"...like you're pushing the snowball back up hill"-the experiences of Australian physiotherapists promoting non-treatment physical activity : A qualitative study
Description:
Participating in physical activity is important for maintaining general health. When physiotherapists promote physical activity for the purposes of maintaining or improving a patient’s general health, they are promoting non-treatment physical activity. Physiotherapists have a responsibility to promote non-treatment physical activity to their patients while also providing the patient with treatment for their presenting complaint. This qualitative study explored the experiences of Australian physiotherapists promoting non-treatment physical activity to patients with musculoskeletal conditions. Ten Australian physiotherapists treating patients with musculoskeletal conditions in private practice and outpatient settings were recruited using a social media campaign and snowballing. All interviewees received one $AU20 gift card for participating. Sixty-minute semi-structured interviews were conducted and were transcribed verbatim. Interpretative phenomenological analysis was used to design the interview guide and analyse data. Transcripts were used to identify emergent and superordinate themes. Most interviewees were female, aged between 25–34 years, physically active and reported promoting NTPA. The superordinate themes that emerged from the transcripts included: Internal and external influences on NTPA promotion, approach taken by the physiotherapist towards NTPA promotion, challenges experienced when promoting NTPA, and skills and training. In conclusion, physiotherapists reported they were well-placed to promote NTPA, but they face many challenges. The perceived inability to motivate patients to become physically active and the need to prioritise patient expectations of hands-on therapy made NTPA promotion difficult. Workplace specific factors, such as having an open-plan clinic environment and having other staff who promote NTPA, were perceived to make NTPA promotion easier. Using effective marketing strategies that portray the physiotherapy clinic as a physically active environment might see patients expect NTPA promotion, making NTPA promotion easier for Australian physiotherapists in the future.
Description:
Participating in physical activity is important for maintaining general health. When physiotherapists promote physical activity for the purposes of maintaining or improving a patient’s general health, they are promoting non-treatment physical activity. Physiotherapists have a responsibility to promote non-treatment physical activity to their patients while also providing the patient with treatment for their presenting complaint. This qualitative study explored the experiences of Australian physiotherapists promoting non-treatment physical activity to patients with musculoskeletal conditions. Ten Australian physiotherapists treating patients with musculoskeletal conditions in private practice and outpatient settings were recruited using a social media campaign and snowballing. All interviewees received one $AU20 gift card for participating. Sixty-minute semi-structured interviews were conducted and were transcribed verbatim. Interpretative phenomenological analysis was used to design the interview guide and analyse data. Transcripts were used to identify emergent and superordinate themes. Most interviewees were female, aged between 25–34 years, physically active and reported promoting NTPA. The superordinate themes that emerged from the transcripts included: Internal and external influences on NTPA promotion, approach taken by the physiotherapist towards NTPA promotion, challenges experienced when promoting NTPA, and skills and training. In conclusion, physiotherapists reported they were well-placed to promote NTPA, but they face many challenges. The perceived inability to motivate patients to become physically active and the need to prioritise patient expectations of hands-on therapy made NTPA promotion difficult. Workplace specific factors, such as having an open-plan clinic environment and having other staff who promote NTPA, were perceived to make NTPA promotion easier. Using effective marketing strategies that portray the physiotherapy clinic as a physically active environment might see patients expect NTPA promotion, making NTPA promotion easier for Australian physiotherapists in the future.
Description:
Developing upon recent feminist criticism that explores the relationship between the domestic and the political in women's war writing of the First and Second World Wars, this essay examines Frances Partridge's little-discussed diary of the years 1939-1945, first published in 1978 as "A Pacifist's War." Partridge's documentation of domestic daily life in rural England in this text is intimately connected to the articulation of her broader philosophical, political, and ethical views. Her personal philosophy of "intensity" and her pacifism are in part developed in response to her changing relationship to, and the shifting nature of, domestic everyday life during wartime. Partridge's personal philosophy and pacifism are analyzed in relation to the broader intellectual context of the Bloomsbury milieu to which she belonged, and comparisons are drawn to the dialectic between the domestic, everyday and political in "A Pacifist's War" and the autobiographical war writings of contemporaneous women writers including H. D. and Gertrude Stein. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] Copyright of Journal of Modern Literature is the property of Indiana University Press and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)
Description:
This article examines Alfred Deakin’s attitudes towards, and impacts upon, Aboriginal people during the period 1880-1910, drawing on newspaper articles and parliamentary debates as principal source materials. The discussion begins by charting the long, influential and often positive relationships Deakin had with several Aboriginal communities during a period as a Victorian MLA between 1881 and 1884. It then proceeds to document Deakin’s extraordinary descent into paternalism and racially-based fatalism which pervaded his later association with Aboriginal affairs whilst Victoria’s Chief Secretary (1886–1890), Victorian MLA for Essendon and delegate to Federal conventions (1890-1900), as the Federation debates took shape. And finally, the article outlines the attitudes Deakin expressed towards Aboriginal people in his various post-Federation political roles, including Attorney-General, Prime Minister and Minister for External Affairs. In doing so, the discussion draws out the connections between Deakin’s advocacy of a white Australia and his attitudes towards Aboriginal Australia, and demonstrates the extent to which the creation of a new nation both informed and responded to socio-racial ideologies that mandated the exclusion of non-white identities from the nation-to-come
Description:
Margaret of Anjou's reference to herself as a 'silly woman' in Henry VI is a political ploy to draw attention to her gender, yet indicate her limitless power in the face of male dominance. This paper will map the trajectory of repertoire selection in my 18 years of working as a director and artistic director of actor training in the regional city of Ballarat. I have witnessed a profound shift in the demographic, political and financial realities that shape my practice. Intake numbers have doubled the age of candidates has dropped mental health problems for young actors have increased and budgets have plummeted. After the main struggle to maintain adequate studio time in order to create effective models of actor pedagogy, gender considerations follow. When choosing repertoire for training purposes, issues of equity and the cultural appropriateness of repertoire and teaching tools arise. Linda Walsh Jenkins and Susan Ogden -Malouf suggest 'a feminist critique of theatre shifts the gaze from product to process'. In Ballarat I have programmed female playwrights and directors, double-cast women and men, and staged obscure classical works. I will explore the queries to actor-training orthodoxy inherent in such choices and the challenges faced by actor-trainers working in a #MeToo environment.
Description:
Margaret of Anjou's reference to herself as a 'silly woman' in Henry VI is a political ploy to draw attention to her gender, yet indicate her limitless power in the face of male dominance. This paper will map the trajectory of repertoire selection in my 18 years of working as a director and artistic director of actor training in the regional city of Ballarat. I have witnessed a profound shift in the demographic, political and financial realities that shape my practice. Intake numbers have doubled the age of candidates has dropped mental health problems for young actors have increased and budgets have plummeted. After the main struggle to maintain adequate studio time in order to create effective models of actor pedagogy, gender considerations follow. When choosing repertoire for training purposes, issues of equity and the cultural appropriateness of repertoire and teaching tools arise. Linda Walsh Jenkins and Susan Ogden -Malouf suggest 'a feminist critique of theatre shifts the gaze from product to process'. In Ballarat I have programmed female playwrights and directors, double-cast women and men, and staged obscure classical works. I will explore the queries to actor-training orthodoxy inherent in such choices and the challenges faced by actor-trainers working in a #MeToo environment.
Description:
Objective: Implementation of automated external defibrillators (AEDs) in community sports settings is an important component of emergency medical planning. This study aimed to understand motivations for why sports organizations participated in a government-funded program that provided AEDs and associated first-aid training. Design: Face-to-face interviews. Setting: Community sports organizations in Victoria, Australia. Participants: Representatives from 14 organizations who participated in a government-funded AED program. Main Outcome Measures: Motivations to participate in the AED program were explored using a qualitative descriptive approach. Results: Two overarching themes emerged: awareness of the program and decision to apply. Awareness was gained indirectly through grant advertising in newsletters/emails/web sites and directly through their sporting associations. For most organizations, there was no decision process per se, rather, the opportunity to apply was the key determinant for participating in the program. A duty of care also emerged as a key driving factor, with recognition of AEDs as a valuable asset to communities broadly, not just the participants' immediate sports setting. Reflecting on participation in the program, these participants identified that it was important to increase awareness about AED ownership and use. The program benefits were clearly summed up as being best prepared for a worst-case scenario. Discussion: This study provides new understanding of why community sports organizations apply for an AED and training. The strongest reason was simply the opportunity to acquire this at no cost. Therefore, for wider implementation of AEDs, additional funding opportunities, targeted awareness of these opportunities, and continued promotion of AED importance are recommended.
Description:
As with other industrialized nations Australia's population is aging and older workers are encouraged to work for longer. At the same time, Australia's university sector, which is aging, is being reconfigured through changes that potentially marginalize its older workers as higher education institutions try to become more competitive in a global market. In this context, youthfulness appears to embody competitiveness and academic institutions are increasingly aspiring to a young workforce profile. This qualitative article builds on previous research to explore to what extent ageist assumptions shape attitudes to older workers and human resource management (HRM) practices within Australian universities even when HRM practitioners are well versed in antidiscrimination legislation that (unlike the Age Discrimination in Employment Act in the United States) applies to workers of all ages. Semistructured interviews conducted with 22 HRM practitioners in Australian universities reveal that university HRM practices generally overlook the value of retaining an older workforce by conflating "potential" with "youthfulness," assuming that staff potential and performance share a negative correlation with age. While mostly lower-ranked institutions have attempted to retain older academics to maintain an adequate labor supply, this study finds that university policies targeting the ongoing utilization of older workers generally are underdeveloped. Consequently, the availability of late career employment arrangements is dependent upon institutions' strategic goals, with favorable ad hoc solutions offered to academics with outstanding performance records, while a rhetoric of performance decline threatens to marginalize older academic researchers and teachers more generally.
Description:
As with other industrialized nations Australia's population is aging and older workers are encouraged to work for longer. At the same time, Australia's university sector, which is aging, is being reconfigured through changes that potentially marginalize its older workers as higher education institutions try to become more competitive in a global market. In this context, youthfulness appears to embody competitiveness and academic institutions are increasingly aspiring to a young workforce profile. This qualitative article builds on previous research to explore to what extent ageist assumptions shape attitudes to older workers and human resource management (HRM) practices within Australian universities even when HRM practitioners are well versed in antidiscrimination legislation that (unlike the Age Discrimination in Employment Act in the United States) applies to workers of all ages. Semistructured interviews conducted with 22 HRM practitioners in Australian universities reveal that university HRM practices generally overlook the value of retaining an older workforce by conflating "potential" with "youthfulness," assuming that staff potential and performance share a negative correlation with age. While mostly lower-ranked institutions have attempted to retain older academics to maintain an adequate labor supply, this study finds that university policies targeting the ongoing utilization of older workers generally are underdeveloped. Consequently, the availability of late career employment arrangements is dependent upon institutions' strategic goals, with favorable ad hoc solutions offered to academics with outstanding performance records, while a rhetoric of performance decline threatens to marginalize older academic researchers and teachers more generally.
Description:
Objective: Parents who lose an only child in China are stressed and traumatized due to social identity threat (SIT). This qualitative study aimed to interpret their experience to inform culturally and socially sensitive intervention strategies. Methods: Using a phenomenological approach, 17 bereaved parents who lost an only child were interviewed. The transcripts were analyzed using Colaizzi's method. Results: Three themes were identified, namely, "assuming a new social identity," "triggering social identity threat," and "resisting social identity threat and maintaining resilience." The study showed that SIT initially began with identity reconstruction, where self-identity and social identity occurred 1 after another. Once labeled with such social identity, the bereaved parents suffered social identity threat triggered by inner inferiority and external stigmatization. The bereaved parents undertook a variety of coping strategies to resist the threat and to maintain resilience of these strategies, 4 patterns depicting resilience and threat were interpreted. Conclusion: The findings offer an understanding of the multifaceted bereavement dilemma and lay a foundation for developing intervention strategies. Promoting or maintaining resilience and alleviating SIT are 2 important ways that help parents move on. To help them with identity reconstruction, the development of culturally sensitive resilience-based programs and the linking of social resources to solve practical problems are recommended. Community health professionals should encourage parents to maintain good health management to prevent their predicament from worsening. Raising economic assistance, building an elderly care support system, and promoting social acceptance are strategies that could be considered by policymakers. Clinical Impact StatementThe bereaved parents who have lost an only child in China is facing a multifaceted dilemma, which involves psychological, economic and cultural issues. This study applies the construct of social identity threat to interpretive lived experience of parents in China who have lost their only child. The study contributes to better understanding of their multifaceted bereavement dilemma, and lay the foundation for developing psycho-behavioural intervention strategies, which potentially also benefit other marginalized or traumatized bereaved groups. Results in this study offered several recommendations for psychological counselors, community workers, community health professionals, and government policymakers.
Description:
Same-sex friendship can increase an individual's health, happiness, and sense of social connectedness. To date, few studies have explored young men's accounts of their friendships and the communication strategies within close male friendships. The present qualitative study explored the ways in which 7 young, White, heterosexual, working/middle-class men from rural Victoria construct their understanding of their friendships and the discursive strategies used to signify meaning, specifically the role of insults, in close male friendships. Drawing on tools from discursive theory, thematic analysis of the data demonstrated that discursive strategies including insults, silences, and direct interrogation were used to signify closeness, gratefulness, concern, and masculinity and dominance. These discursive strategies are informed by hegemonic representations of masculinity, which the young men negotiate within everyday interactions with close male friends. The findings further support past research that suggests that in the absence of explicit verbal expression of closeness, male friendships can be intimate and psychosocially significant. It is suggested that health promotion in men should focus on informal spaces where men can enjoy each other's company. By exploring the breadth of communication styles and strategies of men, we are better equipped to understand men's needs.
Description:
When gold was discovered at Ballarat in 1851, the peaceful pastoral community was transformed into a rough mining camp. People from all parts of the world came in search of wealth, bringing with them a diversity of cultural and spiritual affiliations. As the musical life of the various denominational groups developed according to specific doctrinal principles and local influences, strong opinions were expressed in the community regarding the place of music in worship. This article looks at the developments in sacred music during the two decades that saw Ballarat transformed into a major city. The strong differences in discourse and practice that were evident between and within particular religious groups form a background for reflecting upon contemporary perceptions of the function of music in worship.
Description:
Organ transplantation is the most effective treatment for end-stage organ failure and is a much sought-after therapy. Efforts are under way to maximise the number of families who agree to organ donation on behalf of a newly deceased relative in Australia, with the hope of easing the burden for dying and incapacitated patients and to reduce health care costs. Objective: To present initial findings from a study which asked families who had been required to make a deceased organ donation decision about their experience, and the factors that contributed to their decision to either agree to or decline organ donation. Methods: Following ethics approval, an exploratory multiple case study was conducted. Twenty-two family members from nine families who had experienced the death of a relative within the previous three years from five of Australia's state and territories contributed to the study in 17 recorded, transcribed and analysed interviews. Findings: Broad themes emerged that included the importance of time and location, perceptions of suffering, information and help for the families, and the need for families to assure themselves that the deceased's needs were addressed before and after death. Conclusion: The findings suggest families require trust that their family member was not suffering before and after death. The affirmation of this trust was helped by prior information about the organ donation process and sensory affirmation that their loved one was at peace. Family decisions about organ donation, hopes and 'deep hopes' were dependent on this trust.
Description:
This small-scale study examinesyoung people’s perspectives aboutenergy transition and climate change adaptation in regional Gippsland, Victoria,Australia. As the opinions and experiences of children and youth have been historically overlooked in contemporary sustainability climate discourse and policy, this research investigatespreviously unheard accounts.The studydrawsonfourfacilitated “Conversations for Change”discussions with a total of 14 young people (aged 9-17)that exploredtheir ideas and concerns about sustaining themselves and their communities during a time of climate change and energy transition. Theirideas and opinionsaboutliving in/with a climate-alteredlocaland global futurearereflected across four main themes: (a)young people’s values;(b) perceptions of energy, transition and adaptation;(c) the enabling role of climate literacy for young people; and (d) responding to a just energy transition through collective endeavors.
Description:
A recurrent concern in late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century accounts of Australians in London is how "well" writers were doing. The common conception of the trip "Home" to Britain as a quest for cultural and professional success or recognition is reflected in the title of Angela Woollacott's feminist history, To Try Her Fortune in London, and it motivated many Australian writers, even a nationalist republican such as Henry Lawson, to regard London as the centre of literary culture, the best place in which to exercise their talents and ambitions. The emergence in these decades of a generation of "native-born" white Australian travellers who were related to but self-consciously different from the parent stock both in the colonies and in Britain created an anxious interest which fuelled ongoing discussions in newspapers and periodicals, prompted the creation of Anglo-Australian networks, clubs and publications in London, and supported many a columnist or special correspondent reporting back to Australia on the doings of their contemporaries in the great metropolis.
Description:
The Federal Government introduced the Welfare to Work legislation in 2005. The legislation was intended to shift people from welfare to (paid) work, largely through punitive measures such as reduced payments and harsh penalties. Community agencies in inner south east Melbourne were interested in monitoring any harms caused by Welfare to Work and developing policy responses. ‘A local response to Welfare to Work’ (the ALR-W2W project) did this through a ‘story collection’ method, which has enabled us to raise awareness of the issue and have input into policy processes. There were challenges in collecting stories from people affected who might be in crisis, suspicious of anything that looked like a bureaucratic or invasive response, or facing other barriers such as limited literacy, language barriers or mental health issues. This article discusses the methodological issues involved in collecting stories of people affected by Welfare to Work
Description:
The Federal Government introduced the Welfare to Work legislation in 2005. The legislation was intended to shift people from welfare to (paid) work, largely through punitive measures such as reduced payments and harsh penalties. Community agencies in inner south east Melbourne were interested in monitoring any harms caused by Welfare to Work and developing policy responses. ‘A local response to Welfare to Work’ (the ALR-W2W project) did this through a ‘story collection’ method, which has enabled us to raise awareness of the issue and have input into policy processes. There were challenges in collecting stories from people affected who might be in crisis, suspicious of anything that looked like a bureaucratic or invasive response, or facing other barriers such as limited literacy, language barriers or mental health issues. This article discusses the methodological issues involved in collecting stories of people affected by Welfare to Work
Description:
In this article the authors draw on a larger study in which their overall concern is to illustrate how diasporic identifications develop through a range of scales related to self, family, community, nation and beyond. They consider the Melbourne Greek community as an exemplar of diasporic experience and use it as a case study for their investigation, which is aimed at exploring how transcultural literacies relate to spaces which complicate and enrich identifications. In this article they consider the role of 'after hours' schools in the shaping of diasporic identities. These are community-based schools where Greek language and culture is taught. Commonly, classes are held on Saturday morning or in the evenings during the week. Such schools operate in classrooms that are rented from 'real' schools. By existing in spaces that are commonly occupied by mainstream day schools, students who attend 'after hours' schools experience a form of marginalisation that is also a right of passage. Here the authors argue that such 'in-between' spaces assist with the formation of 'in-between' identities that are emblematic of globalization.
Description:
In this article the authors draw on a larger study in which their overall concern is to illustrate how diasporic identifications develop through a range of scales related to self, family, community, nation and beyond. They consider the Melbourne Greek community as an exemplar of diasporic experience and use it as a case study for their investigation, which is aimed at exploring how transcultural literacies relate to spaces which complicate and enrich identifications. In this article they consider the role of 'after hours' schools in the shaping of diasporic identities. These are community-based schools where Greek language and culture is taught. Commonly, classes are held on Saturday morning or in the evenings during the week. Such schools operate in classrooms that are rented from 'real' schools. By existing in spaces that are commonly occupied by mainstream day schools, students who attend 'after hours' schools experience a form of marginalisation that is also a right of passage. Here the authors argue that such 'in-between' spaces assist with the formation of 'in-between' identities that are emblematic of globalization.
Description:
Along with useful and perhaps at times desirable introductions, the history of acclimatisation in New Zealand is riddled with examples of what have turned out to be catastrophic importations. Although some importations can be identified as driven by pragmatic reasons and justification, they can also in a philosophical sense be categorised as aspects of a 'Britain of the South'. The importation providing the focus of this paper is that of members of the family Mustelidae, specifically weasels, ferrets and stoats. These animals were introduced during the last twenty years of the nineteenth century to predate on rabbits, an introduced pest that in turn threatened the viability of the pastoral farming industry. The paper maps the historical context, the debate and the epilogue to the New Zealand decision to import an 'immigrant killer', not of rabbits but of iconic ground-nesting birds.
Description:
Along with useful and perhaps at times desirable introductions, the history of acclimatisation in New Zealand is riddled with examples of what have turned out to be catastrophic importations. Although some importations can be identified as driven by pragmatic reasons and justification, they can also in a philosophical sense be categorised as aspects of a 'Britain of the South'. The importation providing the focus of this paper is that of members of the family Mustelidae, specifically weasels, ferrets and stoats. These animals were introduced during the last twenty years of the nineteenth century to predate on rabbits, an introduced pest that in turn threatened the viability of the pastoral farming industry. The paper maps the historical context, the debate and the epilogue to the New Zealand decision to import an 'immigrant killer', not of rabbits but of iconic ground-nesting birds.
Description:
Print and electronic media coverage of disasters raises a multitude of issues about the media’s role during and after a crisis. This article focuses on a specific issue: the affective dimension of news media coverage immediately following a crisis. The selection and presentation of bushfire stories not only disseminates information but elicits emotion from audiences. I use textual and visual analysis of The Age newspaper’s coverage of the 2009 Victorian bushfires to examine the discursive structuring of affect. Comparisons are made with coverage of earlier bushfire disasters (the 1983 Ash Wednesday fires and the 1939 Black Friday fires) in order to investigate changes in the visual and verbal discourses of bushfire reporting. The article demonstrates that there is an intensification of affect in contemporary media coverage that is not present in the coverage of previous bushfires, and that this has implications for the role of the emotions in public life and for our conception of the public sphere.