Browsing by Author "McGuigan K"

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    Accessing primary healthcare during COVID-19: health messaging during lockdown
    (Taylor and Francis Group, 2022-03) Blake D; Thompson J; Chamberlain K; McGuigan K
    Accessing healthcare during a disaster matters for the well-being of people and communities. This article explores healthcare messaging about General Practitioner (GP) services for non-COVID-19 health concerns during the Level 4 lockdown in Te Papaioea (Palmerston North), Aotearoa New Zealand. Messaging from Government, media and local GP clinics were analysed to understand how people were advised to seek care for non-COVID-19 health concerns. We found inconsistencies in these communications, ranging from messages to not attend healthcare services because of possible COVID-19 surges, to messages with vague, or lack of, information. Government messages did include advice for seeking general healthcare, but this was largely rendered invisible due to the focus on ‘staying home, saving lives’. Media messaging was similarly influenced by these Government directives. Few GP clinics had websites, and few provided information about accessing general healthcare services. Clinics also lacked up-to-date telephone messages about seeking healthcare for non-COVID-19 symptoms and illnesses. All three sources neglected the cultural, social and contextual diversity of the local audience. We recommend that communication during disasters should be clear, concise and consistent. Further, GPs should be supported to have websites and telecommunication platforms. All communications should be inclusive and aim to reach diverse audiences.
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    ‘It's a sanity restorer’: Narcotics anonymous (NA) as recovery capital during COVID-19 in Aotearoa New Zealand
    (John Wiley and Sons Ltd, 2024-03-01) Mappledoram M; Blake D; McGuigan K; Hodgetts D
    Narcotics Anonymous has flourished globally across 143 countries as a key community response to problematic substance use, despite disruptions, including the COVID-19 pandemic. This research sought to understand how the Aotearoa New Zealand Narcotics Anonymous (NA) community engaged with NA meetings online during the 2020–2021 COVID-19 pandemic. During in-depth, semi-structured interviews, 11 NA members shared their stories of addiction, abstinence-based recovery, experiences of NA and managing pandemic restrictions. A narrative analysis identified four tropes particularly relating to how community members managed during the pandemic: responding via technology; maintaining recovery connections; creating opportunities; and consistency. Each trope showcases how NA members were able to connect online and garner support for their abstinence-based recoveries and, more generally, during unprecedented times. In addition, the NA members in this research narrated the opportunities the pandemic restrictions created for them, such as engaging with the NA programme in new ways and improving their quality of life. Members of NA were able to maintain their psychological, physical, spiritual and community wellbeing during the COVID-19 pandemic primarily due to existing recovery capital—peer-based support and the principles of the 12-steps of NA. The implications are that access to peer-based communities and salient recovery identities are pivotal during ordinary and extraordinary times. Please refer to the Supplementary Material section to find this article's Community and Social Impact Statement.
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    Larval traits show temporally consistent constraints, but are decoupled from postsettlement juvenile growth, in an intertidal fish
    (John Wiley and Sons, Inc on behalf of the British Ecological Society, 8/08/2018) Thia JA; Riginos C; Liggins L; Figueira WF; McGuigan K
    1. Complex life cycles may evolve to dissociate distinct developmental phases in an organism's lifetime. However, genetic or environmental factors may restrict trait independence across life stages, constraining ontogenetic trajectories. Quantifying covariance across life stages and their temporal variability is fundamental in understanding life-history phenotypes and potential distributions and consequences for selection. 2. We studied developmental constraints in an intertidal fish (Bathygobius cocosensis: Gobiidae) with a discrete pelagic larval phase and benthic juvenile phase. We tested whether traits occurring earlier in life affected those expressed later, and whether larval traits were decoupled from postsettlement juvenile traits. Sampling distinct cohorts from three annual breeding seasons afforded tests of temporally variability in trait covariance. 3. From otoliths (fish ear stones), we measured hatch size, larval duration, pelagic growth (larval traits) and early postsettlement growth (juvenile trait) in 124 juvenile B. cocoensis. We used path analyses to model trait relationships with respect to their chronological expression, comparing models among seasons. We also modelled the effect of season and hatch date on each individual trait to quantify their inherent variability. 4. Our path analyses demonstrated a decoupling of larval traits on juvenile growth. Within the larval phase, longer larval durations resulted in greater pelagic growth, and larger size-at-settlement. There was also evidence that larger hatch size might reduce larval durations, but this effect was only marginally significant. Although pelagic and postsettlement growth were decoupled, pelagic growth had postsettlement consequences: individuals with high pelagic growth were among the largest fish at settlement, and remained among the largest early postsettlement. We observed no evidence that trait relationships varied among breeding seasons, but larval duration differed among breeding seasons, and was shorter for larvae hatching later within each season. 5. Overall, we demonstrate mixed support for the expectation that traits in different life stages are independent. While postsettlement growth was decoupled from larval traits, pelagic development had consequences for the size of newly settled juveniles. Temporal consistency in trait covariances implies that genetic and/or environmental factors influencing them were stable over our three-year study. Our work highlights the importance of individual developmental experiences and temporal variability in understanding population distributions of life-history traits.