Simonet, Emanuel Nicolas Cortes Atul Gawande's book Being Mortal: Illness, Medicine, and What Matters in the End, draws upon both anecdotal stories and literary sources to highlight the importance of honest discussions as the end of life approaches. These discussions are particularly significant for older persons and terminally ill patients. Gawande believes that these discussions could be facilitated by more in-depth and focussed communication between the healthcare professional and the patient. Respecting the patient's values and priorities, and promoting a (...) sense of wellbeing and dignity are critical for quality care. (shrink)

Simonet, Emanuel Nicolas Cortes A Voice at the Table: An Integrated Model for Pastoral Care in Aged Mental Health, written by Rosemary Kelleher with Olga Yastrubetskaya, describes a practical model for integrating pastoral care practitioners into multidisciplinary teams within aged mental health services. While highlighting the importance of spiritual care within healthcare, the book also emphasises the need for pastoral care practitioners to have the essential skills and knowledge vital to being significant members of the multidisciplinary team. This article (...) offers a concise review of a most valuable resource. (shrink)

Simonet, Emanuel Nicolas Cortes The widespread over-consumption of alcohol in Australia has shaped its high tolerance to drinking culture. Australia has a complex socio-cultural relationship with alcohol and it is challenging to reduce high alcohol intake when it is so ingrained in our society. The substantial harms associated with over-consumption not only affect the drinker, but also impact upon the wider community. This article discusses the available evidence about the health and social harms for individuals that may result from (...) an over-consumption of alcohol and how these impact on society. More so, it discusses how effective alcohol policy strategies such as decreasing the availability of alcohol, increasing its price as well as promoting public awareness of the associated risks may help to reduce these harms. (shrink)

Simonet, Emanuel Nicolas Cortes; Herbert, Dilinie The Caroline Chisholm Centre for Health Ethics1 was established through the collaboration of private catholic hospitals in Victoria, namely: Cabrini Health, Calvary Health Care Bethlehem, Caritas Christi Hospice, Mercy Hospital for Women, Mercy Werribee Hospital, Mercy Palliative Care, St John of God Health Care, St Vincent's Hospital Melbourne, and St Vincent's Private Hospital Melbourne. Our role is to develop, review and respond to policies and procedures affecting Catholic Health Care; provide educational resources and (...) formation in ethics and offer ethics consultation and advisement. The Chisholm Health Ethics Bulletin is our quarterly publication that reports on ethical issues arising in health care as well as literature reviews of pertinent research topics that effect national and international interests. (shrink)

Simonet, Emanuel Nicolas Cortes Victoria's new Mental Health Act 2014 came into operation on 1st July 2014. Corresponding with international standards, the new Act aims to strengthen the human rights of persons with mental illness. This is supported by the inclusion of a recovery framework which promotes a collaborative treatment approach, procedures that reduce the duration of compulsory treatment, as well as better mental health service oversight and safeguards. This article analyses and highlights these reforms from a human rights (...) perspective. (shrink)

Simonet, Emanuel Nicolas Cortes The Internet has made seeking for health information easy and convenient. This information provides medical knowledge which has the potential to empower both patients and health professionals. However, It is concerning that patients may attempt to use this type of information for self-diagnostic purposes, particularly those who are unfamiliar with medical terminology. Understanding web- based information effectively is most important to enable appropriate and informed healthcare decisions. Consequently, a new role for health professionals is indicated, (...) requiring them to become familiar with the health information available on the Internet, to direct patients to reliable sources, and to assist them in understanding and interpreting web-based health information. (shrink)

Simonet, Emanuel Nicolas Cortes Christine Bryden is a survivor of dementia and has been a passionate advocate for persons with dementia for more than 20 years. She has written 4 books. Her latest 2 books - Before I Forget and Nothing About Us, Without us! - give an insider's perspective into the lived experience of a person with dementia. This article provides a review of these 2 books which detail Christine Bryden's life story, and in doing so, highlight some (...) of the key messages expressed by the author. These key messages include examining the various misconceptions about persons with dementia, the required care for persons with dementia, as well as the need for building a dementia-friendly society. (shrink)

Simonet, Emanuel Nicolas Cortes Negative portrayals of older persons in Australian culture have led to ageist attitudes and behaviours towards them. For the older person, this can result in self-deprecation, which in turn leads to poorer health, diminished wellbeing, and reduced mental ability. It can also negatively affect an older person's motivation to be an active member of society, resulting in a sense of isolation. Ageism also disregards the positive economic and social contributions that older persons make to the (...) wider community. Drawing on both secular and Catholic viewpoints, this article seeks to recognise, challenge, and move to overcome ageism and age discrimination in Australia. (shrink)

Simonet, Emanuel Nicolas Cortes Victoria's new Powers of Attorney Act 2014 came into operation on 1 September 2015. Following recommendations by the Victorian Parliament Law Reform Committee, changes have been introduced in the new Act to simplify the process of making an enduring power of attorney. Reforms include the addition of a section on capacity, the introduction of a supportive attorney role distinct from the enduring power of attorney role, and the enhancement of safeguards. This article analyses how the (...) new Powers of Attorney Act 2014 empowers persons with impaired decision-making capacity and also strengthens the mechanisms which protect them from abuse. (shrink)

Émettons le postulat que nos activités, nos pratiques et nos conduites sont enracinées dans le social, dont elles racontent les événements par les mises en scène de la vie. L’action, individuelle autant que collective, étant le vecteur des caractéristiques historiques, sociologiques, politiques, économiques, philosophiques, culturelles et esthétiques de la société.Le fonctionnement..

During the seventies, the Belgian-Zairese relations are characterized by a series of crises and reconciliations.Many facts had an important effect on those relations : the « Zairianisation » of foreign, especially Belgian, companies; President Mobutu's request for economic aid; the Shaba-invasion of 1977; the presence of Zaïrese opponents in Belgium and the hostility against Kinshasa and especially against President Mobutu from the part of particular Belgian circles.All these facts make it very difficult to Belgium to draw a coherent policy in (...) this case. (shrink)

This article seeks to offer a socially and politically situated analysis of the disenchantment produced by sociological research categorised as critical. It offers a step-by-step comparison of how a study on voluntary work (that produced disenchantment for some, truism for others) was received. It also gives weight to the fact that a research process can also lead to the politicisation of research. The article sheds light on two arguments for the autonomy of engagement that lies at the heart of the (...) critique of a critique: one concerning the autonomy of the actors’ “citizen engagement” and of their relation to work, and the other concerning the autonomy of the researcher’s work and its “commitments”, generally presented as “research neutrality”. This reflexive attention to the effects of the research investigation not only on others but also on the author of the research ultimately questions the social and political scope of the “conception of hostile worlds” inscribed in the “doctrine of separated spheres” of work and commitment that, in the present case, concerns both the object and the practice of research. (shrink)

Simonet, Emanuel Nicolas Cortes Advance care planning is a significant and important process of end-of-life care. It provides the opportunity for persons to express their medical treatment preferences prior to losing the capacity to decide for themselves. It also allows for the appointment of substituted decision maker to make medical decisions for persons who have lost capacity. Whilst advance care planning can be beneficial when it is used effectively, the legislative framework surrounding advance care planning is complex and confusing. (...) This brief article will summarise advance care planning, its current legislative framework in Victoria and how proposed recommendations offered by the Inquiry into end of life choices may simplify advance care planning. (shrink)

Le présent défi pour l’Église, c’est à la fois celui de la mondialisation et d’un pluralisme religieux croissant, qu’il s’agisse des grandes religions ou des nouvelles religiosités. Mais elle doit affronter aussi un indifférentisme religieux qui peut être l’envers d’un combat passionné pour l’homme. Face à ces défis, il faut tenir compte d’un nouveau paradigme théologique, celui d’un pluralisme religieux de principe qui s’interroge sur la signification de la pluralité des religions à l’intérieur du dessein de Dieu. Ce nouveau paradigme (...) nous invite à instaurer un nouveau rapport à la vérité en théologie. Et c’est en allant jusqu’au bout du paradoxe christologique que l’on peut désigner le christianisme comme une religion essentiellement dialogale. Comme l’œcuménisme, le dialogue interreligieux doit être une dimension de toute la théologie. La théologie des religions tend alors à devenir une théologie interreligieuse qui manifeste la fécondation mutuelle des religions dans notre discours sur Dieu et sur le salut de l’homme. (shrink)

Motor inhibitory control, the ability to suppress unwanted actions, has been previously shown to rely on domain-general IC processes that are involved in a wide range of IC tasks. Nevertheless, the existence of effector-specific regions and activation patterns that would differentiate manual vs. oculomotor response inhibition remains unknown. In this study, we investigated the brain dynamics supporting these two response effectors with the same IC task paradigm. We examined the behavioral performance and electrophysiological activity in a group of healthy young (...) people with a Go/NoGo task using the index finger for the manual modality and the eyes for the oculomotor modality. By computing topographic analysis of variance, we found significant differences between topographies of scalp recorded potentials of the two response effectors between 250 and 325 ms post-stimulus onset. The source estimations localized this effect within the left precuneus, a part of the superior parietal lobule, showing stronger activity in the oculomotor modality than in the manual modality. Behaviorally, we found a significant positive correlation in response time between the two modalities. Our collective results revealed that while domain-general IC processes would be engaged across different response effectors in the same IC task, effector-specific activation patterns exist. In this case, the stronger activation of the left precuneus likely accounts for the increased demand for visual attentional processes in the oculomotor Go/NoGo task. (shrink)

La publication du Journal du Concile de l’ambassadeur P. Poswick est l’occasion de rappeler quelques questions majeures de Vatican II dans le traitement desquelles trois évêques belges se sont particulièrement illustrés. Ce rapide parcours permet de dépasser les oppositions émises récemment à propos du Concile entre « l’événement et le texte » de même qu’entre « la discontinuité et la continuité ». On constate en effet que le témoignage des acteurs est indispensable pour la compréhension des textes et que les (...) avancées du Concile permettent une meilleure compréhension de la tradition. (shrink)

Metagenomics is a culture‐ and PCR‐independent approach that is now widely exploited for directly studying microbial evolution, microbial ecology, and developing biotechnologies. Observations and discoveries are critically dependent on DNA extraction methods, sequencing technologies, and bioinformatics tools. The potential pitfalls need to be understood and, to some degree, mastered if the resulting data are to survive scrutiny. In particular, methodological variations appear to affect results from different ecosystems differently, thus increasing the risk of biological and ecological misinterpretation. Part of the (...) difficulty is derived from the lack of knowledge concerning the true microbial diversity and because no approach can guarantee accessing microorganisms in the same proportion in which they exist in the environment. However, the variation between different approaches (e.g. DNA extraction techniques, sequence annotation systems) can be used to evaluate whether observations are meaningful. These methodological variations can be integrated into the error analysis before comparing microbial communities. (shrink)

The rise in interdisciplinary scholarship between philosophy and theology has produced a number of critiques of historical biblical criticism (HBC) by philosophers of religion. Some dialogue has resulted, but these critiques have gone largely unnoticed by historical critical scholars. This article argues that two such critiques of HBC, offered by Plantinga and Stump, are undermined by faulty presuppositions on the philosophers' part regarding the nature and value of HBC and misunderstandings of the nature of the ancient texts on which the (...) discipline of HBC focuses. (shrink)

In the Peruvian Amazon, tobacco (Nicotiana rustica) is considered a master plant and is the main curing tool of local healers. Among its several medicinal uses, we find drinking tobacco juice with the purpose of purging in order to heal on a physical, mental, and spiritual level. This specific practice is part of the addiction treatment protocol developed at Takiwasi Center. The goal of this investigation was to focus on the effects of the tobacco purge as reported by therapists at (...) Takiwasi and to elaborate its relevance within the context of addiction treatment. In order to obtain information on this topic, we performed research fieldwork based on a participant-observation approach, and retrospective data analysis on information from interviews conducted by psychotherapists with patients. As alleged effects of the tobacco purge, therapists reported that patients experienced feelings of mental clarity with the greatest frequency (n = 80), followed by noteworthy physical effects including discomfort and intoxication (n = 63). An effect on sleep and dreams was also common (n = 36) and many found the experience directly related to addiction treatment and the desire to consume substances (n = 20). (shrink)