A menu for learning: a World Café approach for user involvement and inter-professional learning on mental health

Inter-professional learning (IPL) initiatives and service user involvement are well established in professional education programmes, but are seldom incorporated in the same teaching and learning project. In order to accomplish a combination of these approaches, an interactive learning format, styled as a World Café on mental health, was chosen to bring social work and mental health nursing students together with service users and carers. The project aimed to be participatory and inclusive from the outset, establishing a steering group with staff, students and user/carer volunteers to plan the day-long event. The event enabled all participants to engage in round table conversations to learn from each other's outlooks and roles, and for students to reflect on their future inter-professional practice and engagement with service users. Findings from this project indicate that the World Café as a teaching and learning method may have much to offer students engaged in IPL activities. We believe that the findings from this project can contribute to the advancement of existing knowledge regarding IPL and user involvement, and that a World Café approach may serve as a template for replication for other education providers, as part of a wider repertoire of inter-professional and service user involvement initiatives.     

Expertise and forms of knowledge in the government of families

This paper examines the relationship between the state and the individual in relation to an aspect of mundane family life – the feeding of babies and young children. The nutritional status of children has long been a matter of national concern and infant feeding is an aspect of family life that has been subjected to substantial state intervention. It exemplifies the imposition upon women the ‘biologico‐moral responsibility’ for the welfare of children ( Foucault, 1991b ). The state's attempts to influence mothers’ feeding practices operate largely through education and persuasion. Through an elaborate state‐sponsored apparatus, a strongly medicalised expert discourse is disseminated to mothers. This discourse warns mothers of the risks of certain feeding practices and the benefits of others. It constrains mothers through a series of ‘quiet coercions’ ( Foucault, 1991c ) which seek to render them self‐regulating subjects. Using data from a longitudinal interview study, this paper explores how mothers who are made responsible in these medical discourses around child nutrition, engage with, resist and refuse expert advice. It examines, in particular, the rhetorical strategies which mothers use to defend themselves against the charges of maternal irresponsibility that arise when their practices do not conform to expert medical recommendations.     

Recall of Nonverbal Cues: Exploring a New Definition of Interpersonal Sensitivity

Interpersonal sensitivity, defined as the accurate recall of another person’s nonverbal behavior, was measured in two studies. In Study 1, nonverbal recall accuracy (NRA) was based on recall of cues expressed by a man and/or woman being interviewed on videotape. Retest reliability after 2 weeks was satisfactory and the male and female tests demonstrated sufficient convergence. Participants could assess their own recall accuracy at better than chance levels; ability to decode the meanings of visual nonverbal cues was positively related to NRA; discriminant validity of NRA was demonstrated with regard to general cognitive ability; and women had higher NRA than men. In Study 2, NRA was based on recall of a live interaction partner. Women again had higher NRA than men; NRA was significantly better than chance; and higher NRA was associated with more smiling and self-reported positive affect during the interaction. Nonverbal recall accuracy is a promising new definition of interpersonal sensitivity.

Hazards of stigma: the sexual and physical abuse of gay, lesbian, and bisexual adolescents in the United States and Canada

Some studies suggest lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) teens are at higher risk than peers for violence at home, in school, and in the community. That can bring them into the child welfare system or services for runaway and homeless teens. This study compared self-reported experiences of sexual and physical abuse based on sexual orientation and gender in seven population-based surveys of youth. The authors used c2 and age-adjusted odds of abuse to compare bisexual to heterosexual, mostly heterosexual, and gay and lesbian students. They also provide case studies to illustrate the experiences of such youth.     

Nurse entrepreneurs

1. Supervised Environmental Living Facility (SELF) is a nurse-developed, non-profit, community-based, supervised apartment program for the chronically mentally ill. It provides comprehensive supportive and rehabilitative services to the chronically mentally ill, allowing them to re-establish themselves as part of the community. 2. SELF is based on the philosophy that a person needs assistance according to the extent that the illness affects the individual's ability to live safely and optimally. 3. Nurses can be entrepreneurs by seeking and creating innovative models for the delivery of services to specialized populations.     

The postadoption experience: child, parent, and family predictors of family adjustment to adoption

Eighteen to 24 months after they adopted children in state custody, 159 parents were surveyed regarding their postadoption experiences. Most children remained with their new families, with parents reporting the adoption experience to be "about as hard as expected," and rating the past year of caring for the child as being more "smooth" than "stressful." Parents saw how the child contributed positively to their lives, were less positive about available social supports, and expressed dissatisfaction with the speed of the adoption, the availability of community supports, and the ability to link with supports. Children's special needs (e.g., older age at adoption) were predictive of postplacement adjustment.     

A Longitudinal Study Exploring Value Changes During the Cultural Assimilation of Japanese Student Pilot Sojourners in the United States

This study explored longitudinally the value changes of Japanese student pilot sojourners attending pilot training in the United States for two years. Throughout their stay in the United States they are exposed to the United States Western culture, and assimilate some of that culture, because in order to achieve equilibrium, they will change some of their values, attitudes and behaviors (move toward the similar) and assimilate some of their new culture. This study explored the cultural assimilation of those pilots by exploring value changes using the Rokeach Value Survey; exploring values upon arrival, after one year in the U.S., after two years in the U.S., and one year after return to the Japan. The research results showed significant cultural assimilation as demonstrated by value changes between time of arrival and departure from the U.S., and continuing one year after return to Japan.     

Individual treatment of intimate partner violence perpetrators

This article outlines a rationale for investigating the individual (one-on-one) treatment format and individualized (case-tailored) services for partner abuse perpetrators. Many state standards caution against or prohibit individual services in abuser intervention. However, initial research indicates that motivational interviewing, conducted individually, can increase abusive clients' engagement in the change process. Challenges of using the group format in treatment development are discussed along with potential benefits of individual treatment for this population. Notably, individual treatment can be adapted to the client's stage of change, can address a range of presenting concerns (such as substance abuse and mood disorders) that may influence outcome, and can be used to focus clinical attention on case-specific change targets while avoiding potentially negative and antisocial peer influences in the group format. Nevertheless, individual treatment has been almost entirely ignored to date in clinical research with this population.