346 resultados para Melissa Mestriner
Resumo:
Objective: Childhood mental health difficulties affect one in every seven children in Australia, posing a potential financial burden to society. This paper reports on the early lifetime individual and population non-hospital healthcare costs to the Australian Federal Government for children experiencing mental health difficulties. It also reports on the use and cost of particular categories of service use, including the Medicare Benefits Schedule (MBS) mental health items introduced in 2006.
Method: Data from the Longitudinal Study of Australian Children (LSAC) were used to calculate total Medicare costs (government subsidised healthcare attendances and prescription medications) from birth to the 8th birthday associated with childhood mental health difficulties measured to 8–9 years of age.
Results: Costs were higher among children with mental health difficulties than those without difficulties. While individual costs increased with the persistence of difficulties, population-level costs were highest for those with transient mental health difficulties. Although attenuated, these patterns persisted after child, parent and family characteristics were taken into account. Use of the MBS-reimbursed mental health services among children with a mental health difficulty was very low (around 2%).
Conclusions: Australian healthcare costs for young children with mental health difficulties are substantial and provide further justification for early intervention and prevention. The current provision of Medicare-rebated mental health services does not appear to be reaching young children with mental health difficulties.
Resumo:
This chapter begins with an exploration of the digital divide in the Australian context. This discussion is followed by an examination of online education, professional development and the capacity of ICT to enhance the well-being of practitioners. The chapter then focuses on the use of ICT in human services and the rise of computer mediated self help and support groups. The potential for ICT to promote and extend political participation is also explored as well as the role of ICT in global development. Throughout, the potential for inclusion and exclusion is highlighted, using examples and critical analysis for exploring the inclusionary and exclusionary capacity of ICT.
Resumo:
One of the dimensions of learning experiences, which is not often given much attention outside of the creative arts, is the aesthetic dimension. In this paper we report on a study we conducted which explores the importance of learning through aesthetic experiences as identified by Dewey. While there is literature available which engages with the significance of such experiences (Hinchliffe, 2011; Nakamura, 2009) there is little which explores the nexus between this and specific practices in classrooms. Through examining pedagogical practices and beliefs of some exemplary teachers (as identified by their community), our study uncovered some approaches which offer alternate considerations for pedagogy. These have the potential to further enrich the sometimes static nature of the ‘official’ curriculum (Apple, 2000) as often assumed by pre-service teachers who attempt to deliver it through experiences.
Resumo:
Childlessness in Australia is increasing yet there is limited research exploring women’s reasons for childlessness. Previous research has typically examined childlessness within the context of fertility rather than childlessness itself. The limited research that has moved beyond looking at involuntary childlessness has labelled women with a type of childlessness during recruitment rather than exploring women’s reasons for childlessness as a part of the research process.
The aim of this mixed methods exploratory study (n = 50) was to describe women’s reasons for childlessness. Findings indicate that almost half of the women did not wish to have children. Reasons for childlessness included: having never wanted to have children; having never been in the ‘right’ relationship; and being in a relationship where the partner did not want to have children.
The findings provide insight into women’s reasons for childlessness, how they feel about their decision, circumstance and position as a woman in a pronatalist society.
Resumo:
In qualitative research we are often presented with a tension between having open and fluid interviews to support staying true to the lived experiences of participants and achieving a level of abstraction from the data in order to uncover the essential structures and meanings of that particular lived experience. A way of resolving this tension is through the application of theoretical frameworks. Van Manen’s four lifeworld existentials offer a lens through which to explore and navigate disparate interview data and uncover the essences of lived experience, without imposing categories upon the data itself. Drawing on a study exploring the lived experiences of childless women, we explore the process and principles in operationalising the existentials and discuss the potential implications for analysis and findings. The article demonstrates how Van Manen’s lifeworld existentials present us with a holistic and valuable method for reflective practice, in coming to understand lived experience.
Resumo:
Aim
To determine the effect of parent education on adaptive behaviour, autism symptoms and cognitive/language skills of young children with autistic disorder.
Method
A randomised group comparison design involving a parent education and counselling intervention and a parent education and behaviour management intervention to control for parent skills training and a control sample. Two rural and two metropolitan regions were randomly allocated to intervention groups (n = 70) or control (n = 35). Parents from autism assessment services in the intervention regions were randomly allocated to parent education and behaviour management (n = 35) or parent education and counselling (n = 35).
Results
Parent education and behaviour management resulted in significant improvement in adaptive behaviour and autism symptoms at 6 months follow-up for children with greater delays in adaptive behaviour. Parent education and behaviour management was superior to parent education and counselling. We conclude that a 20-week parent education programme including skills training for parents of young children with autistic disorder provides significant improvements in child adaptive behaviour and symptoms of autism for low-functioning children.
Resumo:
Legal academics are not only teachers but also creators of knowledge. The role of an academic includes a responsibility to share this knowledge through engagement not just of their students, but also of the wider community. In addition, there is increasing emphasis on legal academics having to account for the so-called ‘impact’ of research. In selecting both the topic of their research and the mode of publication of their knowledge, legal academics act as gatekeepers. There is an increasing critique of the existing paradigm of research publication and its emphasis on the metrics of impact. This critique recognises the limitations of the commercial publication paradigm in the present context of open access and the vast array of citizen-mediated platforms for dissemination of legal knowledge and innovation. Susskind (Tomorrow’s Lawyers 2013) for example identifies expert crowd-sourced legal information as breaking down barriers to access to justice. Tracking their experience with publication of a paper on social media in legal education from the ALTA conference in 2012, the authors share an auto-ethnographic account of their insights into the potential for both impact and engagement of a diverse audience in their research. This highlights the ways in which various media can be used strategically to redefine the role of the gatekeeper.
Resumo:
The HIV-1 gp120-gp41 complex, which mediates viral fusion and cellular entry, undergoes rapid evolution within its external glycan shield to enable escape from neutralizing antibody (NAb). Understanding how conserved protein determinants retain functionality in the context of such evolution is important for their evaluation and exploitation as potential drug and/ or vaccine targets. In this study, we examined how the conserved gp120-gp41 association site, formed by the N- and Cterminal segments of gp120 and the disulfide-bonded region (DSR) of gp41, adapts to glycan changes that are linked to neutralization sensitivity. To this end, a DSR mutant virus (K601D) with defective gp120-association was sequentially passaged in peripheral blood mononuclear cells to select suppressor mutations. We reasoned that the locations of suppressors point to structural elements that are functionally linked to the gp120-gp41 association site. In culture 1, gp120 association and viral replication was restored by loss of the conserved glycan at Asn136 in V1 (T138N mutation) in
conjunction with the L494I substitution in C5 within the association site. In culture 2, replication was restored with deletion of the N139INN sequence, which ablates the overlapping Asn141-Asn142-Ser-Ser potential N-linked glycosylation sequons in
V1, in conjunction with D601N in the DSR. The 136 and 142 glycan mutations appeared to exert their suppressive effects by altering the dependence of gp120-gp41 interactions on the DSR residues, Leu593, Trp596 and Lys601. The 136 and/or 142
glycan mutations increased the sensitivity of HIV-1 pseudovirions to the glycan-dependent NAbs 2G12 and PG16, and also pooled IgG obtained from HIV-1-infected individuals. Thus adjacent V1 glycans allosterically modulate the distal gp120-
gp41 association site. We propose that this represents a mechanism for functional adaptation of the gp120-gp41 association site to an evolving glycan shield in a setting of NAb selection.
