Runa Lazzarino

University of Oxford | OX · Division of Medical Sciences

Abstract Objectives Socially assistive humanoid robots are considered a promising technology to tackle the challenges in health and social care posed by the growth of the ageing population. The purpose of our study was to explore the current evidence on barriers and enablers for the implementation of humanoid robots in health and social care. Desi...

In response to extreme violence and psychological abuse, survivors of modern slavery and human trafficking can experience complex mental health problems. Despite being a major public health issue, the evidence base for post-slavery mental health support needs and service provision is lacking. The aim of this study was to scope the mental health pro...

Rooted in a Durkheimian functionalist reading of religion, in this article, we present and discuss the results of a scoping study of on-line sources on the delivery of spiritual care during the COVID-19 pandemic in England. Spiritual care highlights the bond between healthcare and religion/spirituality, particularly within the growing paradigm of h...

Unlabelled: Sepsis is a worldwide public health problem. Rapid identification is associated with improved patient outcomes-if followed by timely appropriate treatment. Objectives: Describe digital sepsis alerts (DSAs) in use in English National Health Service (NHS) acute hospitals. Methods: A Freedom of Information request surveyed acute NHS T...

Global inequities in the distribution of mental ill health and mental health care are alarming; mental ill health disproportionally affects low- and middle-income countries, as well as disadvantaged groups in the Global North, such as vulnerable migrants. While critical global mental health is an interdisciplinary and impact-oriented field characte...

Objective Artificially intelligent socially assistive robots are a growing technology. There is no evidence-based, theory-informed, open access training targeting health and social care professionals on this advanced technology. This collaborative, international European project – the IENE 10 study – developed, delivered, and evaluated the first Ma...

This chapter seeks to explore the role of gender and gendered realms of power to understanding the cultural history of slavery and trafficking. The focus is on the South Asian region, however many of the issues raised in this chapter (conceptualization of slavery, structural discrimination of women, patriarchy and other social norms, stereotyping,...

This study is part of a multi-country research project ‘Gendered Dynamics of International Labour Migration’ also involving Turkey, Lebanon, and the Kurdistan Region of Iraq (KRI), which investigated drivers of migration, incorporation into the labour market, experiences of work and living in Pakistan, agency and coping strategies and use of public...

Since 2018, Albanians have made up the highest number of foreign nationals entering the UK National Referral Mechanism (NRM). In 2022, the number of Albanian potential victims of trafficking referred into NRM overtook the number of UK nationals1 . There is a pressing and acute need for evidence-based principles for understanding the reasons for t...

Background Sepsis is a common cause of serious illness and death. Sepsis management remains challenging and suboptimal. To support rapid sepsis diagnosis and treatment, screening tools have been embedded into hospital digital systems to appear as digital alerts. The implementation of digital alerts to improve the management of sepsis and deteriorat...

BACKGROUND Sepsis is a common cause of serious illness and death. Sepsis management remains challenging and suboptimal. To support rapid sepsis diagnosis and treatment, screening tools have been embedded into hospital digital systems to appear as digital alerts. The implementation of digital alerts to improve the management of sepsis and deteriorat...

A key challenge of this book project has been to weave in and bring to the fore victims/survivors’ voice in trying to respond to the necessity for greater and better collaborative knowledge production and service design in critical modern slavery and human trafficking (MSHT) studies. In this respect, the co-authorship of the introduction with an in...

Subjection (Butler, 1997) draws together the simultaneous being-made and self-making process vis-à-vis power. In this chapter, we apply it to frame how modern slavery and human trafficking survivors need to continually subjugate to fallacious and ambiguous systems of assistance, while also carving out their own spaces for rebuilding lives and ident...

Background: As Artificial Intelligence and social robots are increasingly used in health and social care, it is imperative to explore the training needs of the workforce, factoring in their cultural background. Objectives: Explore views on perceived training needs among professionals around the world and how these related to country cultures. D...

The Migration and Displacement stream of the GCRF Hub is organised around two premises: first, both conflict-induced displacement (internal and international) and migration in the post-conflict state are highly gendered; and second, the restructuring of the post-conflict state gives rise to competing tensions, including the creation of new opportun...

This event features original research and lessons learnt from our engagement in Afghanistan through livelihood, migration, and displacement projects. The research began in February 2019 and continues to explore the Gendered Dynamics of Displacement, the Return Mobilities specific to Afghans and their context, Peace building through Livelihood Initi...

How do different hospitals manage sepsis using digital alerts? Qualitative evidence is scant on DAs for sepsis hospital identification and management. Factors around DAs use are related to ED environment, individualised practice patterns, and DA design. Other factors span from professional autonomy to attitudes and believes towards the technolo...

Aim: This study explored the views of an international sample of registered nurses and midwives working in health and social care concerning socially assistive robots (SARs), and the relationship between dimensions of culture and rejection of the idea that SARs had benefits in these settings. Methods: An online survey was used to obtain rankings...

Bachground: Worldwide, more than 79.5 million people are forcibly displaced, including a significant number of migrant and refugee families with children. Migration and refugeedom affect these families in different dimensions, such as mental, physical and spiritual health. Identifying family needs and enhancing parenting skills can improve family c...

The historical and turbulent migration processes of Lebanon are reflected in a dynamic and composite country demography, including gender and labour features of migration. Currently, the number of migrant workers and refugees are exceptionally high in the country. Most migrants and refugees are women who live and work in unprotected conditions, mak...

This volume draws a comprehensive picture of the Modern Slavery and Human Trafficking (MSHT) victim/survivor trajectory. The main aim has been to offer a critical, yet ‘down-to-earth’, overview of the victim/survivor journey, intended both in actual and metaphorical terms. To achieve this, we have put together contributors across the chapters from...

In holistic care, traditional medicines and non-biomedical healing, the physical presence of receivers and providers is essential, as they often incorporate spiritual care and therapies, as well as touching, manual techniques and other bodily manipulations. Approximating rituals, in these practices, (health)care and religion/spirituality blend. Thi...

The cover art work was produced by survivors of modern slavery at Bakhita House, a safe house for women, with guidance from art teacher John

Prompted by the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic, this chapter draws evidence from research studies regarding the huge changes in the practices and methods for providing nursing, medical, and spiritual care in massively prohibitive working environments. Examples of AI and robotic devices used during the pandemic will be covered in the spirit of constructive...

Background: Spirituality is beneficial to health. Evidence around the benefits of Spiritual care (SC) is advancing, and training is becoming part of healthcare professional development. As the COVID-19 crisis showed, during major health disasters (MHDs), the demand for SC grows exponentially, while the burden of care and focus on preserving life o...

Join us in this free webinar to hear about and discuss our recent report concerning the provision of spiritual care and support in the COVID-19 pandemic

Preparing health and social care workers to work with socially assistive artificially intelligent robots in health and social care environments

Background: Refugee parents who fled conflicts suffered violence and traumas and face huge challenges in supporting the health and welfare of their children whilst in transit. Aims: To describe the development of a culturally competent and compassionate Training and Support Package (TSP) for nurses, social and health care workers and volunteers, wi...

Aim To explore the views of an international sample of nursing and midwifery managers concerning attributes that they associate with compassionate management. Method A cross-sectional online survey. Using a snowballing sampling method, 1217 responses were collected from nursing and midwifery managers in 17 countries. A total of complete 933 respon...

Abstract Background Spirituality is an integral part of being human, and should therefore be part of all fields of healthcare such as prevention, treatment, coping, recovery or death. During Major Health Disasters (MHDs), the demand for Spiritual Care and Support (SCS) grows exponentially, while the emergency burden of care and focus on preserving...

Background: Modern slavery is a term which incorporates a range of exploitative situations that involve the violation of human rights and the subjugation of individuals. It presents a significant public health concern. Post-release, survivors of modern slavery have complex mental health needs. Whilst mental health provision is a component of intern...

Spiritual support is a key element of holistic care, and better healthcare professionals training and stronger strategic guidelines become urgent in light of health disasters and emergencies, such as the COVID-19 pandemic. To this end, the aim of this study was to explore spiritual support provision within mass and social media and the websites of...

Due to experiences of extreme violence and psychological abuse, survivors of Modern Slavery and Human Trafficking can suffer from complex mental health problems. Modern Slavery and Human Trafficking are public health issues and insights are lacking around service provision and its evidence base to better meet support needs. Aim of this study was to...

Spirituality is a broad concept, revolving around the notions of connection, meaning, transcendence and values. Spirituality can encompass religion, or not, yet both appear to increase human wellbeing and health. For this, Spiritual Support is key to holistic, compassionate care (Papadopoulos, 2018), and its benefits for patients have been demonstr...

Introduction: Despite the importance of compassionate leadership in health care, many of the existing publications do not account for the effect of culture. The aim of this study is to explore the views of nursing and midwifery managers from different countries in relation to the definition, advantages, and importance of compassion. Methodology: A...

Post-slavery mental healthcare exists worldwide. This mental healthcare is narrated as vital within contemporary modern slavery work and survivors' support services. However, the underpinning scholarly knowledge is not yet complete. This paper addresses the gap in literature. Six international findings are presented. Our global research demonstrate...

Do you work with refugee families, or wish and plan to? Are you a trained/in-training healthcare professional, social worker, or volunteer? Are you a migrant or refugee parent? This free and certified online training event may be just right for you! This training package will offer you the opportunity to enhance knowledge and skills in parentin...

Overcoming rigid dualisms bad v. good, victim v. perpetrators, freedom v. unfreedom make justice neither of the political and economic forces informing MSHT nor of the complex experiences of victims/survivors in this field is something other scholars have argued and attempted. Beyond the philosophical implication of this fascinating effort, it is i...

We conducted a rapid scoping review of social media and internet sources exploring how spiritual support was provided to patients during the first wave of the pandemic (March to May 2020) and in summary we found that: Covid-19 had a massive impact on how spiritual support was conceived, and enacted within the NHS hospitals in England but still rem...

The webinar is part of the IENE 8 project "Empowering Migrants and Refugees with Parenting Skills". Visit http://ienerefugeehub.eu/iene8/ for more information. Here is the link to register for the webinar room: https://tinyurl.com/y57xaytk or scan the QR code. The webinar will start at 13:00 (UK Time) sharp. Please make sure you login into the room...

This rapid exploration of available online data sought to address the following questions: To what extent has the provision of spiritual support for the COVID-19 hospitalised patients been covered by mass and social media and the websites of spiritual leaders/institutions and those of the NHS, in England, in the period between 20th March to 20th M...

In this Position Piece, I critically reflect upon some epistemological and political issues of interventions and intervention-oriented research in post-trafficking mental health care. I discuss three loci of friction within the framework of a critical global mental health approach to trafficking aftercare: ethnography, biomedical studies, and post-...

Aim: To explore the views of an international sample of nursing and midwifery managers concerning attributes that they associate with compassionate management. Method: A cross-sectional online survey. Using a snowballing sampling method, 1,217 responses were collected from nursing and midwifery managers in 17 countries. A total of complete 933 resp...

Aim To explore nursing and midwifery managers’ views regarding obstacles to compassion‐giving across country cultures. Background The benefit of compassionate leadership is being advocated, but despite the fact that health care is invariably conducted within culturally diverse workplaces, the interconnection of culture, compassion and leadership i...

With rapid advances in Artificial Intelligence (AI) over the last decade, schools have increasingly employed innovative tools, intelligent applications and methods that are changing the education system with the aim of improving both user experience and learning gain in the classrooms. Even though the use of AI to education is not new, it has not u...

We believe that a curriculum designed to promote culturally competent and compassionate support to migrant and refugee families in transit should be based on respect, equity, compassion, cultural competence, courage, social skills, flexibility, and tolerance. The delivery of the curriculum should build on the knowledge and skills which both health...

Objectives Socially assistive humanoid robots are considered a promising technology to tackle the challenges in health and social care posed by the growth of the ageing population. The purpose of our study was to explore the current evidence on barriers and enablers for the implementation of humanoid robots in health and social care. Design System...

During the past sixteen years, since the ‘Trafficking Protocol’ entered into force in 2003, a dramatic escalation of research, writing, debating, and practice in the realm of human trafficking and modern slavery has occurred. While human trafficking and modern slavery belong to two distinct genealogies (Allain, 2018; Lazzarino, 2015; O’Connell Davi...

Refugee parents are central to protecting children from all kinds of harm. However, caring for children during the phases leading to resettlement is unimaginably hard for refugee and migrant parents who are under extreme and unique circumstances. The creation of the curriculum for nurses and other health professionals and volunteers working with mi...

The IENE8, like all the previous IENE projects, is informed by the Papadopoulos, Tilki, and Taylor Model. For this reason, it is imperative that an understanding of the structure and main constructs of the model which is provided here (Papadopoulos 2006). The IENE1 project modified the PTT model following a needs analysis of nurses in seven Europ...

What are the most important needs of survivors in their post-trafficking life? This is a question I regularly asked officers in government agencies and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) who work on the issue of human trafficking. The answers I receives were often repetitive: Trafficking survivors need financial and emotional independence. On it...

We are pleased to announce the establishment of the Post-Slavery Mental Health, Managed Innovation Network which is a joint initiative of the Institute of Mental Health and the Care and Custody Lever project team (Dr Mel Jordan, Dr Nicola Wright, Dr Ed Wright, and Dr Runa Lazzarino) of the Rights Lab, a Beacon of Excellence at the University of Not...

The anti-sex trafficking apparatus has been shown to be largely dominated by the anti-prostitution oppression paradigm. This narrative is nurtured by stigmatising beliefs rooted in religious and cultural assumptions. It is also bolstered by a securitarian, anti-migration political agenda and characterised by medicalising interventions. While in thi...

This event aims to tackle the category of human trafficking victims from a multidisciplinary critical perspective by bringing together experts who approach human trafficking both from different disciplines within the academy (history, legal sciences, medical sciences, human geography, anthropology) and from different positions outside it (frontline...

In this article I explore the issue of the psychological condition of victims of human trafficking (from now VoTs) juxtaposing the anthropological approach with a group of recent biomedical studies. The exploration hinges on three interrelated issues. The first issue - which gave rise to the idea of this article - tackles the verification that whil...

Human trafficking (HT) belongs to broader illicit and informal circuits of people circulation, and it is a phenomenon producing further marginality, while also being a product of the growing integration of South-East Asian area. The protection of HT returnees includes their rescue and return, legal and medical assistance, psychological recovery, vo...

This policy brief addresses the issue of gender in Southeast Asia and utilizes gender as a perspective to engage with issues of mobility and work. It challenges the idea that local gender identity constructions are being swept away on the tide of globalization. Rather, such constructions are reworked and rethought: while some are reiterated, others...

With the aim of answering to how a global discourse craft scattered marginal subjectivities, this work endeavours to unravel the global human trafficking (HT) discourse, which developed since the entrance into force of the UNODC “Palermo Protocol” in 2003. I explore its ideological premises and practical consequences at the international, governmen...

In this paper, we explore certain aspects of boundaries and ‘transnational’ circulations, which we think policymakers should pay attention to. Firstly, we emphasise that borders should not be taken for granted. Moreover, taken outside a state-centric perspective, ‘crossborder’ phenomena should not be assumed as new or objectively ‘problematic’. To...

Drawing on qualitative research conducted with some female residents of a shelter for victims of trafficking located in Lào Cai, an urban centre on the Northern Vietnamese border with China, the intention, in this article, is to explore some of their expressed feelings and emotions. These seem to oscillate between a sense of shame and guilt, and a...

This article is based on a fieldwork research conducted mainly in the Brazilian state of Goiás, with a focus on the returnees of human trafficking (HT). The text is funnel-shaped: from the international and national policies, to the relevance of Goiás state as a hotspot area for investigating both the phenomenon and the measures to counter it, to t...

The present work contributes to the anthropological debate regarding the identity/territory and global/local relationship in the context of migration. The positioning is double: while claiming for the artificiality of any direct correspondence between identity and territory and for the intrinsic processuality of the former, nonetheless I keep at di...

Il presente lavoro collaborativo si fonda sul dialogo fra Robeerto Malighetti, autore di una ricerca sull'impatto di alcuni progetti di cooperazione internazionale in una favela di Rio de Janeiro, e Runa Lazzarino, dottoranda in scienze antropologiche, fruitrice di alcune restituzioni testuali di questa esperienza: il diario tenuto sul campo, la tr...