Concerted action by multidisciplinary stakeholders: The development phase of a complex public health intervention in regards to adolescent self-harm

2017 ◽  
Vol 41 (S1) ◽  
pp. S738-S738
Author(s):  
R. Parker

Self-harm has a strong prevalence within adolescent populations in Europe, and a potent relationship with suicide. In the UK, adolescent self-harm hospital admissions are rising each year. These statistics reflect the “tip of the iceberg”, with the majority of incidents hidden from public health networks. This invisibility creates barriers to: epidemiological information; the planning and evaluation of evidence-based support; health management within the complexity of adolescent self-harming behaviours to ensure recovery and healthy adolescent trajectories. It is also a serious health risk for this population group, and accidental death from self-harm is one of the common causes of injury-related adolescent death.Within the aforementioned context, this paper describes a UK county-wide complex public health intervention (2013 to 2015) in regards to adolescent self-harm, with concerted action by key stakeholders in health, child welfare, education and social science due to concerns about the increasing self-harm rate within the adolescent population group. As self-harm is a complex behaviour, and the evidence-base for effective interventions is sparse, the development of protective factors within education, health and social care environments were targeted. A synergy of theoretical models from neuroscience and social science informed the intervention's logic model. The intervention's development phase utilised the Medical Research Council's guidance on complex interventions to improve public health, which this paper will exposit.Disclosure of interestThe author has not supplied his/her declaration of competing interest.

2020 ◽  
Vol 15 (4) ◽  
pp. 33-62
Author(s):  
Sara Swenson

In this article, I explore how Buddhist charity workers in Vietnam interpret rising cancer rates through understandings of karma. Rather than framing cancer as a primarily physical or medical phenomenon, volunteers state that cancer is a product of collective moral failure. Corruption in public food production is both caused by and perpetuates bad karma, which negatively impacts global existence. Conversely, charity work creates merit, which can improve collective karma and benefit all living beings. I argue that through such interpretations of karma, Buddhist volunteers understand their charity at cancer hospitals as an affective and ethical form of public health intervention.


2021 ◽  
Vol 104 ◽  
pp. 742-745
Author(s):  
Hye Seong ◽  
Hak Jun Hyun ◽  
Jin Gu Yun ◽  
Ji Yun Noh ◽  
Hee Jin Cheong ◽  
...  

Author(s):  
Mark E. Keim ◽  
Laura A. Runnels ◽  
Alexander P. Lovallo ◽  
Margarita Pagan Medina ◽  
Eduardo Roman Rosa ◽  
...  

Abstract Objective: The efficacy is measured for a public health intervention related to community-based planning for population protection measures (PPMs; ie, shelter-in-place and evacuation). Design: This is a mixed (qualitative and quantitative) prospective study of intervention efficacy, measured in terms of usability related to effectiveness, efficiency, satisfaction, and degree of community engagement. Setting: Two municipalities in the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico are included. Participants: Community members consisting of individuals; traditional leaders; federal, territorial, and municipal emergency managers; municipal mayors; National Guard; territorial departments of education, health, housing, public works, and transportation; health care; police; Emergency Medical Services; faith-based organizations; nongovernmental organizations (NGOs); and the private sector. Intervention: The intervention included four community convenings: one for risk communication; two for plan-writing; and one tabletop exercise (TTX). This study analyzed data collected from the project work plan; participant rosters; participant surveys; workshop outputs; and focus group interviews. Main Outcome Measures: Efficacy was measured in terms of ISO 9241-11, an international standard for usability that includes effectiveness, efficiency, user satisfaction, and “freedom from risk” among users. Degree of engagement was considered an indicator of “freedom from risk,” measurable through workshop attendance. Results: Two separate communities drafted and exercised ~60-page-long population protection plans, each within 14.5 hours. Plan-writing workshops completed 100% of plan objectives and activities. Efficiency rates were nearly the same in both communities. Interviews and surveys indicated high degrees of community satisfaction. Engagement was consistent among community members and variable among governmental officials. Conclusions: Frontline communities have successfully demonstrated the ability to understand the environmental health hazards in their own community; rapidly write consensus-based plans for PPMs; participate in an objective-based TTX; and perform these activities in a bi-lingual setting. This intervention appears to be efficacious for public use in the rapid development of community-based PPMs.


2010 ◽  
Vol 16 (6) ◽  
pp. 1166-1173 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sylvie Miaux ◽  
Louis Drouin ◽  
Patrick Morency ◽  
Sophie Paquin ◽  
Lise Gauvin ◽  
...  

Author(s):  
Kenton Kroker

Historians have clearly articulated the ways in which sleeplessness has long been part of the human condition. As an object of medical expertise and public health intervention, however, insomnia is a much more recent invention, having gained its status as a pathology during the 1870s. But while insomnia has attracted considerable and concerted attention from public health authorities allied with sleep medicine specialists, this phenomenon is not well explained by classical medicalization theory, in part because it is the sleepless sufferers, not the medical experts, who typically have the authority to diagnose insomnia. The dynamics of insomnia’s history are better described as those of a boundary object, around which concepts and practices of biomedicine and psychology coalesce to frame contemporary notions of self-medicalization and self-experiment.


2021 ◽  
Vol 32 (7) ◽  
pp. 282-287
Author(s):  
Alison While

Vaccine hesitancy is a concern both globally and within the UK. Alison While reviews the evidence relating to vaccine hesitancy, its underlying factors and the sociodemographic variations Vaccination is an important public health intervention, but its effectiveness depends upon the uptake of vaccination reaching sufficient levels to yield ‘herd’ immunity. While the majority of the UK hold positive attitudes about vaccination, some people, including health professionals, decline vaccinations. This article reviews the evidence relating to vaccine hesitancy, its underlying factors and the sociodemographic variations.


Author(s):  
George W. Rebok ◽  
Michelle C. Carlson ◽  
Jeremy S. Barron ◽  
Kevin D. Frick ◽  
Sylvia McGill ◽  
...  

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document