Suchergebnisse

THE AUTHOR ANALYZES THE CURRENT MOVEMENT IN THE SOVIET UNION CALLED PERESTROIKA, OR ECONOMIC RESTRUCTURING. SHE EVALUATES THE AVERAGE SOVIET CITIZEN'S ATTITUDE TOWARD IT, WHICH IS GENERALLY LUKEWARM EVEN THOUGH WORKERS ARE TOLD THEY ARE MORE IN CHARGE OF THE ORGANIZATIONS THEY WORK FOR. THE USSR'S ECONOMIC STRENGTHS AND WEAKNESSES ARE DESCRIBED, AND THE EXPECTED EFFECTS OF THE PERESTROIKA MOVEMENT ARE COMMENTED ON.

INTRODUCTION: During military service, many household costs for both married and single service personnel are subsidised, and transition can leave veterans unprepared for the financial demands of civilian life. Armed Forces organisations such as Sailor, Soldier, Air Force Association (SSAFA) play a central role in understanding the financial challenges that UK veterans face and provide an insight into the financial hardship experienced by veterans. The aim of this study was to use SSAFA beneficiary data as a proxy to identify the nature of financial benefit, the spatial distribution of financial hardship in the Scottish SSAFA beneficiary community and explore factors that might predict where those recipients are located. METHODS: Using an anonymised data set of Scottish SSAFA financial beneficiaries between 2014 and 2019, this study used a geographical methodology to identify the geospatial distribution of SSAFA benefit recipients and exploratory regression analysis to explore factors to explain where SSAFA beneficiaries are located. RESULTS: Over half of benefit applicants (n=10 735) were concentrated in only 50 postcode districts, showing evidence of a clustered pattern, and modelling demonstrates association with area-level deprivation. The findings highlight strong association between older injured veterans and need for SSAFA beneficiary assistance. CONCLUSION: The findings demonstrate that beneficiaries were statistically clustered into areas of high deprivation, experiencing similar challenges to that of the wider population in these areas. Military service injury or disability was strongly associated with areas of high SSAFA benefit use and in those areas high unemployment was also a significant factor to consider.

Introduction: The veteran population in the UK has been decreasing, however, there remains a proportion of veterans and their families who continue to experience multiple and complex health, financial, and social needs. The complex problems tend to exacerbate each other and deepen over time if appropriate support is not provided. Identifying the veterans with complex needs is crucial for effective support by military charities and health and social care services. The present research aims to develop a complex needs indicator for the veteran population (CNIV) that will quantify complexity and help to identify the risk of having or developing complex needs. Methods: The development of the CNIV will be informed by the guidance for constructing composite indicators. The data on grant support received by veterans' beneficiaries from the UK Royal Marine and SSFA charities will be used for designing the indicator and evaluating its robustness. The crucial step in constructing the indicator is assigning weights to different needs and risk factors associated with complex cases. Factor analysis (FA) and analytical network process (ANP) will be used as weighting methods for the analysed variables. Conclusion: The development of CNIV has important implications for research and practice, such as the potential to be used as a screening tool for identifying complex cases, improved provision of the targeted support to veterans, assessing the scope of complex problems among veterans within the country and informing policy makers and a more general audience of the complexity of need within the sector.

Traumatic deaths of military personnel can have tragic consequences for lives and health of bereaved significant others. To mitigate the effects, the UK Armed Forces enhanced the support for bereaved military families. However, little is known whether the support has been satisfactory. The present research applied mixed methods to explore the experiences of bereaved UK military families (N=264) with different types of support and how it historically changed over time. The findings suggest that although support has improved, further improvements are required in the provision of financial information, administrative support and access to psychological support for all bereaved family members.

This paper draws upon the concept of recreancy to examine the mental well-being of university students during the Covid-19 pandemic. Briefly, recreancy is loss of societal trust that results when institutional actors can no longer be counted on to perform their responsibilities. Our study of mental well-being and recreancy focuses on the role of universities and government regulators within the education sector. We surveyed 600 UK students attending 161 different public higher education providers in October 2020 during a time when many UK students were isolated in their residences and engaged in online learning. We assessed student well-being using the Short Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Well-being Scale (scored 7-35) and found the mean score to be 19.9 [95% confidence interval (CI) 19.6, 20.2]. This level of well-being indicates that a significant proportion of UK students face low levels of mental well-being. Structural equation modeling (SEM) analysis indicates that high recreancy-measured as a low trust in universities and the government-is associated with low levels of mental well-being across the student sample. While these findings are suggestive, they are also important and we suggest that government and university leaders should not only work to increase food and housing security during the Covid-19 pandemic, but also consider how to combat various sector trends that might intensify recreancy.