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Australian Family Physician Sep 2010The past couple of months have seen Australia gripped by election fever, with political parties and advocacy groups jostling to capture as many potential voters as...
The past couple of months have seen Australia gripped by election fever, with political parties and advocacy groups jostling to capture as many potential voters as possible. One factor of interest in an otherwise bland election campaign was the emergence of internet based social media tools, such as Facebook, twitter, text messaging, email advocacy, and online videos such as YouTube, as new ways of reaching out to voters like never before.
Topics: Australia; Communication; Humans; Internet; Physician-Patient Relations; Politics; Self-Help Groups; Social Support
PubMed: 20877760
DOI: No ID Found -
Hamostaseologie Feb 2022
Topics: Germany; Humans; Self-Help Groups
PubMed: 35196734
DOI: 10.1055/a-1694-4640 -
ELife Nov 2022Humans are social animals who engage in a variety of collective activities requiring coordinated action. Among these, music is a defining and ancient aspect of human...
Humans are social animals who engage in a variety of collective activities requiring coordinated action. Among these, music is a defining and ancient aspect of human sociality. Human social interaction has largely been addressed in dyadic paradigms, and it is yet to be determined whether the ensuing conclusions generalize to larger groups. Studied more extensively in non-human animal behavior, the presence of multiple agents engaged in the same task space creates different constraints and possibilities than in simpler dyadic interactions. We addressed whether collective dynamics play a role in human circle drumming. The task was to synchronize in a group with an initial reference pattern and then maintain synchronization after it was muted. We varied the number of drummers from solo to dyad, quartet, and octet. The observed lower variability, lack of speeding up, smoother individual dynamics, and leader-less inter-personal coordination indicated that stability increased as group size increased, a sort of temporal wisdom of crowds. We propose a hybrid continuous-discrete Kuramoto model for emergent group synchronization with a pulse-based coupling that exhibits a mean field positive feedback loop. This research suggests that collective phenomena are among the factors that play a role in social cognition.
Topics: Animals; Music; Social Behavior; Interpersonal Relations; Behavior, Animal; Self-Help Groups
PubMed: 36317963
DOI: 10.7554/eLife.74816 -
Clinical Child Psychology and Psychiatry Jan 2021Parenting gender diverse children and adolescents can be a challenging experience, entailing doubts about how to protect and support them during their development....
Parenting gender diverse children and adolescents can be a challenging experience, entailing doubts about how to protect and support them during their development. Parental reactions impact on the child's sense of security and well-being. Therefore, when caring for families with gender diverse children, it is important to offer support to parents. In this article we present an experience with a 12-month support group for parents of young people who attended the service for gender identity development at a paediatric hospital. We describe the group structure and methodology, together with the process for evaluating the intervention. At 6-month intervals, parents were asked to indicate the most important topics that had emerged during the monthly sessions. At 12 months, they completed a semi-structured feedback questionnaire about their experience in the group, including possible difficulties encountered. Thematic analysis showed an evolution in time, with participants taking a more complex perspective on gender diversity and the needs of their children, while feeling more able to deal with the uncertainties related to gender identity development. After attending the group, parents reported feeling less lonely, more confident, and better able to communicate with their children. They related these positive changes to the opportunity of sharing experiences and mutual learning. This feed-back provides preliminary evidence that the psychological support group was perceived to be a useful resource by parents of gender diverse young people.
Topics: Adolescent; Child; Female; Gender Identity; Humans; Male; Parent-Child Relations; Parenting; Parents; Self-Help Groups
PubMed: 33070619
DOI: 10.1177/1359104520963372 -
Nursing Administration QuarterlyRetention and burnout have always been a challenge for nurse leaders, but the pandemic brought these concerns to a whole new level. And now the Great Resignation is...
Retention and burnout have always been a challenge for nurse leaders, but the pandemic brought these concerns to a whole new level. And now the Great Resignation is affecting health care. So how can nurse leaders at hospitals and health care systems create a supportive environment for staff during a public health emergency? Structured support groups are a viable option for emphasizing self-care and wellness. We explain why we decided to form a structured support group for our intensive care unit nurses and illustrate the results from our clinical research team. In addition, we share feedback we received from participating nurses and offer advice on forming a structured support group in acute care settings. This strategy resulted in a change in the participant's behaviors after attending the structured emotional support group. This finding aligns with the literature, which supports strategies to protect nurses' mental well-being and to take preventive measures in critical situations. Using this as a foundation, a structured emotional support group can change nurse engagement and involvement in their process and practice, during times of crisis. Many other benefits could be realized from this strategy such as improved nursing practice and processes, improved nurse satisfaction, and improved recruitment and retention.
Topics: Humans; Pandemics; COVID-19; Personnel Turnover; Burnout, Professional; Self-Help Groups; Nursing Staff, Hospital; Job Satisfaction
PubMed: 36469372
DOI: 10.1097/NAQ.0000000000000566 -
The Journal of Family Planning and... Apr 2016
Topics: Adolescent; Adult; Child; Gender Identity; Humans; Intelligence; Needs Assessment; Organizational Innovation; Self-Help Groups; Social Isolation; Social Stigma; Transgender Persons; United Kingdom; Vulnerable Populations; Young Adult
PubMed: 27006384
DOI: 10.1136/jfprhc-2016-101490 -
International Journal of Environmental... Aug 2022The study aimed to examine what types of social support a prominent online peer support group has provided to Filipino domestic workers (FDWs) in Hong Kong (HK), how...
The study aimed to examine what types of social support a prominent online peer support group has provided to Filipino domestic workers (FDWs) in Hong Kong (HK), how impactful each type of support was, and to what extent the support could address group members' expressed needs. Posts published from 1 September 2021 to 31 December 2021 in one of the largest online peer-support groups for FDWs in HK and their meta-data were extracted from Facebook. Thematic content analysis was performed to extract relevant information from the posts. Descriptive statistical analysis on the social media metrics was conducted to measure post impacts. A total of 599 posts published over the study period can be categorized to provide informational (76.67%), emotional (33.56%), and instrumental support (13.52%). Posts including emotional support were often more impactful. A total of 58 posts responded to requests explicitly expressed by individual FDWs, of which 13 required external resources. The online peer-support group acts as a new channel to raise FDWs' awareness of important issues related to their well-being, to encourage and facilitate them to seek formal and informal help, and to keep them emotionally attended to. Formal support services should recognize and collaborate with them and support their long-term sustainability.
Topics: Communications Media; Humans; Peer Group; Self-Help Groups; Social Media; Social Support
PubMed: 35955023
DOI: 10.3390/ijerph19159665 -
BMJ Open Nov 2016Peer facilitators play an important role in determining the success of many support groups for patients with medical illnesses. However, many facilitators do not receive... (Meta-Analysis)
Meta-Analysis Review
OBJECTIVE
Peer facilitators play an important role in determining the success of many support groups for patients with medical illnesses. However, many facilitators do not receive training for their role and report a number of challenges in fulfilling their responsibilities. The objective of this systematic review was to evaluate the effects of training and support programmes for peer facilitators of support groups for people with medical illnesses on (1) the competency and self-efficacy of group facilitators and (2) self-efficacy for disease management, health outcomes and satisfaction with support groups among group members.
METHODS
Searches included the CENTRAL, CINAHL, EMBASE, MEDLINE, PsycINFO and Web of Science databases from inception through 8 April 2016; reference list reviews; citation tracking of included articles; and trial registry reviews. Eligible studies were randomised controlled trials (RCTs) in any language that evaluated the effects of training programmes for peer facilitators compared with no training or alternative training formats on (1) competency or self-efficacy of peer facilitators, and (2) self-efficacy for disease management, health outcomes and satisfaction with groups of group members. The Cochrane Risk of Bias tool was used to assess risk of bias.
RESULTS
There were 9757 unique titles/abstracts and 2 full-text publications reviewed. 1 RCT met inclusion criteria. The study evaluated the confidence and self-efficacy of cancer support group facilitators randomised to 4 months access to a website and discussion forum (N=23; low resource) versus website, discussion forum and 2-day training workshop (N=29). There were no significant differences in facilitator confidence (Hedges' g=0.16, 95% CI -0.39 to 0.71) or self-efficacy (Hedges' g=0.31, 95% CI -0.24 to 0.86). Risk of bias was unclear or high for 4 of 6 domains.
CONCLUSIONS
Well-designed and well-conducted, adequately powered trials of peer support group facilitator training programmes for patients with medical illnesses are needed.
TRIAL REGISTRATION NUMBER
CRD42014013601.
Topics: Education; Health Services; Humans; Peer Group; Randomized Controlled Trials as Topic; Self-Help Groups
PubMed: 27856483
DOI: 10.1136/bmjopen-2016-013325 -
Trials May 2022Elderly population in low- and middle-income countries is rapidly growing, which indicates an increase in the number of dependent people needing long-term care. Caring...
BACKGROUND
Elderly population in low- and middle-income countries is rapidly growing, which indicates an increase in the number of dependent people needing long-term care. Caring for the elderly is difficult and stressful and threatens physical and mental health of informal caregivers. We aim to design a web-based support group and assess its effectiveness on depression, anxiety, and stress among elderly informal caregivers.
METHODS
This is a protocol for a two-arm randomized controlled trial. A total of 160 informal elderly caregivers will be recruited from the southern area of Tehran. Eligible participants will be randomly allocated to two intervention and control groups. The inclusion criteria include not receiving salary for caring, having primary responsibility for care, having smartphone/tablet/computer, being able to use the contents and web applications, having at least one month of experience in caring for the elderly, and having access to the Internet at least once weekly. The intervention will be implemented by giving an account access to the designed website. Depression, anxiety, and stress will be assessed using the DASS21 questionnaire at baseline, and at the end of third and sixth months.
DISCUSSION
Our findings can pave the way for improving the mental health of informal caregivers of the elderly through provision of web-based supportive services. This study stands as an opportunity to address the needs of caregivers and help them support each other in a novel way.
TRIAL REGISTRATION
Iran Randomized Clinical Trial Center IRCT20201012048999N1 . Registered on 25 December 2020 (current status: ongoing). The World Health Organization Trial Registration Data Set is in Additional file 1 PROTOCOL VERSION: Second version 2021-05-27.
Topics: Aged; Anxiety; Caregivers; Depression; Humans; Internet; Iran; Quality of Life; Randomized Controlled Trials as Topic; Self-Help Groups
PubMed: 35581609
DOI: 10.1186/s13063-022-06351-4 -
BMJ (Clinical Research Ed.) Nov 1991
Topics: Child; Humans; Parents; Physician-Patient Relations; Self-Help Groups; United Kingdom
PubMed: 1747608
DOI: 10.1136/bmj.303.6811.1152