Betina Bang Sørensen

The spirit of the intervention: reflections on social effectiveness in public health intervention research

This paper suggests that public health intervention research would benefit from more thorough considerations of the social dynamics in which public health interventions are embedded. Rather than simply asking ‘What works?’, researchers should examine the social effectiveness of intervention programmes; i.e. (i) the creation of shared understandings among researchers and practitioners and (ii) the ways in which programmes reconfigure social relationships. Drawing on the theoretical work of philosopher Charles Taylor and sociologist Marcel Mauss, we suggest that the term ‘the spirit of the intervention’ may enable researchers to further articulate – and hence discuss – the source of an intervention’s social effectiveness. The empirical impetus of the paper lies in our experiences as an interdisciplinary team of researchers, trained in social science and public health and now working within intervention research. We describe our attempts at reconciling the methodological requirements of an effect evaluation, modelled on the randomised clinical trial, with a process of intervention development grounded in ethnographic methods. In particular, we discuss how we have grappled with the schism between fidelity and adaptation, which is a key methodological issue in intervention research. While public health intervention research tends to conceptualise programmes as fixed and bounded entities, we argue that ‘the spirit of the intervention’ offers a conceptual starting point for reflections on programmes as on-going social processes. In order to capture and explore this dimension of public health interventions, a great deal of potential lies in a further engagement between intervention research, ethnographic methods and social theory.

‘Mental health is what makes life worth living’: an exploration of lay people’s understandings of mental health in Denmark

Abstract How people understand mental health has important implications for designing and implementing mental health promotion, and particularly where campaigns developed in one culture are implemented in another. Hence, as part of an adaptation of the Australian Act-Belong-Commit mental health promotion campaign into the Danish context, this qualitative study explored Danish lay people’s understandings of mental health and mental health promoting factors. In total, N = 39 individuals (27 adults and 12 young people) from various regions across Denmark participated in seven focus groups interviews. Two overall and intertwined understandings of mental health emerged: mental health as a ‘state of mind’ and mental health as a relation. Overall, Danish people’s understanding of what constitutes good mental health and what people can do to keep mentally healthy were consistent with the underlying messages in the Act-Belong-Commit campaign, and hence translatable to a Danish context. Given the lack of research in the area, this study contributes to the literature on lay people’s understanding of concepts around mental health and keeping mentally healthy.

Rusmidler på teknisk skole: Forebyggelse, fællesskab og faglige rammer

Drug Use within Vocational Education: Health Promotion, Social Relations and Institutional Organization Aim The article explores the significance of drug use and peer relations for students’ participation in vocational education. Design From 22 qualitative interviews two girls’ case stories are analyzed, one still being in, the other having left vocational education. The article is rooted in theory of social practice and critical psychology. Key concepts include institutional and personal trajectories of participation. Results Learning in vocational education is part of how young people develop and coordinate their trajectory of everyday social life. Additionally drug use may become important in the process of forming peer relations. For some students, the focus is drifting from vocational to social interactions with drugs. School institutional organization including the significance of other students, teachers, and student counselors play an important role with regard to students’ participation in and dropout of vocational school. Conclusions Organizing social life in vocational schools influences students’ learning as well as dropout and tobacco, alcohol, and drug use.