The value of community engagement in the development of an assessment measure

The participatory engagement of communities has been asserted as a requirement for the promotion of community safety research and interventions in South Africa. More often than not in instrument development research, the process of developing a measure is linear with minimal recognition and integration of the expertise and indigenous knowledges of local communities. It is anticipated that such locally generated information would benefit and is arguably vital for instrument development. Most existing community safety research measures have been developed and validated in Western countries, with these not consistently aligning with the South African context. The aim of this presentation is to consider the use and value of the participatory community engaged approach adopted to underpin the instrument development process.

A participatory research design enabled a bottom-up approach, allowing access to local knowledge whilst at the same time enabling the co-construction of knowledge from multiple sources, with opportunities for transparency and accountability, power-sharing amongst community members and the researcher, and the inclusion of community voices adding to the veracity and social relevance of the assessment measure. The participatory approach and community engagement strategy highlighted community voices and community-centered cultural articulations in the instrument development process enabling the development of a culturally sensitive and contextually relevant assessment measure.

High Hopes:Can we rescue community resilience?

Resilience research provides an alternative and complementary narrative to the dominant risk framework. At the community level, the idea that in spite of adversity, communities can thrive is a potentially useful framework for current global challenges. It speaks to community agency and that communities not only have to cooperate to survive, but can also transform adversity. However, community resilience in spite of its utility for a range of problems, from natural disasters to violence, seems narrowly confined to relatively similar dimensions, often summarized as different forms of ‘capital’ that communities possess. The main aim of this paper is to assess the utility of this conceptual framework for diverse contexts. The presentation critically reviews current definitions and approaches to community resilience and provides pointers to a different conceptualisation. It begins with a review of the risk and protective factor discourse and the underlying assumptions and values associated with the notion of community resilience. It argues that current conceptualisation are ahistorical and acontextual, do not sufficiently engage with diversity, inequity and social justice, and limited to specific hegemonic Western frameworks. The socio-political context, the diverse responses to oppression and the dynamic and contradictory forms of community systems and knowledges seldom emerge in these conceptualisations. The rich history of resistance and social mobilisation in communities, the importance of indigenous knowledge’s, and the dynamic role of spirituality in communities are some of the significant gaps. A reinsertion of political activism and social action, rediscovering indigenous worldviews, and complementing secular foci with a focus on spirituality are some of the areas that need to be incorporated into current frameworks. The uptake of the resilience framework into the current neo-liberal context is not surprising. Without some of the shifts argued above, it will continue to serve this agenda.

An overview of mindfulness research in the field of psychological health

Mindfulness has been defined as learning to pay attention moment by moment, intentionally, and with curiosity and compassion. While mindfulness has been practised for over 2 thousand years in Eastern religions, it has only recently become increasingly popular in the West. Mindfulness has been applied to psychological health in Western medical and mental health contexts since the 1970s when Jon Kabat-Zinn developed Mindfulness based Stress Reduction (MBSR). In the West mindfulness is generally independent of a circumscribed religion, philosophy, ethical code, or particular systems of practices. Various mindfulness-based interventions have been trialled in mental health, and there is strong evidence for its efficacy in the treatment and prevention of depression and anxiety. There are currently several interventions commonly used in mental health that are based on mindfulness-related principles including. In the current presentation, I will review the history of mindfulness research in mental health and will discuss the impact of mindfulness practices on psychological processes likely to underline the beneficial effect of mindfulness practice on mental health, including increases in self-compassion, decreases in rumination, trait anxiety and self-perceived stress. I will also discuss the neurobiological effects of mindfulness practices likely to contribute to improved mental health, including decreases in physiological stress markers and changes in brain functionality.

‘Helping professionals’ and their children: relational impacts of work related traumatic stress.

The helping professions workforce experiencing indirect and direct psychological trauma is diverse.
Approaches to workplace trauma have largely focused on the worker role, identification and management of occupational hazards, trauma-informed approaches to governance, and support services for affected staff. Employed in cross-sectoral organisations, undertaking a variety of roles, with varying levels of education, training and experience; ‘helping professionals’ who are parents are an under researched group.

For some there are perceived and actual barriers to reporting vulnerability. Help seeking may also be difficult due to stigma and privacy and confidentiality concerns. Gender, ethnicity and organisational culture, may influence how a ‘helping professional’ interprets and responds to workplace trauma. As may non-work-related factors like developmental trauma history, resilience, or carer responsibilities.

Psychological trauma may affect parental coping and the quality of the parent-child relationship. These factors are demonstrated to influence child health outcomes. Intergenerational trauma transmission has been studied in First Nation communities, families of Holocaust survivors and families reporting child abuse. However, the voices of ‘helping professionals’ who are parents, about the impacts of work-related traumatic stress, including transmission to filial relationships, are missing from the reviewed literature.

The perspectives of emergency services, child protection, education, health and mental health staff, and community services staff working in Inner Gippsland, were examined using a mixed methods research design. Interim results from a workforce survey (n = 363) and semi structured interviews (n = 10), are presented. The research findings dissemination strategy and the ethics of conducting research with trauma-exposed participants are discussed.

This doctoral research challenges a dominant narrative that categorises the experiences of a diverse, trauma-exposed workforce. It invites a nuanced, community led conversation about the lived experience of ‘helping professionals’ who are parents.