WCCS26: Abstract 'Presenting a Universal and Simple Conceptual Workbench to Situate and Encompass Complexity'

ABSTRACT

Background

In health and social care there is, as yet, no universally recognised model, or framework applied and taught across all academia, fields of practice, professional disciplines and apprenticeships. At a time when ‘truth’ is challenged by information disorder, AI, and curricula are overload, this is both a stark and hidden problem. Medicine was quick to embrace complexity as an additional scientific tool. Complexity extends our understanding of epidemiology, demographic trends, the birth of modern bio-genomics, pharmacokinetics, public health, workflows, patient safety and more. The medical and bio-medical models are subject to critique, especially in psychiatry in terms of their conceptual scope and holistic bandwidth. Consider for example, the representation of patient and public engagement, human rights, climate change, poverty, refugees and natural disasters? The field of psychiatry extended these models to the bio-psycho-social model.

Methods

Despite this ‘progress-ion’, profound legacy issues remain: 

• The dualities of INDIVIDUAL-GROUP and HUMANISTIC-MECHANISTIC
• Sustainable services and systems, change to emphasize prevention and education (not just cure)
• A lack of parity of esteem between mental illness and physical illness
• A complicated relationship between psychiatry and psychology

The 21st century demands we also factor in economics, technology, social media - especially AI, education and literacies, geopolitics, security and more. This paper argues that we need a bio-psycho-socio-political model stat! This paper introduces and demonstrate the generic conceptual framework known as Hodges’ model.

To date, Hodges’ model has been explained and studied by guided discovery through lectures, workshops, posters, show and tell, and discussion groups; plus descriptive means of case study, and in practice patient care assessments and case formulation. Journal papers include conceptual analysis and synthesis, concept mapping of issues, e.g. nutrition and the sustainable development goals, plus oral health and policy frameworks (in-process). This paper ‘workbench’ encourages and facilitates reflective practice and critical thinking on an individual and collective basis. The derivation of the structure and content of Hodges’ model through guided discovery will be shared.

Results & Discussion

The background to Hodges’ model and its creation is introduced. In health care delivery, evidence-based interventions are of course paramount to patient, and public safety. Work to ‘see’ Hodges’ model as a mathematical object has begun. Help and collaboration is welcome; especially with supervisors of early career researchers and scholars in LMICs. Examples of complexity will be mapped to the knowledge (care) domains of Hodges’ model, which can itself be embedded within the spiritual. This paper responds directly to WCCS26’s main theme; and the need to listen to the lessons of history and isolate, weigh, refine and seek to preserve the often hard-won values that sustain humanity, humanistic care and qualities at a time when these are under assault, e.g. assisted dying – a right to die, or a duty? A small but growing bibliography, a template, plus illustrations of Hodges’ model are provided. Background on Hodges’ model can be found in the blog ‘Welcome to the QUAD’ - https://hodges-model.blogspot.com

Keywords: Healthcare, Nursing, Hodges’ model, Humanities, Global health

Topic: Complexity in Health and Medicine

🔷

News of acceptance was received on 29th November: brilliant! The deadline for submission of full-papers is 25th December. Try as I might, I can't meet this date. 

Helpfully, a presentation based on abstract alone is acceptable. I am hoping to network and learn too. The draft notes on Hodges'model as a mathematical object (6k words) are helpful in framing thoughts about the presentation and a future paper as a writing project. All in, a marvellous end to 2025 and prospect for 2026.

Modelling turbulence in flight: and other situations?

'Thomas Q. Carney, a retired professor of aviation technology at Purdue University in Indiana who has logged more than 11,000 flight hours as a pilot, said, "The better the model, the more it captures of the particular turbulent field, then the better the forecast, which is what the pilot is going to use."'

individual

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INTERPERSONAL : SCIENCES

humanistic -------------------------------------------  mechanistic

SOCIOLOGY : POLITICAL

|

group-population

complexity and turbulence here ...	Birnir, B., & Angheluta, L. (2025). Scaling of Lagrangian structure functions. Phys. Rev. Res., 7(2), 023225.  https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevResearch.7.023225
here	and here ...

'To try to make sense of chaos, Dr. Birnir worked with Luiza Angheluta-Bauer, a theoretical physicist at the University of Oslo, to devise a model that combines two different methods for observing turbulence: what are known as Lagrangian and Eulerian mechanics. Experts say that neither framework can fully explain how turbulence works. 

That's because these two frameworks look at fundamentally different aspects of a turbulent system. In Lagrangian mechanics. researchers observe a simple particle. while in the Eulerian framework they look at a single point in space. Put simply, Lagrangian mechanics is like watching a leaf flow downriver, subject to the whims of eddies in the water. On the other hand, Eulerian mechanics is like watching a rock that protrudes from the river's surface and studying how the turbulence of the water moves around that fixed point.

Lagrangian turbulence is trickier to model because it requires an understanding of how a lone particle will behave. That lone particle will "execute the most complicated motion that you could imagine," Dr. Birnir said.

Knowing how each type of turbulence fits into the bigger picture is akin to selecting the appropriate lens for a microscope, since both are highly dependent on perspective. "Same turbulence, different stories," said Tomek Jaroslawski a postdoctoral fellow at the Center of Turbulence Research at Stanford University.' Nazaryan, p.12.

Nazaryan, A. A new theory of in-flight turbulance lands, Science: The New York Times International Edition, October 15, 2025, p.12.

[Subscription: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/24/science/physics-airplanes-turbulence.html ].

See previously: 'care architecture' : 'Serres' : 'complexity' - and, if needed 'spiritual'

Hodges' model: A tool to watch the complications of Care

Individual

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      INTERPERSONAL    :     SCIENCES               

HUMANISTIC  --------------------------------------  MECHANISTIC      

 SOCIOLOGY  :    POLITICAL 

|

Group

How many complications here?
... here?	"Despite its achievement, Vacheron Constantin has not filed a patent, on the Chinese perpetual calendar, saying it doesn't want to reveal details." p.S9. ... and here too?

Foulkes, N. Inside Vacheron's exclusive cabinet of complications, Watches & Jewellery, Financial Times, 9 April 2024, p.4.

Image and text: https://www.hodinkee.com/articles/introducing-vacheron-constantin-berkley-grand-complication

The Complications, 1 Through 63

"There's likely some part of you that's curious about each of the 63 functions that have totaled a record-breaking level of complication. I'll list the functions below, broken down by type, to simplify things.

Time measurement (9 Total): 1. Regulator-type hours, minutes, and seconds for mean solar time 2. Retrograde second for mean solar time 3. Day and night indication for reference city 4. Visible spherical armillary tourbillon regulator with spherical balance spring 5. Armillary sphere tourbillon 6. World time indication for 24 cities 7. Second time zone hours and minutes (on 12 hours display) 8. Second time zone day and night indication 9. System to display the second time zone for the Northern or Southern hemispheres

Gregorian Perpetual Calendar (7 Total): 10. Gregorian perpetual calendar 11. Gregorian days of the week 12. Gregorian months 13. Gregorian retrograde date 14. Leap-year indication and four-year cycle 15. Number of the day of the week (ISO 8601 calendar) 16. Indication for the number of the week within the year (ISO 8601 calendar).

Chinese Perpetual Calendar (11 Total): 17. Chinese perpetual calendar 18. Chinese number of the day. 19. Chinese name of the month 20. Chinese date indication 21. Chinese zodiac signs 22. 5 elements and 10 celestial stems 23. 6 energies and 12 earthly branches 24. Chinese year state (common or embolismic) 25. Month state (small or large) 26. Indication for the Golden number within the 19-year Metonic cycle 27. Indication for the date of the Chinese New Year in the Gregorian calendar.
Chinese Agricultural Perpetual Calendar (2 Total): 28. Chinese agricultural perpetual calendar. 29. Indications of seasons, equinoxes, and solstices with solar hand.

Astronomic Calendar (9 Total): 30. Sky chart (calibrated for Shanghai) 31. Sidereal hours 32. Sidereal minutes 33. Sunrise time (calibrated for Shanghai) 34. Sunset time (calibrated for Shanghai) 35. Equation of time 36. Length of the day (calibrated for Shanghai) 37. Length of the night (calibrated for Shanghai) 38. Phases and age of the moon, one correction every 1027 years.

Split-seconds Chronograph (4 Total): 39. Fifths of a second chronograph (1 column wheel) 40. Fifths of a second split-second chronograph (1 column wheel) 41. 12-hour counter (1 column wheel) 42. 60-minute counter.

Alarm (7 Total): 43. Progressive alarm with single gong and hammer striking 44. Alarm strike/silence indicator 45. Choice of normal alarm or carillon striking alarm indicator 46. Alarm mechanism coupled to the carillon striking mechanism 47. Alarm striking with choice of grande or petite sonnerie 48. Alarm power-reserve indication 49. System to disengage the alarm barrel when fully wound.

Westminster Carillon (8 Total): 50. Carillon Westminster chiming with 5 gongs and 5 hammers 51. Grande sonnerie passing strike 52. Petite sonnerie passing strike 53. Minute repeating 54. Night silence feature (between 22.00 and 08.00 hours – hours chosen by the owner) 55. System to disengage the striking barrel when fully wound 56. Indication for grande or petite sonnerie modes 57. Indication for silence / striking / night modes.

Additional features (6) 58. Power-reserve indication for the going train 59. Power-reserve indication for the striking train 60. Winding crown position indicator 61. Winding system for the double barrels 62. Hand-setting system with two positions and two directions 63. Concealed flush-fit winding crown for the alarm mechanism."

Also: Naas, R. New and extremely complicated. Watches. The New York Times International Edition, April 9, 2024, p.S9

Craftsmanship. "It took a watchmaker a year to assemble the Complication's 2,877 parts, including 31 hands, nine discs and 245 jewels." p.S9. Plus, quote regards the question of a patent.

Vacheron Constantin

(Just to be clear - this post, as with all others is not paid/sponsored.)

A twitter reply re. diagnosis - mental illness

A Diagnosis alone cannot explain a person's 'life experience'.
Ppl untilise 'a' Dx for info compression, contracting+ *yes* to formulate treatment, explain behaviour *meaning*, give a 'why' (off-sick) socio-politically.
Medical sociology is a gift. Illich, Canguilhem et al. 1/7

— Peter Jones (@h2cm) October 7, 2022

 

My source: With thanks to Justin Garson and other respondents.

https://twitter.com/justin_garson/status/1577988186600611840?s=20&t=tcSVMBQbxNPSAlvudfVsSQ

Munker illusion: Finding a palette for holistic, person-centred care

Hodges' model - Integrated Care?

It is as obvious as black and white.

Health, social care & education
are bound to be siloed.

Get over it!

What do you want: a rich picture?

Color Assimilation Grid Illusion

"Only the grid is colorful, the rest of the video is in grayscale, but the lower resolution of our color perception makes the color assimilate/blend into the grayscale cells within the human visual system."

https://www.patreon.com/posts/color-grid-28734535
 

"I've found that the grid works best."  Øyvind Kolås

individual

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INTERPERSONAL : SCIENCES

humanistic ----------------------------------------------- mechanistic

SOCIOLOGY : POLITICAL

|

group - population

#carearchitecture #careresolution #integratedcare

See for original post:
https://www.patreon.com/posts/color-grid-28734535

My source: Massimo

Hospicing social policy and Identifying the seams..?

individual

|

INTERPERSONAL : SCIENCES

humanistic ----------------------------------------------- mechanistic

SOCIOLOGY : POLITICAL

|

group

Green - paper ([Very] Long - grass)	Recommended read on @Medium: “Hospicing The Old” https://t.co/aAM6i6hHVG — stephanie cole (@eseesea) January 18, 2019
'Future of care for older people & the adult care system is one of greatest unresolved public policy issues of our time' @CareQualityComm https://t.co/efm5JV0tUF — Prof Catherine Needham (@DrCNeedham) October 11, 2017	White - paper

Humanistic + Mechanistic = Organicistic? c/o Vernon

"Holistic Biology ... 

Philosophy Now #122

In recent years biology has been moving beyond a biochemically reductive view of life. The days when we could regard ourselves as lumbering robots for our genes, to recall Richard Dawkins’ resonate phrase, are numbered, if not already over. Life for the biologist has become a lot more complex, and arguably, in its intricacy, more beautiful. ... 

I recently attended a conference on what is sometimes called ‘holistic biology’ or the ‘extended evolutionary synthesis’. ... 

These developments have led the philosopher Michael Ruse to pose a fundamental question. In biology, there has long been two ways of looking at life: as a mechanism, which can be broken down into parts; and as an organism, which can be explained only by considering the way the whole system works. Organicism is the more ancient approach, while the machine metaphor has come to dominate in modern times. Ruse suggests that perhaps it’s time for organicism to make a comeback. 

Its origins reach all the way back to Plato." p.7.

The links here provide access to one of four complimentary articles for non-subscribers.

Vernon, M. Rediscovering Plato's Vision. Philosophy Now. Issue 122. Oct/Nov 2017. pp.6-8.

Mark Vernon is the author of The Idler Guide to Ancient Philosophy (Idler Books, 2015).
For more, see www.markvernon.com.

Butterflies make the news go-round

In health, social care and the news media at large there are themes that recur. While every summer has its silly season, there is a strange irregular-regularity in the way the light is re-cast on issues important to us all. It may be triggered due to a tragic incident involving a child, older person, or a whole family. At other times the stimulus for further exposure and prompt for debate is found when different coloured papers have their political say. The political opposition can force or be forced into a reaction.

Chaos is hardly a new kid in town, but there are many groups such as Society for Chaos Theory in Psychology & Life Sciences who are trying to understand and apply this infant science to specific disciplines and even conjoin and create new ones. I mention chaos due the question of migration.

Where do the various items of news head to when they disappear off the media's smörgåsbord?

Maybe they are still there, they just merge into the background noise? This movement is not just a binary, metronomic tick-tock, in and out of the media's eyes. It's more complex than that.

Like the butterflies beloved of chaoticists everywhen, perhaps these issues travel an unpredictable and yet inevitable course through the four fold space of Hodges' model? They travel together and yet in separate lanes, like the horses racing at an amusement arcade. When one reaches the socio-cultural-political boundary, that is when things happen and the volume is ramped up.

Events may frequently have their origin in the intrapersonal domain (it takes a person to find a tango partner), but one way or another - either heading south through the social domain or east and south through the sciences domain - news worthy items will and do repeat themselves.

Original image source: http://10outof10.blogspot.com/2008/04/lorenz-father-of-chaos-theory-died-at.html