Substance Use Behaviours of Young People with A Moderate Learning Disability: A longitudinal analysis

Substance use behaviours of young people attending a special school are reported over a four year period from the age of 12-16 years. The paper investigated these behaviours by surveying a cohort of young people with a statement for moderate learning disabilities annually during the last four years of compulsory schooling. The findings show that these young people consistently reported lower levels of tobacco, alcohol and cannabis use compared with those attending mainstream school. No other illicit drug use was reported. The potential implications of these findings are discussed in relation to the context and timing of targeted substance education and prevention initiatives for young people with moderate learning disability attending a special school.

Substance Use among Young People Living in Residential State Care

Existing empirical evidence on substance use among young people living in residential state care during adolescence is comparatively limited. This paper reports on substance use trends of young people living in residential state care during three annual data-sweeps when aged 14, 15 and 16 years. A repeated cross-sectional research design was utilised in the research. The findings suggest some similarities for lifetime prevalence rates for tobacco and alcohol use for those living in residential state care with a group of same-age young people not living in residential state care who participated in the research. However, solvent abuse and cannabis use was higher among those living in care. More frequent substance use was reported by the residential care sample for all substances at each stage of the study. These findings suggest that young people living in state care continue to merit higher levels of vigilance from researchers and policy-makers in order to fully understand this behaviour and develop appropriate prevention initiatives to meet their needs regarding potential drug problems.

Using the opinions of coronary heart disease patients in designing a health education booklet for use in general practice consultations.

Objective This study explored how coronary heart disease (CHD) patients’ views would inform the design of an information booklet aimed at providing patients and practitioners with a resource to help influence positively patients’ health behaviour outcomes. Methods Opinions of patients (N=23) with CHD about their information needs, particularly lifestyle advice, were explored using a qualitative approach in four general practices. This information was used in designing a booklet for a pilot study intervention aimed at promoting healthy lifestyle behaviours and medication adherence among people with CHD. Subsequent focus groups explored patients’ (N=17) opinions about the booklet’s ‘fitness for purpose’; semi-structured interviews with practitioners (N=10) examined their views on the booklet’s usefulness. Results In initial focus groups patients identified gaps in their information provision regarding coping with stress, available local community support and medication purpose. A booklet, prepared on the basis of previous literature, was modified to address these gaps. Pilot study patients were satisfied with the re-designed booklet and practitioners reported that its use in consultations enabled change implementation and facilitated patients’ understanding of connections between lifestyle and health outcomes. Conclusion Acknowledging the opinions of CHD patients in producing health information booklets which emphasised a patient centred approach supported practitioner-patient partnerships for choosing healthy lifestyle choices.

‘Care just changes your life’: Factors impacting on the mental health of children and young people in care in Northern Ireland.

This paper represents one element of a research project carried out into the mental health needs of children and young people with experiences of care in Northern Ireland. Focusing exclusively on qualitative data collected from 51 young people in care and aftercare, it discusses in the first instance how the challenges and difficulties faced by young people can manifest themselves in feelings and behaviours that may exemplify poor mental well-being. In doing so it provides an understanding of mental health in the context of these young people’s lives. Through offering a more detailed account of some of the specific issues that put these young people at increased risk, it highlights areas for further work and consideration as a means of protecting them against these risks. These include: dealing with experiences prior to care; easing and ‘‘normalising’’ the experience of living in care; and enhancing ‘‘safety nets’’ after care. A key objective of the research is to inform policy and practice through the accounts of children and young people. It is argued that more work needs to be done to find creative ways of enhancing the day-to-day experiences of young people while in care and when leaving care.

Innovative Approaches to Involving Service Users in Palliative Care Social Work Education

Service user involvement in social work education is now a firmly established concept in UnitedKingdom.As a result, it is common practice for service users to occupy central roles the education and training of social work students and staff in both qualifying and postqualifying programmes. This paper describes an initiative, undertaken inNorthern Ireland, which compares two methods of user involvement employed with undergraduate and postqualifying social work students. In both situations the students firstly observed discussedDVDexcerpts of narratives from people affected by cancer and secondly observed live facilitated interview with a 25-year-old male service user who shared his experiences being diagnosedwith cancer at a young age.Understanding the social work role in palliative care is crucial as all social workers, regardless of practice context, will have some degree involvement in helping individuals and families to address end-of-life care issues. paper compares the findings of evaluations from two student groups which may help inform social work educators about the effectiveness of different teaching methods used achieve meaningful and effective user involvement with seldom heard groups.

The silent treatment: Parents’ narratives on sexuality education with their adolescent children

This paper is based on research undertaken in Ireland that sought to understand how parents communicate with their children about sexuality. Forty-three parents were interviewed and data were analysed using analytical induction. Data indicated that while parents tended to pride themselves on the culture of openness to sexuality that prevailed in their home, they often described situations where very little dialogue on the subject actually transpired. However, unlike previous research on the topic that identified parent-related factors (such as ignorance or embarrassment) as the main impediments to parent-young person communication about sex, participants in our study identified the central obstacle to be a reticence on the part of the young person to engage in such dialogue. Participants described various blocking techniques apparently used by the young people, including claims to have full prior knowledge on the issue, physically absenting themselves from the situation, becoming irritated or annoyed, or ridiculing parents' educational efforts. In our analysis, we consider our findings in light of the shifting power of children historically and the new cultural aspiration of maintaining harmonious and democratic relations with one's offspring.

‘Stakeholders’ views of legal and advice services for people admitted to psychiatric hospital’

This paper describes a study that used a mixed method approach to elicit the views of a range of stakeholders about experiences of compulsory admission to psychiatric hospital, and the use of the Mental Health Review Tribunal (MHRT). The paper begins with an introduction to the background of the study, one that took place in Northern Ireland, a region in the UK with its own mental health legislation and policy. A review of literature is then presented. This highlights some of the disadvantages that service users and carers face when dealing with professionals during and following compulsory admission to hospital. This section concludes with an overview of literature on the MHRT in the UK. A range of methods was used to gather data from the following stakeholders: five service user and carer focus group interviews (n = 44); interviews with four lawyers experienced in Tribunal work; an interview with a legal member of the Tribunal; a survey of solicitors who identified themselves as equipped to carry out Tribunal work; interviews with three managers of organisations that provided patient advocacy services; letters to hospital managers requesting information provided to patients and carers. The findings reveal a number of themes associated with these experiences of compulsory admission to hospital and subsequent use of the Tribunal. Service users and carers generally found it difficult to access relevant information about rights, information provided by hospital managers was uneven and lawyers were often not familiar with processes associated with compulsory admission. There was a range of views about the Tribunal. Most respondents felt that the Tribunal was necessary and mostly satisfactory in the way it carried out its functions, but stakeholders raised a number of issues. Carers in particular felt that they should be more involved in decision-making processes, whereas lawyers tended to be focused on more technical, legal issues. Problems of regrading prior to the Tribunal and in examining medical evidence were highlighted by lawyers. There was an appeal for better information and advice by service users and carers, and recognition of the need for better training and education for lawyers. The paper concludes with a brief discussion about current mental health law in the UK, arguing that, in this context, professionals should more proactively use information and advice that can enable service users and carers to defend their rights. Keywords: compulsory mental health; law; legal and advice services

‘A planet of confusion and debate’: children's and young people's response to the news coverage of Pluto's loss of planetary status

Despite calls that the school science curriculum should develop among students an ability to understand and respond critically to science-related media reports, very little research has been directed toward an important matter relevant to that aim, namely, how children and young people, untutored, react to science in the news. This study sought, in the context of media coverage of the debate surrounding the planetary status of Pluto, to explore this issue. A questionnaire, completed by 350 students aged between eight and 18, showed just over half of the children and young people were able to write relevantly about the subject though it was the gist not the detail of the story they recounted. There was evidence, nonetheless, that this media-acquired information functioned as active rather than passive knowledge. Students demonstrated relatively few misconceptions and those presented were predominately pre-existing rather than media-derived. As with the wider public, many of the children and young people held strong opinions on Pluto's loss of planethood. Such responses diminished with age, however, with older students expressing a degree of indifference. The paper concludes with a discussion of some implications of the research findings for science instruction.

A Shared Future? Exclusion, Stigmatization, and Mental Health of Same-Sex-Attracted Young People in Northern Ireland

For more than a decade the Peace Process has fundamentally changed Northern Irish society. However, although socioreligious integration and ethnic mixing are high on the political agenda in Northern Ireland, the Peace Process has so far failed to address the needs of some of the most vulnerable young people, for example, those who identify as gay, lesbian, or bisexual. Public debates in Northern Ireland remain hostile to same-sex-attracted people. Empirical evidence from the annual Young Life and Times (YLT) survey of 16-year-olds undertaken by ARK shows that same-sex-attracted young people report worse experiences in the education sector (e.g., sex education, school bullying), suffer from poorer mental health, experience higher social pressures to engage in health-adverse behavior, and are more likely to say that they will leave Northern Ireland and not return. Equality legislation and peace process have done little to address the heteronormativity in Northern Ireland.

"All Have to Live in Me...": A Study of the Use of English Alongside Other African Languages in a Kenyan School

The purpose of this paper, which builds on an earlier paper published in this Journal (Vol. 20, No. 6), is to develop the discussion around how English has been taught, used and perceived in Kenya, using data gathered from a small second-level English-medium school in Kenya. The complex relationships between language and identity are at work in the everyday routines of both staff and pupils within such a context. The paper seeks to set out a clear methodology for gathering data which could help describe these relationships with more clarity while also subjecting the data to analysis informed by the growing body of research and theory that focuses on language policy in post-colonial and neo-colonial settings. Finally, these pieces of data are used as the basis of a further exploration of the implications for classroom practice in teaching English in this environment.

Acquiescence in interviews with people who have mental retardation

Evidence for acquiescence (yea-saying) in interviews with people who have mental retardation is reviewed and the different ways it has been assessed are discussed. We argue that acquiescence is caused by many factors, each of which is detected differentially by these methods. Evidence on the likely causes of acquiescence is reviewed, and we suggest that although researchers often stress a desire to please or increased submissiveness as the must important factor, acquiescence should also be seen as a response to questions that are too complex, either grammatically or in the type of judgments they request. Strategies to reduce acquiescence in interviews are reviewed and measures that can be taken to increase the inclusiveness of interviews and self-report scales in this population suggested.