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Based on research undertaken as part of the EU funded EPPIC project, this paper aims to update and elaborate on the relationship between drug use and offending behaviours by exploring variations within a cross-national sample of drug-experienced young people in touch with criminal justice systems. Adopting a trajectory-based approach, interviews were undertaken with 198 young people aged 15–25 in six European countries (Austria, Denmark, Germany, Italy, Poland, and UK). Data were analysed by applying the Bennett and Holloway categorization of the drugs-crime link, with a focus on the concept of social exclusion as developed by Seddon. Three main types of mechanisms (economic, pharmaceutical, and lifestyles) are used to interpret the data, showing how the relationship between drugs and offending can vary according to type of substances and over time. Furthermore, it can be associated with very different degrees of social exclusion and needs. The results suggest that while economic inequalities still play key roles in explaining drug use and offending, both behaviours can originate from a state of relative deprivation, resulting from the contradictions inherent in 'bulimic societies' that raise aspirations and desires while providing young people scarce opportunities for self-realisation and social recognition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: There is a growing consensus worldwide that palliative care needs to be both more inclusive of conditions other than cancer and to improve. This paper explores some common challenges currently faced by professionals providing palliative care for patients with either cancer or dementia across five countries. Method: One focus group (n = 7) and 67 interviews were conducted in 2012 across five countries: England, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and Norway, with professionals from dementia, cancer and palliative care settings. Results: The interviews revealed five common challenges faced across the five countries: communication difficulties (between services; and between professionals, and patients and their families); the variable extent of structural/functional integration of services; the difficulties in funding of palliative care services; problematic processes of care (boundaries, definitions, knowledge, skills and inclusiveness) and, finally, time constraints. Conclusion: These are not problems distinct to palliative care, but they may have different origins and explanations compared to other areas of health care. This paper explored deeper themes hidden behind a discourse about barriers and facilitators to improving care. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite norms and regulations on accessibility, people with disabilities continue to face many problems in the built environment and it happens, in particular, in historic places and buildings. These, so numerous in Italian and European old cities, are not accessed only as tourist and/or cultural attractions but they are often accessed as public places, workspaces and study places in which accessibility should be ensured. This article is based on a qualitative research carried out in Trento, an old Italian city, in which people with disabilities and representatives of public and private organisations working in the area of urban or building construction and maintenance were interviewed. The findings show, in particular, that norms and regulations on conservation often prevail on those on accessibility, even when they could coexist and, at the same time, improve universal accessibility in historical built environments. In Italy, Europe and elsewhere, standards should be applied to ensure equal rights to people with disabilities in all aspects of life, including access to the built environment. Local, national and international governments and institutions assign great importance to the conservation of historic city centres and buildings. This study found that there is only a partial - and often inconsistent - implementation of the laws on accessibility in historic built environments, as priority is given to the protection of such environments. Precedence given to the conservation of historic built environments causes many accessibility issues, thus limiting the possibility of people with disabilities to move around independently and carry out everyday life activities. The study suggests that art-historical values and accessibility can go hand in hand, in particular if people with disabilities are included in decision-making processes and can have their say through participatory planning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background. Dealing with work related stress is a declared priority of European Union mental health policy. A particularly under-researched sector in this regard is the community vocational support sector for people with mental health and intellectual disability problems. Aims. To report on the organisational profile of the vocational support and rehabilitation sector forpeople with mental health and intellectual disabilities as this relates to occupational stress, in five European countries (Austria, Ireland, Italy, Romania and UK). Methods. A sector profile questionnaire was distributed to representative organisations in five countries and a short face-to-face survey was conducted with 25 local managers (five from each country) to draw up a profile and facilitate a comparative description and analysis. Results. It was found that there is no national and European data collected at any level in this sector upon which to base effective policy interventions to combat occupational stress specific to professionals working in this sector. Results indicate that the sector in a number of the countries sampled does not have effective mechanisms in place to deal with occupational stress. Conclusion. Developing effective transnational occupational stress management policy that supports staff working in this sector and measuring its success is greatly impaired by a failure to effectively define the purpose of the sector and collect and collate national data to support it. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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