Citizens’ Jury and Elder Care: Public Participation and Deliberation in Long-Term Care Policy in Thailand

Health care policies for the elderly are complex, multidimensional, and contextually circumscribed. While engagement of health experts, economists, health care administrators, and political leaders is generally viewed as instrumental to the success and sustainability of eldercare programs, the elders themselves are often viewed as passive recipients of care and not included in the policy processes. Experiences and expectations from users’ perspectives can be invaluable information for policy formulation and systems design. This paper examines a participatory policy process using a “citizens’ jury” to promote public engagement in eldercare policy. The process was initiated by the National Health Commission Office in Thailand to explore how a citizens’ jury as a model for civic deliberation can be utilized to provide sophisticated policy recommendations on long-term care policies for the elderly. The objectives of this paper are to (1) examine how public participation in health policy can be actualized through the citizens’ jury as an operational model, (2) understand the strengths and weaknesses of the ways the idea was implemented, and (3) provide recommendations for further use of the model. Details of how a citizens’ jury was deployed are discussed, with recommendations for further use provided at the end.     

Factors limiting SGM youths’ involvement in nonmetropolitan SGM community organizations

Sexual and gender minority (SGM) youths face risks due to growing up with stigmatized identities. SGM organizations minimize these risks by reducing isolation, promoting positive identity development, and providing access to supportive resources. However, nonmetropolitan SGM youths may have high risks with low access to SGM organizations. Little research has been conducted on nonmetropolitan SGM organizations. This study utilized in-depth interviews and open-ended survey items to explore the factors limiting SGM youths’ involvement in nonmetropolitan SGM organizations. Findings revealed three factors limiting involvement: accessibility, utility, and stigma. Implications for future research and practice with SGM youths are discussed.     

Vital tasks and roles of frontline workers facilitating job inclusion of vulnerable youth

Researchers and others are worried about the marginalization of vulnerable youth who drop out of school and work. Frontline workers are key support givers for vulnerable youth, but they have been described as professionals who lack a recognized body of knowledge they can rely on. This article investigates vital frontline roles and tasks related to job inclusion of vulnerable youth. Qualitative data are drawn from 16 Norwegian pilot projects aimed at developing social work approaches among vulnerable youth. The challenges and the support provided resemble those in other European countries. Cross-case analysis suggests four main support roles: (1) administration and securing of basic needs, (2) connection and relationship building, (3) job enabling, and (4) job customisation. Combining roles 1 and 2 with roles 3 or 4 seems to improve the outcomes, meaning that they improve the capabilities of vulnerable youth to find and master a job when that is something they have reason to value. Since this topic has been little explored for vulnerable youth, this article contributes to further developing job inclusion support for this target group in particular.     

Young people's explanations for youth suicide in New Zealand: a thematic analysis

New Zealand has one of the highest youth suicide rates in the developed world and dominant approaches to prevention do not always take into account the views of young people. The purpose of this research was to update our understanding of young people's explanations of suicide in order to inform suicide prevention efforts. Focus groups were conducted with 38 young people, including 30 young women and 8 young men aged 15–22. The data was analysed thematically to identify the range of explanations young people ascribe to youth suicide. Five themes were identified by the analysis including that suicide could be explained by inescapable difficulties, constant pressure, emotional distress and could also be seen as a cry for help. In contrast to these normalised experiences, participants also expressed the view that mental illness might also account for suicide. The findings suggest that young people recognise suicide as a complex problem with multiple causes. While they recognised mental health problems as contributing, youth suicide was primarily understood by young people as a normal response to emotional distress and pressure. Prevention programmes should address the full range of explanations that young people give for suicide in order to promote their engagement in prevention programmes.     

Journey towards independent living: resilience processes of women leaving residential care in South Africa

Among the many youth transitioning to young adulthood, a group that has been found to be particularly vulnerable is young people transitioning out of care, particularly residential care. Research on this population of youth has burgeoned over the past few decades, but in South Africa it remains limited. This article focuses on the resilience processes that facilitate better transitions of young women out of care and towards independent living. It replicates the research design of a previous study with young men, with the aim of determining to what extent the resilience process of young women are similar to those of men. A sample of nine women was purposively selected, interviewed in-depth and data analysed using grounded theory methods. The findings indicate that the same resilience process found among male care-leavers are evident also in the narratives of female care-leavers, confirming the findings of the previous study. However, these processes had a slightly stronger relational focus among women than was seen among men. The authors conclude that similar resilience-building programmes can be implemented to prepare both males and females for leaving care.     

‘It's an ordinary matter’: perceptions of cyberbullying in Thai youth culture

This qualitative study focuses on youth perceptions of cyberbullying (definition, causes, consequences, and management). We also articulate how perceptions of cyberbullying among Thai youth are influenced by Thai culture, including Thai youth culture. Data were collected from 15 to 24 year-olds in Central Thailand through 22 focus group discussions (FGDs) with 4–6 participants each, as well as 26 in-depth interviews (IDIs), totaling 136 participants. These youth defined cyberbullying as harming others through mobile phones and the Internet. To count as cyberbullying, actions had to cause real harm or annoyance and be committed with malicious intent. The relationship between the parties involved also mattered: close friends were unlikely to be considered cyberbullies. Participants thought that the anonymity of cyberspace is a key cause of cyberbullying but also that cyberbullying often results from previous offline incidents of violence. In their view, cyberbullying impacts individuals and their social interactions. Participants tended to manage the problem by themselves and not consult their parents. Alarmingly, participants viewed cyberbullying as ‘an ordinary matter’. To raise awareness that cyberbullying is a societal problem with serious consequences, state agencies and educational institutions need to play active roles in preventing it and responding to it constructively when it occurs.     

Employer‐oriented labour market policies in Sweden: Creating jobs and the division of labour in the public sector

In many European countries, greater importance is accorded to labour market policies in which employers are involved in activating unemployed people. Such employer‐oriented policies target employers’ demand for labour and attempt to influence their willingness to hire, train or guide (often disadvantaged) unemployed groups. Using data from a qualitative interview study of an employer‐oriented programme in a medium‐size city in Sweden, the present article aims to develop knowledge about how these policies are used to influence employers to hire unemployed workers and how jobs created in this context differ from regular jobs. The article argues that creating jobs through new arrangements for the division of labour, with the promise of relieving regular staff of unskilled tasks, may influence employers’ willingness to hire the unemployed when used alongside other kinds of policy instruments. However, the article also shows that this new division of labour, with programme participants performing mainly unskilled tasks, has been difficult to realize, as new staff gradually come to perform an increasing number of regular working tasks.     

Working‐age people with disability and labour force participation: Geographic variations in Australia

To examine geographic variation in labour force participation rate (LFPR) of working‐age people with disability in Australia and associated factors. This study uses Australian Census 2016 data at Statistical Area Level 2 (SA2) and engages multiple linear regression to explore the relationship between the dependent variable,= LFPR of people with disability, and diverse independent variables that reflect collective characteristics of people with disability and their non‐disabled peers within SA2. While LFPRs for people with disability varied greatly by SA2, people with disability had considerably lower LFPR than their non‐disabled peers in all areas. The LFPRs tended to be higher in SA2s with higher percentages of people with disability who had completed year 12 or gained post‐school education, with higher household income, and where a higher proportion of people with disability mainly spoke English at home. These results indicate that where people live matters. Geographic variation in LFPR for people with disability is associated with geographic variation in their educational attainment and other social and community characteristics of the areas in which they live. This study contributes towards gaining a more sophisticated and nuanced understanding of the factors that influence LFPR of people with disability in relation to their local community environment.     

Personally affected,politically disaffected? How experiences with public employment services impact young people's political efficacy

Unemployment experiences can have consequences for how people think about democracy and where they stand vis‐à‐vis the state. We investigate how young people's experiences with public employment services can shape levels of external political efficacy—the feeling that decision‐makers are responsive to citizen needs. The personal and direct experiences one gathers at this pivotal time in life can also leave their mark on political attitudes. We analyze an original dataset on German youth to test how encounters with such agencies affect young people's political efficacy, finding that perceptions of helpfulness and being treated fairly and with respect increase the likelihood of being politically efficacious. The findings highlight the importance of personal experiences and bureaucratic interactions for vulnerable young people's democratic attitudes.