Walking on set lava.

Though the morning was quite enthralling and I managed to complete what was a childhood ambition that I'd almost forgotten about I did sleep exceptionally well when I had got back from the trip up Pacaya, the local active volcano. I was up about five this afternoon which shows what a lightweight I have become, I only had to get up at 6 this morning and I didn't get to bed that late last night. I don't think that this is ridiculously early but I do think that I have kept the habit of staying awake in the afternoon that I would have in the UK. The shots at top of the volcano were taken in the most difficult of conditions and it's only really thanks to the 'shadow' function on Picasa that I was able to cause the bulk of the mist to 'evaporate' from most of the shots.

The group I was with, there were about 14 of us, were all very nice and most of those who wore trainers managed to see the funny side of slipping up on the arses as they were going both up and down the treacherous pathway to the top. For the afluent, and those that don't care about animals, it's possible to ride a completely knackerred looking horse up to the top and over the other side.

It was a really special moment as we approached the lava. The bulk of the walk up the pathway was on muddy to gritty ground and was reasonably easy despite the sheer incline that seemed to be affecting me more than anyone else. I don't think many people slipped up on the way up the path though almost all of us lost our footing to a degree. I was relieved when we reached the clearing at the top of the hillside only to find a group of people who I presume were Guatemalan Scouts who started towards the lava flow as we were passing where they were camped. There were two or three groups in all, and we kind of coalesed as we were leaving the clearing at the hill top and starting to walk on the set lava.

The scene was added to because of the misty conditions. I would have preferred it to have been clear but what seemed to add to the ambience of the day was that the mist and rain as it was hitting the rocks was audiably evaporating as it hit areas where the lava was streaming out of the ground. There was a noticeable jump up in temperature as we were around five or six feet from the point where lava was coming out of the ground and the increase in the volume of sound of rain coming down on to the red hot rocks was also noticeable, as it immediately evaporated and misting up my camera amongst other things.

The shots taken are at Volcan Pacaya and also at Pacaya, Antigua should you wish to see how well I could get them to turn out. Walking back after having a marshmallow with a group of Americans and taking a few photos was quite an experience. We had ascended the volcanic area on the way to the lava flow and there was quite a scene in front of us which resemebled to me something out of Lord of the Rings, everyone keeping pretty much to the same path as the guide, who didn't actually look a lot like Smeigel. Everyone was soaked through it seemed and with the rain coming down quite heavily as we approached the muddy gritty path back down the hillside I wondered how frequently the people who were wearing trainers would be falling on their asses. It was actually far more frequent that I imagined - most of them had muddy bottoms by the time we reached the site's offices and shops at the bottom of the hillside. We made it back to Antigua in good time, about one hour and twenty minutes and I was showered up and in bed within the hour in order to take the mock siesta that I seem to need when I've been up before 8am here.

The shots aren't great but the conditions were attrocious for photographs and what has been salvaged is more a testament to digital technology than my photographic ability. It has as an experience made me want to recall more of my childhood ambitions as I don't think that I've had an experience like it for some time. I don't really recall why I wanted to do this as a child. It was probably connected to some naive belief that 'seeing is believing' and that lava was evidence of what may be at the core of the earth. Thirty years ago I probably had more interest in being an intrepid explorer, in the style of Indiana Jones and a lot has changed since that period in the early 1970's most notably in the form of environmental movements and in terms of the beginning of post-modernism. Man is no longer attempting to control the elements and dominate, master and exploit the world in quite the same vein. The relationship with nature and natural phenomena like active volcanoes has become more ecological and reflexive; I don't know if I'll be that inclinded to re-frame other childhood ambitions in order to validate following them through but if it was as entralling as today was, it would be well worth it. Having looked at Antonovsky's contribution to the field of well-being and his notion of the sense of coherence, there is an element of that within what I have done today. Perhaps it is healthier to recontextualise childhood wishes in a more mature manner and to try to keep some continuity in one's wishes and aspirations.

Final day of Spanish Lessons.

Finally, I've finished the Spanish tuition I started over two weeks ago. I don't feel like I can converse though I do recognise about 50% of what I hear. It's really been an ordeal being sat and taught in quite a traditional method though apparently my accent is quite good. Not really any compensation when your vocabulary is about ten words. Tomorrow, off to Quetzaltenango or something like that at least.

Something crossed my mind when I was about to leave India when I was reading Madness and Civilisation by Foucault and it crossed my mind earlier today again. It related to the fact that there was a 'cure' for leprosy in the 1960s-80s that appeared to have finally assisted with the irradication of the disease. This appeared to happen shortly after the publishing of Madness and Civilisation and for me personally it did spawn a conspiracy theory. Personally, I think certain families are subject to more covert regime action than others, most of which would not be of a criminal nature, and thus not be investigated, and to a degree I think that the concepts of mental illness are in place largely to discredit the sufferer from stating what may or may not have happened to them. I think the issues of citizenship are dealt with using bolder lip-service than most and there are significant improvements to be made in the developed world. The reason I state that in relation to leprosy is that Foucault states that the asylum was to a degree born from the forms of segregation that were used for lepers and even the same buildings then were used to house the mentally ill. What struck me as a possibility was that there could have just been a programme of genetic cleansing in Europe, a realisation that disease was a good form of regime management, so why not continue to use the asylum.

I didn't do any research of any note into the possibilities that I was considering and while I would state that facilitated leprosy or mental illness for the purposes of regime management could be a possibility, apparently leprosy only affects about 5% of the population which makes the chance of there having been one of Europe's first genocides - could this have taken place? If the 5% statistic from the unreliable wikipedia are correct then perhaps this could be a real possibility. May be if I was Israeli I would have learnt pretty much everything there is to know about genocide, I can't say. It is pretty much a twentieth century term for extermination of a religious or ethnic group although the longer history of mass extermination may reveal more telling aspects of humanity.

For some time this struck me as being rather unusual in relation to Foucault and I don't imagine that the paranoid thought of leprosy being used for regime management purposes is ever going to gain any credibility - it's most likely the 5% with the susceptible genes sunk towards the bottom of the caste system and in some respects may have remained there. May be the Christian action in South India to release those who still experience the problems related to caste is under-rated in terms of it's importance - could there be more? Perhaps there could be greater appreciation of Indian culture for not irradicating leprosy as it was in Europe - through extermination?

I guess this genocide may have permeated the culture having been seen as a 'popular move' and led to other programmes of genetic cleansing across Europe which let me sadly say, may have had quite a significant level of support. Perhaps this should be one of the issues that is raised within Yad Vashem, Israel's holocaust museum of what may have been the most unjust interpretation of evidence that has taken place in the history of humanity - that genetic cleansing was a positive process. It is perhaps a failing of contemporary journalism that programmes of genetic cleansing may be in place, however, we tend not to state that this may also have taken place in the UK and been a significant part of our history. If monuments to the dead are so important in our culture should we have some monuments to those who were possibly killed for the health of present populations? I guess this is some form of conspiracy that will not gain any support and while I think there could be some form of nominal process and perhaps I should only dedicate the two oak trees near the centre of Sarehole Mill Recreation ground in Hall Green Birmingham - because to be quite honest journalists don't seem to give a f**k about informing the public adequately and politicians seem content to leave us disconnected from our history and culture. I can't imagine anyone would care.....

On the subject of leprosy-like activity being used to manage regimes, I've found some classic 80s fashion on youtube - Did Daryl Hall and John Oates look good to you at the time? Oh, you wish not to be a leper too, eh?

Health Promotion Theory:Contributions from Wayne Parsons Public Policy.

The aim of this piece is to cluster a few issues together which I think from my best recollection may be worth examining in order to assess health promotion and public health practice in their broadest forms. This is largely to position Baric’s settings approach alongside other health promotion practice in order to highlight the broader political environment that health promotion practice takes place within. The use of three levels of analysis of health promotion practice is argued to be potentially useful in terms of identifying processes in practice which can inform debate on potential changes likely to take place within the health service at large. These come from the structure used in Wayne Parsons book, Public Policy.

First, I would hope to make a point about theorising in health promotion, that it is largely a practice that has been unsuccessful in recent years. Occasionally models of health promotion have been described as ‘iconic’ in the sense they are a representation of practice, a post-hoc reconstruction, rather than being a determinant of practice in the field. In saying that they are used only to describe practice to outsiders to the field rather than being used to direct projects and programs of action. What I propose as an overall theory of health promotion as a mechanism for improving a locality’s health which reflects the politics of the lead organisations as well as the meso-level action which takes place within the settings approach. Macro, meso and micro levels of action of health promotion need to be considered simultaneously in order to ensure that ethics of health promotion practice are considered for all participants. Settings approaches as a meso-level of intervention tend only to be concerned with a particular level of action of health promotion and may as a result whereas the other levels of discourse analysis may indicate that there are more significant levels of action to consider at micro and macro levels of action.

For the purposes of defining roles within health promotion delivery three separate levels of analysis of health improving delivery are defined. The most strategic and highest in terms of the status of the personnel who would normally deliver this would be the macro level of analysis. Overall strategic responsibility for a locality rests with the Director of Public Health whose duties should include examination of qualitative and quantitative data for the locality in order to assess the most suitable types of intervention, combinations of these and means to evaluate against qualitative and quantitative measures. The role of the Director of Public Health is also to assess the nature of the political environment and to have staff in place who can best assist with the development of programs and projects which will ensure health improvement and illness reduction in order to best assist with the goal of dealing with health problems in the defined locality. Health improvement on this level involves assessment of opportunity and threat to project development and assessment of potential gains in health within the strategic context of sometimes thousands of staff. This will involve assessment of potential sites for action on a meso and micro level.

On a meso-level, concerned with organisational change responsibilities linked to dealing with health improvement through organisational change, that is through community, school, workplace or other specific locations for health promotion to be delivered within. Also, adapting existing health service practice through training and arguably organisational development the health promotion team would be seeking to deliver. This tends to work on a model of the Director of Public Health having the lead responsibility for shaping the nature of organisational change within their locality in order to assist with health improvements.

On a micro level, the individual management of health improvement through a one-to-one therapeutic situation could be seen to take place, that is the responsibility of health services staff and professions in related fields who deal with the public in individual interaction or small group interaction.

In some respects the management of population health will be an issue that is a concern for the general practitioner and the individual practice nurse who both may deal with micro level interaction for the majority of their working time. This does not of course preclude them from participating on the level of strategist in terms of their contribution to feedback on strategies and whether or not they are deliverable. Nor would there be a restriction on the general practitioner acting to influence the health and well being of the population for a smaller population size than is managed by a Director of Public Health.

The terminology may be a little cumbersome, the terms macro, meso and micro tend not to be widely used. This could of course reduce any well meaning impact and perhaps strategic, organisational and individual levels of action of public health and health promotion practice could be considered as being a more straightforward and user friendly set of terms.

An initiative like the World Health Organisation’s Healthy City initiative has aims to improve the strategic functions for a city wide area partly through the prestige that can be added through World Health Organisation accreditation for a local government initiative. This would normally involve public sector initiatives that make an impact upon the health and well being of individuals who live and work in the city. Through setting up a partnership body which has a responsibility to coordinate resources in a city more effectively there is potential for influence over the role that a Director of Public Health has although the same function should be served by a number of professionals in this situation in terms of the strategic roles within the health authority.

In terms of how potential advances can be made through examination of practice social theory can be used to highlight some of the processes of social change which are necessary to understand in order for more stakeholders in the change process to influence how resources are distributed in their locality. The research I undertook at M.Sc. level was concerned with the nature of the language that was necessary to use in order to establish an approach to health promotion using discourse analysis as a means to dissect several editorial articles which proposed various approaches to improving health and reducing illness. The articles drew heavily on a number of discourses and each approach to health was supported by drawing upon a number of diverse discourses. Discourses here is intended to convey an institutional dimension of language, in that an established means of dealing with situations or issues in life is dependent upon identifying roles and relationships between participants and language is used to establish the relationship between participants in this context. The notion that acknowledged relationships and how these shape power relations between individuals is what an ‘institution’ is stated to be, that it is a social phenomenon, rather that being an institution in a more Victorian sense where a body or organisation would be established through having a lead individual, premises and a role acknowledged by government. This new institutionalism, very different to the older style of institutionalism, is one area which is a necessary prerequisite for understanding how institutions can be represented in language and sometimes in language alone without material resources to support them. As an example of an institution that has presence in socieity I use psychoanalysis. Although there are recognised bodies still in existence that support psychoanalysis such as psychological associations, in terms of new institutionalism there could be deemed to be a relationship between psychiatrist and patient, the patient being comprised of several psychodynamic phenomena such as an id and an ego, the psychiatrist having the power to define the individual and the nature of the inner being in terms of the professional language, the discourses they use to define the relationship and exert power over the patient. There are also less overt discourses which exist in terms of for instance, between partners, between teacher and pupil, between members of the family. Each of these may be used perhaps inappropriately in certain contexts and set up certain conditions that will influence the behaviour of the individuals concerned, by drawing upon relational language which will strongly influence the use of resources and approach which is possible to take.

For an approach to health to be successfully adopted that approach would need to be related to, whether compared, contrasted or otherwise evaluated against other existing forms of practice currently used and then take effect through being preferred in certain contexts to other existing approaches to health improvement. The process of integrating what could be classed as a new approach to health promotion would therefore involve discussion in, for instance practitioner journals, appraisals within organisations which have a responsibility for improving the health of the population and within training organisations that have a responsibility to deliver on training health professionals. The social aspects of evaluating an approach to health would need to be considered in order to assess the extent of the integration between fields and disciplines. Before the process of culturally embedding concepts in society can take place there appears to be a necessary stage of embedding approaches to health in practitioner circles in order to alter the practice of the professionals who deliver.

What could be seen to be taking place on several levels is professional conflict in terms of thrashing out what may be most beneficial about changing the manner in which health promotion practice is delivered and for discussion on this to be recognised as offering key indication of how professional practice will be changing. This does appear largely to take place in the form of indication from senior management within in- house journals regarding professional development issues, however, there does not tend to be a form of manual to state what degree of confidence staff may justly have in certain political actors. Use of macro, meso and micro levels of practice could highlight more readily what forms of political action to monitor in order to engage in work confidently and arguably staff should be trained in how to assess the likely changes which are to be implemented in the relatively near future, rather than there being a change resistant NHS that has materialised through inappropriate induction to the organisation.

What could be expanded upon in terms of Baric’s settings approach is use of discourse analysis and related methods of sociolinguistics in order to more boldly define the social environments and the quality of the organisational terrain. Furthermore, the approach that was developed may largely and inappropriately be classed as being a meso-level of social action, concerned largely with impacts on an organisational level, rather than on the level of an individual, that is a micro level, or on a broader level, a more strategic macro-level.

The process of embedding concepts in society as a means to improving health may require some debate in order to highlight some ethical issues regarding the approach concerned. There is also more to this that just using the concepts alongside others in order to indicate favour as discourse analysis may indicate. The assumption that health information is not damaging and does automatically lead to improvements in health and well-being is frequently challenged and may be effective for certain sections of the population, the middle and upper classes who would readily respond to health advice and information, and damaging to other sections, who may be described as more working class, less responsive to changing behaviour patterns and ‘culture’ and more likely to reject heath information as disempowering or state controlled propaganda rather that acknowledging the potential benefits that may take place through adopting healthier lifestyles. Culturally embedding a concept may lead in the short term to improvements for the middle and upper class sections of the population and some negative impacts for the lower socio-economic groups concerned. What would be necessary in this instance is examination of how social change takes place across a number of levels of society according to socio-economic group. Research examining social change on stated socio-economic levels of society may have been called upon in the past in a relatively constant manner in order to avoid problems related to the need to examine cultures within a society and how social groups may differ greatly in terms of how they change. Examination of this and whether or not this could be classed as relatively successful should be undertaken on a regular basis in order to justify the manner resources are distributed on research concerning health and behaviour change.

The use of macro, meso and micro levels of action to define health promotion activity may have its benefits in terms of positioning a wide range of action that is geared towards improving the health of a population. It may assist practitioners who deal with the public to be able to view the context of their action in a broader strategic framework. Arguably, this may already take place however a bolder and clearer context for this to take place within may offer some benefits to practice. Utilising the levels of macro, meso and micro may also assist in identifying some of the potential areas for change in health promotion practice and offer a clearer rationale for how and why health promotion work is coordinated within a locality. As stated arguably, much of this will already be dealt with in middle and lower levels of management, however, there could be potential clarity to the role of health promotion worker by developing a broader model of health promotion practice which encompasses models of social and individual change on several levels simultaneously. There is also a question regarding the methods used to generate social change within health promotion practice and there could well be potentially enough in terms of activity in research already to determine questions about the processes of socially embedding an issues to lead to health gains. Various methods of social research may shed light on this issue and publication of a volume which indicates this may be beneficial to practitioners in the near future.

I would have to state that I have limited knowledge of the current NHS proposals for change and much of this that is stated may be a number of years out of date. There are a number of questions in my mind regarding the use of discourse analysis as a research tool that tends not to always deliver what it may be presented as being able to offer. The successes of discourse analysis from the one research project I undertook tended to give indication that the quality of analysis rests mainly upon having selected texts, that is language to examine and explore, that will highlight key points regarding the nature of the social environment. As a result I would encourage Directors of Public Health to consider the potential of the methodology as one of several resources available to explore the political environment in which they operate.

The degree of sensitivity to language use in has perhaps increased with the advent of political correctness and through civil rights movements concerning race and gender and some forms of discourse analysis may already be integrated into professional practice to a degree already. Norman Fairclough, an academic whose work has concerned the implementation of discourse analysis in a number of fields, makes several points of this nature in his texts on discourse analysis, particularly in relation to conventional manners, where someone well mannered will socially construct other people in a style which reflects positive qualities and may challenge negative implications of comments made about them in an assertive manner. To have no awareness of some of the main methods of discourse analysis may be very difficult for anyone in professional practice.

In some respects the notion of dividing public health practice in to macro, meso and micro levels of action may not offer any significant improvements as this type of structuring of health practice can occasionally be devisive and lead to unnecessary and unbeneficial conflict between professional groups. There are benefits perceived by a number of local government bodies which have to a degree maintained the interest in healthy cities as an initiative over a number of years and the structure added by using the WHO accredited approach has been of benefit to several cities. Arguably, there may not need to be more insignificant change and re-labeling of practice in order to satisfy academic whims.

There are other issue areas that strike me as being relevant to explore and one of these concerns the vast amount of literature that I collected on networks and partnerships. There is literature from a number of professional fields which may be worth exploring in terms of health promotion practice and perhaps formal contributions from health promotion on the literature may illuminate issues useful to trans-disciplinary professionals. Networks as a concept related to social interaction between stakeholders concerned with a particular issue have been studied and conceptualised on a number of levels and concepts of networks may provide some means of improving health promotion practice. There is a strong element of concern over the validity of exploring this type of issue when there is perhaps not strong enough interest in the academic contributions made through the research that has been undertaken. Is the literature on networks and partnerships of the least degree of relevance to health promotion practice?

Final day in San Cristobal

Up late. Didn´t do a thing in the morning and have since found that I was just a little dehydrated. A litre of agua mineral later I have found that there is a minimum fluid intake I need to stick to. Spent some of the early afternoon reading ´Playing for Thrills´by Wang Shuo, China´s very own Jack Kerouac. I´m working my way towards Doris Lessing. Probably a bit too ´African´ though very much a good travel read even if you´re in Central America.

The only thing of any real substance I did today was wander down to the cluster of bus stations at the south side of the city and get myself booked onto the trip to Palenque. I was planning on writing a novel while I was away (I´m a big fan of Ernie Wise, I´ll write a short opera in the morning and then the structure for a novel in the afternoon, and possibly a play while I am cooking my tea). Palenque and the culture of the Mayan´s in the region was going to be one of the themes within the book. Who knows maybe it is something I´ll get around to doing when I´m retired, if I am not already.

Today is really quite a special day on some levels. Six months ago I began a course of anti-depressants which were meant to take about three to six months to gather any real momentum as the slowly work on readjusting the levels of certain neurotransmitters in my brain back to a normal level. This has largely taken place and I find that the relatively small highs and lows in life have had meaning returned - believe me if you don´t understand depression it is losing contact with the small lows and highs and adjusting as a result of these which really separates you from the rest of society in a dangerous way. I do feel very much like I´m on the straight and narrow in a particularly good way and on the one hand I feel like going out to celebrate what feels like the end of an era, I guess on the other what I should be doing is planning on how to get my life back on track in the next few months. Have a drink for me in the next few days. Here´s to being ´reconnected´.

Earlsdon Chronicles: Social ecology, norms and adjusting to south Coventry.

Having done a miniscule amount of reporting for the Earlsdon ECHO (if you fancy trying community journalism then this really isn't a bad place to start) I did wonder why everyone in the organisation did appear to look a little or a lot like people I already know, which connected to feelings of paranoia. It did surprise me until I started a closer comparison of individuals and realised that they only bear a superficial resemblance to each. As this was the case I imagine that there was nothing really to have been concerned about. There was no real conspiracy they were involved in.

If someone is paranoid it may be the type of thing that they would suggest and it should be challenged - norms should be set by a group and we are social animals who would normally function better when we have agreed to work collectively in a particular way, including discussing issues which may appear to be of a particular relevance to one individual and of no importance to anyone else. This 'functioning correctly' by modifying and respecting social norms is I guess partly what social ecological perspectives may suggest as being appropriate. If this is the case, bearing in mind the processes that could lead to greater stability, and reduced chances of schizophrenia, it would make sense to outline how people adjust to asylum seekers and within processes of citizenship and with anyone who may be in an especially high risk category of developing mental health problems.

This aside for a moment – do they look alike to you? Do individuals who don’t ask quite basic questions to establish trust end up feeling paranoid? Where do most people’s social norms stop on this – should we allow this to take place if it doesn’t take an excessive amount of time? Also, I find that there are issues which may be relevant to asylum seekers which have parallel the issues that may underlie the mental health problems that asylum seekers and immigrants may experience. For a while language didn’t feel fully connected to the purposes that it is intended for one becomes at sea with the community around. If this is the case then it will become a question of connecting to language to the same degree that everyone else in the social groups that you are part of to normalise – along with other forms of communication. This really does require some development as a research area, but there could be greater awareness of what means of communication are used and what degree of allowance can be made for the differences in language use that individuals have, that leave them accepted within social groups. This may contribute to the development of qualifications which may have health promoting benefits.

Gender issues campaigning – should this take place through joint campaigning between men and women?

To a great extent the feminist movement appears to have become effective in improving the status of women in society across all social classes and across all divides. This is a rather bold generalisation and may require some criticism for refinement. However, there has as a general trend been a significant increase in the numbers of women in work, sharing of household duties which were largely understood to be the role of women to undertake and increases in the salaries that the average woman earns.

Whilst there tends to be a range of feminist action ranging from the conservative to the radical there is possible scope to examine issues of gender in conjunction with the opposite sex rather than be carried out by women, perhaps to give the indication that either men are not necessary for gender issues campaigning or would perhaps aim to take too much control and dominate the proceedings. Feminist research and feminist action may be so geared to the issues that women may face that men’s interests may entirely be disregarded to a point where it is counter productive for women’s interests in general.

Perhaps some gender issues campaigning could be done more effectively and support the well-being of both men and women if it was done through the collective action of both men and women. Deciding an agenda for action would be an interesting as there would need to be some means of trying to separate out issues which would be best dealt with by women alone, those perhaps best dealt with by men and those that would benefit both genders being dealt with in conjunction with each other.

There may not be an enormous need for minor campaigning groups like ‘Fathers for Justice’ rather than a broad change across the whole of society, however, representation in the media does tend to be important on some levels for improving cohesion between otherwise disparate groups and indicating the overall changes that are perhaps desirable for many in society. I could hardly say there is a vacuum left by the disbanding of fathers for justice, but I would state that the types of Mr. Blair, Mr Cameron and Mr Clegg all appear to be suitable candidates to take a gender equality agenda into the mainstream of party politics even further.

Each of them appear to be polite, sensitive and intelligent enough to lead on this type of agenda but there tends to be an attempt not to deal too directly with gender issues overtly as it may get them labelled as ‘politically correct’ or out of synch with public needs. One issue that tends to suggest that they may be refined is a facial characteristic, they lack big noses. I do wonder if there is covert semi-racial discrimination against men who have big noses, like myself. It may contribute to an image of someone who is unrefined and not fitting within the Aryan stereotype that is generally still adored in the West despite it’s links with Nazism. Perhaps each of them fulfils a preferable white racial stereotype and the media do not wish to challenge – the Euro-Indian hybrid. The continuation of Nazism in the west goes uninterrupted.

While it may seem like an unnecessary aside, I do feel discriminated against – I bought a nose clip for swimming and it was too small for my nose – because, I presume, JJB Sport is run by a Nazi cartel who want people of part Jewish origin and other people with big noses to die of heart disease. Maybe I should try to organise a campaign – to highlight what Nazism there is in Earlsdon. JJB are anti-semetic through and through. Nazis go back to Bolton or whatever small northern town you are from. In the mean time will the main political party leadership examine what form of coordination of gender issue campaigning can be legitimately undertaken for more substantial progress to be made sooner in the interests of both men and women.

Call centres and how to survive them.

I’ve worked in call-centres for a couple of well established companies over a number of years and I’ve dealt with a significant number of callers and been trained in various means of ‘call handling‘. If anything what surprises me about the quality of the information that is generally offered in the media about call centres is how one-sided it is in relation to the nature of what is desirable to get from a call: without considering how call centres are organised these press-articles are not necessarily going to be of any benefit to the reader. To understand how to deal with call centres you need to understand how the call centre is run and the objectives that the management have - unless you understand this then you are likely to be kept hanging on…..

There are some key issues that need to be addressed in order to deal with the ‘call centre hell’ without being too frustrated by the experience. Largely many of the problems that customers experience are due to the fact that costs can be cut when offering a service that will help one company become more competitive than others in the same market and one means of doing this is by paying staff a low rate of pay. Consequently there can be little incentive to stay within a company’s call centre and the staff turnover tends to be high. High staff turnover tends to be a major issue in call centres and it is largely because of the highly target oriented environment that can lead to very low levels of job satisfaction due to the pressured environment. As a result of high staff turn over, staff then will tend only to be trained on specific issue-areas and can only deal with a narrow range of issues - increased competitiveness – or savings for the company leads to staffing that is less able to deal with the overall business of a company. For a national newspaper to aim to offer systems of ‘getting through to a person as soon as possible’ is a little misleading as the person that you get through to may not be able to assist with your enquiry, for instance, it may get you through to a team leader or floor manager who can not deal with your enquiry who then only has to transfer you to another queue.

One of the most ridiculous areas for the mass media to criticise call centre staff on is the way that call centre staff ‘interrupt’. Most call centres that are ‘outsourced’ that are staffed by personnel that are not employed directly by the company whose enquiries they are dealing with are subject to contract review and they may lose a contract if they are not dealing with calls in a manner that the client company desires. Consequently, there can be a strong regime of call management that demands calls are generally dealt with in a structured manner making a key issue for anyone in the call centre who wishes to keep their jobs - they deal with calls in a structured and systematic manner to the satisfaction of the client. If this also involves keeping calls short then it is inevitable that calls will involve interruptions. To consider staff as being rude who are aiming largely at keeping their jobs when they are instructed to deal with a call structure and time limits that demand that interruptions are used is senseless. Call-centre staff could well be Britain’s factory workforce with low-autonomy jobs - they have little interest in interrupting or being party to a rudeness in a call and may prefer the open discussion.

I’ll offer some advice on how to deal with call centres as I see as appropriate – I hope it is of some use to the reader. I should also state what I mean by call centre. I am referring to an office or section that deals almost entirely with telephone calls incoming and outgoing ensuring other staff are free of interruptions. This can include 'outsourced' call centres which are located outside of the mother organisation and based often in another country.

Menu systems - if you feel that the menu systems are totally unsuitable for the enquiry and don’t get you through to anyone quick enough then you need to state this briefly. If the call-centre is low budget they will have staff trained on a narrow range of issues consequently consider using a different company if the one that you go are using don’t administer things in a way that suits you - if enough people complain then menu systems may be changed. Quite often, especially for small organisations, it is possible to get straight through to the reception by pressing zero: '0'. This may also throw you out of the system as well.

Allow enough time - call centres tend to be managed on the basis that there will be peak times and low demand times that will leave the call centre with nothing to do. They aim to have enough staff available for different scenarios and they are not perfect in their predictions.

Ask when the low demand periods are - ask what the call forecasts are like for early in the morning and late in the day before the call centre closes. If there are periods when there are lower levels of calls to deal with then it may be better to call at these times.

Have an interruptable task to do while you are waiting in the call queue - drink tea, do the crossword, write a shopping list or list of things you’ll need to do, or anything that may be stopped while you are waiting. I generally won’t call an 0870 number without something to do whilst I am on hold waiting for someone to answer. Even if you are calling at a low demand period there could be a sudden unpredicted influx of calls owing to an unforeseen event and this could be a reason that you hang on without knowing why. Be relaxed and be ready not to get through immediately, this rarely happens. Don’t get left feeling that you’re hanging on….

Have all supporting information relating to the call with you - most people would prefer to call a call centre again having made a booking or made an order than to read the paperwork that they have been sent. Consequently, more calls are made to the call centre than is necessary and the impact that this makes is to increase call volume and then reduce the chances of someone else getting through. The time taken to get through to some call centres at peak periods tends to be less than the time it would take to read the information that has been sent that could answer your enquiry - it makes sense to look through what you’ve been sent, especially if you are holding on waiting to speak to a member of staff. If you think the information is unclear inform the company that you think it’s badly written and why. Consider if it could be in clearer English and if so ask them if they have would consider a link with ‘the Plain English Society’.

Take the name, extension number or team details of the call centre agent - without this most information from the call can not be checked at a later date. Frequently, this is the most significant information to have on a call and is often more important than any other information. If you hear information stating all calls are recorded then it is likely that this is going to be to your advantage - only if you have made a note of who you spoke to. Someone may refuse to give their name, frequently staff will be informed that they are not expected to give their surname when asked. In this case ask for an extension number - for an agent not to give their name and extension number or name and team so they can be easily identified should be classed as highly unprofessional. If a person slurs their name or refuses to give it call back immediately to make a complaint as the information that you’ve been given doesn’t really have much validity unless you can link it to a member of staff. Most call centre staff should state their name at the start of the call - if they don’t it’s generally unprofessional not to do this.

Take the time of the call - any tracing of calls that are made where there is a dispute over the information that has been stated will usually require at least a rough time of the time a call was made within five or ten minutes. Calls are logged in a computer system usually under the extension number of the agent who made the call and the time it was recorded. If an average call centre agent deals with eighty calls per day and there are thirty staff then that is two thousand four hundred calls per day. Obviously, if staff are willing to take your side over being misinformed, and it will happen if there are that many calls being dealt with, then they will want to trace a call as soon as possible - it is imperative to have a record of the time of a call if you want to use the digital record of it to your advantage.

Deal with interruptions - if you feel that you are being led along certain routes that you don’t want to go down then state clearly and categorically the reason that you called and emphasise that you don’t wish for any other services to be offered. State that you wish to control the call and that you only want to ask a few things. The staff should be able to co-operate with you.

Offering advice to 'the paranoid' – being on the other side of the adviceworkers desk.

It is fourteen years since I worked at the Devonport CAB with the other individuals who had the drive to deliver a service that would help the Devonport locals deal with the problems they had. It may help to characterise the period by describing the political context of the time before discussing the issues that I wanted to raise. There was an almost nonchalant right wing government that may have been possibly so little concerned with the bottom 10% of earners in the public that they damaged Conservatism irreparably. There were the major events of the Poll Tax riots and the riots at the protests over the end of student grants. And, although there was the launch of Heseltine’s urban regeneration initiative there were strong signals from central government that the areas that experienced multiple-deprivation somehow didn’t matter. I was influenced to undertake the role of CAB advice worker because of the Maoist philosopher & Newcastle Brown Ale drinker – Tim Moss, who encouraged the action of voluntary work in deprived urban areas which isn’t quite as dramatic an undertaking as doing voluntary work overseas in some far off land to most people, though need may be great in deprived urban Britain. There was a tendency back then to elect left wing local councils as a reaction to the right wing central government as perhaps there may currently be a tendency to elect right wing councils in order to give a message to left-wing central government.

It wasn’t my first job but delivering CAB Advice Work was the first work I made a serious attempt at engaging in employment since I’d graduated a year or so before. Before that I’d been involved in various service delivery jobs and not been able to do what any of my education was geared towards. I did find it quite a difficult transition to make - I guess I’d spent too much of my teens loafing. There was a degree of conviction that is not uncommon in the voluntary sector all over the UK within Devonport CAB’s team. Ironically, I had ongoing issues with depression and no real diagnosis which attempted to deal with the matters which underlie the swift changes in mood that left me occasionally feeling very typically helpless.

The reason I write this blog relates to the experience I had when I saw at least two of clients who appeared to be reporting conspiratorial matters. I didn’t really know how to take them in relation to the issues they were raising - if anything I would have to offer some form of apology to the people I assumed only to have suffered from what appeared to be organically generated mental health problems. They appeared superficially at least to have completely unfounded allegations to make against the state, government, establishment or whatever forces of action may be present in the UK and I, rather than completely dismiss what they were stating, just escalated the case enquiry to a supervisor. I don’t think there was an aim to reduce the person making these allegations to a point where they felt that we weren’t willing to believe them but I don’t really feel that we did offer any major service on the matters that were likely to limit their lives.

The oddity of the situation, what I think feels very ironic is that I then several years later, is that I too entered a CAB regarding a matter which I think was, to them, wholly attributable to the likelihood that I was suffering with mental health problems. On the other side of the desk, what appears to be the case seems to be that there could be programmes of action against some members of the public that may not be part of the action of some longstanding tradition but because there are no clear links, evidence or motives they appear totally irrational, a reflection of illness. What can happen is that advice services are not strongly geared to do a great deal to assist people in this position and as a result even if there are intention to ensure that each member of the public is treated reasonably there isn’t a great deal that advice services can offer to someone who is in this position.

I may have been slightly honed by the influence of psychology and psychologists. Professionalism within psychology tends to mean not challenging the general assumptions within theory that the psychological professions have generated especially in relation to the notion that society may ‘cause’ some forms of mental illness – mental illness is the disease of the individual. There was always a suggestion from people in psychiatric training and who were linked to clinical psychology that it was not an area to question Policing as this is a professional group that may be called upon with exceptional cases with patients. Whilst this is not the type of matter that is challenged within academic psychology there are routes into this area. There is a journal of political psychology which is concerned more with the impacts upon politics of psychology rather than vice versa – and this is a matter which is regularly discussed by students and patients alike, however, there does not seem to be a strong enough debate on these matters within practitioner journals. Laid on top of that there is not

This and other ‘paranoid’ thoughts are in some ways easy to dismiss, though this can only appear to incriminate the advice service – maybe the politically correct response to someone who, to many may obviously have mental health problems, could be that we don’t have the facility to assist you, and that medical and legal frameworks do not appear to be suitable to address the matters that you’re raising. This of course could lead to greater dissatisfaction with the service that is available. There does seem to be a loophole that for instance the types of antics that go on in the film ‘Changing Lanes’ that could lead to a great deal of paranoia may not be that illegal, certainly not something that the Police would class as criminal harassment, and is not presently legislated against. Providing evidence of this type of action may be difficult to do as well considering the Police as servants of the ruling class actually investigating malpractice within workplaces that may otherwise not be considered as worthy of investigation. Perhaps a few well chosen cases to explore may result in costly delays to a business and result in such a deterrent to other businesses that there could be an incredibly strong counter culture against this type of instance occurring again. Paranoia may be worth reconceptualising from a number of professional perspectives considering the action that a service could take may shape what is or isn’t worth as conceptualising into a definition of paranoia.

It seemed that there weren’t necessarily matters that were related the thoughts of persistent risk and persecution only feeling that people were potentially threats – it consideration of these as being unlinked to data, theory or rationale which normally rings someone’s alarm bells that a person is really and truly mad. There is scope to assess risk and perhaps we have much stronger drives genetically to assess risk collectively and to form a culture to act on this than we acknowledge. When we lose this from our culture we maybe then start to malfunction – what a healthy individual has is access to this form of process and a meaningful link with it. This is evolutionary psychology in a form which is very closely linked to the foundations of the Ottawa Charter for health promotion. There could be very individual forms of risk assessment that are prevalent in our culture which may remain relatively healthy processes such as perceiving all motorists as a potential risk when motorcycling. When past the risk it is generally forgotten about, or at least no longer central in the mind of the rider. For someone with a mental heath problem their general perception of events becomes very unbalanced and recent risk events stay in the mind and are not left behind leaving clear focus. This is going a little Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, but there does tend to be a need to continually assess risk more often than not alone. When dealing with the issues that cluster together that may be presented someone with a mental health problem may not able to prioritise, forget about issues which are likely to be fruitless and then deal methodically with those that are worth pursuing. They may also find that they can not interpret what someone is saying when trying to assist them and may continually become difficult to deal with. To a large extent I would imagine advocacy services may be expensive but necessary for people with this condition and I would hope that there would be services made available.

There are other features of the condition which are probably worth indicating but maybe are well covered elsewhere in the sites linked to support for people with mental health problems. I don’t think that I can really sum up much of what the condition has been like other than to state that it’s possible to cover up what feels like a living hell quite easily. I wish to describe the living details of what the mood disorder has been like – I do class people as being very lucky in some respects that they are connected to what is going on in their lives and that they are experiencing moods which are connected to the social events which are going on around them.

The general trend of reducing funding to psychiatric services and increasing police services may shift some responsibility onto Police Forces and PCSOs to deal more effectively with the preventative role they have in dealing with the situation. It becomes increasingly more and more important to consider the role of the Police along with other services in the prevention of mental illness. This may become an area for housing and policing officials to determine a research agenda for if current trends in service provision continue. There will be members of the public coming into advice service centres and stating that they think there are all manner of actions being undertaken against them – a proportion of which may be relatively accurate appraisals of influence which may limit someone’s quality of life. What advice are they likely to receive as part of conventional practice under the guidance of Mr. Brown will remain to be seen.

It was only a very few people that were subject to this type of allegation against the state government or of corruption although I don't know if that was NACABs classification or other reasons including avoiding staff dwelling on the illness state of the client group who were largely local. Having said that I have what appears to be very fractured recall of seeing several staff that I worked with during this period being grabbed and injected which is a little Jacobs Ladder but it’s unusual what I do seem to recall. I don’t know if this is highly creative memory but there does seem to be something that took place I can’t recall. I guess a major difference between being problematically mentally ill and having made a recovery is that I can at least get on with my life despite having unresolved recall of events.

As a final aside I vaguely recall there being some incidents with, I think, the group of grebos from the Cooperage. I assume that one of them was tipped off about some potential corruption and there was a low key attempt to ensure that people were informed about this years before the event – the event being the tsunami in 2004. In about 1993 or 1994, there was an attempt at low key publicity which was carried out, which appeared to be led by one of the grebos. On cardboard signage the terms ‘2004’ and ‘tsunami’ appeared at the bottom of Royal Parade outside petrol station for a couple of days. I don’t know if this was in relation to a computer which was named a ‘tsunami’ which was on the market before the South-East Asian tsunami of boxing day 2004 or not. Just because there was a tsunami in 2004 does not mean that it was linked to a corrupt process and there could have been a large number of predictions made of this nature which don’t appear to have any form of consolidating information to support them. I don’t know if anyone in Stonehouse witnessed this or made a record of what was on these rather odd cardboard signs, however, it would be interesting to find out exactly what was going on....this was the issue I was ignored by CAB staff in Birmingham over and it would be interesting if there were any records in Plymouth of what happened in the early 1990's

Redefining 'political correctness': should the British use a less politicised term of ‘common humility’?

There is more than a slight backlash against the movement of political correctness within the UK media as a whole and this is one area where the media seem in tune with the British public at large – what tends to be accepted in the UK is that there is no apparent alternative to the movement that ‘political correctness’ has become, when it may just be the beginning of a revitalised approach to human relations and how they are termed in everyday language use.

There may not be a single source, of course, of political correctness as a movement, though as the history of the situation gets formed, it may be possible to assume that there was a need for a perhaps international common framework to discuss and describe number of forms of disadvantage that resulted in lower social and economic status for an individual. This may as a result be an example of the process of globalisation of culture which marks the interchange between Britain and the US socially and economically. This may of course not be the case, there doesn’t seem to be an exponent from the US who would argue that the same terminology should be adopted in the UK or elsewhere in Europe that may have been seen to be suitable in the USA.

The backlash against global processes may reflect a resistance to the processes of globalisation as a whole, which may not be visible but is taking place in a great many forms through the discussion groups which were used to select appropriate terms to use within an organisation to avoid discriminatory action. Arguably, those who have disliked the new terminology of political correctness have not been connected to the processes of selecting the most appropriate language for an organisational context. There may be solid grounds to reject the use of terms of courtesy based upon language which does not connect with the social history of the users of the terminology. The process of managing this form of social change and ensuring that there were positive impacts all round are considerable. All of this creates a position where there may be a need to reject elements of the globalisation of culture and seek a national, regional or more local solution that are part of a more prominent movement which helps get those who feel resentment to the ‘politically correct’ on board.

Deconstructions of political correctness may include a more complex picture of competing interests that incorporate what I am stating. Would they indicate that it were a movement that it provides a means of avoiding discriminatory language which can not only restrict the development of the person that it is being used to describe but also to ensure that any one who is working with them may not be accused of discriminating against them? This also could be in the interests of an employer who may not wish to be involved in either providing substandard working conditions where harassment may take place but also may avoid the risk of prosecution through negligence over not addressing this type of matter. In whose interests does political correctness take place as a process may also be worth asking as there may be some benefits for the vulnerable groups who are not discriminated against, although perhaps there is a greater benefit for those who get to grips with how the terminology can be used so they can progress in their careers.

There may be good reason to question the beneficiaries of political correctness – as a movement political correctness may not have addressed any unequal power relations but only offered window dressing to those who were looking to absolve themselves from engaging in any meaningful form of social change. This type of change in language use is little more than a lubricant to capitalism and maintains distinct power relations rather than challenges them in any way. It would be interesting to examine who the major beneficiaries of political correctness have been so far. It does assist in some ways with the sense of a meritocracy and sense of social and economic freedoms.

The meritocratic nature of Blair’s Britain may be subject to further analysis at an appropriate point. We may then find that there are ‘relationally challenged’ individuals that are those who do not have a great opportunity through extended family or others who are ‘aesthetically challenged’ when looks are fully recognised as being a particularly significant issue in the preferences of employers. Maybe one day….

If social and economic power relations are not being challenged and there is an aversion to the US approach of political correctness which may be due to financial and public image reasons being central to undertaking the process of cultural change then there may be scope to undertake a more British approach. Finance and public image may not be matters necessarily central to British culture and there could be reason, despite common ground with the US, to separate and form a more British movement. This has been undertaken by the left wing councils of the 1980'S and not respected for what it was - maybe it is time to review this.

Mental illness – How heavily gendered should the diagnostic frameworks be?

Following a brief discussion with a psychiatrist who refused to put anger into a diagnostic framework I have considered exactly how the mechanisms operate which lead us to see women report more mental illness and men die younger, statistically speaking because of alcohol related diseases. It was a point made continually through the M.Sc. course I did that women may tend to get depressed, report symptoms and then get diagnosed with depression, thus elevating the statistics of women and mental illness – probably to a level they may be classed as accurate. While on the other hand, men presumably during medical examinations, may report that they have been drinking heavily and this not necessarily be converted to a statistic in relation to mental health. It will be a rather clumsy discussion to deal with such a nebulous terms as mental health, especially in relation to gender; while it may almost not be worthwhile raising these points, I do think some generalisations need to be questioned.

The frequency of reported mental illness does almost invariably indicate more frequent reporting than with men which may reflect how gender appropriate it is to report the symptoms of depression etc within the consulting room of a GP. If the information on the increase in male suicide in the UK is also considered – especially with regard to the increase in rate of suicide for young men. It is approximately twice as high as for women despite the implication that men have better mental health than women by the less frequent reporting of mental health problems.

Arguably, there could be more gendered concepts of mental illness relating to male and female forms of anxiety, depression and other well-being states which increase service use to a suitable degree. At present the diagnostic frameworks may make additional problems emerge and as a nation we could look towards more gendered and more appealing concepts of well being and mental health problems which encourage greater participation in health services that everyone in Britain is paying towards.

At present the use of existing concepts tends to continue an element within our culture which ensures that we are operating in the rules of the asylum and other institutions that we have not been able to make a clean break from over several centuries. There are possibly methods of social management that may be nearing an end in the next few decades which would require – it may simply be a change in nomenclature and make minimal difference but if managed across the whole of society as a significant period of change it could alter things for the next generation.

Whilst there may be some significant differences between Britain and Europe there could be adequate common ground in order to make this a European wide movement coordinated by the EU – this I think is wishful thinking but it could be an area for possible development – would most young men prefer different terminology applied to their life experience which puts them in a position to alter the way they live so they feel better? It may also be a particularly important step for the improvements that could take place for women and reduction in problems with their mental health as well.

This actually arose out of a discussion I had with someone who I knew who worked in the psychiatric profession. She tended to degrade some very intense feelings that had been reported to her of anger because they were not clinically relevant and wanted to home in on issues that were in the diagnostic manual. It strikes me as interesting that anger does not figure as part of the diagnoses that are made when it is to a degree expressed as being a socially appropriate emotion that men may express – are there other instances of men reporting feelings and these being ignored by clinical staff because they aren’t adequately stated in diagnostic manuals? It would be wholly unwise to suggest this outside of a blog in a more formal context as this is not based on a great deal of qualitative information, however, it may be interesting to form a corpus as is termed by Fairclough and to examine the discursive practice around this particular issue.

Whilst staff in mental health services may be committed to what they do, be willing to endure certain maltreatment which most people would be wholly intimidated and offended by there does need to be a strong commitment to the frameworks that psychiatric professional works within. There is a strong belief that the actions of staff who participate in such systems are going to result in significant improvements in the well-being of the patient. Unfortunately, the standards theoretically and procedurally that psychiatric professionals work to are not high and there isn’t a very strong explanatory framework for exactly why interventions work when they do. This is beyond the control of the vast majority of psychiatric staff – contributing further to the difficulties that they have by offering inadequate conceptualisations of how mental illness may be experienced within a culture only may serve to restrict the ability of the staff.

There are a great many concepts within the realms of mental illness, psychiatry and well being that may require significant review at present and while there are so called random attacks that mental health services appear to lack any understanding of why they take place this may be one area that could prove pivotal. Many of the diagnostic categories that are used to tend to exacerbate the mental distress that an individual may experience – for instance if there were action taken against an individual and they were classed as being paranoid for reporting it within mental health services many people would acknowledge that this could cause frustration and lead to anger, especially if there were a willingness only to employ mental health services as a result as a means of protecting the public at large, when there are individuals in the public who were causing such problems. This action of mental health services to have a negative and damaging effect upon the well being of the person reporting ‘mental illness’ could be classed as psychiatric iatrogenesis. It will be a long time until the staff within health services, politics and relevant sections of the Police acknowledge this term and its significance in terms of reducing the so called random and violent attacks.

Academic re-engagement – the drop-out’s guide to re-booting academic skills.

Having become disconnected from academia altogether after dropping out of a PhD in 1999 I have rekindled my interest in academia as a means of evaluating and appraising information and propositions – and as a means of relating to the world in the general terms. I had what I may as well describe as being a nervous breakdown that would appear to have been due to over work (what I think it was due to is a different story) – having spent long hours working on relatively basic tasks and not fully relaxing when I did have time off. I wouldn’t attribute the problem arising to the conduct of staff at University of the West of England which is where I was based during the period the meltdown began. If anything I’d say that the standard of convening in meetings was very high – if I had to say that there was a place where I’ve worked where this was the case I would probably select UWE. This does happen to a number of people in academia and I wouldn’t like anyone to think that this blog was aimed at them in particular – it is meant to be very general and not inspired by any single individual.

What I’ve put up on the blog, for the purposes of assisting others, it an outline of the process of re-engagement that I’m undertaking. It isn’t meant to be a short cut for those who haven’t spent a long time in academia as some form of distillation of what the key skills are but is rather meant to be some form of gradual re-engagement of those frequently used skills. I did find it difficult to find any information on this process of re-engagement and I thought that it may be well covered elsewhere on the web but one has to define one’s own process if it does not exist. It does surprise me that this is not documented elsewhere as there are frequently reported sub-clinical mental health issues experienced by academics and because of the nature of the working hours that some may choose this can be to a degree a health and safety risk, one of few involved in the job.

What I’ve listed is the sequential process that one would go through in the education system right the way through from the entry level to post-graduate level and comments on some basic tasks that I’m planning that will assist with rebuilding confidence and developing a sense of coherence about academic activity. If you wish to comment or add a link to relevant information please do so. Also, a number of theoretical perspectives may be applied to the process that may imply that other action is necessary as part of the recovery process. Arguably, from a social-ecological perspective recovery from mental illness may entail a review of the norms and behaviour that an individual may have participated in and change to them so that the individual is able to function within a particular social environment. It could be argued that minor breakdowns and panics may have an evolutionary basis and like the function of a psychosomatic illness may be argued to serve, that is to assist with re-engagement and socialisation (i.e. some form of change in cognition and behaviour may be required) there may be some argument that there is a need to have a mentor for this process who can advised on the norms of the social group that one is re-engaging in. [It would be interesting to get the comments of Prof. Paul Gilbert and Prof. Mike Hyland – and some comments from the USA who have undertaken more research on family within a community from a social ecological perspective than in Europe, as far as I am aware.

Here is the basic outline of the process that I will be going through:

Warming up – Basic skills level, Entry Level etc.
Review of basic skills and entry level courses. Describe rudiments of use of punctuation style which are associated with this level of qualification and may not be suitable at other levels.
Task –Examine how the basic skills would contribute to written communication and serving a purpose of communication within an organisation. Describe how these skills are comprised of the core elements of communication/literacy which are constant through each stage of this process.
Skills – List the skills that are involved in basic day to day tasks of writing and record number of mistakes made through misleading written communication, how much time and cost does this incur? What are the highest priority changes in communication that would need to take place as a result?
Consolidating tasks – Evaluate the utility of basic skills information and consider these along with other vocational qualifications in an academic setting. What skills do I use frequently and which skills would I benefit from developing in the short-term, medium term and long term?

1. Academic re-engagement: moving up to general qualifications.
Read GCSE Specifications for guidance on the quality of the writing that is expected through GCSE levels.
Task – Discuss and describe the qualities preferred at GCSE level writing. Outline why a style of writing may be acceptable at GCSE level of writing and not at others.
General supporting administrative tasks to develop basic skills in this area – scanning and photocopying. Ordering and organising of materials in order to leave them accessible.
Skills - Summarising articles with a few sentences in terms of content without reference to issues outside of the text? Paraphrase, summarise and precise – practice methods of doing each.
Consolidating tasks - Collection of range of materials that would support a 500 word essay. Write in short bursts of 5 minute blocks with 5 minute breaks. (build this up gradually to a normal work-break ratio, say work of 45-50 minutes in one hour and 10-15 minutes of break. Read newspapers for one week and plan a series of essays on the content on the basis of newspaper articles.

2. Academic re-engagement: moving up to ‘A’ level standard.
Use recommended text books to support the activity of writing to A level standard. Eg. NEC booklets and other ‘A’ level guidance – eg specifications.
General background tasks at this level - review, precise and summaries.
Task – Describe and discuss the qualities desired in the writing of A level writers. Identify if there is support for the proposition that the jump up to A level standard from GCSE is the biggest single step up in academia or if there are other steps which are more significant.
Skills – List skills and how these can be utilised at A level standard in a manner which supports development.
Consolidating tasks –Read through several months of practitioner journals and plan an article entirely based upon the content of these so it can be referenced with all propositions referenced where at all possible. Write several essay plans and carry these out if possible.

3i. Academic reengagement : moving up through to a university level.
This should ensure that the engagement in an academic planning process can begin with the issues of writing which is entirely based upon written sources such as books and journals and makes reference to other data through academic appraisal, such as following application of appropriate qualitative and quantitative research methods. This requires a thorough review of the research methods courses undertaken and review of literature on research methods. There are other texts which may be useful to make progress in this area such as University writing guides, for example, ‘How to get a first’ or other undergraduate writing text books.
Task – Describe and discuss the qualities of degree level writing and how different this is to A level and general qualifications level writing.
Skills – Measured writing – writing to achieve effects of change within a research field. Write to impact upon practice within a specified area using an analysis of interests of specified groups being written about. This should not take the form of a report stated in section 4 below but would draw from the same theme areas. Academic information should be converted to resource status for practitioners.
Consolidating tasks – Undertake a review of several academic issue areas and summarise how they could impact upon practice, write essay plans and indicating how the changes in practice should be termed.

3ii. Academic reengagement: writing at the standard of a post-graduate.
Examine if there are any text books aiming to take the student through from undergraduate writing issues to post-graduate writing issues. Use books such as ‘how to get a PhD’ and determine factors which elevate a piece of research work from Masters’ level to PhD.
Task – Describe and discuss the qualities desired in the writing of the post-graduate. What extra qualities are added to a piece of research through carrying it out to Doctoral standards – what are the major benefits of carrying out a piece of research to this standard and how does the writing style differ from degree and Masters level writing.
Skills – List and explore the issues of post graduate writing through summaries of doctoral theses and Ph.D. supporting text books.
Consolidating tasks – Examine the nature of research programmes and how these are structured and what level of contribution doctoral research would add to these.

4. Professional writing within an organisation.
Review the texts on report writing within a professional setting and summarise these.
Task – Discuss and describe the features of a report in terms of the process of gathering information and the style which is to be used within it.
Skills – List the key skills that are used in forming most reports within the area that a report would be written for.
Consolidating tasks - Practice reports and highlighting issues which arose within the report. Review several reports and examine whether or not they function within the guidance stating within the report writing guides. If they diverge significantly add in extra guidance on report writing and the style that this would need to be done within.

5. Leisure writing – contextualising academic writing within other writing settings.
Read through books on creative writing and on writing poetry.
Task – Describe and discuss the methods of writing and styles within each discipline. Review the above and contrasted to the academic writing books.
Skills – Aim to specify how different the styles are and what constitutes structure and style within this area.
Consolidating tasks – Evaluate poetry in terms of it’s form and content and aim to mimic this.

6. Writing and verbal ability.
Write a list which aims to breakdown of skills and listing of these and how they can be used together. Presentation structure and style of delivery etc.
Task – Describe and discuss the main features of several forms of public and private speaking and how these may be supported by the skills developed in academic writing.
Skills – Examine how different forms of research can be presented and what considerations need to be made for particular audiences giving examples.
Consolidating tasks – Summarise how several different scenarios could be approached and detail the types of problems that may be encountered and how to deal with these.

7. Revisiting statistics.
This is assuming that a social science degree was undertaken that involved some small reference to statistics….undertake a review of undergraduate statistics books (eg. Judith Bell, other stats from undergraduate studies (Howell ?))
Task - Examine statistical tests in relation to the work undertaken in community safety and the potential there is for tests to highlight statistical significance to be used to demonstrate the effectiveness of an intervention.
Skills - Use of statistics tests on data from real world situations.
Consolidating tasks – Practice several statistical tests on data from relevant agencies and get feedback on how to undertake these to provide information relevant to practitioners.

8. The graduates skills sets.
Summarise the extent and range of skills required for development within an academic context and when interfacing between the academic and real worlds.
Task - Summarise the process undertaken and some of the implications for practice. Aim to work on the personal weaknesses identified as ‘areas for development’ and identify system for prioritising academic skills development.
Skills - List skills and means to keep these in some form of rigour and ability to use them appropriately.
Consolidating tasks – Examine what skills have been regained and which ones were close to being developed and to work out a programme of development which is SMART and likely to result in development of further skills at a suitable pace.

I haven’t completed this process yet, nor am I sticking to it that rigidly – I’ve jumped around within it to a degree, and it would take possibly a matter of weeks to gradually gain what was lost especially when there may have been a great deal of time since the skills were last used. I guess sometimes they return quite quickly and while there may be some attention on this process as being rather too mechanistic and rather like a keep fit workout it does have the virtue of being clear so anyone could begin it. If there is nothing else to go on I hope this does not cause any problems. It is important for academics to control the process of work – as it is for anyone – and I hope that you can control (take out what is irrelevant and add on what is necessary to the bare bones here).

Best wishes…Steve.

Cameron: Did he pay lip service to well-being or make a commitment?

David Cameron made a commitment to the ‘well-being’ of the nation should he become Prime Minister despite it being a notoriously slippery concept that tends not to mean a great deal even within professional practice at best and possibly at worst means the least when it is used by politicians. There may have been great honour in intent when this statement was made and I think this could have been given, amongst other statements, to try and divide the Cameron era from that of his predecessors – there seemed very little in the way of genuine concern for the quality of life of the population especially the working class during the Conservative parties domination of national politics in the eighties and the first part of the nineties and an overwhelming interest in the success of the wealthy. This probably caused some resentment towards Conservative party from anyone who had a degree of either professional or personal moral responsibility for reducing health inequalities and Cameron may be interested in trying to capitalise on the dissatisfaction with the Brown-Blair governments who work in public health related professions over relatively meaty issues such as this.
The under-spend on Public Health nationwide which appears to have taken place as a result of the lack of ring-fencing of funds aimed at public health initiatives is not likely to be a target for the Conservative party as a whole – they are less than likely to maintain their track record of reducing inequalities in health, inadvertently as they did under Major, than the Blair-Brown government and unlikely to pursue this as a policy. Perhaps the Blair and Brown governments are using measures to lead to the general improvement in some lifestyle factors and not in others? It does seem unusual that there has been some concern that there was not the reduction in inequalities that one may have anticipated since Blair & Brown have tackled the great many root causes of mortality and morbidity in the UK. While this goes on and maybe hasn’t been explained in terms of the causal models that will dictate funding maybe those in public health and health promotion are restricting themselves until a coherent explanation has been put forward through the national bodies for the professions related to public health.
The concern that the concept of well-being will be devalued by a politician may be present in some corners and to a degree this may be a valid concern. However, it is likely that like any concept worth discussing it will be the site of ideological struggle, as Norman Fairclough would state. As a result issue areas like ‘crime’ and ‘the family’ are hotly debated within politics in terms of the level of involvement from the state and this tends to be how political action occurs. It does strike me as interesting that Mr. Cameron has not stamped his own personal mark on what well-being would mean within the context of his environmentally concerned conservatives. There is some potential that this use of the term may lead to the progress that is necessary in order to move the conceptualisation of well -being on from the definitions of health offered by the World Health Organisation as a complete state of social, mental and physical well-being and that described in the Ottawa Charter. Maybe there could be developments made in the next few years shaped by the current British political scene.
The extent to which well being is taken seriously as a goal within the health service may be still under question. There has been a greater emphasis than before of examining the nature of the power relations within professional consultation and improvements made in Doctor-patient communication and offering choice in patient consultations where this is feasible – to a degree the changes in operation of the NHS should results in advances in theory including changes in the way that well-being is thought of. To a degree these changes may have already have taken place. A few things spring to mind from time to time that I think could be taken forward within the political agenda at present and the current political bottle neck in British party politics may provide what could be a substantial opportunity to
It is difficult to predict what forms of finance would be necessary to make a real commitment to well-being - no doubt this is something that was also considered under Blair. Cameron has criticised initiatives which may have been likely to lead to substantial changes in well-being perhaps necessary many years before someone can alter the course of their lives, for instance the drug misuse interventions that have not substantially increased success rates of termination of drug misuse. Has the technocratic nature of the Blair Brown agenda and the ‘what works’ approach replaced ideological approaches to party politics and will this commitment to well being be a similar approach by Cameron to a branded conservatism which will act as a benchmark for his political arrival? If anything I assume it is highly likely that well-being will be dropped down the agenda further rather than be taken forward conceptually. This appears to be pure lip service to the term.
While overspends in other NHS delivery areas are soaking up funding that may have initially have been set aside for public health interventions there does seem to be a potential political scalp to be claimed: it does seem that controlling the spending within public health would be necessary in order to achieve a substantial change in well-being. Taking the agenda forwards requires a style of leadership and willingness to listen to the workforce that Mr Cameron hasn’t demonstrated frequently. If this is to be managed ‘on existing resources’ perhaps some form of challenge laid down by the UK national health promotion and public health bodies to Mr Cameron to say what he means and mean what he says may be timely. Would the UK health promotion network offer anything in the way of the necessary political melting pot of conflicting issues between groups that would provide a means of making a significant amount of progress in this area and greatly improve the impacts of policies that are developed in this area?