Fiona Verity

Food stress in Adelaide: the relationship between low income and the affordability of healthy food.

Healthy food is becoming increasingly expensive, and families on low incomes face a difficult financial struggle to afford healthy food. When food costs are considered, families on low incomes often face circumstances of poverty. Housing, utilities, health care, and transport are somewhat fixed in cost; however food is more flexible in cost and therefore is often compromised with less healthy, cheaper food, presenting an opportunity for families on low incomes to cut costs. Using a “Healthy Food Basket” methodology, this study costed a weeks supply of healthy food for a range of family types. It found that low-income families would have to spend approximately 30% of household income on eating healthily, whereas high-income households needed to spend about 10%. The differential is explained by the cost of the food basket relative to household income (i.e., affordability). It is argued that families that spend more than 30% of household income on food could be experiencing “food stress.” Moreover the high cost of healthy foods leaves low-income households vulnerable to diet-related health problems because they often have to rely on cheaper foods which are high in fat, sugar, and salt.

Complex problems require complex solutions: the utility of social quality theory for addressing the Social Determinants of Health

BackgroundIn order to improve the health of the most vulnerable groups in society, the WHO Commission on Social Determinants of Health (CSDH) called for multi-sectoral action, which requires research and policy on the multiple and inter-linking factors shaping health outcomes. Most conceptual tools available to researchers tend to focus on singular and specific social determinants of health (SDH) (e.g. social capital, empowerment, social inclusion). However, a new and innovative conceptual framework, known as social quality theory, facilitates a more complex and complete understanding of the SDH, with its focus on four domains: social cohesion, social inclusion, social empowerment and socioeconomic security, all within the same conceptual framework. This paper provides both an overview of social quality theory in addition to findings from a national survey of social quality in Australia, as a means of demonstrating the operationalisation of the theory.MethodsData were collected using a national random postal survey of 1044 respondents in September, 2009. Multivariate logistic regression analysis was conducted.ResultsStatistical analysis revealed that people on lower incomes (less than

The Effects of Domestic Violence on the Formation of Relationships Between Women and Their Babies: “I Was Too Busy Protecting My Baby to Attach”

45000) experience worse social quality across all of the four domains: lower socio-economic security, lower levels of membership of organisations (lower social cohesion), higher levels of discrimination and less political action (lower social inclusion) and lower social empowerment. The findings were mixed in terms of age, with people over 65 years experiencing lower socio-economic security, but having higher levels of social cohesion, experiencing lower levels of discrimination (higher social inclusion) and engaging in more political action (higher social empowerment). In terms of gender, women had higher social cohesion than men, although also experienced more discrimination (lower social inclusion).ConclusionsApplying social quality theory allows researchers and policy makers to measure and respond to the multiple sources of oppression and advantage experienced by certain population groups, and to monitor the effectiveness of interventions over time.

Domestic Violence and the Place of Fear in Mother/Baby Relationships: “What Was I Afraid Of ? Of Making It Worse.”

Until now, research into the effects of domestic violence on the formation of relationships between women and their babies has been from an attachment theory perspective. The research reported in this article takes a different approach. Innovative qualitative research methods are used to uncover knowledge about the formation of such relationships from the lived experiences of sixteen women who have mothered babies while enduring domestic violence. Analysis of the findings in this study identifies domestic violence constitutes an environment of sustained hostility where women respond with maternal protectiveness to maximise their babies’ physical and psychological safety whether or not they had attained a secure relationship. However, women recognize domestic violence constricts space to form close mother/baby relationships. Supported by these findings, this research suggests policy and practice concerned with relationships between women and babies subjected to domestic violence address protectiveness and space to attach. The article concludes with suggestions for further research.

Closure of an automotive plant: transformation of a work-based ‘community’

It should come as no surprise that when women who have raised babies in domestic violence come together to discuss the formation of relationships with their babies they raise issues of fear. Yet in current attachment studies about the formation of relationships between women and their babies, knowledge of fear based in lived experiences is undervalued. This article draws on a qualitative study of such experiences to explore ways in which fear impacted on 16 women and their babies. From this study it is discerned that fear impacts in diverse ways on women, babies, and their relationships with each other. Women’s experiences show that fear is a complex emotion that cannot be understood outside of context, relations, and subjectivity. Furthermore, fear can be the motivation for protection, whereby actions by women are in the interests of safety of their babies. These insights look beyond attachment theory to the manifestations of and responses to fear identified by women who have raised babies while enduring domestic violence.

OPALesence: Epistemological pluralism in the evaluation of a systems-wide childhood obesity prevention program

This paper is an exploration of one aspect of ‘community’ impacts of retrenchment, namely, what happens for a work-based ‘community’ when capitalist production decisions result in redundancies from a South Australian-based manufacturing plant. This work draws on longitudinal data and uses Ferdinand Tonnies’ conceptualisation of types of social relations as a reference point in analysis. Accounts of retrenched workers suggest Gemeinschaft-type relations in the workplace that had developed and deepened over time. These connections, described repeatedly as like ‘family relationships’, had tentacles extending outside the workplace. With retrenchment many respondents identified a rupturing of valued social connections that had, for some, not re-formed beyond common employment. These social changes have been associated with loss and grief. Given the health-enhancing factors attributed to social connectivity and the evidence that disenfranchised grief is associated with psychosocial health issues, policy attention to ‘community’ impacts of retrenchments, including the transformation of work-based communities, seems warranted.

Health consumer participation, medical dominance and digital ethics in Indonesia: the Prita Case

The evaluation of complex systems-wide public health interventions requires evaluation research that is underpinned by theory. This article presents and discusses the trans-disciplinary evaluation research framework developed to support the evaluation of a South Australian program called OPAL (Obesity Prevention and Lifestyle). The aim is to provide insights into the research design, methods and implementation of the evaluation and contribute to the debate on how to evaluate community-based interventions with complicated and complex aspects. In an attempt to capture the complexity of childhood obesity and the intervention, the OPAL evaluation research employs post positivist, interpretive and critical epistemologies, valuing epistemological pluralism. Each component of the multi-phase mixed methods evaluation captures different yet complementary information concerning the context, process, cost effectiveness and outcomes providing a more complete understanding of the impacts of the complex program. Evaluation research is not without challenges. Some of the tensions and challenges that arose in the establishment, planning and conduct of the OPAL program and evaluation are discussed.

Homelessness amongst young people in rural regions of Australia

ABSTRACT During the period 2009–2012, Prita Mulyasari, a resident of Tangerang, Indonesia, was embroiled in a defamation dispute with Omni International Hospital. The legal case was instigated by the Hospital in response to a specific e-mail Prita sent to family, friends and colleagues about her health-care experience that subsequently went viral. In this paper, we discuss health consumer participation, medical dominance and digital ethics in a context of changing social norms and expanding use of digital technology in Indonesia. We argue that digital technology is changing health consumer participation and opening up avenues for challenge to medical privilege; however, this development is set against the use of the law to reinforce privilege and limit participation.

Availability, affordability and quality of a healthy food basket in Adelaide, South Australia

Andrew Beer, Paul Delfabbro, Kristin Natalier, Susan Oakley, Jasmin Packer and Fiona Verity1. Introduction: The Hidden Faces of Rural Homelessness 2. Rural Homelessness in the United States 3. Homeless in the Heartland: American Dreams and Nightmares in Indian Country 4. Quasi-Homelessness Among Rural Trailer-Park Households in the United States 5. Homelessness in Rural and Small Town Canada 6. Rural Homelessness in the UK: A National Overview 7. Hidden and Neglected: Homelessness in Rural England 8. Knowing Homelessness in Rural England 9. A Sociological Perspective on Homelessness in Rural Spain 10. Are There Any Homeless People in Rural Finland? 11. Homelessness in Rural Ireland 12. Inhabiting the Margins: A Geography of Rural Homelessness in Australia 13. Homelessness Amongst Young People in Rural Regions of Australia