title: A walking stick in one hand and a chainsaw in the other: Patients’ perspectives of living with multimorbidity

authors: Signal, Louise

abstract: AIMS: Multimorbidity is common, yet there are major gaps in research, particularly among younger and indigenous populations. This research aimed to understand patients’ perspectives of living with multimorbidity. 

METHODS: A qualitative study of 61 people living with multimorbidity, 27 of whom were Māori and a third aged under 65, from urban and rural regions in New Zealand. Six focus groups and 14 interviews were conducted, recorded, transcribed and analysed. 
RESULTS: For many participants, living with multimorbidity disrupted their ‘normal’ lives, posing challenges in everyday activities such as eating and toileting, working and managing medications. Dealing with the health system posed challenges such as accessing appointments and having enough time in consultations. Cultural competency, good communication and continuity of care from healthcare providers were all valued. Participants had many recommendations to improve management, including a professional single point of contact to coordinate all specialist care. 
CONCLUSIONS: Living with multimorbidity is often challenging requiring people to manage their conditions while continuing to live their lives. This research suggests changes are needed in the health system in New Zealand and elsewhere to better manage multimorbidity thus improving patient’s lives and reducing costs to the health sector and wider society.

text: A walking stick in one hand and a chainsaw in the other: Patients’ perspectives of living with multimorbidity AIMS: Multimorbidity is common, yet there are major gaps in research, particularly among younger and indigenous populations. This research aimed to understand patients’ perspectives of living with multimorbidity. 

METHODS: A qualitative study of 61 people living with multimorbidity, 27 of whom were Māori and a third aged under 65, from urban and rural regions in New Zealand. Six focus groups and 14 interviews were conducted, recorded, transcribed and analysed. 
RESULTS: For many participants, living with multimorbidity disrupted their ‘normal’ lives, posing challenges in everyday activities such as eating and toileting, working and managing medications. Dealing with the health system posed challenges such as accessing appointments and having enough time in consultations. Cultural competency, good communication and continuity of care from healthcare providers were all valued. Participants had many recommendations to improve management, including a professional single point of contact to coordinate all specialist care. 
CONCLUSIONS: Living with multimorbidity is often challenging requiring people to manage their conditions while continuing to live their lives. This research suggests changes are needed in the health system in New Zealand and elsewhere to better manage multimorbidity thus improving patient’s lives and reducing costs to the health sector and wider society.

year: 2017

title: Outdoor education: Opportunities provided by a place based approach

authors: Brown, Mike

subjects: place-based

abstract: This paper calls for educators to consider the role that ‘place’ has in outdoor education experiences. It is suggested that greater emphasis and acknowledgment be given to ‘place(s)’ and how they may help students make sense of both their personal and communal identity. The paper is interwoven with a narrative from the author’s experiences of working with Pākehā and Māori students on a course that consciously utilised a ‘place-based’ approach to teaching and learning. The paper challenges the conception that outdoor education requires ‘high-impact’ adventurous activities, instead suggesting that we seek to develop a modest pedagogy which acknowledges our relationships with place(s) as a way to understand who we are , how we connect to others and how we both give and take meanings from the places in which we live and learn. These issues have potential implications for educators and programme designers.

text: Outdoor education: Opportunities provided by a place based approach This paper calls for educators to consider the role that ‘place’ has in outdoor education experiences. It is suggested that greater emphasis and acknowledgment be given to ‘place(s)’ and how they may help students make sense of both their personal and communal identity. The paper is interwoven with a narrative from the author’s experiences of working with Pākehā and Māori students on a course that consciously utilised a ‘place-based’ approach to teaching and learning. The paper challenges the conception that outdoor education requires ‘high-impact’ adventurous activities, instead suggesting that we seek to develop a modest pedagogy which acknowledges our relationships with place(s) as a way to understand who we are , how we connect to others and how we both give and take meanings from the places in which we live and learn. These issues have potential implications for educators and programme designers.

year: 2008

title: Spatio-temporal modelling of crime using low discrepancy sequences

authors: Brown, Paul T.

abstract: We perform spatio-temporal modelling of burglary data in order to predict areas of high criminal risk for local authorities. We wish to account for several spatio-temporal factors as latent processes to make the model as realistic as possible, thus creating a model with a large latent eld with several hyperparameters. Analysis of the model is done using Integrated Nested Laplace Approximations (INLA) (Rue et al. 2009), a fast Bayesian inference methodology that provides more computationally efficient estimations than Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) methods.

text: Spatio-temporal modelling of crime using low discrepancy sequences We perform spatio-temporal modelling of burglary data in order to predict areas of high criminal risk for local authorities. We wish to account for several spatio-temporal factors as latent processes to make the model as realistic as possible, thus creating a model with a large latent eld with several hyperparameters. Analysis of the model is done using Integrated Nested Laplace Approximations (INLA) (Rue et al. 2009), a fast Bayesian inference methodology that provides more computationally efficient estimations than Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) methods.

year: 2016