something of a prototype rather than the more fully formed, finished article. Through time and careful reflection people like R Sutcliffe and Karin Muris took Lipman's methods improved and polished them into the practice we see and use 40 years later. This is of course still developing along democratic and dialogic lines.

In the case of Edward De Bonno, Paul and Elder, Illich and Dewey we find some powerful insights, some partially formed models and some fully formed models but not that much guidance on how to implement these ideas. Yes, they provide some ideas and pointers on how to go about the realisation of these things in practice but methodology on the whole is pretty sparse. I guess it's a case of focussing on a specific group of concerns comes at the cost of other concerns, though, I don't want to take this too far and slip into zero-sum thinking. Anyway, based on limited understandings I'd provisionally put Hodge in this category of well formed model, limited methodology in terms of the nuts and bolts of how to best realise the model in practice.

Questions I'm left with:

Is the distinction between model and methodology a significant and useful one here - why? Yes/No, because...?

Given our current point of development and understanding, by doing what we do, are we already cashing out a good deal of the key ideas in Hodge's model?

Could we just clarify what Hodge's model is a model of?

Do I need some help in understanding Hodge better in terms of both 'model' and 'methodology'?

This isn't to say we should not draw inspiration and ideas or take time to explore and experiment with Hodge's model, just that I need to be clearer about what it is, what it's trying to do, how it is going to do it. Once more secure with this, I feel I'd be in a better position to make more competent judgements and recommendations about its uses and benefits.

Best wishes,

Rob

My reply:

Subject: Re: New PIP group!

Thanks for the messages - just caught up I think...

I wondered originally Mike - about your young philosopher's group and once established asking the group the questions that Rob has posed and responded to.

I'm seeking critique, not proposing that Hodges' model is adopted by PIP.

The questions posed by the model - might gainfully exercise younger minds, and provide me with some pointers - which I would make clear (from ethics / consent perspective).

I greatly appreciate Rob's thoughts*.

A question I have educationally is from what age (literacy level) which Hodges' model #h2cm might be taught (discovered?).

I'd be pleased to come through on the 25th Mike and Paul, arriving a bit earlier.

I'll get to Liverpool early a.m. train and make a day of it.

As per Rob, I'm still asking these questions of the model and enjoying the journey ... so, briefly in response:

There is no methodology associated with the model, it is 'agnostic' (whatever that means).

The model is situated - so clinically, the way the model is used is influenced by the patient, client, carer, student, manager ...

The model can provide a relational ontology - it incorporates several polarities, dichotomies, oppositions and instrumentally can facilitate dialectic engagement.

It can be applied (imho) for a variety of research and philosophical stances, standpoints - Qual , Quant, Mixed-methods ... all the -isms?

As you will no doubt appreciate, in education and health care (especially) we need *evidence-based* interventions.

In seeking possible theoretical underpinnings for #h2cm think (as Rob suggests) of the model as a giant conceptual corpus (drawing from Tim Berners-Lee's giant global graph).

The axes of the model represent the (conceptual) holistic bandwidth of the situation.

The model can wax and wane as per the context (scale, scope). In a reductive sense I see the four (care) knowledge domains as four 'conceptual spaces' (Gärdenfors).

h2cm can also find a 'home' in the semantic web and in education - the idea of 'threshold concepts' (Meyer and Land).

There is another tool, but this calls for a logician - if not a totally erroneous idea?

[ Note diametric oppositions in the model: e.g.

• public understanding of science;
• the extent of visualization in the humanities;
• mental health (the self) and the State (politics, law) current Psycho-Economic crisis. ]

*ROB - and all - I'd be pleased to post your thoughts / response on the blog, if this is appropriate with links and text on PIPs.

I hope this helps and look f/w to next week - thanks for your interest too.

Best to all.

Peter

====

Clearly not the last word. Look f/w to Wednesday and learning more.

Talk @PHPNW Manchester 2nd April 7pm

Responding to a couple of tweets by @phpnw, I am now (happily) tasked with giving a talk on Tuesday evening:

Concepts, Spaces and Thresholds and why they matter

57 Thomas Street

Northern Quarter

Manchester

M4 1NA

Within the Drupal community and online I've heard frequent mention of imposter syndrome as reflected here. I'm no 'programmer', as much as I might wish and after stepping in to help with a quick editorial I'm also conscious of the risks of self-plagiarism - repeating myself yet again.

On Tuesday I'm pulling together threshold concepts, conceptual spaces and #h2cm in that order. I still believe there is a very worthy project here. Even if only having a sense that all the jig-saw pieces are present even if not quite 'correct'?

Recognising the expertise and professionalism of the audience I'm trying to make it relevant with an exercise too. I'm very grateful for the faith of the organisers as I fill a gap of sorts.

Thank goodness the talk is not a day earlier- which might be quite apt in respect of the 'new' site.

With changes in my full-time work status there will be more time.

Always good to see an excuse bite the dust...

A new Paradigm? No just Paragraphs...

While I have not had the practical reason to apply it (to my shame) I have known of 'maintenance mode' for donkey's y-ears. I have been listening. As tweeted earlier this week, I've been trying to remove Webform so I can update / replace it. I'm avoiding core 'experimental' modules in an attempt to avoid future problems. I'd managed to remove webform bootstrap, but trying to delete from the usual Drupal interface did not work. I checked the tables and those for webform were empty. Impatience set-in and I removed the folder within modules. That was the big mistake. For a time there, I could not access the localhost site on my laptop. I thought it had gone...

I had a MySQL backup and imported this while a CTRL 'Z' restored the folder. This did the trick. I have the HTML source for the archive pages as files too.

At several Drupal events Paragraphs has been presented as very useful site building module. With four 'basic pages' whatever follows will benefit from and no-doubt demand more thought about content types. Checking out some videos Paragraphs really does seem to fit the bill when allied with field group.

I'm looking forward to the local Drupal meetup in Manchester this Tuesday.

NHS HACK DAY 12 & 13 Sept, Manchester

Dear HANDI Member - you may be interested in the event below:-

NHS Hack Day - Manchester on 12th & 13th September 2015.

For those who aren't familiar with it, NHS Hack Day is a relaxed and free-form software development day, run as an unconference, and allowing participants to pitch their ideas and NHS problems to the audience of developers and Health IT specialists. After pitching, teams form organically and people start working on their solutions. On the Sunday, work continues, and then the work is presented to the judging panel. Prizes are awarded, but the main point of participation is the lessons learned, the community that has formed around NHS Hack Day, and the exhilaration of helping develop software over a weekend. ...

What would a CCIO get out of it?

When you see how well developers work when they get chance to work directly with users is inspiring. Realising how rarely they get this opportunity certainly suggests some reasons why NHS IT often falls short of where we would like it to be. Understanding the user need, pitched by a patient or relative, can be an important experience.

At NHS Hack Day we often get excellent representation of junior health professionals, patients, and developers from Health IT and non-Health IT backgrounds. Unfortunately, representation at NHSHD of the NHS IT 'establishment' - NHS Trusts, HSCIC, IT managers, and NHS IT technical staff etc, is less strong. I'm hoping that with the right leadership from CCIOs we can change this.

Sign up here (it's free) ...

Many thanks,
Jill Riley - HANDI Health

...

(I have my ticket.)

NW England: Pathways to Health and Wealth 31st March 2014 (4-7pm)

Dear all

As discussed in our meeting, here is the website for the LU Cross Faculty KE event Pathways to Health and Wealth taking place on 31^st March 2014 (4-7pm):

http://www.lancaster.ac.uk/healthandwealth/

Please let me or Becky Gordon b.gordon AT lancaster.ac.uk know if you have any queries and please pass on to any of your industry connections who you think might be interested to find out what we do, how we do it and how we can help them do it too!

Thanks, Karen

Dr Karen L Wright
Peel Trust Lecturer in Biomedicine
Faculty of Health and Medicine
Division of Biomedical and Life Sciences
Furness College
Lancaster University
Lancaster LA1 4YG
Email: karen.wright AT lancaster.ac.uk

[ Just to note I have not attended these meetings, the post is copied here to help in a small way with local publicity. PJ ]

Mental Health at NWHealthHack Knutsford - Prof. Lewis (thank you)

NWHealthHack began with several briefings. These were all excellent in providing both technical and health care insights before projects were pitched in 60 seconds.

Prof. Shôn Lewis set the health agenda in the context of mental health. I'm really grateful to Prof. Lewis to be able to share two slides here. The first speaks volumes not only in the research spend across health care domains but the disability-adjusted life year (DALY):

Over the past 25+ years I'm aware of the change within community mental health nursing. I can summarise this as follows:

• 1985 one of six new community psychiatric nurses - CPNs
• Early 1990s newly built community mental health resource centers
• Mid-late 1990s CPNs criticised for not meeting the needs of the enduring mentally ill
• Early 2000s early intervention services, role of psychosocial interventions
• Mid-late 2000s reduction and closure of mental health day hospitals
• Early 2010s former community mental health resource centers turned to primary care (mental health)

I have mentioned here previously about the need to put the 'mental'' into public - health and the need to put mental health literacy on the map. It will be interesting to watch what happens now that this has landed in a very 'local' way within Local Authorities. Prof. Lewis reviewed the situation in mental health conjoining serious mental illness, services and self-care, making a critical point for those readers working in community mental health teams. This should also give pause for thought for those (like me) working in related services:

Prof. Lewis also shared an app - ClinTouch and reflections on the professional's response to the apps potential and the findings in practice. It's never easy being open to what is new and being ready as a consequence to re-invent yourself. If that's a problem for individuals then for professional groups and multidisciplinary teams it's an even greater challenge. ...

North West Health Hack 15/16 June 2013

Dear Health 2.0 Manchester member,

Please see an update on opportunities that might be of your interest:

Follow us on Twitter!
@H20MCR for latest updates and digital health insights & opportunities

North West Health Hack 15/16 June 2013
This is a free event where clinicians can work with some very talented developers/coders and designers to develop their ideas into working prototypes. There will also be an opportunity to get some early concept validation and feedback from investment/ technology and NHS mentors.  The event is not only open to new concepts but also to ones that are already in development so that teams that are already formed are also invited! Who is organising it: Barclays, ECH Alliance, University of Manchester, Health 2.0 Manchester Chapter, TechHubManchester. Dr Ranjit Gill (Chief Clinical Officer, NHS Stockport) & Dr Mike Burrows (Area Director, NHS Greater Manchester) will attend the event.

Check it out  & REGISTER at ...

Blueprint Health accelerator is currently accepting applications for their summer program
We have been approached by Blueprint Health to share this opportunity with our community: Blueprint Health, the premier healthcare accelerator program, located in the heart of New York City. Blueprint is currently accepting applications and our team is seeking talented entrepreneurs to join us for the Summer 2013 Program. A number of incredible entrepreneurs have traveled from as far as Shanghai, Dubai, and London to partake in our program. You may have seen some recent press coverage of four surgeons who founded Touch Surgery, a company that graduated with our Winter 2013 Class. http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/architecture-design-blog/2013/feb/27/touch-surgery-ipad-app-surgeons-learn

We look forward to meeting the talent from Manchester.

Michael Maggio
Associate

Blueprint Health
483 Broadway, 2nd Floor
New York, NY 10013
cell: 781.864.6283
office: 646.627.7627 ext 703
mmaggio@blueprinthealth.org | blueprinthealth.org | @bphealth

Next  H 2.0 Manchester Meetup Thursday the 23rd of May: Care Homes and Assisted Living: in what ways technology can help?
Another great opportunity to discover new opportunities, be inspired and meet like minded people in a relaxed atmosphere.  ...

Thank you and best regards
Idalia, Daniel, Mariano and Preeti

Health 2.0 Manchester - Leadership Team

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). 

Drupal musings 5: Jump start for a new blog / site

Last month I had a great offer from the Drupal North West UK user group members at Manchester's - MadLab.

The proposal is using a central Manchester venue with wifi for a day engage some volunteers and create a new version of this blog in Drupal. This has woken me up! Putting a request out MDDA - Manchester Digital Development Agency have kindly offered to help out in terms of the venue.

At this months meeting I explained where things are up to and it was clear I still had some sorting to do.

As Chris and the others asked: What can Drupal do that Blogger cannot deliver?

Recently Blogger have extended their template design and functionality. So, now I should be able to find a new (and clean) template and re-introduce comments. In 2006 when I started the blog there were problems with spam.

So... it looks best to leave the blog as a going concern and focus on a new site for Hodges' model and the specific content and functionality requirements there.

I have my ticket for Drupalcon Copenhagen, for me this is 3rd time lucky, last chance saloon. This would be great timing and with the darkening nights too. ...

A phantom outline (currently an example of the 'living-dead') has been known for a while:

• Archive
• Case Studies (content types)
• Glossary
• Introduction - beginners guide to the health career model
• ...

If in one day a group of Drupalers can help me jump start this project that would be - awesome! First though I have to get an idea of numbers and a poll to gauge which day is the best for people - looking ahead to October - November. Before then I have some work to do...

Clinical Informatics in the North West – the start of a new era!

Thursday, 1st July 2010, 6.15pm light buffet, 7pm talk
Clinical Informatics in the North West – the start of a new era!
Speakers: Dr Andrew Coley, Dr Asad Sadiq, Mr Bibhas Roy, Dr Sydney Schneidman, Dr Rhidian Bramley, Dr Amir Hannan
Organiser: BCS Health Northern
Venue: Manchester Conference Centre, Sackville Street, M1 3BB

HICAT - a new approach by NHS Northwest – is this the start of a new era for Clinical Informatics in the region?

The HICAT are the Health Informatics Clinical Advisory Team at NHS North-West:

• Dr Andrew Coley is the Senior Clinical Officer.
• Dr Asad Sadiq is a consultant psychiatrist and Mental Health IT lead.
• Mr Bibhas Roy is an orthopaedic surgeon and Secondary Care IT lead.
• Dr Schneidman is an A&E consultant and Lorenzo clinical IT lead.
• Dr Bramley is a consultant radiologist and Diagnostics IT lead.
• Dr Hannan is a GP and the Primary Care IT lead.

We will describe the HICAT Mission Statement and the principles used to help deliver the next generation healthcare using IT to help deliver care. We will describe what we are doing for Clinical Informatics across the board in the North West and what impact we expect from the initiatives and efforts to have on clinical practice in the region, both short term and long. We will explain how our work will benefit patients. The speakers will be happy to discuss our plans and expectations with a knowledgeable audience and to take note of helpful feedback.

This talk should appeal to all with an interest in the use of Informatics by clinicians and the impact that can have on the quality and safety of patient care and the efficiency of services provided through the NHS.

...

If you have any queries on anything BCS related then please do not hesitate to contact me. Also, if you know of any IT events that would be of interest to fellow members, then please let me know.

Regards,
Andrew Mohan,
Chairman,
BCS Manchester Branch
The Branch's website has details on all of its events and links to the other BCS groups that operate in the Greater Manchester area.

http://twitter.com/bcsmanchester

Ruby Holistic I

Using BBC BASIC many years ago as I recall I used an array to capture user input and then save this data to files.

I've just written a very simplistic Ruby program, not very Rubyesque in its code style to capture some data and store this in an array. There are many options here and not limited to:

• declaring an array from the outset;
• using a hash;
• using MySQL.

At present it's just about getting used to the Ruby syntax. I have yet to write a class and methods of my own and resort to file handling. Looking forward to doing so. Not far into the Ruby on Rails book it was getting very interesting so I need to pick that up again too...!

Also need to get back to Drupal and the new versions of Brian's notes and my introduction to the model and website. How many themes and modules are Drupal 6 compatible now? It's the NW England Drupal user group meeting again on the 20th in Manchester.

Eclipse Europa, PHP & Ruby et al.

As planned last night I installed Eclipse Europa and the Ruby Development Tools [RDT]. RDT was missing at first and as I tried to use the same workspace there were complaints. Once RDT was installed using the 'update manager' my test 'hello world' program ran aok. The Eclipse help system includes a 'hello world' example.

I'm completely bowled over by Eclipse(s)...
As the scope, usability, feature set and potential of Eclipse rolls my way -
I'm cold. Frozen solid just thinking about learning this environment,
but the promise, well that really warms you up.

I'm off work on holiday for the next week, so amongst some jobs and trips I plan to check out the PHP options, how Eclipse can support Drupal.

Tortoise CVS is also in place, so now a right-click in folders and on the desktop reveals two CVS options. CVS is provided within Eclipse too, so I'm sure this is the way to go. It's the NW England Drupal meet next week and I plan on having a CVS aware Drupal 6 up and running before then - if that's possible. It's a must-do of course, if I'm to review Mercer's new Drupal 6 book at the end of the month.

Unfortunately Brian and I are not able to meet this week. It is great to know he is busy and we plan to catch up soon.

Just to mention that the Northern England Human Ecology Group look set to meet again in April on a Saturday, theme Well-being, likely venue Rivington, nr Horwich, Bolton - details tbc....

And finally - fantastic job Atlantis!

Photo source adapted from original: by Kyle Carmona - http://www.eclipsetours.com/lresults.html

Drupal tinkering - images walking into walls

I managed to wade into Drupal last night, not quite the dive I had in mind although still very useful.

Drupal is a gift for creating communities of users as the Drupal site title makes clear. So here am I wanting first to create an archive, basically duplicating three existing pages with some corrections/revision along the way:

1. Brian's lecture notes introducing Hodges' model;
2. Brian's notes on bridging theory and practice;
3. My original 1998 introduction to the website and Hodges' model, written after interviewing Brian in Manchester.

I created an Adobe pdf version of Brian's intro notes many years ago, but never had the bandwidth to publish in this way. It's not that I expect a deluge of downloads, it's just that I know how many papers I download and never quite have a chance to read in full. Now though thanks to Chris Ward's great offer of sponsorship with hosting the future looks a lot more open. There should be scope to offer several formats.

After the PC power supply problem interrupted play I fired Drupal up and quickly ran into a wall. There does seem to be some issues with image management in Drupal. Drupal's community plumbing prowess is concerned with how users can add images to their posts, not the type of static content I am concerned with at present. There's a way around this which I am looking at - using inline images. Also wondering about 'content types' and what the existing ones may offer? At last month's Drupal meeting TinyMCE and IMCE image tools were discussed. It looks like there are many options with the modules on offer. The .pdf, .doc option may be simpler for this at least?

Anyway I've an image in the 'files' directory and added the necessary html to the page, but the image wants to play hide and seek. Will tackle this later.

I'm using the Ubiquity theme (see below) at present and will need to settle on one theme soon. I think themes are up for discussion in Manchester MDDA this month. It's one thing to keep changing themes and posting pretty (or not so pretty) pictures here, but it's what's under the surface that counts. I'm going to have to dig a little bit. Mercer's beginner's Drupal book will be required (re-)reading for a long time yet! Drupal's is now on version 5.5, so I will update this week - another useful lesson just before the next Drupal meeting on the 19th. The update will also force me to back things up.


Re. Atlantis: hope they sort those engine cut-off sensors soon - there's a lot of medical and materials research to follow when the Shuttle crew finally deliver the Columbus lab to the International Space Station. I wonder what new medical wonders will arise from the materials research, in orbit and at home? Now launch is set for 2nd January. Safety first!

Drupal, Northern England CHE group

It's been a busy week...

On Wednesday night the turnout for the 1st NW England Drupal user group was excellent. A great springboard for next month. I've ordered another book! The title reflects an aspirational air. Although search inside helps, there's nothing like having chance to open the book for real and scan. Especially, when you've also been shown (thanks Chris!) some basics of installation and must-have modules. So, if this blog suffers through the Solstice well you know why ;-).

Today, the Yorkshire Sculpture Park proved a great find for me; with Criggy and Andy there were just three of us for the Northern England CHE group meet. It was overcast and drizzled occasionally, but the conversation and exhibits ensured it was really warm and sunny. Walking and bike riding in the 90s around Grizedale Forest I remember Andy Goldsworthy's work: brilliant! Hope to go back before this exhibition ends in January. Strange how I'd seen it featured on the Culture Show - BBC 2 and the programme returned for a new series tonight.

Back very soon... CBT and CMHNs: - Anyone for tennis?

Website & Content Review: Inter - Intrapersonal

While grappling with Drupal is an opportunity to learn new skills and put the website on a more professional and potentially dynamic-database-driven footing that is just one step. The other step is the need to evaluate the content and have a right sort out!

One thing that has bugged me for a long time is the name of the top left care domain - this junction of the HUMANISTIC - INDIVIDUAL axes. Being focussed on the individual - the label should read INTRAPERSONAL not INTERPERSONAL as reflected in the following definitions:

INTRAPERSONAL: Existing or occurring within the individual self or mind.

INTERPERSONAL:

1. Of or relating to the interactions between individuals: interpersonal skills.
2. Existing or occurring between individuals: interpersonal communication or conflict.

Source: Answers.com

This is not a mistake as such, it merely serves to highlight the way Hodges' model relies on the underlying continua. This domain from a health, social care and family perspective can readily incorporate INTRA-INTERPERSONAL. Today when I sat down with my clients and their carers it was not exactly SOCIAL, the emphasis was on INTRA - INTERPERSONAL interactions (situations).

So, from now on I will refer to both INTRA & INTER in any new content to follow.

Speaking of future content: the 1st NW England Drupal user group meeting on Wednesday night in Manchester is at the Cornerhouse. Eight attendees so far including myself, with six people 'watching' and yet to decide - I can't wait. Don't think we'll manage the Apple store too - another ti:me.

If you have any pointers regards future content please get in touch - h2cmng AT yahoo.co.uk.

Northern England CHE group - Oct 13 Yorkshire Sculpture Park

There is a change of plans for the 3rd Northern England Centre for Human Ecology group on 13 October.

People are struggling to get over to Rivington, Bolton; so Andy Wynne has suggested we meet at 11.00 at the main entrance of the Yorkshire Sculpture Park to see the Andy Goldsworthy exhibition. I think I saw this featured earlier in the year on the Culture Show BBC 2, it looked great on TV so...

Dressed for wet weather and walking we will decide on how to play it when we meet taking the weather into account.... We won't have a meeting place as such although there is a restaurant and cafe.

Well-being is still a very worthy topic in human ecology, sustainable communities and of course health and social care. With Rivington a major water capture area that is another ecological theme.

Apparently, entrance to the exhibition is free - great value - all day parking needs 4x£1 coins. I'm heading over to Manchester to get a lift with Andy and hope my daughter will come along too.

The idea is to look around for a couple of hours, then have lunch and perhaps those who are so inclined could take the long walk around to the other gallery and the outside intallations followed by coffee/tea in the afternoon. We'll chat informally as we go around and possibly more formally at the breaks.

Before this weekend meet, there's the Drupal NW UK User Group event in Preston 10 October. Not sure how this will pan out with two of us so far attending and seven 'watching'...

[100th post] Care Programme Approach & Drupal NW England 10 Oct 7-9 pm Preston

With 29 posts in 2006 (from April) + 70 posts this year makes this the 100th post. Is there another 100....?

CARE PROGRAMME APPROACH [CPA] - MENTAL HEALTH
Working in mental health - policy, practice, professionalism are never far from problems. Problems that in the most extreme form can result in suicide and homicide. The costs associated with inquiries recently made the (Health Service Journal) news here in the UK; despite the financial input (£80M) subsequent change is apparently very slow in mental health services if it happens at all.

Through autumn:spring in a couple of posts I'll reflect on CPA with reference to Hodges' model and informatics. The magic wands will be found elsewhere; possibly when the results of a CPA review and consultation are published in November...?

I notice the CPA Association website is powered by Drupal....
(now the Care Coordination Association)

DRUPAL NW England user group
The 1st Drupal User Group NW England meeting will take place:

Date: Wednesday 10th October 2007
Time: 7pm to 9.30pm
Location: MOKA Cafe Bar (probably upstairs), Preston

Every: 2nd Wednesday of the month.

The details are on the DRUPAL UK website.

Drupal, the website, comments and Apple

Whenever I've trained people on some IT application or other I always stress the obvious....

Make sure you log-in, or use 'x' regularly otherwise you know what they say...

If you don't use it - you lose it...

I should learn to take my own medicine, so with Drupal and Ruby I need to immerse myself and roll around a bit at least every-other-day , if some of this is going to stick. It needs to stick because I sure don't want to touch the existing content in terms of layout, styles ... (this time of year up North in Lancashire it's getting too scary).

In April on holiday in Crete I read through (a good beginners guide) David Mercer's Drupal book; well it's open again. The necessary software is in place, the only thing that troubles me are the themes and the existing home page plus getting to grips with the various WAMP components. Vital administration aside, can I create an original homepage in Drupal that reflects the model? Looking at the first database created using MySQL it really is a whole new venture. It forces you to take a completely fresh look at what you want to do and why. One thing I want to do is to create an archive for the existing - rather dated - content and see where we are.

There's a Drupal UK group and things are happening in London (as I learned in February!) but there's no group in the NW of England. Although....a forum search revealed that someone last November was wondering about a NW England group and now we've made e-mail contact so something is in the offing...! So IF you should be local - Liverpool, Bolton, Preston, Wigan, Manchester.... Chris and I are wondering about meeting once a month - Friday night. More to follow...

Before I close and the comment spam also takes full hold: just to say I've switched comments off. If you wish please get in touch - you can email me h2cmng AT yahoo.co.uk


(Oh yeah - Apple! 3d star maps, BYTE mag, laptops.... We'll bite into that another time.)

The photo was taken from a taverna in Plaka after we had visited Spinalonga on the boat - the island in the distance.

Assen NL + Northern England CHE group Oct 13 Rivington Park Arts, Horwich

Sunday 0500 last week arrived home from Assen, Netherlands with Matt and Lawrence my son's friend having attended the Assen cycle Tour. It really was an international field and they really flew. Some unfortunately more than others.... The first race Matt came off!! - scaphoid # so we got to see the Dutch health service at work and very impressive too. Thanks to the staff at Wilhelmina Hospital - great job (I notice the TT circuit also keeps them busy). Closing my eyes while waiting for the Radiographer (like you do) Wilhelmina did not 'sound' like a hospital. Excellent attention to the 'hospital' environment - the colour, some nice curves, the signage was spot on too.

At the close of the holiday-cycle tour the sunset at Calais was beautiful.

Returning to the human ecology thread, I can confirm that the next Northern England CHE group event will be on Saturday 13th October 11-3pm at Rivington Park Arts. The group would like to thank David Ruaux for providing us with a room and facilities.

The theme for the meeting is well-being and I'll post more details nearer the time. Leave a comment or e-mail me h2cmng AT yahoo.co.uk and we will add you to the mail list.

Well I'm getting to know my ready-made case-load. It really does not feel like I've been away some 2.5 years. This is what Hodges' model was born for and it's great to get the therapeutic juices flowing again. I've not yet stabbed anyone (injections!), but that won't be long. Actually, I think a delay here is positive evidence that injections and medications are used much more carefully now; especially with older adults and they are reviewed regularly. A trend that has been in train for many years.

Speaking of trains - wonder if it will be clear tonight and in the early hours...?

Human Ecology: Northern England CHE Group - Sedbergh 30 June

As mentioned previously the 2nd Northern England Centre for Human Ecology group meeting was held in Sedbergh last month Saturday 30th 11-3pm.


In addition to hosting the meeting the local organiser(s) also arranges the content for the session - with outside support if necessary. This time Deyna and Criggy took up the baton.

To begin, Criggy shared her work working in rural communities. Referring to my notes many topics were discussed including: community halls as a focus of the community. Raising the profile of sustainable communities, transport in a rural vs urban context and climate change.


Although we were not a legion the diverse experience represented that afternoon showed in knowledge of organisations, e.g. the work of the Commission for Rural Communities and publications - 'What are sustainable rural communities? - 5 Thinkpieces'.

We discussed the car and private transport, the state of public transport, housing, community engagement, belongingness and parish plans. Also in our minds were the extremes of community in terms of age groups, those commuting and second home owners, 'active' and 'passive' community members.

Next: AGENDA 21 and the need to empower civil society locally and globally.

Criggy highlighted and explained the CRC's work on Rural Disadvantage, especially the overlap of:

• Access poverty
• Network poverty
• Financial poverty

The Rural Community Carbon Network and the number of communities that are driving forward with the sustainable agenda not just with words but deeds towards carbon neutrality.

Personalities in this field also featured notably Rob Hopkins. Finally, at least by my notes "Sustainable Communities Plans" were discussed.

Next, Deyna presented her work (I've copied her notes below) on Green Sedbergh covering:

PROJECTS:

Book town and the regeneration after foot-and-mouth
Green Marquee - raising awareness of environmental issues
Green Tourism initiatives - cycle map/local access leaflet / outdoor festival
Peoples Hall - green refurbishment / rebuild
Plastic bag reduction / replacement
Community cinema - social events
Local sustainability - range of shops /local produce
Farmers market
Sedburgh School - local employment
Hydro-electric scheme?
Re-opening of reservior?

ISSUES:

Low wages / High cost of housing / 2nd home syndrome
Rural location / Public transport
2 car families / middle class values
YDNPA national park
Apathy / smugness / commitment

Deyna then sought the groups ASSISTANCE regarding:

Green Parish plan - How? What? Timescale? Cost?
Alternatives to plastic bags?
Implementation incentives - socio-economic?
Balance of individual / community / business needs
Other sustainable / green possibilities

The time really whizzed by, to the extent that my tea went cold (a crime in these circles!) and we only had a break for lunch around 2pm.

The next meeting will be end of Sept-Oct time and may be near Horwich, Bolton. I'll post more details as soon as they are available. Sedbergh is a lovely book town (I bought two second hand) and I really enjoyed meeting CHE students and alumni old and new and as an outsider learning more about human ecology.

Andy also reminded me about the CHE ecopsychology course.