Identification of mental illness in police cells: a comparison of police processes, the brief jail mental health screen and the jail screening assessment tool

The study investigated current police practices employed to identify those with a mental illness in police custody, and to evaluate the predictive utility of the Brief Jail Mental Health Screen (BJMHS) and the Jail Screening Assessment Tool (JSAT). One hundred and fifty detainees were recruited from two police stations in Melbourne, Australia. Measures included the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV-TR, BJMHS and JSAT. Axis-I disorders were compared with police decisions regarding identification of mental illness based on their usual practices. Participants were classified as requiring referral for further mental health evaluation according to the screening tools. Results indicated that current police practices produced high false negatives, with many of those experiencing mental illness not identified. There was no significant difference in performance between BJMHS (AUC =0.722) and JSAT (AUC =0.779) in identifying those with a serious mental illness (p=0.109). However, JSAT performed significantly better at identifying any Axis-I disorder, excluding substance use disorders, as compared with BJMHS (AUC =0.815, vs AUC =0.729; p=0.018). Given the high prevalence of mental illness among detainees, there is a pressing need to introduce standardised screening tools for mental illness in police custody. This can assist the police in managing detainees appropriately and securing mental health services as required.

Teaching in the iWorld: developing a repertoire of pedagogical discourse around the usage of touch screen devices in early years classrooms

 Touch-screen devices have been enthusiastically adopted by schools across Australia and Canada. Their ease of use means that they are accessible by very young children, and these children often have free access to these devices in their home, however the devices tend to be ‘domesticated’ in the school context (O’Mara and Laidlaw, 2011). In the short period of their availability, a plethora of educational applications have been developed for these devices. This paper addresses emergent themes from our 2011-2013 Canadian/Australian project, Literacy learning in playful spaces: using multi-modal strategies to develop narrative with young learners, funded by the Canadian Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (Insight Development Grant). In our analysis of the discourse around the introduction of portable touch screen devices into school literacy classes (published texts, teacher interviews, classroom observations), we noted that much of the public discourse is slanted towards the idea of “teacher-proofing” the curriculum. Initially the teachers we have been working with saw the apps themselves as complete, as doing all the work and the discourse around the devices was around what apps are “best”, and “is there an app for that?” It was only with more experience and time that teachers were able to harness the range of affordances of the devices—their capacity for recording audio, video, pictures etc., and start to categorise the apps themselves. In this paper we suggest ways in which current literacy models might be used to develop a repertoire of pedagogical discourse around these devices, providing language and framings for teachers to think about how these new tools might best be used to enhance literacy teaching and learning. O’Mara, J. & Laidlaw, L. (2011). Living in the iWorld: Two literacy researchers reflect on the changing texts and literacy practices of childhood. English Teaching: Practice and Critique 10 (4): 149-159. Available: http://edlinked.soe.waikato.ac.nz/research/journal/view.php?article=true&id=754&p=1

Using the DBC-P Hyperactivity Index to screen for ADHD in young people with autism and ADHD: a pilot study

This study aimed to (1) determine preliminary validity of the Developmental Behaviour Checklist-Hyperactivity Index (DBC-HI) as a screening measure of combined-type ADHD in autism and ADHD, and (2) compare emotional-behavioural disturbance using the DBC in autism, ADHD and autism + ADHD. Forty-nine age- and PIQ-matched young people [6-18 years; 12 autism, 13 ADHD, 12 autism + ADHD, 12 typically developing] were recruited. Parents completed the Conners-Revised Rating Scale and DBC. The DBC-HI displayed strong internal consistency and good external validity, reliably measuring combined-type ADHD. The DBC-HI distinguished autism from autism + ADHD with fair sensitivity and specificity. Individuals with autism + ADHD exhibited a more severe profile of emotional-behavioural disturbance than autism or ADHD alone. The DBC may be a useful 'all-in-one' screening tool to (1) identify comorbidity and (2) determine the severity of emotional-behavioural disturbance in autism and/or ADHD. © 2014 Elsevier Ltd.

Associations of parental rules and socioeconomic position with preschool children's sedentary behaviour and screen time

There is little current understanding of the influences on sedentary behaviour and screen time in preschool children. This study investigated socioeconomic position (SEP) and parental rules as potential correlates of preschool children's sedentary behaviour and screen time.

Physical environments, policies and practices for physical activity and screen-based sedentary behaviour among preschoolers within child care centres in Melbourne, Australia and Kingston, Canada

Characteristics of preschool and child care centres have previously been shown to be associated with children's health behaviours such as physical activity and screen-based sedentary behaviour. This paper investigates differences in physical environments, policies and practices between child care centres in Melbourne, Australia and Kingston, Canada which may be associated with such behaviours.

Screen media, parenting practices, and the family environment in Australia: a longitudinal study of young children’s media use, lifestyles, and outcomes for healthy weight

Few studies of media use and adiposity explore the influence of parenting on children’s lifestyle behaviors. Screen media access, bedroom television, lack of physical activity, and snacking on energy-dense foods have long been implicated in child overweight. This research used data from the first three waves of the Longitudinal Study of Australian Children to investigate, prospectively, the associations between parental practices in early to middle childhood and children’s behaviors and weight in late childhood. A path model was used to investigate whether consistent parentingpredicted setting of boundaries for access to and use of media, and was indirectly associated with children’s lifestyle behaviors that increase the likelihood of healthy weight maintenance. The findings demonstrated that children’s lifestyles pertinent to weight maintenance and media use cluster together and involve both old and newer screen media, but are also predicted by parenting practices and the family environment.

Validity of the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale and Patient Health Questionnaire-9 to screen for depression in patients with coronary artery disease.

Depression is common but frequently undetected in patients with coronary artery disease (CAD). Self-report screening instruments for assessing depression such as the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS) and the Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9) are available but their validity is typically determined in depressed patients without comorbid somatic illness. We investigated the validity of these instruments relative to a referent diagnostic standard in recently hospitalized patients with CAD.

Reducing youth screen time: Qualitative metasynthesis of findings on barriers and facilitators.

An integrated perspective on the relevant qualitative findings on the experience of screen time in youth can inform the development of hypotheses to be tested in future research and can guide the development of interventions to decrease sedentary behavior. The purpose of this qualitative metasynthesis was to explore parent, youth, and educational professionals' perceptions of barriers to, and facilitators of, reducing youth screen time.

The films of John Hughes: a history of independent screen production in Australia

ABSTRACTIn The Films of John Hughes: A history of independent screen production in Australia filmmaker and academic John Cumming tells the ongoing story of Hughes’ work illustrating the delicate balance of individual, collective and corporate agendas that many contemporary artists need to negotiate. This story begins in the 1960s with a generation of intelligent, socially engaged young people who challenge established power structures, conventions and stereotypes in art, politics and the media. Experiments were being made with grassroots democracy, with new social formations and new ways of seeing and communicating. The book also pays attention to earlier periods of cultural and political activism that captured Hughes’ imagination in the 1970s and became the subject of a number of his films over a period of nearly forty years. Through these films Cumming traces the outline of post-war film culture and production in Melbourne from the 1940s and sets this history within the context of international trends in independent filmmaking throughout the 20th Century and into the 21st.The work of an independent filmmaker has always included a great deal more than directing films. Working in an artisanal mode, he or she often performs, or has a hand in, every aspect of craft at the same time as engaging in discussion and organisation around the wider sphere of screen culture and industry. In addition to having proficiency as a producer, photographer, sound recordist, editor, distributor and exhibitor of films, there is research, organisation, lobbying, entrepreneurship and mentoring to be done. As an independent producer-director, John Hughes has engaged in all of these activities – often simultaneously. He is also a scholar, writer, organiser, activist and teacher. As a television bureaucrat he was both eminent and innovative, and through his filmmaking he has become a leading historian of Australian documentary cinema. ‘… that view – that art and politics are inherently at odds – is still lurking around. It is at the heart of cultural conservatism; and John Hughes’s film-making, from the 1970s to the present, confounds its proponents. His cinema is at once crowded, detailed, elegant and absolutely lucid; at the same time, it is shot through with political and historical understandings.’ Sylvia Lawson, ‘Such a Bloody Wonderful Place’, Inside Story, 28 April 2013.

The German SCREEN project - design and evaluation of the communication strategy

Background: Skin cancer is the most common cancer in light-skinned populations worldwide. Primary and secondary preventive activities such as skin cancer screening are intended to reduce skin cancer burden. In 2003, a population-based skin cancer screening project [SCREEN (Skin Cancer Research to Provide Evidence for Effectiveness of Screening in Northern Germany)] was conducted in Northern Germany with more than 360 000 people screened. SCREEN was supported by a communication intervention that was aimed at informing the population about skin cancer, its risk factors and the screening intervention as well as preparing the health professionals for the project. Within SCREEN both physicians and practice nurses were educated in counselling. The aim of the present article is to describe and evaluate the communication strategy accompanying SCREEN. Methods: Two computer-assisted telephone interview surveys were performed in April/May 2003 and May 2004. Participants had to be members of the statutory health insurance and be aged ≥20 years. They were asked about knowledge of skin cancer, perception of physicians' performance and skin cancer screening in general. Data are mainly presented in a descriptive manner. For statistical analyses, Mann-Whitney U test and Pearson's chi-square test were used. Results: Knowledge about sunburn in childhood and high ultraviolet exposure as skin cancer risk factors increased during SCREEN. Simultaneously, the awareness for early detection of skin cancer increased significantly from 41.3 to 74.0% (P < 0.001). A total of 21.5% of the interviewees participated in the skin cancer screening project, similar to the population-based participation rate reached. Conclusion: A comprehensive communication strategy accompanying a screening intervention improves the knowledge of potential screenees and may additionally increase the participation rate.

Locating learning: making connections between virtual and physical spaces with mobile touch-screen devices

This paper is concerned with the potential of mobile touch-screen devices and emerging socio-technological practices to support pedagogies of place that provide a means for young people to reflect critically on the social construction of place and to take actions that speak of and to their own locatedness. Drawing on de Certeau’s (1984) concept of space as a practiced place and Massey’s (2005) perspective of spatiality and interrelatedness, we examine two school-based examples of learning activities that bring together the virtual and physical as in experiences and representations of place. The first example is an Australian local history unit, where lower secondary school students participated in a series of field trips, planned and conducted under the guidance of an indigenous elder. They used Smartphones and iPads to capture and create personalised audio-visual records of their knowledge of place that were then used to create geo-location games. In the second example, upper primary school students worked with local authorities and environmental educators to select sites for two environmental monitoring posts, which were then installed and provided a locus for the students’ school-based environmental science learning as well as a vehicle for community engagement. Drawing on interview, video and photographic data, this paper examines the way mobile technologies were deployed for student knowledge production, engagement with place, reconstruction of place and engagement with community.