Assessing Capacity to Change in High‐Risk Pregnant Women: A Pilot Study

Pre‐birth risk assessment is a process by which circumstances affecting an unborn child can be identified and support for mother and infant embedded. This mixed methods study describes a community‐based pre‐birth assessment and care pathway that utilised the Parents Under Pressure (PuP) programme to assess parenting capacity and provide support pre‐ and post‐birth for ‘at risk’ women. Sixty‐eight pregnant women referred to children's social care services were allocated to the pre‐birth assessment and care pathway (n = 35) or to routine care (n = 33). Standardised measures of psychological distress, social support and alcohol measured change for the women in the assessment and care pathway. Twenty women who provided pre‐ and post‐data reported significant improvements on all measures except alcohol use. Safeguarding outcomes at 12 months were obtained for both groups using administrative data. Forty‐two per cent of the infants whose mothers received the pre‐birth assessment and care pathway showed an improvement in child protection status compared to 14 per cent of the routine care infants. Safeguarding status deteriorated or stayed the same in 52 per cent of the routine cases compared to 26 per cent of those receiving the pathway. Qualitative data revealed that the pathway was acceptable and helpful to service users and service providers. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

‘Describes a community‐based pre‐birth assessment and care pathway that utilised the Parents Under Pressure (PuP) programme’

Key Practitioner Messages

• The current project found that a community‐based pre‐birth assessment and care pathway with high‐risk pregnant women was feasible and acceptable for practitioners and service users.
• The pathway began mid‐pregnancy and support was provided following the birth of the infant for up to 12 months.
• Over 40 per cent of infants whose mothers were allocated to the pre‐birth risk assessment pathway showed improvements in child safeguarding status at 12 months.

     

‘It’s like exercise for your soul’: how participation in youth arts activities contributes to young people’s wellbeing

Active participation in organised youth arts activities is generally considered ‘good’ for young peoples’ social and emotional wellbeing. There is, however, less known about how youth arts participation helps to create wellbeing benefits. This paper details a retrospective narrative study that sought to understand not only what wellbeing benefits 17 participants attributed to youth arts activity, but more specifically, how these outcomes occurred. The concept of liminality, within a spaces of wellbeing approach, is used as a framework to explore and understand participant’s stories of their time at Corrugated Iron Youth Arts, in Darwin, Australia. A pattern of transformation involving three phases emerged through an analysis of participant stories. This involved (1) joining in, (2) developing skills and gaining experience, and (3) becoming a ‘real’ performer. These stages have strong resonance with contemporary conceptualisations of liminal experiences, and provide further evidence for the value of youth arts activity as a space for the development of social and emotional wellbeing.     

Negotiating the limits of upbringing,education, and racial hygiene in Nazi Germany as exemplified in the study and treatment of Sinti and Roma

Abstract

Like other minorities, Sinti and Roma were victims of racial persecution by the Nazis. For this group in particular, the Racial-Hygienic and Heredity Research Centre in the Reich Health Office became a central institution in the Nazi system of extermination. Eva Justin, a reseacher at the Centre, published her doctoral dissertation while working there. The dissertation discusses the possibility of ‘educating’ Sinti and Roma and of making them useful to the German Volksgemeinschaft (‘community of the people’). In this article, I examine Justin’s notions of a subject’s capacity to be brought up and educated and how these notions can be understood in the context of antiziganism, racial hygiene, and National Socialism. In particular, I elucidate her notions of a subject’s capacity to be brought up and educated and the attributes and interpretative framework with which she contrued Sinti and Roma as ‘objects of upbringing and education’.     

Vaginal birth after caesarean: Views of women from countries with low VBAC rates

Problem and background

Vaginal birth after caesarean section is a safe option for the majority of women. Seeking women’s views can be of help in understanding factors of importance for achieving vaginal birth in countries where the vaginal birth rates after caesarean is low.

Parent–youth communication to reduce at-risk sexual behavior: A systematic literature review

There are nearly 110 million cases of sexually transmitted infections (STIs) in the United States. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimate that annually there are more than 19.7 million new STI cases. Of those, more than half are accounted for by youth aged 15–24 years. Although some STIs are not considered to be life threatening, they can lead to severe health problems, risk of HIV infection, or infertility if they are not properly treated. Some research has shown that parent–youth communication can reduce youth’s at-risk sexual behaviors. The following is a systematic review of the literature on parent–youth sexual communication and family-level interventions designed to reduce risky sexual behavior in youth.     

Intergenerational Community-Based Research and Creative Practice: Promoting Environmental Sustainability in Jinja,Uganda

This article critically reflects on the methodological approach developed for a recent project based in Jinja, Uganda, that sought to generate new forms of environmental knowledge and action utilizing diverse forms of creative intergenerational practice embedded within a broader framework of community-based participatory research. This approach provided new opportunities for intergenerational dialogue in Jinja, generated increased civic environmental engagement, and resulted in a participant-led campaign to share knowledge regarding sustainable biomass consumption. We term this approach intergenerational community-based research and creative practice. We discuss the advantages of this model while also reflecting throughout on the challenges of the approach.