Affected family members social support experiences when assisting an individual with substance use disorder.

INTRODUCTION: Social support is a factor in the health and well-being of all populations (WHO, 2018). Having a loved one with substance use disorder (SUD) negatively affects family members. Affected Family Members (AFM) providing support for individual with substance use disorder (ISUD) are at risk of losing their social support network. Losing social support negatively influences AFMs health and well-being. DESIGN: As part of a larger mixed methods study, the researchers used qualitative inquiry to explore the experiences and perceptions of social support of the AFM of an ISUD. METHODS: The thematic framework of social support was applied to this qualitative study to identify the conceptual determinants of the perceptions and experiences of the AFM and the development of emergent themes. Participants completed an anonymous electronic survey that included Open-ended questions. A total of 101 participants completed the open-ended questions with 1088 narrative responses received. The utilization of an audit trail, reflexive journal, and in-depth thematic analysis conducted by the researchers has ensured the rigor of the study. RESULTS: Three themes emerged from the AFMs perspective: (1) We are all alone, and we have to fend for ourselves, (2) No one understands what we are going through and (3) People cannot relate and recoil from us. CONCLUSION: Identification of the specific needs of the AFM was crucial, and the first step in designing programs in future research to provide social support for ensuring the health and well-being of the AFM. CLINICAL RELEVANCE: Nurses need to provide family-centred care to ISUD, including their AFMs, in order for the ISUD to continue to receive support to facilitate their recovery. This research highlights ways in which the nurse caring for the ISUD can provide supportive interventions for the AFMs.

Evaluating the feasibility and acceptability of an exercise and behaviour change intervention in socioeconomically deprived patients with peripheral arterial disease: The textpad study protocol.

This pilot randomised controlled trial aims to assess the feasibility and acceptability of a 12-week home-based telehealth exercise and behavioural intervention delivered in socioeconomically deprived patients with peripheral artery disease (PAD). The study will also determine the preliminary effectiveness of the intervention for improving clinical and health outcomes. Sixty patients with PAD who meet the inclusion criteria will be recruited from outpatient clinic at the Freeman Hospital, United Kingdom. The intervention group will undergo telehealth behaviour intervention performed 3 times per week over 3 months. This program will comprise a home-based exercise (twice a week) and an individual lifestyle program (once per week). The control group will receive general health recommendations and advice to perform unsupervised walking training. The primary outcome will be feasibility and acceptability outcomes. The secondary outcomes will be objective and subjective function capacity, quality of life, dietary quality, physical activity levels, sleep pattern, alcohol and tobacco use, mental wellbeing, and patients' activation. This pilot study will provide preliminary evidence of the feasibility, acceptability and effectiveness of home-based telehealth exercise and behavioural intervention delivered in socioeconomically deprived patients with PAD. In addition, the variance of the key health outcomes of this pilot study will be used to inform the sample size calculation for a future fully powered, multicentre randomized clinical trial.

Achieving clinical equality in an influenza pandemic: patent realities.

A twenty-first century novel influenza A (H1N1) pandemic is currently unfolding, and the eventual scope of this public health crisis is not clear. In addition, ongoing surveillance of the avian influenza A (H5N1) virus reveals outbreaks of human-to-human transmission of the virus, with significant mortality. Effective pandemic management depends on pharmaceutical intervention with two different clinical objectives: the generation of an immune response to specific viral strains (vaccination) and the reduction of viral replication in an infected individual (antiviral administration). The ability to offer pharmaceutical interventions for a public health crisis depends on three factors: development, capacity, and access. Pharmaceutical measures must be developed, capacity must be established, and access must be ensured. The article discusses the three nodes of patenting that influence the availability of pharmaceutical countermeasures in an influenza pandemic. Identification of the causative influenza virus is the first step in pandemic management and precedes vaccine design, and the virus and its RNA sequence are both knowledge assets and inputs for vaccine design. Vaccine development, therefore, will be influenced by any patents on the genetic sequences or proteins of the pandemic virus, as well as on novel methods for vaccine production, the actual vaccine or adjuvant technology, all of which are relevant to the assembly of a working vaccine on short notice. Pharmaceutical treatment of influenza infection during a pandemic could also rely on use of patented antiviral drugs, whose efficacy may be revealed as the pandemic unfolds. Unlike vaccines, these are not generally developed de novo for a pandemic, but their availability could be dependent on the exercise of patent rights by market incumbents. Patent rights could control capacity, which may determine access. Pandemic planning must consider how patenting can influence development, capacity and access to pharmaceutical interventions. The national and international public health authorities are slowly integrating intellectual property considerations into pandemic planning. Further integration will anticipate the emergence of patent claims, identify any relevant patents, encourage access norms, and consider the use of legal mechanisms that could alleviate patent-mediated obstacles to the availability of critical products and methods that may be patented. Pandemic management must also co-exist with existing efforts to control seasonal influenza outbreaks. The article analyzes the intersection of patent nodes relevant to vaccine development and to antiviral distribution during a global influenza pandemic, identifying where such patents may facilitate or inhibit the availability of pharmaceutical countermeasures, and offers preliminary observations on the emerging novel H1N1 pandemic. The goal of international clinical equality is essential for the eradication of an influenza pandemic, and strategies for its achievement can also be applied to other diseases.