Stigmatization as a social control mechanism for persons living with HIV and AIDS.

Stigmatization contributes to inequity by marginalizing persons living with HIV and AIDS (PHAs). In this study we examined the stigmatizing practices in health care settings from the perspectives of PHAs and health care providers (HCPs). A qualitative design, using a participatory action research approach, was used.

Unpacking vertical and horizontal integration: childhood overweight/obesity programs and planning, a Canadian perspective.

Background: Increasingly, multiple intervention programming is being understood and implemented as a key approach to developing public health initiatives and strategies. Using socio-ecological and population health perspectives, multiple intervention programming approaches are aimed at providing coordinated and strategic comprehensive programs operating over system levels and across sectors, allowing practitioners and decision makers to take advantage of synergistic effects. These approaches also require vertical and horizontal (v/h) integration of policy and practice in order to be maximally effective.

Accessing health services while living with HIV: intersections of stigma.

AIDS stigma has serious consequences. This study explored those practices within health-care organizations that persons with HIV perceive as stigmatizing. It used an exploratory, descriptive design using a participatory action research approach.

Obesity, stigma and public health planning.

Given the rise in obesity rates in North America, concerns about obesity-related costs to the health care system are being stressed in both the popular media and the scientific literature. With such constant calls to action, care must be taken not to increase stigmatization of obese people, particularly of children. While there is much written about stigma and how it is exacerbated, there are few guidelines for public health managers and practitioners who are attempting to design and implement obesity prevention programs that minimize stigma.

Culturally Competent Service Provision Issues Experienced By Aboriginal People Living With HIV/AIDS.

Cultural identity is an important factor in how well Aboriginal people respond to HIV/AIDS prevention or, once diagnosed with HIV or AIDS, how it affects their health care. This study explores the cultural skills among service providers who see Aboriginal people living with HIV/AIDS (APHAs) and the perspectives of APHAs. The purpose is to better understand the wellness needs of APHAs and how culturally competent care affects health service access and use.

Complexity and team dynamics in multiple intervention programmes: challenges and insights for public health psychology.

Psychologists engaged in public health research and intervention will become more involved in multiple intervention programming approaches. Managing innovation and complexity is a challenge when the team members come from different disciplines, organizational cultures and research perspectives. This report captures some of those challenges with a participatory, capacity-building, community-based intervention over research stages.

Improving accuracy of transcripts in qualitative research.

Everyone who has worked with qualitative interview data has run into problems with transcription error, even if they do the transcribing themselves. A thoughtful, accurate, reliable, multilingual transcriptionist with a quick turnaround time is worth her or his weight in gold. In this article, the authors examine some transcription circumstances that seem to bring about their own consistent set of problems.

Immigrant women implementing participatory research in health promotion.

Few studies on women's health include immigrant women as participants, and fewer are conducted by immigrant women themselves. In this article, the authors present a model that allowed their full participation as researchers and authors. They describe their experiences using participatory research methods with Hispanic women in multiple ways to reach out to isolated women, collect data about community needs, and provide health education.