ABSTRACT
Mental health is inextricably linked to both poverty and future life chances such as education, skills, labour market attachment and social function. Poverty can lead to poorer mental health, which reduces opportunities and increases the risk of lifetime poverty. Cash transfer programmes are one of the most common strategies to reduce poverty and now reach substantial proportions of populations living in low- and middle-income countries. Because of their rapid expansion in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, they have recently gained even more importance. Recently, there have been suggestions that these cash transfers might improve youth mental health, disrupting the cycle of disadvantage at a critical period of life. Here, we present a conceptual framework describing potential mechanisms by which cash transfer programmes could improve the mental health and life chances of young people. Furthermore, we explore how theories from behavioural economics and cognitive psychology could be used to more specifically target these mechanisms and optimise the impact of cash transfers on youth mental health and life chances. Based on this, we identify several lines of enquiry and action for future research and policy.Copyright © The Author(s), 2023. Published by Cambridge University Press.
ABSTRACT
Background: In recent years the focus on healthy food and lifestyle has become a more important part of everyday life for many-with or without RMD. Many NGO-initiatives engaging citizens cooking and eating together has seen the light of day;people meet to talk, laugh and have a good time while making a healthy meal. The kitchen is an often discussed topic among the volunteers and members of The Danish Rheumatism Association. 'Simple' tasks as opening a can of beans or cutting bread can be complicated for people with RMDs. The fundamentals of cooking are different for this group of people;hence the idea of communities around 'arthritis friendly' food unfolded during fall 2019. Objectives: The main objective is to create 'food communities' for people with RMDs, helping them to get a better understanding of how to make 'arthritis friendly food', dispel the myth that it is expensive and hard, and to give them inspiration to better working positions with assistive devices-resulting in a healthier lifestyle which is important to keep the infammation low and the quality of life high. Methods: To obtain these objectives, a dietitian is facilitating 6 three hour 'courses' guiding the participants through healthy cooking-each course with a different theme/subject which is introduced through a short presentation. Two volunteers are responsible for booking kitchen facilities (often school kitchens which is free of charge), coordination with the dietitian and making sure everything runs smoothly and that the atmosphere is top-notch. An occupational therapist is joining the group one time to ensure optimal working positions and introducing and demonstrating assistive devices. One of our main goals is to create sustainable and longer lasting (more than 6 facilitated courses) communities, which is why an important part of the volunteer's responsibility is to initiate a talk about the opportunity of meeting without a dietitian. The 6 facilitated courses aim to give the group the ability to fnd recipes (provided by DRA) and being comfortable cooking with ingredients that the average Dane might not use very often. Furthermore, our assumption is that the group creates social bonds and therefore an interest in keeping these relations. Results: About twenty groups all around Denmark has been a part of the course so far. The feedback from the participants is extremely good-they feel they are learning in an inspiring environment while having a great time with their new acquaintances. Unfortunately, only one of the groups has become a community that exists after the facilitated courses. One of the reasons is, without a doubt, that most of the groups have been affected by different Covid-19 restrictions which has had an impact on the level of social bonding and feeling of ownership. But most participants feel that the dietitian is crucial for further engagement. Conclusion: The concept has been very successful in terms of creating a course that imparts useful knowledge about 'arthritis friendly' food and lifestyle for people with RMD's. It seems we need to make corrections to create the basis for sustainable communities;small changes that helps the group visualizing how to overcome the challenge of the absence of a dietitian, the logistics of grocery shopping for a group etc. We plan to leave out the dietitian from the ffth of the six courses to prepare the group to establish their own 'food community' with lots of healthy food, learning experiences and high spirit.
ABSTRACT
Social bonds may assist in cultivating a more positive attitude to life through commonly shared meanings about the COVID-19 pandemic. The key challenge, however, is how to foster social bonds meeting the changing demands in a post pandemic world. Yet, it is in the middle of a crisis that the conversation needs to start about how to strategically plan for the recovery. This is important not only in the current pandemic, but also in a post pandemic world. Reinforcing or fostering new social bonds is likely to bring positive experiences. The latter is central to human health and wellbeing, and has potential to contribute greatly in enhancing people's quality of life. In an attempt to foster place social bonding in the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond to subsequently contribute to wellbeing, this paper develops and proposes a new conceptual framework suggesting the need for adaptive social bonding interventions in the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic. This is an essential measure to manage the significant impacts on our global health services due to a decline in people's mental health in addition to COVID-19 physical impacts. The paper discusses how promoting adaptive social bonding interventions (psycho-socio, digital and nature social bonding) can make people more resilient. It further discusses how they can be empowered psychologically, socially, and emotionally in the current challenging times. The conceptual framework posits that social bonding interventions can assist in maintaining better mental, physical, emotional, and spiritual wellbeing and discusses how these wellbeing outcomes may also be experienced post the pandemic. This has important benefits and is of relevance to governments, policy makers and healthcare professionals in delivering better health care and equipping people with coping mechanisms both throughout the pandemic and in the long run.
ABSTRACT
A wide range of countries decided to go into lockdown to contain the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic of 2020, a setting separating people and restricting their movements. We investigated how musicians dealt with this sudden restriction in mobility. Responses of 234 people were collected. The majority of respondents (95%) resided in Belgium or the Netherlands. Results indicated a decrease of 79% of live music making in social settings during lockdown compared with before lockdown. In contrast, an increase of 264% was demonstrated for online joint music making. However, results showed that most respondents were largely or even completely unaccustomed with specialized platforms for online joint music making (e.g., JamKazam, Jamulus). Respondents reported to mostly use well-known video-conferencing platforms such as Zoom and Skype when playing together virtually. However, when such video-conferencing platforms were used, they were often not employed for synchronized playing and were generally reported to insufficiently deal with latency issues. Furthermore, respondents depending on music making as their main source of income explored online real-time methods significantly more than those relying on other income sources. Results also demonstrated an increase of 93% in the use of alternative remote joint music-making methods (e.g., recording parts separately and subsequently circulating these digital recordings). All in all, results of this study provide a more in-depth view on joint music making during the first weeks of lockdown induced by the COVID-19 pandemic of 2020, and demonstrate users' perceptions of performance and usability of online real-time platforms as well as alternative methods for musical interaction.