Browsing by Author "Breheny M"
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- ItemA Bioeconomic Model for the Thoroughbred Racing Industry-Optimisation of the Production Cycle with a Horse Centric Welfare Perspective(MDPI (Basel, Switzerland), 2023-01-30) Legg KA; Gee EK; Breheny M; Gibson MJ; Rogers CWThe Thoroughbred racing industry faces new and competing pressures to operate within a modern, changing society. Three major moderators drive the focus and productivity of the industry worldwide: economic sustainability, horse biology and social licence to operate. This review proposes that despite the apparent homogeneity in the structure of racing across jurisdictions due to international regulation of the sport, there are significant differences within each jurisdiction in each of the three moderators. This creates challenges for the comparison of injury risk factors for racehorses within the industry across different jurisdictions. Comparison of the relative distribution of racing and gambling metrics internationally indicates that the Asian jurisdictions have a high focus on gambling efficiency and high economic return of the product, with a high number of starts per horse and the highest relative betting turnover. In contrast, the racing metrics from the USA have proportionally low racing stakes and fewer horses per race. These differences provide insight into the sociology of horse ownership, with a shift from the long-term return on investment held by most jurisdictions to a short-term transitional view and immediate return on investment in others. Wastage studies identify varying risks influenced by the predominant racing culture, training methods, production focus and environment within individual jurisdictions. Increasing societal pressure to maintain high racehorse welfare and reduce the negative impact of gambling poses fluctuating risks to each jurisdiction's social licence to operate. Based on the data presented within this review, the authors propose that the use of a bioeconomic model would permit consideration of all three moderators on industry practice and optimisation of the jurisdiction-specific production cycle with a horse-centric welfare perspective.
- ItemBalancing sleeping with guardianship: narratives of sleep during informal dementia care(Bristol University Press and Policy Press, 2024-02-01) Gibson R; Helm A; Ross I; Gander P; Breheny MSleep has been recognised as compromised in dementia care. This study aims to represent the experiences and needs of informal carers via sleep-related accounts. Retrospective interviews were conducted with 20 carers concerning sleep changes across the trajectory of dementia care. Key interactive narratives were around: ‘sleep as my sacrifice’; tensions between identities of being a ‘sleeper’ versus ‘guardian’; and ‘sleep as a luxury’. Maintaining healthy sleep and preferable sleep practices is challenging while balancing the responsibilities of dementia-related care. Acknowledging sleep as a sociological practice enables a greater understanding of carers’ nuanced experience and support needs.
- Item‘Broad consensus across the divide’: rhetorical constructions of climate change in mainstream news media(The Royal Society of New Zealand, 2019-05) Crawford L; Breheny M; Mansvelt J; Hill SThe links between science and policy are navigated prominently in the media. The internet provides a forum for discussion of climate change, allowing lay people to enter the debate. In this paper, rhetorical analysis was used to analyse online news articles and comments from the public following two major climate-related decisions in New Zealand. This analysis demonstrates how arguments regarding climate change are built and defended. Identifying strategies invoked by those that occupy a majority or minority position within public discourse on climate change reveals how such arguments take on rhetorical force, providing the basis for establishing claims and counter-arguments. Understanding the rhetorical constructions of such positions can reveal why particular arguments might gain power, opening the way for a more knowledgeable and informed positioning of individuals, organisations, and scientific knowledge to emerge in public debates on climate change.
- ItemCompanion Animal Fostering as Health Promotion: A Literature Review.(MDPI (Basel, Switzerland), 2023-06-21) Roseveare C; Breheny M; Mansvelt J; Murray L; Wilkie M; Gates MC; Tchounwou PBThere is growing interest in the health-promoting potential of human-companion animal relationships from a broad public health perspective while acknowledging barriers to ownership, particularly for older adults. Companion animal fostering is an alternative to pet ownership that aligns with the Ottawa Charter health promotion principle that caring for others in everyday settings promotes health. This narrative review of the literature on companion animal fostering draws on Te Whare Tapa Whā (the four-sided house), an indigenous model of health that is influential in Aotearoa/New Zealand, and the Ottawa Charter. We found that companion animal fostering can be considered health-promoting for human and non-human animals, using a broad and multidimensional understanding of health. As well as improving the long-term outcomes for homeless animals, companion animal fostering has the potential to promote the health of the individuals, families, and communities who provide foster homes. Our review highlights the importance of health promoters considering the reciprocal relationship between human and animal health. Future research should explore different aspects of human and non-human health, perspectives of different types of fosterers in different settings and communities, barriers to fostering, and methods that explore the role of caring for a wider range of companion animals in creating and sustaining wellbeing.
- ItemExperiences of COVID-19 lockdown among older people in Aotearoa: Idyllic or dystopian?(Cambridge University Press, 2023-10-02) Breheny M; Stephens CThe COVID-19 pandemic prompted concern about the wellbeing of older people, however, there have also been accounts of increased sense of community in response to the disruption of established routines. To explore how older people experienced lockdown in Aotearoa/New Zealand, we analysed 635 written comments on the 2020 wave of the Health, Work and Retirement longitudinal survey of people aged 55-85 years. Using narrative genre analysis, we discuss two narratives of lockdown: a narrative of lockdown as 'idyllic' and a 'dystopian' narrative of distrust. Using the idyllic narrative, people described pleasant activities and linked these stories to earlier times when community life was less time-pressured and people were more connected to one another. The dystopian narrative was used to describe politicians and the media as untrustworthy and to depict new vulnerabilities created by the rules of lockdown. These narrative genres provide different positions for older people. In the idyllic narrative, older people are treasured and supported by younger community members, whereas in the dystopian narrative older people feel abandoned and manipulated. These genres draw on possible late-life futures that are familiar to older people: either treasured or discarded. Identifying these narrative genres reveals the different vulnerabilities older people experience. This information can be used to support older people to experience security and to flourish in uncertain times.
- Item"It's Just [Complicated] Sleep": Discourses of Sleep and Aging in the Media.(Oxford University Press, 2023-12) Breheny M; Ross I; Ladyman C; Signal L; Dew K; Gibson RThe media are influential in shaping beliefs and attitudes on aging and health-related behaviors. Sleep is increasingly recognized as a key pillar for healthy aging. However, the role of media representations of sleep is yet to be assessed with regard to discourses of aging. Texts from New Zealand's main free online news source were collated using key words "sleep" together with "aging," "older," "elderly," or "dementia" between 2018 and 2021. Contents of 38 articles were interpreted using critical discourse analysis. Discursive constructions described an inevitable decline of sleep with aging, including impacts of both physiological decline and life stage transitions; sleep's role as both a remedy and risk for ill health and disease; and the simplification of solutions for self-managing sleep juxtaposed alongside recognition of its complexity. The audience of these complex messages is left in the invidious position of both pursuing sleep practices to prevent age-related decline, whilst also being told that sleep degradation is inevitable. This research demonstrates the complexity of media messaging and the fraught options it offers: good sleep as both a reasonable achievement to strive for and as impossibly idealistic. Findings mirror two predominant health identities available to older people, as responsible for resisting aging or as falling into inevitable decline. This reveals additional expectations around appropriate time use and behaviors with aging. More nuanced messaging that goes beyond sleep as a resource for health and waking productivity is recommended. Acknowledging the complexity of sleep, aging, and society could be the starting point of such adaptation.
- ItemMissed Opportunities for Addressing Maternal Mental Health: A Thematic Analysis of Mothers' Experiences of Using the Well Child Tamariki Ora Service in Aotearoa NZ(Hindawi collaboration with John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 2024-03-23) Clapham B; Breheny M; Reweti A; Severinsen C; Ware F; Aydin MMaternal mental health plays a vital role in the overall wellbeing of mothers, children, families, whānau (core support network) and communities. However, many mothers face mental health challenges during the transition to parenthood. In this study, we used an online story-sharing platform to collect the experiences of mothers who have faced unmet needs while using the Well Child Tamariki Ora (WCTO) service in Aotearoa New Zealand. From the 420 submitted stories, 125 stories related to mental health need while using the WCTO service. Using thematic analysis, we identified three main themes that highlighted the experiences of mothers with the service. This includes (1) making it seem that I'm coping: Mothers' fear of being judged; (2) i wish I had connected with my WCTO nurse: Fostering meaningful relationships to facilitate personal information sharing; and (3) beyond the baby: Mothers desire for recognition and support during WCTO visits. These findings point to several missed opportunities for WCTO providers to inquire about mental health and offer support needed by mothers. To address this, a relational approach to care would prioritise families and whānau as the focus of care rather than just monitoring the development of babies.