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Purpose: The purpose of this paper was to explore the health of trafficking survivors in Spain, which is relatively unstudied (Sweileh, 2018). Therefore, the objectives of this study are to describe the health conditions, access to health-care facilities, COVID-19 protection and health challenges in relation to the COVID-19 pandemic reported by women survivors of human trafficking in Spain. Design/methodology/approach: Due to the pandemic situation, limited research and the complexity of the issue, the authors took a qualitative approach. A cross-sectional study was carried out through interviews with women survivors of human trafficking for sexual exploitation in Spain. Prior to the interviews, the researchers conducted written interviews with social workers to understand the most important challenges that the women survivors were experiencing during confinement. As a result of these written interviews, the interview script for the survivors was modified. Findings: To sum up, the COVID-19 situation poses several challenges, including social difficulties (food insecurity; violence; terrible housing conditions; working pressure; poor sleeping habits; and cultural, linguistic and religious challenges), medical insecurity (due to lockdowns, negative experiences in care, lack of official documents, collapse of hospitals, telephone monitoring and fear of contagion), great emotional distress reported by women (anxiety, fear, sadness, post-traumatic stress disorder, stigma and substance use) and physical health problems (serious weight loss, muscle pains, dental problems and sexual and reproductive health-care limitations). Research limitations/implications: As is usual in qualitative research, rather than obtain generalizable results, the main objective was to delve deeper into under-researched or complex issues (Polit and Beck, 2010). While this report provides a timely overview marked by COVID-19 of an important population, there are some limitations. The major limitation of this research was the sample representativity, because the sample was conducted with only one non-governmental organization and only individuals who voluntarily agreed to make the interview; as such, other victim profiles may not be represented. Practical implications: The findings can provide information for detecting victims of human trafficking for sexual exploitation and contribute to understanding the pandemic's impact. Furthermore, the paper emphasizes the need to adopt measures for the recovery of victims, such as medical and psychological assistance, in accordance with the Palermo Protocol. As people transition out of the pandemic, it is crucial for Spain, along with other European countries, to guarantee that all residents, particularly the victims of human trafficking, have access to social and health-care protections during times of crisis. Social implications: As already mentioned, further investigation should be done to fill the gaps on health of human trafficking (Sweileh, 2018) and improve the recovery of victims of trafficking (García-Vázquez and Meneses-Falcón, 2023 0; Sweileh, 2018). The paper acknowledges the existing research gap in the field and emphasizes the importance of future studies to delve deeper into the challenges faced by victims, calling for a more nuanced understanding of health. Originality/value: The Coronavirus pandemic has increased and reinforced the vulnerability of sex-trafficked victims, especially creating different mental health problems. One of the biggest concerns for this group has been the difficulty of access to basic goods such as food. Furthermore, psychological distress impacted the well-being of trafficking victims, and many suffered from eating disorders. Less than half of the women who were forced to continue in prostitution did not have the means to protect themselves against COVID-19 and did not have easy situations to overcome illness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose – The aim of this paper is to report results of the impact of the information and communication technology (ICT) platform and telecare services developed by the MonAMI consortium on the quality of life (QOL) of older people in three European communities. Design/methodology/approach – In a three-month trial, the MonAMI technology was installed in the homes of older people with various needs, in the cities of Stockholm, Sweden; Zaragoza, Spain; and Kosice, Slovakia. Evaluation criteria and instrumentation were developed to assess the effects of the services on users' perceived QOL in the domains of independence, physical health, psychological wellbeing, social networking, and physical environment. Findings – A total of 62 users, with a mean age of 79 years, participated in the trial. Results demonstrate that the MonAMI services had some positive, significant effects on users' QOL. For instance, users with a higher number of disabilities at baseline reported greater confidence in keeping intruders from entering their home compared to users with fewer disabilities (OR=2.51, 0.01 p<0.05). However, overall findings show that healthier, more independent users perceived more benefits from the services compared to users who report more health problems and are less independent. Research limitations/implications – The complexities of conducting the MonAMI trial led to a small, heterogeneous sample of users over a short time span. This in turn created difficulties in observing the potential effects of the services and achieving significance on some indicators of QOL. Originality/value – This paper provides quantitative analyses around the impact of telecare services; suggests important directions for further research; and highlights the methodological challenges of evaluating ICT-based care services in a community setting. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Effective communication with GPs (General Practitioners) enables higher rates of patient satisfaction and adherence to treatment plans. People with severe mental illness (SMI) and their caregivers present unique characteristics that present difficulties in the GP-carer-patient communication process. Aim: To explore the expectations of patients with SMI and their caregivers regarding GPs' communication skills in primary care consultations. Design & setting: Face-to-face interviews, using focus group methodology, which were undertaken in southern Spain. Method: Forty-two participants took part in 21 paired semi-structured interviews with an average duration of 19±7.2 minutes. Information was audio-recorded and transcribed verbatim. Qualitative content analysis was undertaken, obtaining a codification in categories by means of triangulation. Results: Four themes emerged from the analysis. Theme 1 was interviewer communication characteristics. The ability of GPs to use a language that was colloquial and adapted to each person was perceived as a determinant of the quality of care provided. An empathetic attitude, low reactivity, and efficient time management were the most valued communication skills. Theme 2 was telemedicine: telephone consultation and video consultation. The telephone consultation was perceived as a useful tool to care for people with SMI. Video consultation was valued as a requirement in isolated rural areas. Theme 3 was the role of the caregiver during the clinical interview. The caregiver was considered by the patients as an ally who improves the clinical interview. Theme 4 was the perceived barriers and facilitators during the clinical interview. The continuity of care, defined by a low turnover of GPs, determined the quality perceived by those who required care. Conclusion: Themes emerging from this study have suggested that people with SMI require an inclusive, collaborative, and personalised approach in the care they receive from the public health system. Improved communication between GPs and patients with SMI is an essential requirement for quality medical care. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

End-user development is a new trend to provide tailored services to dynamic environments such as hospitals. These services not only facilitate daily work for pharmacy personnel but also improve self-care in elder people that are still related to hospital, such as discharged patients. This paper presents an ambient intelligence (AmI) environment for End-user service provisioning in the pharmacy department of Gregorio Marañón Hospital in Madrid, composed of a drug traceability infrastructure (DP-TraIN) and a ubiquitous application for enabling the pharmacy staff to create and execute their own services for facilitating drug management and dispensing. The authors carried out a case study with various experiments where different roles from the pharmacy department of Gregorio Marañón Hospital were involved in activities such as drug identification, dispensing and medication administering. The authors analyzed the effort required to create services by pharmacy staff, the discharged patients' perception of the AmI environment and the quantifiable benefits in reducing patient waiting time for drug dispensing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite the opportunities the health sector will offer as a result of the design and development of a technology infrastructure, the fact is that hospitals have been slow to adopt telemedicine technologies, largely because very few organisations are prepared to face this challenge. A possible explanation for the efficiency and effectiveness gaps of services provided by Hospital-in-the-Home Units (HHUs) may relate to the advantages and disadvantages of the knowledge processes that these units exhibit as a result of their different structural properties. This paper investigates the approaches that HHUs have used to update the knowledge of physicians and their members' knowledge of technology, and relates them to an unlearning context (UC) and improvement in the quality of health services. These relationships are examined through an empirical investigation of 55 doctors and 62 nurses belonging to 44 HHUs. The research findings suggest that the key benefits of a UC in HHUs are clear. It enables them to identify and replace poor practices and also avoids the reinvention of the wheel; it enables cost reduction by minimising unnecessary work caused by the use of poor methods and it enables improvements adopting new telemedicine technologies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this qualitative research is to examine the difficulties perceived by caregivers for taking part in an offered intervention, exploring whether there are differences depending on caregiver's degree of kinship. Forty‐two family caregivers from Salamanca (Spain) were interviewed after declining an invitation to take part in an intervention programme. All the telephone conversations were transcribed verbatim. The transcriptions were subject to a thematic content analysis using QDA MINER software. The barriers identified were (1) difficulties adapting to the intervention's schedule due to a lack of time, or incompatibility with its dates or timetables, (2) belief among the caregivers that they do not need or are not interested in the support the intervention provides, (3) impossibility to separate from the family member to attend due to the absence of relief or a feeling of guilt, (4) caregiver's health issues, (5) difficulties with accessibility, and (6) belief that the therapies serve no useful purpose. Certain differences were identified depending on the caregiver's kinship. Understanding the difficulties caregivers face for taking part in the interventions will enable steps to be taken to remove and/or reduce such barriers, whereby more caregivers will benefit from interventions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

eHealth has grown significantly over the last decade. The aim of this study was to determine the level of use of information and communication technologies for health care in Spain and identify the main barriers to development. We used a qualitative study based on data obtained from 8 Spanish autonomous communities through semi-structured, in-depth interviews with key informants in eHealth management and planning. Programs present varying degrees of implementation. Services such as electronic prescriptions, digital medical records, and appointment requests via the Internet are advanced and widespread; others, such as digital imaging, are advanced but not fully deployed; and some, such as telecare programs, are experimental. The study also revealed diverse levels of interoperability and barriers to the expansion of these technologies, which can be classified into 4 fields: technological, organizational, human, and economic. eHealth might evolve more slowly in the coming years. Unless the payoff is clearly seen, major budget cuts in the current economic climate will prevent the implementation of new projects. Programs that help reduce health spending are more likely to be implemented, to the detriment of projects involving simple techniques or even clear health care improvements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We present the results of the use of a cognitive behavioral therapeutic intervention tool to improve the mental, physical, and social health of a group of long-term unemployed women in Spain. Method: We sent automated text messages (SMS) to the mobile phones of long-term unemployed women selected at random from public social services. During a 28-day intervention period, women received four daily automated text messages on her mobile phone on a predetermined hourly schedule. We measured depression symptoms at the start and end of the intervention and we analyzed qualitative data to determine the acceptability of a remote SMS program. Results: Depression symptoms using the Personal Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9), went from an average of 13.8 at baseline to 4.9 at the end of 28 days (p = 0.89). One hundred percent of the women reported that they liked receiving the text messages and most found them helpful. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]