The Social Relations of a Health Walk Group: An Ethnographic Study.

It is already well established that regular walks are conducive to health and well-being. This article considers the production of social relations of regular, organized weekly group walks for older people. It is based on an ethnographic study of a Walking for Health group in a rural area of the United Kingdom. Different types of social relations are identified arising from the walk experience. The social relations generated are seen to be shaped by organizational factors that are constitutive of the walks; the resulting culture having implications for the sustainability of the experience. As there appears to be no single uniting theory linking group walk experiences to the production of social relations at this time, the findings are considered against therapeutic landscape, therapeutic mobility, and social capital theorizing. Finally, implications for the continuance of walking schemes for older people and for further research are considered.

A collaborative group method of inclusive research.

BACKGROUND: Funding bodies in Australia and the United Kingdom require research on issues that affect the lives of people with intellectual disability to be inclusive. Debate continues about the nature and benefits of inclusive research, which has become an umbrella term encompassing a broad spectrum of approaches. METHOD: This study proposes one method of inclusive research, the 'collaborative group' approach. It examines the processes used to conduct a study involving academics and self-advocates, presenting findings derived from an inductive analysis of field note data, interview and meeting transcripts. RESULTS: Five components are identified: shared and distinct purposes of participants equally valued, shared involvement and distinct contributions equally valued, flexible, adapted research methods, working as a group with trusting relationships and dispersed power, and scaffolding for inclusion. CONCLUSIONS: This collaborative group method potentially results in better research than either academics or self-advocates could achieve alone and has multiple knowledge outcomes with differing accessibility and complexity. BACKGROUND: When people with an intellectual disability and researchers from universities or other organisations do research together it is called inclusive research. People have worked together on research for a long time but there are still some questions about why we should do it and the best way to do it. METHOD: This paper talks about one way of doing inclusive research that the people who wrote the paper call 'collaborative group approach'. They did a big project with a group of people with an intellectual disability and talked and thought a lot about what they were doing. What they found out. There are five parts to working this way; (i) Having some of the same and some different reasons for doing the research (ii) Doing some things together and doing some things apart (iii) Being able to change things as you go so people can do what they want to do and are good at. (iv) Knowing each other well and being able to work together equally. (v) Thinking about the way you work all the time to make sure people are doing what they are good at and what they want to do. CONCLUSION: If people work this way it might lead to better research and understanding about the lives of people with an intellectual disability.

Conceptualizing inclusive research with people with intellectual disability.

BACKGROUND: The inclusion of people with intellectual disability in research is a common requirement of research funding. Little conceptual clarity is available to guide the conduct of inclusive research or judge its fidelity, there is minimal evidence of its impact, and questions remain about its feasibility and rigour. METHOD: A comprehensive review of the peer reviewed literature and key texts was undertaken to more clearly conceptualize inclusive research and identify the issues associated with ways of approaching it. FINDING: Three approaches to inclusive research were identified: advisory, leading and controlling, and collaborative group. Using the literature and the authors' own experience, each approach is illustrated and discussed. CONCLUSIONS: A clearer conceptual framework is developed to guide researchers and administrators as they consider inclusive research and its feasibility to particular research questions. A strong self-advocacy movement is identified as one of the conditions necessary for inclusive research to flourish. BACKGROUND: Organisations including government that fund research about people with an intellectual disability in the UK and Australia say it is important that people with an intellectual disability are involved in planning and doing research that is about them; this is called inclusive research. Some people have written about what they have done but not enough has been written and shared about the different ways of doing inclusive research. METHOD: The people who wrote this paper looked at all the literature about ways of doing inclusive research and reflected on the way they had worked with a group of self advocates in writing about their history. RESULTS: There are three main ways of doing inclusive research; (i) Where people with an intellectual disability give advice about what to do; (ii) Where people with an intellectual disability lead and control research (iii) Where people with and without intellectual disability work together as a group with different jobs based on their different interests and skills. CONCLUSIONS: In the past there has been an idea that there is only one way to do inclusive research. This paper talks about the advantages and disadvantages of different ways of doing inclusive research, and when you might choose one way rather than another.

Interacting with adults with congenital deafblindness: The experiences of disability support workers.

BACKGROUND: This study aimed to gain greater insight into the perspectives of staff on their interactions with adults with congenital deafblindness in light of the research literature reporting these interactions to be lacking in quality and quantity. METHOD: Data from interviews with 8 disability support workers were analysed using the approach described by Charmaz (2006). RESULTS: Three key themes emerged from the interview data, which support and elaborate on findings of previous studies. These were (1) the construction of client happiness, (2) the rationalisation of client disengagement, and (3) imperatives of the staff role. These findings elucidate the reasons for staff behaviour in their interactions with adults with congenital deafblindness. CONCLUSION: The findings suggest the need for staff policy and procedural documents to be explicit about the importance of social interaction between staff and clients.

Observing the behaviour and interactions of adults with congenital deafblindness living in community residences.

BACKGROUND: Adults with congenital deafblindness (CDB) have received little attention from researchers. In this study we examined the nature of interactions between adults with CDB and the staff who mediate their support, and investigated the reliability of an observation coding system, originally designed for observing adults with severe intellectual disability. METHOD: The behaviours of 9 adults with CDB, including their interactions with support staff from 2 community residences, were recorded and subsequently coded by 2 observers. RESULTS: Interrater reliability, measured using Cohen's k, was variable across the coding system. Adults with CDB were predominantly observed to be disengaged, with few observations of engagement according to the coding schedule's definition of engagement. Interactions between the residents and support staff were rare. CONCLUSION: The introduction of interventions designed for staff to promote resident engagement in social interaction is recommended.

Sexuality, pregnancy and midwifery care for women with intellectual disabilities: a pilot study on attitudes of university students.

Women with intellectual disability have historically not been provided the opportunity to become mothers. Attitudes held by future professionals will determine the level and quality of support these women are provided. This study was designed to evaluate and compare the attitudes of students from Education, Disability and Midwifery towards the sexuality and parenting of people with an intellectual disability, and to further examine the attitudes held by Midwifery students following a lecture strategy. A questionnaire assessing attitudes towards the sexuality and parenting of people with intellectual disability was implemented and contained the themes of marriage, parenting, sexual intercourse and sterilization. Significant differences were found between student groups on the themes of sterilization and parenting, with further analysis indicating that Disability students held significantly more positive attitudes than the other two groups. Students reported less positive attitudes towards parenting than marriage, sterilization and sexual intercourse. Respondents' age was significantly associated with their attitudes on parenting, indicating that older students held more conservative attitudes towards the ability of people with an intellectual disability to parent. In addition, this research indicated that the attitudes of Midwifery students became more positive following a lecture delivered after the questionnaire.

Leveling the playing field? Exploring the merits of the ethics-as-process approach for judging qualitative research proposals.

There has been a recent growth in claims that qualitative research proposals are not treated equitably by ethics committees. In response, recent arguments centered on establishing the ethics of qualitative research, in the eyes of ethics committees, have indicated the need for an "ethics-as-process" approach. Accordingly, in this article, the authors illustrate the merits of this approach and provide three examples from the field: the outcomes of participating in qualitative interviews, sensitive handling of ending in qualitative research relationships, and the ongoing establishment of informed consent. The authors hope to increase awareness of the potential benefits of this approach and contribute to the ensuing debate.

Stress and job satisfaction among social workers, community nurses and community psychiatric nurses: implications for the care management model.

The introduction in April 1993 of new arrangements for assessment and care management following the NHS and Community Care Act 1990 (Department of Health 1990a) heralded a period of major transition for front-line workers in the health and social services. Policy expectations for the development of the purchaser/provider split and the 'new managerialism' have posed unprecedented ideological, organizational and professional challenges. Two years after the full implementation of the reforms a postal survey of the experiences of care managers about policy and practice changes was undertaken in Wales. This paper focuses on the stresses and satisfactions of care management practice among three distinct groups of front-line workers: social workers, community nurses and community psychiatric nurses. The results of multiple regression analyses, corroborated by qualitative data, implicate an increased workload in general and administrative work in particular, combined with reduced opportunities for client contact, as the main sources of stress. Being able to control or shape those factors impinging on the experience of stress and job satisfaction appears to lie at the heart of the dilemma. Practice and policy implications are considered.