Search results

This service evaluation aims to understand the experiences of service users (SUs) who accessed an early intervention in psychosis (EIP) service during the Coronavirus pandemic using qualitative and quantitative methodologies and compare these to a previous pre-pandemic study conducted within the same service (Watkins et al., 2018).

This paper collated experiences of individuals accessing an EIP service to inform service development. Questionnaires and individual interviews were conducted to provide quantitative and qualitative data. Descriptive statistics and T-test confidence intervals were created from the results and compared to findings of Watkins et al. (2018). Interviews were transcribed verbatim and analysed using Braun and Clarke’s (2006) thematic analysis.

Data showed participants were largely satisfied with all areas of the service with “work or education”, “living skills”, and “addictions” scoring highest. Though participants reported no overall dissatisfaction, satisfaction levels dropped in “social activities” compared to the findings of Watkins et al. (2018), perhaps due to the national restrictions put in place to manage the spread of Coronavirus during this time. Interview analysis identified three themes of importance consistent with prior literature, highlighting the importance of relationships and validation during recovery.

This evaluation did not consider whether participants had accessed the service prior to the pandemic or only during, meaning that some participants could have a point of comparison with the service pre-pandemic, whereas others might not. Similarly, the participants were not the same as those of the Watkins et al.’s (2018) evaluation, meaning that direct comparisons of pre- and post-pandemic experiences were not possible. In addition, this evaluation collected data at only one time point early in the pandemic; therefore, it is unknown if client experiences of services differed as the pandemic and restrictions continued over time.

The Covid-19 pandemic has been an unprecedented challenge for health services, and the effects of this are becoming widely reported. This evaluation of clinical services offers a valuable perspective of service user experience of receiving mental health services during a global health crisis further offering a comparison to pre-pandemic services and the experiences of those who used them.

In 2013, the National Mutual Acceptance (NMA) of single ethical review was introduced into the Australian public health sector to address the timeliness of multisite clinical trials. A clinical trial is usually designed to test the effects of an experimental therapeutic product. While all research involving humans must comply with ethical guidelines, clinical trials testing products in Australia are also subject to stringent regulatory controls making the need to meet trial milestones critically import. Commercial clinical trials offer participating research sites substantial financial and clinical advantages. Concerns that bureaucratic processes have impeded commercial investment have influenced countries, including Australia, to introduce single ethical review, where one ethics review is accepted at multiple sites participating in the same research project. Although a central tenet of the NMA is the standardization of the behaviors and procedures of research review, concerns of inconsistency remain. This raises the question of whether the NMA does lead public healthcare agencies to adopt similar research governance practices.

A questionnaire survey was undertaken to explore the current experiences (n = 149) of the NMA in Victorian public health agencies, and 21 semi-structured interviews were conducted to explore expectations of the future of the NMA. The findings indicated that, while there was conformity to many of the process requirements of the NMA, a persistent focus on the needs of each individual healthcare agency rather than on complying with the national system weakened pressure on agencies to adopt standardization.

The NMA has the capacity to be a powerful tool in delivering quality clinical trial outcomes, maximize research resources and create dependable performance metrics if consistent policies and governance are followed.

The purpose of this paper is to examine Anzac Day commemoration in schools during World War 1.

Empirical research from newspapers and education department publications is used to illustrate key themes in these commemorations.

Despite claims made at the time that school commemorations did not promote militarism, the available evidence proves the fallacy of these assertions. Moreover, schools became very significant sites for the institutionalising of Anzac Day and shaping it in quite specific ways.

While other authors have examined the militarisation of schools in Australia in the early decades of the 20th century, no study has focussed on schools specifically in relation to Anzac Day.

Competitive advantage in the service industry is achieved through superior customer service. This paper looks at the ways in which IT is being used to support superior quality customer service initiatives in the highly competitive Australian banking industry. The extent to which the need to improve service quality influences IT planning and purchases, and shifts in the level of influence over recent years, are detailed. The link between IT‐supported quality customer service improvements and organisational performance is then discussed.

The purpose of this paper is to assess the leadership skills and competencies defined in the Pathways to the Profession and understand the value senior corporate communications managers place on those skills and competencies and how senior-level corporate communicators demonstration of those skills and competencies.

Institutional review board approval was obtained for a qualitative research design based on focus groups conducted in four Canadian cities with 25 senior corporate communicators, human resources professionals, and general business managers.

This research has validated the competencies and credentials for senior-level corporate communications and public relations executives as highlighted in the Pathways to the Profession framework. It has also provided the profession with an understanding of the value senior public relations and organizational managers place on professional association membership and professional and academic credentials. This research is an important contribution to the growing body of knowledge on competency frameworks as professional associations, such as the Canadian Public Relations Society, take leadership positions in providing educational institutions with sets of standards for public relations and corporate communications education in Canada.

This research will help the public relations and corporate communications profession provide guidance to educational institutions programming for senior-level public relations and communications management education based on quantifiable data on the value executives place on a particular set of skills and competencies.

This is the first study of its kind that examines the perceived competencies and skills of Canadian senior public relations/communications management leadership. Further this research sought to assess the value of academic and professional credentials necessary for participation in executive leadership roles.

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) continues to evolve as a theoretical concept that increasingly integrates social aspects such as diversity, equity, and social justice (DEI). The study reported in this chapter tests the effects of inclusion as a CSR strategy on key characteristics that develop brand connection with female millennial consumers. Using the Self-Brand Connection theory, we test such components of brand connection as values, identity, and perceived connection. Using an example of a cosmetic brand that chooses to either offer an inclusive or noninclusive lineup of skin care products, the study uses an experimental design to present these two scenarios to two independent samples of female millennials. Results suggest support for the importance of inclusion as the respondents exposed to the inclusive scenario had a more positive attitude toward the brand in all components of brand connection versus respondents exposed to a noninclusive scenario. The difference between the groups was statistically significant in every case. We conclude that inclusion as a component of CSR has a significant impact on female millennials' self-brand connection. As a result, corporations should consider CSR effects in terms of inclusion when developing their branding strategies.

In the UK the indoor sexual marketplace of brothels, saunas and massage parlours has historically been left to manage itself, with limited regulation from policing agencies. This paper examines the current nature of the indoor sex markets in light of the Home Office's co‐ordinated prostitution strategy. It looks critically at the impact of ‘disrupting sex markets’, and examines the arguments for rejecting a system that regulates the indoor sex venues. It also discusses the proposal to change the law to enable ‘two (or three)’ women to work together indoors and plans to minimise exploitation through an action plan on trafficking and the implications for practitioners and policy are assessed.

The purpose of this scoping rapid review was to identify and analyse existing qualitative methodologies that have been used to investigate K-12 teachers' lived experiences of adult cyber abuse as a result of student content “going viral” to propose a novel methodological stance incorporating the Australian Online Safety Act 2021.

A search of Google Scholar was conducted using keywords and phrases related to cyber trauma, teachers, qualitative methods and the Online Safety Act. Inclusion criteria for the review were: (1) published in English, (2) focused on teachers' experiences of online abuse and cyberbullying associated with viral posts and (3) employed a qualitative inquiry methodology. Full-text articles were obtained for those that met the inclusion criteria. Data were extracted and analysed using a PRISMA flowchart and inductive thematic analysis.

This methodology is considered to be justified, as the eSafety Commissioner's Safety-by-Design principles do not have any legal or regulatory enforceability, whereas the Online Safety Act 2021 provides the Australian eSafety Commissioner an avenue to drive greater algorithmic transparency and accountability.

The findings of this review informed the development of a novel methodological stance for investigating Australian teachers' lived experiences of adult cyber abuse associated with viral posts. It provides a methodological positioning to support trauma informed qualitative research into adult cyber abuse, informed by the work of the eSafety Commissioner and the Online Safety Act.

Cybertrauma is described as “any trauma that is a result of self- or, other-directed interaction with, mediated through, or from any electronic Internet/cyberspace ready device or machine learning algorithm, that results in impact now or the future” (Knibbs, 2021). It may result from the tracking of movement through various mobile phone features and applications such as location sharing, non-consensual monitoring of social media, and humiliation or punishment through the sharing of intimate images online, through to direct messages of abuse or threats of violence or humiliation. These actions are further perpetuated through automated searches, insights and recommendations on social media (i.e. engagement metrics promote memes, Facebook posts, Tweets, Tiktoks, Youtubes and so on). This is a novel methodology, as it not only considers direct cybertrauma but also automated forms of cybertrauma.

This chapter discusses a family writing project that a third and fourth grade English Language Development (ELD) teacher created with and for her students and families. The project took place within a state with English-only mandates, restrictive curriculum, and harsh anti-immigrant politics. The author outlines the ways that the project worked to disrupt the restrictive policies to honor and celebrate the cultures, languages, and ways of knowing and students and families by inviting them to write and share stories from their lived experiences.