Details the steps which were taken in the process of hiring a Director of Pastoral Care for a 274-bed acute care regional referral center in southern Alberta, Canada. Stresses the importance of ...anchoring the hiring process steps within a relevant context. Offers recommendations for hospitals and clergy faced with a similar project.
This sensitive, compelling biography is a revealing portrait of Patrick van Rensburg, a controversial but heroic anti-apartheid activist and radical educationist whose democratic, anti-elitist vision ...and energetic pursuit of inclusive, developmental and practical education received international recognition with the Right Livelihood Award in 1981.
Patrick van Rensburg (1931-2017) was an anti-apartheid activist and self-made 'alternative educationist' whose work received international recognition with the Right Livelihood Award in 1981. Born in ...KwaZulu-Natal into what he described as a 'very ordinary South African family that believed in the virtue of racism', Van Rensburg became a self-styled rebel who tirelessly pursued his own vision of a brighter future for emerging societies in post-colonial southern Africa. His emotional and intellectual struggle against his upbringing and cultural roots led him to reject his life of white privilege in South Africa. Determined to prevent the emergence of a privileged black elite in post-colonial society, he devoted his life to implementing an alternative, egalitarian approach to education, focusing on quality and functional schooling for the majority. Rewarded with the internationally prestigious Right Livelihood Award for his unique contribution to education, he saw this work as a 'necessary tool of development'. Exiled from South Africa in 1960 because of his involvement in the London boycott campaign that gave birth to the Anti-Apartheid Movement, Van Rensburg moved to Botswana (then Bechuanaland). There he founded cooperatives, provided vocational training and was among the earliest educationists to espouse the discipline of development studies. Perhaps his best-known legacy is the Swaneng Hill School, which he founded to provide an educational home for primary school 'dropouts' through a curriculum that combined theory and practice, and academic and manual labour. He involved his pupils in building their school, running it, providing their own food, and making their own equipment and furniture. Van Rensburg was an innovative and charismatic visionary who captured the zeitgeist of the late twentieth century, and whose work and vision still have resonance for debates in educational policy today. Patrick van Rensburg (1931-2017) was an anti-apartheid activist and self-made 'alternative educationist' whose work received international recognition with the Right Livelihood Award in 1981. Born into a broken home and raised as an Anglophone in KwaZulu-Natal, Van Rensburg only discovered his Afrikaner heritage when applying for his first job in 1948, the year the Afrikaner National Party came to power with its programme of apartheid. His Damascene conversion to an opponent of apartheid occurred in the Belgian Congo eight years later, when he dramatically resigned as South Africa's youngest vice-consul. Forced into exile from South Africa in 1960, Van Rensburg settled in Bechuanaland (Botswana), where he challenged conventional educational wisdom, founded three self-built schools, and established vocational training 'brigades' which offered a second chance to primary school 'drop-outs'. Regrettably, his ideas failed to gain traction in liberated South Africa, but the strong network of self-reliant community trusts throughout Botswana represents an enduring testament to his unfailing commitment to justice and equality. Van Rensburg was an energetic, innovative and charismatic visionary who captured the zeitgeist of the late twentieth century, and whose work and vision still have resonance for debates in educational policy today.
► This paper shows how domestic urban agriculture is part of the claims to the ‘right to the city’. ► It explores the concept of the right to urban metabolism. ► The paper analyses everyday food ...production and consumption in homes. ► It uses a case study of the cultivation of fruit trees in homes in Managua, Nicaragua.
The ‘right to the city’ has been understood as the right of urban inhabitants to produce urban spaces, and has generally drawn on Henri Lefevbre’s work on the social production of urban space. This paper examines the socioenvironmental aspects of the right to produce urban space. The aim of the paper is to draw on and contribute to the literatures on urban political ecology and the right to the city by exploring the concept of the right to urban metabolism through an analysis of everyday food production and consumption in homes in an informal settlement in Managua. The article argues that the ecologies of informal household urban agriculture (primarily the cultivation of fruit trees) are a key way that marginalised urban inhabitants in Managua appropriate and produce urban space, and consequently, demand their rights to urban metabolism. Through the production of home ecologies based on physiological necessities and cultural food practices, households simultaneously challenge their exclusion from urban spatial practices and address the increasing insecurity of access to food in Managua.
Patient support programs (PSPs), including medication management and counseling, have the potential to improve care in chronic disease states with complex therapies. Little is known about the ...program's effects on improving clinical, adherence, humanistic, and cost outcomes.
To conduct a targeted review describing medical conditions in which PSPs have been implemented; support delivery components (eg, face-to-face, phone, mail, and internet); and outcomes associated with implementation.
MEDLINE - 10 years through March 2015 with supplemental handsearching of reference lists.
English-language trials and observational studies of PSPs providing at minimum, counseling for medication management, measurement of ≥1 clinical outcome, and a 3-month follow-up period during which outcomes were measured.
Program characteristics and related clinical, adherence, humanistic, and cost outcomes were abstracted. Study quality and the overall strength of evidence were reviewed using standard criteria.
Of 2,239 citations, 64 studies met inclusion criteria. All targeted chronic disease processes and the majority (48 75%) of programs offered in-clinic, face-to-face support. All but 9 (14.1%) were overseen by allied health care professionals (eg, nurses, pharmacists, paraprofessionals). Forty-one (64.1%) reported at least one significantly positive clinical outcome. The most frequent clinical outcome impacted was adherence, where 27 of 41 (66%) reported a positive outcome. Of 42 studies measuring humanistic outcomes (eg, quality of life, functional status), 27 (64%) reported significantly positive outcomes. Only 15 (23.4%) programs reported cost or utilization-related outcomes, and, of these, 12 reported positive impacts.
The preponderance of evidence suggests a positive impact of PSPs on adherence, clinical and humanistic outcomes. Although less often measured, health care utilization and costs are also reduced following PSP implementation. Further research is needed to better quantify which support programs, delivery methods, and components offer the greatest value for any particular medical condition.
To estimate the prevalence and associations of broadly defined (i.e., meeting full ICD-10, DSM-IV, or RDC/ICSD-2 inclusion criteria) insomnia with work performance net of comorbid conditions in the ...America Insomnia Survey (AIS).
Cross-sectional telephone survey.
National sample of 7,428 employed health plan subscribers (ages 18+).
None.
Broadly defined insomnia was assessed with the Brief Insomnia Questionnaire (BIQ). Work absenteeism and presenteeism (low on-the-job work performance defined in the metric of lost workday equivalents) were assessed with the WHO Health and Work Performance Questionnaire (HPQ). Regression analysis examined associations between insomnia and HPQ scores controlling 26 comorbid conditions based on self-report and medical/pharmacy claims records. The estimated prevalence of insomnia was 23.2%. Insomnia was significantly associated with lost work performance due to presenteeism (χ² (1) = 39.5, P < 0.001) but not absenteeism (χ² (1) = 3.2, P = 0.07), with an annualized individual-level association of insomnia with presenteeism equivalent to 11.3 days of lost work performance. This estimate decreased to 7.8 days when controls were introduced for comorbid conditions. The individual-level human capital value of this net estimate was $2,280. If we provisionally assume these estimates generalize to the total US workforce, they are equivalent to annualized population-level estimates of 252.7 days and $63.2 billion.
Insomnia is associated with substantial workplace costs. Although experimental studies suggest some of these costs could be recovered with insomnia disease management programs, effectiveness trials are needed to obtain precise estimates of return-on-investment of such interventions from the employer perspective.
Abstract Youth involved in the child welfare system experience multiple early adversities that can contribute to increased risk of substance use and delinquency. Although adverse childhood ...experiences (ACEs) have been associated with poorer behavioral outcomes among youth, less is known about the possible protective factors that may influence the relationship between early adversity and risk-taking behavior. This study examined whether protective adult relationships moderated the link between cumulative ACEs and substance use and delinquency after controlling for demographic characteristics in child welfare-involved youth. The sample included 1054 youth, ages 11–17, from the National Survey of Child and Adolescent Well-Being II who were in the first wave of data collection. Results showed that protective adult relationships moderated the relationship between ACEs and substance use, but not for delinquency. Specifically, under lower levels of protective adult relationships, cumulative ACEs related to increased substance use among youth. Implications for child welfare practices to target youths' support systems are discussed.
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