1
|
Harasym MC, Raju E, Ayeb-Karlsson S. A global mental health opportunity: How can cultural concepts of distress broaden the construct of immobility? GLOBAL ENVIRONMENTAL CHANGE : HUMAN AND POLICY DIMENSIONS 2022; 77:102594. [PMID: 36407678 PMCID: PMC9651962 DOI: 10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2022.102594] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/20/2022] [Revised: 07/28/2022] [Accepted: 10/03/2022] [Indexed: 06/16/2023]
Abstract
(Im)mobility studies often focus on people on the move, neglecting those who stay, are immobile, or are trapped. The duality of the COVID-19 pandemic and the climate crisis creates a global mental health challenge, impacting the most structurally oppressed, including immobile populations. The construct of immobility is investigated in the context of socio-political variables but lacks examination of the clinical psychological factors that impact immobility. Research is beginning to identify self-reported emotions that immobile populations experience through describing metaphors like feeling trapped. This article identifies links in the literature between Cultural Concepts of Distress drawn from transcultural psychiatry and immobility studies. Feeling trapped is described in mental health research widely. Among (im)mobile people and non-mobility contexts, populations experience various mental health conditions from depression to the cultural syndrome, nervios. The connection of feeling trapped to CCD research lends itself to potential utility in immobility research. The conceptualisation can support broadening and deepening the comprehension of this global mental health challenge - how immobile populations' experience feeling trapped. To broaden the analytical framework of immobility and incorporate CCD, evidence is needed to fill the gaps on the psychological aspects of immobility research.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Mary C Harasym
- United Nations University Institute for Environment and Human Security (UNU-EHS), Bonn, Germany
| | - Emmanuel Raju
- Global Health Section and Copenhagen Centre for Disaster Research, Department of Public Health, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark
- African Centre for Disaster Studies, North-West University, Potchefstroom, South Africa
| | - Sonja Ayeb-Karlsson
- Institute for Risk and Disaster Reduction, University College London (IRDR), University College London (UCL), London, UK
- United Nations University Institute for Environment and Human Security (UNU-EHS), Bonn, Germany
- School of Global Studies, University of Sussex, Falmer Brighton, UK
| |
Collapse
|
2
|
Kremer D, Felgenhauer T. Reasoning COVID-19: the use of spatial metaphor in times of a crisis. HUMANITIES & SOCIAL SCIENCES COMMUNICATIONS 2022; 9:265. [PMID: 35967485 PMCID: PMC9360696 DOI: 10.1057/s41599-022-01264-8] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/03/2022] [Accepted: 07/12/2022] [Indexed: 06/15/2023]
Abstract
As other crises before, the COVID-19 pandemic put established discursive routines at stake. By framing the pandemic as a crisis, an immediate search for adequate counter-measures started to define proper means of mitigation and protection for the population. In the early stages of COVID-19, when little reliable information on the virus and its transmission behaviour was available, an intense use of metaphor to explain and govern the crisis had to be expected. Beside its well-known impact on (geo-)politics, a thorough analysis especially of the use of spatial metaphors to reason about the crises is still missing. In our approach, we rely on the foundational work of Lakoff and Johnson (1980) on image schemata, and prior work on spatial metaphors as part of argumentation patterns from cultural geography (Schlottmann, 2008). After a thorough analysis of prominent examples according to the argumentation scheme of Toulmin (1976 [1958]), we explored examples from the pre-existing corpus on COVID-19, deliberately compiled by DWDS for analysis of language patterns used throughout the pandemic. In a subsequent filter-refinement approach building on methods from cognitive linguistics and utilising a chunk of the same corpus, we were able to obtain and discuss results on the variety of spatial metaphors used at that time.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Dominik Kremer
- Friedrich-Alexander Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg, Erlangen, Germany
| | | |
Collapse
|
3
|
Pillay AL, Kramers-Olen AL. COVID-19, psychosocial issues, politics, and public mental health care. SOUTH AFRICAN JOURNAL OF PSYCHOLOGY 2021. [DOI: 10.1177/00812463211015750] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/16/2022]
Abstract
The COVID-19 pandemic heralded challenges that were both significant and unfamiliar, placing inordinate burdens on health care systems, economies, and the collective psyche of citizens. The pandemic underscored the tenuous intersections between public mental health care, politics, economics, and psychosocial capital. In South Africa, the inadequacies of the public health system have been laid bare, and the disproportionate privileges of the private health care system exposed. This article critically considers government responses to the COVID-19 pandemic, the psychosocial correlates of lockdown, politics, corruption, and public mental health policy in South Africa.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Anthony L Pillay
- Department of Behavioural Medicine, University of KwaZulu-Natal and Fort Napier Hospital, South Africa
| | - Anne L Kramers-Olen
- Department of Behavioural Medicine, University of KwaZulu-Natal and Fort Napier Hospital, South Africa
| |
Collapse
|
4
|
Dal-Ré R, Mentz RJ, Rosendaal FR. Thoughtful selection and use of scientific terms in clinical research: the case of 'pragmatic' trials. J Investig Med 2021; 69:1056-1058. [PMID: 33753535 DOI: 10.1136/jim-2021-001789] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 03/09/2021] [Indexed: 11/03/2022]
Abstract
Clinical research is a discipline prone to the use of technical terms that may be particularly at risk for misunderstanding given the complex interpretation that is required. In this century, what is happening with the word 'pragmatic' when describing a randomized controlled trial (RCT) with medicines deserves a public reflection. Explanatory trials are conducted in ideal conditions to assess the comparative efficacy of interventions and are useful to explain whether interventions work. Pragmatic trials are those conducted in a way that resembles usual clinical practice conditions to assess the comparative effectiveness of interventions in a manner directly applicable for decision-makers. This, however, did not prevent 36% of authors of placebo-controlled, or prelicensing trials to identify their medicines RCTs as pragmatic in the title of their articles. The current situation is such that scientific literature has accepted that 'pragmatic' can convey the original meaning-that obtained in trials mimicking usual clinical practice-and a distorted one-that is focused on streamlining any trial procedure. Those involved in clinical trials should emphasize the importance of precision in the use of terms when describing RCTs through standardized solutions when possible. Unless clinical trial stakeholders agree when it would be correct to label an RCT as pragmatic, in a short period of time the term will be in danger of becoming meaningless. It is suggested that the Enhancing the Quality and Transparency of Health Research (EQUATOR) network, the Consolidated Standards of Reporting Trials (CONSORT) group and the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) could address this topic and provide a consensus way forward.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Rafael Dal-Ré
- Epidemiology Unit, Health Research Institute-Fundación Jiménez Díaz University Hospital, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Madrid, Spain
| | - Robert J Mentz
- Duke Clinical Research Institute and Department of Cardiology, Division of Cardiology, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, North Carolina, USA
| | - Frits R Rosendaal
- Department of Clinical Epidemiology, Leiden University Medical Center, Leiden, The Netherlands
| |
Collapse
|
5
|
Perry BL, Aronson B, Pescosolido BA. Pandemic precarity: COVID-19 is exposing and exacerbating inequalities in the American heartland. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 2021; 118:e2020685118. [PMID: 33547252 PMCID: PMC7923675 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2020685118] [Citation(s) in RCA: 149] [Impact Index Per Article: 49.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/23/2022] Open
Abstract
Crises lay bare the social fault lines of society. In the United States, race, gender, age, and education have affected vulnerability to COVID-19 infection. Yet, consequences likely extend far beyond morbidity and mortality. Temporarily closing the economy sent shock waves through communities, raising the possibility that social inequities, preexisting and current, have weakened economic resiliency and reinforced disadvantage, especially among groups most devastated by the Great Recession. We address pandemic precarity, or risk for material and financial insecurity, in Indiana, where manufacturing loss is high, metro areas ranked among the hardest hit by the Great Recession nationally, and health indicators stand in the bottom quintile. Using longitudinal data (n = 994) from the Person to Person Health Interview Study, fielded in 2019-2020 and again during Indiana's initial stay-at-home order, we provide a representative, probability-based assessment of adverse economic outcomes of the pandemic. Survey-weighted multivariate regressions, controlling for preexisting inequality, find Black adults over 3 times as likely as Whites to report food insecurity, being laid off, or being unemployed. Residents without a college degree are twice as likely to report food insecurity (compared to some college), while those not completing high school (compared to bachelor's degree) are 4 times as likely to do so. Younger adults and women were also more likely to report economic hardships. Together, the results support contentions of a Matthew Effect, where pandemic precarity disproportionately affects historically disadvantaged groups, widening inequality. Strategically deployed relief efforts and longer-term policy reforms are needed to challenge the perennial and unequal impact of disasters.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Brea L Perry
- Department of Sociology, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN 47405
| | - Brian Aronson
- Department of Sociology, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN 47405
| | | |
Collapse
|
6
|
|
7
|
Pollack HA. Disaster Preparedness and Social Justice in a Public Health Emergency. JOURNAL OF HEALTH POLITICS, POLICY AND LAW 2020; 45:907-920. [PMID: 32464639 DOI: 10.1215/03616878-8641457] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/11/2023]
Abstract
The United States is now experiencing public health catastrophe on a scale not seen for more than a century. COVID-19 puts into stark relief the mutual obligations that reflect interdependence among participants in a common society. Drawing on the work of Amartya Sen concerning famine and related challenges, the author discusses the accompanying implications for social justice. Social justice in catastrophe requires strong social insurance structures and legal protections for the most vulnerable people, who would otherwise lack economic resources and political influence to protect their essential interests. Social justice also requires greater and more sustained attention to disaster preparedness and public health infrastructure-both of which are characteristically neglected, in part because the public health enterprise is identified with politically weak and often stigmatized populations.
Collapse
|
8
|
How Can Physical Therapists Engage the Social Ecology of Health to Mitigate Service Disruptions in a Post-COVID World? Cardiopulm Phys Ther J 2020. [DOI: 10.1097/cpt.0000000000000149] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/25/2022]
|
9
|
Saunders MJ, Evans CA. COVID-19, tuberculosis and poverty: preventing a perfect storm. Eur Respir J 2020; 56:13993003.01348-2020. [PMID: 32444399 PMCID: PMC7243392 DOI: 10.1183/13993003.01348-2020] [Citation(s) in RCA: 63] [Impact Index Per Article: 15.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/23/2020] [Accepted: 05/13/2020] [Indexed: 11/30/2022]
Abstract
The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic is likely to be the defining global health crisis of our generation. As the United Nations Development Programme highlighted in their recent call to action, the impact of this pandemic will extend beyond the immediate medical consequences to have far-reaching and long-lasting social and economic impacts, threatening to disproportionately affect poorer people in poorer countries [1]. Income losses are anticipated to exceed USD 220 billion in developing countries, where many people live day-to-day without access to social protection, and food security is precarious [1]. Strikingly, a recent United Nations study suggested that the social and economic consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic could increase the number of people living in poverty by as much as half a billion, with the majority of these newly poor people living in Africa, South-East Asia, and Central and South America [2]. The global health community must learn from COVID-19 and take action now on tuberculosis and its social determinants, potentially saving millions from a preventable and curable diseasehttps://bit.ly/2LLgLgA
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Matthew J Saunders
- Dept of Infectious Disease, Imperial College London, London, UK .,Innovation For Health And Development (IFHAD), Laboratory of Research and Development, Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia, Lima, Peru.,Innovación Por la Salud Y Desarrollo (IPSYD), Asociación Benéfica PRISMA, Lima, Perú
| | - Carlton A Evans
- Dept of Infectious Disease, Imperial College London, London, UK.,Innovation For Health And Development (IFHAD), Laboratory of Research and Development, Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia, Lima, Peru.,Innovación Por la Salud Y Desarrollo (IPSYD), Asociación Benéfica PRISMA, Lima, Perú
| |
Collapse
|
10
|
Affiliation(s)
- Ghulam Nabi
- Professor in surgical uro-oncology, Hon. consultant urological surgeon, Head of Division of Imaging Sciences and Technology, Lead for Minimally Invasive Surgery in Urological Cancers, Chair Tayside Urological Cancers Network (TUCAN), University of Dundee, Scotland, UK
| |
Collapse
|