Ana Rita Sequeira (she/her)

Previous research on Volunteering in aged care settings in Western Australia: Good practice during covid-19 and beyond (Paull & Paulin 2022) and The Jacaranda Project (Paull & Paulin 2020) highlighted several issues which merited further investigation. In addition, the Royal Commission on Aged Care Quality and Safety (CoA, 2021) made many recommendations to improve aged care provision in Australia including recognition of the importance of the contribution of volunteers in addressing social isolation and assistance with client activities in age care settings.

This report outlines a project involving a series of interviews and research workshops (held in person and online) over several months in 2023 and 2024 by the Project Team from Murdoch University. The project was designed to develop an understanding of the role of those who managed or coordinated volunteer activity in residential dementia care settings in Western Australia.

The outcomes of this research are set out in the following report.

Key findings in relation to managing volunteering in dementia care settings in Western Australia in 2023/24 are as follows:

Communications: Language used is important. In the interests of clarity for this report, we refer to volunteers/visitors, residents/clients and volunteer managers.

Complexity: There are several levels of cognitive impairment/dementia which require different levels of approach in managing volunteers in aged care settings.

Compliance: Government policy now requires aged care providers to have a volunteer program and for those volunteers to be well trained.

Organisational Policies: Ongoing recognition and support for volunteer managers and volunteer programs is vital.

Managing at a distance: Volunteer managers often manage at a distance from the site where volunteering takes place, adding a layer of complexity for both volunteers and managers.

First Language: Learning how to communicate with first language speakers is important and resources to assist such as advice on talking to someone with dementia which may be useful for volunteer involving organisations to offer to their volunteers in dementia care settings.

Training: For both volunteer managers and volunteers. The nature and volume of training is a delicate balance, not only to identify how much is enough, but also to meet compliance and motivational needs.

Context: In recent decades, many countries experienced a reduction in the quality and functioning of democratic institutions and norms, accompanied by rising social distrust and opposing political views. The decline in vaccine confidence might be linked to these trends. This study explores the political factors influencing individual attitudes towards vaccination across 22 upper-middle-income and high-income countries, examining the interaction between political orientation, trust in public health authorities, and levels of democracy.

Methods: Using the VaxPref database, encompassing demographically representative data from 50,242 respondents collected between July 2022 and June 2023, our analysis operates on three levels: pooled sample, democracy groups, and country-specific analyses.

Results: We found that higher democracy scores generally correlated with lower levels of vaccine scepticism. People at the centre and on the right of the political spectrum expressed more scepticism towards vaccines overall. However, trust in public health authorities emerged as the determinant which explains the largest variation in vaccine attitudes.

Conclusions: Our findings suggest a greater effectiveness of democratic systems in fostering vaccine confidence, and the need to depoliticise vaccination efforts. Building and maintaining trust in scientific information and technical expertise is critical. Blunt measures like vaccination mandates may not sustain long-term confidence, particularly in democratic contexts. Effective interventions should prioritise comprehensive school-based education to promote preventive health behaviours, coupled with trust-enhancing targeted communication strategies

In vaccination decisions, individuals must weigh the benefits against the risks of remaining unvaccinated and potentially facing social restrictions. Previous studies have focused on individual preferences for vaccine characteristics and societal restrictions separately. This study aims to quantify public preferences and the potential trade-offs between vaccine characteristics and societal restrictions, including lockdowns and vaccine mandates, in the event of a future pandemic. We conducted a discrete choice experiment (DCE) involving 47,114 respondents from 21 countries between July 2022 and June 2023 through an online panel. Participants were presented with choices between two hypothetical vaccination programs and an option to opt out. A latent class logit model was used to estimate trade-offs among attributes. Despite some level of preference heterogeneity across countries and respondents’ profiles, we consistently identified three classes of respondents: vaccine refusers, vaccine-hesitant, and pro-vaccine individuals. Vaccine attributes were generally deemed more important than societal restriction attributes. We detected strong preferences for highest levels of vaccine effectiveness and domestically produced vaccines across most countries. Being fully vaccinated against COVID-19 was the strongest predictor of pro-vaccine class preferences. Women and younger people were more likely to be vaccine refusers compared to men and older individuals. Lower socioeconomic status was associated with vaccine hesitancy and refusal in some countries, while higher-educated and wealthier individuals were more likely to exhibit hesitancy in others. Our findings emphasize the need for tailored vaccination programs that consider local contexts and demographics. Building trust in national regulatory authorities and international organizations through targeted communication, along with investing in domestic production facilities, can improve vaccine uptake and enhance public health responses in the future.

Objective
Despite widespread perceptions that SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) is no longer a significant threat, the virus continues to loom, and new variants may require renewed efforts to control its spread. Understanding how individual preferences and attitudes influence vaccination behaviour and policy compliance in light of the endemic phase is crucial in preparation for this scenario.

Method
This paper presents descriptive data from a global stated choice survey conducted in 22 countries across 6 different continents between July 2022 and August 2023, and reports the methodological work developed to address the need for comparable data.

Results
This study included 50,242 respondents. Findings indicated significant heterogeneity across countries in terms of vaccination status and willingness to accept boosters. Vaccine hesitancy and refusal were driven by lower trust in public health bodies, younger age, and lower educational levels. Refusers and hesitant people reported lower willingness to take risks compared to those fully vaccinated (p<0.05). Lower mental health levels were found for the hesitant cohort (p<0.05).

Conclusions
Insights from this database can help public health authorities to gain a new understanding of the vaccine hesitancy phenomenon, support them in managing the transition from the pandemic to the endemic phase, and favour a new stream of research to maximise behavioural response to vaccination programs in preparation of future pandemics.

Background
Countries have adopted different COVID-19 policies to contain the transmission of the disease and to prepare for vaccination rollout. Countries’ political context, vaccine policy history, and health systems’ responses impacted COVID-19 health outcomes.

Objective
This study focused on synthesizing and examining COVID-19 non-pharmaceutical interventions in Brazil and Portugal, understanding the enablers and barriers to COVID-19 vaccination access and distribution, and health and non-health outcomes across three time-points: before vaccination, during mass vaccination, and after the declaration of endemicity.

Methods
Extensive qualitative document analysis of secondary sources published in Portuguese and English over the past three years, and examination of primary publicly available epidemiological data since the beginning of the pandemic.

Results
In the first year of the pandemic, the COVID-19 government response between the two countries was dissimilar; effective coordination, trust in the government response and political alignment in Portugal contrasted the political denial of the pandemic, lack of coordination between the various levels of government, at the same time the Brazilian population engaged in protective behaviours and distrusted the government. The COVID-19 vaccination had a good response from the public, associated with a primary care level network of distribution, low vaccine hesitancy, and strong childhood immunization programs before the pandemic in both countries. Vaccine manufacturing in Brazil and the strong support from the European Union to Portugal on vaccine acquisition have also aided these countries in achieving high COVID-19 vaccination coverage.

Conclusion
Future policies to promote a well-functioning and resilient health system should consider medical and nursing workforce sustainability, equity in all policies, building public trust, strengthening health system governance, and improving preparedness and surveillance.

Scholarship on feedback format tends to demonstrate that students prefer video feedback; however, the characteristics of study participants are often absent. This study builds on the scholarship of feedback practice mediated by technology and feedback literacy in intercultural contexts. A mixed methods approach examined international postgraduate students' experience of, preferences for and attitudes towards three feedback formats: text, audio and video. Eighty-four participants in an Australian university completed a survey, and twelve participated in semi-structured phone interviews. The participants were mainly women from India, aged between 25 and 34 years old and declared English as a second language. Participants scored their experience with video, audio and written feedback. Written feedback was ranked first, followed by video and audio feedback. Participants reported that written feedback allows students to easily locate areas that need improvement. The role of the disciplinary traditions and respondents' educational background is discussed to make sense of the results.