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Analysis of social media perceptions during the COVID-19 pandemic in the United Kingdom: social listening study (2019-2022)Social media listening can be leveraged to obtain authentic perceptions about events, their impact, guidelines, and policies. There has been to date no research that has examined the experiences of patients with COVID-19 from diagnosis to treatment using social media listening in the United Kingdom. This study aimed to assess public perceptions, insights, and sentiments throughout the patient journey from diagnosis to treatment during the COVID-19 pandemic. A comprehensive search query was designed to retrieve social media data that referred to COVID-19 and treatment. The search was conducted using the social media monitoring tool, Synthesio (Ipsos). Data were retrospectively collected for the period covering September 2019 to September 2022 from Twitter (subsequently rebranded X), Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube as well as 126 public forums (including Health Unlocked, Mums Net, The Student Room, and Patient Forums UK). Available data in the United Kingdom expressed in the English language were collected and filtered, generating a final dataset consisting of 31,319 posts from an overall initial dataset of 706,634 posts. Complimentary Google trend analyses of search terms mentioning COVID-19 treatments were also performed. Social media posts related to COVID-19 symptoms accounted for 6% of overall posts, compared to 35% of posts related to testing, 25% of posts related to diagnosis, and 32% of posts related to treatment. Overall, the trend observed from social media posts relating to COVID-19 treatment extracted in Synthesio was largely congruent with the trend of COVID-19 searches on Google, indicating a potential relationship between public discourse and social media and internet search behavior. The findings from this study have the potential to inform decision-making regarding public health interventions, communication strategies, and health care policies in the United Kingdom during future public health emergencies.
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Safeguarding equity, access and inclusion in IELTS: a comprehensive review and audit of special arrangements offered to IELTS test-takers with accessibility requirementsSpecial arrangements are designed for test-takers with a disability or who need specific access arrangements to take an exam. They enable all IELTS test-takers to sit an accessible version of the test and for their performance to be assessed fairly. The aim of this review was to audit these special arrangements against some of the research literature on special educational needs and in light of what is currently considered good policy and practice. It also elicited stakeholder attitudes, perceptions and experiences of the existing testing accommodations and, where appropriate, made recommendations to IELTS for the future.
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Interprofessional collaboration to support people experiencing self-neglect: a realist review of research studies and safeguarding adult reviewsSelf-neglect, where adult individuals—for varying reasons—do not care for aspects of their health, wellbeing or home environment, involves significant risks and potential for harm. The importance of effective interprofessional and inter-agency collaboration in supporting people experiencing self-neglect is widely recognized, yet research and practice reviews attest to continuing challenges in collaborative working. This realist review integrates two sources of evidence, the international research literature and Safeguarding Adult Reviews (SARs) of practice cases in England, to theorize what mechanisms need to operate for effective inter-agency collaboration to support people experiencing self-neglect, and how context affects this. Searches in 2023–24 identified 41 studies and 273 SARs to inform the review, assessed on relevance and rigor.
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The value of whole-face procedures for the construction and naming of identifiable likenesses for recall-based methods of facial-composite constructionTraditional methods of facial-composite construction rely on an eyewitness recalling features of an offender's face. We assess the value of the addition of a trait–recall mnemonic to a cognitive-type interview, and perceptually stretching presented composites, to aid image recognition. Participant-constructors intentionally or incidentally encoded a target face, were interviewed about its facial features 3–4 h or 2 days later, made a series of trait attributions (or not) about the face and constructed a feature-based composite. Regardless of encoding manipulation, faces constructed after 3–4 h were twice as likely to be correctly named (cf. after 2 days) both when the trait–recall mnemonic was applied and composites were viewed stretched. Thus, the research indicates that benefit should be afforded when trait–recall mnemonics are employed for feature composites constructed on the same day as the crime and when composites are presented to potential recognisers with instruction to view the face as a perceptual stretch.
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'You're talking about all these things you're doing … it is just seen as the norm': exploring young people's perspectives on disclosing their own use of harmful behaviourExisting research into adolescent dating abuse demonstrates that young people experiencing harm are most likely to confide in their friends, but far less is known about the disclosure habits of young people instigating harm. This paper explores the findings from a mixed-methods study relating to whom young people would speak to about their own use of behaviour they describe as harmful and why. Data were collected through a mixed-methods survey responded to by 749 young people aged 11–25, and through semistructured interviews with 11 young people aged 17–23. Analysis of this data identified closest friends as the group young people felt most likely to confide in, mirroring the literature on young victims, followed by their partners/the person they are seeing and a therapist/counsellor. Findings showed these individuals were chosen due to the young person feeling comfortable talking to them about this topic, believing their disclosure would remain confidential and feeling they would offer a nonjudgemental response. This paper outlines the need for a systemic response to abuse in young people's relationships, which is centred around improved relationship literacy for young people themselves and across society. It also highlights some practical implications focused on ensuring young people have adequate support and guidance in place to navigate early romantic/dating relationships. These findings offer some direction for where to focus resources and support, as well as some guidance around approaches that may encourage disclosures from young people instigating harm.