The article is devoted to the peculiarities of communication support of foreign policy institutions in modern democracies, by defining the tasks facing the foreign policy institutions of democracies ...in the information and communication sphere, characteristics of tools used to provide communication support to foreign policy institutions in modern democracies. areas of use of information and communication technologies in the practice of foreign policy institutions of power of developed democracies. Communication support of foreign policy institutions is defined as the establishment of communicative ties at all stages of the process of formation and implementation of foreign policy, by ensuring free access to information, creating information drives and their own information flows. Communication support for the activities of foreign policy institutions includes: (1) preparation by diplomats of information on the real state of affairs at the place of residence, intended for the leadership and heads of diplomacy of other states; (2) direct participation of representatives of diplomatic missions in providing information on the foreign policy of their country, supporting other countries and strengthening the positive image of their country in the international arena. According to the author, the transformation of the information and communication function of government institutions is observed not so much in technical innovations, but in essence, ie in changing its content. Today, the function of foreign policy institutions of government is to establish a constructive dialogue between states, which, above all, involves parity of positions and respect for the interests and goals of the opposite party. The foreign policy departments of different countries, despite the specifics of the organization and legal status of each of them, have many similar directions in the implementation of information and communication function, due primarily to the importance of information and communication as elements of diplomatic activity.
In recent years, applications of social robots as the operator’s avatar have been widely studied for remote conversation with rich nonverbal information. Having another side-participant robot beside ...the avatar robot of the operator was found to be effective for providing long-lasting backchannels to the interlocutor. The side-participant robot is also expected to play a role in assisting human participation in multiparty conversations. However, such a focus has not been applied to remote conversations with multiple robots. Here, we propose a multiple-robot telecommunication system with which the operator can use a side-participant robot to assist conversation that is developed by the operator through the main speaker robot to verify its effectiveness. In the laboratory experiment where the subjects were made to feel stressed by being forced to provide rude questions to the interlocutor, the proposed system was shown to reduce guilt and to improve the overall mood of operators. The result encourages the application of a multi robot remote conversation system to allow the user to participate in remote conversations with less anxiety of potential failure in maintaining the conversation.
In combat network, the rational use of information communication support force is related to the efficiency of information flow of the combat network and has a profound impact on the generation of ...the operational capability. Aiming at the optimization of OODA loop, the requirement of information communication support force in combat network is studied. Firstly, the evaluation standard of OODA operation efficiency is determined, and the network is optimized by using the genetic algorithm based on the characteristics of combat network; According to the degree and clustering of each node in the optimized combat network, the information and communication support force requirements of combat entities and network overall is analyzed. Experiments show that the information and communication support force requirements of combat entities are not only related to their importance, but also affected by entity types. The information and communication support force should meet the construction requirements of the combat net
Little is known about the spirituality of people with logopenic aphasia (language-led dementia), including assessment and support. This article presents a single case study from a case series of ten ...people with various aphasia-types and different religious backgrounds who were recruited after discharge from speech and language therapy (SLT). Based on work with 'Mr Grey', it illustrates the use of the 'WELLHEAD Toolkit' for assessing and supporting spiritual health. A group of people with aphasia and diverse backgrounds co-produced the resources and steered the research. The Toolkit provides communication support and structure for eliciting interviews about 'meaning and purpose' in life. It enables religiously neutral non-judgmental listening and facilitates reflection using Picture and Word Resources, incorporating self-scores, an agreed summary, and goal-setting. Sessions were videoed along with a feedback interview. Participants' reflections, measures, and verification were integral to the findings from the case series. Findings were analysed via systematic interpretive thematic analysis, verified by an independent researcher. Key themes in Mr Grey's case are presented in narrative form to respect his own words, interpreted and verified for meaning, within his search for synthesis of his fragmented story. His story-telling brought him catharsis concerning relationships, religious beliefs and sense of self, whilst helping him to frame future goals. Follow-up confirmed the value of enabling chaplaincy referral as a result of the interviews. This helped him towards resolving historical grief before further language deterioration. Limitations and potential future applications of the WELLHEAD Toolkit are discussed.
This article examines the essence of the definitions of management decision and decision-making, highlighting the essential components of these definitions. This later allows us to provide the ...authors’ definition of the concept of organizational and communication support of the decision-making process in the educational sphere. The article analyzes decision-making models that can be extrapolated in educational institutions under reform conditions. The Rational model is highlighted as a priority decision-making model for the educational sphere. Unlike existing models, the Rational model differs in a significant number of economic criteria, which helps to make accurate decisions among existing alternative choices. The communication process is considered, taking into account the stages of decision-making, where the relationships and correlations between actions at each stage of decision-making are revealed. This subsequently makes it possible to form a matrix of the interrelationship of factors of the development of organizational and communication support and stages of decision-making. The study of organizational and communication support for the decision-making process in higher education institutions makes it possible to schematically depict a complex organizational structure, where close communication links between departments are defined. It is noted that nformation about decisions is mainly provided remotely through the internal module of information and communication support. This allows the administrative and management unit to distribute management information for execution simultaneously to all units, eliminating the distortion of information. It also enables the educational institution to effectively interact with the external environment. The selected components of the organizational and communication support of the decision-making process allow a comprehensive approach to the substantiation of the hypothesis, which is based on the perception of organizational and communication support as necessary tools that have an impact on the quality of the decision-making process in the educational sphere.
Purpose The purpose of this paper is to find out what role intermediaries have in facilitating communication with victims and prisoners at Parole Board (PB) oral hearings. Design/methodology/approach ...A survey was designed and administered to 39 PB members to find out their perceptions of, and experiences with, the use of intermediaries. Frequency tables and verbatim quotations are used to report the results. Findings Overall, participants had not experienced any use of intermediaries with victims or family members presenting victim personal statements at an oral hearing. Further, there had been limited use of intermediaries for prisoners attending oral hearings. Nevertheless, there was a good recognition of a range of communication needs that a prisoner might present with at a hearing. There was also general support for the use of intermediaries with some caution about possible delays to procedural fairness. Practical implications The early identification of communication support needs for prisoners and victims attending an oral hearing is essential. The PB should raise awareness with the PB Membership about the role of intermediaries. The PB should continue to develop guidance and policy surrounding intermediaries. Prison lawyers and HM Prison and Probation Service may require specialist training in identifying communication needs in vulnerable prisoners and identifying when a communication specialist might be required for an oral hearing. Originality/value To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first published paper examining the role of intermediaries at PB oral hearings. It builds on the evidence base of the use of intermediaries in other criminal justice contexts.
Patients are often not given the information needed to understand their prognosis and make informed treatment choices, with many consequently experiencing less than optimal care and quality-of-life ...at end-of-life.
To evaluate the efficacy of a nurse-facilitated communication support program for patients with advanced, incurable cancer to assist them in discussing prognosis and end-of-life care.
A parallel-group randomised controlled trial design was used.
This trial was conducted at six cancer treatment centres affiliated with major hospitals in Sydney, Australia.
110 patients with advanced, incurable cancer participated.
The communication support program included guided exploration of a question prompt list, communication challenges, patient values and concerns and the value of discussing end-of-life care early, with oncologists cued to endorse question-asking and question prompt list use. Patients were randomised after baseline measure completion, a regular oncology consultation was audio-recorded and a follow-up questionnaire was completed one month later. Communication, health-related quality-of-life and satisfaction measures and a manualised consultation-coding scheme were used. Descriptive, Mixed Modelling and Generalised Linear Mixed Modelling analyses were conducted using SPSS version 22.
Communication support program recipients gave significantly more cues for discussion of prognosis, end-of-life care, future care options and general issues not targeted by the intervention during recorded consultations, but did not ask more questions about these issues or overall. Oncologists’ question prompt list and question asking endorsement was inconsistent. Communication support program recipients’ self-efficacy in knowing what questions to ask their doctor significantly improved at follow-up while control arm patients’ self-efficacy declined. The communication support program did not impact patients’ health-related quality-of-life or the likelihood that their health information or shared decision-making preferences would be met. Satisfaction with the communication support program was high.
Given the importance of clarifying prognostic expectations and end-of-life care wishes in the advanced cancer context, the communication support program appears to be an effective and well-received solution to encourage early information seeking related to these issues though, its long-term impact remains unclear. The manualised nature of the intervention, designed with existing clinical staff in mind, may make it suited for implementation in a clinical setting, though additional work is needed to identify why question asking was unaffected and establish its impact later in the illness trajectory.
Support organised through a personal budget aims to promote people's choices in how they arrange their support. Participation in choices of people who use little or no verbal speech to express ...themselves requires that support workers use personalised communication. This article explores how support workers use personalised communication to prioritise the choices of people with intellectual disabilities about organising support through a personal budget. It applies Gormley and Fager's framework of dimensions for personalising communication to analyse ethnographic data from four people with intellectual disabilities using personal budgets and their support workers. The analysis found that workers promoted people's participation in choices about their support when they focused on how people preferred to express themselves. Support practice, policy and research that target people's communication preferences in making support arrangements can have direct impact on their satisfaction with the arrangements and the quality of their personalised support. Keywords: personalised support, communication support, personal budget, intellectual disabilities, communication preferences, personalised communication
Research suggests that individuals with intellectual disabilities (ID) experience difficulties in communication, ranging from intelligibility issues to more severe problems in the use and ...comprehension of spoken, written or sign language. Despite the negative effects that the inability to communicate have on quality of life (QoL), not much research has explored the relationship between communicative competence and QoL in the adult population with ID. The aim of this study was to describe the global communication profile of a sample of 281 adults with ID recruited from Grupo AMÁS Social Foundation, who differed in their level of communication support needs (CSN). The relationships between communicative competence and CSN with QoL were further examined. The results showed lower QoL indices for those participants characterized by their limited use of discourse and inability to exhibit certain communicative purposes, with the largest differences in the dimensions of self-determination, social inclusion, interpersonal relationships, emotional wellbeing and personal development. Overall, low levels of QoL were found for all participants, with even lower scores for the group identified as having CSN. A multiple regression model revealed that having speech/discourse competence is a powerful predictor of QoL, along with the level of disability and having the communicative competences to express likes and preferences or to establish new relationships. This clear relationship between communication and QoL is an important argument for disability support services when it comes to setting communication supports as a priority and as an important preventive step towards the protection of those at risk of exclusion.
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