The Human Costs of Welfare: Binding the Tie With Cuts

1984 ◽  
Vol 29 (4) ◽  
pp. 294-295
Author(s):  
Mary M. Gergen
Keyword(s):  
2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gabriel Marais ◽  
Rebecca Shankland ◽  
Pascale Haag ◽  
Robin Fiault ◽  
Bridget Juniper

In France, little data are available on mental health and well-being in academia, and nothing has been published about PhD students. From studies abroad, we know that doing a PhD is a difficult experience resulting in high attrition rates with significant financial and human costs. Here we focused on PhD students in biology at university Lyon 1. A first study aimed at measuring the mental health and well-being of PhD students using several generalist and PhD-specific tools. Our results on 136 participants showed that a large fraction of the PhD students experience abnormal levels of stress, depression and anxiety, and their mean well-being score is significantly lower than that of a British reference sample. French PhD student well-being is specifically affected by career uncertainty, perceived lack of progress in the PhD and perceived lack of competence, which points towards possible cultural differences of experiencing a PhD in France and the UK. In a second study, we carried out a positive psychology intervention. Comparing the scores of the test and control groups showed a clear effect of the intervention on reducing anxiety. We discuss our results and the possible future steps to improve French PhD students’ well-being.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Simone Ghislandi ◽  
Raya Muttarak ◽  
Markus Sauerberg ◽  
Benedetta Scotti
Keyword(s):  

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 17
Author(s):  
Luca Ronzio ◽  
Andrea Campagner ◽  
Federico Cabitza ◽  
Gian Franco Gensini

Medical errors have a huge impact on clinical practice in terms of economic and human costs. As a result, technology-based solutions, such as those grounded in artificial intelligence (AI) or collective intelligence (CI), have attracted increasing interest as a means of reducing error rates and their impacts. Previous studies have shown that a combination of individual opinions based on rules, weighting mechanisms, or other CI solutions could improve diagnostic accuracy with respect to individual doctors. We conducted a study to investigate the potential of this approach in cardiology and, more precisely, in electrocardiogram (ECG) reading. To achieve this aim, we designed and conducted an experiment involving medical students, recent graduates, and residents, who were asked to annotate a collection of 10 ECGs of various complexity and difficulty. For each ECG, we considered groups of increasing size (from three to 30 members) and applied three different CI protocols. In all cases, the results showed a statistically significant improvement (ranging from 9% to 88%) in terms of diagnostic accuracy when compared to the performance of individual readers; this difference held for not only large groups, but also smaller ones. In light of these results, we conclude that CI approaches can support the tasks mentioned above, and possibly other similar ones as well. We discuss the implications of applying CI solutions to clinical settings, such as cases of augmented ‘second opinions’ and decision-making.


2021 ◽  
pp. 251610322110194
Author(s):  
Margot Hedenstrom

Foster youth face high risks and poor outcomes after aging out of care resulting in great economic and human costs to society. The purpose of the study was to describe life experiences of children aging out of the foster care system from the perspectives of adults who have successfully navigated this transition. Their life experiences during this period provided meaningful information for this study which helped to identify themes. Their perceptions of the periods during and after their transitions were explored to investigate supportive relationships, education, and workplace stability. Phenomenology was used to describe the experiences of nine young adults who had aged out of foster care. Participant ages ranged from 20 to 25 years old. Audiotaped semi-structured interviews were conducted for the study. Data analysis was ongoing throughout data collection. Four themes were identified: (1) “Facing a transition”; (2) “Depending on adults for help”; (3) “Making a difference for others”; and (4) “Moving forward with my life.” These four themes highlighted the participants’ experiences as they aged out of foster care. This study contributes to our understanding of the life experiences of former foster youth who are successful after the transition out of foster care. Recommendations for practice and research are identified.


2021 ◽  
Vol 27 (2) ◽  
pp. 1-4
Author(s):  
Denise Chaffer
Keyword(s):  

NHS Resolution's Director of Safety and Learning Denise Chaffer discusses the strategies used to address the incidence of clinical negligence claims in obstetrics and the high costs that such incidents can have for the NHS.


Author(s):  
Sarah Waters

This book examines the phenomenon of work suicides in France and asks why, in the present historical juncture, conditions of work can push individuals to take their own lives. During the 2000s, France experienced what commentators have described as a ‘suicide epidemic’, whereby increasing numbers of workers in the face of extreme pressures of work, chose to take their own lives. This book analyses a corpus of testimonial material linked to 66 suicide cases across three large French companies during the period from 2005 to 2015. A key aim is to consider what the extreme and subjective experiences of self-killing narrated in suicide letters can tell us about the contemporary economic order and its impact on flesh and blood experiences of work. What do rising work suicides tell us about conditions of human labour in the 21st century? Does neoliberal economics condition a desire for suicide? How do suicidal individuals describe the causes and motivations of their self-killing? Combining critical perspectives from sociology, history, testimony studies, economics, cultural studies and public health, the book raises critical questions about the human costs of the shift to a finance-driven neoliberal order and its everyday effects within the localised spaces of the French workplace.


2021 ◽  
Vol 95 (4) ◽  
pp. 823-840
Author(s):  
Robert J. Gordon

Gather a group of economists together and ask what most concerns them, and a wide variety of topics would soon emerge: slowing economic growth in the rich nations, the inability of many poor nations to converge toward the rich, rising income and wealth inequality, the increasing dominance of superstar firms, growing profit margins and the decline in labor's income share, globalization and the human costs of outsourcing, deaths of despair, and the threat of climate change. Decade after decade, numerous books have been written about each of these issues. But here we have in one compact package a blockbuster book that deals with all of them.


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