Kathy Knox

Sustainable attitudes and behaviours amongst a sample of non‐academic staff: A case study from an Information Services Department, Griffith University, Brisbane

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is seek to characterise sustainable attitudes and behaviours (including recycling and waste minimisation, energy efficiency, water conservation and “green” purchasing) amongst non‐academic staff within Griffith University, Queensland.Design/methodology/approach – For this study, the attitudes and behaviour of 100 individuals from a cross‐sectional sample from a single Department, along with the determinants of pro‐environmental behaviours were investigated. The survey tool administered used the theory of planned behaviour (TPB) and was delivered via an online survey, which was e‐mailed directly to all participating staff across Griffiths five campuses.Findings – The research sought to pilot the use of the TPB to determine sustainable behaviours amongst staff. The survey successfully showed that the TPB was effective at determining staff attitudes and behaviours and determined that staff were overall satisfied with the current efforts by Griffith University to become mo...

Mental health consumer and caregiver perceptions of stigma in Australian community pharmacies

Background: The stigma of mental illness can be a barrier to effective medication management in the community pharmacy setting. This article explored mental health consumers’ or caregivers’ experiences of stigma in Australian community pharmacies. Materials: Semi-structured interviews and focus groups were conducted with a purposive sample of consumers or caregivers (n = 74). Interview transcripts were analysed using a general inductive approach. Discussion: Stigma presented a barrier to effective mental health management. Self-stigma impeded consumers’ community pharmacy engagement. Positive relationships with knowledgeable staff are fundamental to reducing stigma. Conclusions: Findings provide insight into the stigma of mental illness in community pharmacies.

Review of community pharmacy staff educational needs for supporting mental health consumers and carers

Development of a mental health education package for community pharmacy staff should be informed by mental health consumers/carers’ needs, expectations and experiences, and staff knowledge, skills and attitudes. This review (1) explored research on community pharmacy practice and service provision for mental health consumers/carers, and (2) identified validated methods for assessing staff knowledge, skills and attitudes about mental illness to inform the development of a training questionnaire. A literature scan using key words knowledge, skills, attitudes, and beliefs combined with community pharmacy, pharmacist, and pharmacy support staff, and mental illness, depression, anxiety was conducted. A small number of studies were found that used reliable methods to assess pharmacists’ training needs regarding mental illness and treatment options. There was little published specifically in relation to depression and anxiety in community pharmacy practice. No studies assessed the training needs of pharmacy support staff. A systematic analysis of pharmacy staff learning needs is warranted.

Privacy and confidentiality: perspectives of mental health consumers and carers in pharmacy settings

The study aims to explore within the community pharmacy practice context the views of mental health stakeholders on: (1) current and past experiences of privacy, confidentiality and support; and (2) expectations and needs in relation to privacy and confidentiality.

Australian mental health consumers' and carers' experiences of community pharmacy service.

Many Australians with anxiety or depression experience issues accessing pharmacological treatment even though community pharmacies are remunerated to supply subsidized medicines and provide medicine management services.

Trust and Safe Spaces: Mental Health Consumers’ and Carers’ Relationships with Community Pharmacy Staff

BackgroundTrusting relationships between mental health consumers and health care providers are critical in the management and recovery process. Although community pharmacy staff are well placed to form relationships with mental health consumers and carers, little is known about the existence, nature or significance of consumer–staff relationships.ObjectivesThe aim of this study was to explore mental health consumers’ and carers’ perceptions of community pharmacy services, and describe the nature of their relationships with pharmacy staff.MethodsFocus groups and semi-structured interviews were conducted with a convenience sample of 74 mental health consumers or carers who self-selected into the study. Thematic analysis was undertaken to explore participants’ perspectives.ResultsPositive experiences of pharmacy services were perceived to encourage consumers’ and carers’ trust in pharmacists and promote relationship development. This was enhanced when participants felt that elements of patient-centred care were part of the pharmacy services provided. Although some participants perceived community pharmacy to have a limited role in mental health, those who had established relationships highlighted the current role of pharmacists in their care, and appeared to welcome further extensions of pharmacists’ role in mental health.ConclusionsTrusting relationships between consumers and carers and community pharmacy staff were deemed to be important in mental health care and contributed to consumers’ and carers’ views of pharmacy as a safe health care space. Community pharmacy services that included core elements of patient-centred care appeared to facilitate relationship formation and associated benefits. Education and training is needed for community pharmacy staff to improve mental health knowledge and promote positive engagement with consumers and carers.

Relational Processing in Children’s Arithmetic Word Problem Solving

Solution of arithmetic word problem requires a mental model of task structure that represents variables and relations between them. In arithmetic addition, three variables (augend, addend, sum) are related by the addition operation (English & Halford, 1995). Flexible access to the components of the relation is required especially in non-canonical word problems, in which the augend or addend is missing. Relational processing allows all components of a relation to be accessed, but it is effortful, and is slow to develop during childhood. Therefore, the difference in accuracy between noncanonical problems (augend or addend missing) and canonical problem (sum missing) should be greater in younger than older children. Furthermore, relational processing capacity should predict accuracy on non-canonical problems. In the current research, 132 children aged 6-, 7- and 8- years completed arithmetic word problems in which either the augend, addend or sum was missing and two measures of relational processing ability. Mixed ANOVAs showed significant position effects. Accuracy was lower for problems where the missing sets were in augend and addend positions than in sum position. Hierarchical regression analyses showed that after controlling for accuracy on sum problems, relational processing capacity accounted for more than half of the agerelated variance in accuracy on augend/addend problems and also for significant unique age-independent variance. Findings demonstrate the importance of relational processing in development of childrens arithmetic addition, and have implications for designing word problem teaching strategies.

“Everyone was wasted”! Insights from adolescents’ alcohol experience narratives

Purpose This paper aims to examine the socialization of alcohol through a reflective writing task within a social marketing program delivered to adolescents. The aim was to elicit adolescents’ experiences and perceptions of alcohol and investigate cognitions, emotions, attitudes’ and behaviors regarding alcohol. Design/methodology/approach This study used a qualitative approach in which 1,214 adolescents aged 14 to 16 years were invited to write a story about an experience that involved alcohol. Data were qualitatively coded, and themes were discerned by an inductive analytic process. Findings Adolescents’ perceptions of alcohol were arranged along a continuum from mere description with little analysis to reasoned reflection and cognition. Qualitatively different socializing agents, learning situations, processes and effects of learning were apparent in the narratives. Family roles influenced adolescents’ perceptions and experiences of alcohol. Research limitations/implications This study supports the use of narratives and reflective introspection tasks as methods that uncover insights into the socialization of alcohol among adolescents. Findings provide guidance to social marketers and alcohol educators for future program design. By understanding the continuum of developing socializations toward alcohol, social marketers can effectively engage adolescents and design targeted programs involving key social learning variables that shape adolescents’ perceptions and experiences with alcohol. Originality/value Narratives provide a research methodology that can bring consumer voice to inform scenarios that can be delivered in future program design.

Community pharmacy staff motivations and barriers to working with mental health consumers.

Mental health is an Australian national priority area, yet evidence indicates pharmacy staff members focus more frequently on other chronic diseases. A need was identified to facilitate community pharmacy staff engagement with mental health initiatives.

Understanding the depersonalisation process in post-disaster sites

ABSTRACT This paper explores the phenomenon of depersonalisation at post-disaster sites, a process of particular relevance to types of prosocial and group behaviour that are a desirable outcome from what might otherwise be a negative or distressing experience. To better understand the depersonalisation process, this study applies Self-Categorisation Theory to a post-disaster tourism site. Using personal pronouns and specific identities as markers, we explore the cognitive processing of visitors’ experience by analysing online comments posted after visiting one of two disaster sites: the Beichuan earthquake relics and the Yingxiu earthquake relics in China. The analysis revealed that three levels of self-categorisation were evident in visitors’ experience of disaster sites; particularly depersonalisation was uncovered through (i) ‘human being’, ‘China and/or Chinese’ statements, (ii) ‘we’, ‘they’ and ‘you’ statements, and (iii) individualisation through ‘I’ statements. As the theory predicted, depersonalising statements tended to be other-focused and co-occurred with the awareness of group prototype, collective action, positive in-group attitude and cohesion, ethnocentrism, and shared norms. This is the first paper to examine the depersonalising tourist experience in a dark tourism context and to explore its process and effects. Findings have implications for tourist experience design and the interpretation of post-disaster dark tourism sites.