London Community Research Articles

HIV testing and high risk sexual behaviour among London’s migrant African communities: a participatory research study

Objectives: To describe the demographic and behavioural factors associated with HIV testing among migrant Africans in London. Methods: A cross sectional survey of migrants from five sub-Saharan African communities (Congo,...

The Resource of Ethnicity in the Housing Careers and Preferences of the Vietnamese Communities in London

This paper briefly outlines the housing careers of Vietnamese households since their arrival in the UK in the late 1970s and draws on a series of focus groups to examine the role that ethnicity has played, and may continue to play, in their housing careers. It notes that the first arrivals lacked the infrastructure of an existing Vietnamese community in the UK and were further disadvantaged by the dispersal policy adopted by the voluntary agencies responsible for their resettlement. The research indicates that ethnicity has been a crucial influence on the housing careers of Vietnamese households, and in particular on the location of the communities. It is argued that it is essential that researchers pay attention to the role of ethnicity as a resource and a constraint within a housing career.

Black Women, Politics, Nationalism and Community in London

Black Women, Politics, Nationalism and Community in London

McGOWN, Rima Berns, MUSLIMS IN THE DIASPORA: The Somali Communities of London and Toronto

MCGOWN,Rima Berns,, MUSLIMS IN THE DIASPORA: The Sanati Communities London and Toronto. Toronto, Ontario: Toronto University Press, 1999, 302 pp., $60.00 hardcover / $24.95 softcover. Reviewed by: RABIBA ZAMAN Rima Berns McGown's book explores the dilemmas and choices of Somalis who have migrated to two major cities in the West: London, U.K., and Toronto, Canada. In her study of this single ethnic community, McGown explores two issues: (1) the Somali immigrants' experience in the West and (2) the transformation of Islam as it is practiced by diaspora Somalis. McGown convincingly argues that a country's political culture is a critical determinant of how immigrants and minorities integrate into its society. Looking at both Canadian and British political cultures, and comparing and contrasting the Somalis' experience in these two countries, McGown found that despite culture clash, loss, and unemployment, Somalis felt less alienated in Toronto than in London. She suggests in her conclusion that Canada was more willing to include ethnic minorities, whereas Britain was by far more resistant. Certainly McGown exhibits profound feelings for her study's participants, and her interaction with them is reflected in the long quotations from interviews. The book could be claimed to be exhaustive of the Somali communities in London and Toronto in 1995. But too many challenging questions remain explored. For example, McGown mentions in the context of Quebec's 1995 referendum, but bypasses its relevance to Somalis. She discusses racism within the context of wearing hejab, but downplays systemic and structural against the Somalis. McGown bases her conclusions about in Canada on this single metropolitan study. Her conclusion that appears to be less apparent in Canada than in Britain is quite problematic; it may allow some readers to generalize that does not exist in big cities in Canada. Certainly many immigrants would contest this statement. And what about small towns in Canada? Readers may also get the idea from McGown's book that secular forces are non-existent among Somali families. Analysis of cultural integration is obviously a key tenet of McGown's book, as she develops an alternative framework of cultural integration by defining the role of political culture. Through discussing Clifford Greetz and Harold Isaacs' primordial position, and reviewing literature from John Porter to Milton Gordon, McGown contributes an important historical overview of the experience of immigrants. She defines the role of political culture in integration, gives a critical view of multiculturalism in Canada according to certain sociologists, outlines Canada's differences from the US, and discusses race relations in the US and the UK. However, while discussing integration and assimilation, she comments: Our immigrants are no longer a product of their birth cultures, nor do they belong entirely to their adopted cultures. They have become something else (p.199). …

Black Women, Politics, Nationalism and Community in London

Black Women, Politics, Nationalism and Community in London

Black Women, Politics, Nationalism and Community in London

Black Women, Politics, Nationalism and Community in London

Alexandra Shepard and Phil Withington, eds. Communities in Early Modern England-Networks, Place, Rhetoric. (Politics, Culture, and Society in Early Modern Britain.) Manchester, U.K.: Manchester University Press; dist. by Palgrave, New York, N.Y. 2000. Pp. xii, 276. $36.00 paper. ISBN 0-7190-5477-X.

Alexandra Shepard and Phil Withington, eds. Communities in Early Modern England-Networks, Place, Rhetoric. (Politics, Culture, and Society in Early Modern Britain.) Manchester, U.K.: Manchester University Press; dist. by Palgrave, New York, N.Y. 2000. Pp. xii, 276. $36.00 paper. ISBN 0-7190-5477-X. - Volume 34 Issue 4

The Remaking of the Italian Community in London: L'Italia Nostra and the Creation of a Little Fascist Italy during the 1930s

This paper explores the attempts made by Italian Fascists to develop Fascist sympathies in the Italian community in London during the 1930s. Using a combination of autobiographical accounts and articles published in the main Italian newspaper in Britain, L'Italia Nostra, the means by which this was achieved are discussed. The importance of mutual aid, official involvement in community activities and the use of history to inculcate Fascist interpretations of national pride are all discussed.

The Remaking of the Italian Community in London: <I>L'Italia Nostra</I> and the Creation of a Little Fascist Italy during the 1930s

The Remaking of the Italian Community in London: <I>L'Italia Nostra</I> and the Creation of a Little Fascist Italy during the 1930s

Siblings bridging literacies in multilingual contexts

It is a common assumption that economically disadvantaged and ethnic‐minority families are unlikely to share similar educational aims, beliefs and values to those of teachers. Such families are assumed to participate in very different home literacy practices from those of the school and children’s early reading difficulties have been attributed to such cultural differences. However, such dissonance is not always found. This paper explores the reciprocity of beliefs and literacy practices between two schools and their respective communities in London’s East End. The literacy practices, both in school and out of school, of Bangladeshi British and Anglo‐British primary school children were monitored and play activities between siblings recorded and analysed. The results showed older siblings reflecting the values of both community and school as they blended practices from each domain in their play with their younger brothers and sisters.

Improving access and quality for ethnic minority women— panel discussion

precede the care. In community clinics, the formula we use is 80% education and nurturing, 20% medical care. If you don’t do the education and nurturing and provide the love and affirmation for the patients, the medical care isn’t going to do what you’re hoping it’s going to do. We asked UCLA to do a study of our prenatal program to isolate the reasons our patients have so few low-birth weight babies. There wasn’t any magic formula. The people who were seeing the patients wanted to see them, cared about them, and gave individual attention to their individual needs. We don’t have fancy offices or fancy equipment, but each individual’s problems are identified and effectively addressed. It sounds like a simple formula, but it’s actually very hard to deliver for people who are poor, who are minority, or who speak another language. That’s the challenge that we face, but it’s really a labor of love. We have a great time doing it. Our approach seems to affirm the importance of the communities we serve, as well as the individual patients. The problems of racial and ethnic discrimination may be solved at least in part through this kind of local community delivery, and contribution from the ground level to policy discussions on quality care and health care access.

Risk factors associated with noncompliance with methadone substitution therapy (MST) and relapse among chronic opiate users in an Outer London community.

The purpose of this study was to identify the risk factors associated with noncompliance with methadone substitution therapy (MST) and hence relapse in chronic opiate-dependent users, as this has major clinical implications especially in community-based detoxification programmes. Community mental health nurses (CMHNs) and other health/social care professionals need to be aware of the main risk factors associated with MST noncompliance among long-term opiate users living within their catchment areas. The sex-matched patterns of biopsychosocial risk factors can be useful predictors of the ability of clients to comply with MST and their likelihood to complete the detoxification programme. A knowledge of the patterns of these high-risk factors also allows the care professionals to: (1) draw-up or re-draw care contracts that reflect their patients' biopsychosocial circumstances; (2) initiate much broader, client-centred, relapse prevention strategies; (3) select suitable patients for specialized detoxification contracts; and (4) modify the care approach from detoxification to maintenance contracting particularly for clients with low predicted scores for the former contract-type. As successfully demonstrated in this semi-quantitative descriptive investigation, identification of these sex-typed biopsychosocial high-risk factors can easily be undertaken during assessment and when the clients attend regular review. In this study, numerical information was gathered during personal face-to-face interviews, and was supplemented with that contained in past multidisciplinary case notes. Overall, the medication noncompliant female clients were associated with personality trait, decreased educational expectations, everyday life stresses, ambivalent thoughts, social company availability, comorbidity, boredom, and family-related conflicts; whereas the noncompliant male clients were associated with poor motivation, fashion and reputation, peer association, uncontrollable drug-cravings, drug availability, major life events, too stringent prescribing/poor client-centred care package, heavy intravenous users, young polydrug users, and triple users. These findings have important nursing practice connotations. This study is advocating the routine identification of biopsychosocial high-risk factors associated with MST noncompliance by all CMHNs working with chronic opiate-dependent users.

Cognitive function in UK community-dwelling African Caribbean elders: normative data for a test battery.

Many 'first generation' African Caribbean residents in the UK have now reached ages where risk of cognitive impairment and dementia starts to increase. In addition, conditions which may impair cognitive function, such as hypertension, diabetes and stroke, have high prevalence rates in African Caribbean populations. However, there is a lack of normative data for cognitive tests in this ethnic group. Cognitive assessment was carried out in a south London community population of 285 African Caribbean participants aged 55-75 years. Tests were drawn principally from the consortium to establish a registry for Alzheimer's disease (CERAD) battery (Boston Naming Test, verbal fluency, word list recall, and Trailmaking Tests A and B) and also included orientation items from the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) and the Clock Drawing Test. Independent effects of age, sex, education and occupation were identified on scores for most but not all cognitive tests. Compared with normative data for African American populations, lower scores on verbal fluency and the Boston Naming Test were observed but scores on memory tests were comparable. Normative data for the tests are presented, stratified by level of education.

Physical health care for people with severe mental illness: The role of the general practitioner (GP)

Objectives : Severely mentally ill people have high levels of mortality and physical morbidity. As greater numbers of people with severe mental illness have moved into community accommodation, responsibility for their physical health needs is often unclear. This study investigates whether patients receive better physical health treatment if they attend their GP, a Community Mental Health Team, or both. Design : Five hundred and sixty-six representative annual period prevalence cases of psychotic disorders were ascertained in a case identification exercise in South London and 309 were randomly selected for interview. The information sought included details of their physical health problems, the physical health treatment they received and their pattern of service use. Setting : Two south London community psychiatry catchment areas. Results : Patients who had seen their GP in the previous 6 months were more likely to be satisfied with the amount ( p =0.014) and type ( p =0.16) of service provided for their p...

Three Portrait Busts by Torrigiani: A Reconsideration

The three terracotta busts which are discussed in this paper have traditionally been identified as the young Henry VIII, John Fisher, bishop of Rochester, and Henry VII. Only the identification of the latter bust is here accepted as being correct; the identifications of the other two busts are rejected through comparison with authentic portraits of the alleged sitters, and in the case of the Henry VIII also through consideration of the costume shown in the bust. The style of the costume in fact suggests that this sitter may have come from an Italian professional or mercantile background; and various further pieces of evidence enable the proposal to be made, albeit with due caution, that all three busts were commissioned within the context of London's community of Florentine merchant bankers.

Cerebrovascular Risk Factors and Stroke Subtypes

The excess risk of stroke seen in the black population has not been explained by differences in age, sex, and social class, although differences in the frequency of cerebrovascular risk factors may be partly responsible. Data on risk factor profiles for the UK black stroke population are sparse. Previous studies have contrasted the association of cerebrovascular risk factors between hemorrhagic and ischemic stroke and between etiologic subtypes of infarct. The relationship of cerebrovascular risk factors to clinical classifications of stroke, however, has been little examined. The aim of this study was to establish the frequency of cerebrovascular risk factors in patients with first-ever strokes in the South London, UK, population and to examine the relationship of these risk factors to both ethnicity and Bamford stroke subtype. The study included 1254 first-ever stroke patients registered in the South London Community Stroke Register between 1995 and 1998; 995 patients (79.3%) were white, 203 (16.2%) were black, 52 (4.1%) were of other ethnic origin, and 4 (0. 3%) were of unknown ethnic origin. In multivariate analysis, increasing age (P:<0.001) and previous cerebrovascular disease (P:=0.007) were independently associated with infarct rather than hemorrhage. Atrial fibrillation was associated with all nonlacunar (P:=0.02), total anterior circulation (P:=0.007), and partial anterior circulation infarcts (P:=0.02) compared with the lacunar group. All other risk factors were similar between infarct subtypes. Risk factors for hemorrhage subtypes were similar in multivariate analysis; increasing age was the only factor associated with primary intracerebral hemorrhage over subarachnoid hemorrhage (P:<0.001). The black stroke population suffered significantly less atrial fibrillation (P:=0.001) and engaged in less alcohol excess (P:<0. 001) and were less likely to have ever smoked (P:<0.001). Hypertension (P:<0.001) and diabetes mellitus (P:<0.001) were more prevalent in the black population. Physiological cerebrovascular risk factors for the UK black population are similar to those of the US black population, but behavioral risk factors differ. Risk factors differ between ethnic groups in the United Kingdom, and future measures for secondary prevention should take this into consideration. Bamford clinical subtypes bear little association with cerebrovascular risk factors. Other classification systems, such as those that classify stroke by etiology, may be more useful in explaining the excess risk of stroke and the scope for its prevention.

Physical health care for people with severe mental illness: The role of the general practitioner (GP)

Objectives : Severely mentally ill people have high levels of mortality and physical morbidity. As greater numbers of people with severe mental illness have moved into community accommodation, responsibility for their physical health needs is often unclear. This study investigates whether patients receive better physical health treatment if they attend their GP, a Community Mental Health Team, or both. Design : Five hundred and sixty-six representative annual period prevalence cases of psychotic disorders were ascertained in a case identification exercise in South London and 309 were randomly selected for interview. The information sought included details of their physical health problems, the physical health treatment they received and their pattern of service use. Setting : Two south London community psychiatry catchment areas. Results : Patients who had seen their GP in the previous 6 months were more likely to be satisfied with the amount ( p =0.014) and type ( p =0.16) of service provided for their physical health. Only 7% reported unmet physical needs and 75 % reported that they received the right type of help. Contact with any member of their community mental health team or with none did not affect the patient's report of their physical health care. Conclusions : All patients with a psychotic disorder should be registered with a GP. It should be clear to all involved that the GP is responsible for physical health service provision. There is a strong argument for a routine annual check up of the severely mentally ill by their GPs.

Language and Literacy: Children's Experiences in Multilingual Environments

The present study investigates the language use and literacy practices of 36 children (aged three-and-a-half, seven and 11) from a Gujerati and Urdu-speaking Muslim community in north-east London. These experiences are explored in the children's three-generation families, in the community and in school through interviews, recordings and observations. They are related to the children's educational achievement and whether or not they make use of a local community cultural and religious centre. The findings suggest that children who have access to the culture and leisure facilities of a community centre maintain a higher level of linguistic vitality in Gujerati and are more creative story tellers in both Gujerati and English than children who do not have these opportunities. Support for Gujerati in the home is oral rather than literacy-based and does not have a significant direct impact on children's achievement in literacy. Support for literacy in English is related to books, and does have a positive impact. Overall, by age 11, children are performing above the norms for monolingual English-speaking children of a similar background, are fluent speakers of a dialect of Gujerati and are becoming literate in Urdu for religious purposes.

Gangs as Alternative Transitional Structures

SUMMARY This paper reports the results of a comparative study of youth gangs in minority communities in Los Angeles and London, England. A combined qualitative-quantitative research design was used to obtain information on the experiences, attitudes and behaviors of Black youth who were involved with or influenced by gangs. Measures included two semi-structured interview schedules for focus groups and individual youth, respectively. Demographic data and statistics on social indicators were obtained for this population in both cities from government and social agency reports on rates of school drop-outs, youth unemployment, involvement in the juvenile/criminal justice system, and health/mental health utilization. The sample included a total of 144 African-American youth, ages 15-30, in 17 focus groups and 32 for individual interviews in Los Angeles, and a total of 86 Afro-Caribbean youth, ages 15-24, in ten focus groups and 66 for individual interviews in London. Results suggest that gangs provide minority...

Rhodia Expedites Integration Of Albright &amp; Wilson

Aiming to be the world's leading specialty phosphates company, French chemical company Rhodia is moving fast on integrating its operations with those of recently acquired Albright & Wilson. Anti-trust approval of the acquisition, which was announced last year, came this spring. We have made substantial progress in the last three months in combining the cultures of the two companies, realigning our phosphates manufacturing strategy, and streamlining the business portfolio, said David Eckert, president of Rhodia's consumer specialties division, during a whirlwind series of briefings with the financial communities in Paris, London, and New York City. According to Eckert, the first positive impact of synergies from the acquisition are beginning to be seen and will accelerate rapidly, achieving cost savings of roughly $90 million per year in two years' time, up from the $50 million originally predicted. Among other moves, Rhodia has decided to close, by the end of the year, ...