Suchergebnisse

Young homeless people have mental health needs. Research and national policies have highlighted that accommodation providers need to offer holistic interventions to encourage this vulnerable group to break the cycle of homelessness. Currently no research literature documents how homeless shelters respond to mental health needs. This research was intended to address this research question.A postal questionnaire was sent to 132 managers of homeless shelters, achieving a response rate of 64.4%. Frequencies and descriptive statistics were calculated, and written data was analysed using content analysis. Mental health problems were highly prevalent, and homeless shelters responded in a variety of ways (use of GP services, internal services, referring to external services, in‐house outreach services, no service provision, etc). Only 27.1% of managers of homeless shelters reported that their services were sufficient to meet their young people's needs. These findings reflect the need for inclusion of mental health in homeless shelters' strategic objectives, and development of commissioning of local partnerships with health agencies.

The increasing availability and use of mobile technology have allowed for innovative solutions to address a range of issues, especially in relation to health behaviour change. Such technological advances have also created opportunities within the justice context and the past decade has seen the development and use of mobile technology in the criminal justice system. Yet, little systematic research exists in this area. This study begins to fill this gap, through a rapid evidence assessment of the use of technologies, especially mobile applications and text message reminders, which support behaviour change amongst people in the criminal justice system.

AbstractThis Practice and Policy article examines return‐to‐office mandates, the latest human resource controversy. These mandates are an organisational directive for employees who have been working from home to return to working in their employer's premise. Drawing on the literature and our research on working from home and hybrid working, we consider whether mandates may prevent proximity bias. We conclude that mandates requiring employees to return to the office or caps which limit working from home are not only unnecessary, but may have negative consequences. In particular, mandates may cause employee resentment, while caps limit flexibility and autonomy. We therefore do not advocate the use of these mechanisms, and recommend that managers and teams negotiate the appropriate balance of home and office working arrangements.Points for practitioners
Mechanisms which force employees into the office can be seen as an easy and effective way to mitigate proximity bias. However, they can lead to employee resentment.
Similarly, capping the number of days employees can work from home can also result in negative consequences, including reduced flexibility and employee autonomy.
Enabling managers and teams to collaboratively determine their own in office/working from home arrangements will maintain flexibility and prevent employee resentment.
Preventing proximity bias can be achieved through increasing awareness about this emerging form of bias; harnessing communication technologies to moderate visibility regardless of where work is performed; and ensuring performance management systems are based on quantifiable and objective metrics.

AbstractResearch has consistently shown that gaining employment after release helps to reduce recidivism, but also that people who have been in prison face many barriers to finding secure employment. This article presents qualitative data from the experiences of 11 people who had been released from prison in the Australian Capital Territory. We focus on the challenges these participants encountered with obtaining employment post‐release, including not having access to suitable housing, criminal background checks, managing post‐release commitments (such as attending substance abuse rehabilitation appointments) and a lack of confidence in approaching potential employers. Consequently, we recommend that policymakers ensure that there is a dedicated specialised employment team within the custodial environment providing individualised support for both unsentenced and sentenced people, both while they are incarcerated and post‐release.

AbstractMost of the research examining children visiting a parent in prison indicates that visits have a positive impact on children's well‐being, their connection to the imprisoned parent and the parent themselves. However, the COVID‐19 pandemic brought about a significant change to prison visits worldwide, with limits or bans on face‐to‐face contact. Understanding the experiences and needs of children during this period remains limited. This paper presents the findings of a survey of 84 carers of 184 children across Australia, investigating children's experiences of contact with their imprisoned parent both before and during COVID‐19 restrictions. Although most carers reported maintaining contact during restrictions, a range of difficulties were noted: reduced availability; the effect of prison‐based issues, including lockdowns; and the suitability of video/telephone visits for young children. Some described the benefits of videoconferencing, including reduced travel time and cost, and not needing to take children into a prison environment. Despite this, respondents typically described the negative impact of restrictions, and lack of physical contact, on children's emotional well‐being. Our findings suggest that, for video visiting to be successful, it should be complementary to in‐person visits, tailored to the needs of children, with support offered to families.