Quantum existence and experience...

"Such a picture of man in the universe is clearly presented in the language of the Wintu Indians of California. Here the primary verbal stem refers to a world, a universe, that neither exists nor does not exist. We might say that it refers to the nature of things, a nature which is not realized because the things themselves do not exist, the situations have not come to be and may never come to be. Only at the instant when man experiences these do they come into existence, into history. The experiential or existential stem of the verb is derivative from this other stem. When man speaks with the aid of this stem, he asserts existence through his own experience of it. And it is only through his doing, through, probably, his decisive act or his act of will, that the world to which the primary stem refers can have concrete existence. This dialogue between the idea of the universe or the potential of the universe, and man's experience, runs through the entire linguistic structure." p.115.

individual

|

INTERPERSONAL : SCIENCES

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

SOCIOLOGY : POLITICAL

|

group-population

Lee, D. (1961). Autonomous Motivation. In. Anthropology and education. Series: Martin G. Brumbaugh lectures in education., Series 5. Gruber, Frederick C. (Ed.). Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press. pp. 103-123.

Empty Construction: A prelude to person-centred care

RCN Congress 2026 & RCN North West Multicultural Group (NWMG)

England's North West is certainly in the news at present, on two counts:

1. The current Labour party machinations in the Makerfield ward;
2. and RCN Congress in Liverpool.

 As I attend Congress a key focus is the debates and how I can relate these to Hodges'model - (with some links to previous posts):

1. Nursing as a STEM profession
Matter for discussion submitted by the Eastern Board
That this meeting of RCN Congress discusses the recognition of nursing as a STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) profession, valuing the scientific, technical and analytical expertise of nurses.

STEM - science : technology : engineering : mathematics

2. Safe, ethical, person‑centred nursing
Resolution submitted by the Cheshire Branch
That this meeting of RCN Congress calls on RCN Council to urgently develop and implement a UK‑wide framework for realistic person‑centred care, ensuring that nursing practice is safe and ethical.

safe : ethics : person-centred 

3. Regular redeployment
Matter for discussion submitted by the Wiltshire Branch
That this meeting of RCN Congress discusses the impact of the daily redeployment of nursing staff on morale, team work and patient safety.

re- deployment

4. Unpaid hours
Matter for discussion submitted by the North East London Inner Branch
That this meeting of RCN Congress discusses the culture of nursing staff missing breaks and working beyond their contracted hours.

work

5. National safety standards for lone working
Resolution submitted by the Health and Safety Reps Committee
That this meeting of RCN Congress calls on RCN Council to lobby for the implementation of national safety standards for lone working, ensuring access to appropriate safety equipment, technology and protocols to protect staff across all care settings.

lone working

6. Accountable, compassionate and psychologically safe leadership
Matter for discussion submitted by the Cheshire Branch
That this meeting of RCN Congress discusses how the RCN can help create a culture where accountability, compassion, and psychological safety coexist, enabling managers to lead effectively while ensuring all staff feel respected and protected.

accountability : compassion : leadership 

7. Misinformation in health care
Matter for discussion submitted by the Women's Health Forum
That this meeting of RCN Congress discusses misinformation in health care and the impact this has on the nursing workforce.

misinformation : information disorder

8. Confidence to address racism
Matter for discussion submitted by the South West London Outer Branch
That this meeting of RCN Congress discusses how to build the confidence of nursing staff in addressing racism.

confidence : racism

Once again the North West Multicultural Group will have a stand:

The RCN North West Multicultural Group (NWMG) creates a community for members across the region from multicultural ethnic backgrounds to connect with each other, share their lived experience, knowledge and diverse ideas that help drive change around racism to ensure that their various organisations is the best place to work.

Membership is open to RCN members of Royal College of Nursing from multicultural backgrounds and their allies.

Mission statement: 

The aim of the North West Multicultural Group is to stand against racism and discrimination by using members lived experiences, encouraging organisations to be anti-racist and with the support of allies.  

Aims and objectives: 

• To raise the issues around race, discrimination and equality in the workplace and to find potential solutions. 
• To challenge misconceptions about people from different ethnic backgrounds.
• To recognise the skills and contribution to care for people from all backgrounds make.
• To acknowledge that racism is a social construct that needs to be eradicated together.  Together we are stronger.
• To be a platform for black, Asian and minority ethnic staff and allies to work collaboratively to address racism in practice.
• To help amplify the voice black, Asian and minority ethnic staff.
• To be role models, set examples as allies and develop confidence.
• To provide training and support about anti-racist practice.
• To work with the RCN to support campaigns to make sure communication is fit for purpose and acknowledges any cultural differences. 

Your executive team:

Chair: Olanike Babalola
Vice Chair: Susan Owen-Naz
Communications Officer: Mark Anthony

9. Advanced nursing practice
Resolution submitted by RCN Council
That this meeting of RCN Congress agrees that the RCN will act upon attempts to undermine advanced nursing practice.

advanced : practice : theory

10. Protecting nurse education
Resolution submitted by the Education Forum
That this meeting of RCN Congress asks RCN Council to lobby UK governments to protect nurse education from university sector economic pressures.

protect

11. Quality of clinical placements
Matter for discussion submitted by the Students Committee
That this meeting of RCN Congress discusses ways in which the quality of clinical placements can be ensured and consistent across all 4 countries.

quality : placement

12. Bank rates
Resolution submitted by the South Yorkshire Branch
That this meeting of RCN Congress demands that employers pay nursing staff bank shifts at their substantive rate.

pay

13. Are external reviews meaningful?
Matter for discussion submitted by the Midwifery Forum
That this meeting of RCN Congress discusses whether external reviews and inquiries are genuinely driving meaningful improvements in safety across health and social care.

inquiry : review

14. Improving acute mental health crisis services for children and young people
Resolution submitted by the London Board
That this meeting of RCN Congress calls on RCN Council to lobby UK governments to improve the provision of services to children and young people presenting in acute mental health crisis.

children : mental health

15. Access to specialist pain services
Matter for discussion submitted by the Pain and Palliative Care Forum
That this meeting of RCN Congress discusses access to specialist pain services and the role of the registered nurse in caring for those in pain.

pain

16. Palliative and end-of-life care
Resolution submitted by the Pain and Palliative Care Forum
That this meeting of RCN Congress calls on RCN Council to lobby UK governments to ensure everyone living across all 4 nations has access to specialist palliative and end-of-life care.

palliative

17. Accessible and affordable travel
Matter for discussion submitted by the North Central London Inner Branch
That this meeting of RCN Congress discusses what accessible and affordable travel means for the nursing workforce.

18. Uptake of physical health checks
Resolution submitted by the Public Health Forum
That this meeting of RCN Congress requests RCN Council to lobby UK governments to improve the uptake of physical health checks for people with learning disabilities and serious mental illnesses (SMI).

serious mental illness (SMI)

19. Eye donation
Matter for discussion submitted by the Greater Glasgow Branch
That this meeting of RCN Congress discusses the role nursing has in eye donation in end-of-life care planning.

eye : vision

20. 35-hour week
Resolution submitted by the Lothian and Borders Branch
That this meeting of RCN Congress calls on RCN Council to instigate a campaign for a maximum 35 hour working week for the nursing workforce.

21. Inappropriate delegation
Matter for discussion submitted by the Berkshire Branch
That this meeting of RCN Congress discusses the delegation of health care tasks to school staff and non-health care professionals.

22. Access to medicinal cannabis
Matter for discussion submitted by the Cheshire Branch
That this meeting of RCN Congress discusses the impact of current NHS prescribing practice on access to medicinal cannabis.

medicinal cannabis

23. SPA time
Resolution submitted by the Wiltshire Branch
That this meeting of RCN Congress calls on RCN Council to lobby for the inclusion of Supporting Professional Activities (SPA) time in all nursing job-plans.

See: https://www.rcn.org.uk/Congress/Agenda 

Are there any lessons from this exercise? Well, I have no posts tagged 'donor', or 'medicinal cannabis' - to make an important distinction. Something to correct and try to follow this week. 

See you there ...?

(I may need to reduce the link-count here.) 

Between the humanistic AND mechanistic ...

There is need for a new academic discipline, a hybrid called -

humanics

 

- a hybrid between the humanities and the STEM disciplines

 

 

Individual

|

INTERPERSONAL : SCIENCES

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

SOCIOLOGY : POLITICAL

|

Population

intra- interpersonal	sciences
culture and society	political

 

 

 "A “robot-proof” education, Aoun argues, is not concerned solely with topping up students’ minds with high-octane facts. Rather, it calibrates them with a creative mindset and the mental elasticity to invent, discover, or create something valuable to society—a scientific proof, a hip-hop recording, a web comic, a cure for cancer. Aoun lays out the framework for a new discipline, humanics, which builds on our innate strengths and prepares students to compete in a labor market in which smart machines work alongside human professionals.

The only certainty about the future is change. Higher education based on the new literacies of humanics can equip students for living and working through change."

http://robot-proof.com/#about

 

STEM, in full is science, technology, engineering, and mathematics.

Joseph E. Aoun (2017) Robot-Proof Higher Education in the Age of Artificial Intelligence. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

 

 My source: Livsey, A. The human factor, FT Weekend, Life&Arts, 20-21 January, 2018. p.9.

The Science Collaboration Framework (SCF)

My attention was drawn today (by Robert Douglas) to The Science Collaboration Framework (SCF) that is based on Drupal.

Here are some details from the SCF website:

About:

Interdisciplinary research programs at Harvard and elsewhere naturally tend to be distributed geographically, across campuses and departments. Effective collaboration for these programs requires the ability to bridge distance, which in turn implies digital collaboration, and therefore abilities to publish and discuss on-line content such as articles, news, and perspectives; to provide semantic context to on-line content for more powerful interactions within multiple sub-disciplines and to integrate as well as distinguish the individual contributions of many scientific workers.

The Scientific Collaboration Framework (SCF) is reusable software that can be used to develop web-based, collaborative, scientific communities. The framework is designed to support interdisciplinary scientists in publishing, annotating, sharing and discussing content such as articles, perspectives, interviews and news items, as well as assert personal biographies and research interests – the basics of any online community. These web materials can then be linked to external, heterogeneous knowledge repositories of life science resources such as genes, antibodies, cell-lines or model organisms. SCF, thus supports structured “Web 2.0” style community discourse amongst researchers, makes various data resources available to the collaborating scientist and captures the semantics of the relationship among the discourse and resources.

Our framework is based on Drupal – a popular content management system that is highly extensible and has a thriving ecosystem of contributed modules. SCF includes new modules for managing publications, interviews, member information, news items, announcements, and biological entities (e.g., genes). The framework is freely available as a Drupal distribution; however the modules can be used a la carte as well.

SCF is a project of the Initiative in Innovative Computing at Harvard University in collaboration with the Harvard Stem Cell Institute. The first instance of SCF is being adopted by StemBook (stembook.org) – a comprehensive, open-access collection of original, peer-reviewed chapters covering topics related to Stem Cell Biology. A joint project with Michael J Fox Foundation (MJFF) to develop a community site for Parkinson's researchers is under development. SCF is also being evaluated by several other communities.

Publications:
Sudeshna Das, Tom Green, Louis Weitzman, Alister Lewis-Bowen & Tim Clark. Linked Data in a Scientific Collaboration Framework. 17th International World Wide Web Conference (WWW2008), Beijing, China.

I am particularly interested in SCF since as noted above "the modules can be used a la carte as well." The potential of putting this together with the Drupal Education distribution is really exciting. I still believe that SVG (or similar) has a role to play for my plans. In the meantime though back to Drupal version 6.9....

Additional links:

Alzforum

RCN Congress: Ebola, privacy and 'care bundles'

The first discussion at RCN Congress #RCN26 on Nursing as a STEM profession, or STEAM, with the arts added, became a resolution:

https://www.rcn.org.uk/congress/congress-events/nursing-as-a-stem-profession-2026

This was marvellous as it touched so many aspects that Hodges' model readily encompasses.

There is scope for the addition of emergency items:

https://www.rcn.org.uk/congress/Submit-an-emergency-agenda-item

Yesterday I wondered about the latest ebola outbreak, national and international aid^. Plus, privacy, having noticed a stream on twitter regards the NHS and a contract with Palantir. Yes, 'X' as a source is a problem, but concerns about access to confidential clinical information is found in the quality press. What does the Information Commissioner's Office say? Well, it seems there is a history:

https://icosearch.ico.org.uk/s/search.html?collection=ico%7Esp-search&query=PALANTIR&profile=_default

While searching for 'care bundles' I came across this:

 'The scope and force of medical privacy is further supported by a secondary layer of protections based in sectoral and other forms of regulation. Anti-discrimination laws, disability rights, and employment law, for example, all recognize and operate to preserve medical privacy by restrictions of use of medical information outside of the medical setting. 

 These intersecting normative strands of medical privacy, derived from different sources, together form a set of norms designed to protect a bundle of interests that is essential to the maintenance of an effective healthcare system that encourages and protects appropriate care-seeking and treatment. Whether and how technological changes in the collection, storage, and processing of data affect the construct of medical privacy is a pressing question. Just as a bell cannot be unrung, erosion of the sphere of medical privacy is unlikely to be restored.' p.330.

I realised over the past twenty years or so I've paid less attention to the fact that sections of a population, those often most in need of healthcare will not engage, be care-seeking - if they have no faith and trust in how their information is managed and protected. Minority groups, the digitally excluded (whether by choice, or literacy, economics) the influence of media are all vulnerable. Protection of data and the integrity of health services and systems is surely a matter of professional import both clinically and informaticians? As a registrant, I've always put it to student nurses that they should be aware of what happens to the data they as a registered nurse, enter in the electronic health record.

Pierce, R. (2018). Medical Privacy: Where Deontology and Consequentialism Meet. In B. van der Sloot & A. de Groot (Eds.), The Handbook of Privacy Studies: An Interdisciplinary Introduction (pp. 327–332). Amsterdam University Press. https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctvcmxpmp.17

 

^What, only one sentence? Yes, but I'm still worried; geography - distance now matters little. While, on the other-hand: care-seeking...?

 

Previous posts: 'ebola' : #RCN26

Book review: iii "Leave No One Behind" #LNOB

Arriving at chapter 4 "No Smallholder Farmer Left Behind" by Jane Nelson,I was acutely aware of the news from India in the (N) autumn. Smallholders and family farmers protested about newly enacted farm laws. The government claimed the changes would protect the farmers from bullying middlemen, while the farmers were afraid of price instability and the rise of corporations*. Even in today's news I note this issue is ongoing. Very quickly any romantic notions of smallholder farmers are challenged reading this book and must be set aside. How can being a farmer (and agricultural laborers) equate with being among the world's poorest and most vulnerable and yet they number an estimated 500 million? There are 200 million smallholders producing food as part of formal supply chains and yet they are in extreme poverty and were circumstances are improved, there is a risk of relapse. 

Leave No One Behind

The talk of public-private partnerships, even if 'new' is disconcerting. This is the 21st C. though as  'inclusive business models' are defined. I was (slightly) shocked at the proximity of businesses and corporations, what choices do 'small-players' have? This is the value of the book, correcting parochial notions from Wigan Pier.

With an eye on the Green agenda though, and reading of the role for technology it still unsettles me thinking about bio-genetics, digital colonialisation when reading of the role of digital technology. With low and high Earth orbits filling up, there should be improved broadband access in remote locations, but I do wonder about choice. This is were the authors and organisations will no doubt push an advocacy role (p.68).

  As I mention orbits and digital technology, mapping is key and to smallholder farmers too:

🔔REMINDER: Tomorrow (Jan. 22), #YouthMappers is hosting a #mapathon in support of smallholder farmers in Mali from 17:00-19:00 UTC.

Come map with us! ReGISter for the Zoom link⬇️https://t.co/POzDO6KO4j

— YouthMappers (@youthmappers) January 21, 2021

It is good to hear of development work that is also climate-smart. Leapfrogging is a important idea in the book (to follow) but I hope that as mobile technology has jumped the communications infrastructure of some developed nations that small-holders here can also leapfrog. The book's footnotes do not leapfrog, they are fairly constant and a very rich thread of learning and sources. A key and literal platform for leapfrog is big data and AI (p.70) [ https://www.brookings.edu/research/using-big-data-and-artificial-intelligence-to-accelerate-global-development/ ]. Hopefully, this blog demonstrates my enthusiasm and interest in STEM, again with these influences I can't help recalling my review of Friel's LITTLE-big book on climate change and the people's health in which attention to the nutritional value of food is stressed. When Nelson asks of the poorest farmers "What are they eating?" (p.76) yes, you do have to ask. 

Give me a page of text and certain words standout a kilometer. 'Holistic' is one. So, holistic investment in infrastructure is needed (p.77) and a holistic approach to on- and off-farm interventions. The expertise, experience and political awareness of the development community is evident here in accounts of measures and evaluation. Rurbanomics (p.77) concerns the linkages between rural and urban economies and in policy terms there could be specific mention of the rural phenomena of 'empty villages' (in the EU too?) and the need to better manage the movement of people from rural to urban environments.

The chapter organisation is almost logical moving to refugees and migrants [Chap. 5]. I've posted before on geopsychiatry and it will be interesting to see in coming years if non-refoulement (p.79) routinely enters the news lexicon. At this time, how the majority of us wish we could travel, and p.82 had me wondering about ancient history before 'countries': no nations. Discussion of the definition and its limitations of 'refugee' 1951 is very informative, especially as it relates to the SDGs, which includes migrants. You can see how much crossover there is (and must be - sustainable determinants of health ...) between the SDGs and hence the need for all governments to address this in policy and law. 

Working in healthcare and c/o Brexit and the COVID crisis you are aware of the global nursing and social care workforce.  This is described here in terms of training (p.96) To state the obvious, politically, refugees and migration remain a charged matter. Quite rightly the gains from international refugee and migration flows have a section of their own. Since the 1990s you become ever more aware of remittances sent abroad (and until recently the cost of the same). Talk of seasonal work has an analogue in the seasonal routes that people at great risk whatever their reasons, make from Africa and Asia. I've mapped some content from chapter 5 to Hodges' model:

INDIVIDUAL

|

INTERPERSONAL : SCIENCES

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

SOCIOLOGY : POLITICAL

|

GROUP - COMMUNITY - POPULATION

mental health post-traumatic stress knowledge diffusion	access to shelter, water, health care and sanitation rural - urban border regions cities
social media social attitudes in receiving nations sexual and gender-based violence	formal labor market access informal camp employment? remittance flows 'mechanism design theory' p.93 land registration having an 'address'

I learned of What3Words quite a while ago** and the addition of 'having an address' in the POLITICAL domain is an addition. I knew an article in May (FT Magazine, 16-17 May 2020, pp.32-35.) would come in handy:

"Where the streets have no name" by Deirdre Mask - The Address Book. 

An illustration by Andy Robert Davies says it all:

Illustration for an article that highlighted the importance of street names and residential addresses when tackling outbreaks of disease. All artwork © Andy Robert Davies https://ardillustration.com/ft-magazine

Mask's book points out the obvious that if you are Stateless you are address-less too. The health - political implications here are serious and this problem is not restricted to 'developing' nations. So much is tied to this: track and trace, having a bank account, being able to vote all can depend on this specific information. Without an address, a default - whether acknowledged or not - of 'data missing' in census data gathering follows. For many nations the 'census year' has been disrupted by the pandemic. 

Referring back to migrants, refugees and the recent politicization and nationalistic rhetoric, reading made me wonder about government's ability to envision the positive potential of migration flows and refugees. The statistics are revealing in the impressions provided by social media and news reporting. The problem for (some) policy makers and resident populations given the bias and misinformation of reporting seems to me, extracting individual and family narratives from the collective.

The reader is very well served with the index, if needed, while reading and my writing here. Unless I've missed it, there is a missing reference to 'tax' on page 312, which we'll reach next time. It is an important one.

Homi Kharas, John W. McArthur and Izumi Ohno, (Eds.) 2020. Leave No One Behind: Time for Specifics on the Sustainable Development Goals, Washington D.C.: Brookings Institution Press.  

*https://www.aljazeera.com/economy/2020/12/1/why-are-thousands-of-indian-farmers-protesting

**https://hodges-model.blogspot.com/2016/04/what3words-mapping-globe-hodges-model.html

Contexto Int. [Newsletter] - Special Issue 47.2 Where is the Sea in Int. Relations?

Dear Colleagues,

We hope this correspondence finds you well.

We are delighted to formally announce the publication of the latest special issue of Contexto Internacional, entitled "Where is the Sea in IR?," which I had the distinct honour of co-editing with Dr Flavia Guerra (Federal University of Rio de Janeiro).

The overarching objective of this Special Issue is to address a central scholarly lacuna within International Relations (IR) scholarship: the historical and theoretical marginalisation of the oceanic domain. In pursuing this fundamental inquiry—why and how does the ocean recede from scholarly and political attention?—the assembled contributions collectively prompt a sustained, rigorous examination of two key analytical challenges:

1. The specific mechanisms through which IR has historically relegated the oceanic domain to the periphery of its dominant analytical frameworks.
2. The subsequent broader political and theoretical implications that stem from this systematic exclusion.

The volume is structurally organised around three distinct, yet interconnected, thematic axes, each seeking to contribute to a deeper engagement with the marine sphere:

1. The Marginalisation of the Ocean in IR: Conceptual and empirical explorations of how the sea is actively rendered absent or subordinate within core theoretical debates.
2. Complex Entanglements between the Ocean and Ontological Security: Analyses focusing on the relationship between maritime spaces, existential anxieties, and state identity formation.
3. Ocean Governance as Regulatory Mechanism and Platform for Political Discourse: Critical assessments of regulatory frameworks and their role in structuring political contestation over the maritime commons.

We sincerely hope that you find the contributions within this volume to be a compelling and theoretically relevant read that stimulates further research and critical reflection within the discipline.

Special Issue: Where is the Sea in IR?

Where is the Sea in International Relations?
  Francisco Eduardo Lemos de Matos; Flávia Guerra Cavalcanti

Abstract | Full text

Table of Contents: https://www.scielo.br/j/cint/i/2025.v47n2/

Includes - Addressing 'Maritime Aphasia' in International Relations
  Bruno Sowden-Carvalho; Marcelo M. Valença

Between Nuclear Tests and Rising Sea Levels
  Beatriz Rodrigues Bessa Mattos

Carl Schmitt on the Move: Spatial Politics and the (political) Sacrifice of the Sea
  Francisco Eduardo Lemos de Matos

Thinking Ontological (In)Security with Water: The Place of the Ocean in Boat Migration
  Flávia Guerra Cavalcanti

What is the Place of Mar de Timor in Timorese Geopolitics, Culture and Education?
  Silvia Garcia Nogueira; Betina Lopes; Ângelo Ferreira; Samuel de Souza Freitas

Fluid Boundaries: Reassessing Maritime Spaces and Nomadic Waves in International Relations Theory
  Henrique Campos de Oliveira

The Third Bank of the Sea: Maritime Traces of Constitutive Outside(r)s and International Ontopolitical Lines
  Roberto Vilchez Yamato; Gustavo Alvim de Góes

Ocean Governance, Maritime Security, and International Relations
  Daniele Dionisio da Silva; Gilberto Carvalho Oliveira

Sailing on Waves beyond National Sovereign Land Borders: On the Crossroads between International Ocean Relations and the Blue Economy
  Thauan Santos

Regards,
chico

Francisco Eduardo Lemos de Matos
Doutor em Relações Internacionais pelo IRI/PUC-RIO.
Pesquisador de Pós-Doutorado em Relações Internacionais no IRI/PUC-RIO pela FAPERJ.

Rede IPS Brasil - https://www.ipsbrasil.com/
Lattes: https://lattes.cnpq.br/9338374067089166
Orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4214-5382

My source: DOINGIPS list - https://www.doingips.org/

The view from Wigan Pier* ...

or, Greetings from WN4.

Camilla Cavendish's focus in the weekend FT is health, social care and related policy. In a recent opinion piece on junk food she writes:

"Which is more Orwellian, I wonder: adding 1p to a bag of crisps, or letting companies go on turning us all into junk food addicts, while the cost of treating diet-related diseases soars? Long before we were engulfed in a torrent of junk, George Orwell wrote in The Road to Wigan Pier: 'The peculiar evil is this, that the less money you have, the less inclined you feel to spend it on wholesome food.' Now, processing techniques have made unhealthy food cheaper than many healthy alternatives."

Several months ago, reading a book review: Doom looped, by Douglas Alexander on Niall Ferguson's Doom: The Politics of Catastrophe, (Life&Arts, 1-2 May, 2021, p.9) the conclusion closes:

"The inherent unpredictability of what lies in wait for us all around the next corner means that, notwithstanding Ferguson's brilliance and breadth of scholarship, this immensely readable book is a better lens than it is a compass."

From the local and national to the international and beyond - we must encompass  planetary health.  Even on a rainy day, the view from Wigan Pier is clear: Hodges' model can provide a compass and a lens.

Cavendish, C. (2021) It is time to stem the tide of junk that reaches British plates, A tax on sugar and salt in food would be a global first and is more necessary than ever. Opinion, FTWeekend, 17-18 July, p.12.

'lens' on W2tQ 

'compass' 

'corner(s)' [ How many corners are there in Hodges' model? How many when you add 'the spiritual'? ]

'line-of-sight'

*You can have your pie and eat it! ;-)

Factor Analysis - in the Intra- Interpersonal domain

 'Some Limitations of Factor Analysis.

The mistake should not be made of identifying the whole of the psychology of abilities with factor analysis. Vocational and educational selection and guidance must take account not only of personality traits and interests which might profitably be expressed as factors also, but also of relevant experience, home circumstances and the like. And although there is a strong case for substituting objective tests for the subjective judgments of an interviewer, in practice it is seldom possible to carry out such guidance without an interviewer to bring together all the data and to interpret them to the candidates (cf. Vernon and Parry, 1949). Still more mportant for the development of psychological science are experiments on conditions affecting the performance of skills and of mental tasks, for example, investigations of the design of equipment, or studies of the learning process, of concept formation, of physical or mental fatigue and boredom, and so forth. Here factor analysis is largely irrelevant, since it deals only with the end products of human thinking and behaviour, and throws little light on how these products come about in individual human beings. Factors are indeed a kind of blurred average, for though they derive from the common features displayed by a large group of people, they may stem from very diverse mental and physical processes in different people. Analysis does not even usually tell us which factors an individual uses in any given performance, though it probably could do so. Thus one individual may score well at a test through high g, another might get the same score by virtue of some group factor, yet another through specific ability at that particular test.' p.9.

Philip E. Vernon, (C. A. Mace, Ed.). (1971) The Structure of Human Abilities. Methuen's Manuals of Modern Psychology. London: Methuen & Co. Ltd., pp. 208.

See also: 

Seemüller, F., Schennach, R., Musil, R. et al. (2023). A factor analytic comparison of three commonly used depression scales (HAMD, MADRS, BDI) in a large sample of depressed inpatients. BMC Psychiatry 23, 548. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12888-023-05038-7

Bajraktarov, S., Blazhevska Stoilkovska, B., Russo, M., Repišti, S., Maric, N. P., Dzubur Kulenovic, A., Arënliu, A., Stevovic, L. I., Novotni, L., Ribic, E., Konjufca, J., Ristic, I., Novotni, A., & Jovanovic, N. (2023). Factor structure of the brief psychiatric rating scale-expanded among outpatients with psychotic disorders in five Southeast European countries: Evidence for five factors. Frontiers in Psychiatry, Volume 14-2023. https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/psychiatry/articles/10.3389/fpsyt.2023.1207577

Bandalos, D. L. (2018). Measurement theory and applications for the social sciences. New York: Guilford Publications.

Schmitt, T. A. (2011). Current methodological considerations in exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis. Journal of Psychoeducational Assessment, 29(4), 304–321. 
https://doi.org/10.1177/0734282911406653

Sharing of Knowledge: Culture, Community, Conceptual Spaces and Economics (Gärdenfors)

"Culture, in the form of interaction between people, may in itself generate constraints on conceptual spaces. For example, Freyd (1983) puts forward the intriguing proposal that conceptual spaces may evolve as a representational form in a community just because people have to share knowledge (Freyd 1983, pp. 193–194):

There have been a number of different approaches towards analyzing the structures in semantic domains, but what these approaches have in common is the goal of discovering constraints on knowledge representation. I argue that the structures the different semantic analyses uncover may stem from shareability constraints on knowledge representation. [. . . ] So, if a set of terms can be shown to behave as if they are represented in a three-dimensional space, one inference that is often made is that there is both some psychological reality to the spatial reality (or some formally equivalent formulation) and some innate necessity to it. But it might be that the structural properties of the knowledge domain came about because such structural properties provide for the most efficient sharing of concepts. That is, we cannot be sure that the regularities tell us anything about how the brain can represent things, or even “prefer” to, if it didn’t have to share concepts with other brains.

Here Freyd hints at an economic explanation of why we have conceptual spaces: they facilitate the sharing of knowledge." p.17.

From: Gärdenfors, P. (2004) Conceptual Spaces as a Framework for Knowledge Representation. Mind and Matter. Vol. 2(2), pp. 9–27.

STEM Women: Dame Clare Marx [RIP]

Pablo Picasso. Science and Charity. Barcelona, [March-April of] 1897. Oil on canvas 197 x 249.5 cm.
Museu Picasso, Barcelona. Donation Pablo Picasso, 1970. MPB 110.046. Museu Picasso, Barcelona.
Fotografía, Miquel Coll © Sucesión Pablo Picasso, VEGAP, Madrid 2020

 INDIVIDUAL
|

 INTERPERSONAL    :     SCIENCES               

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

SOCIOLOGY  :   POLITICAL 

|

GROUP

Clare  intelligence ...	physical contact, touch ... good surgical hands ...
Marx ... ability to talk to patients	Dame

Dame Clare Marx "First woman to be elected president of the Royal College of Surgeons who sought to root out sexism and expand surgical training ... A charismatic colleague taught her the three qualities of a successful surgeon: intelligence, good surgical hands and an ability to talk to patients."

"Marx said Picasso's Science and Charity emphasises
'the importance of physical contact' between doctor and patient."

Register, Obituaries, The Times, November 30, 2022, p.53.

See also: 'Arts'

'Proof' of the Four Quadrants

As I have read (and 'reviewed')  Lowy and Hood's (2004) The Power of the 2 x 2 Matrix in applying a matrix, it first has to be created and the process includes identifying and naming the quadrants of concern. The final step is similar to what I see as a key function of Hodges' model: assurance. They refer to proof, being finalising the matrix asking the question are these quadrants real. Are they correct in this (business, industry and commercial) context?

For Hodges' model the quadrants are predetermined. They are 'fixed' but in a way to reassure both those on clinical ethics committees and involved in corporate governance. Although fixed -

individual

|

INTERPERSONAL : SCIENCES

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

SOCIOLOGY : POLITICAL

|

group - population

INTERPERSONAL	SCIENCES
SOCIOLOGY	POLITICAL

 - the terms used can vary as below:

individual

|

INTERPERSONAL : SCIENCES

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

SOCIOLOGY : POLITICAL

|

group - population

MENTAL HEALTH	PHYSICAL HEALTH
CULTURE & SOCIETY	POLITICAL

 

 'Culture and Society' was a suggestion and I've often wondered about the (meaning) scale and semantic synergy across the terms. Sociology is an academic discipline. As students 'produce' the model, I invariably have them wander about the library with Dewey. 'Politics' maybe a subject of study, but not 'Political'. The context for Hodges' model, however, is the situation in which the patient, nurse, carer, doctor, social worker, occupational therapist, physio ... find themselves. What is political about the situation. Even this is not the whole picture quadrant. What politics are evident? What political aspects should (must) be paid attention to? What is missing politically that is (further) injurious to this patient? (This patient (and carer) who is already helpless, hopeless and vulnerable?)

 In terms of proof, this is of course very important within healthcare. In mental health we often adopt a psycho-social approach and in psychological therapies from counselling to cognitive and gestalt forms in Hodges' model we can distinguish between one-to-one and individual psychology and group therapies and the psychology of a group. As soon as 'self' considers 'other' we also conjoin the model's vertical axis.

 

individual

|

INTERPERSONAL : SCIENCES

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

SOCIOLOGY : POLITICAL

|

group - population

individual PSYCHOLOGY	SCIENCES
group PSYCHOLOGY	POLITICAL

 

When I write 'sciences' I'm looking at my school time-table (yes - really!). The sciences for me back then were biology, chemistry and physics (which had to include astronomy). Today, we refer to STEM:

individual

|

INTERPERSONAL : SCIENCES

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

SOCIOLOGY : POLITICAL

|

group - population

INTERPERSONAL	Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics
SOCIOLOGY	POLITICAL

 

 

In the summer on twitter ComplexWales asked a question and made a suggestion (I must find and copy the tweet). This set me to task to write during lockdown: so I've a good outline of a short manual for Hodges' model.

In the last post, this is why I'm grateful to Lowy and Hood. I can now also factor this into the manual,  future presentations and workshops.

 

Real proof as an evidence-base goes far beyond this. I can see an exercise with the above components, the axes, the domains and the research subjects being invited to construct something. Amid the quest for data and theory there should be a space for pragmatics too.

Finally, I will leave it to you to reflect on -

Personal, social, health and economic (PSHE) education

 

- in relation to Hodges' model ...

 

More to follow ('care architecture' still) ...

Alex Lowy, Phil Hood (2004) The Power of the 2 x 2 Matrix: Using 2 x 2 Thinking to Solve Business Problems and Make Better Decisions, San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass ISBN: 978-1-118-00879-9

 

Nursing and care homes: the new schools 4 basic nursing care?

I do not wish to denigrate the quality of care in nursing homes, as I've blogged previously there are others better placed to do that when needed. In some the nursing care is exemplary and this is evident not just in their inspection rating, but the morale of staff, the reports of relatives and local community plus other indicators - especially when you visit and use your senses. As a nurse you are duty bound to assess the quality of care wherever your practice takes you. In the homes where the care is very poor, there is no escape from that reality. The reality of poor care first hits visitors when they smell the home they have entered. If there is no escape for them - well what then of the residents and staff?

Now an extended and dedicated role for nursing home liaison within community mental health nursing has arrived* and taken root, this must say something about the quality of care in this sector (and not merely suggest a shortage of Consultant Psychiatrists)? Nurse, service managers and commissioners recognise that if they do not preempt the referral torrent (or trickle from some care homes!) then community teams will grind to a stand-still. Care homes need assistance even as private businesses in assuring their holistic competency.

If services do not stem that referral flow as a wave or otherwise, they will in turn become second rate first-aiders with no primary purpose. They will be forced to respond repeatedly to the same client RE-referrals, the same set of disjointed, fractured physical:mental:social health problems presenting in a series of unique individuals. And this is not person-centred care.

What the nursing home liaison role says is that here is one place we can locate the theory-practice gap, a skills gap and a lack of integrated, holistic person-centered care. Mash-ups may be desirable in the virtual world, but in care delivery - is that safe? Too frequently the mash-up of combined physical and mental health problems pass staff by. The problems go unrecognized, they are there: evident, but disguised; due to lack of comprehensive observation, life histories and despite the question and answer sessions at the gates (service interface). However it is described (e.g. single point), the specialisation of community mental health teams into memory assessment, intermediate, community mental health, ... depends on the vibrant management and quality of referrals.

Much is made of nursing homes registered as EMI (Elderly Mentally Ill) and their need for or access to a registered mental health nurse (RMN); but RMNs in turn rely on the ability of more junior staff to observe and accurately report the basic aspects of the resident's physical and mental state. If equity for older people in care is to be achieved, then although the care - nursing home sector is 'private' and a 'business' there must be an accommodation, a partnership when it comes to education and valuing time invested in these homes.

Original image source: Neo - The Matrix http://www.dailygalaxy.com/my_weblog/psychology/

Book Announcement | The Examined Illness: A Philosopher's Confrontation with Deadly Disease

The Examined Illness

Intellect is pleased to share that The Examined Illness: A Philosopher's Confrontation with Deadly Disease, by Darrel Moellendorf, is out in paperback and hardback.

A visceral personal memoir of being seriously unwell – and the consolations of philosophy during sickness. Being a patient is part of being alive. Disease and serious illness often strike randomly, and when they do, we quickly become subject to the impersonal forces of biochemistry and pharmacology. We rarely think about sickness beforehand and are often totally unprepared for it when it happens. Suddenly, there we are, subject to a standard treatment protocol. Darrel Moellendorf learned this by experience during a month confined to a solitary and sterile hospital room where he received a life-saving stem cell transplant. His room was somebody’s workspace, his schedule was somebody’s work routine, his immune system was systematically crushed, and his prognosis was out of his hands. There was no assurance that it would all work out.

Having spent thirty years teaching philosophy to college students, He was facing the biggest test of all—perhaps the final exam. These are his reflections before, during, and after his cancer treatment, written in real time. He writes, “My brain was sometimes addled by the chemotherapy that sapped my energy and destroyed my immune system, but I wrote out of the conviction that living well includes living well with disease, and eventually living well facing death.” This memoir expresses the conviction that the virtues of patience, courage, trust, and hope serve us well. A measure of good humor also can’t hurt.

Part of the Global Health Humanities series.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements
Introductory Note

Part I: Diagnosis
1. First Thoughts and Second Opinions
2. Healthcare for All Pt. 1
3. Patients and Patience
4. Father to Son and Back
5. Give It Up for Lent!

Part II: Inside
6. Day 7: The Countdown Begins
7. Day 6: Carpe Diem
8. Day 5: Vegetarianism Is Not an Option
9. Day 4: Sweatin’ and Shakin’
10. Day 3: Making Decisions When You Can’t Think
11. Day 2: Nausea and Fatigue
12. Day 1: Courage
13. Day 0: Communion
14. Day +1: Confinement
15. Day +2: Waiting and Anxiety
16. Day +3: Relaxed
17. Day +4: Toiling and Spinning
18. Day +5: Healthcare for All Pt. 2
19. Day +6: Patience and Hope?
20. Day +7: A Letter Arrives
21. Day +8: Anaemia
22. Day +9: Why I Write
23. Day +10: Why I Dyed My Hair Blue
24. Day +11: Shorn
25. Day +12: Tired, Itchy, and Hiccupping
26. Day +13: Waiting
27. Day +14: Signs of Progress
28. Day +15: Turn Me Lose, Set Me Free
29. Day +16: Fresh Air
30. Day +17: Postponement

Part III: Recovery
31. Home Sweet Home
32. Home Update
33. The Social Determinants of My Survival
34. Letting the Days Go By
35. A Thread of Good Fortune
36. Magical Thinking
37. Hope Kept Me Eating
38. Sunshine, Suffering, Rebirth, and Freedom
39. Food Aversions
40. Inching Towards Normalcy
41. Human Fatigue and Canine Anxiety
42. Healthcare for All Pt. 3
43. Still Wearing My Helmet
44. Same as It Ever Was
45. Who Is That Masked Man?
46. Inspiration in the Oncology/Haematology Waiting Room
47. With a Little Help from My Friends
48. Springtime on My Face
49. Feeling the Love … and the Likes
50. Disease, Bodily Alienation, and Transhumanism
51. Dem Fingernails
52. Traversing the Rim of the Valley of the Shadow of Death
53. The Examined Illness

Epilogue: Living with Mortality
References

Please visit our website for more information:

www.intellectbooks.com/the-examined-illness

--

My source: Georgia Glasspole

Marketing Executive (she/her)

Intellect  | 0117 9589910 | georgia AT intellectbooks.com