Allison Werner-Lin, Lindsey M Hoskins, Maya H Doyle, Mark H Greene
{"title":"'Cancer doesn't have an age': genetic testing and cancer risk management in BRCA1/2 mutation-positive women aged 18-24.","authors":"Allison Werner-Lin, Lindsey M Hoskins, Maya H Doyle, Mark H Greene","doi":"10.1177/1363459312442420","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/1363459312442420","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Increasingly, 18-24-year-old women from hereditary breast/ovarian cancer (HBOC) families are pursuing genetic testing, despite their low absolute risks of breast and ovarian cancer and the fact that evidence-based management options used with older high-risk women are not generally available. Difficult clinical decisions in older carriers take on substantially more complexity and value-laden import in very young carriers. As a result, many of the latter receive highly personal and emotionally charged cancer risk information in a life context where management strategies are not well defined. We analyzed 32 in-depth interviews with BRCA1/2 mutation-positive women aged 18-24 using techniques of grounded theory and interpretive description. Participants described feeling vulnerable to a cancer diagnosis but in a quandary regarding their care because evidence-based approaches to management have not been developed and clinical trials have not been undertaken. Our participants demonstrated a wide range of genetic and health literacy. Inconsistent recommendations, surveillance fatigue, and the unpredictability of their having health insurance coverage for surgical risk-reducing procedures led several to contemplate risk-reducing mastectomy before age 25. Parents remained a primary source of emotional and financial support, slowing age-appropriate independence and complicating patient privacy. Our findings suggest that, for 18-24-year-olds, readiness to autonomously elect genetic testing, to fully understand and act on genetic information, and to confidently make decisions with life-long implications are all evolving processes. We comment on the tensions between informed consent, privacy, and the unique developmental needs of BRCA1/2 mutation-positive women just emerging into their adult years.</p>","PeriodicalId":231462,"journal":{"name":"Health (London, England : 1997)","volume":" ","pages":"636-54"},"PeriodicalIF":2.1,"publicationDate":"2012-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1177/1363459312442420","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"40571012","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Negotiating identity transition when leaving forensic hospitals.","authors":"Michael Coffey","doi":"10.1177/1363459311434649","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/1363459311434649","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>The transition from hospital patient to community resident is something which is far from straightforward. For those with multiple labels of disability, chronicity and criminal offending behaviours this transition is particularly complicated. This article reports on a study of accounts provided by a hard-to-reach group of patients and their workers in one region of the UK. Through the use of 59 in-depth interviews with conditionally discharged persons, community mental health nurses and social workers, everyday understandings of the process of discharge and reintegration were investigated. The primary focus was on how identity was handled in the talk of discharged persons and what workers said about this. Analysis focused upon the action-oriented nature of accounts related to discharge, community return and attempts to construct viable identities in the outside world. This study found that stories did the work of loosening previous labels. Illness as mitigation was deployed as an important resource for this purpose. Deviant labels signifying mental illness and criminality presented enduring identity-threats. It was found that as they adjust to return to the community, individuals deploy particular types of identity talk to neutralize ascriptions of continuing deviance and make claims to normality. Workers for their part supported illness as mitigation but continued to orient towards risk as an enduring identity label. In their day-to-day lives the accomplishment of 'ordinary' identities was a continuing task of discharged persons in maintaining community return.</p>","PeriodicalId":231462,"journal":{"name":"Health (London, England : 1997)","volume":" ","pages":"489-506"},"PeriodicalIF":2.1,"publicationDate":"2012-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1177/1363459311434649","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"40143249","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Theoretical directions for an emancipatory concept of patient and public involvement.","authors":"Andy Gibson, Nicky Britten, James Lynch","doi":"10.1177/1363459312438563","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/1363459312438563","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Patient and public involvement (PPI) is now firmly embedded in the policies of the Department of Health in England. This article commences with a review of the changing structures of PPI in English health and social care, largely in terms of their own explicit rationales, using that as a spring board for the development of a general theoretical framework. Arguing that all democratic states face major dilemmas in seeking to meet conflicting demands and expectations for involvement, we identify the diverse and sometimes conflicting cultural and political features embedded in current models of involvement in England, in a context of rapid delegitimation of the wider political system. We identify some of the major inherent weaknesses of a monolithic, single-track model of patient and public involvement in the management and running of health and social care systems. Although the mechanisms and methods for delivering this may vary we suggest the model remains fundamentally the same. We also suggest why the current structures are unlikely to provide an effective response either to the pluralism of values, ideologies and social groups engaged in the sector or to the valuing of lay knowledge which could potentially sustain the social networks essential for effective participation and service improvement. The article proposes a four dimensional framework for analysing the nature of PPI. These dimensions, it is argued, provide the co-ordinates along which new 'knowledge spaces' for PPI could be constructed. These knowledge spaces could facilitate and support the emergence of social networks of knowledgeable actors capable of engaging with professionals on equal terms and influencing service provision.</p>","PeriodicalId":231462,"journal":{"name":"Health (London, England : 1997)","volume":" ","pages":"531-47"},"PeriodicalIF":2.1,"publicationDate":"2012-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1177/1363459312438563","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"40182938","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Kay Aranda, Laetitia Zeeman, Julie Scholes, Arantxa Santa-María Morales
{"title":"The resilient subject: exploring subjectivity, identity and the body in narratives of resilience.","authors":"Kay Aranda, Laetitia Zeeman, Julie Scholes, Arantxa Santa-María Morales","doi":"10.1177/1363459312438564","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/1363459312438564","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>International research and policy interest in resilience has increased enormously during the last decade. Resilience is now considered to be a valuable asset or resource with which to promote health and well-being and forms part of a broader trend towards strength based as opposed to deficit models of health. And while there is a developing critique of resilience's conceptual limits and normative assumptions, to date there is less discussion of the subject underpinning these notions, nor related issues of subjectivity, identity or the body. Our aim in this article is to begin to address this gap. We do so by re-examining the subject within two established narratives of resilience, as 'found' and 'made'. We then explore the potential of a third narrative, which we term resilience 'unfinished'. This latter story is informed by feminist poststructural understandings of the subject, which in turn, resonate with recently articulated understandings of an emerging psychosocial subject and the contribution of psychoanalysis to these debates. We then consider the potential value of this poststructural, performative and embodied psychosocial subject and discuss the implications for resilience theory, practice and research.</p>","PeriodicalId":231462,"journal":{"name":"Health (London, England : 1997)","volume":" ","pages":"548-63"},"PeriodicalIF":2.1,"publicationDate":"2012-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1177/1363459312438564","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"40560060","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The pursuit of medical knowledge and the potential consequences of the hidden curriculum.","authors":"Barret Michalec","doi":"10.1177/1363459311403951","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/1363459311403951","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>This study explores how preclinical medical students experience particular elements of their training, specifically their pursuit for medical knowledge and how this may impact their attributes as well as their relations with those outside of the realm of medicine. Ten first-year and 10 second-year students of a US medical school were interviewed regarding their experiences with and perceptions of their medical training. The students reported a cognitive and emotional distance from non-medical students that appears to be accentuated not only by their strenuous academic responsibilities but also elements of the hidden curriculum nested within medical training. Furthermore, students discuss experiencing disapproval, mistrust, and negative judgment toward laypersons thereby suggesting that this distancing may lend to deleterious effects on students' ability and willingness to connect with others. A Parsonian lens is utilized to examine the notion of a 'Knowledge Gap' as well as aspects of the hidden curriculum in medical education and their role in professionalizing medical students.</p>","PeriodicalId":231462,"journal":{"name":"Health (London, England : 1997)","volume":" ","pages":"267-81"},"PeriodicalIF":2.1,"publicationDate":"2012-05-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1177/1363459311403951","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"40101427","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The rise of cancer in urban India: Cultural understandings, structural inequalities and the emergence of the clinic.","authors":"Alex Broom, Assa Doron","doi":"10.1177/1363459311403949","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/1363459311403949","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Cancer services in India have evolved and expanded significantly in recent years, with a surge in the availability of biomedical oncological treatment facilities for certain cohorts of the Indian population in urban areas. Despite significant and sustained economic development in many areas of India, major issues persist in the delivery of cancer care, even in the context of relatively prosperous urban populations. This article explores the dilemmas evident in Indian cancer care as perceived by a group of Indian oncology clinicians. Specifically, the interviews focused on their perspectives on the key challenges facing cancer patients, particularly in relation to help-seeking and access to care. The main concerns that emerged in the interviews were: (a) practical constraint (i.e. access and treatment); (b) cultural values (i.e. communication, stigma and the clinic); and (c) structural conditions (i.e. inequalities related to place, gender and class). We unpack these as important elements of cancer care in contemporary India, and present Farmer's notion of structural violence, among other concepts, as potentially useful for understanding some facets of this social problem. We conclude that without a greater understanding of social and cultural issues shaping cancer care in India, little progress will be made in coping with a disease that is set to become a major burden within an increasingly prosperous and ageing population.</p>","PeriodicalId":231462,"journal":{"name":"Health (London, England : 1997)","volume":" ","pages":"250-66"},"PeriodicalIF":2.1,"publicationDate":"2012-05-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1177/1363459311403949","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"40101425","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Beyond the caveman: rethinking masculinity in relation to men's help-seeking.","authors":"Hannah Farrimond","doi":"10.1177/1363459311403943","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/1363459311403943","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Statistically, men make less use of health-care services than women. This has been interpreted as the result of the 'hegemonic' masculine code in which 'real' men are understood to be physically fit, uninterested in their health and self-reliant. However, less attention has been paid to understanding how hegemonic masculinity intersects with the wider western socio-cultural contexts of men's help-seeking, particularly the valorization of health as a form of social achievement. This article presents the results of interviews with 14 higher socio-economic status (SES) men to uncover their 'interpretive repertoires' in relation to health and illness, help-seeking and masculinity. Although many interviewees drew on the stereotype of the 'Neanderthal Man' who avoids the doctors to explain help-seeking by men 'in general', they constructed their own experiences of help-seeking in terms of being responsible, problem-solving and in control. It is argued that the framing of help-seeking in terms of 'taking action' chimes with an increasingly pro-active 'expert patient' approach within western health-care. This conceptual reconstruction of the dominant masculine code in relation to help-seeking, from 'Neanderthal Man' to 'Action Man', may lead to greater gender equality in terms of accessing health-care. However, it has the potential to exacerbate social inequalities between men from different SES groups.</p>","PeriodicalId":231462,"journal":{"name":"Health (London, England : 1997)","volume":" ","pages":"208-25"},"PeriodicalIF":2.1,"publicationDate":"2012-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1177/1363459311403943","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"40101426","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Another way of knowing: art, disease and illness experience.","authors":"Alan Radley, Susan E Bell","doi":"10.1177/1363459310397972","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/1363459310397972","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":231462,"journal":{"name":"Health (London, England : 1997)","volume":" ","pages":"219-22"},"PeriodicalIF":2.1,"publicationDate":"2011-05-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1177/1363459310397972","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"40092539","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"'Representing' the pain of others.","authors":"Deborah Padfield","doi":"10.1177/1363459310397974","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/1363459310397974","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>This article argues that visual images, particularly photographs, can provide an alternative visual language to communicate pain. It suggests that selected photographs of pain placed between clinician and patient can help trigger a more collaborative approach to dialogue within the consulting room. The participatory roles of artist and clinician as well as patient in the co-construction of meaning and narrative are acknowledged. Comparing images from two projects, Perceptions of Pain and face2face, the article uses Barthes' distinction between a 'denoted' and 'connoted' message to suggest the possibility of an underlying generic iconography for pain. By drawing on selected images and audio recordings from both projects, the article demonstrates how visual images re-invigorate verbal language and vice versa. It highlights how, in placing a photograph between two people, meaning is created within a social context as much as via the configuration of signs within the photographic surface. It is suggested that a resource of pain images, such as that created in both the projects described here, could be a valuable communication tool for use in NHS pain clinics.</p>","PeriodicalId":231462,"journal":{"name":"Health (London, England : 1997)","volume":" ","pages":"241-57"},"PeriodicalIF":2.1,"publicationDate":"2011-05-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1177/1363459310397974","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"40092540","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Speaking to the dead: images of the dead in contemporary art.","authors":"Mary O'Neill","doi":"10.1177/1363459310397978","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/1363459310397978","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>In this article I explore works by three artists in which we can see images that relate to bereavement. In the work of the first two, Araya Rasdjarmrearnsook and Andres Serrano, we can see photographic images (still and moving) of human corpses, which have been criticized as morbid and unhealthy. However I argue that it is not in fact images of death or the dead that are problematic but those images which present or evoke evidence of the emotions associated with death, and create a situation where we imagine the circumstances of our own deaths or the death of those we love. Images of the dead are acceptable as long as they do not cause pain to the living, as in a video game fantasy or a fiction, or are seen as other and distant. In the second group of works, by Gustgav Metzger, The Absent Dead: The Surrogate Body, the body is not present either because the death has taken place at a distance, either in time or geographically, or both, and a new site must be created. In this section, I discuss Metzger's auto-destructive art and argue that these works, through their ephemerality, embody a form of 'meaning making' and a possibility of the benefits of grief as described by Parkes.</p>","PeriodicalId":231462,"journal":{"name":"Health (London, England : 1997)","volume":" ","pages":"299-312"},"PeriodicalIF":2.1,"publicationDate":"2011-05-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1177/1363459310397978","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"40092541","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}