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Dignity is a universally important issue for all people, and particularly vital for older adults who face multiple losses associated with ageing. In the United States of America and beyond, the maintenance of dignity is a key aim of policy and service provision for older people. Yet surprisingly little research has been conducted into the meaning of dignity to community-based older adults in the context of everyday life. As life expectancy continues to increase worldwide, unprecedented numbers of people are living longer than ever before. The majority of older adults will face declining health and other factors that may impact dignity in the course of ageing in their communities. This paper reports on a study that explored older people's understandings and experiences of dignity through focus groups and a survey. Three key components of dignity are identified: autonomy, relational and self-identity. In addition, the paper discusses a range of factors that can facilitate or inhibit a sense of dignity for older people, including long-term health issues, sensory deficits and resilience to life events. Finally, the implications of these findings for policy and practice are considered in the context of American social structures and values. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Over the past two decades there has been a growing awareness that sport may not be a positive experience for all children. For example, we know that some children experience sexual abuse in the context of organised sport, and that these offences are often committed by trusted adults, including coaches and club officials. However, less attention has been given to the physical abuse of child athletes. This paper presents a study that explored children's experiences of organised sport, as recounted by young people between the ages of 18 and 25 years in Australia. The study explored the experience of child physical abuse in organised sport including violence, overtraining, and training while injured. A mixed methods research design produced 107 survey responses and 10 in-depth interviews with young adults. Most respondents reported the positive impact that participating in sport had had on their development, but more than a third of the respondents also described experiences of overtraining, being forced to train when injured or of direct physical violence. Drawing upon a thematic analysis of the qualitative data, a conceptual model has been developed and is presented to assist in the understanding of the dynamic of secrecy, which may facilitate ongoing physical harm to children in this context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim To describe the design, development and evaluation of a consumer-centred video, which was underpinned by the Theory of Planned Behaviour and it was created to educate newly transplanted kidney recipients about the importance of medication adherence. Background Kidney transplantation is a treatment whereby medication adherence is critical to ensure long-term kidney graft success. To date, many interventions aimed to improve medication adherence in kidney transplantation have been conducted but consumers remain largely uninvolved in the interventional design. Design Qualitative sequential design. Methods Twenty-two participants who had maintained their kidney transplant for at least 8 months and three participants who had experienced a kidney graft loss due to non-adherence were interviewed from March-May 2014 in Victoria, Australia. These interviews were independently reviewed by two researchers and were used to guide the design of the story plot and to identify storytellers for the video. The first draft of the video was evaluated by a panel of seven experts in the field, one independent educational expert and two consumers using Lynn's content validity questionnaire. The content of the video was regarded as highly relevant and comprehensive, which achieved a score of >3·7 out of a possible 4. Results/findings The final 18-minute video comprised 15 sections. Topics included medication management, the factors affecting medication adherence and the absolute necessity of adherence to immunosuppressive medications for graft survival. Conclusion This paper has demonstrated the feasibility of creating a consumer-driven video that supports medication adherence in an engaging way. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

High poverty urban areas in the U.S. are over-burdened by early adult death and disability, yet there has been little documentation of how early parental death impacts youth residing in these communities. We conducted qualitative, community-based research on the health and well-being of 20 residentially unstable young women ages 18-24 in Detroit during 2011-2012. Participants were selected through their association with a local social service organization. We found that nine of these 20 young women had experienced the loss of a parent or primary caretaker during childhood or adolescence. Using data from in-depth, semi-structured interviews, this paper explores the role of parental loss as a precipitating event for residential instability and episodic homelessness. For these young women, parental loss was a catalyst for subsequent periods of intermittent homelessness and persistent mobility between the households of extended family and friends. These narratives provide unique testimony to the impact of early parental loss on young women from low-income households in an economically-stressed urban context in the U.S. Their stories highlight the dynamic associations between periods of housing insecurity and vulnerability to numerous social risks, including sexual commerce, acute stress, and alienation from social support networks. In this context, parental loss reflects a broader social inequality of early adult mortality in high poverty areas, and the health and social gains to be realized through targeted policies to support areas of urban economic crisis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]