Is there compelling evidence for using the arts in health care?

A national arts and health policy framework being developed in 2012 proposes whole of government engagement to strengthen arts and health initiatives for community wellbeing. This framework should assist health providers at all levels to assess existing programs, consider new directions and identify community partners for using the arts to improve treatment and build health. Arts and health practices create arts and cultural experiences that aim to improve health and wellbeing. The number of networks, projects and organisations contributing these practices to many different healthcare and community settings is increasing. The whole range of art forms, including craft, writing, music, theatre and drama, dance, visual arts, film and new media, and multimodal combinations of these, is being used. This paper briefly outlines evidence of the effectiveness of arts and health strategies across the whole spectrum of population needs, from interventions targeting the complex needs of a few to those appropriate to all. The focus in this brief is upon arts - based practice in clinical contexts, but evidence concerning arts and health in the community is also included

Sport psychologists’ experiences of organizational stressors

This study extends stress research by exploring sport psychologists’ experiences of organizational stressors. Twelve accredited sport psychologists (6 academics and 6 practitioners) were interviewed regarding their experiences of organizational stress within their jobs. Content analysis involved categorizing the demands associated primarily and directly with their occupation under one of the following general dimensions: factors intrinsic to sport psychology, roles in the organization, sport relationships and interpersonal demands, career and performance development issues, and organizational structure and climate of the profession. A frequency analysis revealed that academics (ΣAOS = 201) experienced more organizational stressors than practitioners (ΣPOS = 168). These findings indicate that sport psychologists experience a wide variety of organizational stressors across different roles, some of which parallel those found previously in other professions. The practical implications for the management of stress for sport psychologists are discussed

Towards a More Particularist View of Rights’ Stringency

For all their various disagreements, one point upon which rights theorists often agree is that it is simply part of the nature of rights that they tend to override, outweigh or exclude competing considerations in moral reasoning, that they have ‘peremptory force’ (Raz in The Morality of Freedom, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1986, p. 192), making ‘powerful demands’ that can only be overridden in ‘exceptional circumstances’ (Miller, in Cruft, Liao, Renzo (eds), Philosophical Foundations of Human Rights, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2016, p. 240). In this article I challenge this thought. My aim here is not to prove that the traditional view of rights’ stringency is necessarily false, nor even that we have no good reason to believe it is true. Rather, my aim is only to show that we have good reason to think that the foundation of the traditional position is less stable than we might have otherwise supposed and that an alternative conception of rights—one which takes the stringency of any given right as particular to the kind of right it is—is both viable and attractive. In short, to begin to move us towards a more ‘particularist’ conception of rights’ standing in moral reasoning and judgement

On Engster's care-justification of the specialness thesis about healthcare

To say health is ‘special’ is to say that it has a moral significance that differentiates it from other goods (cars, say or radios) and, as a matter of justice, warrants distributing it separately. In this essay, I critique a new justification for the specialness thesis about healthcare (STHC) recently put forth by Engster. I argue that, regrettably, Engster's justification of STHC ultimately fails and fails on much the same grounds as have previous justifications of STHC. However, I also argue that Engster's argument still adds something valuable to the debate around STHC insofar as it reminds us that the moral significance of healthcare may be wider than simply its effect on the incidence of disability and disease: one further reason we may think healthcare is morally significant is because it concerns the treatment and care of those who are already unwell

Affective and cognitive responses to poetry in the university classroom

Is there space for greater affective engagement with poetry in the English Literature university classroom? This article reflects on how poetry is currently taught in higher education and argues for the need for affective response in the study of poetry. In universities, as in mainstream education more widely, cognitive approaches to poetry are often dominant. Far from being irrelevant to the serious study of literature, we argue that eliciting students' affective responses to poetry can deepen their cognitive understanding and analytical skills. Drawing on recent research in psychology on the relationship between cognition and affect, we show that poetry has particular potential to make us aware of the crucial interrelation of our cognitive and affective processes; and that bringing those responses into balance can deepen our understanding of poetry. Building on recent educational studies of typical student (and teacher) anxieties and assumptions about working with poetry, and on our observations from our own initial, exploratory seminars, we explore some of the obstacles to rebalancing the cognitive and affective dimensions of poetry in higher education, and point to the potential value of such an approach if such obstacles are overcome

A critique of the regulation of data science in healthcare research in the European Union

The EU offers a suitable milieu for the comparison and harmonisation of healthcare across different languages, cultures, and jurisdictions (albeit with a supranational legal framework), which could provide improvements in healthcare standards across the bloc. There are specific ethico-legal issues with the use of data in healthcare research that mandate a different approach from other forms of research. The use of healthcare data over a long period of time is similar to the use of tissue in biobanks. There is a low risk to subjects but it is impossible to gain specific informed consent given the future possibilities for research. Large amounts of data on a subject present a finite risk of re-identification. Consequently, there is a balancing act between this risk and retaining sufficient utility of the data. Anonymising methods need to take into account the circumstances of data sharing to enable an appropriate balance in all cases. There are ethical and policy advantages to exceeding the legal requirements and thereby securing the social licence for research. This process would require the examination and comparison of data protection laws across the trading bloc to produce an ethico-legal framework compatible with the requirements of all member states. Seven EU jurisdictions are given consideration in this critique

Milk Consumption Following Exercise Reduces Subsequent Energy Intake in Female Recreational Exercisers

The aim of this study was to evaluate the effects of skimmed milk as a recovery drink following moderate–vigorous cycling exercise on subsequent appetite and energy intake in healthy, female recreational exercisers. Utilising a randomised cross-over design, nine female recreational exercisers (19.7 ± 1.3 years) completed a V̇O2peak test followed by two main exercise trials. The main trials were conducted following a standardised breakfast. Following 30 min of moderate-vigorous exercise (65% V̇O2peak), either 600 mL of skimmed milk or 600 mL of orange drink (475 mL orange juice from concentrate, 125 mL water), which were isoenergetic (0.88 MJ), were ingested, followed 60 min later with an ad libitum pasta meal. Absolute energy intake was reduced 25.2% ± 16.6% after consuming milk compared to the orange drink (2.39 ± 0.70 vs. 3.20 ± 0.84 MJ, respectively; p = 0.001). Relative energy intake (in relation to the energy content of the recovery drinks and energy expenditure) was significantly lower after milk consumption compared to the orange drink (1.49 ± 0.72 vs. 2.33 ± 0.90 MJ, respectively; p = 0.005). There were no differences in AUC (× 1 h) subjective appetite parameters (hunger, fullness and desire to eat) between trials. The consumption of skimmed milk following 30 min of moderate-vigorous cycling exercise reduces subsequent energy intake in female recreational exercisers

Does your electronic butler owe you a duty of confidentiality?

As artificial intelligence (AI) advances the legal issues have not progressed in step and principles that exist have become outdated in a relatively short time. Privacy is a major concern and the myriad of devices that store data for wide ranging purposes risk breaches of privacy. Treating such a breach as a design defect or technical fault, does not reflect the complexities of legal liability that apply to robotics. Where advanced levels of AI are involved, such as with electronic butlers and carers used increasingly to assist vulnerable and ageing populations, the question of whether a robot owes a duty of confidentiality to the person for whom they are caring is becoming ever more pertinent. This question is considered in detail and it is concluded that a duty may be owed in some cases. After a brief introduction (I.) the article picks up on the aspects of legal agency and AI (II.) and examines robots as social beeings (III.), their relation- ship to duty (IV.) as well as their capacity as "extended cognition" (V.). These aspects are then brought in con- text with issues of data protection (VI.) and the general relationship between civil law, ethics and robotics (VII.) before conclusions (VIII.) are drawn