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Study Tour (study + tour)

Distribution by Scientific Domains
Medical Sciences100%

Selected Abstracts

Seeing America,diary of a drug-focused study tour made in 1967

ADDICTION, Issue 6 2010
Griffith Edwards
ABSTRACT In 1965 the British government was forced to admit that the country had an escalating heroin problem, with the supply coming mainly from prescribing by private practitioners. Within the official responses to what was seen at that time as a very worrying public health situation was the decision to fund the setting-up of the Addiction Research Unit (ARU) at the Institute of Psychiatry, London. The US National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) generously sponsored a study tour for the nominated director of the ARU shortly before the opening of the British research centre. Extensive contemporaneous diary notes of a visit included contact with administrators, researchers, clinicians, parish priests, narcotic agents and addicts themselves. From a mass of often conflicting advice, some insights could be derived. In particular, these included the need for an awareness of any country's way of dealing with drug problems as a dynamic, multi-factorial total system,a holistic ,national response'. A further conclusion was to see policy itself as a complex subject for analysis: drug policy should be as much an issue for research as drug taking. Besides these broad conclusions, the experience provided many specific leads to development of a British addiction research programme, and fostered professional friendships of immeasurable worth. [source]

Visiting America: notes from an alcohol-focused study tour made in 1961

ADDICTION, Issue 12 2008
Griffith Edwards
ABSTRACT Aims This paper has as its focus a study tour made by the author in 1961. Diary notes are used to capture a historical moment in the evolution of alcohol studies. The paper will argue for the continuing value today of such experiences in support of career development and the building of ,the field'. Data sources Diary notes and personal recollection. Findings The United States was at the time more active than the United Kingdom in its response to alcohol problems. There was, however, a disjunction between the elite American research world and the world of action, which was not informed greatly by research. For the most part, treatment services and prevention strategies seemed driven by opinion rather than by evidence. But at the level of serious scientific endeavour there was opportunity to meet influential figures including Seldon Bacon, Morris Chafetz, Milton Gross, Ebbe Curtis Hoff, Harris Isbell, E. M. Jellinek, Mark Keller, Benjamin Kissen, Robert Strauss, Wolf Schmidt and Abraham Wikler, who generously made their time available. Conclusions These diary notes provide a snapshot of a field of endeavour at a critical stage of transition from uninformed assumptions towards establishment of a research base which can inform public action. The visit was of tangible value to the visitor in several different identified ways. Such an experience is inevitably time-bound and personal, but there are general conclusions to be drawn as to the benefits which will be derived from early travel opportunities in a field such as alcohol studies, which is all too easily culture-bound in its horizons and assumptions. Alcohol science needs to be more reflective on its history and the mechanisms that help to make it happen. [source]

Effective community health participation strategies: a Cuban example

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF HEALTH PLANNING AND MANAGEMENT, Issue 2 2003
Ruby Greene
Abstract Since the decade of the 1970s health promotion has been an integral part of most primary health care strategies. This article examines some community participation strategies adopted in the health promotion in Cuba and the policies which enable such strategies. This is done in the context of health promotion theory and also examines the concept of direct involvement by the political directorate in health promotion. The article is written from a reflexive perspective following the author's visit to Cuba as member of a health study tour in March 2002. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source]