Support Hub Research Articles

Implementation of a patient-centered phone line to address non-medical cancer support needs in an integrated health system.

208 Background: From the moment cancer is suspected, patients and their caregivers may feel overwhelmed and not know where to seek help for non-medical questions. Social risks, including financial instability, housing and food insecurity can lead to poor cancer outcomes, and 39% of Kaiser Permanente (KP) cancer patients screened positive for at least one social risk. KP implemented the Cancer Support Line to provide patients and caregivers with a single point of contact to address non-medical concerns, including financial navigation, social health needs, and general cancer information. Methods: Kaiser Permanente partnered with patients, clinicians, and health plan functions supporting member services, social health, and quality to co-design and implement a phone number for cancer members in the KP Northwest market. The Cancer Support Line (‘Line’) is an inbound phone number staffed by Cancer Support Specialists (‘Specialists’), a dedicated team of health plan member services, trained in cancer support skills. Specialists use four co-designed pathways to navigate callers to resources for financial questions, social needs, and general cancer information and support. If clinically appropriate questions arise, Specialists use existing operational channels to connect patients back to their care teams. Results: During the pilot, there were 1,057 interactions with members, patients, and caregivers from March 12 th to May 17 th . Financial questions about payment assistance and insurance benefits/eligibility emerged as the highest call driver. The top call outcomes by volume are shown in the included table. A high majority of calls (94%, n=992) were addressed by the Cancer Support Specialists themselves. Post-call survey results revealed that 96% of callers (n=26) rated their call experience high when asked “How would you rate your overall call experience today?” Conclusions: Effective collaboration across KP’s project teams was a critical driver of the pilot’s success. Workflows were built with all partner teams and departments, Specialist training was designed internally with consultation from the American Cancer Society, team communications were open and consistent, call reporting was robust and adaptable. Furthermore, the Line addresses a critical gap in the cancer patient experience: navigating non-medical needs that busy care teams are unable to address on their own. Though positive, these pilot results are preliminary and focused on one KP market. To evaluate the pilot for scalability, the team will assess process metrics and outcomes on caller, frontline staff, and Specialist experience on an ongoing basis to capture the Line’s broader operational impact. Call transfer destination. Transfer Destination # of calls % No Transfer 992 93.9% KP Community Support Hub Transfer 45 4.3% Clinical Transfer 17 1.6% KP Community Support Hub + Clinic Transfer 3 0.3%

The CanPath-HDRN Canada Collaboration: Enabling Multi-jurisdictional Research in Canada

ObjectiveTo highlight the partnership between the Canadian Partnership for Tomorrow’s Health (CanPath) and Health Data Research Network (HDRN Canada), which enables researchers to link CanPath’s health and lifestyle survey data to health records and related data across multiple regions. BackgroundCanPath is a population health study of over 350,000 Canadians from seven regional cohorts across all ten provinces, making it one of the world's largest population cohorts. HDRN Canada is a network of member organizations, including provincial, territorial, and pan-Canadian data centres. ApproachThis partnership leveraged collective expertise and resources to facilitate the linkage of CanPath’s harmonized data to multi-regional health and health-related administrative data held at HDRN Canada’ s data centres. Researchers can access these data for multi-regional projects through HDRN Canada’s Data Access Support Hub, which provides a single access portal. ResultsResearchers were able to successfully link CanPath’s survey data to provincial administrative health data. The collaboration’s streamlined process for data access enhances efficiency and facilitates pan-Canadian population health research. ConclusionThis collaboration demonstrates the feasibility and value of linking population health datasets while demonstrating the challenges and opportunities associated with accessing national administrative health data within a federated health data system. ImplicationsThe partnership between CanPath and HDRN Canada has significant implications for advancing population health research in Canada. By providing researchers with access to linked data from diverse sources, the partnership enables comprehensive investigations into health determinants, disease patterns, and clinical outcomes. This enhances the scope and depth of population health research in Canada, thereby leading to a better understanding of the most pressing health challenges.

Advances in the Digitization and Mobilization of Natural History Collections in Guatemala

Since its development in 2020, the Guatemala Biodiversity Portal (Fig. 1), generated with Symbiota (Gries et al. 2014, Gilbert et al. 2020, Symbiota Support Hub 2021), has turned into an outstanding resource to facilitate the digitization, mobilization, and use of specimen data from local natural history collections (Orellana et al. 2023). More than 50,000 records and several thousands of images from Guatemalan zoological, botanical, mycological, and paleontological collections have been shared online for the first time in this portal. An integrated Symbiota installation allows further data mobilization to the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF.org 2024a), amplifying its impact on biodiversity research at an international level. To date, more than 42,000 records have been shared from the Guatemala Biodiversity Portal (GBIF.org 2024b), promoting visibility and recognition for national collections and researchers as shown by more than 300 citations in scientific literature, and the presence of at least 50 local collectors and taxonomists in the platform, Bionomia (Shorthouse 2020). Personalized training, documentation, and technical support have been key to the growing success of the portal (Orellana et al. 2022a, Portal de Biodiversidad de Guatemala 2023). Continuous leadership provided by portal managers and the Symbiota team has additionally amplified the active participation of the Guatemalan collections community. Engagement with undergraduate students has also been crucial to increasing the volume of specimen digitization. Outreach and crowdsourcing activities, as well as guided assignments and temporary internships in research projects, have contributed to transcribing most of the available data. Careful supervision by collection and portal managers, integrated data cleaning tools (Pearson 2021), and a curated taxonomic thesaurus (Orellana et al. 2022b) help maintain the accuracy of the digital records in the portal. Furthermore, the improving accessibility to specimen data from Guatemalan collections and tailored resources in a bilingual Spanish-English interface (e.g., interactive checklists, Pearson and Walker 2021), have made the portal an important source of information, enabling local researchers to develop and share studies about the natural diversity of the country (Prado et al. 2023, Vásquez-Almazán 2023). Additional outcomes, strategies, and reflections about the dynamics of the community will be shared during the presentation.

Harm-Reduction for Substance Misuse in Young People: A Service Evaluation of Southampton's Drug and Alcohol Support Hub (DASH)

Harm-Reduction for Substance Misuse in Young People: A Service Evaluation of Southampton's Drug and Alcohol Support Hub (DASH)

Promotion of a social prescribing pathway to general practitioners in a rural area (a feasibility study protocol)

PurposePsychosocial problems, including social isolation and loneliness, are prevalent in rural communities and can impact the use of health services and health outcomes. Current approaches to managing patients with predominantly psychosocial issues may not be the most appropriate. Social prescribing (SP) is a relatively new way of linking patients with sources of non-medical support within the community. Emerging literature suggests that community-based, non-medical activities are an effective and preferred approach to managing psychosocial problems. However, there is little evidence describing the attitudes of general practitioners (GPs) towards formal SP pathways.Design/methodology/approachThis research will occur in a general practice in a rural area of Tasmania, Australia. The project will deliver an education module to rural GPs to highlight the benefits of SP and provide a streamlined pathway for referring patients to community support hubs. Existing community organisations will act as “link workers” to connect patients with suitable community activities. GPs will complete a baseline and follow-up survey to measure their perception of SP and the acceptability, feasibility and appropriateness of such an intervention.FindingsThe acceptability, feasibility and appropriateness of the pathway will be assessed using published measures. Free-text responses to open-ended questions will be used to complement the quantitative data. A hybrid effectiveness-implementation method will be used to gather information about the rate of uptake and quality of the SP referral process and identify barriers and facilitators of the process in a real-world setting.Research limitations/implicationsWhile qualitative data for SP programmes is predominantly positive, quantitative data is lacking. Although the planned project is relatively short, it will provide a basis for future SP programme implementation and guide the approach to data collection and implementation assessment.Social implicationsThe barriers to and facilitators of introducing a SP programme in a rural general practice setting may be used to guide the development and implementation of future large-scale SP interventions. This research is both timely and relevant as the problem of social isolation and loneliness, especially in rural areas of Australia, is becoming more well-recognised as a driver of poor health and unnecessary health service usage.Originality/valueUsing SP to address psychosocial risks may reduce healthcare burden and costs. Few SP programmes have been delivered and formally assessed in Australia, and the best way to implement SP locally remains unclear. By delivering a SP intervention in a rural setting and assessing GPs’ responses, future SP projects will be better able to design and integrate social and medical care services.

Capacity Assessment of Community Clinic (CC) as an Information and Support Hub during Future Outbreaks: Lessons Learnt from the COVID-19 Outbreak

The study delves into the potential of Community Clinics (CCs) in Bangladesh to function as crucial information and support hubs during pandemics and outbreaks. By examining both internal and external factors, including organizational structure, roles, responsibilities, infrastructure, skills, tools, existing organogram, government policies, and community clinic dynamics, the research assesses the capability of CCs in this role. Through a telephonic survey of 100 Community Health Care Providers (CHCP) and Key Informant Interviews (KII) with Community Based Health Care (CBHC) officials, valuable insights were gained. While the findings reveal that CCs may not be comprehensive treatment centers for pandemics, they can effectively serve as information and support hubs, aligning with their mandates. To enhance their efficiency in this role, upgrading the WASH sensitivity of CCs is recommended, along with other measures to improve their capacity during disease outbreaks. The study underscores the significance of recognizing CCs as vital assets in combating emerging health hazards, and strategic improvements can further strengthen their contributions in addressing public health challenges.
 The Dhaka University Journal of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Vol. 12(1), 2023, P 41-56

Mozambique’s Neglected Nationalists in Exile: Retracing Coremo’s Relations with the Congolese Government and the FNLA

Even though the Mozambique Revolutionary Committee (Coremo) was Mozambique’s second largest liberation movement, historians have neglected its role in the struggle for Mozambican independence. This neglect has resulted in an imbalanced understanding of how Mozambicans fought to overthrow Portuguese colonial rule throughout the second half of the 20th century, including how Mozambican liberation movements navigated the precarious exile environment. By retracing and examining Coremo’s relations with Joseph Mobutu’s Congolese government and the National Front for the Liberation of Angola (FNLA), this article adds to the growing literature on competing anti-colonial movements during Mozambique’s liberation struggle. Coremo’s relationship with these two actors is intertwined with and was founded on the earlier relations that Paulo Gumane’s reconstituted National Democratic Union of Mozambique (Udenamo) had established with the FNLA and Cyrille Adoula’s Congolese government. Reconstructing the story of this relationship deepens our understanding of the different transnational and transregional strategies that smaller liberation movements like Coremo employed in exile. The story of Coremo’s relations with Kinshasa and the FNLA highlights the importance of and difficulties in establishing support structures in the context of competitive liberation politics. The history of these long-standing relations also adds to our understanding of the formation and development of working relationships between lusophone African liberation movements, which have traditionally focused on the Conference of Nationalist Organisations of the Portuguese Colonies, and brings to our attention the role of alternative African support hubs in southern Africa’s liberation struggle.

Difficulties of Families With Multiples Recognized by Regional Parenting Support Hubs: A National Public Health Service Study in Japan

In comparison to a singleton birth, pregnancy, delivery, and child rearing in families with multiples is more complicated and is associated with more difficulties. This study sheds light on how parenting support hubs all over Japan recognize the difficulties of families with multiples, and how they support them. A questionnaire was distributed to regional parenting support hubs in Japan. The questionnaire coverage included rural to urban areas in all parts of Japan. The questionnaire was presented and answered using Google Forms, a website, a fax, or an e-mail attachment ( n = 522). A factor analysis and t-tests were used to analyze the data. Regional parenting support hubs recognized that families with multiples have more difficulties and needs that require support than those with singletons, during both pregnancy and child rearing. However, they did not recognize any marked economic difficulties, which has been demonstrated to be an issue that affects families with multiples. Most regional parenting support hubs did not provide helpful support regarding speaking to parents of multiples, holding social events, or cooperating with other support groups, or rearing support hubs. When the helpful support measures that are recognized by parenting support hubs during the pregnancy/delivery period and the child-rearing period for families with multiple children are in comparison, such parenting support hubs recognized that families with multiples require more support during the pregnancy/delivery period. Parenting support hubs required information on the difficulties in supporting families with multiples and also required guidance on how such support should be provided. Parenting support hubs that cooperated with other hubs gave more support than those that did not. To link the recognition of the difficulties and needs of families with multiples to concrete measures, sufficient information on what is needed and how to support families with multiples should be provided. When presenting information on child rearing support for families with multiples, the importance of support during the child-rearing period should receive more attention. We found that cooperation is an important factor for enhancing parenting support.

Growth and Evolution of the Symbiota Portal Network

Symbiota is empowering biodiversity collections communities across the globe to efficiently manage and mobilize their data. Beginning with only a handful of collections in two major portals in the early 2010s (Gries et al. 2014), Symbiota now acts as the primary content management system for over 1,000 collections in more than 50 portals. Over 1,800 collections share data through Symbiota portals, constituting over 90+ million records and 42+ million images. The iDigBio Symbiota Support Hub, a team and cyberinfrastructure based out of Arizona State University and supported by the United States (U.S.) National Science Foundation, hosts 52 Symbiota portals and provides daily help and resources to all Symbiota user communities. The Symbiota codebase is being actively developed in collaboration with several funded projects, including the U.S. National Ecological and Observatory Network (NEON), to support new data types and connections, such as between Symbiota portals and other collections management systems, and to other resources (e.g., Index Fungorum, Global Registry of Scientific Collections, Bionomia, Environmental Data Initiative). Because the Symbiota codebase is open source and shared among portals, new developments in any portal empower the entire network. Here we describe recent expansions of the Symbiota network, including new portals, collaborations, functionalities, and sustainability actions. We look forward to building further collaborations with diverse, international collections data communities.

A Case Study Investigation Into a Group Online Sport Psychology Support Intervention for Injured Athletes

Sport psychology support can have a positive impact on sport injury rehabilitation; however, there appear to be barriers to injured athletes accessing such support (e.g., financial and geographical constraints). Online delivery has been suggested as a method to address some of these barriers. This case study therefore sought to explore whether an online sport psychology support hub was an effective method of sport injury psychology support. Sixteen injured athletes (seven male and nine female) participated in a 6-week sport psychology intervention where they were given access to an online hub moderated by a sport psychologist, in which sport psychology support was provided through social support (online forum), written emotional disclosure (diary), and psychological skills development (education resources). The impact of the hub was measured through analysis of the forum posts, diary entries, and responses to an evaluation questionnaire. While engagement with the hub was not as high as anticipated, the athletes reported several positive benefits from using the hub and rated its overall impact highly, demonstrating the potential of online delivery.

Pharmacy technician-led general practice support hub: a feasibility study

Abstract Introduction Workforce pressures in general practice have led to Scottish Government initiatives to integrate pharmacy teams into general practice. The focus is completion of prescribing management-related activities releasing general practitioner time for patient-focused workload.1 Activities include medicines reconciliation from immediate discharge letters (IDL), processing outpatient prescription requests (OPL) and special request prescriptions (SR). Pharmacists effectively mobilise GP capacity completing these tasks.2 However, pharmacists may aspire to advanced practice roles including medication review case-load management. Therefore, alternative workload delivery models including centralised pharmacy technician-led general practice support hubs to complete IDL, OPL and SR tasks must be considered. National guidance outlines that pharmacy technicians may complete these tasks autonomously with minimal supervision.3 Unknowns include whether pharmacy technicians can lead this service delivery and the definition of the supervisory support required. Aim To evaluate the feasibility of a pharmacy technician-led hub for completion of SR, IDL and OPL. Methods Feasibility was studied over 4 weeks (12 April – 7 May 2021) during routine service delivery across three medical practices (approx. 23 800 patients) in NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde. Quantitative real-time self-reported data on the volume of tasks (SR/IDL/OPL), task completion time and volume of pharmacist referrals was collected by pharmacy technicians and pharmacists and analysed in Microsoft Excel®. Qualitative data describing why pharmacy technicians referred tasks to pharmacists was collected and categorized using thematic analysis and Microsoft Excel® by the lead author. Ethical approval was not required for this service evaluation. Results 4485 total tasks were completed: SR 87% (n=3917); IDL 7% (n=323); OPL 6% (n=245). Pharmacy technicians completed most (71%; n=3181) prescribing management-related tasks. A service delivery gap (21%; n=921 of tasks) where workload exceeded technician resource, necessitated pharmacist support. Referral rate for tasks beyond technician competence was 11% (n=383). The locally agreed 48-hour benchmark turnaround to process tasks was achieved for the majority of tasks. Breaches of the target were noted: 53 (1%) SR; 10 (3%) IDL and 5 (2%) OPL. Technicians and pharmacists completed tasks in numerically similar times. 383 tasks were referred to a pharmacist. 134 (35%) tasks could only be completed by a pharmacists due to the need for a prescribing decision or pharmacist-specific knowledge. 226 (59%) could be completed by a technician with additional knowledge or training. Examples include queries requiring interpretation of clinical parameters or blood monitoring or answering medicines information enquiries. 6% (n=23) of referrals were uncategorised due to incomplete data collection. Discussion/Conclusion This study provides new information describing the workload volume achieved by pharmacy technicians and characterising the supervisory role of the pharmacist. Pharmacy technicians convincingly completed most activities. Service delivery gaps need addressed including maintenance of service delivery during periods of authorised absence and professional development time. Pharmacist referral rate can be improved by upskilling pharmacy technicians. The volume of SR tasks drives the workload and could be managed more effectively by converting suitable SR tasks to controlled repeats. A Health Improvement Scotland initiative is developing this work stream. Additional projects must identify training gaps to understand technician development needs and analyse achievement of advanced pharmacist activities where technician-led hub exists.

Leveraging the Symbiota Support Hub for Biodiversity Data Mobilization

Symbiota is an open source software for managing and mobilizing biodiversity data from physical and virtual collections. Over 700 natural history collections use Symbiota as their primary content management system, and over 600 additional collections use Symbiota portals to mobilize a copy or subsamples of their data for use by specific communities of expertise. For both "live-managed" and "snapshot" collections, Symbiota provides data import, export, and publishing tools to lower data mobilization barriers. For example, collections in Symbiota portals can publish their data directly to the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF) and Integrated Digitized Biocollections (iDigBio) using Darwin Core Archive protocols for data sharing, obviating the need to install or host local Integrated Publishing Toolkit (IPT) instances. Over 150 institutions currently use this workflow to publish datasets to GBIF. The strengths of Symbiota's approach to mobilization are part technical and part social. Once a collection has data in a portal, using the portal’s built-in data mobilization tools requires little technical expertise, and Symbiota portal managers are typically very accessible and helpful in assisting with the process. With sustained funding of the iDigBio Symbiota Support Hub, we are increasing the capacity of Symbiota to mobilize biodiversity through (1) improved documentation regarding the data mobilization process (https://symbiota.org/docs); (2) increased capacity for individualized attention to users through a larger service team and a robust help desk system; (3) the launch of "Portal Advancement Campaigns"—targeted efforts to promote data quality and mobilization (e.g., publishing to data aggregators); and (4) the development of an API infrastructure to enhance data interoperability and accessibility. We provide an overview of these new technologies and services for promoting and assisting with data mobilization, and we discuss future developments.

Taxonomic Curation in a Multi-taxa Symbiota Portal

Symbiota is an open-source software that allows the creation of online portals for accessing, managing, and mobilizing biodiversity data (Gries et al. 2014, Symbiota Support Hub 2021). Most of the portals are focused on communities with specific taxonomic interests, which often allows the construction of specialized taxonomic thesauri by portal managers (Gilbert et al. 2020, Pearson 2021a). A portal dedicated to the full range of collections in one country (Portal de Biodiversidad de Guatemala 2022) has represented an interesting challenge for taxonomic management. The Guatemala Biodiversity portal currently allows the digitization and active management of 29 natural history collections in this country, including collections of vertebrates, invertebrates, plants, fungi, lichens, and fossils. Additionally, two institutional observation collections are live managed within the portal (Orellana et al. 2022). This brings up the need to have a suitable taxonomic thesaurus that serves all the collection managers involved. Similar to other Symbiota portals, the Guatemala Biodiversity portal facilitates the incorporation of external catalogs such as Catalog of Life (Bánki et al. 2022), and the World Register of Marine Species (WoRMS Editorial Board 2022), resources which could easily constitute the base of the taxonomic thesaurus of the portal. However, due to the regional focus of this site, it is not ideal to add all the species available in these virtual catalogs. A partial solution has been importing snapshot collections with Guatemalan records from different Symbiota portals, or from the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF.org 2022). This approach takes advantage of the specimens identified by specialists in different collections around the world, and the taxonomic cleaning tools available in Symbiota portals (Pearson 2021b) allow the curation of the scientific names. Nevertheless, these automated tools are often not enough to maintain the taxonomic thesaurus in understudied regions, such as Guatemala, and the manual curation of species names is still necessary. The curation of the taxonomic thesaurus in this portal is a work in progress, and we are achieving this with the creation of curated checklists within the portal (Orellana 2022, Pearson and Walker 2021), with the incorporation of names in published catalogs (Cano 2006, Cano and Schuster 2012, Camacho et al. 2022), and with the curation of the available names according to institutional catalogs (CECON 2022). Additional information about the conservation status of the species is being added to the taxon profile pages, attaching recent data provided by the Red List of the International Union for Conservation of Nature and publications by local researchers (IUCN 2021, Elías et al. 2022). The availability of a regional curated taxonomic thesaurus in the Guatemala Biodiversity portal is still limited and restricted to groups like vertebrates and certain groups of insects, yet this online resource is useful for researchers who are working in local collections or are compiling information to publish new catalogs and checklists for Guatemala. Continuing with the improvement of this taxonomic resource is necessary not only to advance the knowledge of the biodiversity of Guatemala but to aggregate this information into relevant global catalogs.

Climate negotiations: time to implement planetary health promises

Climate negotiations: time to implement planetary health promises

An evaluation of a short film promoting kindness in Wales during COVID-19 restrictions #TimeToBeKind

BackgroundIn response to successive COVID-19 restrictions in Wales, the Welsh ACE Support Hub launched the #TimeToBeKind campaign in March 2021. The campaign used a short film broadcast on national television and promoted on social media to encourage behaviour change for kindness. We evaluated the #TimeToBeKind campaign film to identify whether watching the film would result in increased intention to act in ways that promote kindness to others and if intentions were associated with being emotionally affected by the film.MethodsA mixed methods evaluation was employed, using a short online survey and interaction with the film on the Twitter social media platform. The online survey measured public (n = 390) attitudes towards the film including feelings invoked, and behavioural intentions for acts of kindness as a result of viewing the film. Tweets which interacted with the film (n = 59; likes, re-tweets or comments), and tweet sentiment (positive, negative, or neutral) towards the film were also explored.ResultsThe majority of participants reported positive attitudes to the film and agreed that they understood the campaign message (91.8%). 67.9% reported that the film made them feel upset or sad and for 22.6% the film resonated with their lockdown experience. As a result of seeing the film, 63.6% reported intentions to be kinder to others, 65.6% intended to try and help other members of their community, and 70.5% were more likely to check in on friends, family and neighbours. A higher proportion of individuals who were emotionally affected by the film (e.g. upset or sad, hopeful or encouraged, gained something positive) and those for whom the film resonated with their lockdown experience reported increased kindness behavioural intentions as a result of seeing the film.ConclusionsFilm can be an effective tool to promote behaviour change for kindness. Films that provoke strong emotional reactions can still be perceived positively and lead to behaviour change. With the COVID-19 pandemic accelerating a move online for many, the findings of the present evaluation are relevant to how public health messaging can adapt and utilise this space to target individuals and promote behaviour change.

An exploration of young people\u2019s, parent/carers\u2019, and professionals\u2019 experiences of a voluntary sector organisation operating a Youth Information, Advice, and Counselling (YIAC) model in a disadvantaged area

BackgroundThe present evaluation explored young people’s, parents/carers, and healthcare professionals’ perceptions of the Youth Information, Advice and Counselling (YIAC) model operated by a voluntary sector organisation in North West England. With an aim to understand the key components that contribute to enhancing the success of the YIAC model.MethodSemi-structured interviews and focus groups with young people, parents/carers, and healthcare professionals were conducted. Data were analysed using thematic analysis.ResultsFive main themes were identified from the data: 1) Accessibility and flexibility; 2) Non-clinical model and environment; 3) Staff; 4) Partnership working; and 5) Promotion of positive mental health and wellbeing.ConclusionFindings highlight the importance of non-clinical, community-based, ‘one-stop-shop’ hubs for young people in disadvantaged areas. The key components highlighted as facilitating access and engagement include: opportunity to self-refer, choice of location, timely provision of support, non-clinical environment, age appropriate services, a non-hierarchical workforce, inclusive support for family and carers, a focus on wider, often social, issues, and collaboration with partner organisations. These findings suggest that early support hubs for young people’s mental health should have consistent, long-term funding and should exist in every local area.

Support hubs campaign gains impetus

Charities and local authorities call for national rollout of easy access drop-in centres to provide early mental health support to young people

'Mad', bad or Muslim? The UK's Vulnerability Support Hubs and the nexus of mental health, counterterrorism and racism.

The UK government's 'Prevent' counter-extremism policy was placed on a statutory footing in 2015, requiring specified authorities including NHS providers by law to work to 'prevent people being drawn into terrorism', leading to calls for a boycott on ethical grounds. Since 2016, mental health professionals have been embedded within counterterrorism police units in 'Vulnerability Support Hubs', to assist in the management of individuals referred to Prevent perceived to have vulnerabilities related to mental health. Drawing on data obtained through Freedom of Information requests, this paper examines these hubs in the context of Prevent's racial politics. It examines the pseudo-scientific concept of radicalization through the lens of racialization theory and explores the whitewashing and colourblindness endemic to most research and practice at the nexus of counterterrorism and mental health. Four ethical issues arising from the hubs are highlighted: (a) the securitization of care, including the way counterterrorism concerns appear to influence medical treatment regimes; (b) harm, including potential criminalization; (c) the erosion of patient agency and confidentiality; and (d) the pathologization of political dissent. It is argued that due to the UK's status as a leading innovator in the field of counter-radicalization, all of these highly racialized phenomena hold wider relevance and augur a troubling direction of travel for counterterrorism's turn towards mental health.

Introduction to “Psychology, Global Threats, Social Challenge, and the COVID-19 Pandemic: European Perspectives”

Introduction to “Psychology, Global Threats, Social Challenge, and the COVID-19 Pandemic: European Perspectives”

Psychological Science Into Practice During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract. The public health outbreak of the COVID-19 virus has hit all aspects of life as we know it. We found ourselves trying to solve several concurrent crises that have afflicted us. The European Federation of Psychologists’ Associations (EFPA) launched the Psychologists’ Support Hub to share resources among its members and beyond and promote the continuing adoption of psychological science to battle the pandemic. In the greater context of evidence-based practice (EBP), the best available evidence is what we turn to for help in our decision-making on how best to address different challenges. However, there are challenges in implementing EBP when the science is limited, and we are still expected to be effective and efficient as professionals. The article outlines the need for EBP during the pandemic. Three vignettes display how that can be done while identifying obstacles and recommending ways forward in the future. The first one relates to the development of e-mental health services in Belgium following the March 2020 lockdown. The second describes addressing the needs of older adults in Croatia when it was hit by two crises simultaneously – the March 2020 lockdown and a destructive earthquake. The third looks at how targeted community-based interventions in Norway directed at social change can positively impact times of crisis. Overall, the pandemic presents a unique opportunity for professional growth for researchers, trainers, practitioners, and policymakers alike. EFPA can play a pivotal role in EBP adoption.