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Adult Community Learning, Wellbeing, and Mental Health Recovery
... Research has shown how creative arts adult community learning (ACL) can support well-being and help to counter depression for older women through multiple mechanisms (see Lewis 2019Lewis , 2020. However, the craft of jewellerymaking, or beading, has not been a focus of this research, and studies that develop a critical sociological understanding of the social dynamics involved remain sparse. ...
... Forging a sense of equality was therefore an important aspect (Lewis 2014;Narushima 2008;Reynolds 1997Reynolds , 2000Reynolds , 2010. The findings reflect other research on mental health recovery and opportunities for mutuality, reciprocity and social contribution (see Lewis 2019Lewis , 2020 and on creative arts ACL as a source of recognition and affirmation of the self (Burt and Atkinson 2011;Desmarais 2016;Narushima 2008;Reynolds 1997Reynolds , 2000Reynolds , 2010. They also show how, 'although learning provides various competences (or resources) which individuals use in their civic lives, these are deeply embedded in social context' (Preston 2004: 127), a point which I elaborate later. ...
... Reciprocal dialogue was an important dimension of the pedagogical space and here the beginnings of a critical pedagogy concerned with attending to the voices and experiences of people who are generally unheard and critiquing dominant assumptions could also be observed. In addition, the study suggests ways in which ACL creative arts curricula can be expanded in the tradition of 'social purpose education' to foster critical thinking about social issues and promote progressive social change through embedding critical social and political studies (see Lewis 2014Lewis , 2019. ...
Within the growing body of research on creative arts practices in community settings and mental health and well-being, the craft of jewellery-making has not featured strongly, and understanding from contextual, critical sociological perspectives has not been widely developed. This article reports on ethnographic research undertaken with an older women’s adult community learning (ACL) jewellery-making group, using theories of ecological and relational agency and insights from feminist theorizing to help elucidate its social, creative, educational and mental health and well-being-related generative processes. Findings are presented along two main, interrelated themes: creative agency and shared learning, and the social generativity of the group. The focus is on the transgressive, resistive and expansive aspects of the group’s interactions within the wider socio-economic, sociopolitical and cultural context of the women’s lives. Implications for enacting the mental health and well-being agenda in ACL are discussed.
Community-based participatory arts projects have been shown to promote wellbeing and mental health recovery. One reason for this is because they provide opportunities for mutuality – connectedness to others and different kinds of sharing and reciprocity. Yet research into mental health arts projects has not focused on shared creative practice between participants/members and practitioners. This article reports on qualitative research in an arts and mental health organization employing an open studio approach in which art therapists made art alongside members. It explores the possibilities for, and tensions associated with, generating mutuality between
studio managers and members through this approach. Conducted from a critically engaged, feminist sociological perspective, the study encompassed an analytical focus on power, especially gender relations. Findings are presented along three themes:
(de)constructing and obscuring relational asymmetries; mutual acceptance and its limits; and maintaining, working with and challenging ‘boundaries’. Implications for applied arts and mental health practice are highlighted.
We have, in recent years, seen a remarkable expansion in serious research attention to lifelong learning and its benefits (Schuller and Desjardins 2007). Many researchers and policy specialists find this work particularly persuasive, because it is based on large scale longitudinal survey data. These surveys follow a sample of individuals over time, asking them periodically about different aspect of their lives. Where the surveys ask for details about people’s learning, the results can be correlated with other information about their lives. Much of this research is by British researchers, undertaken in two centres that were launched by the UK government in 1999 to investigate the economic and non-economic benefits of learning. The centres have attracted extensive international interest and are widely recognised as being at the leading edge of educational research. After here summarising and commenting on this work, as well as findings from other countries where available, I then consider the implications for policy, practice and research.
We aim to describe the health-related quality of life of informal carers and their experiences of primary care.
Responses from the 2011-12 English General Practice Patient Survey, including 195,364 informal carers, were analysed using mixed effect logistic regressions controlling for age, gender, ethnicity and social deprivation to describe carer health-related quality of life (mobility, self-care, usual activities, pain, and anxiety/depression, measured using EQ-5D) and primary care experience (access, continuity and communication).
Informal carers reported poorer health-related quality of life than non-carers of similar age, gender, ethnicity and social deprivation. Increasing caring commitment was associated with worse EQ-5D scores, with carers of 50+ hours a week scoring 0.05 points lower than non-carers (95 % CI 0.05 to 0.04), equivalent to 18 fewer days of full health annually. Considering each domain of EQ-5D separately, carers of 50+ hours/week were more likely to report pain OR = 1.53 (1.50-1.57), p < 0.0001, and anxiety/depression OR = 1.69 (1.66-1.73), p < 0.0001, than non-carers. Younger carers scored lower on EQ-5D than non-carer peers but the converse was true among over-85s. In the most deprived areas carers reported the equivalent of 37 fewer days of full health annually than carers in the most affluent areas. On average, carers reported poorer patient experiences in all areas of primary care than non-carers (odds ratios 0.84-0.97), with this difference being most marked in the domain of access.
Informal carers experience a double disadvantage of poorer health-related quality of life and poorer patient experience in primary care. We find no evidence for health benefits of caregiving. We recommend physicians identify and treat carer health problems, including pain and anxiety/depression, particularly among young, deprived and high time-commitment carers. Improving patient experience for carers, including access to primary care, should be a priority.
In the United Kingdom, changes in the policy, funding and commissioning landscape for mental health and well-being are posing opportunities and challenges for adult community learning (ACL). Opportunities include increased recognition of, and funding for, the ‘wider benefits’ of learning, whereas challenges include the risks of ACL provision becoming hijacked by a health and well-being agenda that compromises its primary educational purpose and values. This paper engages with these policy debates through reporting on a study of mental health ACL that employed the capabilities approach along with two other complementary areas of social theory – recognition theories and theories of capitals. Its aim was to explore the means through which ACL impacts mental health and to draw out implications for policy and practice. Findings from focus groups with adult learners and tele-discussions with ACL practitioners revealed three main means through which the provision helped generate interlinked mental health and educational capabilities: providing recognition, generating resources (capitals) and enhancing agency freedom. Elaborating these findings, the paper sets out an argument for interpretation of the mental health and well-being agenda in ACL in terms of a humanistic, liberatory pedagogy that encompasses feminist praxis and draws out policy implications across the areas of ACL and mental health.
There is increasing international interest in recovery approaches in mental health—and this connects with an emerging focus within European social work around promoting capability and sustainability. Research at a population level would suggest that social factors rather than medical interventions are the main determinants of recovery from mental health difficulties—but this is not yet reflected in social work practice, which can still be dominated by biomedical perspectives and a focus on risk management. Drawing upon and extending analyses of social and other forms of capital, this paper outlines the basis for a new paradigm for mental health social work that is specifically oriented towards enabling the development of personal efficacy and social capability—an approach that is explicitly focused on achieving longer-term sustainability rather than shorter-term problem solving.
This pilot study assessed the effectiveness of a supported education program for adults with psychiatric disabilities. Supported education programs help people to gain the basic academic and social skills needed to pursue postsecondary education. The program in this study, the Bridge Program, was conducted over 12 weeks, once every week for three hours. Each session consisted of two hours of lecture/lab activities followed by an hour of individualized mentoring. The program used five outcome assessments to measure effectiveness: (1) pre — and posttests for each academic module; (2) the Participants' Comfort with the Student Role Scale; (3) the Participant Overall Satisfaction Scale; (4) the Task Skills, Interpersonal Skills, and School Behavior Scales; and (5) a frequency count of the percentage of participants who successfully completed the program and enrolled in further educational coursework. Additionally, the occupational therapy students—who participated in the program as instructors and mentors— completed pre — and postscales measuring how comfortable they were working with this population. Of the 18 participants, 16 successfully completed the program, and 12 enrolled in further educational coursework. Upon program completion, the majority of participants reported that they felt better prepared for future educational endeavors and felt more comfortable in the student role. Similarly, the occupational therapy students reported higher levels of comfort with this population and had greater confidence in their clinical skills in the area of mental health practice. Limitations of the study included lack of established reliability and validity for several outcome assessments, lack of a control group, and a small number of participants. It is anticipated that these limitations will be corrected in future studies and as the program grows.
Cultural Historical Activity Theory (CHAT) is a useful framework for examin- ing learning to become a professional. This is particularly the case when professional practice is seen to be developed within specific institutional settings. However, new forms of practice are being required which call for a capacity to work with other practitioners and draw on resources that may be distributed across systems to support professional ac- tions. In this paper the concept of relational agency is described and illustrated with refer- ence to a series of research studies. It is argued that relational agency leads to an en- hanced form of professional agency and that there are implications for the development of CHAT.
The idea that the happiness and wellbeing of individuals should shape government policy has been around since the enlightenment; today such thinking has growing practical policy relevance as governments around the world survey their populations in an effort to design social policies that promote wellbeing. In this article, we consider the social determinants of subjective wellbeing in the UK and draw lessons for social policy. Survey data are taken from the 'Measuring National Wellbeing Programme' launched by the UK's Office for National Statistics in 2010. For the empirical strategy, we develop bivariate and multivariate logistic regression models, as well as testing for interaction effects in the data. The findings show that wellbeing is not evenly distributed within the UK. Socio-demographic characteristics such as age, gender, ethnicity, employment, household composition and tenure all matter, as does health status. Influencing population wellbeing is inherently complex, though, that said, there is a clear need to place greater emphasis on the social, given the direction of current policy.
This paper draws on post-structural feminist theories of emotion to explore the significance of leisure within women's narratives of recovery from depression. I engage with the stories of 48 women in rural and urban Australia to identify the gendered discourses governing depression and recovery. Leisure figured as a site of identity transformation where women enacted creative, embodied, and connected subjectivities. The performance of gender through leisure enabled women to practice a different ethic of care for self and, hence, different relations of care for others. These stories make visible the cost of women's emotion work by identifying how negotiations over leisure and the embodiment of emotion play can facilitate recovery in ways that biomedical treatments cannot.
This paper critically explores notions of social inclusion in mental health and considers some of the problems associated with its wide scale adoption as a policy driver and moral imperative. It draws out some of the assumptions underpinning strategies of inclusion and possible consequences of the move from a focus on exclusion to imperatives to 'include'. It argues that these assumptions may lead to individualised practices guided by judgments as to what constitutes a 'healthy' or 'normal' life. Rather than being seen as a necessary and unquestionable 'human right' or a top-down form of social engineering, social inclusion can be viewed as a paradoxical claim which both expresses a genuine demand to tackle the consequences of social inequality and yet at the same could become another way people with mental health problems are subject to moral and social regulation.
Evidence from two studies of social exclusion based in England are drawn on to suggest that responsible agency can be seen as a feature of resilience. I argue that this agency, or capacity to act effectively in the world, is developed relationally and is evident in people's thoughtful actions in their worlds, but is also contingent on the affordances for such action in any environment. That is, resilience can be seen as responsible engagement with one's world as well as a capacity to withstand difficulties. The theoretical basis of this argument is Cultural Historical Activity Theory (CHAT) which proposes that we are shaped by but also shape our worlds. The implications for professional practices are discussed.
Research into the subjective experience of art-making for older people is limited, and has focused mostly on professional artists rather than amateurs. This study examined older women's motives for visual art-making. Thirty-two participants aged 60-86 years old were interviewed. Twelve lived with chronic illness; twenty reported good health. Nearly all had taken up art after retirement; two had since become professional artists. Participants described their art-making as enriching their mental life, promoting enjoyment of the sensuality of colour and texture, presenting new challenges, playful experimentation, and fresh ambitions. Art also afforded participants valued connections with the world outside the home and immediate family. It encouraged attention to the aesthetics of the physical environment, preserved equal status relationships, and created opportunities for validation. Art-making protected the women's identities, helping them to resist the stereotypes and exclusions which are commonly encountered in later life.
Chronic illness and impairment commonly restrict the individual's access to work and leisure activities. Furthermore, if increasingly dependent upon family care, the individual may experience loss of valued roles and self-esteem. The present study enquired into the role of a creative leisure pursuit in long-term coping with illness and disability. The qualitative study examined the written narratives of 35 women, aged 18 to 87 years. All had acquired a disability or a chronic illness in adulthood and shared needlecraft as a common leisure pursuit.
In these accounts, the women described the circumstances in which needlecraft had been adopted as a leisure pursuit and the personal benefits experienced. The accounts showed that most of the women had taken up this activity in adulthood to cope with the crisis of illness. Needlecraft activities were commonly viewed as providing a means of managing pain and unstructured time, as well as facilitating self-esteem and reciprocal social roles. The women's accounts suggest that creative activity may be helpful for patients learning to cope with chronic conditions.
This qualitative study explored the personal meanings of needlecrafts and their role in the self-management of depression. Written and spoken narratives from 39 women were studied. Respondents described themselves as experiencing chronic or episodic depression (e.g. associated with stressful work situations, bereavement or caring for an ill relative). Some had received treatment for depression but most had not. When analysing the therapeutic effects of creative activity, most women described the experience of intense concentration in the task as providing distraction from worry and relief from depressive thoughts. Creative activity was often described as enhancing self-esteem. The adaptability of the occupation to suit time available, mood and other factors facilitated a sense of empowerment or control. Creative arts activities could also challenge depression from enabling social contacts. Most respondents had taken up their favoured creative activity in adulthood, commonly in response to stressful life events and with some self-awareness of its therapeutic potential. The diversity of subjective benefits support further research into the self-management of depression through creative activities, in both patient and non-patient groups. Managing
Although it has been given qualified approval by a number of philosophers of education, the so-called 'therapeutic turn' in education has been the subject of criticism by several commentators on post-compulsory and adult learning over the last few years. A key feature of this alleged development in recent educational policy is said to be the replacement of the traditional goals of knowledge and understanding with personal and social objectives concerned with enhancing and developing confidence and self-esteem in learners. After offering some critical observations on these developments, I suggest that there are some educationally justifiable goals underpinning what has been described as a therapeutic turn. Whilst accepting that 'self-esteem' and cognate concepts cannot provide a general end or universal aim of education, the therapeutic function is more valuable and significant than is generally acknowledged. This claim is justified by an examination of the concept of 'mindfulness' that, it is argued, can be an immensely powerful and valuable notion, which is integrally connected with the centrally transformative and developmental nature of learning and educational activity at all levels.
A new evidence base is emerging, which focuses on well-being. This makes it possible for health services to orientate around promoting well-being as well as treating illness, and so to make a reality of the long-standing rhetoric that health is more than the absence of illness. The aim of this paper is to support the re-orientation of health services around promoting well-being. Mental health services are used as an example to illustrate the new knowledge skills which will be needed by health professionals.
New forms of evidence give a triangulated understanding about the promotion of well-being in mental health services. The academic discipline of positive psychology is developing evidence-based interventions to improve well-being. This complements the results emerging from synthesising narratives about recovery from mental illness, which provide ecologically valid insights into the processes by which people experiencing mental illness can develop a purposeful and meaningful life. The implications for health professionals are explored. In relation to working with individuals, more emphasis on the person's own goals and strengths will be needed, with integration of interventions which promote well-being into routine clinical practice. In addition, a more societally-focussed role for professionals is envisaged, in which a central part of the job is to influence local and national policies and practices that impact on well-being.
If health services are to give primacy to increasing well-being, rather than to treating illness, then health workers need new approaches to working with individuals. For mental health services, this will involve the incorporation of emerging knowledge from recovery and from positive psychology into education and training for all mental health professionals, and changes to some long-established working practices.
Now available: https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315628363
A sense of participation and opportunities to share and participate in activities or groups that are important to them are crucial factors in human wellbeing. This book provides a robust empirical and theoretical analysis of reciprocity and its implications for social work and social policy practices by discussing how ideas of reciprocity can be understood and applied to welfare policy and social care practices, as well as how the act of reciprocity supports the wellbeing of citizens. Contributions from Finland, Germany, Russia, the UK, the USA and Canada illuminate the ways in which socio-political contexts influence the power relations between citizens, practitioners and the state, and the potential (or otherwise) for reciprocity to flourish. It will be essential reading for social care practitioners, researchers and educationalists as well as postgraduate students in social work and related social care and community-oriented professions and social policy makers. © 2018 selection and editorial matter, Maritta Törrönen, Carol Munn-Giddings and Laura Tarkiainen; individual chapters, the contributors. All rights reserved.
Linda Morrison brings the voices and issues of a little-known, complex social movement to the attention of sociologists, mental health professionals, and the general public. The members of this social movement work to gain voice for their own experience, to raise consciousness of injustice and inequality, to expose the darker side of psychiatry, and to promote alternatives for people in emotional distress. Talking Back to Psychiatry explores the movement's history, its complex membership, its strategies and goals, and the varied response it has received from psychiatry, policy makers, and the public at large.
On July 4, 1990, while on a morning walk in southern France, Susan Brison was attacked from behind, severely beaten, sexually assaulted, strangled to unconsciousness, and left for dead. She survived, but her world was destroyed. Her training as a philosopher could not help her make sense of things, and many of her fundamental assumptions about the nature of the self and the world it inhabits were shattered. At once a personal narrative of recovery and a philosophical exploration of trauma, this book examines the undoing and remaking of a self in the aftermath of violence. It explores, from an interdisciplinary perspective, memory and truth, identity and self, autonomy and community. It offers imaginative access to the experience of a rape survivor as well as a reflective critique of a society in which women routinely fear and suffer sexual violence. As Brison observes, trauma disrupts memory, severs past from present, and incapacitates the ability to envision a future. Yet the act of bearing witness, she argues, facilitates recovery by integrating the experience into the survivor's life's story. She also argues for the importance, as well as the hazards, of using first-person narratives in understanding not only trauma, but also larger philosophical questions about what we can know and how we should live. Bravely and beautifully written, Aftermath is that rare book that is an illustration of its own arguments.
The capabilities approach (CA) developed by Amartya Sen and others has been extremely influential as an approach to evaluation,
social assessment and policy analysis and development. In the context of the current UK policy arena, this paper outlines
Sen's CA and argues for its utility as a theoretical framework for understanding and evaluating the relevance of adult community
learning to mental health. It shows how the CA can be employed for this purpose and discusses the relevance of gender and
other social inequalities for understanding in this area, thereby contributing to a growing body of literature on developing
a social model of mental health.
The objective of this cross-sectional study was to compare health-related quality of life (HRQoL) in mothers of children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) with a norm-based sample. An additional aim was to examine the relationship between engagement in leisure and social occupations and HRQoL in mothers of children with ASD. Thirty-three mothers of children with ASD, between 27 and 49 years of age, participated. Study participants between the ages of 35 and 44 years reported poorer mental HRQoL than a national sample, but comparable physical HRQoL. Findings also revealed inverse correlations between participation in hobbies and community/education activities and physical HRQoL (e.g., participation in hobbies and community education/activities increased as physical HRQoL decreased). The mental HRQoL of caregivers of children with ASD is lower than that of the general population, suggesting the need for occupational therapists to include psychosocial screening and referral for this group in their practice. In addition, results suggest that the relation between participation and health is complex, warranting further investigation.
(2014) In Australia, like other advanced liberal democracies, the adoption of a recovery orientation was hailed as a major leap forward in mental health policy and service provision. We argue that this shift in thinking about the meaning of recovery requires further analysis of the gendered dimension of self-identity and relationships with the social world. In this article we focus on how mid-life women constructed meaning about recovery through their everyday practices of self-care within the gendered context of depression. Findings from our qualitative research with 31 mid-life women identified how the recovery process was complicated by relapses into depression, with many women critically questioning the limitations of biomedical treatment options for a more relational understanding of recovery. Participant stories revealed important tacit knowledge about recovery that emphasised the process of realising and recognising capacities and self-knowledge. We identify two central themes through which women's tacit knowledge of this changing relation to self in recovery is made explicit: the disciplined self of normalised recovery, redefining recovery and depression. The findings point to the need to reconsider how both recovery discourses and gendered expectations can complicate women's experiences of moving through depression. We argue for a different conceptualisation of recovery as a social practice through which women realise opportunities to embody different 'beings and doings'. A gendered understanding of what women themselves identify is important to their well-being, can contribute to more effective recovery oriented policies based on capability rather than deficit.
This article is based on statements freely written by the parents of three adults with learning disabilities describing the transitions in the lives of these adults, and structured interviews with their general practitioner (GP). It highlights the emotional, psychological and personal problems of this group of carers and the need for more research into their support.
It is not immediately obvious how social justice might relate to mental health. Mental health or ill health is, by some, thought to be inherent within the individual, whereas social justice, as its name indicates, resides within the realm of the social. However, where we understand social justice as, on the one hand, an issue involving equality and fairness, and on the other as having both material and symbolic dimensions it becomes clear that there is an important link. In particular groups which suffer disadvantage and discrimination may be expected to suffer higher rates of mental ill health. However, the key to understanding this is by identifying the mechanisms by which this can happen. In order to do this it is necessary that we do not look at mental health (or illness) in an undifferentiated way, since there are different processes involved for different forms of mental ill health. We shall, therefore, look at this by focusing on the issue of social justice through two significant relationships: gender and depression, and race and schizophrenia. We shall examine the mechanisms which link these together, and show how they are significant psychological consequences of social injustice arising in both material and symbolic form.
This paper presents findings from a fieldwork study concerning the impacts of learning upon health. In‐depth biographical interviews were conducted with 145 adults about the effects of learning throughout their lives. In addition, 12 group interviews were conducted with practitioners about their perceptions of the effects of learning upon their students.Participation in lifelong learning had effects upon a range of health outcomes; well‐being, protection and recovery from mental health difficulties, and the capacity to cope with potentially stress‐inducing circumstances including the onset and progression of chronic illness and disability. These effects were mediated by relatively immediate impacts of learning upon psychosocial qualities; self‐esteem, self‐efficacy, a sense of purpose and hope, competences, and social integration. Learning developed these psychosocial qualities through extending boundaries, a process which is quintessential to learning.However, not all educational experiences had positive effects upon health outcomes. Provision that generated positive health outcomes matched the interests, strengths and needs of the learner. Provision differed in terms of levels of support and challenge, the type and mix of students, and level and content. The interests, strengths and needs of each learner were unique and determined by their background and current circumstances, which include the stage in their life course when they participate in learning.
Data collected in seven community‐based learning contexts revealed that older adults valued friendship, reciprocity, communication, family spirit, and a sense of belonging in their experience of being with others. In the first part of this article, the older learners’ descriptions of their experiences are presented. The literature on similar or related themes‐‐social self, friendship, reciprocity, recognition, and communication in informal groups‐‐is then reviewed. In the final section, I refer to the literature to interpret the value the older adults placed on the sense of belonging and friendship, question certain aspects of the literature, and reflect on the respondents references to family and reciprocity with young people. I suggest that in learning activities, practitioners and older adults are making the community a reality.
In Canada, as in many countries, public continuing education of the non‐vocational general interest type for people in post‐work languishes on the margins of political discourse. This case study of one such traditional program for seniors run by a school board in Ontario explores the experiences of older adults and the meanings they attach to their learning. The goal is to better understand the roles and effects later life learning has in promoting health and well‐being at both the individual and community levels. This study analyzes qualitative data collected through interviews, classroom observations and documents, referring to the micro, meso and macro levels of theory in adult education, psychology, health and social gerontology. The three main learning outcomes identified include: 1) the effects of enduring interest, 2) classrooms as social support networks, and 3) the awareness of the right to learn. The article examines how these outcomes function as health promoting mechanisms for individuals and communities. The results indicate the vital role played by affordable and accessible public continuing education program for retirees, especially seniors at risk. They also suggest the need for further quantitative research to measure the impact of learning on health and the quality of later life.
This article describes how poetry therapy principles and techniques, such as the isoprinciple and the collaborative poem, are applicable to adult education for the mentally ill. The author describes how these techniques were applied during a semester-long writing workshop conducted at a day-treatment programme for mentally ill adults. Samples of student-generated poems are included.
Purpose - To examine the value of approaches to mental health based on creative practice in the humanities and arts, and explore these in relation to the potential contribution to mutual recovery.
Design/methodology/approach - Conceptual analysis and literature review
Findings - Recovery can embrace carers and practitioners as well as sufferers from mental health problems. Divisions tend to exist between those with mental health needs, informal carers and health, social care and education personnel. Mutual recovery is therefore a very useful term because it instigates a more fully social understanding of mental health recovery processes, encompassing diverse actors in the field of mental health. Research demonstrates the importance of arts for ‘recovery orientated mental health services’, how they provide ways of breaking down social barriers, of expressing and understanding experiences and emotions, and of helping to rebuild identities and communities. Similarly, the humanities can advance the recovery of health and well-being.
Originality/value - The notion of mutual recovery through creative practice is more than just a set of creative activities which are believed to have benefit. The idea is also a heuristic that can be useful to professionals and family members, as well as individuals with mental health problems themselves. Mutual recovery is perhaps best seen as a relational construct, offering new opportunities to build egalitarian, appreciative and substantively connected communities – resilient communities of mutual hope, compassion and solidarity.
This book advocates for the role of education in helping to include those who have no voice in society. The collection of writings challenges many of the prevailing attitudes that underpin education policy (especially in England) and impeaches the reforms which run counter to "real" education. The 10 articles, written over a 20-year period, include the following: "Adult Education and the Disadvantaged"; "The Personal Implications of Women's Subordination"; "Women and Adult Education"; "The Cost and Value of Adult Education to Working Class Women"; "Adult Education and the Women's Movement"; "Doing It for Ourselves"; "Learning, Liberation, and Maturity: An Open Letter to Whoever's Left"; "Feminism and Women's Education"; "The Great Tradition: A Personal Reflection"; and "Really Useful Knowledge: Linking Theory and Practice." (KC)
This book, which is the product of a national survey of all further education colleges and local education authorities in England and Wales, explains how adult educators can create learning opportunities for adults with mental health difficulties. The chapter topics are as follows: setting the scene; labels applied to people with mental health difficulties; participation and empowerment; overcoming barriers to successful learning; making successful learning happen; building alliances; funding; access, guidance, and assessment; support for learning; accreditation and progress; and staff development and training. Each chapter identifies good practice in local education authority and college provision and describes innovative approaches and achievements of existing educational provision in meeting the learning needs of adults with mental health difficulties. All chapters end with a list of key themes and issues and a brief checklist of questions for organizations. A summary section emphasizes the importance of the following: inclusive, student-centered approaches; awareness raising; range of learning opportunities; partnerships; funding;leadership; staff development; quality; and looking ahead. The book contains 67 references. Appended are the following: addresses of 15 useful organizations; text of those features of the Disability Discrimination Act of 1995 that are relevant to further education; list of case study institutions; and survey questionnaire. (MN)
The growing popularity of notions such as "self esteem" and "emotional intelligence" reflect people's shifts in thinking. From the pages of self-help manuals and women's magazines, self-esteem, emotional well-being and emotional intelligence have gone mainstream. This is leading to new professional activities in emotional management, life coaching, mentoring, counselling and interventions to build self-esteem and make people feel good emotionally in the pursuit of motivation, educational achievement and social inclusion. In this article, the author shares questions and cautions that signal her concern about the danger of an inadvertent drift towards notions that are not only theoretically spurious but which lead to interventions for which there is no evidence of good effect. The author argues that it is now almost impossible to challenge the view that developing empathy, emotional well-being and self-esteem are progressive roles for educators. But beliefs that people are victims of their emotions and suffer from low self-esteem and vulnerability can all too easily become disempowering. A logical implication is that people need professional help and institutional recognition in the form of comforting educational experiences. Interventions that focus on emotional vulnerability, which suggest that people suffer from low self-esteem or are emotionally unintelligent and which confer esteem, might be seen as a springboard to empowerment and challenge. The danger is that such interventions and the beliefs that accompany them end up producing low educational horizons and negative views of people.
This paper reports on selected findings of a 3-year research study which explored mentally ill adults' experience of attending a basic literacy/expressive writing course in a community mental health setting. It focuses on the theme of loneliness as experienced by participants as an inescapable part of their learning, writing and engagement with biographic material. One case study in particular is selected to illustrate points raised.Biographic narrative interviews were used throughout the study to explore ways in which the experience of learning and writing were impacting on a sense of identity. Although the substantive focus of the analysis was the interview data, this paper describes how a broader ethnographic approach was used to gain observational data and to explore the writing itself in order to build a richer picture of the individuals in the group.The paper focuses on a theme that emerged in various ways from the data as a whole; that of loneliness. Using the ideas of Melanie Klein to explore the links between learning, loneliness and reparation, the journey of one participant is described in detail. The research suggests that loneliness may be an integral part of being able to learn and build a new identity – and that the reparation ushered in by an engagement with biographic material may be part of this process. This elaborate and lengthy process, however, is particularly fraught in learners with mental health difficulties and painful histories; the paper also, therefore, outlines the shortcomings of current adult and community educational policy.
Research suggests that activity is important for predicting an individual's sense of well‐being in later years. Since continuing education can be viewed as an interpersonal activity, it was hypothesized that continuing education would have a positive impact on the health of older adults. One hundred and fourteen subjects who were registered in four different programs offered for older adults at a community college participated in the study. A 41 ‐item multidimensional self‐report Self‐Evaluation of Life Function (SELF) scale was administered as a pretest, posttest and delayed posttest. The scale measured the following health factors: depression, self‐esteem, social satisfaction, personal control, and symptoms of aging. A series of 4 X 3 repeated measures‐design analyses of variance showed that participation of older adults in continuing education had varying effects on their health. At the end of instruction, three health factors (depression, social satisfaction, and symptoms of aging) showed significant changes. Some changes represented improvement, and others represented decline in health. Changes found at the end of instruction (posttest) did not persist six weeks after the programs ended. The results indicate that some continuing education programs have positive short‐term effects on the health of older adults, whereas others do not. Furthermore, the impact of continuing education programs on the health of older adults does not continue six weeks after the programs are completed.
review and integrate the literature on friends as a source of social support among older adults
begin with a general discussion of the importance of social support to well-being and a review of one theoretical perspective on social support / consider how friendships differ from family relationships in important ways that influence both the amount and type of support each group provides as well as the impact of this support on well-being
discuss the kinds of social support provided to and received from friends in old age / present empirical evidence from the Supports of the Elderly Study . . . to explore the differential impact of friends and family on well-being (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
During the last ten years in the UK, service user consultation and collaboration has gradually entered the vocabulary of people providing and purchasing mental health services. However, we are not convinced that much needed change in mental health services will be achieved as a function of increased commitment to market consumerism. We argue here that service user consultation and collaboration should take account of the effects of social inequalities on mental health and on mental health services. This perspective highlights the need for fundamental change in mental health services, and helps us to appreciate the strength of resistance to change, and to understand some of the dynamics involved. We describe here how this perspective has motivated and shaped our own efforts to collaborate responsibly with service users to change mental health services.
Critical practice in adult literacy education offers many interesting and important challenges, including creating a situation in which learners and instructors can communicate across their differences.
As adult Latina/Latino students advanced from a community college to a four-year college, a transition course and mentoring program engaged students and educators in a reciprocal process of change.
RÉSUMÉ
L’inclusion sociale est un facteur important pour promouvoir la santé optimale et le bien-être des personnes âgées. Les arts communautaires engagés (ACE) ont été promus comme moyen de soutenir l’inclusion sociale des personnes âgées, mais peu de preuves empiriques ont été rapportées. Le but de cette étude était d’explorer le rôle d’un programme de l’ACE dans la promotion de l’inclusion sociale des personnes âgées résidant dans la communauté. Seize heures d’observation des participants, neuf entretiens et des analyses de documents ont été menées auprès de 20 aînés au programme Arts, Santé et Aînés (ASA) Projet de Vancouver. Les résultats ont indiqué que le programme a soutenu la capacité des personnes âgées à développer des relations dans la communauté par de nouveaux moyens en les aidant à nouer des liens au-delà du centre pour personnes âgées. Les participants ont également développé un sentiment plus fort d’appartenance à la communauté grâce à la collaboration en tant que groupe , travaillant ensemble sur le projet artistique pour produire une présentation finale à l’ensemble de la communauté. Les résultats suggèrent que l’ACE contribue à l’inclusion sociale des personnes âgées.
Purpose:
The Independence through Community Access and Navigation (I-CAN) intervention was developed to increase community participation in adults with schizophrenia spectrum disorders (SSD) through identification of interest-based recreation activities and supported participation.
Method:
Ten individuals consented to participate in a 10-week pilot intervention. Eight individuals participated in the intervention, during which time they worked with a recreational therapist to identify interest-based recreation activities, develop participation goals and coparticipate with the recreational therapist. At the end of the intervention, seven participants were involved in a semistructured interview to understand their perceptions of the intervention, including its outcomes and effectiveness. Therapists' notes and transcripts from the semistructured interviews were used to understand clients' perception of the intervention.
Results:
Thematic analyses of seven exit interviews suggested the primary perceived outcomes of the intervention included: increased community involvement; development of planning skills; and the development of coping skills. These were facilitated by the therapeutic relationship between the client and therapist.
Conclusions:
This project provides preliminary support for the I-CAN as a participant-centered method for individuals with SSD to develop skills in the community. Implications for practice and future research are presented.