E-Payment Development Towards Social Capital Using Blockchain Technology

This paper is a concept paper in regard to the development of e-payment towards social capital using blockchain technology. The attempt to conceptualize these areas in an integrated fashion is a novel approach by using mobile electronic payment technologies for social capital. The goal is to make people's trust and societal contributions more visible in order to help realize societies where people can more easily receive personal support and financial assistance along new axes of value through blockchain e-payment platform. The fundamental blockchain technologies will support the creation of a token economy and the social capital can be directly recorded and visualized, changing the world for the better during the e-payment transaction. Organizations will be able to utilize the information here for further developing products and services that support their social capital engagement while also fulfill their objectives in their regions.

Gender Differences Between Domestic Violent Men and Women: Criminogenic Risk Factors and Their Association With Treatment Dropout

Although many studies have concluded that men and women engage in domestic violence at equal levels, existing studies have hardly focused on gender specific risk factors for domestic violence perpetration. Therefore, this study aimed to examine gender differences in criminogenic risk factors between Dutch male and female forensic outpatients who were referred to forensic treatment for domestic violence. Clinical structured assessments of criminogenic risk factors were retrieved for 366 male and 87 female outpatients. Gender differences were not only found in the prevalence and interrelatedness of criminogenic risk factors, but also in associations between criminogenic risk factors and treatment dropout. In men, risk factors related to the criminal history, substance abuse, and criminal attitudes were more prevalent than in women, whereas risk factors related to education/work, finances, and the living environment were more prevalent in women. Further, having criminal friends, having a criminal history, and drug abuse were associated with treatment dropout in men, whereas a problematic relationship with family members, housing instability, a lack of personal support, and unemployment were associated with treatment dropout in women. Finally, network analyses revealed gender differences in risk factor interrelatedness. The results provide important insights into gender specific differences in criminogenic risk factors for domestic violence, which support clinical professionals in tailoring treatment to the specific needs of male and female perpetrators of domestic violence.

Understanding Lay Counselor Perspectives on Mobile Phone Supervision in Kenya: A Mixed Method Human-Centered Design Study

Introduction: Mobile phones may present a low-tech opportunity to replace or decrease reliance on in-person supervision in task-shifting, but important technical and contextual limitations must be examined and considered. Guided by human-centered design methods, we aimed to understand how mobile phones are currently used when supervising lay counselors, determine the acceptability and feasibility of mobile phone supervision, and generate solutions to improve mobile phone supervision.Methods: Participants were recruited from a large hybrid effectiveness-implementation study in western Kenya, wherein teachers and community health volunteers have been trained to provide trauma-focused cognitive behavioral therapy. Lay counselors (N=24) and supervisors (N=3) participated in semi-structured interviews in the language of the participants choosing (i.e., English or Kiswahili). The participants included high frequency, average frequency, and low frequency phone users in equal parts. Interviews were transcribed, translated when needed, and analyzed using thematic analysis. Themes were compared across frequency of phone use following a mixed methods data transformation and integration approach. Results: Uses included: clinical updates, scheduling and coordinating, and supporting research procedures. Participants liked how mobile phones decreased burden, facilitated access to clinical and personal support, and enabled greater independence of lay counselors. Participants disliked how mobile phones limited information transmission, limited relationship building between supervisors and lay counselors, and disrupted communication flows. Mobile phone supervision was facilitated by access to working smartphones, ease and convenience of mobile phone supervision, mobile phone literacy, and positive supervisor-counselor relationships. Limited resources, technical difficulties, communication challenges, and limitations on which activities can effectively be performed via mobile phones were barriers to mobile phone supervision. Lay counselors and supervisors generated 27 distinct solutions to increase the acceptability and feasibility of mobile phone supervision. Differences emerged in specific themes pertaining to acceptability and feasibility by frequency of use.Conclusion: While mobile phone supervision was acceptable to both lay counselors and supervisors, there were also distinct challenges with feasibility. Researchers considering how digital technology can be used to increase mental and digital health equity must consider limitations to implementing digital health tools and design solutions alongside end-users to increase acceptability and feasibility.

Sources of Resilience in Frontline Health Professionals during COVID-19

Background: While the challenges for psychological well-being for Australian healthcare workers have been documented, there has been a dearth of qualitative research on the sources of resilience that sustained workers during the COVID-19 pandemic. This study identified sources of resilience that clinicians used to cope with frontline challenges during the COVID-19 pandemic. Methods: Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 20 frontline health professionals, across five Australian hospitals, between October 2020 and April 2021. The interviews were recorded and transcribed, and the results were analysed using thematic analysis based on a phenomenological approach. Results: Three sources of resilience were identified by respondents: personal, relational, and organisational. A positive mindset, sense of purpose, and self-care behaviours emerged as key sources of personal resilience. Teamwork, altruism, and social support from family and friends contributed to relational resilience. Leadership, effective communication, and effective implementation of COVID-19 policies were associated with resilience at the organisational level. Frontline healthcare workers also voiced the need for the implementation of further strategies to support personal resilience whilst nurturing resilience within clinical teams and across entire healthcare organisations. Conclusions: Trust in healthcare systems, organisation leaders, colleagues, and personal support teams was an overarching theme supporting resilience.

Exploring Caregiver Challenges And Coping Mechanisms In The Midst Of Covid 19

This paper reports on the the challenges faced and coping strategies employed community-based care providers in a mid sized city in the Pacific Northwest in the midst of the Covid 19 pandemic. Researchers from a Palliative Care Institute conducted six online focus groups using the zoom platform. The project aimed at gathering important information on the experiences of caregivers as well as providing a virtual space where caregivers could support each other. A purposive sampling technique was used to gather data where participants were not chosen randomly but because they could best answer the research question. Membership of the focus groups included representatives from skilled nursing facilities, home-care agencies, elder law services, memory-care facilities, adult family homes, medical supply facilities, chaplains and nutritionists. Data gathered from the focus group were transcribed. A constant comparison method of analysis were employed and categories and themes were created from open coded data. Six key themes were identified which included: dealing with the impact of social isolation on caregiver-client relationships, assessing personal risk when dealing with clients living with dementia, facing challenges seeking continuing employment, struggling with social support and self care, using technology for professional and personal support and grappling with the challenges reentering a face to face environment once the pandemic is controlled.. Findings point to the importance developing and sustaining technological innovations that support workforce retention, fostering communication between the larger community, care providers and clients in various care settings and planning for safe reentry into a post Covid world.

Patients’ experiences of medicines on initiation of antineoplastic agents for the treatment of colorectal cancer: a qualitative study

ObjectiveTo explore the patients’ experiences on initiation of treatment with antineoplastic medicines for colorectal cancer.DesignA qualitative study using semistructured, face-to-face interviews based on the adapted patients’ lived experience with medicines conceptual model was conducted. Ethics approval was granted. Interviews took place while eligible patients were receiving their first cycle of antineoplastic medicines, audiorecorded and transcribed verbatim. Interpretative phenomenological analysis was used.SettingNational oncology hospital in Malta.ParticipantsAdult patients over 18 years, newly diagnosed with colorectal cancer and initiating treatment with 5-fluorouracil/folinic acid and oxaliplatin (FOLFOX) or capecitabine plus oxaliplatin (XELOX) between October 2018 and September 2019 were recruited. Patients were included if fully aware of their diagnosis and the treatment being received. A purposive sample of 16 patients participated in the study.ResultsFive themes emerged from our analysis: (1) beliefs and knowledge on cancer and treatment; (2) healthcare system in relation to treatment; (3) medicine-taking practice; (4) medicine-related impact and (5) personal support structure. In addition, 16 subthemes were identified to describe the interplay of all aspects of the patients’ experiences on initiation of treatment with antineoplastic medicines.ConclusionThis qualitative study illustrated that the patients find themselves in a complex situation on initiation of treatment with antineoplastic medicines. The patients’ knowledge on their specific treatment and active participation in making an informed decision need to be addressed. The healthcare system should develop tailored patient-centred services that specifically address the lack of patient empowerment and patient’s concern about treatment specific information.

Older Koreans' Information Support and Internet Use: Internet Skills and Technology Attitudes

While older Koreans have growing access to Internet, they still lag in actual utilization. This study examined effects of different information support sources on Internet utilization and whether these were mediated by Internet skills and technology attitudes among older men and women. This study used secondary data from 2019 Digital Divide Survey conducted by National Information Society Agency of Korea. The sample consisted of 1,031 Korean Internet users aged 60+, including 495 men and 536 women. Support sources included personal and professional. Skills were measured by ability to use specific features of mobile devices such as smartphones (seven items), while utilization was measured by the use of mobile devices for specific reasons (25 items). Serial mediation analyses using both skills and attitudes were conducted separately according to gender and support sources, covarying for demographics and health. In general, information support was positively associated with utilization. For men, personal informational support was mediated by technology attitudes only. For women, professional informational support was mediated by both Internet skills and technology attitudes, but the serial indirect effect was not significant for this model. The other two models showed significant serial mediation effects through Internet skills and technology attitudes, in this order. Only women had significant direct associations between information support and Internet utilization. Regardless of the source, informational support is positively associated with older Koreans’ Internet utilization. Professional support for men and personal support for women may be most beneficial for greater Internet utilization.

Resilience Profiles Associated with Social Support and Engagement for Overcoming Academic Obstacles in Undergraduate Education

The main objective of this work was to explore the configuration of those elements that allow students to better adapt to university environments and persist even in the presence of difficulties. The sample consisted of 371 undergraduate students (60% female), of low socioeconomic level, enrolled in public universities in the Caribbean region of Colombia. The methodological approach was based on a cluster analysis, in which, using the hierarchical agglomerative method, groups were extracted according to their similar characteristics of resilience in 12 dimensions assessed by the SV-RES scale and subsequent analyses of variance reported how each style was associated with engagement, and with a particular constitution of personal support networks, assessed respectively with the UWES-S scale, and from a square matrix of reticular data on the social networks of each participant. The results showed four profiles of students, characterized by: a) low resilience, high engagement, and strong support networks; b) resilience with low engagement, and dispersed support networks; c) resilience with high autonomy, intermediate levels of engagement, and weak support networks; and d) resilience, high engagement, and strong social support networks.

A Multidisciplinary, Family-Oriented Approach to Caring for Parents After Miscarriage: The Integrated Behavioral Health Model of Care

Miscarriage is increasingly gaining recognition, both in scientific literature and media outlets, as a loss that has significant and lasting effects on parents, though often disenfranchised and overlooked by both personal support networks and healthcare providers. For both men and women, miscarriage can usher in intense grief, despair, and difficulty coping, and for women in particular, there is evidence of increased prevalence of depression, anxiety, and post-traumatic stress. Additionally, miscarriage can contribute to decreased relationship satisfaction and increased risk of separation, all while stigma and disenfranchisement create a sense of isolation. Despite this increased need for support, research indicates that many parents experience their healthcare providers as dismissive of the significance of the loss and as primarily focusing only on the physical elements of care. Research exploring the barriers to providers engaging in more biopsychosocial-oriented care has identified time constraints, lack of resources, lack of training in addressing loss, and compassion fatigue as key areas for intervention. This paper will review the biopsychosocial elements of miscarriage and discuss a multidisciplinary, family-oriented approach that can be implemented in healthcare settings to ensure a high quality and holistic level of care for individuals, couples, and families experiencing pregnancy loss.