Category / Research themes

Contact, Help, Advice and Information Network (CHAIN) Demonstration THIS COMING WEDNESDAY 23rd March 2016

CHAIN – Contact, Help, Advice and Information Network – is an online mutual support network for people working in health and social care. It gives people a simple and informal way of contacting each other to exchange ideas and share knowledge.

The online Directory can be used to identify and communicate with other members. You might wish to do this to draw from their experience, or to elicit an opinion on an issue or something you are doing. Or you might wish to find collaborators or liaise with fellow-travellers or people with specific skills or interests for a wide range of purposes. You can do this quickly and easily with CHAIN, and part of the advantage is that the people you find will usually be happy to help you if they can.

We are delighted to welcome a representative from CHAIN to BU on 23rd March at 2:30pm in Wollstone Lecture Theatre, Bournemouth House (BG10) to demonstrate how to make the most of being part of the network. All staff are welcome to attend, and please pass the invitation on to students who may be interested in learning more about what CHAIN has to offer.

Contact Lisa Gale-Andrews at lgaleandrews@bournemouth.ac.uk for more information.

BU BMC paper followed up by BMC Series Blog

international, open access, Publishing, writing

media childbirthOur latest paper in the international journal BMC Pregnancy & Childbirth published late last month was highlighted yesterday in a BMC Series Blog.[1]  The blog post reminds us that the media plays an important role in providing the general public with information about a range of issues, including pregnancy and childbirth. The visual media, such as television, can provide planned information (education), for example in documentaries, advertising and the news.  Our paper “Is it realistic?” the portrayal of pregnancy and childbirth in the media’ looked into how the representation of childbirth in the mass media affects childbirth in society as there is evidence to suggest that it can have a negative effect.  BMC Pregnancy & Childbirth is an Open Access journal therefore the paper is freely available for anybody across the globe with an internet connection, for access click here.

interdisciplinary-1Our paper is great example of interdisciplinary research, as celebrated at the forthcoming Interdisciplinary Research Sector Day on June 21st (see here).  The authors of our paper combine expertise in media studies, midwifery, sociology and health services research.   Moreover, it involved collaborations across universities (Bournemouth and Stirling) and within BU across faculties, namely the Faculty of Media & Communcation and the Faculty of Health & Social Sciences.

 

Ann Luce, Marilyn Cash, Vanora Hundley, Helen Cheyne, Edwin van Teijlingen & Catherine Angell

 

Reference:

  1. Luce, A., Cash, M., Hundley, V., Cheyne, H., van Teijlingen, E., Angell, C., (2016) “Is it realistic?” the portrayal of pregnancy and childbirth in the media BMC Pregnancy & Childbirth 16: 40 http://bmcpregnancychildbirth.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12884-016-0827-x

 

Digital vision of future local government – connecting our lives in 2025

Business Engagement, Funding opportunities, innovation, Knowledge Exchange, Knowledge Transfer, Research themes

nesta_logo

The report , Connected Councils, explores how councils can use digital tools to transform the way they work and save a potential £14.7 billion every year.

Digital technologies, from apps to online platforms, can help councils provide better services for their residents and mobilise communities to work alongside these services, as well as find new ways of collecting and analysing data, which could have a significant impact on the quality of future services.

Through a series of case studies the report imagines what life might be like in 2025 for ‘digital by default’ councils and their citizens – from retirees to young graduates and new parents.

Key Findings

Local government has made huge progress in enabling residents to carry out basic transactions online. But most councils have a long way to go to deliver smooth, frictionless services and fully digitise their back offices. Digitisation isn’t just about developing digital services; depending on the level of ambition, digital tools can help:

  • Save money and deliver better outcomes by intervening earlier and helping people manage their own conditions.
  • Transform the way that councils work internally, commission services and partners, diagnose and solve problems, use public space, and attract talent.
  • Make services smoother and easier to access, more personalised and user-responsive.
  • Put residents at the heart of local problem-solving and decision-making and create an environment which supports businesses to startup and scale.

The 2025 vision

Like the best tech companies, future councils will be lean, agile and data-driven. Siloed services will be replaced with multi-agency teams that form around specific local challenges. A truly mobile workforce has freed up public space. Almost all transactions take place online. Instead of two-dimensional council websites, interactive platforms connect users with third-party apps and services, and stream personalised content on local democracy, jobs and services.

Relational services (such as social care) still rely heavily on face-to-face contact. But digital tools help people to manage their own long-term conditions and connect to a broader network of support, such as peer mentors, health coaches, friends and family, volunteers and group-based activities. Digital technologies have helped councils take a more ambitious approach to place-shaping. A larger share of public contracts go to high-growth SMEs. Councils systematically engage residents in decisions about how services are commissioned, delivered and evaluated.

Read the report in full.

 

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Happy World Social Work Day!

This year the theme of World Social Work Day is ‘Promoting the Dignity and Worth of Peoples’

This relates to the second pillar of the Global Agenda for Social Work and Social Development which was launched in 2012. Each of the five Global Agenda themes runs for
two years and 2016 is the second year for Promoting the Dignity and Worth of Peoples.

WSWDThe theme is particularly poignant this year as we have witnessed unprecedented levels of mass migration around the world, levels of which we have not experienced since the Second World War. Images of desperate families risking their lives in an attempt to flee conflict and persecution are reported daily in the media. Many are traumatised by their experiences and face uncertain futures. In this context of human suffering it is essential to uphold the commitment to value every human life and embrace shared human experience, and social work is ideally placed to champion this approach.

Social work as a profession is underpinned by a commitment to human rights, and the current president of the International Federation of Social Work, Ruth Stark, has suggested that “Social work is a human rights discipline. It’s not just an element of it- it is the core principle.” 

Such a stance requires social workers to respect the inherent dignity and worth of every IMG_7386person, and this includes respect for human rights as expressed in the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Such an approach is underpinned by five core notions of human rights: human dignity; non-discrimination; civil and political rights; economic, social and cultural rights; and solidarity rights (Wronka, 2007).

It has been argued that social work has often blurred the line between a focus on human needs and human rights (Healy, 2008), however there is an opportunity for social work to grasp a central role in upholding the rights of all peoples across the world. If this opportunity is taken ‘ human rights provide the profession with a clear direction for a presence at the international level, while also bridging local and national issues with global concerns’ (Healy 2008:745).

World Social Work Day provides an opportunity for the global community of social work to come together through cross-national dialogue, to promote a human rights approach which is rooted in social action as a means to uphold the dignity and worth of all peoples across the global world. We therefore should not just ‘talk the talk’ about upholding the dignity and rights of all, but more importantly ‘walk the walk’ by implementing these principles into action in everyday practice.

References

Healy, L.M. (2008) Exploring the history of social work as a human rights profession, International Social Work, 51, 735-748.

Wronka, J. (2007) Human Rights and Social Justice: Social Action and Service for the Helping and Health Professions, Thousand Oaks, CA, Sage.

Guide to develop understanding of financial scamming launched at recent Parliamentary event

A recent awareness raising event at the House of Commons, hosted by Conor Burns MP, discussed the problem of financial scamming and mass marketing fraud in the UK and highlighted the work being undertaken by the NCPQSW at Bournemouth University.

The event included an address from Bournemouth University’s Professor Keith Brown, and explored some of the work of the NCPQSW around financial scam prevention and at risk groups. Bournemouth University, in partnership with the Chartered Trading Standards Institute, National Trading Standards Scams Team, North Yorkshire Trading Standards, and City of London Trading Standards, has created a Financial Scamming Guide to offer advice and guidance on what to watch for and how to avoid falling foul of scamming techniques and schemes.

This guide includes a campaign to raise awareness of the risks of financial scamming, as well as calling for a more integrated approach to tackling the issues from the financial sectors. In particular the campaign asks that …..

  1. All agencies, especially financial institutions, should:
  • Recognise that consumers/clients with dementia are by definition more at risk of chair
    being scammed. Therefore measures to protect this population group are required
    as part of a ‘duty to care, and those with a diagnosis of dementia have by definition a cognitive impairment which means that their potential ‘unwise decision’ is a result of their cognitive state rather than simply an unwise decision.
  1. All organisations that hold personal data should:
  • Only share or pass on personal details to other organisations via a clear ‘opt in’ as opposed to an ‘opt out’ process. Data should only be allowed for a maximum of 12 months before permission needs to be sought again.
  • Recognise that the normal default position should be that charities do not share, pass on or sell personal details to help prevent ‘Suckers Lists’. The exception being to report a safeguarding concern to statutory agencies where there is a suspicion that the person(s) is/are at risk of harm or scamming and this information should be used in accordance to The Care Act (2014).
  1. Citizens who feel at risk of financial scamming should be able to:
  • Formally notify their bank/building society stating that they feel at risk, requesting that all transactions above a defined threshold (say £1,000) have a 24 hour delay before being processed.
  • At the start of the 24 hour delay period, an email/text alert is automatically sent to the customer’s nominated representative (relative/friend) stating that the customer is attempting to make a large transaction. This will give the opportunity for the proposed transaction to be challenged with a view to potentially stop it leaving consumers account.

To find out more about the work of the NCPQSW in relation to financial scamming, please CLICK HERE.

 

The importance of leadership strategy in Children’s Services

By Lee-Ann Fenge, Deputy Director National Centre for Post-Qualifying Social Work

It is difficult to under-estimate the importance of effective leadership and leadership style within children’s services. Children’s services represent complex areas of practice including child protection and looked after children, and services are being delivered against a backdrop of increasing fiscal restraint and budget cuts. The recruitment and retention of a skilled workforce is anchildcare-page on-going challenge and as a result leaders need to be able to effectively deliver innovative responses to provide services which achieve better outcomes for children and their families.

Ofsted (the Office for Standards in Education, Children’s Services and Skills) inspect and regulate services that care for children and young people, but worryingly recent inspection figures revealed there were more “inadequate” than “good” children’s services in English local authorities. This is worrying for both local authorities and those receiving support from them.

Staff from the National Centre of Post-Qualifying Social Work at Bournemouth University, have been working in partnership with one local authority to develop a robust approach to leadership in order to enhance service delivery in children’s services. Cheshire West and Chester have committed to deliver an Aspiring Team Leader programme and an Aspiring Practice Lead programme as part of a sustainable workforce development approach. Kate Howe, from the NCPQSW, has worked with them to deliver a bespoke Masters level Leadership unit, providing added depth to the programme.

This commitment to workforce development and leadership has proved very positive for Cheshire West and Chester who were recently awarded ‘good’ in their Ofsted inspection, whilst leadership, management and governance were deemed as ‘outstanding’.

‘This outstanding leadership has resulted in good-quality services that respond to the needs of children and families quickly and effectively’ (Ofsted, 2016:2).iStock_000016105991Large Young People Discussing Finance

Cheshire West and Chester have embraced a culture of leadership and coaching as a central plank to improve services for children and their families, taking on board recommendations from Ofsted’s report into effective leadership (2015).

Ofsted suggest that it is possible to overcome some of the challenges of contemporary children’s services through innovation and robust succession planning. This includes approaches to workforce development which value ‘growing your own’, and an importance on learning and development alongside protected budgets and caseloads (Ofsted, 2015). Cheshire West and Chester’s approach to leadership appears to acknowledge these key areas and their recent Ofsted Inspection highlighted the importance of their partnership with Bournemouth University.

‘The authority is active in trying to retain staff through a staff development policy including aspiring senior practice leads and aspiring team managers’ courses, and is currently developing an aspiring senior manager course, all in conjunction with Bournemouth University’ (Ofsted, 2016: 33).

The value added of working alongside a university concerns not only the content of the learning, but also the critical role of assessment of learning. By designing clear assessment strategies based on reflective practice, it is possible to evaluate the effectiveness of learning on staff thinking and practice, and ultimately support a culture of change within the organisation.

References

Ofsted (2015) Joining the dots… Effective leadership of children’s services, Available from: https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/424193/Joining_the_dots__effective_leadership_of_childrens_services.pdf

Ofsted (2016) Inspection of services for children in need of help and protection, children looked after and care leavers And Review of the effectiveness of the Local Safeguarding Children Board – Cheshire West and Chester http://reports.ofsted.gov.uk/local-authorities/cheshire-west-and-chester

 

‘Voices of the Secret State’: Seminar presentation by Dr Hyun Joo Lim, 16th March, Studeland House, Room S206, 13:00-13:50

Awarded & submitted bids, BRIAN, BU Challenges, Centre for Excellence in Learning, Coffee Morning, conferences, Funding opportunities, Fusion, Fusion Investment Fund, Grants Academy, Knowledge Transfer, Publishing, R & KE Operations, Research assessment, Research Ethics, Research Integritiy, Research themes, Women's Academic Network

All staff and students welcome. Please feel free to bring your lunch.

 

Voices of the Secret State: Human Rights Activism among North Korean

Defectors in the UK

 

Abstract: My paper aims to highlight the lived experiences and identity formation of North Korean defectors settled in the UK who are involved in human rights activism. Whilst violations of human rights in North Korea are well documented, human rights activism by its defectors is less well known. Since 2004, approximately 600 North Koreans have settled in the UK. Free NK, a human rights organisation born out of this settlement, has been active in illuminating the reality of North Korea whilst also working towards subverting the regime by informing its fellow remainders about the outside world through the distribution of newspapers. This paper is drawn from ongoing research on North Korean defectors living in the UK. The data is collected using life history interviews to capture their lived experiences and to identify a range of factors which have influenced their involvement in the activism whilst also seeking to find better ways of improving the wellbeing and quality of life for those activists. The presentation will focus on the in-depth story of a North Korean defector who has founded Free NK. Themes that will be addressed in this story include the reason why he has fled North Korea; the processes of getting to the UK; challenges he has faced in his human rights activism.
Dr Hyun-Joo Lim is a lecturer in Sociology and the programme leader for BA Sociology and Social Policy at BU. She is originally from South Korea and has been engaged in various research projects that explore issues around migration, ‘race’/ethnicity, gender and identity. Her previous research examined East Asian mothers in Britain.

For more information about Social Science seminar series please get in touch with Dr Mastoureh Fathi (mfathi@bournemouth.ac.uk).

 

Terrain Generation Using A Voxel Grammar-based Approach

PG research

We would like to invite you to the latest research seminar of the Creative Technology Research Centre.

 

Title: Terrain Generation Using A Voxel Grammar-based ApproachVoxel

 

Speaker: Rahul Dey (a BU research engineer based at Sony Computer Entertainment Europe)

 

Time: 2:00PM-3:00PM

Date: Wednesday 16th March 2016

Room: P302 LT, Poole House, Talbot Campus

 

Abstract:

 

As computational power has increased, so has the fidelity of computer graphics for real time simulations and video games. Terrain is a feature that is ubiquitous in any game that needs to represent an outdoor environment. The creation of larger landscapes for such simulations now requires some automated assistance in the form of Procedural Content Generation (PCG). Many procedural methods forego user design and interaction in favour of complete automation.

This research introduces a novel method to construct terrains by utilising user-designed rulesets. Terrains are represented using a volumetric approach which is a more powerful and flexible way of creating features such as caves, naturally formed arches and overhanging cliffs. Terrains are generated by using the provided ruleset as a grammar to parse the volumetric grid and transform voxels in sections of the grid.

 

This presentation will focus on the method that has been developed to generate these terrains, and detail some of the future work to be carried out during the rest of the course of the research.

 

 

We hope to see you there.

Fusion in Action: Clinical Academic PhD scholarships jointly funded with NHS

Fusion, PG research, student research

Fusion Diagram Doing a PhD may appeal to midwives and other NHS health professionals, but it often involves having to make difficult choices. Undertaking a part-time PhD means studying on top of a busy clinical position, but starting full-time study involves stepping away from practice, which may lead to a loss of clinical skills and confidence. The Centre for Midwifery, Maternal & Perinatal Health (CMMPH) at Bournemouth University has come up with a novel solution making it easier for midwives to undertake a doctorate while still maintaining their clinical skills. This approach is highlighted in the latest publication by Dr. Susan Way and colleagues, describing a process where CMMPH collaborate with NHS partners to apply for a match-funded PhD. [1]  The first partnership was with Portsmouth Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (PHT), with later partners expanded to cover the Isle of Wight and Southampton. Currently there are negotiations with Dorset Country Hospital NHS Foundation Trust and Poole Hospital NHS Foundation Trust. Non NHS organisations have also showed an interest with the Anglo European Chiropractic College (AECC) our likely next collaborator.

Dr. Know 2016

This jointly funded clinical academic doctorate allows midwives to combine clinical practice with a research role, working across BU and their NHS Trust. The studentships runs for four years and PhD students will spend two days per week working as a midwife in clinical practice and three days per week working on their thesis. This set up facilitates the co-creation of knowledge. Anybody interested in developing a joint clinical academic PhD with us please contact Dr. Susan Way (sueway@bournemouth.ac.uk), Prof. Vanora Hundley (vhundley@bournemouth.ac.uk), or Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen (evteijlingen@bournemouth.ac.uk) .

In addition to providing the individual midwives with excellent education, these studentships are designed to examine an area of clinical practice identified by the collaborating organisation where the evidence is lacking and research is needed. As a consequence the research studies will be directly relevant to practice and will have a demonstrable impact in the future. Hence BU will be able to show that its research and education have a direct benefit to the wider society. Moreover, the studentships currently benefit midwifery practice by building a critical mass of research-focus practitioners, who will translate research findings into practice and so create a culture of evidence-based practice. At BU the model has also been adopted by other professional groups such as nursing, physiotherapy and occupational therapy (OT).

 

The result is a clinical academic doctoral studentship is probably the best practical example of BU’s concept of FUSION, since it truly fuses research, education and practice.

 

Susan Way, Vanora Hundley & Edwin van Teijlingen.

CMMPH

 

 

References:

  1. Way. S., Hundley, V., van Teijlingen, E., Walton, G., Westwood, G. (2016). Dr Know. Midwives (Spring Issue): 66-67.

Reminder: BUDI lunch time research seminar open to all BU staff and students

student research

You are cordially invited to a BUDI research seminar which is open to all students and staff.
Please feel free to bring your lunch.

 

“Fire safety in the home: local lessons – global reach”

By Dr Michelle Heward

 Tuesday 8 March 2016

13.00 – 13.50pm

EB202, Executive Business Centre

 

Abstract
Objectives: Impairment, disability and dementia are substantial factors in increasing the risk of injury or death from fire in the home. There is, therefore, a concern that the number of people with dementia injured or dying in fires in the home will increase, in relation to the rising number of people living with dementia internationally.

Methods: Mixed methods study. Online survey sent to all Fire and Rescue Services (FRSs) in the United Kingdom (UK) (n=55) to establish provision of guidance and resources for people affected by dementia.  Four focus groups: fire service professionals; other professionals; and two with people with dementia and family carers in UK (South West). Explored experiences of home safety risks (including fire risks) and risk reduction strategies, alongside ideas for project outputs such as resources.

Findings: 20 FRSs responded to the survey giving a response rate of 36.4%. A descriptive analysis showed that the provision of guidance and resources for people affected by dementia varies widely across the UK, with few providing dementia-specific information leaflets and resources. During the focus groups, people affected by dementia identified different fire risks and risk reduction strategies to those outlined by professionals. However, a need to understand each person and their individual situation came across in each of the focus groups. This was considered a vital part in determining the individual risks within each home environment. Participants also felt that a range of resources that reflect individual needs would be a useful prevention strategy.

Conclusions: For communities to be truly dementia-friendly there is a need to ensure equity in how services respond to the needs of people affected by dementia. Dementia-specific guidance and resources developed as an output from this project could be shared nationally and internationally to address potential consequences of fire safety inequality in the home. However, there remains a need for cross disciplinary working across all sectors to enable people with dementia and their families, practitioners, policy makers, and the general public to understand and contribute towards effective dementia-friendly communities. This case study of fire safety in the home demonstrates the potential impact of local level studies to improving quality of life of people affected by dementia across the globe.

 

We hope you can join us.

Good week for FHSS publications!

Publishing, writing

Hundley Cochrane 2016This first week of March has been a good week for FHSS publications.  On March 1st CMMPH Prof. Vanora Hundley published her collaborative paper  ‘Do Cochrane summaries help student midwives understand the findings of Cochrane systematic reviews: the BRIEF randomised trial’.[1]  With colleagues based across the UK and Ireland she surveyed over 800 midwifery students at nine universities.  This results of the study can be found in the journal Systematic Reviews. This is a Gold Open Access journals, hence the paper is freely available for anybody to read across the globe.  To read this paper click here!

PH curious 2016The second FHSS publication is a chapter in a Kindle book on the Importance of public health in low- and middle- income countries, written by Dr. Puspa Raj Pant,CMMPH’s Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen, and BU Visiting Faculty Prof. Padam Simkhada.[2]  Padam Simkhada is Professor of International Public Health and Associate Dean (Global Engagement) for the Faculty of Education, Health and Community at Liverpool John Moores University.  The chapter is part of the Kindle book  with the long title: Public Health for the Curious: Why Study Public Health? (A Decision-Making Guide to College Major, Research & Scholarships, and Career Success for the College Students and Their Parents) edited by Richard Lee Skolnik from Yale University, USA.

The third paper is by FHSS PhD student Clare Farrance with her supervisors Dr. Fotini Tsofliou and Dr. Carol Clark.  This systematic review ‘Adherence to community based group exercise interventions for older people: A mixed-methods systematic review’ assessed the views and adherence of older participants attending community-based exercise programmes of over six-months duration.  Reporting that evidence is still very limited, although the preliminary limited evidence is positive regarding long-term adherence rates.  This paper is also Open Access, funded by BU’s Open Access fund.Farrance 2016

 

Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen

CMMPH

 

 

References:

  1. Alderdice, F., McNeill, J., Lasserson, T.,Beller, E., Carrol, M., Hundley, V., et al. (2016) Do Cochrane summaries help student midwives understand the findings of Cochrane systematic reviews: the BRIEF randomised trial. Systematic Reviews 5:40 http://systematicreviewsjournal.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s13643-016-0214-8
  2. Pant, P.R., van Teijlingen, E., Simkhada, P. (2016)  Importance of public health in low- and middle- income countries, In:  Skolnik, R.L. (ed.) Public Health for the Curious: Why Study Public Health? (A Decision-Making Guide to College Major, Research & Scholarships, and Career Success for the College Students and Their Parents) Kindle Edition (for more details click here!) 
  3. Farrance, C., Tsofliou, F., Clark, C. (2016) Adherence to community based group exercise interventions for older people: A mixed-methods systematic review To be published. Preventive Medicine (forthcoming)

CfP: Lifestyle and communities: sharing in the digital era

conferences, international

ID-100267211It’s with great pleasure that we invite you to submit an abstract to a special track on “Lifestyle and communities: sharing in the digital era” of the ATLAS annual conference. It will take place in Canterbury, Kent, UK, 14th-16th September 2016.

Please see below for details, or click here… and share!
Led by: Lenia Marques, Jules Hecquet and Dimitrios Buhalis (Bournemouth University, UK)
Supported by: ETourism Lab

The leisure and tourism landscape has been subject to rapid changes in a world where internet and technologies have contributed to shape experiences, relationships, practices and lifestyles. In the network society, the sense of community is also varied and we can interrogate different meanings, values and practices at the heart of changing social interactions. The boundaries between online and offline communities seem to be blurred and they present new societal challenges, which also affect the industry, namely with sharing economy / collaborative consumption practices and communities (such as AirBnB, Uber, Couchsurfing, Meetup, Mealsharing, etc.).

The causes and consequences of such platforms in terms of lifestyle and the sense of community is yet to be studied. Therefore, we welcome papers which may explore, but are not limited to, the following themes:

  • Online/offline communities and lifestyle
  • Sharing economy / collaborative consumption and lifestyle
  • Social interaction in the digital era
  • Leisure digital practices
  • Events as online/offline communities of practice
  • Digital technologies in the tourism experience
  • Lifestyle challenges in leisure and tourism
  • Impacts of sharing economy / collaborative consumption in conventional industry production systems
  • Research methods in the context of sharing economy / collaborative consumption

The convenors are looking at possibilities for publication.

For more details, click  here or contact Dr Lenia Marques, lmarques@bournemouth.ac.uk .

http://www.atlas-euro.org/event_2016_canterbury/tabid/248/language/en-US/Default.aspx#track6

*Image courtesy of Stuart Miles at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Dissertations For Good – helping students to pick a research topic that makes a difference

Centre for Excellence in Learning

New opportunity for your students to contribute to environmental, economic and social sustainability

As part of helping our students to make a difference to the world, BU has signed up to an NUS initiative called Dissertations for Good (DfG). The initiative  connects students with external organisations who then work collaboratively to complete research projects into social, economic and environmental sustainability. The outcome is a piece of student work that contributes in a tangible way, a report that is useful for their partnered organisation and a project that forms their dissertation.

DfG helps students to improve their communication, interpersonal, problem-solving and organisation skills, as well as developing their ability to use their initiative and self-motivate. It also provides valuable CV-enhancing experience of working in the outside world.

All students looking to undertake a research project at BU can register at www.nus.org.uk/dfg and create a profile. This allows them to search the organisations participating in DfG. They then request to be partnered with the organisation and organise a planning meeting. The student, their supervisor and a representative from the partner organisation meet to discuss the project and work together to make the project a success.

Details will be circulated to students via the portal. We shall be monitoring and will seek to evaluate engagement.

FHSS’s publication on public health interventions and research agendas in post-earthquake Nepal

Nepal is approaching to one year of the occurrence of massive earthquakes without much progress on reconstruction and restoration of health facilities in severely affected areas, thus, priority health services such as immunisation and antenatal care are still seriously affected. Consequently, a significant proportion of Nepali population has no access public health services. Such destruction has a huge impact on health care delivery in the earthquake-affected areas because these health care service providers are the first point of access for basic health services.

This forthcoming paper ‘Priority public health interventipaper proofons and research agendas in post-earthquake Nepal’ [1] which has been accepted by South East Asia Journal of Public Health will be freely available in April this year, talks in detail around impact of the Nepal’s earthquake on population health and health system infrastructure. This is a collaborative work among researchers of universities in the UK, Nepal and New Zealand. FHSS’s Dr Pramod Regmi (lead author) along with BU Professor Edwin van Teijlingen, BU visiting Professor Padam Simkhada (Liverpool John Moores University, UK), Nirmal Aryal (University of Otago, New Zealand), Dr Puspa Raj Pant (University of the West of England, UK) and Professor Bhimsen Devekota (Tribhuvan University, Nepal) have contributed to this paper.

Through this paper, the authors suggest very important disaster-related national health research agenda coverin issues around: a) mental health, psychosocial needs, post-traumatic stress disorders; b) neonatal and child health; nutritional intake, immunisation coverage; c) cardio-pulmonary conditions; d) outbreak of communicable diseases; e) injuries/management of trauma; f) sexual and reproductive health: utilisation of antenatal care, delivery care, post-natal care, availability of family planning, sexual abuses in make-shift shelters; g) TB and HIV (service provision and adherence); h) disaster response plan and existing coping capacity and resilience among health care institutions. They have argued for a shift in health service motives to the management of long-term disabilities and disaster preparedness; so that acquired learning during this earthquake are utilised to strengthen evidence-based public health practices in the country. These experiences will also fill the loopholes in the post-disaster recovery strategies. The authors strongly recommend that Nepal should integrate community disaster reduction programs into routine public health service delivery in order to ensure sustainability. BU researchers have previously published around public health issues in post-earthquake Nepal [2, 3].

Pramod Regmi, PhD

References

  1. Regmi P, Aryal N, Pant P, van Teijlingen E, Simkhada P, Devkota B. Priority public health interventions and research agendas in post-earthquake Nepal. South East Asia Journal of Public Health (Article in press)
  2. Mahato P, Regmi P, van Teijlingen E, Simkhada P, Angell C, Sathian, B. 2015. Birthing centre infrastructure in Nepal post 2015 earthquake. Nepal J Epidemiol, 5 (4), 518-519.
  3. Simkhada P, van Teijlingen E, Pant P, Sathian B, Tuladhar G. 2015. Public Health, Prevention and Health Promotion in Post-Earthquake Nepal. Nepal J Epidemiol, 5(2); 462-464.