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New paper for BU professor!

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Jonathan Parker, Professor of Society and Social Welfare has a new paper published today in the Journal of Comparative Social Work.

 

The paper explores the ambivalent position social work enjoys as both a needed public service and a hated interference in private life. The utility of this ambivalence is manifest in the blame attached to social workers, rather than other professionals, when things go wrong. Social work fulfills a need in society that goes deeper than the surface-level aspects of helping and supporting. It offers a useful scapegoat to detract from wider political and governmental failings.

 

The paper is published under a creative commons license and can be accessed following this link https://journals.uis.no/index.php/JCSW/article/view/312.

New paper published by HSS PhD student Debora Almeida

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Debora Almeida (ODP lecturer and PhD student) and her supervisors Jon Williams and Carol Clark, had their latest article published by “Scandinavian Journal of Trauma, Resuscitation and Emergency Medicine”.
The quantitative study “Consistency and variability in human performance during simulate infant CPR: a reliability study” (https://doi.org/10.1186/s13049-020-00785-y) is part of a research project to design an effective infant CPR retraining schedule to minimise skill decay and maximise retention.
This will be part of an integrated thesis, the new BU thesis format which allows a candidate to incorporate material into their PhD already published or which they intend to publish.
For more information about integrated thesis please check the “Code of Practice for Research Degrees”.

https://intranetsp.bournemouth.ac.uk/documentsrep/8ACodeofPracticeforResearchDegrees.pdf

FHSS PhD student’s poster at prestigious GLOW conference

BU research, conferences, Featured academics, international, PG research, policy, Publishing, Research news, student research, Uncategorized, Women's Academic Network, writing

Today and tomorrow Sulochana Dhakal-Rai will have her poster ‘Factors contributing to rising Caesarean Section rates in South Asia: a systematic review’ online at this year’s GLOW Conference [Global Women’s Research Society Conference].  This year for the first time, this international conference is held completely online.  Sulochana’s PhD project is supervised by Dr. Pramod Regmi, P., Dr. Juliet Wood and Prof Edwin van  Teijlingen at BU with Prof. Ganesh Dangal [Professor of Obstetrics and Gynaecology at Kathmandu Model Hospital] who acts as local supervisor in Nepal.  Sulochana has already published two papers from her on-going thesis research [1-2].

References

  1. Dhakal-Rai, S., Regmi, PR, van Teijlingen, E, Wood, J., Dangal G, Dhakal, KB. (2018) Rising Rate of Caesarean Section in Urban Nepal, Journal of Nepal Health Research Council 16(41): 479-80.
  2. Dhakal Rai, S., Poobalan, A., Jan, R., Bogren, M., Wood, J., Dangal, G., Regmi, P., van Teijlingen, E., Dhakal, K.B., Badar, S.J., Shahid, F. (2019) Caesarean Section rates in South Asian cities: Can midwifery help stem the rise? Journal of Asian Midwives, 6(2):4–22.

World Suicide Prevention Day: Responsible Suicide Reporting Model helps media report more ethically and responsibly

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By Dr. Ann Luce

Journalists have an important role to play in the prevention of suicide through ethical and responsible reporting of this sensitive topic. Global media reporting guidelines on suicide have been around for more than 20 years; UK-specific guidelines for at least half that. The Editor’s Code of Practice first updated its guidance on how to report suicide in 2006, with a further update in 2015.

Yet, suicide reporting in the UK continues to be problematic and harmful.  Suicide rates in the UK are on the rise. Statistics released just last week, in advance of World Suicide Prevention Day, by the Office of National Statistics show there were 5,316 suicides in England in 2019, a rise of 5% in the suicide rate to 10.8 per 100K people, the highest rate since 2000. The UK suicide statistics are not yet available, but expected in the months ahead.

In 2018, across the UK, there were 6,507 deaths, which left up to 878,000 people bereaved and at a higher risk for suicide themselves. Never has responsible and ethical reporting of suicide been more important.

There is broad agreement within all global guidelines on suicide that key areas to consider include: method and location; copycat behaviour; appropriateness of language and word placement in a story; sensationalizing or romanticising suicide; celebrity cases; unusual situations like murder-suicide; use of video, audio and social media and the inclusion of helpline information.

However, the clauses in regulatory codes of conduct—as opposed to guidelines—mostly concentrate on reporting the method, and while they might aim to minimise harm, their scope in terms of suicide prevention advice is limited.

Journalists have frequently reported that they don’t use suicide guidelines because, a.) they are unaware of the guidelines, b.) they’re not legally required to follow them c.)  they’re just too busy and forget to consult them. The problem here is that journalists do not always recognise the manner in which their reporting might be considered sensationalistic, stigmatising and unsafe.

My colleague, Dr. Sallyanne Duncan (University of Strathclyde) and I recently completed a study looking at adherence to media reporting guidelines in British journalism. We found that 55% of all stories in our sample were sensationalized. A quarter of stories provided explicit details about the method of death, while 23% provided explicit and unwitting ‘guidance’ or a roadmap on how to die by suicide using a particular method.

The word suicide appeared in 32% of all headlines, which is against the advice in media reporting guidelines.  Just over 20% of stories made specific mention of the location of the death while 13% of stories framed and ‘normalised’ the act of suicide as if it were a solution to a problem, a rather simplistic assessment of a complex public health issue.

Unsurprisingly, we found that 61% of stories implied or emphasised a reason for suicide, reducing a complex problem down to a single unconfirmed reason. In 15% of online stories, video accompanied the story, which is considered harmful to those bereaved, as in most cases they have not provided permission. Most worrying of all was that 60% of stories did not contain helpline information, breaking World Health Organization, National Union of Journalists and Samaritan’s reporting guidelines on suicide.

To help journalists report more responsibly and ethically on suicide, we have devised the Responsible Suicide Reporting (RSR) model and an accompanying online toolkit, www.suicidereportingtoolkit.com.

The RSR model offers journalists a middle way to minimise harmful content whilst maximising supportive, helpful elements. The model supplements the valuable guidance produced by organisations like the WHO, Samaritans, National Union of Journalists, Independent Press Standards Organisation and Mindframe (Australia), and embeds this guidance in the storytelling process.

The RSR model is pragmatic and internal to journalists’ news-work. It functions within the storytelling process, reflecting recognised journalistic narratives involving people, although it may not be applicable to every extant story type, eg. stories based predominantly on data/statistics. But, it addresses hindrances to journalists’ use of guidelines, eg. lack of awareness, reluctance to consult them, taking time away from reporting to check and apply them, tight deadlines and fewer journalists doing increasing amounts of work.

The Responsible Suicide Reporting model consists of three steps:

  1. Identifying the suicide story type
  2. Applying 4 ethical rules
  3. Applying a standard of moderation

In Step 1, we ask journalists to identify which type of suicide story they are reporting:

  1. Event driven: the first recognition that a traumatic event has happened and that a newsworthy death has occurred
  2. Post judicial: focuses on a court case, inquest or other legal proceedings
  3. Tribute driven: where the grieving family and friends pay tribute to the deceased
  4. Anniversary: normally marking the death’s first anniversary, but can be later ones as well (suicide anniversaries tend to happen in 1, 5, 10, and 25-year blocks, such as in the case of the rock musician Kurt Cobain)
  5. Action as memorial: where the bereaved family and friends undertake a campaign, fundraising event or set up a charity in memory of their loved one

In Step 2, we ask journalists to apply the four ethical rules:

  1. Do not sensationalise: this happens when you put the word suicide in the headline or use ‘beautiful quotes’ such as ‘heaven has a new angel’ or ‘RIP Babes’
  2. Do not stigmatise: this happens when you describe someone as a ‘victim of bullying’, or describe them by their illness (autistic), nationality (Welsh) or religion (Muslim).
  3. Do not glorify: don’t focus on suicide as a life choice or focus on a particular method, ie. How Robin Williams took his own life
  4. Do not gratuitously report: don’t overly emphasize the reason for death, or focus on dying at a particular location, ie. Golden Gate Bridge, Beachy Head or a railway station

In Step 3, we ask journalists to apply a standard of moderation by asking themselves six critical questions:

  1. Have I minimised harm to those affected by suicide?
  2. Have I told the truth, yet avoided explicit details of method and location?
  3. Have I taken care in producing the story including tone and language?
  4. Have I used social media responsibly?
  5. Do I avoid stereotypes, harmful content and stigmatising stories?
  6. Have I provided support via helplines?

If journalists answer no to any of these questions, then it signifies that there is a problem with the story and they should go back and fix the problem so as not to cause harm to their audience.

Our RSR model is an attempt to provide an instrument that journalists can habitually implement as they report, without having to search for or recall external guidance whilst they are under pressure to produce content. By applying the RSR model, journalists can test whether their reporting is responsible, and thus in line with suicide reporting guidelines, relevant clauses in codes and journalism regulators.

We hope the application of this model and further research on our part, will be able to show a positive impact on suicide reporting around the world

Dr. Ann Luce is Associate Professor in Journalism and Communication, Bournemouth University and Dr. Sallyanne Duncan is Senior Lecturer in Journalism and Media Ethics, University of Strathclyde

New paper by Assoc Prof Dr Jayne Caudwell

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Congratulations to Associate Professor Dr Jayne Caudwell of the Department of Social Sciences and Social Work and Centre for Seldom Heard Voices who has published new research on transgender and non-binary swimming and sociologies of space and safety! The paper can be accessed following this link https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fsoc.2020.00064/full?utm_source=F-NTF&utm_medium=EMLX&utm_campaign=PRD_FEOPS_20170000_ARTICLE

 

New paper from Newton/Ungku Omar research collaboration with Universiti Sains Malaysia

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Professors Sara Ashencaen Crabtree and Jonathan Parker of the Department of Social Sciences and Social Work and Centre for Seldom Heard Voices have published research  that develops heir Newton/Ungku Omar research with Universiti Sains Malaysia for developing curricular and education for social workers in a time of pandemic.

COVID-19 resulted in massive disruption and changes in every
aspect of our lives. To curb the spread of the virus, many governments
limited the movement of people or imposed full ‘lockdowns’.
This created significant challenges for social workers practising with
people often reliant on interpersonal support such as those at risk
of domestic abuse; with mental health problems or learning disabilities.
Measures to reduce viral spread affected the education
sector at all levels from pre-school to higher education, disrupted
traditional classroom pedagogy and shifted to technologically supported
e-learning to minimise disruption to the students’ education.
In lockdown, online teaching has become the new norm.
E-learning has its limitations for professional curricula such as social
work. Like most countries, field practice represents a compulsory
component of the social work curriculum in Malaysia which measures
the capabilities or competency of students to enable them to
become qualified social workers. When COVID-19 forced universities
and agencies to halt field placements in Malaysia, the immediate
challenge was to find alternative ways of assessing students. This paper aims to provide an overview of field education assessment in Malaysia during the pandemic and to pose questions for future assessment as Malaysian social work drives towards increased professional regulation.

Supporting integrated theses at BU

Doctoral College, PG research, Postgraduate Research, Uncategorized

Over the last few months Library and Learning Support has been developing its guidance for integrated theses. This is a  new format for BU which allows a candidate to incorporate material into their PhD already published or which they intend to publish elsewhere.

Orlanda Harvey was the guinea pig for our new guidlines when she submitted her thesis in July. Her title was “Male anabolic androgenic steroid-users: A mixed-methods study” and included articles which had been published as well as some intended for publication in the future.

I caught up with Orlanda recently to see how she had found the process, why she had taken the route of doing her thesis in this way and what advice she had for us in planning support for students doing integrated theses in the future.

You can watch our conversation and see our guidance for submitting an integrated thesis to the library in our Postgraduate Researcher Library Guide.

 

 

Productive week CMMPH

BU research, Featured academics, international, PG research, Publishing, Research news, student research, Uncategorized, writing

Some weeks are more productive than others and this week the  academics in the Centre for Midwifery, Maternal & Perinatal Health (CMMPH) have been very busy.   Professor Hundley published  a paper  ‘The initiation of labour at term gestation: physiology and practice implications’ with two midwifery colleagues [1].   The further two CMMPH paper accepted this week were systematic reviews: (a)  Perceived Stress and Diet Quality in Women of Reproductive Age: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis; and (b)  ‘Midwives’ views towards women using mHealth and eHealth to self-monitor their pregnancy: A systematic review of the literature’ [2-3].  Fourthly, CMMPH PhD student Sulochana Dhakal-Rai had a poster accepted at this year’s GLOW conference, which will be held, for the first time, online.  This poster based on her PhD ‘Factors contributing to rising caesarean section rates in South Asia: ​a systematic review’ is supervised by Dr. Juliet Wood, Dr. Pramod Regmi, Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen and Prof.  Ganesh Dangal (based in Nepal).

 

Congratulations!

Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen

 

References:

  1. Hundley V, Downe S, Buckley S (2020) The initiation of labour at term gestation: physiology and practice implications. Best Practice & Research Clinical Obstetrics & Gynecology 67: 4-18  https://www.sciencedirect.com/journal/best-practice-and-research-clinical-obstetrics-and-gynaecology/vol/67/suppl/C

  2. Khaled K, Tsofliou F, Hundley V, Helmreich R, Almilaji O Perceived Stress and Diet Quality in Women of Reproductive Age: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis Nutrition (in press) 

  3. Vickery M, van Teijlingen E, Hundley V, Smith GB, Way S, Westward G. Midwives’ views towards women using mHealth and eHealth to self-monitor their pregnancy: A systematic review of the literature.  European Journal of Midwifery (in press)

How Will Emerging Economies Reliant on Tourism Survive the Crisis? 

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How Will Emerging Economies Reliant on Tourism Survive the Crisis? 

https://skift.com/2020/08/21/how-will-emerging-economies-reliant-on-tourism-survive-the-crisis/

21 August 2020

Dimitrios Buhalis, a professor of tourism at Bournemouth University, told Skift that countries which can temporarily divert their tourism workforce to other industries, such as to agriculture or fishing, may be able to weather the storm and see their tourism economies pick up where they left off, eventually. He pointed to the example of Bali, Indonesia, where the tourism workforce has largely shifted to more traditional economic means — certainly not without hardship.

But, Buhalis said, “where it’s more difficult is where tourism is 60, 70, 80 percent of the local economy and where you don’t have a local domestic market. Places where the country is small, geography does not support easy accessibility, and the social classes are very structured.” He noted that some Greek islands and countries such as the Maldives fall into this category.

Conversely, Buhalis said the emerging markets that will fare the best during Covid are those that have a large domestic population, an income distribution which means a sizeable percentage of locals can afford to travel, and the geography and infrastructure that allows them to do so.

Though he believes that tourism will recover — “we’ve seen how many people are desperate to travel” — he thinks the current moment represents something of a “fallow period” for tourism, one where governments who have already invested in tourism economies should continue to build up infrastructure and make industries more efficient for what he sees as tourism’s inevitable return.

“Apart from the health crisis we’re about to experience a major global recession beyond belief and that will damage tourism and will create a range of initiatives to prepare us for the next day,” Buhalis said. “We need to improve efficiency and we need to improve the way that we manage tourism.”

Launch of Suicide Reporting Toolkit

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We are thrilled to announce the launch of the Suicide Reporting Toolkit: For Journalists and Journalism Educators, available now at: http://www.suicidereportingtoolkit.com/

We know from research that reporting suicide responsibly requires sensitivity and compassion. Our journalism has the potential to cause harm to vulnerable people if we do not report suicide responsibly and ethically. This new toolkit offers practical resources for both journalists and journalism educators to make sure we do just that.

Created by Dr Ann Luce (Bournemouth University) and Dr Sallyanne Duncan (University of Strathclyde), the Responsible Suicide Reporting model enables journalists–and journalism students–to make ethical decisions about their storytelling whilst under pressure from various news processes. It embeds global media reporting guidelines on suicide—World Health Organisation (WHO), Samaritans, Independent Press Standards Organisation (IPSO), National Union of Journalists (NUJ) and Society for Professional Journalists (SPJ)—within journalism practice and functions within the storytelling process so journalists can question their choices as they produce content.

We’d be very grateful if you could share this resource through your own networks.  You can also follow us on Twitter: @SR_Toolkit

The Ethical Journalism Network has provided its international support to the project with an article here and podcast here.

For more information contact Ann Luce, Associate Professor in Journalism and Communication at: aluce@bournemouth.ac.uk

 

 

New publication

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A new publication from former PhD student Billy Senington and his supervisor Jonathan Williams investigating low back pain in cricket fast bowlers. Open access in BMJ Open Sport and Exercise Medicine – please enjoy.

https://bmjopensem.bmj.com/content/6/1/e000818

Biomechanical risk factors of lower back pain in cricket fast bowlers using inertial measurement units: a prospective and retrospective investigation, 2020. BMJ Sport Ex Med 6 (1).

 

 

 

Interdisciplinary Public Health

BU research, international, open access, Publishing, Research Integritiy, Uncategorized, writing

Yesterday the Journal of Manmohan Memorial Institute of Health Sciences published our editorial ‘Public Health is truly interdisciplinary’ [1].  This editorial was largely written to counteract some of the jurisdictional claims made in Nepal by certain people in Public Health.  These claims express themselves in arguments around the question whether Public Health is a single academic discipline or profession or whether it is a broad profession comprising many different academic disciplines.  There are two quite distinct and opposing views. Some argue that Public Health is a broad-ranging single discipline covering sub-disciplines such as Epidemiology, Management, Public Health Practice, Health Psychology, Medical Statistics, Sociology of Health & Illness and Public Health Medicine.  Those who support this argument, typically see: (a) Public Health is the overarching dominant discipline, which brings these sub-disciplines together; and (b) that a true Public Health practitioner amalgamates all these individual elements.  Others argue that Public Health is more an overarching world view or  interdisciplinary approach for wide-ranging group of professionals and academics [2]. In this view some Public Health professionals are first trained as clinicians, others as psychologists, health economists, health management, statisticians, or demographers, and so on and have later specialised in Public Health.

However,  their are people in the field claiming that Public Health is a single discipline that can only /or even best be practice and taught by those with an undergraduate degree in Public Health.  Basically suggesting you you need a Public Health degree to practice or teach the discipline.  Our editorial argues that this latter view suggests a rather limited understanding of the broad church that is Public Health.

This latest editorial is co-authored by Dr. Sharada P. Wasti in Nepal, Prof. Padam Simkhada, who is based at the University of Huddersfield and BU Visiting Faculty and Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen in the Centre for Midwifery, Maternal & Perinatal Health (CMMPH).  Both articles listed below are Open Access and free available to readers across the globe.

 

References:

  1. Wasti, S.P., van Teijlingen, E., Simkhada, P. (2020) Public Health is truly interdisciplinary. Journal of Manmohan Memorial Institute of Health Sciences 6(1): 21-22.
  2. van Teijlingen, E., Regmi, P., Adhikary, P., Aryal, N., Simkhada, P. (2019). Interdisciplinary Research in Public Health: Not quite straightforward. Health Prospect, 18(1), 4-7.

Dr Choe joins the Mekong Tourism Advisory Board!

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Dr Jaeyeon Choe in the Business School has accepted the invitation to join the Mekong Tourism Advisory Group. She will advise on projects around community-based small businesses in remote areas in the Mekong region, focusing on creative and innovative tourism products and programmes as recovery strategies during and after COVID-19.

Please see the current initiatives from Mekong Tourism Coordinating Office below:
https://www.mekongtourism.org/

Dr Choe recently has been invited to a closed webinar, “Tourism Recovery through Travel Bubbles” as a panellist, by the Asian Development Bank, where UNWTO representatives were also participated. She discussed opportunities and challenges of domestic tourism and travel bubbles in Southeast Asia.

Whilst working actively with international organisations, she is looking forward to contributing to the communities on the Mekong, and communicate their needs to policy makers, and the academic community.

Parliament for Researchers – 45 minute online seminar series

parliament, Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology, policy, Research communication, Research news, Uncategorized

Parliament’s Knowledge Exchange Unit is holding 45-minute online seminars on a variety of topics to help researchers confidently increase the impact and policy potential of their research.

The seminars will provide key information and tips in a short burst to ensure colleagues have the knowledge to begin engaging with Parliament.

How to engage with the UK Parliament

Join this webinar to explore how the UK Parliament uses research, and how you as a researcher can feed in your expertise.

How to work with select committees

Join this webinar to explore how research is used by select committees, and how to feed in your expertise.

How to write and target your research for a parliamentary audience

Join this webinar to explore how to write for a parliamentary audience and present briefings in a targeted, proactive way.

Parliament for Early Career Researchers – how to engage with the UK Parliament

Join this webinar to explore how the UK Parliament uses research, and how to engage while juggling research, teaching and kickstarting your career.

Parliament for PhD Students – how to engage with the UK Parliament

Join this webinar to explore how the UK Parliament uses research, and how to engage from the start of your research career.

Parliament for Knowledge Mobilisers – how to support engagement with the UK Parliament

Join this webinar to explore ways to build and support your institution’s engagement with the UK Parliament.