Time, Tasks, and Toll: Changes in Library Work During the COVID-19 Pandemic

This article analyzes survey data from 900-plus U.S. respondents to identify and explain COVID-19 pandemic-induced changes in different work tasks for library workers. Results show negligible change in overall hours for academic library workers and an almost two-hour decrease in overall hours for public library workers. Analysis by task type shows decreased work hours for most tasks, although professional development and administration/management showed increased hours across library types. In contrast, qualitative responses reveal that workers feel they are working more hours because the pandemic has broken down boundaries between work and non-work tasks, surfacing ongoing issues of labor. [ FROM AUTHOR] Copyright of Journal of Library Administration is the property of Taylor & Francis Ltd and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full . (Copyright applies to all s.)

Addressing Food Insecurity during the COVID-19 Pandemic: Intervention Outcomes and Lessons Learned from a Collaborative Food Delivery Response in South Florida's Underserved Households.

BACKGROUND: The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted underlying disparities in health, healthcare access, and other social factors that have been documented for racial/ethnic minorities. The social-distancing mandate exacerbated the impact of social determinants of health, such as unemployment and food insecurity, particularly among underserved minority populations. We highlight intervention outcomes and lessons learned from the Florida International University (FIU) Herbert Wertheim College of Medicine (HWCOM) NeighborhoodHELP's response to pandemic-related food insecurity among Miami Dade County's underserved population. METHODS: Following the stay-at-home mandate, a weekly needs assessment of program households was conducted by the NeighborhoodHELP team, during which food insecurity emerged as a pandemic-related urgent need, rising from three percent of program Households in March 2020 to 36.9 percent six months later. Consequently, the program staff collaborated with another FIU department, community partners, and a benefactor to develop a food donation and delivery project. RESULTS: Fifteen hundred and forty-three culturally appropriate food boxes were delivered to 289 participating households, comprising 898 household members, over a 14-month period. CONCLUSION: This project underscores the importance of leveraging community assets to address their needs during a crisis and the significance of sustained community engagement for researchers and service providers who work in underserved communities.

RETHINKING THE PARTICIPATORY DESIGN CONFERENCE EXPERIENCE

Clarke discusses the need to rethink the participatory design conference experience. He states that he read an article recently that suggested with the growth of online and hybrid conferences in response to Covid-19, there were more opportunities for everyone. The focus of the article was on celebrating the enabling potential of technology to make this happen. But after spending the past two years attending online conferences and now serving as general co-chair for the 2022 Participatory Design Conference (PDC), she thinks it's a mistake to focus on what technology can or cannot bring to the table in trying to make conferences more equitable.

The EMDR Recent Traumatic Episode Protocol With an Intensive Care Survivor: A Case Study

The intensive care survivor population is increasing. Critical illness can lead to long term psychological distress for a significant proportion of intensive care survivors. This situation has been brought into even starker focus with the impact of COVID-19. Critical illness can lead to long term psychological distress for a significant proportion of intensive care survivors. Risk factors for post-intensive care psychological distress include delirium experiences. This single case study describes the therapeutic process and utility of the Recent-Traumatic Episode Protocol (R-TEP), an eye movement Desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR) therapy protocol for early intervention, with an ICU survivor where therapy was conducted remotely. The treatment provision is unusual in terms of the use of the R-TEP protocol and therapy not being in person. Treatment response was assessed using three standardized measures pre-treatment, post-treatment and at 4-month follow-up, and through qualitative feedback. The advantages of the R-TEP structure are discussed and the need for further research with the ICU survivor population considered. [ FROM AUTHOR] Copyright of Journal of EMDR Practice & Research is the property of Springer Publishing Company, Inc. and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full . (Copyright applies to all s.)

Nature and nowness under lockdown

The Natural Health Service is part memoir, part reportage, and part exposition of the latest research interrogating the role of wildlife and fresh air in helping people cope with mental health problems. Absorption in something as simple as the minibeast activities of a garden pond is, for McAnulty, healing: “my head is pretty hectic most of the time, and watching daphnia, beetles, pond skaters and dragonfly nymphs is a medicine for this overactive brain”. Dara McAnulty Elaine Hill The limitations of the evidence base demonstrating conclusive benefits of nature on mental health cause Hardman wryly to observe, “Am I merely a slightly more plausible-sounding version of a homeopath, preaching to my friends that ‘All I can say is that jumping into a partially-iced lake has really helped me'?” Yet if we truly value the patient experience in medicine, then writer-patient narratives are themselves a form of evidence. Just as we slash and burn rainforests, driving mass extinctions, wipe out coral reefs, and melt polar ice caps, so too can one microbe, infinitesimally small, cause human societies to grind to a halt.

Mobility Justice: Working Through Cross-Disciplinary Perspectives on Technology and Refugee Youth in Uganda During a Pandemic

Clarke and Tukundane discuss recent collaborative writing experiences between researchers in the U.K. and Uganda. In early 2020, their team began planning research with young Ugandan refugees on their mobile phone use. Subsequently, numerous pandemic lockdowns thwarted this research and they had to revise their plans. While this enforced physical immobility (at least in terms of air and road travel) initially limited possibilities for building new partnerships, it did open up opportunities for deeper reflection on critically informed sociotechnical mobilities, engaging them both pragmatically and conceptually with different disciplines as part of an international team. In this dialogue, they highlight the value of collaboration and collective sense making, recognizing differences in expertise, disciplines, and orientations, for understanding technological innovation in international development and refugee contexts.

The Impact of COVID-19 on African American Communities in the United States.

Purpose: The purpose of this ecological study was to understand the impact of the density of African American (AA) communities on coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) prevalence and death rate within the three most populous counties in each U.S. state and territory (n=152). Methods: An ecological design was employed for the study. The top three most populous counties of each U.S. state and territory were included in analyses for a final sample size of n=152 counties. Confirmed COVID-19 cases and deaths that were accumulated between January 22, 2020 and April 12, 2020 in each of the three most populous counties in each U.S. state and territory were included. Linear regression was used to determine the association between AA density and COVID-19 prevalence (defined as the percentage of cases for the county population), and death rate (defined as number of deaths per 100,000 population). The models were adjusted for median age and poverty. Results: There was a direct association between AA density and COVID-19 prevalence; COVID-19 prevalence increased 5% for every 1% increase in county AA density (p<0.01). There was also an association between county AA density and COVID-19 deaths; the death rate increased 2 per 100,000 for every percentage increase in county AA density (p=0.02). Conclusion: These findings indicate that communities with a high AA density have been disproportionately burdened with COVID-19. To help develop effective interventions and programs that address this disparity, further study is needed to understand social determinants of health driving inequities for this community.

Paved With Good Intentions: Hospital Visitation Restrictions in the Age of Coronavirus Disease 2019.

Hospital visitation restrictions have been widely implemented during the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic as a means of decreasing the transmission of coronavirus. While decreasing transmission is an important goal, it is not the only goal that quality healthcare must aim to achieve. Severely restricted visitation policies undermine our ability to provide humane, family-centered care, particularly during critical illness and at the end of life. The enforcement of these policies consequently increases the risk of moral distress and injury for providers. Using our experience in a PICU, we survey the shortcomings of current visitation restrictions. We argue that hospital visitation restrictions can be implemented in ways that are nonmaleficent, but this requires unwavering acknowledgment of the value of social and familial support during illness and death. We advocate that visitation restriction policies be implemented by independent, medically knowledgeable decision-making bodies, with the informed participation of patients and their families.