The Experiences of Landlords and Clinical and Housing Service Staff in Supportive Independent Housing Interventions

Abstract Background To improve Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people’s access to, and experience of, healthcare services, including Alcohol and other Drug (AoD) treatment services, principles and frameworks have been developed to optimise cultural responsiveness. Implementing those principles in practice, however, can be difficult to achieve. This study has five aims: i) to describe a five-step process developed to operationalise improvements in culturally responsive practice in AoD services; ii) to evaluate the fidelity of implementation for this five-step process; iii) to identify barriers and enablers to implementation; iv) to assess the feasibility and acceptability of this approach; and v) to describe iterative adaptation of implementation processes based on participant feedback. Methods Participating services were 15 non-Aboriginal AoD services in New South Wales, Australia. Implementation records were used to assess the implementation fidelity of the project. Structured interviews with chief executive officers or senior management were conducted, and interview data were thematically analysed to identify project acceptability, and the key enablers of, and barriers to, project implementation. Quantitative descriptive analyses were performed on the post-implementation workshop survey data, and responses to the free text questions were thematically analysed. Results A high level of implementation fidelity was achieved. Key enablers to improving culturally responsive practice were the timing of the introduction of the five-step process, the active interest of staff across a range of seniority and the availability of resources and staff time to identify and implement activities. Key barriers included addressing the unique needs of a range of treatment sub-groups, difficulty adapting activities to different service delivery models, limited time to implement change in this evaluation (three months) and the varied skill level across staff. The project was rated as being highly acceptable and relevant to service CEOs/managers and direct service staff, with planned changes perceived to be achievable and important. Based on CEO/management feedback after the project was implemented at the initial services, several improvements to processes were made. Conclusion The operationalisation of the five-step process developed to improve cultural responsiveness was feasible and acceptable and may be readily applicable to improving the cultural responsiveness of a wide variety of health and human services.

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New ways of working: COVID-19 as a catalyst for change in acute mental health services

BMJ Leader ◽

10.1136/leader-2020-000366 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. leader-2020-000366

Author(s):

Kezanne Tong ◽

Genevieve Crudden ◽

Wen Xi Tang ◽

David McGuinness ◽

Margaret O'Grady ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Mental Health ◽

Mental Health Service ◽

Health Service ◽

Response Times ◽

New Ways Of Working ◽

Number Of Patients ◽

Service Staff ◽

Alternative Settings ◽

Quality Response ◽

Spread Of Infection

BackgroundA need arose to divert patients with psychiatric complaints from the emergency department to alternative settings for psychiatric consultations to reduce footfall during COVID-19. We assessed the effectiveness of alternative referral pathway in reducing COVID-19 infection in our service and its effect on service quality: response time and number of patients leaving before the review. We evaluated the satisfaction of patients, general practitioners (GPs) and mental health service staff with the pathway.MethodsAll patients referred to the mental health service over a 2-month period following the introduction of the pathway were included. Findings were compared against the cohort referred for emergency assessment during the same period in 2019. Feedback surveys were distributed to patients, staff and GPs. χ2 and independent sample t-test were used to compare the variables.ResultsOver 2 months, 255 patients received an emergency assessment via the pathway, representing a 22.3% decrease in the volume of presentations from the same period in 2019. There were no COVID-19 cases among our patients or staff on the roster for assessing patients. In comparison to 2019, response times were improved (p<0.001), and the numbers of patients who left the hospital before the review were reduced by 3.2% during the study period (p<0.001). Patients and GPs were highly satisfied with the referral pathway and believed that the pathway should be retained post-COVID-19. Mental health service staff were divided in their opinions about its sustainability.ConclusionThe pathway was successful in reducing the spread of infection, improving response times and reducing the numbers of patients who left without an assessment. Given the improved outcomes and acceptability, this is a preferable pathway for emergency referrals into the future.

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PP21 Perceptions and experiences of employee mental health support: a cross-sectional survey of UK ambulance service staff

Emergency Medicine Journal ◽

10.1136/emermed-2020-999abs.21 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 37 (10) ◽

pp. e10.2-e10

Author(s):

Sasha Johnston ◽

Jennifer Wild ◽

Kristy Sanderson ◽

Bridie Kent

Keyword(s):

Mental Health ◽

Sickness Absence ◽

Life Events ◽

Symptom Severity ◽

Stressful Life Events ◽

Stressful Life ◽

Event Scale ◽

Work Related ◽

Organisational Support ◽

Service Staff

BackgroundMental ill health among ambulance staff is widespread. Evidence suggests that, with the right support, staff experiencing mental ill health can continue to work, symptom severity can be reduced and suicide prevented. To identify whether organisational support meets staff needs, this research explored the perceptions and experiences of staff working in a large ambulance trust covering the south west of England.MethodsBetween September and October 2018, ambulance staff were invited to complete an online questionnaire, which assessed demographics, work-related stressful life events, related psychological impact assessed by the avoidant subscale of Weiss and Marmar’s Impact of Event Scale-Revised, mental ill health sickness absence during the previous 12 months, perceptions and experiences of organisational support and acceptability of a proposed wellbeing intervention offering mandatory time-to-talk at work.ResultsOver 11% (N=540) of the workforce responded. The majority reported experiencing work-related stressful life events (n=444; 82%), that were associated with subsequent avoidant symptoms. Avoidant symptom severity peaked between six-months to five-years after an event (F (5,438) = 2.4, p=0.03), was associated with repeated exposure (F (4,439) = 2.9, p=0.01) and to sickness absence. A fifth of participants reported mental ill health sickness absence (21.6%), a third of which was not disclosed as related to mental health. Content analysis identified stigma, fear, as well as embarrassment, as barriers to disclosure and help-seeking. Perceptions and experiences of organisational support were significantly correlated (r (195) =0.46, p<0.001) and positive.ConclusionsSymptoms associated with work-related stressful life events can persist for years among ambulance staff. Given the association between organisational support and mental wellbeing, it is possible that an intervention, such as mandatory time-to-talk, supported at an organisation level could improve wellbeing among ambulance staff. Such an intervention needs to be evaluated in future research.

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Do Health Service staff support the implementation of Voluntary Assisted Dying at their workplace?

Internal Medicine Journal ◽

10.1111/imj.15285 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

G. Fuscaldo ◽

S.M. Gwini ◽

R. Larsen ◽

A. Venkataramani

Keyword(s):

Health Service ◽

Assisted Dying ◽

Staff Support ◽

Service Staff

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Intricacies of back-office

Journal of Organizational Ethnography ◽

10.1108/joe-01-2016-0005 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 5 (2) ◽

pp. 167-183 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Sari Yli-Kauhaluoma ◽

Mika Pantzar

Keyword(s):

Design Methodology ◽

Research Approach ◽

Work Processes ◽

Cognitive Representations ◽

Content Type ◽

Daily Work ◽

Service Staff ◽

Office Environments ◽

Back Office ◽

Practical Implications

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine how back-office service staff cope with the intricacies of administrative work. Design/methodology/approach – The paper applies the research approach of “at-home ethnography” in a university back-office. The primary method of data collection was participant listening in the field, either in formal interviews or casual conversations. Photography helped the authors to zoom the conversation in to specific artefacts in administrative offices. Findings – The study identifies both forward- and backward-looking recipes as essential administrative tools that back-office staff develop and use to handle intricacies that emerge in their daily work. Forward-looking recipes are based on anticipatory cognitive representations, whereas backward-looking recipes are based on experiential wisdom. The study elaborates on the different kinds of modelling practices that back-office service staff engage in while building and applying these two different kinds of recipes. Practical implications – The recipes support administrators in knowledge replication and thus help avoid interruptions, reduce uncertainty, and produce consistency in administrative processes. Originality/value – In contrast to existing studies of formal bureaucracies, the study provides a unique empirical account to show how back-office service staff cope with the multiple intricacies existing in current office environments. The study shows how recipes as models contribute to stabilizing or even routinizing work processes in complex administrative situations.

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Mapping Digital Diasporas @ BBC World Service: Users and Uses of the Persian and Arabic Websites

Middle East Journal of Culture and Communication ◽

10.1163/187398610x510047 ◽

2010 ◽

Vol 3 (2) ◽

pp. 256-278 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Marie Gillespie ◽

Hugh Mackay ◽

Matilda Andersson

Keyword(s):

Communication Networks ◽

Public Diplomacy ◽

Structured Interviews ◽

Transnational Communities ◽

Geographically Dispersed ◽

Language Groups ◽

Service Staff ◽

The World ◽

Transnational Communication ◽

The Uk

AbstractThis article presents research on two key BBC World Service websites, BBC Persian Online and BBC Arabic Online. It draws on in-house BBC data, supplemented by our own semi-structured interviews with online editors and other key World Service staff. It examines where users of the two sites are located, their demographic characteristics and their views on and uses of the sites. The data is analyzed in the context of debates about the politics of diasporic media and communication networks and changing collective identities, the UK government's Foreign and Commonwealth Office's (FCO) strategy of 'digital diplomacy' and the World Service's stated public purpose of fostering a 'global conversation.' Our research has shown how the majority of users of both BBC Arabic and Persian Online services reside outside the geographical areas that the BBC World Service targets and may be defined as diasporic. And these two websites are not exceptional. Diasporic groups make increasing use of the BBC's online foreign language news sites but these transnational communication networks are an unintended consequence of the BBC's activities. We highlight how the internet is changing configurations of audiences and users at the BBC World Service as geographically dispersed language groups can log on to the news services from anywhere in the world. We argue that the BBC World Service can no longer be seen as an international broadcaster pursuing the BBC's motto 'nation shall speak peace unto nation.' Rather, as one of the world's largest news providers, it is implicated in the formation of new kinds of transnational communities and communications which has as yet unforeseen consequences for national identifications and for strategies of public diplomacy.

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Spatial features of a penitentiary unit in the context of stress experienced by Prison Service staff

Nieruchomości@ : kwartalnik Ministerstwa Sprawiedliwości ◽

10.5604/01.3001.0015.2481 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol III (III) ◽

pp. 97-114

Author(s):

Sławomir Grzesiak ◽

Jarosław Rychlik ◽

Agnieszka Nowogrodzka

Keyword(s):

Physical Space ◽

Research Problem ◽

Conservation Of Resources ◽

Negative Effects ◽

Spatial Features ◽

Functional Aspects ◽

Service Staff ◽

Significant Difference ◽

Stress Experience ◽

Prison Community

Prison as the place of work of the Prison Service staff is a specific workplace due to both the nature of the prison community as well as the infrastructural and architectural solutions deployed to protect prison officers. Considering the spatial features of a penitentiary unit and their role in the due performance of Prison Service tasks, it seems quite relevant to seek an answer to the question: How does the physical space of a prison contribute to the stress experienced by prison officers? The issue in question is rooted in M. Mendel’s concept of pedagogy of place, symbolic interactionism and S. Hobfoll’s conservation of resources theory. Inquiry into a research problem of this kind seems reasonable taking into account the infrastructural and spatial aspects of the surroundings that can be potential stress drivers. In April 2021, a group of 58 prison officers were surveyed based on the Stress Perception Questionnaire and the author’s questionnaire. Relationships between the variables have been established through the use of correlation, significant difference test and variance analysis. The results revealed that the essential spatial characteristics of a penitentiary unit associated with the perception of stress by Prison Service staff are those features that relate to the penitentiary unit’s functional aspects covering the specific technical and protective safeguards. These results formed a premise for designating higher-risk staff groups, with regard to which preventive programmes aimed at counteracting the negative effects of stress experience should be considered

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An application of AHP approach to investigate tourism promotional effectiveness

Tourism and hospitality management ◽

10.20867/thm.19.1.1 ◽

2013 ◽

Vol 19 (1) ◽

pp. 1-22

Author(s):

Wen-Hsiang Lai ◽

Nguyen Quang Vinh

Keyword(s):

Tourism Industry ◽

Destination Image ◽

Factors Affecting ◽

Tourist Destinations ◽

Tourist Satisfaction ◽

Promotional Strategy ◽

Service Staff ◽

Promotional Strategies ◽

Study Designs ◽

Hierarchy Process

Purpose – The tourism industry service network (TISN) is considered to be one of the largest components of tourism in the modern Vietnamese economy. The Vietnam National Administration of Tourism (VNAT) is currently developing a long-term plan to diversify the country’s tourism industry and to improve the destination image of Vietnam. To successfully implement this plan, the Vietnamese tourism industry must employ effective promotional strategies. Design – This study designs to determine the necessity of measuring the effectiveness of the promotional activities of tourist destinations and to decide upon a promotional strategy that appropriately parallels the desired destination attributes and destination image. Methodology – This study proposes to address tourism promotional efficiency using the analytical hierarchy process (AHP) methodology, a decision-making method based on pairwise comparisons between criteria, and constructs an evaluation structure with criteria-associated weights for factor selection. Approach – In accordance with AHP design, this study selects participants who had been in charge of or served in the Vietnamese tourism industry for a number of years. Findings – This study finds that “government policy”, “service staff” and “tourist satisfaction” are the three most important factors impacting tourism promotional effectiveness. Surprisingly, “tourist loyalty” and “tourism infrastructure” are considered to be the least important factors affecting tourism promotional efficiency. Originality of the research – This study provides valuable information and knowledge of tourism promotional effectiveness to be fully shared and passed on in the tourism industry, resulting in a corporate cultural atmosphere that creates the innovative impetus of destination attributes and images.

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