Gender-based violence (GBV) is a major public health issue in humanitarian settings. Forced displacement weakens social support systems and increases vulnerability to violence. In Burkina Faso, the security crisis and the scale of internal displacement have profoundly transformed community norms, lived experiences of violence, and institutional responses. This study aimed to analyze social perceptions and lived experiences of GBV among internally displaced populations, while examining organizational responses through the perspectives of service providers operating in forced displacement contexts. Guided by Yuval-Davis' intersectional framework, this exploratory qualitative study was conducted in Kaya, in the Centre-Nord region. Data were collected through 58 focus group discussions involving 352 internally displaced persons, including women, men, adolescent girls and boys, and community leaders. Focus groups were conducted across different settlement areas to reflect the distribution of internally displaced populations in Kaya. Additionally, 28 service providers involved in GBV care across medical, psychosocial, social, and judicial sectors were interviewed. A comprehensive mapping of GBV-related services was conducted. Data were analyzed thematically using NVivo 12 and Braun and Clarke approach. Findings indicate that although community-based protection mechanisms exist, their availability and effectiveness remain uneven. Legal and institutional responses are often perceived as misaligned with deeply rooted social, cultural, and religious norms. Forced displacement changes social and family relationships and may contribute to the normalization of intimate partner violence. Women and girls adopt harmful survival strategies, including transactional sex, in response to severe economic precarity. Participants frequently reported fear, shame, stigma, and emotional distress. Access to psychosocial support was associated with emotional relief and pathways toward recovery. These findings improve understanding of how displaced populations perceive and experience GBV in Burkina Faso. The findings also show how insecurity, poverty, and displacement affect everyday life and coping strategies. Service providers also described the efforts made to support survivors, as well as the challenges faced in delivering care. Not applicable.

Interinstitutional coordination in responses to violence against women affects intervention quality and continuity and may increase secondary victimization. This article presents MaxApp, a web- and mobile-based prototype designed to support such coordination across services. The study adopted a qualitative tool-development design grounded in a participatory approach and comprised five phases: methodological planning, preliminary diagnosis, content development, tool design, and professional review. Two focus groups were conducted with 14 professionals from the social, healthcare, legal, and law-enforcement sectors in Pontevedra, Spain. The first identified coordination needs, barriers, and functional requirements; the second gathered professional appraisals of the tool’s structure, clarity, perceived usefulness, and suitability for practice following its development. Findings revealed fragmented access to information, duplicated interventions, repeated recounting of traumatic experiences, difficulties in case monitoring, and the need to protect data while enabling selective information sharing. These findings informed MaxApp’s design as a unified system for recording, monitoring, and sharing information among professionals. Participants considered that the tool could improve coordination, traceability, interdisciplinary communication, and documentation efficiency, while identifying areas requiring further refinement. As MaxApp remains a prototype, systematic usability testing and evaluation in real-world implementation settings are required to assess its functionality and practical impact in routine professional practice.

Exposure to potentially morally injurious events (PMIE) poses a threat to one's moral beliefs that can lead to prolonged and impairing mental health outcomes related to moral injury (MI). In a large German-speaking sample (N = 364, 48.9% female) of high-risk populations (legal, health care, military, security, social sector, press), we administered the Moral Injury Outcome Scale (MIOS) and Moral Injury and Distress Scale (MIDS) to investigate the frequency of PMIE exposure and MI outcome and distress. About three-quarters of the sample endorsed having experienced a PMIE, while 11.5% and 5.5.% screened positive for clinically meaningful MI on the MIDS and MIOS, respectively. Both the MIOS and the MIDS demonstrated good to excellent internal consistency. The CFA provided further evidence for their factorial validity; correlations supported aspects of convergent and discriminant validity. Exposure to PMIE and MI is a highly prevalent phenomenon across different occupational fields in Germany. The German versions of both scales seem suitable for assessing MI outcome and distress.

In the context of the global shift towards primary prevention and behavioural change interventions for non-communicable diseases, this scoping review aimed to map the existing scientific literature on the Making Every Contact Count (MECC) programme implemented in healthcare settings for adult patients and identify remaining knowledge gaps. PubMed, Scopus, and Web of Science were searched for indexed articles published between 2010 and January 2026 using combinations of the terms "Making Every Contact Count", NOT "third and social economy sector", and NOT "voluntary and community sector". Studies were included if they investigated MECC implementation in healthcare settings for adult patients. Two reviewers independently extracted and appraised the data. A visual evidence mapping synthesis was then developed. Of the 304 references identified, 22 articles published between 2013 and 2025 were included. Studies were conducted in the United Kingdom and Ireland across diverse healthcare delivery sectors. Investigated dimensions included MECC training, implementation, and delivery from the perspectives of healthcare professionals, patients, and students, as well as document analyses. Outcomes mainly related to attitudes, perceptions, and implementation determinants. The methodological and reporting quality of the included studies was heterogeneous. Identified gaps concerned working conditions, the applicability of MECC across different implementation contexts, the intensity, duration, and content of MECC delivery, and its cost-effectiveness, particularly regarding specific behavioural risk factors. Interest in MECC is increasing. This scoping review synthesised the existing literature, mapped key evidence gaps, and highlighted the limited evidence currently available regarding the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of MECC, particularly across different clinical and national implementation contexts. The findings also suggest that evidence supporting Screening, Brief Intervention and Referral to Treatment approaches cannot be directly extrapolated to MECC. The protocol was registered in PROSPERO under the number CRD420251044644.

This article provides a systematic scientific study of the legal and organizational foundations for the reintegration of war veterans into the socio-economic life of society through the development of the social entrepreneurship sector. The relevance of the research is driven by unprecedented challenges facing Ukraine: as of the spring of 2026, the number of veterans has exceeded 1.7 million, many of whom have complex injuries and disabilities. This necessitates a fundamental shift in the social protection paradigm – moving from a paternalistic model of welfare payments to a model of active engagement and economic agency. For the first time within a comprehensive legal analysis, this work integrates labor law concepts, approaches to adult vocational education, and systemic modeling of social processes. The author argues that social entrepreneurship is the most appropriate tool for adaptation, as it allows veterans to maintain the value-based identity of “serving the community” inherent in military service, while simultaneously ensuring financial independence. The study is based on a critical analysis of global models: the American “Hiring Our Heroes” and “Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Business” systems, the Israeli “Talpiot” program focusing on the high-tech sector, and the British model of competitive tendering for reintegration services. Systemic legal barriers in Ukrainian legislation are identified and classified. First, the absence of a validation procedure for informal education creates a “qualification gap” between real combat command experience and a veteran’s official civilian status in the labor market. Second, there is a legal vacuum in defining the status of a “social enterprise,” which precludes targeted state support. Third, the study identifies the low efficiency of existing tax incentives for employers, who perceive hiring veterans as a risk factor rather than an investment in high-quality human capital. The scientific novelty of the article lies in the justification for introducing a special legal regime for “Veteran Social Enterprises” (VSEs). The author proposes clear criteria for identifying such entities: a minimum of 50% veterans among employees, limitations on profit distribution in favor of reinvesting in the social mission, and mandatory psychological support for personnel. Proposals are formulated for amending current legislation, including the Laws of Ukraine “On the Status of War Veterans,” “On Education,” and “On Professional Development of Employees.” Specifically, the development of a national “Correspondence Directory” (modeled after the American MOS Crosswalk) is proposed to automatically equate military duties with civilian managerial and technical qualifications. A distinct emphasis is placed on the legal framework for “trauma-informed learning.” The author argues that the state must legislatively establish requirements for educational programs for veterans that account for the specifics of cognitive adaptation after combat operations. A mechanism is proposed for creating regional inclusive business incubators operating on the principles of public-private partnership. The study concludes that the successful adaptation of veterans through social entrepreneurship will transform a potential risk group into a “locomotive” of post-war recovery. This will ensure a transition from passive consumption of budget resources to job creation and the strengthening of social cohesion within communities. The article holds practical value for legislative activities, local government bodies, and non-governmental organizations involved in veteran affairs.

ABSTRACT Early childhood education and care (ECEC) settings play a key role in fostering young children’s social-emotional development. Skilled professional teams are essential to creating inclusive, supportive learning environments that promote these competencies. In response to the need for systematic enhancement of social-emotional support in ECEC, this study examined the perceived impact of a professional development program, grounded in a program-wide positive behavior support (PW-PBS) approach, on children’s social-emotional competence and behavior. The study involved 139 professionals and considered both institutional and professional characteristics. A blended-learning professional development program, delivered through a train-the-trainers model, was implemented across diverse ECEC settings in Cyprus, Greece, Ireland, and Portugal. Participants reported improvements in children’s social-emotional outcomes and in their own professional skills, highlighting the program’s promising effects despite its relatively short duration. Findings further indicated that more experienced professionals, teachers working with larger groups, professionals in the social (nonprofit) sector, and those in centers without existing behavioral guidelines perceived greater benefits from the training. Overall, higher perceived quality of the program was associated with stronger perceived impact. These results extend existing knowledge on PW-PBS implementation in Europe and underscore the importance of targeted professional development to support young children’s social-emotional development.

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a heterogeneous neurodevelopmental condition with significant impact on families and society. The objective of this article is to present the results of the first cost-of-illness study of ASD in Spain. An observational, cross-sectional study was designed to estimate the annual cost per individual by means of an anonymous survey and a bottom-up approach to collect use of services and costs. A societal perspective was adopted, including direct costs related to education, health care, and social care sectors, and productivity loss. Complete responses of 334 individuals on the spectrum were obtained (mean age 12.3 years, 82% male, 46.4% with autistic disorder). The most used health care services were general practitioners (35.6%), accident and emergency services (15.3%), and community nurses (10.8%). Among specialized health care services, the most frequently used were psychologists, psychiatrists and other types of individual therapy. The most used drugs were antipsychotics. There was a variety of social services available and accessed. The most often reported service accessed by carers was additional visits to general practitioner (15%). The average annual direct cost of ASD in Spain was €10,974 per individual (95%CI 8717-13879). Logistic regression found that individuals with anxiety, intellectual disability, and an autistic disorder were more likely to access services. The average cost of productivity losses per carer was €2186.4. The average annual direct cost of ASD in Spain was €10,974 per individual. Individuals with anxiety or intellectual disability co-occurring with autistic disorder were more likely to access services. Findings from this study would be useful to inform service planning and future research.

ABSTRACT Sexual harassment is prevalent in the healthcare and social welfare sector and has detrimental effects on mental health. Therefore, this study aimed to develop a valid measure capturing sexual harassment by supervisors and colleagues in these sectors. A comprehensive framework conceptualises sexual harassment as nonverbal, verbal, and physical harassment, sexual coercion, and gender-based sexual discrimination. Construct and criterion validity were examined in a study with employees from the healthcare and social welfare sector (N = 905) assessing experiences of sexual harassment and mental health. The analyses indicated that the newly developed Sexually Harassing Behaviour Questionnaire (SHBQ-I) reliably captures sexual harassment from an intra-organisational perspective. The scales showed highly significant associations with clinically relevant mental health outcomes. The SHBQ-I can be used to assess sexual harassment by colleagues and supervisors and may support future research on prevalence and health consequences, highlighting the need for effective prevention measures. PRACTICE IMPACT STATEMENT Sexual harassment is a major stressor in the healthcare and social welfare sector, which is related to various detrimental mental health outcomes. We developed a context-specific measure designed to assess different forms of sexual harassment by supervisors and colleagues. Understanding the specific forms of sexual harassment prevalent within an institution enables the implementation of effective prevention strategies to protect employees’ mental health.

This article advances a feminist rethinking of what constitutes “success” in debt politics in Africa, foregrounding gender and justice. Focusing on Zambia, it interrogates the assumptions underpinning debt sustainability processes, drawing on official debt documents, media coverage of government negotiations (n=10), and in-depth interviews with debt justice advocates (n=14). The article shows that dominant political definitions of success prioritize fiscal discipline, structural benchmarks, and public financial management, while sidelining investment in social sectors. This narrow technocratic framing that privileges debt sustainability preferences obscures the gendered consequences of debt and austerity. Creditor-driven negotiations routinely legitimate austerity measures without accounting for their disproportionate burdens on women, intensifying pressures across paid and unpaid labor. Largely absent from public debate, these dynamics reveal how debt governance reproduces everyday inequalities. The article proposes gender-sensitive indicators that could be integrated into debt sustainability assessments to better reflect the lived realities of women and men. HIGHLIGHTS Debt metrics prioritize fiscal discipline, sidelining social sector investment. Creditor-led negotiations normalize austerity, ignoring women’s unpaid work. Debt sustainability must include gender-responsive indicators. Post-crisis agendas focus on investors, marginalizing women’s priorities. Debt success assumptions reveal limits of social consideration in governance.

Unlocking SDG potentials through the synergy of public spending and governance: A district level analysis in Assam

Policymakers need active citizens' participation to implement meaningful, transparent, and inclusive reforms aimed at ambitious policy changes. However, effective methodologies for ensuring genuine participation, addressing inherent power imbalances, and translating community stakeholder feedback into tangible and lasting policy and project outcomes remain underdeveloped, particularly within the context of housing sustainability and innovation in Ireland. This research addresses this critical gap, employing Participatory Research methods, engaging 28 stakeholders in the Irish social housing sector to inform the implementation of environmental sensor technology to enhance housing sustainability and resilience in the industry. This study details the insights collected from stakeholder engagement, focusing on key concerns, such as data privacy and the diverse needs of residents. It also demonstrates how this input shaped the project's technological design and engagement strategies. The insights shown in this research aim to motivate researchers and policymakers in Ireland to adopt participatory approaches that integrate citizen perspectives into digital innovation and resilience planning. This research also contributes to the field of participatory research methods with a practical approach to meaningfully engaging vulnerable populations and integrating their concerns into technological solutions, demonstrating how participatory frameworks can advance both digital sustainability and housing resilience.

The incidence of social crime affects economic growth and social fabric in a democratic country like India. Based on this understanding, this study endeavours to examine the role of financial inclusion (FI) in reducing social crime, specifically crime against women and Scheduled Castes (SCs), across 25 states of India during 2001–2024. Using six diverse indicators of FI and applying the principal component analysis method, this study constructs a single composite index of FI across the Indian states. By utilizing the Feasible Generalized Least Squares and the Panel-Corrected Standard Errors methods, this study reveals that FI reduces crime against women and SCs. These findings indicate that FI brings more economic empowerment and bargaining power among women and SCs in society, which helps to reduce crime against them. The results from the control variables reveal that road length, literacy rate, and unemployment reduce social crime, while social sector expenditure deepens social crime.

ABSTRACT This paper examines how the gender composition of national parliaments affects foreign aid allocation in African countries. The findings indicate that female representation in parliament positively correlates with increasing aid directed mainly toward social sectors, which women legislators typically prioritise. Additionally, the study explores the role of spatial interdependence between neighbouring countries, revealing that the distribution of foreign aid is influenced not only by a country's parliamentary gender composition but also by gender representation in the parliaments of neighbouring countries. These results emphasise the importance of promoting gender parity in political institutions to achieve more effective and targeted aid allocation.

In this paper we propose the notion of wartime care economy in order to make visible the way Ukrainians, and Ukrainian women in particular, ensure social reproduction, that is the everyday survival and flourishing of people as well as the reproduction of society. Existing accounts of war economies often focus on the way states restructure their economies to enable war and on illicit activities used either to sustain the fighting or to survive. The wide range of social reproduction activities – everyday, non-illicit activities often predominantly carried out by women or feminized subjects and unpaid or underpaid – thus is made invisible. We suggest that an understanding of war economies is incomplete unless it takes into account the often non-monetized value created in wartime care economies. Drawing on first-person narratives from Ukraine, literature of Ukrainian feminists and other secondary and grey literature, we examine the way intensified demands for care are being met in five spheres: households, neighborly and family support networks, volunteering, humanitarian organizing, and the state’s social services sector. We highlight the different kinds of labor performed in these spheres and the way they relate to each other.

Geriatric medicine across countries: Specialised workforce, training and system integration challenges

The persistence of human problems across health, industrial, and social sectors often stems not from lack of resources but from decisions made without empirical evidence. This study investigates the extent to which statistical knowledge influences the identification, analysis, and resolution of human problems. Anchored in Deming’s Theory of Profound Knowledge and the Evidence-Based Practice framework, the research employs a mixed-methods approach combining systematic literature review and multiple case studies from Nigeria and global contexts. Five core statistical competencies were identified as critical for non-specialists: descriptive summarization, variation analysis, prioritization via Pareto analysis, hypothesis testing, and predictive modeling. Case data from (1) a Lagos manufacturing plant, (2) a primary healthcare centre in Ibadan, and (3) a World Bank community project were analyzed. Results demonstrate that interventions guided by basic statistical analysis achieved 43-78% higher success rates than intuition-based approaches, with mean cost savings of 36.2% (SD=11.4). Control chart implementation reduced process defects from 8.4% to 2.9% in 10 weeks, p<0.01. Hypothesis testing of staff intervention reduced absenteeism by 41%, statistically significant at α=0.05. The study concludes that statistical literacy is a high-leverage determinant of problem-solving efficacy. The major constraint is not mathematical complexity but organizational culture and training gaps. A “5Q Framework” is proposed for workplace adoption. The thesis recommends integrating statistical thinking into MSc, MBA, and professional curricula, and mandating data review before capital expenditures above ₦5 million.

Food waste is a significant issue in Indonesia affecting social, economic, and environmental sectors, requiring active public participation to address it. Although social media is widely used by organizations to raise awareness, audience engagement remains relatively low. This research aims to analyze the factors influencing audience engagement in FoodCycle Indonesia’s Instagram campaigns and develop a visual campaign strategy based on a co-creation approach. This research uses a mixed method approach with quantitative data collection through questionnaires to 166 Instagram audience respondents, as well as qualitative data through semi-structured interviews, Instagram content observation, and a co-creation process involving 10 selected participants. Quantitative data was analyzed descriptively, while qualitative data was analyzed using Miles and Huberman's interactive analysis model. The results show that even though the audience is interested in the issue of food waste and finds the FoodCycle Indonesia campaign message relatively clear, the level of audience interaction with the content is still moderate. Qualitative findings reveal a gap between the campaign's informative visual strategy and the audience's preference for more relevant, participatory, and contextual content. Through a co-creation approach, the audience is actively involved in the campaign's visual design process, resulting in content concepts that are more in line with the audience's needs and expectations. This study contributes by showing that the co-creation approach can be a relevant strategy in increasing audience engagement in social campaigns on social media, especially in the context of food waste issues in Indonesia.

ABSTRACT Social services in Europe underwent significant changes in recent decades. Using our unique dataset covering the ownership networks of over 100,000 child care, disability care, and care for older adults facilities across 27 EU countries and the UK, we conduct a macro‐level network analysis to answer (1) who the main financial industry actors are in European social care markets; (2) where in these markets financialization is taking place; and (3) what position the financial industry occupies in the ownership networks of social care. The analysis reveals how a significant part of European social service facilities across differing types of European welfare states is indirectly owned by financial corporations. We demonstrate that network approaches can provide a more effective method for computing variables related to service ownership, as they capture indirect ownership links not visible in traditional datasets. The highly networked and financialized nature of social provision raises questions about systemic risks in social care sectors. Moreover, financialization could also erode the government's ability to achieve public goals in social care.

Incontinence-associated dermatitis is prevalent in long-term care facilities and homecare settings among adults who are incontinent of urine and/or faeces. Strategies to protect skin integrity are needed. This study aimed to co-design and test the feasibility of a training manual and care guidance (Incontinence-Associated Dermatitis Manual) to prevent and treat incontinence-associated dermatitis in long-term care facilities and homecare settings. This was a three-phase study: (1) evidence synthesis and intervention development, (2) definitive study design (a cluster-randomised controlled trial with an embedded process evaluation) and (3) a 3-month feasibility study. Our Cochrane review was updated following a similar methodology to the original review. The intervention (underpinned by findings from the Cochrane review) was developed with 16 stakeholders. The feasibility study targeted four long-term care facilities and two homecare providers, randomising them (each as a cluster) to intervention or control. Recruitment targeted 288 participants (48 per cluster). Feasibility outcomes included recruitment and retention rates, completeness of data, acceptability of intervention and methods and intervention fidelity. Outcome measures included: Ghent Global incontinence-associated dermatitis categorisation tool, minimum data set and incontinence-associated dermatitis intervention tool. Process evaluation interviews with two care recipients, 11 family carers and 13 care staff implementing the Incontinence-Associated Dermatitis Manual and their managers were conducted. Observations of 22 episodes of care assessed intervention fidelity. Qualitative data were analysed using thematic analysis. Summary feasibility outcome measures using means or proportions, together with 95% confidence intervals, were reported. The reviews of interventions for prevention and treatment of incontinence-associated dermatitis included 15 trials with 1089 participants and 19 trials with 1164 participants, respectively. All participants were incontinent of urine, stool or both. Little evidence, of very low to low quality, was found on the effects of interventions for preventing and treating incontinence-associated dermatitis in adults. The proposed cluster-randomised controlled trial was agreed, with one additional outcome measure added, and the co-designed intervention (incontinence-associated dermatitis manual) included training (3 hours face-to-face and online), an online manual and a poster/flow chart to support care decision-making. After a COVID-19-related pause of 7 months, obtaining governance and ethical approvals for the feasibility study was delayed by 27 months. Five sites were recruited from 49 approached. All randomised sites were retained. Seventy-six (16%) of the 477 participants approached were randomised, of which 58 (76%) completed the study. Ghent Global incontinence-associated dermatitis categorisation tool, minimum data set and incontinence-associated dermatitis intervention tool had complete or almost-complete 3-month outcome data in participants, whereas other outcome measures had contrastingly poor data completeness due to participant cognitive impairment. Process evaluation showed few potential participants had capacity to consent, and gaining consultee approval was challenging. Care staff liked the incontinence-associated dermatitis manual, describing it as 'helpful'. Twenty-eight people accessed the incontinence-associated dermatitis manual online, and 15 care staff downloaded a certificate of completion of training. Intervention fidelity was not always observed. The study was limited by the impact of COVID on both the social care sector and research governance systems and processes. The prevalence of incontinence-associated dermatitis in study sites was lower than expected. It was feasible to develop the Incontinence-Associated Dermatitis Manual. The randomised controlled trial was not feasible as designed, with specific challenges regarding site and participant recruitment, governance and intervention fidelity. We plan to revise the methods used in this feasibility study to address limitations, especially issues of recruitment, and develop a protocol for a new trial with nested feasibility study. This synopsis presents independent research funded by the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) Health Technology Assessment programme as award number NIHR128865.

Social prescription is a person-centred approach that links individuals to non-medical, community-based resources through trained "social prescribers." This model complements medical therapy by providing psychosocial support, peer engagement, lifestyle guidance, and assistance in navigating local resources. Social prescription promotes self-efficacy, adherence to lifestyle interventions, and psychological well-being by facilitating peer support, practical problem-solving, and spiritual or cultural engagement. The South Asian setting is particularly well suited for social prescription due to its traditionally strong community networks. Despite its promise, implementation is challenged by the lack of formal frameworks, standardized training, and structured collaboration between healthcare and social care sectors. This article discusses the concept, relevance, benefits, challenges, and opportunities of social prescription and proposes a structured approach for its integration into chronic disease care pathways.