Laws, Rules, Promises & Campaigns

They are not all represented on W2tQ, but many have been posted over the years. Campaigns launched in the aftermath of avoidable deaths within NHS delivered care. The initiatives seek to translate grief into positive affirmative action by making a difference to patient safety, the quality of professional care, policy and funding in some instances. At least drawing attention to the latter.

It is staggering that staff need to be 'reminded' of what should be professional, practice-based, and philosophical (personal - team, ethics and ethos, and values integral to nursing, and healthcare interaction that should be integral and ingrained. 

I thought "What's my motivation?" was a theatrical cliché?

Poppy's Promise is a commitment to making every healthcare experience more compassionate, respectful and person-centred. It supports staff to work in partnership with patients, families and carers, ensuring every voice is heard and every person feels valued.

Oliver's Campaign: The Oliver McGowan Mandatory Training on Learning Disability and Autism is named after Oliver McGowan, whose death shone a light on the need for health and social care staff to have better training. The Health and Care Act 2022 introduced a statutory requirement that CQC-registered providers must ensure their staff receive learning disability and autism training appropriate to their role.  

Jess’s Rule makes sure GPs take a ‘fresh eyes’ approach with patients, making them think again to diagnose and catch serious illnesses earlier. Jess’s Rule – Three Strikes and we Rethink - was launched in England on the 23rd September 2025 by Department of Health and NHS England and in The Isle of Man on the 31st March 2026 by Manx Care. It is endorsed by the Royal College of General Practitioners.

Martha’s Rule helps us notice early signs that someone may be deteriorating and gives you the right to request a rapid review if you’re worried that your or your loved one’s condition is getting worse. This may include a review by the Critical Care Team. Sometimes small changes happen before they show in tests. These can be early warning signs. Martha’s Rule makes sure we listen to concerns and act on them.

Nobody should be separated from the people they love and who care for them. John's Campaign works for the right of people with dementia (and other disabilities or individual needs) to be supported by their family carers — in hospitals, in care homes, and wherever care happens.

Dáithí's Law: Dáithí Mac Gabhann was born in October 2016 with a condition called Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome, which basically means that Dáithí was born with half a working heart with the left side not forming correctly in the womb. More information on HLHS can be found here. Dáithí has now been waiting for the gift of a new heart for over 7 years.

Activism is not restricted to patients, parents or guardians but key campaigns have followed through staff efforts:

A message from Kate about the campaign…
“Hello, my name is Dr Kate Granger MBE and I’m the wife of Chris and the co-founder of the #hellomynameis campaign”

⃟ 

The initial website for Hodges' model 1998-2015 and now archived, featured four pages of links to resources associated with the domain they represented. The SOCIOLOGY links included:

Patients, Carers & Self-Care

individual

|
INTERPERSONAL : SCIENCES             

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

SOCIOLOGY : POLITICAL   

|

group

Patient - Nurse ...	Patient - Nurse ...
Guardian - Parent Family Carer	Government Funding Policy makers

In Hodges' model, if neglect, accidents, untoward - serious - never incidents, what is complex, complicated, preventable signify anything; it is the collapse of a situation to the individual-group axis.

For the people involved they will simultaneously hear and feel a catastrophe.

Armed with Hodges' model, plus early insights into informatics, the oscillation between the person on your caseload, and not just beyond the spouse, partner and family but out to the political-zone of aggregation that is your caseload, the local and national population and statistical reports has always been fascinating.

Viewed theoretically, or practically the vertical axis of Hodges' model appears simple, and yet holds great power. A gift of abstraction and dramatic effect - for actor and audience alike. As an 'actor' we can see  our practice and its character humanistic - mechanistic played-out literally through the horizontal axis. Before we act, we can reflect upon the quality and humanity of our care. The audience, peers, families, managers, community, commissioners can also follow the 'narrative', (or lack of it!). Is there a paradox here in these virtual-digital times that the what is really material in care and caring is missing? We must hope the coroner does not need to attend [the play], being able to concentrate on other matters.

Previously: 'compassion' : 'communication' : 'safety' : 'listen' : 'motivation'

Gaps and Legacy Issues in Health and Education

 ... and across the Professions and Disciplines

I've just revised what may be table 1 of an exploratory paper. The table's role is to inform the motivation, scope and overall purpose within the introduction. The aim is to outline the gaps and legacies in health and education. Is this the combined inheritance of life chances, health and work career: gaps?

1. Theory-Practice gap

   A. Research in Practice – Translational Research;
    B. Education/Training: University – Apprenticeship (see 4.B);

2. There is no research-based conceptual framework taught and applied across health and social care systems and services.

3. Individual – Collective (Population) Health

4. Legacies of:
     A. Integrated care (global: funding / philosophy / location / disciplines / academic …);
     B. Parity of Esteem
          i   Mind - Body – Cartesian dualism;
          ii  Funding of Health Services [mental health - general];
          iii Research funding; Policy & Education);

C. Person-Centred Care – Service-Centred Care;

D. NHS - Social care;

5. (Ill-Health-Disease, see 4.B.ii) Treatment versus Prevention first 

6. Long-term policy Vs Short-termism

7. Personal, Local, Global: Developed – Developing Health Systems & Services 

8. Determinants of Health (Schrecker and Bambra, 2025)
   
   

Any thoughts, key sources ... are most welcome, e.g. should there be a place for sustainability, self-care, the literacies and the basis of funding public, private, or charitable (mixed)? h2cmng AT yahoo.co.uk
 

Schrecker, T., Bambra, C. (2025). ‘Lethal But Legal’: The Corporate Connections (Commercial Determinants of Health). In: How Politics Makes Us Sick. Palgrave Macmillan, London. 
https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-349-96127-6_7

New student? What's that? You're worried about your finals!

For a new student nurse, mention of your finals, as in, exams - seems a world-away. After a paroxysmal attack of fear (and motivation!), time resolves. "It's fine. I can relax. We're good!"

Especially so in the pre-Project 2000 days (Swaby, 2021), when nurse education was conducted in more local schools of nursing. You could be forgiven for feeling reassured that there's plenty of time; if your first step was to work as a nursing assistant (or cadet) prior to starting as a student.

Then all of a sudden, you can point to many wornout shoes. You've been busy; helped run a ward, a caseload, a team, and raised a family. And, while the NHS, nursing, society, and much else besides have continued their relentless pace of change, change and more change.

You blink,* look again and you're starting what will be your final 3-year period of nurse registration. What this will bring: who knows?

Kelly Swaby (2021) Did Project 2000 fulfil the intention set out by nursing’s leadership to create
a profession of highly educated practitioners. Thesis.
https://pure.hud.ac.uk/ws/portalfiles/portal/70492399/Swaby_THESIS.pdf

*'Blink' https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4f0p5KqdU9U

In Browder, 'care' is mentioned over 150 times!

OK - so now you're teasing ...

'Surgery theory investigates the homotopy types of manifolds, using a combination of algebra and topology. It is the aim of these notes to provide an introduction to the more algebraic aspects of the theory, without losing sight of the geometric motivation.' Ranicki, 2001. 

'IV. Surgery and the Fundamental Theorem

In this chapter we develop the techniques of surgery for constructing normal cobordisms and use them to prove the Fundamental Theorem. The ideas of surgery have their origins in the theory of 2-manifolds, in the process of "cutting off handles", and in general, in the theory of Marston Morse of non-degenerate critical points of differentiable functions.' Browder, 1972.

In Browder, care is mentioned over 150 times!

'Poincaré' that is.

individual

|

INTERPERSONAL : SCIENCES

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

SOCIOLOGY : POLITICAL

|

group-population

	'The Classifying Spaces for Surgery and Cobordism of Manifolds'
Try to - follow the language* ...	"Follow the money!"

Ranicki, A. (2001) An introduction to algebraic surgery. Surveys on Surgery Theory, Volume 2, edited by Sylvain Cappell, Andrew Ranicki and Jonathan Rosenberg, Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2001, pp. 81-164. https://doi.org/10.1515/9781400865215-005

Browder, W. (1972) Surgery and the Fundamental Theorem. In: Surgery on Simply-Connected Manifolds. Ergebnisse der Mathematik und ihrer Grenzgebiete, vol 65. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg.

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-50020-6_4

Madsen, I. H., and Milgram, R.J., (1979) The Classifying Spaces for Surgery and Cobordism of Manifolds. Princeton University Press.

Image: https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41THEeVvpdL.jpg

*concepts!

On Care, Papers, Distance, Pressure, Academia and Falls

In my student nursing days late 1970s there was a big-stick of motivation. It wasn't management, and yet it was. There was a stigma attached to a patient developing a pressure sore - decubitus ulcers. The NHS then had many psychogeriatric wards, but that care is now with nursing homes. Despite the best efforts some patients did, especially on the mental health infirmary, which was staffed by 'general'  trained nurses too. Using aseptic technique wounds had to be packed (stage 3-4?). Some of the treatments, were not exactly 'evidence-based'. There is a historical account of previous treatments provided on 'Asylum Years'.

In the 1990s I was working on a 'book' about health, nursing and informatics (it was simpler then?). Submitting the project as a book proposal, a letter from one publisher reads: 'thanks but no thanks'. Although unsuccessful, that exercise accounts for the range of interests I still maintain today, and the scope of posts here on W2tQ. Continuing to clear and sort notes, one is for the 'book':

Abbott, P., & Payne, G. (Eds.). (1990). New Directions in the Sociology of Health (1st ed.). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781351141727

From the above book, I've a page of notes headed "For chapter 2" drawing on a brilliant chapter 4:

Distance Decay and Information Deprivation: Health Implications for People in Rural Isolation

By George G. Giarchi

Abstract

Deprivation is frequently associated with the lives of inner city dwellers in old densely packed terraced housing, or with the residents in high-rise city slums and concrete council houses. In substantive socio-economic terms the deprivation of both the urban and the rural setting are the effects of the same structural dysfunctions, as aptly demonstrated by Townsend's 1968 classic study of poverty. On the basis of empirical studies rural deprivation affects the standards of health of many people in the countrysides of the UK particularly the most vulnerable dependent populations, such as younger children and older adults at the lower end of the social scale. The houses which are 'unfit' are damp, poorly lit, badly ventilated or lack healthy sanitation: clothes are rotten with mildew. Leschinsky's nationwide survey of rural health services indicates that centralization of health provision is a major reason for health disparities in rural areas.

I looked up the author, guessing that they were possibly still in academia, emeritus, or more likely (then, a decade or more in their career) retired by now. The search did not take long, but filled me with sadness and anger:

'A coroner has said there were "missed opportunities" to prevent the death of a hospital patient who died after developing a bedsore.

George Giacinto Giarchi, 86, died in November 2017 at Plymouth's Mount Gould Hospital after being treated for weeks at Derriford Hospital after a fall.

At Plymouth Crown Court coroner Ian Arrow said Mr Giarchi died of multi-organ failure from the pressure ulcer.

His family urged ministers to ensure hospitals had adequate staffing levels.

The former Plymouth University professor was admitted to Derriford Hospital after falling and fracturing his arm at home on 25 September 2017.

He was later transferred to Mount Gould where the lesion was first noticed.'

Pressure ulcers, known as bed sores, are injuries caused by pressure on the skin often seen in bedridden patients.'

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-devon-48798285

 Thank you and bless you Prof. George G. Giarchi RIP.

Jones, P. (2012). Exploring several dimensions of local, global and glocal using the generic conceptual framework Hodges's model. The Journal Of Community Informatics. 8(3). Retrieved from https://www.academia.edu/3794699/Reflecting_on_the_glocal_through_the_conceptual_framework_of_Hodges_s_model

'Thinking outside the box ...' iii by Amber Javis

Third response to a blog post by Amber Jarvis on The Mental Elf:

Thinking outside the box: alternatives to standard inpatient mental health care

Amber's post considers a study by:

Griffiths, J. L., Baldwin, H., Vasikaran, J., Jarvis, R., Pillutla, R., Saunders, K. R., … & Johnson, S. (2025). Alternative approaches to standard inpatient mental health care: development of a typology of service models. International Journal of Mental Health Systems, 19(1), 1-13: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/40247283/

A Community Psychiatric Nurse since 1985, on first contact patients were often upset initially at the prospect of a visit. Not the fact it was a nurse, but a psychiatric, 'mental' nurse. If the patient was OK about it, their family may have had qualms. Discretion was always exercised, essential in terms of maintaining confidentialty. Not infrequently, as a team we had a conflict of interest. A colleague already had a client a few doors down; or they lived around the corner. Socio-politically, there was never an issue back then with shop fronts, but homelessness has a long history of course. I've worked in intermediate support, visiting someone 2-3 times in a day. That continuity helps, in contrast to the experience of older adults in social care. It could be that the potential stigma elicited by intensive home care is now attenuated by:

• The public's increased awareness mental health & illness;
• The fragmentation of neighbourliness means people really aren't interested?

In the conclusion on Griffith's et al's study Amber notes:

'The authors’ classification of alternative service models could help planners and commissioners understand ‘the whole range of options’ when deciding which improvements to prioritise and invest in.

However, future studies should investigate the implementation challenges surrounding these alternative models – that is, what might make certain models easier or more difficult to introduce? Research investigating their effectiveness in practice is also required – are there particular models that are better suited to certain individuals, at particular times? As the authors put it: “what works best for whom, when and how”!'

The government in England has launched a trial regards people who are sick, and their work status:

'GP surgeries in England can offer advice to patients on getting back to work, including career coaching or exercise classes, as part of a pilot project to reduce the number of people who are signed off work sick.

The aim is to help people return to the workplace more quickly to reduce the length of time they need fit notes - better known as sick notes.

These are issued by health professionals if a patient is unwell or cannot work for more than seven days.

A total of £1.5m is being made available to 15 regions in England, and will be shared between GP practices in these areas to hire coaches or occupational therapists to support patients in their return to work.'

Hugh Pym, Health editor: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cwyx880d1w8o 

Individual

|

      INTERPERSONAL    :     SCIENCES               

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

 SOCIOLOGY  :    POLITICAL 

|

Group

Career coaching Exercise classes Counselling Reduce time spent 'ill - sick - off-work' Motivation - Mindset	FIT - SICK: physically only of course! Seven days What can't I do? What can I do?
Social Prescribing Occupational Therapists Physiotherapist Support workers Horticultural groups Local history	FIT NOTES - SICK NOTES £1.5m across 15 regions Policy Welfare budget Behavioural Economics Integrated Care & Social Policy

Given the rise of mental health related provblems in the population, some might argue that increased awareness of, and education about mental illnesses is part of the problem. But this isn't literacy then?

With the standing of the mental health nursing curriculum called into question, policymakers have some serious decisions to make. Social prescribers and care navigators are not the only people preoccupied with signposting. Griffith et al. write:

'Inpatient care is also costly; even though only 3% of people in England accessing mental health care in 2018/19 received inpatient mental health care, National Health Service (NHS) trusts in England still invest more in inpatient than community services [8].'

Hodges' model: Axes & Domains

You can appreciate just how far away prevention and a health literate population truly are. Budgets will have to be re-directed. Now that is 'care-ordination'.

Griffith et al. and Amber's response, calls care that is simultaneous person-centred and service-centred. 

In Hodges' model it is as if the vertical axis, is turned and the 'individual' aligned with the humanistic (person-centred) and group - the mechanistic (service-centred) axis. This gives us self-care, individualised healthcare, personalised medicine through to population health.

Griffith does not venture into literacy and education (not their study's purpose, of course); but using Hodges' model, we can see two critical related issues. In addition to reducing the time a person is physically, and mentally indisposed, unwell, ill, sick ...

1. We need to improve the lot of children excluded from school;
2. Seriously address the determinants of health socio-politically.

'Thinking outside the box ...' i

ii 'Thinking outside the box ...'

'Thinking outside the box: alternatives to standard inpatient mental health care' by Amber Jarvis

c/o The Mental Elf on 'X' I came across a blog post by Amber Jarvis:

Thinking outside the box: alternatives to standard inpatient mental health care

Amber's post considers a study by:

Griffiths, J. L., Baldwin, H., Vasikaran, J., Jarvis, R., Pillutla, R., Saunders, K. R., … & Johnson, S. (2025). Alternative approaches to standard inpatient mental health care: development of a typology of service models. International Journal of Mental Health Systems, 19(1), 1-13: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/40247283/

At an online meeting this evening, near the close the discussion loosened and alighted on AI. The ability of AI to summarise a large text file, a *.pdf and create discrete web HTML pages. The racial bias 'built-in' by human coders, reflected in outputs; that point to structural racism. 

Finding this paper on X, boxes are the bread and butter of Hodges' model. Not just thinking outside a box, or inside one, but several and with a final twist - to follow. Amber begins:

'Inpatient mental health care involves staying in a hospital or specialised facility to receive intensive, round-the-clock support for serious mental health needs (Staniszewska et al., 2019). Whereas acute inpatient services typically respond to immediate crises, longer-term wards support individuals with more complex needs and a higher level of ongoing risk.

Inpatient services are a core component of our mental health system — whether someone stays for a night, weeks, or even several years. However, inpatient care has recently come under growing scrutiny – and for good reason.'

A Community Mental Health Nurse since 1985, my in-patient experience is a tad misty, but not misty-eyed. As the wards: psychogeriatrics, long-stay, female acute admission were simultaneously challenging, rewarding - in the sense of being able to make a positive difference, changing what were institutionalised practices, no personal clothes, lockers, tea urn, no banking, few visitors (admission wards excepted). It was all very quotidian: check the bath book. Then tell, confirm, assure the patient, 'yes!'. It is your bath day. I've posted previously about critical mental health. You do (should?) quickly learn you are part of a system, a machine; and the distinction between person- patient-centred and service-centred care. The need to do my 'general' quickly emerged too. 

As ever, two words, across Amber's post and Griffith et al's title, stand out; 'map' and 'typology'. I must revisit and post about:

Macduff C. (2007). Typologies in nursing: a review of the literature. Nurse researcher, 14(2), 40–50. https://doi.org/10.7748/nr2007.01.14.2.40.c6020

Part-time work since 2020, in two adult CMHTs and a recovery team, has provided an update. The first as COVID emerged, was a bit of a shock in terms of diagnoses, caseness, the proximity to the law and forensic psychiatry, thresholds for referral, changes to mental health law (that were now more practical) and the management of patient's finances. 

So, to return to last night's brief online discussion, the observation of how racism is ongoing, brought up the fact of racism being structural and institutional (Dean & Thorpe, 2022). The change needed is an intergenerational break, which doesn't bear thinking about. The National HEALTH Service faces the same challenges in the shift to prevention, and addressing racism. Where is the workforce, going to come from, to help recovery, health and related literacies (media, emotional, financial)?

It is easy in boxes like Hodges' model (and others) to be idealistic. Ideally as I learned of Community Psychiatric Nurses being recruited, six of us, we all should have asked:

What is the plan?

What is the model of care?

What characterises 'care in the community'?

How do we prevent relapse, readmission?

Is there a 'halfway house'*?

We did, to an extent. There was great enthusiasm, motivation, idealism, co-ordination, collaboration  (Tyrer & Gelder, 1990) and leadership. 'We' had an association,^ and a journal. Back then the Royal College of Psychiatry produced a report on CPNs. Is there a message in this? Progress was and has been made, but the promise has not been delivered. With care in the community having regressed, an incomplete 'project'.

I will read more and revise this post, or more likely add another: with less 'history' ...

Individual

|

      INTERPERSONAL    :     SCIENCES               

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

 SOCIOLOGY  :    POLITICAL 

|

Group

Model of Care	Model of care
Model of Care Care in Community Children - Schools - Education	Model of care 'Care Leavers'

*'Cross-settings' in Griffith et al.

^https://www.unitetheunion.org/what-we-do/unite-in-your-sector/health-sector/mental-health-nurses-association

Lorraine T Dean, Roland J Thorpe, What Structural Racism Is (or Is Not) and How to Measure It: Clarity for Public Health and Medical Researchers, American Journal of Epidemiology, Volume 191, Issue 9, September 2022, Pages 1521–1526, https://doi.org/10.1093/aje/kwac112

Tyrer P, Gelder M. The future of community psychiatric nursing: some research findings. Psychiatric Bulletin. 1990;14(9):550-551. doi:10.1192/pb.14.9.550

ii 'Thinking outside the box ...'

iii 'Thinking outside the box ...'

See also: 'institution' : 'racism' : 'typology' : 'map' : 'Forensic'

Book review #3: Handbook on the Ethics of AI

I've started several 'gap' lists, including a draft post or two. Seeking to help bridge the theory-practice gap is an original purpose for Hodges' model.

Friedman's chapter 5 Responding to the (techno) Responsibility Gap(s). It is almost as if Friedman's title is parameterised. We could insert the domains of Hodges' model (plus, spiritual - safeguarding!) in there. Then there is the magic of languages, for responsibility substitute accountability and do a deep-dive applying Hodges' model in a specific domain. Friedman notes it is not entirely accurate to talk of a single "responsibility gap". Can this provide evidence for the situated potentiality of Hodges' model's and role in fostering situational awareness? Although there is an ongoing roll-back of CSR - corporate social responsibility, I scribbled in the margin:

INDIVIDUAL

|

      INTERPERSONAL    :     SCIENCES               

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

 SOCIOLOGY  :    POLITICAL 

|

GROUP

user	user
user	corporate

Of course, 'user' still applies in the political domain, as we are all citizens; users of the State (note also the socio-technical utility of keeping the 'user' in sight). There is also personal ethics, and the legal duty of care - as a nurse (in my case) and for a member of the public. Discussion on notions of responsibility, in light of AI, especially self-driving vehicles, and autonomous machines (weapons) is much needed. Regulatory gaps are recognised; amid current news of debate on the degree of regulation of national and international financial systems. Nyholm's four-fold formulation on responsibility is invaluable as examples are provided. There is a reference to nine notions of responsibility, and the link to accountability and retribution.  I like Friedman's  discussion of responses to responsibility gaps as; optimists - technological approach; human-centred and hybrid approaches; plus pessimists (4.3). The latter includes debate and campaigns to 'stop the killer robots'. Did this chapter, have a positive effect in extending thoughts about events in the middle east? There are two points here I will return to in the final post.

For students, Schwarz's chapter 6 takes readers back to a literally pivotal development in ethical thought and debate: Trolleyology, with the addition of algorithms and killer robots. What Searle's Chinese Room (noted p.276 here) argument is to AI; so trolley-based dilemmas are to ethics. A point made by Schwarz, referring to the development of subsequent variations. (Following on from #2, Brian Magee's interviews with John Searle on philosophy of language and Wittgenstein are also well worth a listen.) Schwarz's chapter (and the whole book) could be read in preparation for an undergraduate course: computing, law, policy, philosophy, and ethics, for example. The challenge of determining responsibility and accountability "the problem of many hands" (p.71), is not limited to AI. This is a global issue in achieving justice for many previously healthy, competent, quite 'ordinary' people.

The question posed above, applies "equally"(!) here too: 3. mathematical morality for war. Ever since reading of argumentation through the Open University and other sources, I'm sure this is applicable to Hodges' model (with its 'own' algebra)? I'm no mathematician but the book provoked excitement rather than anxiety as I read: 'Principle of Permissible Harm (PPH) and probabilistic reasoning - with formulae (pp.88-89). There are some important (imho) 'take-away' messages here, but I don't want to spoil things. Nurses need mathematical skills, in drug calculations and are assessed on the same. Statistics are used in research, of course but maths is hardly the primary motivation for entry into the care professions: 

'Designing technologies in a way that takes into account broader human-centric values is an important and laudable approach to responding to new and emerging technologies in any arena. It cannot, however, serve as a substitute for moral deliberation and the act of taking moral responsibility for harmful acts, especially when lives are at stake. Reducing this to a mathematical problem ignores everything that cannot be captured in discrete numerical terms or as data points. And in situations where people and their lives become nothing more than data points, non-computational aspects, such as relational or embodied dimensions of human life, are marginalized if not entirely obscured. The real world is not reducible to binary logic, it is rife with contested, contradictory, and clashing values that might all be equally relevant It is complex in ways that cannot always be neatly captured or mathematically modeled. In other words, ethics cannot be "solved."' p.91.

More to follow ...

Handbook on the Ethics of Artificial Intelligence. David J. Gunkel (ed.). Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar Publishing Ltd. ISBN: 978 1 80392 671 1245

https://www.e-elgar.com/shop/gbp/handbook-on-the-ethics-of-artificial-intelligence-9781803926711.html

Book review: Handbook on the Ethics of AI #1

Book review: Handbook on the Ethics of AI #2

Related previous posts: 'general + AI'

btw: A game in 4 moves*

INDIVIDUAL

|

INTERPERSONAL : SCIENCES              

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

SOCIOLOGY : POLITICAL   

|

GROUP

btw - by the way: "Are you working?" 'THE WORK ETHIC' MENTAL STATE MENTAL ILLNESS MOTIVATION MINDSET-ATTITUDE LIFELONG LEARNING	Economic activity Demographics Productivity PHYSICAL HEALTH PHYSICAL ILLNESS dis-ABILITY 'Plumbus oscillans?' EDUCATION - re-TRAINING
Social trends Social attitudes Social capital 'Living wage' 'Cost of Living' Social contract Social justice	Welfare spending, inc. Sickness-Incapacity Political: angst,bias,debate .. Policy^: incentives, action BACK TO WORK - btw

*Or 5 - [ ( sciences, intra- interpersonal, sociology, political ) spiritual ]?

^Fitness for purpose?

Master Philosophy in Biology and Medicine (for Sept 1, 2025)

The Master Philosophy in Biology and Medicine at Bordeaux is looking for interested candidates for the next academic year (starting September 1, 2025).

This program (presented here: www.philinbiomed.org/teaching) is aimed at philosophy students who have a strong interest in working with scientists, or scientists who have a strong interest in working with philosophers, especially - but not exclusively - in the fields of cancer, immunology, microbiota, systems biology, nutrition, neuroscience and aging. Students will have the opportunity to be involved in research in scientific labs and to be integrated into a very dynamic international community of philosophers and scientists.

Please keep in mind that the Master's program is exceptionally inexpensive but very competitive (as we only recruit 5 students per year). The program is 100% in English.

A letter of motivation, CV, and a writing sample (~10 pages) concerning a relevant topic should be sent to mael.lemoine AT u-bordeaux.fr by March 24, 2025. Late applications may be accepted but will not be eligible for regular consideration.

Shortlisted candidates will be offered Zoom interviews during the month after the deadline.

Candidates will be informed of their acceptance by May 28th 2025 at the latest.

Interested students can contact us from now on or at their earliest convenience, using the following address: mael.lemoine AT u-bordeaux.fr.

Thanks for forwarding this information to anyone you think might be interested, and thanks again to those who have already done so!

Best wishes,

Fridolin GROSS
fridolin.gross AT u-bordeaux.fr
Maître de conférences (associate professor)
Laboratoire IMMUNOCONCEPT
Bâtiment Bordeaux Biologie Santé
2, Rue Dr Hoffmann Martinot

https://www.u-bordeaux.fr

My source:
Philos-L "The Liverpool List" is run by the Department of Philosophy, University of Liverpool https://www.liverpool.ac.uk/philosophy/philos-l/ Messages to the list are archived at http://listserv.liv.ac.uk/archives/philos-l.html.

Follow the list on Twitter @PhilosL. Follow the Department of Philosophy @LiverpoolPhilos 

The naïve approach ii - Seeking / Avoiding a Catastrophe

In addition to Dodson's book I borrowed:

Zeeman, E.C. (1977) Catastrophe Theory-Selected Papers 1972–1977, Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley.

From the mid-1970s I remember catastrophe theory rather bursting on to the science scene. Articles in New Scientist (in a box somewhere?), Scientific American plus a BBC TV episode of Horizon (seeking details - originally aired July 28, 1975, 60 minutes 'Happy Catastrophe')*, that highlighted potential for new insights into the behaviour inside prisons. and other applications in the social sciences.

The CONTENTS reads:

GENERAL INTRODUCTORY PAPERS 

1. Catastrophe theory : Draft for a Scientific American article 1

2. Levels of structure in catastrophe theory 65

 BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES 80

3. Differential equations for the heartbeat and nerve impulse 81 

4. Primary and secondary waves in developmental biology 141 

5. A clock and wavefront model for the control of repeated structures during animal morphogenesis (with J.Cooke) 235

6. Gastrulation and formation of somites in amphibia and birds (Addendum by R. Bellairs.) 257 

7. Dialogue between a Biologist and a Mathematician 267 

8. Brain modelling 287 

9. Duffing's equation in brain modelling 293

 SOCIAL SCIENCES 302

10. Some models in the social sciences (with C.A.Isnard) 303 

11. On the unstable behaviour of stock exchanges 361 

12. Conflicting judgements caused by stress 373 

13. A model for institutional disturbances (with C.S.Hall, P.J.Harrison, G.H.Marriage, P.H.Shapland) 387

14. Prison disturbances 403 

PHYSICAL SCIENCES 408 

15. A catastrophe machine 409

16. Euler buckling 417 

17. Stability of ships 441

MATHEMATICS 496

18. The classification of elementary catastrophes of codimension <= 5 (with D.J.A.Trotman) 497

19. The umbilic bracelet and the double-cusp catastrophe 563 

DISCUSSION 604

20. Research ancient and modern 605 

21. Catastrophe theory : its present state and future perspectives (with R.Thom) 615

22. Afterthought 651 

As an area of contention the subject of catastrophe theory (CT) possibly presents(?) a dual-cusp of contention. Firstly, CT brought with it controversy within academia and mathematics. The book was reviewed by T. W. Barrett, Department of Physiology and Biophysics, University of Tennessee Center for the Health Sciences, Memphis, TN 38163: 

'Catastrophe theory (CT), as a new field in mathematics with many possible ramifications for both the physical and biological sciences, has recently been the subject of much controversy (see [1]-[5]). This controversy, in this reviewer's opinion, has served a valuable purpose insofar as it has stimulated the theory's proponents to refine and delineate their concepts more clearly. Catastrophe theory was developed by the Field prize winner, Rene Thom; but much work has been accomplished by E. C. Zeeman and his group, especially with respect to applications.' pp.609-610. IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON SYSTEMS, MAN, AND CYBERNETICS, VOL. SMC-9, NO. 9, SEPTEMBER 1979. https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/stamp/stamp.jsp?arnumber=4310286 

Stephen Smale also reviewed Zeeman's book; BULLETIN OF THE AMERICAN MATHEMATICAL SOCIETY Volume 84, Number 6, November 1978. 1360-1368. 

https://www.ams.org/journals/bull/1978-84-06/S0002-9904-1978-14580-7/S0002-9904-1978-14580-7.pdf

'To write a review in this environment has a very personal side for me. On one hand my own work on dynamical systems is closely connected to the origins of CT. I have had a long and close personal and professional relationship with both Thorn and Zeeman. More than 20 years ago I was discussing singularities of maps, transversality, and immersions with René Thom. Thom tried to interest me in an early draft of chapters of his book Structural stability and morphogenesis in 1966.

On the other hand I have remained skeptical and aloof from CT, perhaps due to my conservatism in science. While my colleagues and students were showing enthusiasm for CT, I gave critical lectures, one at the University of Chicago in 1974, one at the Aspen Institute of Physics in 1975. More recently I have been quoted negatively in the "Science" and New York Times references above. This is the first time I have written on the subject, and I should warn the reader of this negative bias, far from shared by many of my fellow mathematicians.' p.1360.

Some defenders of CT may accuse me of discussing very special examples not characteristic of the literature of the subject. I feel that the problem of lack of justification discussed above, is also found in Zeeman's other models. Furthermore Thorn's models are even less specific and less developed. On the other hand, Thorn's work in CT covers many subjects; in this connection Zeeman writes in his Scientific American article, April 1976, p. 65: "The method has the potential for describing the evolution of form in all aspects of nature, and hence it embodies a theory of great generality."' p.1366.

The book's introductory papers are somewhat confusing in content, as drawn to 'SOCIAL SCIENCES' it is the introductory section (and Part Two) that includes  'Anorexia nervosa', Example 9 pp.33-52. 

This is the second 'cusp' as the assessment, diagnosis, intervention, outcomes, skilled staff, access to specialised mental health services remains contentious to this day. As a charge nurse on a female acute admission mental health ward in the early 1980s, eating disorders have always presented a 'clinical' challenge. Often within a staff group and for individual staff members too.

Twitter/X is hardly an objective record but it appears today, that people and families affected by eating disorder continue to advocate for appropriate service provision, treatment and recognition. Recognition that can also develop evidence-based interventions. As discussed by Dr. Agnes Ayton, consultant psychiatrist and others in the video below:

A related paper:

Ibrahim, A., Ryan, S., Viljoen, D. et al. Integrated enhanced cognitive behavioural (I-CBTE) therapy significantly improves effectiveness of inpatient treatment of anorexia nervosa in real life settings. J Eat Disord 10, 98 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1186/s40337-022-00620-y [ My source: @AgnesAyton ]

The Zeeman chapter on anorexia nervosa is interesting graphically and conceptually ...

Page 42. Figure 20. The effect of the butterfly factor, d>0.
(Sorry for the image quality)

- but is of course 'from another time' and is clearly not person-centred. Eating disorders affect many people in the UK and are a cause of trauma, distress, disrupted life-chances and mortality. Referring to Hodges' model, such graphics, reinforce the idea that 'solutions' are to be found in the mechanistic and quantitative domains of the sciences and politics (choice, power, services, safety..). Here, maths and theories (seemingly) provide an explanation for people who are ill, and need treatment. As a teenager for most of the 1970s, Hodges' model was not yet a reality. As I have found since 1987-8 looking at the POLITICAL care/knowledge domain, the model's relevance has increased since the start of my nursing career in 1977. Consider for example, the politics of:

• the global phenomena of famine
• - whether or not associated with economic crisis, drought, other natural disaster, or conflict, political crisis
• ultra-processed foods
• obesity pandemic
• weight loss drugs
• appetite stimulants
• appetite suppressants
• eating disorder (anorexia and bulimia) across care sectors - primary, secondary, specialist
• community / in-patient care
• person-centred care
• user involvement in service design
• the availability of treatment modalities - psychotherapy (as in the video)
• the impact on family relationships and peer group (estranged - loss of friends)
• diagnostic blurring - psychosis, borderline personality disorder - the rise of 'anti-psychiatry'

Here then is the purpose of this post, what potential is there to look at nutrition from a situated individual and collective (global) perspective? This could be focussed on nutrition, or eating disorder; or alternately take a collective stance to encompass the global food supply and the industry. Discovering the diffeomorphism, I wonder if there are others, and their respective properties and character? 

INDIVIDUAL

|

INTERPERSONAL : SCIENCES              

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

SOCIOLOGY : POLITICAL   

|

GROUP

COGNITIVE THERAPY EMPATHY&RAPPORT LISTENING - MUTUAL ENGAGEMENT MENTAL HEALTH DIAGNOSIS TRAINED / SKILLED STAFF EVIDENCE-BASED INTERVENTIONS* MOTIVATION MOOD MULTIMORBIDITY	RESEARCH EATING DIET NUTRITION NUTRITIONAL VALUE WEIGHT BMI IN-PATIENT UNIT place of safety
PUBLIC HEALTH SOCIETY FAMILY CARERS	Developed nations are collectively and increasingly 'eating disordered' and exporting this 'lifestyle'.

Before I return the book, I will revisit the discussion section.

See also:

Jones P, Wirnitzer K. Hodges’ model: the Sustainable Development Goals and public health – universal health coverage demands a universal framework. BMJ Nutrition, Prevention & Health 2022;5:doi: 10.1136/bmjnph-2021-000254

*I could not find on BBC website. I have contacted the Open University. I did find - 'In this Horizon episode, Rene Thom's mathematical discovery of the catastrophe theory is investigated.' at  https://thetvdb.com/series/horizon/episodes/1385431

ii "Nye" | Full Show [now ended] | National Theatre at Home

Watching yesterday on YouTube, I enjoyed NYE and was challenged by it personally and as a grandfather, son, nurse and tax-payer.

It wasn't all sweetness and light regards Aneurin "Nye" Bevin's character. Politically, he clearly pushed boundaries in response to the values he carried on his sleeve. As the family's of many health care professionals may recognise, needs outside the family can be prioritised at the family's cost. The theory-practice gap is expressed in so many ways. 

Whether by intent, or accident, the play points to the timeless challenge of social care and women's role in delivery of this care. This strikes home in the drama not just as care of the elderly, but being confronted (alone) with the slow, painful dying of a loved-one; and the reality of occupational diseases - 'black lung'. Women are exploited as carers, their hearts and feet may as well be bound; in the same way the mine owners exploited the workers. There was a stark reminder for me, of how continuity of care is often lacking today.

Nye becomes personal, as even up to 1970s working class parents would have worried, did worry about the prospect of their (invariably male - with some exceptions?) offspring going down the pit, especially in Lancashire and Yorkshire. Watching and listening to this you can appreciate how education was seen a passport to alternative white-collar work. My paternal grandfather worked in a slate quarry. I recall many invites to punch him in the 'stomach': a slate wall. He walked quite a few miles to work and wasn't that old when he died; although he (soon) followed grandma J.

For quite a while I've been drawn to the theatre. Aged 15 I was Francis Nurse - yes, the irony - in the school play, Arthur Miller's, The Crucible. It was Miss Smith, a drama teacher who first brought my attention to the idea of 'social awareness'. I recall Miss Clayton too who was a student teacher. On visits to London I've been struck by the relevance of Ibsen today. 

If there were to be a play in me, perhaps 'Axes and Crosses' must be-up-there as a working title? For  my father the 11+ exam was the icon to ward off the evil that was work down a mine; or lying under a an excavator / crane at 0400 to get the machine fixed for the shift due to start. The 11+ and need to pass this has provided its own anxiety, burden, and it must be said - motivation not just for me, but many more senior adults. I can see this now. So thank you Tim Price, National Theatre and Nye (2025!) for many further insights into stagecraft. 

See also:
https://www.bohs.org/media-resources/press-releases/detail/deadly-lung-disease-in-uk-kitchen-worktop-workers-is-avoidable/

September 2024: 'The Lightest Element'
https://www.hampsteadtheatre.com/whats-on/2024/the-lightest-element/

Previously:
What wright to care?

drama (theatre), arts

NOT 'Nanny State': Protection & assurance of the quality of nutrition

The Government needs a plan to fix our broken food system and turn the tide on the public health emergency

24 October 2024

The House of Lords Food, Diet and Obesity Committee demands that the Government should develop a comprehensive, integrated long-term new strategy to fix our food system, underpinned by a new legislative framework. This is the key conclusion of the Committee’s report, ‘Recipe for health: a plan to fix our broken food system’.

Chair's comments

Baroness Walmsley, Chair of the Food, Diet and Obesity Committee, said:

“Food should be a pleasure and contribute to our health and wellbeing, but it is making too many people ill. Something must be going wrong if almost two in five children are leaving primary school with overweight or obesity and so many people are finding it hard to feed healthy food to their families. That is why we took a root and branch look at the food system and analysed what had gone wrong over the past few decades.

“Over the last 30 years successive governments have failed to reduce obesity rates, despite hundreds of policy initiatives. This failure is largely due to policies that focused on personal choice and responsibility out of misguided fears of the ‘nanny state’. Both the Government and the food industry must take responsibility for what has gone wrong and take urgent steps to put it right.

“We hope, given the recent comments from the Prime Minister, Lord Darzi and the Secretary of State for Health, that there is now an appetite to shift towards prevention of ill health. We urge the Government to look favourably on our plan to fix our broken food system and accept that not only is it cost-effective, but that it would lead to a lot less human misery.”

[My emphasis] 

About time! Real action please.

DO NOT DILUTE TO TASTE!

individual

|

INTERPERSONAL : SCIENCES

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

SOCIOLOGY : POLITICAL

|

group

Personal responsibility Educational determinants Health literacy My choices Role model Internal - Extrinsic motivation The life chances I am afforded impact my 'health career'.	Environmental/Physical determinants  Ultra Processed Foods Smoking Food & Nutrition Impacts of Obesity Child development Nutritional value of foods
Social determinants public (mental) health information Family economics Social values Sustainable Living	Political determinants 'Nanny State' (political rhetoric) Lobbying - (Food) Industry Business ethics Food poverty Advertising regulation Cost to Government, NHS, Society Security

Spiritual determinants: Values of society, governments, citizens, business . . .

Previously:

Jones P, Wirnitzer K. Hodges’ model: the Sustainable Development Goals and public health – universal health coverage demands a universal framework. BMJ Nutrition, Prevention & Health 2022;5: https://nutrition.bmj.com/content/5/2/358

'nutrition' on W2tQ

https://x.com/search?q=%40h2cm%20%27nanny%20state%27&src=typed_query&f=live

Gambling?

There is this thing - 'universal construction'

The problem of bugs in software is an ongoing problem across all IT industries. For application that are safety critical we are still reminded of the risk implications and consequences if bugs are software is not tested and bugs - errors identified and corrected.

Back in the 90s during BA(Joint Hons. Philosophy & Computing) studies, I was introduced to the formal specification language 'Z'. It was designed for definition, and modelling of computer software, working from specification to implementation, as per these images:

https://personalpages.bradley.edu/~young/CS592M120_OLD/handoutZed.pdf

https://personalpages.bradley.edu/~young/CS592M120_OLD/handoutZed.pdf

To be clear I've never worked as part of a software project and my 'tinkering' - Drupal, Pharo, online groups, hosting platform - reveals how the development stack and work processes have developed apace. The challenge is keeping up. Simultaneously, there is the sense of being on the bank of deep water; or, a vertiginous cliff:

A little learning is a dang’rous thing;
Drink deep, or taste not the Pierian spring:
There shallow draughts intoxicate the brain,
And drinking largely sobers us again.
Fir’d at first sight with what the Muse imparts,
In fearless youth we tempt the heights of arts,
While from the bounded level of our mind,
Short views we take, nor see the lengths behind,
But more advanc’d, behold with strange surprise
New, distant scenes of endless science rise! 

Pope. https://interestingliterature.com/2021/09/a-little-learning-is-a-dangerous-thing-meaning-analysis-origin/

 Acknowledging the need for an 'evidence-base' and theoretical underpinning the effort to 'push' Hodges' model forward is ongoing. Maths remains an alien territory to me, but the 'secret garden' is as tantalizing as ever. Over the years I have posted - with much overlap about:

• maths
• relation
• logic

- and more recently:

• isomorphism
• category theory
• and as previously posted - laws of form.

In an effort to get to grips with the above, I'm following various online videos, books and papers. Bartosz Milewski's videos, blog and publications are aimed at programmers, but are very interesting nonetheless. The first video provides an introduction to the motivation and philosophy of category theory. In another, Milewski refers to 'universal construction' on YouTube and in a blog post about 'Function Types'.

The 'universal' figures in healthcare too: universal health access, and universal health coverage appear to over-shadow 'universal health care'. The quality of 'universal' also creeps into assessment. Data gathering is not merely complete, it is comprehensive. It has to be, to contribute not just to a care plan, for one that is (supposedly) person-centred, with risks identified, strengths, weaknesses - needs, history, social network, and much more. The care plan informs and orchestrates the interventions; then evaluation follows. Are we delivering? What is the patient's (client's, carer's) level of satisfaction. Have care stages and actions been completed as per policy (in time!)? (More on this to follow later this year in light of UK mental health/illness news.)

So as I consider (wrestle with...) initial, and terminal objects, sets and categories … I can hopefully, especially with help, extend the number of posts tagged 'universal' here on W2tQ. In this vein, is Hodges' model a universal construction? There may not be a universal truth to reveal, but it will prove a marvellous learning journey.