scholarly journals Health Promotion Discourse in Modern Media (Based on the Texts of the National Health Service, United Kingdom)

2021 ◽  
pp. 44-52
Author(s):  
Viktoriya A. Girko ◽  
Anna O. Stebletsova ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Health Promotion ◽  
United Kingdom ◽  
National Health Service ◽  
Health Service ◽  
National Health ◽  
Speech Acts ◽  
Medical Discourse ◽  
Main Function ◽  
Communicative Interaction ◽  
Media Texts

Health promotion discourse is a relevant object of linguistic analysis as in its texts verbal and non-verbal means of communication are used to make a pragmatic impact on the largest possible audience. This article aimed to identify the characteristic features of health promotion discourse in modern British media. The material included texts on obesity published on the official website of the National Health Service (NHS) of the United Kingdom, which represents government policy in the health sector. The study applied the methods of descriptive interpretive analysis, as well as contextual, and discourse analysis. This paper defines health promotion discourse as a communicative interaction on disease prevention issues and health awareness. In addition, it indicates the main features of media texts and their implementation in health promotion discourse. The authors found that NHS media texts on health promotion are characterized by common features of media discourse: a specific topic-based structure, an active usage of visual and graphic techniques, as well as multimodality, interactivity, and coverage of burning issues (health-related, in this case). Moreover, these texts have features inherent in media texts of online medical discourse, such as linguistic and therapeutic orientation (reflected in speech acts of advice expressed with varying degrees of categoricalness), targeted inclusiveness, and stylistic convergence (mixing of different functional styles). In addition, on the basis of the material studied, the paper identifies the following strategies specific to health promotion media texts: personal choice, developing trust in the author, and creating an image of the author as a friend. These strategies act as tools to achieve the main function of health promotion discourse, i.e. to influence the readers in order to maintain their health and prevent diseases.

Patient and carer participation in old age psychiatry in England. Part II: models of participation

2011 ◽  
Vol 24 (2) ◽  
pp. 185-196 ◽  
Author(s):  
Susan Mary Benbow
Keyword(s):  
United Kingdom ◽  
Organizational Learning ◽  
National Health Service ◽  
Health Service ◽  
Old Age ◽  
National Health ◽  
Balance Of Power ◽  
Learning And Development ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
Old Age Psychiatry

ABSTRACTBackground: There are a number of models of patient and carer participation. Their usefulness and applicability to old age psychiatry is considered.Methods: Models of participation are reviewed and related to examples of participation initiatives drawn from the author's work in the context of the National Health Service in the United Kingdom.Results: Models of participation which emphasize collaboration and partnership are found to be useful. Simple interventions such as copying letters to patients and/or carers can lead to change in the balance of power between staff and patients/carers. Initiatives which draw on the experiences of patients and carers can facilitate organizational learning and development. Involving patients and carers in education offers a way to influence services and the staff working in them.Conclusion: Participation is better understood as a spectrum rather than a hierarchy. Old age psychiatry services would benefit from developing greater patient and carer participation at all levels.

scholarly journals Homebirthing in the United Kingdom during COVID-19

2020 ◽  
Vol 20 (3) ◽  
pp. 183-200
Author(s):  
Elizabeth Chloe Romanis ◽  
Anna Nelson
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Human Rights ◽  
United Kingdom ◽  
National Health Service ◽  
Health Service ◽  
National Health ◽  
Place Of Birth ◽  
Physical And Mental Health ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
Failure To Protect

COVID-19 has significantly impacted all aspects of maternity services in the United Kingdom, exacerbating the fact that choice is insufficiently centred within the maternity regime. In this article, we focus on the restrictions placed on homebirthing services by some National Health Service Trusts in response to the virus. In March 2020, around a third of Trusts implemented blanket policies suspending their entire homebirth service. We argue that the failure to protect choice about place of birth during the pandemic may not only be harmful to birthing people’s physical and mental health, but also that it is legally problematic as it may, in some instances, breach human rights obligations. We also voice concerns about the possibility that in the absence of available homebirthing services people might choose to freebirth. While freebirthing (birthing absent any medical or midwifery support) is not innately problematic, it is concerning that people may feel forced to opt for this.

scholarly journals Next Generation Sequencing in Newborn Screening in the United Kingdom National Health Service

2019 ◽  
Vol 5 (4) ◽  
pp. 40 ◽  
Author(s):  
van Campen ◽  
Sollars ◽  
Thomas ◽  
Bartlett ◽  
Milano ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
United Kingdom ◽  
National Health Service ◽  
Health Service ◽  
Newborn Screening ◽  
National Health ◽  
Venous Blood ◽  
Turnaround Time ◽  
Analytical Sensitivity ◽  
Next Generation ◽  
Single Nucleotide Variants

Next generation DNA sequencing (NGS) has the potential to improve the diagnostic and prognostic utility of newborn screening programmes. This study assesses the feasibility of automating NGS on dried blood spot (DBS) DNA in a United Kingdom National Health Service (UK NHS) laboratory. An NGS panel targeting the entire coding sequence of five genes relevant to disorders currently screened for in newborns in the UK was validated on DBS DNA. An automated process for DNA extraction, NGS and bioinformatics analysis was developed. The process was tested on DBS to determine feasibility, turnaround time and cost. The analytical sensitivity of the assay was 100% and analytical specificity was 99.96%, with a mean 99.5% concordance of variant calls between DBS and venous blood samples in regions with ≥30× coverage (96.8% across all regions; all variant calls were single nucleotide variants (SNVs), with indel performance not assessed). The pipeline enabled processing of up to 1000 samples a week with a turnaround time of four days from receipt of sample to reporting. This study concluded that it is feasible to automate targeted NGS on routine DBS samples in a UK NHS laboratory setting, but it may not currently be cost effective as a first line test.

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