Elizabeth Hanson

Bio: Elizabeth Hanson is an academic researcher from Linnaeus University. The author has contributed to research in topics: Focus group & Psychosocial. The author has an hindex of 26, co-authored 109 publications receiving 2192 citations. Previous affiliations of Elizabeth Hanson include University of Manitoba & University of Sheffield.

Seeing the person behind the patient: enhancing the care of older people using a biographical approach.

Abstract: Recent policy statements have stressed the need for fundamental changes to the NHS, especially to the hospital care of older people. Person-centred care underpins such changes. If practitioners are to deliver person-centred care, then they need to learn more about the patient as an individual. One way that this might be achieved is through biographical approaches. This paper describes the findings of a developmental study undertaken over a 6-month period to investigate the introduction of a biographical approach to care on a unit in a NHS hospital. It concentrates on the views of the practitioners who used the approach. The study aimed to explore whether a biographical approach - in the form of storytelling - might be used to encourage person-centred practice. Using a practice development approach, the study explored the views of older people, their family carers and practitioners regarding their participation in life story work. Initial data were collected by focus groups with staff from a nursing home who regularly used life stories as a basis for care planning. Further data were collected through focus groups, semistructured interviews and observation - undertaken before and after the introduction of life story work - with older people, family carers and practitioners. Findings revealed that life stories helped practitioners to see patients as people, to understand individuals more fully and to form closer relationships with their families. Support workers also said how much they enjoyed using the approach to inform their care. Further longitudinal research is required to investigate biographical approaches more fully and to work more closely with practitioners to explore how biographical approaches can be undertaken as part of standard practice and be integrated into the culture and management of care.

When a parent dies – a systematic review of the effects of support programs for parentally bereaved children and their caregivers

Abstract: The death of a parent is a highly stressful life event for bereaved children. Several studies have shown an increased risk of mental ill-health and psychosocial problems among affected children. The aims of this study were to systematically review studies about effective support interventions for parentally bereaved children and to identify gaps in the research. The review’s inclusion criteria were comparative studies with samples of parentally bereaved children. The focus of these studies were assessments of the effects on children of a bereavement support intervention. The intervention was directed towards children 0–18 years; but it could also target the children’s remaining parent/caregiver. The study included an outcome measure that dealt with effects of the intervention on children. The following electronic databases were searched up to and including November 2015: PubMed, PsycINFO, Cinahl, PILOTS, ProQuest Sociology (Sociological Abstracts and Social Services Abstracts). The included studies were analysed and summarized based on the following categories: type of intervention, reference and grade of evidence, study population, evaluation design, measure, outcome variable and findings as effect size within and between groups. One thousand, seven hundred and-six abstracts were examined. Following the selection process, 17 studies were included. The included studies consisted of 15 randomized controlled studies, while one study employed a quasi-experimental and one study a pre-post-test design. Thirteen studies provided strong evidence with regards to the quality of the studies due to the grade criteria; three studies provided fairly strong evidence and one study provided weaker evidence. The included studies were published between 1985 and 2015, with the majority published 2000 onwards. The studies were published within several disciplines such as psychology, social work, medicine and psychiatry, which illustrates that support for bereaved children is relevant for different professions. The interventions were based on various forms of support: group interventions for the children, family interventions, guidance for parents and camp activities for children. In fourteen studies, the interventions were directed at both children and their remaining parents. These studies revealed that when parents are supported, they can demonstrate an enhanced capacity to support their children. In three studies, the interventions were primarily directed at the bereaved children. The results showed positive between group effects both for children and caregivers in several areas, namely large effects for children’s traumatic grief and parent’s feelings of being supported; medium effects for parental warmth, positive parenting, parent’s mental health, grief discussions in the family, and children’s health. There were small effects on several outcomes, for example children’s post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms, anxiety, depression, self-esteem and behaviour problems. There were studies that did not show effects on some measures, namely depression, present grief, and for the subgroup boys on anxiety, depression, internalizing and externalizing. The results indicate that relatively brief interventions can prevent children from developing more severe problems after the loss of a parent, such as traumatic grief and mental health problems. Studies have shown positive effects for both children’s and remaining caregiver’s health. Further research is required including how best to support younger bereaved children. There is also a need for more empirically rigorous effect studies in this area.

Ethical issues arising from a research, technology and development project to support frail older people and their family carers at home.

Abstract: The present paper provides an overview of the application of the key ethical issues which arose in an EU-funded research, technology and development project, Assisting Carers using Telematics Interventions to meet Older Persons’ Needs (ACTION). The primary aim of the ACTION project was to support frail older people and their family carers in their own homes across England, Northern Ireland, the Republic of Ireland, Sweden and Portugal via the use of user-friendly information and communication technology. Ethical guidelines were developed in the project and used as a tool to enable the multidisciplinary project team to increase their awareness of ethical issues in their everyday work, and to act as a useful ethical framework for regular team discussions at international and local meetings across the partner countries. A range of ethical issues arose during the field-study phases of the project when the ACTION services were introduced into a number of families’ own homes. It can be argued that these ethical issues reflect factors relating both to the application of research into practice, as well as those relating more directly to the use of new technology by families and care professionals. Key issues centre upon the ethical concepts of autonomy, independence, quality of life, beneficence, non-maleficence and justice, and more specifically, on ethical issues of security, privacy and confidentiality, increased expectations, and withdrawal of the service. This paper is intended to facilitate dialogue and debate in the area of enabling (assistive) technology in home care for older people and their families.

A pilot study of how information and communication technology may contribute to health promotion among elderly spousal carers in Norway

Abstract: The objective of this pilot Norwegian intervention study was to explore whether use of information and communication technology (ICT) by informal carers of frail elderly people living at home would enable them to gain more knowledge about chronic illness, caring and coping, establish an informal support network and reduce stress and related mental health problems. Potential participants were close relatives of an elderly person with a diagnosis of a chronic illness dwelling in the same household who wished to continue caring for their relative at home, were 60 years of age or older, had been caring for less than 2 years, were a computer novice and had Norwegian as their first language. Nineteen elderly spousal carers participated in the study from two municipalities in eastern Norway. The project commenced in January 2004 and consisted of a multimethod evaluation model. Outcomes measured included carers' social contacts (measured by the Family and Friendship Contacts scale); burden of care (measured by the Relative Stress scale); and knowledge about chronic disease and caring, stress and mental health and use of ICT (examined via a composite carer questionnaire). These quantitative data were collected immediately prior to the study and at 12 months. Qualitative data were also collected via focus group interviews with participant carers at 7 months. At follow-up, quantitative measures did not reveal any reduction in carer stress or mental health problems. However, carers reported extensive use of the ICT service, more social contacts and increased support and less need for information about chronic illness and caring. Contact with and support from other carers with similar experiences was particularly valued by participants. The intervention also enhanced contacts with family and friends outside the carer network. Thus, it can be seen that ICT has the potential to contribute to health promotion among elderly spousal carers.

The European commission

Abstract: 2 1 The innovative transport systems and the CityMobil project 10 1.1 The research questions 10 2 The state of art in the field of automatic transport systems 12 2.1 Case studies and demand studies for innovative transport systems 12 3 The design and implementation of surveys 14 3.1 Definition of experimental design 14 3.2 Questionnaire design and delivery 16 3.3 First analyses on the collected sample 18 4 Calibration of Logit Multionomial demand models 21 4.1 Methodology 21 4.2 Calibration of the “full” model. 22 4.3 Calibration of the “final” model 24 4.4 The demand analysis through the final Multinomial Logit model 25 5 The analysis of interaction between the demand and socioeconomic attributes 31 5.1 Methodology 31 5.2 Application of Mixed Logit models to the demand 31 5.3 Analysis of the interactions between demand and socioeconomic attributes through Mixed Logit models 32 5.4 Mixed Logit model and interaction between age and the demand for the CTS 38 5.5 Demand analysis with Mixed Logit model 39 6 Final analyses and conclusions 45 6.1 Comparison between the results of the analyses 45 6.2 Conclusions 48 6.3 Answers to the research questions and future developments 52

Bracketing in Qualitative Research

Abstract: Bracketing is a method used in qualitative research to mitigate the potentially deleterious effects of preconceptions that may taint the research process. However, the processes through which brack...

Reducing Risks for Mental Disorders: Frontiers for Preventive Intervention Research

Abstract: Hardly a family in America has been untouched by mental illness. As many as one third of American adults will suffer a diagnosable mental disorder sometime in their life, and 20 percent have a mental disorder at any given time. Although research on the causes and treatment of mental disorders remains vitally important—and indeed major advances are leading to better lives for increasing numbers of people—much greater effort than ever before needs to be directed to prevention. The Senate Appropriations Committee of the U.S. Congress believed that a strategic approach to the prevention of mental disorders was warranted. The Congress mandated the National Institute of Mental Health to enter into an agreement with the Institute of Medicine (IOM) to prepare an integrated report of current research with policy-oriented and detailed long-term recommendations for a prevention research agenda. The specific tasks of the IOM committee, as negotiated with NIMH and the co-funding agencies, were as follows: • Review the status of current research on the prevention of mental illness and problem behaviors and on the promotion of mental health throughout the life span. This should include an understanding of available research knowledge, research priorities, and research opportunities in the prevention research area. • Review the existing federal presence in the prevention of mental disorders and the promotion of mental health, spanning the continuum from research to policy and services. • Provide recommendations on federal policies and programs of ABSTRACT xi Ab ou t th is P D F fil e: T hi s ne w d ig ita l r ep re se nt at io n of t he o rig in al w or k ha s be en r ec om po se d fro m X M L fil es c re at ed f ro m t he o rig in al p ap er b oo k, n ot f ro m t he or ig in al ty pe se tti ng fi le s. P ag e br ea ks a re tr ue to th e or ig in al ; l in e le ng th s, w or d br ea ks , h ea di ng s ty le s, a nd o th er t y pe se tti ng -s pe ci fic fo rm at tin g, h ow ev er , c an no t b e re ta in ed , a nd s om e ty po gr ap hi c er ro rs m ay h av e be en a cc id en t a lly in se rte d. P le as e us e th e pr in t v er si on o f t hi s pu bl ic at io n as th e au th or ita tiv e ve rs io n fo r a ttr ib ut io n.

Help wanted? : providing and paying for long-term care

Abstract: Colombo, F., et al. (2011), Help Wanted?: Providing and Paying for Long-Term Care, OECD Health Policy Studies, OECD Publishing. http://dx.doi.org/10.1787/9789264097759-en This work is published on the OECD iLibrary, which gathers all OECD books, periodicals and statistical databases. Visit www.oecd-ilibrary.org, and do not hesitate to contact us for more information. Help Wanted? PROVIDING AND PAYING FOR LONG-TERM CARE