No description available.

No description available.

No description available.

No description available.

No description available.

No description available.

No description available.

Public health officials have declared the widespread use and misuse of prescription opioid medications an epidemic in the United States. The director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Dr. Tom Frieden, has stated, “We know of no other medication routinely used for a nonfatal condition that kills patients so frequently” (Frieden & Houry, 2016, p. 1503). The present study was prompted by the concern that there is no empirical data on how law enforcement officers have been affected by the use of opioids. It is the first empirical examination of how the epidemic has impacted police officers' resilience and fitness for duty. The President's Task Force on 21st Century Policing identified officer health, wellness, and fitness for duty as one of the six pillars to support policing in the 21st century. The Task Force also affirmed the long-standing belief that the same character strengths that impel officers to confront danger may also be barriers to their resilience. Recognizing this "double-edged" sword, this mixed-methods study analyzed medical and prescription claims over a four year period (2011 to 2014) to examine the prevalence of opioid use by officers in a large urban police department. Using the qualitative, interview-based methodology of Appreciative Inquiry (AI), it examined individual, organizational and systems-level factors explaining officers’ help-seeking for use of prescription medications, as well as help-seeking for substance abuse in general. The interviews also revealed what is needed to replace the existing cultural and organizational arrangements—which can lead to isolation, depression, pathology, and stigma—with a culture that has the necessary processes and commitment to promote physical, behavioral and mental resiliency. The quantitative analyses revealed that law enforcement officers are not immune from the opioid epidemic. Moreover, there is evidence of specific prescription drug use behaviors that indicate sub-groups of officers at heightened risk for developing an opioid use disorder. Approximately 40% of the officers in the sample filled an opioid prescription. Within this group, 27% of the officers filled a prescription for 90 days or longer and 34% filled prescriptions for benzodiazepines. The data also indicates that approximately 1 out of 7 officers in the sample received medical treatment for a mental illness each year. The qualitative data revealed that officers’ help-seeking behaviors for opioid dependence and abuse were shaped by the psychological process of surrendering and acknowledging their vulnerability. Seeking help, therefore, can run contrary to officers’ training and character traits. Additionally, the social supports of the police subculture and effective supervisory leadership contributed to officers’ recovery and resilience from opioid use disorder. Having access to trustworthy and culturally competent treatment services further enhanced officers’ recovery. The research also illuminates broader health care policies and commitments to wellness that can enhance the capacity of police agencies to hire, develop, and maintain resiliency in their officers. This dissertation extends Bronfenbrenner’s theory of resilience to the field of law enforcement. This theory adopts a social ecological perspective, capturing pathways and protective factors at micro, meso and macro levels that bolster officers’ personal growth and development. From a policy perspective, the findings support an asset-based approach to wellness, which stresses the need to access and enlist resources across the micro-, meso- and macro-level spheres. Future research in this area should extend knowledge into the unique cultural context of police work and its implications for the promotion of wellness and resiliency. / Criminal Justice

In this thesis I focus on a safety audit in a plant for the preparation of concrete carried out according to Self-Audit Handbook for SMEs. In the first part some examples of accidents in plants for the preparation of concrete in Czech Republic as well as in abroad are stated. In the second part I describe the subject of work injury in Czech Republic and the obligations of employees and employers in accordance with the labour code. The third part deals with the safety management, occupational health and safety management system and briefly covers various types of audits. The next part analyses briefly concrete composition and its production process, the function of plant for the preparation of concrete and safety requirements demanded from the plant for the preparation of concrete in accordance with an appropriate standard. The last part describes the audit itself processed according to Self-Audit Handbook for SMEs at two plants. The aim of this thesis is to process and to evaluate results of two audits that took place at plans for preparation of the concrete and to propose corrective actions and process improvements.

Work environment conditions can influence individuals, organisations as well as society, and economic consequences can be extensive. The employer is responsible for the work environment,but must engage Occupational Health Services (OHS) or similar if the own competenceis not sufficient. Consequently, the professional skills of OHS providers is an important topic, as the services delivered are aimed at contributing to a good work environment. However, research in this area was scant and there was a call for illumination of what professional skills are needed within OHS. There was also a need to find arenas for knowledge development and sharing within and between occupational safety and health (OS&amp;H) professionals and researchers. One aim of this thesis was to gain a deeper knowledge and understanding about professional skills when it comes to OS&amp;H engineers and ergonomists working within the manufacturing sector. A second aim was to gain experiences of using co-operative inquiry in a learning network for OS&amp;H professionals in order to develop professional skills. The thesis is based on three papers, all with a qualitative research approach. The co-operative inquiry method was used to run a learning network for the research. This network consisted of ten OS&amp;H professionals (engineers and ergonomists) employed at in-house as well as external providers of OHS for manufacturing companies, and two researchers. Everyone in the network acted as co-researchers in accordance with the intention of co-operative inquiry. The dialogues at the meetings were analysed with thematic analysis, using six socio-technical elements as themes. The results showed that the OS&amp;H engineers and ergonomists in the network wanted to work more preventively in the future. To achieve this, they expressed needs for both theoretically based arguments and communication skills to convince clients about the benefits with this approach. Research based knowledge, practical experience and good examples were shared and reflected on with the purpose of integrating the new knowledge into daily practice. The dialogues at the meetings dealt mainly with topics at an organisation level rather than details and individual level. The dialogues focused on e.g. co-operation in teams within the OHS firms and with different stakeholders at the client companies, integration of OS&amp;H management into existing processes, participation from early stages in design and change processes, the use of risk assessment tools and, finally, communication skills. The co-operative inquiry method was suitable, as the network functioned as an arena for reflective learning. / Arbetsmiljöförhållanden kan påverka individer, organisationer såväl som samhälle och de ekonomiska konsekvenserna kan bli omfattande. Arbetsgivaren är ansvarig för arbetsmiljön men ska anlita företagshälsovård (FHV) eller motsvarande om den egna kompetensen inte är tillräcklig. Därför är yrkeskompetens förprofessionerna inom FHV ett viktigt ämne eftersom de tjänster som levereras syftar till att bidra till en bra arbetsmiljö. Det fanns dock inte mycket forskning inom detta områdeoch det fanns ett behov av att belysa vilken yrkeskompetens som behövs inomFHV. Det fanns också behov av att hitta arenor för kunskapsutveckling och kunskapsspridning inom och mellan professioner som arbetar med FHV samt forskare. Ett syfte med denna avhandling var att få en djupare kunskap och förståelse om yrkeskompetens gällande arbetsmiljöingenjörer och ergonomer som arbetar med FHV inom tillverkningssektorn. Ett annat syfte var att få erfarenheter av att använda metoden co-operative inquiry i ett lärande nätverk för FHV-professioner för att utveckla yrkeskompetens. Avhandlingen är baserad på två konferensbidrag och en artikel, alla med kvalitativ inriktning. I forskningen användes metoden co-operative inquiry för att driva ett lärande nätverk. Detta nätverk bestod av sammanlagt tio arbetsmiljöingenjörer och ergonomer anställda inom intern och extern FHV för tillverkningsföretag samt två forskare. Alla i nätverket agerade som medforskare i enlighet med metoden co-operative inquiry. Dialogerna på nätverksmötena analyserades med hjälp av tematisk analys där sex socio-tekniska element användes som teman. Resultaten visade att nätverkets arbetsmiljöingenjörer och ergonomer ville arbeta mer förebyggande i framtiden. För att uppnå detta uttryckte de behov av både teoretiskt baserade argument och kommunikationsförmåga för att övertyga kunderna om fördelarna med detta förhållningssätt. Forskningsbaserad kunskap, praktiska erfarenheter och goda exempel delades och reflekterades över med syfte att integrera den nya kunskapen i dagligt arbete. Innehållet i dialogerna på mötena gällde främst ämnenpå organisationsnivå snarare än detaljer och på individuell nivå. Dialogerna rörde t.ex. samarbete i team inom FHV-företagen och med olika intressenter hos kundföretag, integration av hantering av arbetsmiljöfrågor i befintliga processer, deltagande från tidiga stadier i design- och förändringsprocesser, användning av riskbedömningsverktyg och slutligen kommunikationsförmåga. Metoden co-operative inquiry var ändamålsenlig i det här fallet eftersom nätverket fungerade som en arena för reflektivtlärande. / <p>QC 20180907</p> / WIKIOSH