Do we need a law to help people try experimental drugs?

People with life-threatening or incurable diseases may be willing to try experimental drugs and unproven treatments, but they face the risk of exploitation. Is the law the best avenue to ensure that they are protected while medical innovation is encouraged? Protection of vulnerable people is a thread running through many laws, in Australia and elsewhere. In medical law, for instance, children and people with impaired decision-making capacity warrant special attention. But what of the ordinary person diagnosed with a life-threatening disease? Such people are vulnerable to harm and potential exploitation when they seek access to innovative, experimental or unproven treatments that depart from the existing range of accepted medicine.

'Genuine' refugees or illegitimate 'boat people' : political constructions of asylum seekers and refugees in the Malaysia Deal debate

Immigration to Australia has long been the focus of negative political interest. In recent times, the proposal of exclusionary policies such as the Malaysia Deal in 2011 has fuelled further debate. In these debates, Federal politicians often describe asylum seekers and refugees as ‘illegal’, ‘queue jumpers’, and ‘boat people’. This article examines the political construction of asylum seekers and refugees during debates surrounding the Malaysia Deal in the Federal Parliament of Australia. Hansard parliamentary debates were analysed to identify the underlying themes and constructions that permeate political discourse about asylum seekers and refugees. We argue that asylum seekers arriving in Australia by boat were constructed as threatening to Australia’s national identity and border security, and were labelled as ‘illegitimate’. A dichotomous characterisation of legitimacy pervades the discourse about asylum seekers, with this group constructed either as legitimate humanitarian refugees or as illegitimate ‘boat arrivals’. Parliamentarians apply the label of legitimacy based on implicit criteria concerning the mode of arrival of asylum seekers, their respect for the so-called ‘queue’, and their ability to pay to travel to Australia. These constructions result in the misrepresentation of asylum seekers as illegitimate, undermining their right to protection under Australia’s laws and international obligations.

Rove n Rave™ development : a partnership between the university and the disability service provider to build a social website for people with an intellectual disability

Rove n Rave ™ is a website designed and created for, and with, people with an intellectual disability. Its aim is to provide them with a user-friendly online platform where they can share opinions and experiences, and where they can find reviews which will help them to choose a place to visit themselves. During the development process, input on design requirements was gathered from a group of people with an intellectual disability and the disability service provider. This group then tested the product and provided further feedback on improving the website. It was found that the choice of wording, icons, pictures, colours and some functions significantly affected the users' ability to understand the content of the website. This demonstrated that a partnership between the developer and the user is essential when designing and delivering products or services for people with an intellectual disability.

Developing people capabilities for the promotion of sustainability in facility management practices

This thesis investigates the potential people capability factors that can influence the implementation of sustainability agenda in facility management practices. Twenty three critical factors were identified and separated into four categories of strategic, anticipatory, interpersonal and system thinking capabilities. An Interpretive structural model was then developed to explore the interrelationship and priority of each critical factor. A set of guidelines for action and potential effects of each people capability factor were presented for the industry to promote sustainability endeavour in facility management practices.

Parentification: Counselling talk on a helpline for children and young people

This chapter investigates counselling interactions where young clients talk about their experiences of taking on family responsibilities normatively associated with parental roles. In research counselling literature, practices where relationships in families operate so that there is a reversal of roles, with children managing the households and caring for parents and siblings, is described as parentification. Parentification is used in the counselling literature as a clinician/researcher term, which we ‘respecify’ (Garfinkel, 1991) the tem by beginning with an investigation of young clients’ own accounts of being an adult or parent and how counsellors orient to these accounts. As well as providing understandings of how young people propose accounts of their experiences of adult-child role reversal, the chapter contributes to understanding how children and young people use the resources of counselling helplines, and how counselors can communicate effectively with children and young people.

Designing with people with disabilities : adapting best practices of DIY and organizational approaches

Individualization of design is often necessary particularly when designing with people with disabilities. Maker communities, with their flexible Do-It-Yourself (DIY) practices, offer potential to support individualized and cost-effective product design. However, efforts to adapt DIY practices in designing with people with disabilities tend to face difficulties with regard to continuous commitment, infrastructure provision and proper guidance. We carried out interviews with diverse stakeholders in the disability services sector and carried out observations of local makerspaces to understand their current practices and potential for future collaborations. We found that makerspace participants face difficulties in terms of infrastructure provision and proper guidance whereas Disability Service Organizations face difficulties in continuous expertise. We suggest that artful infrastructuring to blend the best of both approaches offers potential to create a sustainable community that can design individualized technologies to support people with disabilities.

The quality of life and caregiving burden among caregivers of people with dementia in Hanoi, Bac Ninh and Hai Phong, Vietnam

This three phase study aimed to describe dementia carer's quality of life (QoL) and perceived burden, and explore the associations between family carer characteristics, burden and perceived QoL in Vietnam. Dementia carers in the capital, Hanoi, in Phase 1 (N= 153) and from Hanoi, Hai Phong and Bac Ninh in Phase 2 (N=347) completed questionnaires. Survey results showed dementia carers reported low QoL, predicted by high perceived burden. Other carer characteristics including age, gender, family income and perceived experience were significantly associated with QoL. Filial piety contributed to only a single domain of QoL. Phase 3 employed qualitative methods to explore the specific issues faced by daughter carers. Findings suggested that filial gratitude and positive aspects of the role may influence the caring experience of daughter carers. Further investigation of the specific support needs of general dementia carers, and daughter carers in particular, in Vietnam is warranted.

The second chance project: A multi-level examination of secondary prevention practices for Saudi people following a recent cardiac event

The study examined the health-related behaviours of Saudi people following a recent cardiac event and identified the factors that influence these behaviours using McLeroy et al.'s (1988) Ecological Model of Health Behaviours as a guiding framework. The study was one of the first in Saudi Arabia to examine the health-related behaviours of Saudi people following a recent cardiac event. The study findings emphasise the importance of a program that integrates secondary prevention practices, educational approaches and targeted supportive services in cardiac care in Saudi Arabia.

On the symbiosis of law and truth in Christian theology: Reconciling universal and particular through the Pauline law of love

This article argues that the secular liberal and positivist foundations of the modern Western legal system render it violent. In particular, the liberal exclusion of faith and subjectivity in favour of abstract and universal reason in conjunction with its privileging of individual autonomy at the expense of the community leads to alienation of the individual from the community. Similarly, the positivist exclusion of faith and theology from law, with its enforced conformity to the posited law, also results in this violence of alienation. In response, this article proposes a new foundation for law, a natural law based in the truth of Trinitarian theology articulated by John Milbank. In the Trinity, the members exist as a perfect unity in diversity, providing a model for the reconciliation of the legal individual and community: the law of love. Through the law of love as the basic norm, individuals love their neighbours as themselves, reconciling the particular and the universal, and providing a community of peace rather than violence.

The validity of personal disturbance scale (DSSI/sAD) in people with diabetes mellitus, using longitudinal data

Despite being used since 1976, Delusions-Symptoms-States-Inventory/states of Anxiety and Depression (DSSI/sAD) has not yet been validated for use among people with diabetes. The aim of this study was to examine the validity of the personal disturbance scale (DSSI/sAD) among women with diabetes using Mater-University of Queensland Study of Pregnancy (MUSP) cohort data. The DSSI subscales were compared against DSM-IV disorders, the Mental Component Score of the Short Form 36 (SF-36 MCS), and Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale (CES-D). Factor analyses, odds ratios, receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analyses and diagnostic efficiency tests were used to report findings. Exploratory factor analysis and fit indices confirmed the hypothesized two-factor model of DSSI/sAD. We found significant variations in the DSSI/sAD domain scores that could be explained by CES-D (DSSI-Anxiety: 55%, DSSI-Depression: 46%) and SF-36 MCS (DSSI-Anxiety: 66%, DSSI-Depression: 56%). The DSSI subscales predicted DSM-IV diagnosed depression and anxiety disorders. The ROC analyses show that although the DSSI symptoms and DSM-IV disorders were measured concurrently the estimates of concordance remained only moderate. The findings demonstrate that the DSSI/sAD items have similar relationships to one another in both the diabetes and non-diabetes data sets which therefore suggest that they have similar interpretations.

How to tackle cybercrime before people even know they're a victim

An estimated A$75,000 is lost by Australians everyday to online fraud, according to the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC). Given that this is based on reported crime, the real figure is likely to be much higher. It is well known that fraud, particularly online fraud, has a very low reporting rate. This also doesn’t even begin to encompass non-financial costs to victims. The real cost is likely to be much, much higher. There are many challenges to policing this type of crime, and victims who send money to overseas jurisdictions make it even harder, as does the likelihood of offenders creating false identities or simply stealing legitimate ones. But despite these challenges police have started to do something to prevent the impact and losses of online fraud. By accessing financial intelligence, police are able to identify individuals who are sending money to known high-risk countries for fraud. They then notify these people with their suspicions that they may be involved in fraud. In many cases the people don’t even know they may be victims or involved in online fraud.

The Reef Cycle: Paradise; Paradise Plundered; Paradise Preserved by people Power

This is a musical theatre production with an environmental message addressing a Queensland, Australia tussle between the development of the Galilee Coal Basin and the potential threat to the health of the Great Barrier Reef along the Queensland coast. The drama is enacted by characters representing "goodies" and "baddies" and includes epic poetry, dance, orchestra and drama. The whole performance is enacted in the midst of a post graduate student art exhibition with a coral and coal theme.

Bricolage and storied selves: Young people's assemblages of narrative and identity in an Australian life storytelling project

Narrating is simultaneously self-interpretation and self-construction. People make sense of their lives and create their identities through an active process of assembling and applying meaning to memories, experiences, thoughts, actions and passions. Such a process can usefully be described as a bricolage: life narratives are created as an assemblage of scattered experiences and events. Through the particular way in which they are arranged, the storyteller constructs what Paul Ricoeur (1992) calls a “narrative identity”; that is, an identity which is organised through and specific to the story told. Applying this notion of narrative as bricolage to ‘Heywire’ – an Australian youth life storytelling project – this paper discusses the unique affordances that the process of storytelling offers in terms of identity and the way new, digital technologies and the internet augment the features of life narratives. It argues that narrative, in addition to new media, offers important tools through which young people who participate in the Heywire project make sense of personal experiences and craft their own identities in powerful and purposeful ways.

Avoiding giving advice in telephone counselling for children and young people

Kids Helpline is an Australian 24-hour telephone counselling helpline for children and young people up to the age of 25 years old. The service operates with the core values of empowerment for clients, and the use of child-centred practices, one aspect of which is a non-directive approach highlighted by the avoidance of overt advice giving. Through analysis of a single call to the helpline, this chapter demonstrates how counsellors actively manage and minimise the normative and asymmetric properties of advice in the course if helping clients develop options for change. In doing so we illustrate the practical relevance and enactment of abstract institutional policies and discuss the interactional affordances of institutional constraints on practice.