Health and Social Care courses

Looking back at an amazing sporting summer, Ben Oakley, Senior Lecturer Sports Studies explores the implications of Rower, Helen Glover's journey to gold in only four years for a new OU module (E313)* on athletic development being produced as part of the BSc Sport, Fitness and Coaching.

Four bestselling talent developments books - Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell, The Talent Code by Daniel Coyle, Talent is Overrated by Geoff Colvin, and Bounce by Matthew Syed - have the same message at their core: success equals 10 years or 10,000 hours of 'deliberate practice' and the right opportunities.

Helen Glover's story challenges some of these assumptions - until four years ago she had never picked up an oar. She and Heather Stanning won Britain first gold medal of the London Olympics in the women's rowing pair.

"I only started rowing in 2008 when I got through the Sporting Giants scheme where I was basically chosen for being tall and sporty," Helen said of UK Sport's talent-spotting process that fast-tracked her to success.

Glover & Stanning's medal cabinet

• 2010 - World Championships, Lake Karapiro - silver
• 2011 - World Championships, Bled - silver , World Cup, Lucerne - gold , World Cup, Munich - gold
• 2012 - World Cup, Belgrade - gold , World Cup, Lucerne - gold , World Cup, Munich - gold , Olympics, London - gold
   

"They tested 4,500 of us in groups of 200 at a time. I remember sitting in a room in Bisham Abbey in 2007 and someone saying: 'A gold medallist in 2012 could be sat in this room. Look around you.' I thought: 'Right, I'm going to make that me.' It was quite surreal."

Challenging the theory
Glover's experience of making gold with four years of training questions the 10 year theory which originally derives from the research of Anders Ericsson in the early 1990s.
The appeal of his and others' message is its simplicity. You can become a champion simply with a strong work ethic and the right environment. These authors suggest that talent is overrated, downplaying the importance of natural giftedness - for them it is more about determination and hard work.

The 10,000 hour rule, as it is known, roughly equates to ten years (20 hours x 50 weeks x 10 years) of perspiration to get to the top. Little wonder these books are popular in the business community. But does it still add up?

Practice makes perfect?
It is a truism that we all improve with practice but advocates of the 10,000 hour rule go further: it is the quality of practice that is important.

Few would disagree that the ability to work persistently at weaknesses, respond to feedback and set backs whilst refining the different components of your sport is more important than just playing a lot. It also follows that excellent coaching is also needed as well as a deep seated desire to continually improve.

Helen Glover recognises the importance of coaches Paul Stannard and Miles Forbes-Thomas who shaped her initial development and Robin Williams who has made refinements in the last two years.

"Coming into rowing so quickly has been a whirlwind. I've been really lucky to have had world-class coaches throughout my time," she says.

Controversy over the 'time' needed to practice
However, there is controversy about the precise quantity of practice, since the 10,000 hour rule was derived by Ericsson asking musicians in 1993 to retrospectively recall their practice behaviour - less than reliable methodology. It is hardly surprisingly then that the theory falls under scrutiny in the new OU stage 3 module Exploring psychological aspects of athletic development starting in 2013.

Helen Glover's story supports increasing evidence that athletes change from one sport to another reaching international level sometimes in under two years. Tall athletes in the UK and Australia are transferring to high levels in sports such as handball, volleyball and rowing with only 3,000-5,000 hours of practice.

From athletics to skeleton bobsleigh, from rowing to cycling - multiple cases of this nature simply blows the 10,000 hour rule out of the water, leading to pointed comments that the convenient round number of 10,000 hours is little more than a 'nice motivational tool'.

Reductionism
Critics of the 10,000 hour rule claim it has fallen prey to the scientific tendency towards reductionism: breaking a process down into constituent parts in order to better understand it. By downplaying the natural genetic aspects of sport in favour of a nurturist perspective the complexity of becoming a champion is oversimplified.

Ericsson's research came nearly two decades before the landmark 2011 findings by Claude Bouchard on genetically determined responses to training. The fitness levels of hundreds of untrained volunteers were measured before and after five months of training.
The response in VO2max - a measure of aerobic capacity and performance - was enormously varied. Some individuals improved by less than 5% whilst others improved by 30 per cent. Bouchard identified genetic variants responsible for this difference.
Genes clearly play a big role in determining ideal body size and muscle fibre types for different sports, such as basketball, rugby or gymnastics but recent research shows that genes have another influence.

Sports scientist Ross Tucker suggests that certain genes are associated with injury. He argues some people could never reach 10,000 hours because of their susceptibility to injury at only, say, six hours per week of training.

An interactionist approach
When is comes to talent, more and more experts now believe that the original genetic differences between us may be relatively modest but practice and psychological factors do the rest. There is a complex interaction at play.

Athletes who show an innate ability realise they are good at something and consequently intensify their playful practice, enjoying their superiority. Their appetite and success thus continues on an upward trajectory, particularly if they are fortunate in having the right motivational environment and opportunity to thrive with a good coach.

Helen Glover's rapid rise to gold demonstrates that a strong work ethic and the necessary psychological characteristics can combine with potent effect as long as the athlete has the right physical requirements in the first place.

This article was adapted from Ben Oakley’s piece on BBC World Olympic Dreams. 

Find out more:

• Olympic success in the OU community
• OU student Deborah Criddle wins two Paralympic medals
• More from the OU community at the London Games 2012

 * Details of this course will appear on study with the OU soon.

Photo by: photoverulam

 

Michael Carchrie Campbell, a law student at The Open University in Ireland, has been recognised by Healthline.com Best of the Web for his blog about living with HIV. Entitled HIV Blogger: living positively, Michael's website chronicles his many emotional and medical experiences since his diagnosis in 2009, as a way of dealing with living with the disease. It subsequently earned him a place in the top 16 STD and HIV Blogs of 2012...

The editors of Healthline.com said of Michael's blog: "Michael is a talented soulful writer with plenty to say. Stop by to leave a word of encouragement to thank him for sharing his story – you will be inspired by his courage, grace and selflessness."

Michael added: "When I got word of this award I was completely shocked. As I said on my blog, I don’t write HIV Blogger: living positively to get any awards, I write it because it helps me to cope with living with HIV."

When he’s not busy blogging, Michael is working towards a Certificate in Legal Studies on a part-time basis with the OU in Ireland. He says: "I chose The Open University so that I could also continue working in my main job at the Northern Ireland Assembly, and because of the reputation The Open University has for providing quality study and support."

Currently awaiting his exam results, Michael hopes he can continue studying flexibly with the OU to gain an LLB in the future in order to progress in his career.

Find out more:

• Study Law with the OU
• Blogs on Platform

 

Following ex OU academic Jill Reynolds' previous posts 'what if I die before I get old' husband Dave continues Jill's story of her experience of cancer treatment in France…

The news in March that chemo treatment had reduced the size of Jill's secondary cancers gave us confidence that with more treatment we could enjoy summer at our house in France and pop down to Spain so Jill could practise her Spanish.

The last blog 'European Union at work' expressed our frustrating experience of health system bureaucracies, but in mid-April she started chemo in Narbonne. We did not expect things to change so quickly. The nagging pain in her left hip quickly got worse. In early April we'd got our bikes out for short rides and done vineyard walks of an hour or so; two weeks later she was on crutches and moving a few paces with difficulty.

When we'd asked 'specialists', in Oxford or Narbonne, if this was likely to be cancer spreading to her bones, they all said 'probably not; pancreatic cancer spreading to bones is rare, only five to 10 per cent of cases'. We had it x-rayed and went to see a 'rhumatalogist' Dr Brousson, an earnest man with a reputation for brusqueness.

He eyed Jill and her x-ray with the look of a gas engineer inspecting an obsolete boiler, and said: “Hole here. Very thin here, perhaps fissure. Risk of fracture. Perhaps try cement. You walked in here with aid of one crutch? Always use two.  Do not walk back down the corridor; take a wheelchair. Put no weight on legs. Come to hospital tomorrow for scans and tests.”

'The news from the scans was not good. Jill was one of the five to 10 per cent whose cancer had spread to bones'

Whenever you go to any healthcare service they always ask for your 'carte vitale' with social security number first. Having to explain “we're not resident here, don't have carte vitale, but do have an international exchange agreement, form S2, I know you haven't heard of it, here's our number” became a little tedious but once you've got the paperwork sorted they do move. None of this “a secretary will get back to you in a week or so with a date for some other time” - they pick up the phone, talk to the scan unit, and say “tomorrow”.

The news from the scans was not good. Jill was one of the five to 10 per cent whose cancer had spread to bones - hip and back. So as 'cement' was obviously not an option a 10-day course of radiotherapy, reputed to be a good treatment for bone cancers, was arranged.

The treatment clinic in Beziers was modern and full of high tech robot things that targeted several places at once.  Although the actual treatment only takes a few minutes, we had a daily 70-mile round trip by taxi/ambulance which dominated the day.

'If Jill's mobility was unlikely to allow her to do much, we thought of returning to the UK'

We were told it takes up to four weeks for radiotherapy to take effect, so Jill put her feet up and waited; nothing changed.  At least she could enjoy a small vin rouge in our sunny garden. Everyone told us what a washout the English summer was so we could almost feel smug. After three weeks there was a follow up and when we asked if, given more time, benefits from radiotherapy might still appear, Dr Mathieu gave a very gallic shrug and spread of hands.

The frustrating thing about pancreatic cancer is that for all the specialisms and high tech kit nobody understands how this disease works and what might happen. It's not that they're bad, or lazy, they just don't know and can't tell you much.

If Jill's mobility was unlikely to allow her to do much, we thought of returning to the UK where we were confident of the end of life care given by Macmillan nurses and the local hospice. But a week or so later Jill lost the use of her legs and ability to stand, so travel would evidently be difficult. 

She now has 'soins palliatif a la maison' where local nurses come in twice a day to wash, change dressings etc and they're marvellous. She even has a physio visit daily to give her foot massage 'pour le circulation' while we watch Bradley Wiggins on TV puffing up the Pyrenees a couple of hours from here on 'le tour'.

So what are the differences, the pros and cons of having treatment in France or staying in the UK?  As one might expect, they're both Western European countries with similar educational traditions so the solutions will be similar. 

In France there's a lot of 'up front' bureaucracy partly due to the network of public and private providers. They react quicker; waiting times are much less or non-existent, which is important when dealing with 'aggressive' cancers. They spend about 20 per cent more per person on healthcare - a significant difference but not a massive one. You can see plenty of opportunities for cost savings!

In the UK the slowness that seems endemic in the admin is difficult to understand and so stressful. The support systems - both NHS and personal - are more intimate. In the end all roads lead to the same place; some are quicker or more comfortable than others.

• You can read Jill's first, second, third and fourth post, covering the experience of dealing with a terminal illness by clicking the links.

 

Jill Reynolds died on 26 July 2012 in France. Jill's contribution to the university and the Faculty of Health and Social Care was immense and stretched over many years, until she retired on health grounds. She was not only a gifted and committed teacher and researcher but, as those who had the pleasure of working with her will know, a delightful and supportive colleague.

 

The Faculty of Health and Social Care at The Open University is seeking high-quality applications for funded full time studentships and self funded part time students.

The Faculty’s research focuses on the following areas: ageing and later life; reproductive and sexual health; death and dying; living with a disability and/or long term condition; children and young people; parenting and families. Our research draws on various methodologies and forms of analysis and much is based on multidisciplinary work across the social sciences, in particular drawing on medical sociology, critical psychology, anthropology and other critical, applied social sciences.

The Faculty has a lively post-graduate student community undertaking wide-ranging research both in the UK and internationally. 

Studentships commence from autumn 2012. Applicants must normally reside in the UK for the duration of the studentship.

For detailed information, and to apply online, visit the website or contact the Faculty Research Office on 01908 858373 or hsc-research-enquiries@open.ac.uk. The closing date is 12 noon on 26 April.  Interviews to be held in June.
 

A recent blog featured in Guardian social care network, is by an student who shares her experiences of undertaking a Diploman in Social Work with The Open University.

The piece includes details of how she gained sponsorship through an employer and how flexibe working fits in with her life.

For more information:

• Diploma in Social Work
• Join the Social Care Network
• Photo by: owenwbrown's photostream

In 2005 in Great Britain 41 per cent of all women aged 16 or over were neither married or co-habiting, says Jill Reynolds, author of The Single Woman.  Jill, a senior lecturer in the OU's Faculty of Health and Social Care (HSC) and member of the Centre for Ageing and Biographical Studies within HSC, is interested in the way women talk about singleness and what that tells us about the society in which we live. Here she writes about her continued research into singleness and what it means to be being single without children in later life...

When I originally researched singleness among women in their middle years I talked both to women who had always been single and to those who were single again following marriage or a long term relationship.

Some had children, many did not and I noticed that these latter had a double set of accounting to do. They often felt required to explain why they were single. They also found it hard to respond to questions on whether they had children, which were sometimes actually followed up with a 'why not?', although more often this unspoken query remained implicit.

This brief video gives some examples of how participants responded in my interviews:

I have interviewed many of these women a second time in 2011, now that they are aged more than 60 years. In further analysing data from other researchers (Arber and Davidson*, Bowling**) who included childless people in their research samples of those aged 65+, I noted that while most participants introduced references to their children and grandchildren into discussions on the quality of their life and what made them happy, it was rare for participants to be asked how they felt if they were without children at this point in their lives.

My follow up interviews highlighted that those without children did not lack for activities that contributed to happiness: nice walks and sunshine were often mentioned; and many felt their quality of life had increased, giving up work had meant a weight lifted from their shoulders, and they described themselves as more confident than when younger. Since my original interviews some 13 years earlier two participants had, like myself, married someone they had been seeing regularly.

While for some there was no regret about not having children, a question on 'what if?' produced a number of responses such as 'who will be there to do for me what I did for my mum?'

In contrast to discomfort felt when younger in comparisons between their life and that of friends with children, many were more comfortable with their own situation and might refer to good relationships with their friends' now adult children. Interestingly, a number of participants mentioned talk by their friends in older age about younger family members as something of a nuisance that could make for tedious conversation: 'I wish we could talk about something other than their grandchildren', or 'it cuts down their self-awareness as if they can only focus on somebody else'.

Something had changed in their balance of accounting so that some participants positioned themselves as companionable, free and active, while positioning their friends with grandchildren as burdened by a sense of duty that required them to prioritise time caring for them and a narrow conversational focus.

Find out more:

• What do we know about being old and childless: an interview with my future self
• What can we do if we're not grannies

 

*85 interviews men over 65 years (UKDA 6011 Arber, S. and Davidson, K., Older Men: their Social Worlds and Healthy Lifestyles, 1999-2002 of whom 15 had no children
** 80 interviews men and women over 65 years (UKDA 5237, Bowling, A. Adding Quality to Quantity: Quality of Life in Older Age, 2000-2002) of whom 14 had no children

Vic Finkelstein, a ‘giant’ of the disability movement and credited with putting The Open University at the forefront of teaching and thinking about disability has died aged 73.

Born in South Africa his experience of apartheid, including being jailed as a political prisoner, influenced his thinking about how society treats disabled people.

Vic Finkelstein was disabled after a pole-vaulting accident as a teenager, later travelling to Britain for treatment and winning a swimming medal for South Africa at the Stoke Mandeville Games.

Back in South Africa and while at university he became involved with the anti-apartheid movement in 1964 supporting Bram Fischer, Nelson Mandela’s trial lawyer who had gone underground.

In 1966 Finkelstein was sentenced to 18 months hard labour, reduced to three months being ‘a cripple’.
 
In 1968 he fled to Britain and helped found with Paul Hunt the Union of the Physically Impaired Against Segregation (UPIAS) which argued that oppression by society was the biggest issue for disabled people.

UPIAS focussed on changing what it called ‘the disabling society’.

Through UPIAS and in the 1970s the television programme Link, Finkelstein helped change the way society thought about disability. In 1981 he campaigned for the exclusion of the South African team taking part in the Stoke Mandeville games for disabled people.
 
He also helped set up the British Council of Organisations of Disabled People and the London Disability Arts Forum leading to the National Disability Arts Collection and Archive.

He was an NHS psychologist before joining The Open University in the 1980s as course chair of The Handicapped Person in the Community the world’s first course in disability studies.

He retired from the OU in 1996 becoming a Visiting Senior Research Fellow at Leeds University.

Joanna Bornat, Emeritus Professor of Oral History OU Faculty of Health and Social Care remembered his OU valedictory lecture.

“I don’t think many people at the OU now will know that we had a giant of the disability rights movement in our midst.

She said with other disabled people Vic developed the idea that disability might be the creation of the society in which disabled people lived rather than impairment. That led to a movement that brought changes all of us benefit from now including access into buildings and transport and disabled voices in media and arts changing society for the better.

“Many if not most disabled people would argue there is much left to be done, but without Vic’s theorising and his steadfast non-compromising position, those changes might never have happened,” she said.

Joanna said Vic spoke about being a prisoner in South Africa. In jail he was given a bed instead of a mat on the floor and had ‘helpers’ to get him round the prison.

“His conclusion was that when necessary the state could make things accessible.

“He was given a five year banning order but said that made no difference to him as he was unable to do any of the things he was banned from doing,” she said.
 
Another OU colleague, Jan Walmsley, Visiting Professor in the History of Learning Disabilities told the Disability Law Service website that Finkelstein had an enormously powerful influence on the way the OU taught and continues to teach in health and social care.

She said he put the OU at the forefront of teaching and thinking about disability.

“As a colleague he was enormously generous to me, encouraging me in every conceivable way to develop my ideas, writing and research,” she said.

Vic Finkelstein died at Stoke Mandeville on November 30. A funeral service was held last week.
 

• OU Faculty of Health and Social Care

 

 

A drug treatment which dramatically boosts the effectiveness of laser cancer treatment has been developed by Open University researchers working with the National Medical Laser Centre.

Laser light combined with a photosensitizer drug is widely used to attack skin, breast and neck cancer cells, a treament known as photodynamic therapy (PDT). But many cancer cells contain antioxidants which partially protect them against PDT.

The research team, led by Dr Jon Golding, Lecturer in Health Sciences at The Open University, used antioxidant inhibitor drugs to overcome the antioxidant defences of breast cancer cells, resulting in a significantly improved cell kill. 

"Because we are able to target cancerous cells more effectively, we expect an improved prognosis for cancer suffers," he said. "We selected antioxidant inhibitor drugs that are already clinically licensed, so it should speed up the adoption of these important findings into clinical practice."

Their study, Antioxidant Inhibitors Potentiate the Cytotoxicity of Photodynamic Therapy, is published in the PDT journal, Photochemistry and Photobiology.