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Positioning Social Work in a Socially Sensitive Society.

As a practitioner, a manager and a scientist in social work for 40 years, I am still intrigued by the social work positioning and legitimating processes. Its recognition by users and financiers is often diffuse and its fragmentation sometimes hinders effective interventions. In social work itself, we see a range of positioning processes, most of them either legitimating social work as a promoter of social justice, a supporter of emancipation and anti-oppressive practice, or positioning social work as a therapeutic approach, treating people with socio-psychological and psychiatric disorders. Social work is often promoted as a ‘real’ profession, in need of formal recognition and in need of a precise profile. In this article it will be argued that the core of social work is about supporting people in their social functioning and should position itself in the centre of the post-modern quest: the social-psychological disorientation, the lack of meaning, and the problems of isolation and exclusion. Modern professionalism is not about demarcating and regulating but much more about ‘Entgrenzung’ and openness.

Anatomie, fysiologie en diagnostische overwegingen bij smaak- en reukstoornissen

Er bestaat een nauwe samenhang tussen de smaak- en de reukperceptie.De smaakperceptie vindt plaats door smaakpapillen die zout, zuur, zoet, bitter en umami kunnen onderscheiden. Daarnaast kunnen 2.000-4.000 verschillende geuren worden herkend. Veel smaakstoornissen zijn in feite reukstoornissen. Speeksel beïnvloedt de smaakperceptie omdat het fungeert als oplosmiddel voor de smaakstoffen en omdat het de smaakreceptoren beschermt. Daarom leidt een vermindering van de speekselproductie gewoonlijk tot afname van de smaakperceptie, waarbij de concentratie van zinkionen en specifieke eiwitten in speeksel een belangrijke rol spelen. Ook zink- en ijzerdeficiëntie kunnen leiden tot verminderde smaak- en reukperceptie.

Influencing behaviour for safe working environments

Safety at work The objective of the project Safety at Work is to increase safety at the workplace by applying and combining state of the art artefacts from personal protective equipment and ambient intelligence technology. In this state of the art document we focus on the developments with respect to how (persuasive) technology can help to influence behaviour in a natural, automatic way in order to make industrial environments safer. We focus on personal safety, safe environments and safe behaviour. Direct ways to influence safety The most obvious way to influence behaviour is to use direct, physical measures. In particular, this is known from product design. The safe use of a product is related to the characteristics of the product (e.g., sharp edges), the condition of people operating the product (e.g., stressed or tired), the man-machine interface (e.g., intuitive or complex) and the environmental conditions while operating the product (e.g., noisy or crowded). Design guidelines exist to help designers to make safe products. A risk matrix can be made with two axis: product hazards versus personal characteristics. For each combination one might imagine what can go wrong, and what potential solutions are. Except for ‘design for safety’ in the sense of no sharp edges or a redundant architecture, there is a development called ‘safety by design’ as well. Safety by design is a concept that encourages construction or product designers to ‘design out’ health and safety risks during design development. On this topic, we may learn from the area of public safety. Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design (or Designing Out Crime) is a multi-disciplinary approach to deterring criminal behaviour through environmental design. Designing Out Crime uses measures like taking steps to increase (the perception) that people can be seen, limiting the opportunity for crime by taking steps to clearly differentiate between public space and private space, and promoting social control through improved proprietary concern. Senses Neuroscience has shown that we have very little insight into our motivations and, consequently, are poor at predicting our own behaviour. It seems emotions are an important predictor of our behaviour. Input from our senses are important for our emotional state, and therefore influence our behaviour in an ‘ambient’ (invisible) way. The first sense we focus on is sight. Sight encompasses the perception of light intensity (illuminance) and colours (spectral distribution). Several researchers have studied the effects of light and colour in working environments. Results show, e.g., that elderly people can be helped with higher light levels, that cool colours like blue and green have a relaxing effect, while long-wavelength colours such as orange and red are stimulating and give more arousal, and that concentration and motivation of pupils at school can be influenced with light and colour settings. Identically, sound (hearing) has physiological effects (unexpected sounds cause extra cortisol -the fight or flight hormone- and the opposite for soothing sounds), psychological effects (sounds effect our emotions), cognitive effects (sounds effect our concentration) and behavioural effects (the natural behaviour of people is to avoid unpleasant sounds, and embrace pleasurable sounds). Smell affects 75% of daily emotions and plays an important role in memory, itis also important as a warning for danger (gas, burning smell). Research has shown that smell can influence work performance. Haptic feedback is a relative new area of research, and most studies focus on haptic feedback on handheld and automotive devices. Finally, employers have a duty to take every reasonable precaution to protect workers from heat stress disorders. Influence mechanisms: Cialdini To influence behaviour, we may learn from marketing psychology. Robert Cialdini states that if we have to think about every decision

PRESchool@HealthyWeight: A Preschool-Based Intervention For Promoting Healthy Eating And Physical Activity In Toddlers

Background and aimsThe aim of this study was to gain insight in the effect of a preschool-based intervention for Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) teachers on promoting healthy eating and physical activity in toddlers.MethodsIn a cluster randomized controlled trial, 37 preschools of child care organization Impuls in Amsterdam Nieuw-West, the Netherlands, were randomly allocated to an intervention or control group. In total, 115 female ECEC teachers (mean age 42 ± 9 years) participated. The intervention for ECEC teachers consisted of two existing Dutch programs: ‘A Healthy Start’ and ‘PLAYgrounds’. The practices and knowledge of ECEC teachers concerning healthy eating and physical activity and the level of confidence in promoting healthy eating and physical activity in toddlers was assessed at baseline and 9 months of follow-up. To examine the effect of the intervention linear mixed models were used.ResultsPreliminary analyses of the practices indicated that Activity-related-Teaching/Autonomy-Support was increased in the intervention group (mean difference: 0.181), but not in the control group (mean difference: -0.048; p-value group*time: 0.025). Food-related-Pressure-to-Eat was decreased in the intervention group (mean difference: -0.580), but not in the control group (mean difference: -0.158; p-value group*time: 0.014). No effect of the intervention was found on knowledge (p-value group*time: 0.24) and the level of confidence (p-value group*time: 0.98) of ECEC teachers. ConclusionsThe preschool-based intervention seems to increase Activity-related-Teaching/Autonomy-Support and to decrease Food-related-Pressure-to-Eat. No effects were seen on knowledge and level of confidence of ECEC teachers in promoting healthy eating and physical activity in toddlers.

Under-nutrition and sarcopenic obesity: under-recognised conditions in patients with Sjögren's syndrome?

Application of three different coaching strategies through a virtual coach for people with emotional eating

Background: Around 13% of the world’s population suffers from obesity. More than 40% of people with obesity display emotional eating behaviour (eating in response to negative emotions or distress). It is an alternate to moreeffective coping strategies for negative emotions. Our study explored the opportunities for helping adults with emotional overeating using a virtual coach, aiming to identify preferences for tailored coaching strategies applicable in a personal virtual coach environment. Three different coaching strategies were tested: a validating, a focus-on-change, and a dialectical one – the latter being a synthesis of the first two strategies. Methods: A qualitative study used vignettes reflecting the two most relevant situations for people with emotional eating: 1. experiencing negative emotions, with ensuing food cravings; and 2. after losing control to emotional eating, with ensuing feelings of low self-esteem. Applied design: 2 situations × 3 coaching strategies. Participants: 71 adult women (Mage 44.4/years, range 19–70, SD = 12.86) with high scores on the DEBQ-emotional eating scale (Memo 3.65, range 1.69–4.92, SD = .69) with mean BMI 30.1 (range 18–46, SD = 6.53). They were recruited via dieticians’ practices, were randomly assigned to the conditions and asked how they would face and react to thepresented coaching strategies. Data were transcribed and a thematic analysis was conducted. Results: Qualitative results showed that participants valued both the validating coaching strategy and the focus-onchange strategy, but indicated that a combination of validation and focus-on-change provides both mental supportand practical advice. Data showed that participants differed in their level of awareness of the role that emotions play in their overeating and the need for emotion-regulation skills. Conclusion: The design of the virtual coach should be based on dialectical coaching strategies as preferred by participants with emotional eating behaviour. It should be tailored to the different stages of awareness of their emotions and individual emotion-regulation skills.