scholarly journals Designing a Participatory Total Worker Health® Organizational Intervention for Commercial Construction Subcontractors to Improve Worker Safety, Health, and Well-Being: The “ARM for Subs” Trial

2020 ◽  
Vol 17 (14) ◽  
pp. 5093 ◽  
Author(s):  
Susan E. Peters ◽  
Hao D. Trieu ◽  
Justin Manjourides ◽  
Jeffrey N. Katz ◽  
Jack T. Dennerlein
Keyword(s):  
Large Scale ◽  
Action Planning ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Target Population ◽  
Practical Experience ◽  
Formative Research ◽  
Worker Safety ◽  
Intervention Design ◽  
Organizational Intervention ◽  
Health And Well Being

Background: Evidence supports organizational interventions as being effective for improving worker safety, health and well-being; however, there is a paucity of evidence-based interventions for subcontracting companies in commercial construction. Methods: A theory-driven approach supplemented by formative research through key stakeholder interviews and focus groups and an iterative vetting process with stakeholders, resulted in the development of an intervention for subcontractors in the commercial construction industry. We piloted the intervention in one subcontracting commercial construction company. We used these findings to adapt and finalize the intervention design to be tested in a future large-scale trial. Results: There were several key findings from the formative research, including challenges faced by companies and assets that should be considered in the intervention design. This resulted in a communication infrastructure company-based, continual improvement, participatory intervention design, consisting of a needs assessment and report, committee-led prioritization, action planning and implementation, and worker communication/feedback cycle. The pilot contributed to the final intervention design with modifications made with respect to timing, implementation support, capacity building, adaptability and sustainability. Conclusions: The use of a theory-driven participatory approach to developing an integrated organizational intervention for commercial construction subcontracting companies was important and necessary. It allowed us to consider the empirical evidence and relevant theories and tailor these to meet the needs of our target population. This study gives pragmatic insight into the early development of a complex intervention, with practical experience of how we adapted our intervention at each stage. This intervention will be tested in a future randomized trial.

scholarly journals Tourist Mental Health Drives Destination Choice, Marketing, and Matching

2021 ◽  
pp. 004728752110115
Author(s):  
Mary-Ann Cooper ◽  
Ralf Buckley
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Destination Choice ◽  
Destination Marketing ◽  
Health Maintenance ◽  
Nature Tourism ◽  
Tourism Destinations ◽  
Tourism Enterprises ◽  
Health And Well Being

Leisure tourism, including destination choice, can be viewed as an investment in mental health maintenance. Destination marketing measures can thus be analyzed as mental health investment prospectuses, aiming to match tourist desires. A mental health framework is particularly relevant for parks and nature tourism destinations, since the benefits of nature for mental health are strongly established. We test it for one globally iconic destination, using a large-scale qualitative approach, both before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. Tourists’ perceptions and choices contain strong mental health and well-being components, derived largely from autonomous information sources, and differing depending on origins. Parks agencies emphasize factual cognitive aspects, but tourism enterprises and destination marketing organizations use affective approaches appealing to tourists’ mental health.

scholarly journals Sustainable Housing Supporting Health and Well-Being

Proceedings ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 65 (1) ◽  
pp. 12
Author(s):  
Régis Decorme ◽  
Silvia Urra ◽  
Olatz Nicolas ◽  
Carina Dantas ◽  
Annelore Hermann ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Large Scale ◽  
Systemic Change ◽  
Integrated Approach ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Adaptation Measures ◽  
Public And Private ◽  
Sustainable Housing ◽  
Returns On Investment ◽  
Concrete Elements ◽  
Health And Well Being

Despite its proven potential for systemic change, large-scale investment (both public and private) in sustainable homes still faces barriers, often caused by insecurity about personal, societal and financial returns on investment and a lack of clarity about concrete elements of sustainable age-friendly living environments and the choice of building, retrofitting and adaptation measures to be implemented. The projects that contributed to this workshop are developing solutions to tackle these barriers and propose a holistic and integrated approach to progress on implementation.

scholarly journals BOTTOM-UP STRATEGIES FOR COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT AND INFORMAL LEARNING: TARGETING MEN AGED 60 YEARS OR MORE

2019 ◽  
Vol 25 (2) ◽  
pp. 19-35 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marta Gregorčič
Keyword(s):  
Quality Of Life ◽  
Informal Learning ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Research Study ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Community Based ◽  
Qualitative Research Study ◽  
Community Based Learning ◽  
Health And Well Being

The article presents findings from a large-scale qualitative research study conducted as part of a three-year Erasmus+ project entitled Old Guys Say Yes to Community, which included partners from Slovenia, Portugal, Poland and Estonia. The project explored how inactive ageing affects the quality of life, health and well-being of men aged 60 years or more, and how (self-)exclusion from the community can lead to social and psychological ‘death’. The article highlights four interconnected themes which are inadequately, insufficiently, or simply not addressed by national institutions and often also the non-governmental sector in the researched countries. The themes – the pluralisation of transitions to retirement and ageing; absent bodies and invisible lives; hegemonic masculinity and gendered experiences; and community-based learning, action and spaces – are supported by well-defined issues and obstacles preventing men from integrating into the community and are completed with suggestions and recommendations to implement much-needed changes. In addition to these four themes, the article touches upon a series of subtopics and questions that should be addressed by further scientific research in the observed countries.

scholarly journals Food and physical literacy: Exploring an obesity prevention approach using formative research

2019 ◽  
Vol 78 (5) ◽  
pp. 570-581 ◽  
Author(s):  
Isla Gibson ◽  
Sandy Whitelaw ◽  
Christopher Topping ◽  
Joanna Kopela
Keyword(s):  
Developmental Stages ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Potential Effect ◽  
Formative Research ◽  
Service Development ◽  
Physical Literacy ◽  
Inclusive Approach ◽  
High Level ◽  
Prevention Approach ◽  
Health And Well Being

Objective: The objective of this research was to explore how accessible the concept of food and physical literacy is for health and well-being professionals, and assess its potential effect on service delivery. Design: Formative research and ‘concept testing’ with potential deliverers of food and physical literacy. Setting: Dumfries and Galloway, a rural region in South West Scotland, UK. Method: The research was undertaken after four workshops hosted by National Health Service (NHS) public health specialists, aiming to introduce and discuss the concept. An immediate post-event focus group and a short qualitative questionnaire were used to assess professionals’ initial perspectives on the concept, whether they thought the concept was applicable to their work, and what they might require by way of support if the concept was to be taken forward. Results: The findings illustrated the extent to which professionals feel that food and physical literacy is necessary, barriers to its implementation and ideal components for advancing work within this field. Conclusion: The concept of food and physical literacy has a sufficiently high level of resonance (proof of the concept) among informants to provide a foundation on which further work on its operationalisation can be based. The use of formative research and concept testing with potential service deliverers was able to identify areas to be considered during developmental stages, increasing the likelihood that the end result will be accepted by the professionals expected to utilise it. Thus, the benefits of an inclusive approach to service development were also highlighted.

scholarly journals Developing the UNICEF Malawi School Handwashing Program

2018 ◽  
Vol 24 (2) ◽  
pp. 74-88 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joy Parkinson ◽  
Philip C. Mkandawire ◽  
Timo Dietrich ◽  
Abi Badejo ◽  
Mohammad Kadir ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
School Children ◽  
Primary Schools ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
School Administrators ◽  
Change Agents ◽  
Cost Effective ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Structural Barriers ◽  
Staff Members ◽  
Health And Well Being

Diarrhea is one of the major causes of morbidity and mortality among children and immune-compromised individuals in Malawi. Handwashing with soap (HWWS) is one of the most cost-effective health interventions to prevent diarrhea. United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) Malawi has adopted a social marketing approach to achieve large-scale behavioral change for HWWS. The study, commissioned by UNICEF Malawi, was developed by PSI Malawi and Griffith University and conducted by PSI Malawi. Formative research insights using two research studies are presented including observations at 30 primary schools in terms of HWWS behavior. Second, key informant interviews with school administrators and staff members were conducted to understand HWWS motivation, opportunity, and ability factors. This study found less than half of the assessed schools had handwashing facilities. Structural barriers that prevent school children from practicing HWWS were identified including a lack of financial resources to construct permanent handwashing facilities in schools. Many schools also experience a lack of support from the community as citizens are not aware of the benefits of HWWS. Changes to school and community infrastructure are required to facilitate the adoption of the behavior. Supporting activities to encourage school children to practice HWWS and reinforcement strategies to sustain the behavior over time should also be implemented. School children can then become change agents for HWWS by reinforcing the behavior at home thereby contributing to the achievement of the national objectives to reduce diarrhea and leading to improved health and well-being for communities in Malawi.

scholarly journals What works for whom in which circumstances? On the need to move beyond the ‘what works?’ question in organizational intervention research

2016 ◽  
Vol 70 (1) ◽  
pp. 40-62 ◽  
Author(s):  
Karina Nielsen ◽  
Mariella Miraglia
Keyword(s):  
Controlled Trial ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Realist Evaluation ◽  
Employee Health ◽  
Intervention Research ◽  
Organizational Intervention ◽  
Randomized Controlled ◽  
Organizational Interventions ◽  
What Works ◽  
Health And Well Being

A debate has arisen out of the need to understand true intervention outcomes in the social sciences. Traditionally, the randomized, controlled trial that answers the question of ‘what works’ has been considered the gold standard. Although randomized, controlled trials have been favoured in organizational intervention research, there has been an increasing interest in understanding the influence of context and intervention processes on the outcomes of such interventions. In the present critical essay, we question the suitability of trials and meta-analyses to evaluate the effectiveness of organizational interventions and we suggest that realist evaluation that seeks to answer the questions of what works for whom in which circumstances may present a more suitable framework. We argue that examining the content and process mechanisms through which organizational interventions are effective, and the conditions under which these are triggered, will enable us to better understand how interventions achieve the desired outcomes of improved employee health and well-being. We suggest that organizational intervention content and process mechanisms may help bring about the desired outcomes of improved employee health and well-being and that contextual factors determine whether these mechanisms are triggered.

scholarly journals Implementation factors affecting the large-scale deployment of digital health and well-being technologies: A qualitative study of the initial phases of the ‘Living-It-Up’ programme

2016 ◽  
Vol 22 (4) ◽  
pp. 867-877 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ruth Agbakoba ◽  
Marilyn McGee-Lennon ◽  
Matt-Mouley Bouamrane ◽  
Nicholas Watson ◽  
Frances S Mair
Keyword(s):  
Qualitative Study ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Digital Health ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Normalisation Process Theory ◽  
Important Lesson ◽  
Factors Affecting ◽  
Services Delivery ◽  
Design Activities ◽  
Health And Well Being

Little is known about the factors which facilitate or impede the large-scale deployment of health and well-being consumer technologies. The Living-It-Up project is a large-scale digital intervention led by NHS 24, aiming to transform health and well-being services delivery throughout Scotland. We conducted a qualitative study of the factors affecting the implementation and deployment of the Living-It-Up services. We collected a range of data during the initial phase of deployment, including semi-structured interviews (N = 6); participant observation sessions (N = 5) and meetings with key stakeholders (N = 3). We used the Normalisation Process Theory as an explanatory framework to interpret the social processes at play during the initial phases of deployment. Initial findings illustrate that it is clear − and perhaps not surprising − that the size and diversity of the Living-It-Up consortium made implementation processes more complex within a ‘multi-stakeholder’ environment. To overcome these barriers, there is a need to clearly define roles, tasks and responsibilities among the consortium partners. Furthermore, varying levels of expectations and requirements, as well as diverse cultures and ways of working, must be effectively managed. Factors which facilitated implementation included extensive stakeholder engagement, such as co-design activities, which can contribute to an increased ‘buy-in’ from users in the long term. An important lesson from the Living-It-Up initiative is that attempting to co-design innovative digital services, but at the same time, recruiting large numbers of users is likely to generate conflicting implementation priorities which hinder − or at least substantially slow down − the effective rollout of services at scale. The deployment of Living-It-Up services is ongoing, but our results to date suggest that − in order to be successful − the roll-out of digital health and well-being technologies at scale requires a delicate and pragmatic trade-off between co-design activities, the development of innovative services and the efforts allocated to widespread marketing and recruitment initiatives.

scholarly journals The Australian National Survey of Mental Health and Well-Being

2000 ◽  
Vol 177 (4) ◽  
pp. 325-330 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ailsa Korten ◽  
Scott Henderson
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Psychological Symptoms ◽  
Adult Population ◽  
Composite International Diagnostic Interview ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Diagnostic Interview ◽  
Australian Population ◽  
Socio Economic Variables ◽  
Health And Well Being

BackgroundThe mental health of populations can be represented by case prevalence rates and by symptom scales. Scales have the advantage of identifying sub-syndromal levels of distress, which may be common and associated with considerable disability.AimsTo examine the distribution of common psychological symptoms and associated disablement in the Australian population.MethodA household sample of 10 641 individuals representative of the adult population of Australia was interviewed using the Composite International Diagnostic Interview and completed scales measuring recent symptoms and disablement.ResultsSymptom scales showed similar associations with socio-economic variables as did diagnoses, although only a small amount of variance in symptom levels was explained by these variables. Considerable disablement was associated with symptom levels indicating distress but not reaching levels for formal diagnoses of anxiety or depression.ConclusionsSymptom scales provide parsimonious measures of psychological distress and are appropriate for use in large-scale surveys of mental health and disablement.

scholarly journals Total worker health® is the future of worker safety, health, and well-being

2020 ◽  
Vol 30 (Supplement_5) ◽  
Author(s):  
S Tamers
Keyword(s):  
Occupational Safety ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Occupational Safety And Health ◽  
Worker Safety ◽  
Future Of Work ◽  
Worker Health ◽  
Safety And Health ◽  
The Future ◽  
Health And Well Being ◽  
Total Worker Health

Abstract The future of work is being shaped by rapid changes in the workplace, work, and workforce. Driven by advances in industry, this movement is marked by the accelerated pace of developments connecting people, places, and things. All these advances and developments have implications for worker safety, health, and well-being and require innovative occupational safety and health strategies. Because of these new realities, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's (CDC) National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) recently launched the Future of Work (FOW) Initiative. This Initiative is a collaborative effort of multidisciplinary research, communication, and partnerships throughout NIOSH, other agencies, and organizations that aims to identify novel research solutions, practical approaches, and partnership opportunities to address the future of work. To more broadly address worker safety, health, and well-being, the FOW Initiative applies the Total Worker Health® (TWH) framework. TWH is defined as policies, programs, and practices that integrate protection from work-related safety and health hazards with promotion of injury and illness prevention efforts to advance worker well-being. The TWH approach prioritizes changes to improve physical, organizational, and psychosocial factors that present possible risks in the work environment for today's and tomorrow's workforce. This presentation will first introduce CDC/NIOSH's FOW Initiative. Next, the TWH integrated approach will be defined and described. Centering on CDC/NIOSH's future of work priority topics in the areas of workplace (organizational design, technological displacement, work arrangements), work (artificial intelligence, robotics, technologies), and workforce (demographics, economic security, skills), the presenter will then provide evidence-based solutions to address future of work issues and related outcomes, using the TWH approach. Key messages The future of work has world-wide implications for the workplace, work, workforce. The Total Worker Health framework is a transdisciplinary approach by which to view and address the future of work. Public health professionals and other stakeholders must take a proactive approach to address worker safety, health, and well-being issues impacted by the future of work.

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