My Home Quarantine on an App: A Qualitative Visual Analysis of Changes in Family Routines During the COVID-19 Pandemic in Chile

This article presents original findings from a longitudinal qualitative study on changes in individual and family life associated with safety and health measures implemented during the COVID-19 pandemic in three regions of Chile. We developed a methodological approach based on multimodal diaries in a mobile application, in which participants submitted photographs and texts to express changes in their daily lives under residential confinement. Content and semiotic visual analyses show a significant loss in instances of collective recreation, partially compensated through new personal and productive activities performed at home. Our results suggest that modal diaries serve as potential tools to capture people's perceptions and meanings as their lives go through exceptional and traumatic times. We assert that using digital and mobile technologies in qualitative studies could allow subjects to actively participate in the co-construction of fieldwork and produce quality knowledge from their situated perspectives.

Supplementary Information

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s11133-023-09531-z.

Social Connection, (Im)material Gains and Experiences of Inclusion of Asylum Seekers' and Refugees' Volunteering in Glasgow

Volunteering is an activity based on a non-profit idea of engagement in productive transactions. This paper examines why and how asylum seekers and refugees (ASRs) partake in volunteering focusing particularly on the everyday, mundane experiences of volunteering and the role of the material and financial gains as part of it. Data is drawn from 30 interviews conducted with ASRs from 15 countries residing in Glasgow, 20 interviews with the third sector and state agency staff, and supplemented by participant observation conducted in third sector organisations involved in ASRs' integration and settlement. Despite the individual and situational differences, volunteering appeals to ASRs as it enables them to gain familiarity with and social connectivity in their new environs as well as supplements subsistence needs, providing material and financial benefits. These mundane and seemingly secondary gains from volunteering consist of the flesh of the otherwise abstract processes of inclusion, due to the symbolic and logistic significance they have in the ASRs' lives.

"Just ask me what it means to live with dementia" - people with mild dementia's strategies and techniques shared through in-depth qualitative interviews

This article presents results from interviews with twelve persons with mild dementia about how life had changed since they received their diagnosis, exploring their experiences of dementia and how they manage life by using different strategies and techniques. Knowledge about how people with mild dementia experience life is important to explore through their unique perspective, providing clinical practice with knowledge to improve dementia care. Twelve participants were recruited at a Danish school service for people with mild dementia where they receive cognitive stimulation. Semi-structured interviews were conducted, video recorded, transcribed and analysed by using Max Van Manen's five lifeworld existentials: spatiality, corporeality, temporality, relationality and materiality. SRQR checklist was used. Five themes were identified, illustrating the dilemmas and challenges the participants experience, as all existentials are compromised in some way: living a social and active life regardless of difficulties; trying to look at the bright side of life with dementia; it takes time to adapt but at the same time, time is being lost; it is possible to learn, but it is challenging; to try to remember but keep forgetting. The article concludes that all existentials are negatively influenced by dementia, setting the lifeworld of the participants under pressure. However, they still try to live their lives regardless of the difficulties. The study shows it is possible for people with mild dementia to describe their lived experience of dementia and what strategies and techniques they use to manage life. The experienced dilemmas and challenges in the lifeworld of people with mild dementia are of great relevance to be aware of and address in clinical practice. To support people with dementia to identify relevant strategies and techniques, as expressed in the study, that can support them managing life with dementia.

What is the impact of giant cell arteritis on patients' lives? A UK qualitative study

OBJECTIVES

Clinical management of giant cell arteritis (GCA) involves balancing the risks and burdens arising from the disease with those arising from treatment, but there is little research on the nature of those burdens. We aimed to explore the impact of giant cell arteritis (GCA) and its treatment on patients' lives.

METHODS

UK patients with GCA participated in semi-structured telephone interviews. Inductive thematic analysis was employed.

RESULTS

24 participants were recruited (age: 65-92 years, time since diagnosis: 2 months to >6 years). The overarching themes from analysis were: ongoing symptoms of the disease and its treatment; and 'life-changing' impacts. The overall impact of GCA on patients' lives arose from a changing combination of symptoms, side effects, adaptations to everyday life and impacts on sense of normality. Important factors contributing to loss of normality were glucocorticoid-related treatment burdens and fear about possible future loss of vision.

CONCLUSIONS

The impact of GCA in patients' everyday lives can be substantial, multifaceted and ongoing despite apparent control of disease activity. The findings of this study will help doctors better understand patient priorities, legitimise patients' experiences of GCA and work with patients to set realistic treatment goals and plan adaptations to their everyday lives.

Real life soilers: Holding on and giving up encopresis

Negative public attitudes towards faecal soiling in an English town were revealed as a by-product of a proposed research study. But they are also evident in the language of everyday life. Such entrenched beliefs will also affect soilers and their families. Although encopresis is a medical-sounding word which might form a part of a classificatory system, it is probably just another genteel euphemism for a state of affairs, the mechanics and dynamics of which are so diverse that classification is meaningless. Real life stories show this. Changing behaviours is probably best done by behavioural methods.