Improving recruitment to occupational health professions through highlighting intrinsic rewards.

Background: There are currently 2.5 million people economically inactive in the UK due to sickness. The government is considering a range of new initiatives to bring them back into the workforce; however, a lack of occupational health (OH) professionals, who play an important part in the recovery of physical and mental conditions that would otherwise inhibit employees from working, is hindering these efforts.

A tutorial: self-created film as a semiotic resource in AAC.

Sharing personal stories with others is essential to human interaction and language development. To communicate, individuals use a variety of semiotic resources, including images, symbols, and written and spoken language. These modes are deployed in the co-construction of a daily face-to-face conversation.

'I wasn't on the front line , but I was part of health care': Contributions and experiences of ancillary staff in care homes in England during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Objectives: Ancillary staff - cleaning, catering, housekeeping and laundry workers - play a crucial role in care homes, by promoting infection control, food preparation and hygiene, and contributing to the care home environment. This study sought to understand the experiences of ancillary staff working in English care homes during the COVID-19 pandemic. The results will inform policy makers, employers, care home managers and others, both in England and overseas, as how to best support the ancillary workforce.

'You're out on a limb, on your own': Social care personal assistants' (PAs') reflections on working in the Covid-19 pandemic - implications for wider health and care services.

Context: In England, Personal Assistants (PAs) are part of an international trend towards state funded but client-hired or directly employed care workers. The Covid-19 pandemic highlighted and exacerbated pre-existing risks and advantages of this arrangement for both PAs and people with care and support needs.

Objectives: We aim to report PAs' reflections on their experiences of working since the pandemic started in 2020 and highlight the longer-term implications for health and care services.

Genetic and particle modelling approaches to assessing population connectivity in a deep sea lobster.

The emergence of high resolution population genetic techniques, such as genotyping-by-sequencing (GBS), in combination with recent advances in particle modelling of larval dispersal in marine organisms, can deliver powerful new insights to support fisheries conservation and management. In this study, we used this combination to investigate the population connectivity of a commercial deep sea lobster species, the New Zealand scampi, Metanephrops challengeri, which ranges across a vast area of seafloor around New Zealand. This species has limited dispersal capabilities, including larvae with weak swimming abilities and short pelagic duration, while the reptant juvenile/adult stages of the lifecycle are obligate burrow dwellers with limited home ranges.

Assessing potential brief screening questions for use within different social care-related contexts to identify individuals experiencing gambling-related harms: A scoping review.

Gambling-related harms are increasingly recognised as public health concerns internationally. One response is to improve identification of and support for those affected by gambling-related harms, including individuals who gamble and those close to them, 'affected others'. Adult social care services have been identified as a setting in which screening for gambling-related harms is suitable and desirable.

Personal Assistants' role in infection prevention and control: Their experiences during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Personal Assistants (PA) or client-hired workers are directly employed by people needing care and support, often making use of government funding. In the context of Covid-19, questions emerged about how this workforce is supported to practice safely. This paper reports PAs' understanding and views of infection control during the early months of the Covid-19 pandemic in England.

Combining genotypic and phenotypic variation in a geospatial framework to identify sources of mussels in northern New Zealand.

The New Zealand green-lipped mussel aquaculture industry is largely dependent on the supply of young mussels that wash up on Ninety Mile Beach (so-called Kaitaia spat), which are collected and trucked to aquaculture farms. The locations of source populations of Kaitaia spat are unknown and this lack of knowledge represents a major problem because spat supply may be irregular. We combined genotypic (microsatellite) and phenotypic (shell geochemistry) data in a geospatial framework to determine if this new approach can help identify source populations of mussels collected from two spat-collecting and four non-spat-collecting sites further south.

A qualitative study of handovers at shift changeovers in five care homes for older people in England.

Background: It is widely acknowledged that inadequate handovers are associated with putting patients at risk in clinical settings; however, handover practices have received little attention in other 24-hr settings such as long-stay residential care facilities.

Aim: This study aimed to explore the perceived purpose and organisational processes involved in the handover of information between shifts of staff caring for older residents in five care homes in England.

Methods: The study took an ethnographic approach to fieldwork, undertaken between February and June 2016.

The nature of gambling-related harm for adults with health and social care needs: an exploratory study of the views of key informants.

Aim: To explore the views of professionals working within health, care and other agencies about harmful gambling among adults with health and social care needs.

Background: Gambling is increasingly seen as a public health rather than an individual problem. Opportunities to gamble have grown in England in the last decade since the liberalisation of the gambling industry meaning that gambling is widely available, accessible and advertised within society.

Exploring the support for UK migrants experiencing gambling-related harm: insights from two focus groups.

Objectives: To obtain insights about the accessibility of UK gambling support services from the perspectives of individuals and organisations supporting migrants experiencing gambling-related harm.

Study Design: Two focus groups were conducted in Leeds and London, United Kingdom, in 2018.

Methods: Thirty-two participants shared their views and experiences from their support work with migrant communities or support services and personal experiences.

Skill mix: The potential for personal assistants to undertake health-related tasks for people with personal health budgets.

Personal health budgets (PHBs) are being promoted in England as expanding the benefits of choice and control to individuals with healthcare needs. National Health Service (NHS) money is provided to eligible people to use as set out in approved care plans, including direct employment of personal assistants (PAs). The government plans to increase NHS-funded PHBs and to further introduce integrated personal budgets (IPBs).

Older care home residents' and their relatives' knowledge, understanding and views of shift handovers: an exploratory, focused-ethnographic qualitative study using interviews and observations.

Objectives: To investigate residents' and relatives' views and experiences of handovers in care homes. This paper reports residents' and relatives' awareness of handovers, knowledge of and views on handover practices and purpose, and views on handover effectiveness. Outcomes, safety and satisfaction in clinical settings are influenced by shift handovers.

An exploration of why health professionals seek to hold statutory powers in mental health services in England: considerations of the approved mental health professional role.

Background: There is a shortage of Approved Mental Health Professionals (AMHPs), who are responsible for compulsory admission decisions under the Mental Health Act (MHA), 1983. Only 5% of AMHPs are health professionals, over a decade after the role was opened to them.

Aims: The research aimed to identify factors motivating and discouraging health professionals from becoming and working as AMHPs.

Comparative influence of genetics, ontogeny and the environment on elemental fingerprints in the shell of Perna canaliculus.

The trace elemental composition of biogenic calcium carbonate (CaCO) structures is thought to reflect environmental conditions at their time of formation. As CaCO structures such as shell are deposited incrementally, sequential analysis of these structures allows reconstructions of animal movements. However, variation driven by genetics or ontogeny may interact with the environment to influence CaCO composition.

ShopComm: Community-Supported Online Shopping for Older Adults.

The United Kingdom has an ageing population whose members experience significant life transitions as they grow older, for example, losing mobility due to deteriorating health. For these adults, digital technology has the potential to sustain their independence and improve their quality of life. However older adults can be reluctant to use digital solutions.

An independent shopping experience for wheelchair users through augmented reality and RFID.

People with physical and mobility impairments continue to struggle to attain independence in the performance of routine activities and tasks. For example, browsing in a store and interacting with products located beyond an arm's length may be impossible without the enabling intervention of a human assistant. This research article describes a study undertaken to design, develop, and evaluate potential interaction methods for motor-impaired individuals, specifically those who use wheelchairs.

The feasibility of introducing an adult safeguarding measure for inclusion in the Adult Social Care Outcomes Framework (ASCOF): findings from a pilot study.

Background: There are currently no national measures in England reporting the experiences of people who have been involved with adult safeguarding services following concerns that they may be at risk of abuse or neglect. The Health and Social Care Information Centre (HSCIC) aimed to develop a new adult safeguarding outcome measure (survey) for local authorities (LAs) that could be added to the Adult Social Care Outcomes Framework (ASCOF). The ASCOF is a national collection of social care outcomes performance indicators collected from the perspective of people receiving partial or total funding from a LA for care services.

The role of photographic and video documentation in the investigation and prosecution of child sexual assault.

Despite its widespread acceptance by medical investigators, the use of colposcopy to document ano-genital examinations after sexual assault allegations has attracted controversy. Concerns have been expressed about potentially negative effects arising from the misuse of photo-documentation with some arguing that colposcopic photo-documentation should not occur. We discuss the extent to which these concerns, so far as they relate to the medical examination of children and young people, are supported by the research evidence.

Taking the long view: exploring the development of interprofessional education.

Interprofessional education (IPE) in health and social care has been well documented regarding student outcomes. Less has been written from the perspective of those who actually developed IPE. This study explores IPE within the context of a university partnership working with service providers in Southwest London (UK).

An exploration of the experiences of recent graduates from an interprofessional foundation degree.

This short report describes a study which aimed to explore the experiences of newly qualified assistant practitioners (APs) from an interprofessional foundation degree in long-term conditions. Interviews were carried out with one cohort of newly qualified APs and their employee mentors, 6-9 months after the APs had re-entered full-time practice. Three major themes were identified after analysis of the interview transcripts: widened AP horizons, poor AP pay and conditions and friction between APs and their colleagues.