All posts tagged: Addressing

Addressing the challenges of flexible plastic waste

Addressing the challenges of flexible plastic waste

Published by skeptic

Jean-Loup Masson, Circular Solutions Center Director at The Alliance to End Plastic Waste, discusses the Alliance’s recent report on flexible plastic waste management In a bid to tackle the escalating issue of flexible plastic waste, the Alliance to End Plastic Waste has released its latest report, titled ‘The Challenges and Solutions for Flexible Plastic Packaging Waste.’ By adopting a whole-of-life perspective on the management of flexible film waste, the report evaluates the current landscape and necessary interventions, outlining the Alliance’s proactive approach to combatting this issue and featuring specific projects being implemented in the UK and across Europe. To discuss the challenge of flexible plastic waste, and provide insights into the report, The Innovation Platform heard from with Jean-Loup Masson, Circular Solutions Center Director at The Alliance to End Plastic Waste. What are flexible plastics, and what key challenges do they pose in terms of waste that need to be addressed? Flexible plastics are lightweight, versatile materials that have become an essential part of everyday life. They have a relatively low cost and low carbon …

Understanding incel culture – and if schools should be responsible for addressing it

Understanding incel culture – and if schools should be responsible for addressing it

Published by Daniella Wilson

Get the Well Enough newsletter with Harry Bullmore for tips on living a healthier, happier and longer life Get the Well Enough email with Harry Bullmore Get the Well Enough email with Harry Bullmore Incels – involuntary celibates – believe they have been unconditionally excluded from the dating market and are doomed to remain virgins. This has negative implications for their mood and self-esteem, as well as the women and girls they grow to resent. For this reason, schools in England are now required to address incel communities, among other sources of online misogyny, in relationships, sex and health education. This is a challenging task when many teachers are already overstretched, and schools are increasingly expected to deal with problems that begin beyond the school gates. Addressing gender based discrimination and violence requires experts who are well prepared and able to support discussion around these sensitive topics in a manner that does not further stigmatise young people. Many young people worry about falling behind their peers socially and sexually. Sociological research shows this pressure is …

A Clinician’s Guide to Addressing High-Risk PHQ-9 Results

A Clinician’s Guide to Addressing High-Risk PHQ-9 Results

Published by Jenni Sidey

The Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9) is a tool most clinicians are familiar with. It’s quick, familiar, and widely trusted across health care settings. However, when a patient’s results indicate high risk, they deserve more than a quick glance. It signals that they may be carrying a level of distress that affects mood, safety, functioning, and quality of life. How you respond in that moment matters. It can shape trust, determine next steps, and, in some cases, prevent serious harm. What Is the PHQ-9? The PHQ-9 is a nine-item screening tool used to assess the presence and severity of depressive symptoms. Each item corresponds to diagnostic criteria for major depressive disorder and asks patients how often they have experienced specific symptoms over the past two weeks.1 Scores range from minimal to severe and are often used to guide clinical decision-making, track symptom changes over time, and support conversations about mental health. Because it’s brief and easy to administer, the PHQ-9 is widely used in primary care, specialty care, behavioral health, and workplace health settings.1 While the …

In full: Brooklyn Beckham’s explosive statement addressing family rift | Ents & Arts News

In full: Brooklyn Beckham’s explosive statement addressing family rift | Ents & Arts News

Published by Daniella Wilson

Brooklyn Beckham – the oldest child of Sir David Beckham and his wife Victoria – has spoken out for the first time acknowledging the feud between him and his parents. The 26-year-old posted a statement on Instagram on 19 January, in which he claimed his parents have been controlling narratives in the press about his family and tried to “ruin” his relationship with his wife Nicola Peltz Beckham. Here is his statement in full: I have been silent for years and made every effort to keep these matters private. Unfortunately my parents and their team have continued to go to the press, leaving me with no choice but to speak for myself and tell the truth about only some of the lies that have been printed. I do not want to reconcile with my family. I’m not being controlled, I’m standing up for myself for the first time in my life.’ For my entire life, my parents have controlled narratives in the press about our family. The performative social media posts, family events and inauthentic …

Addressing Identity and Belonging in Cross-Cultural Marriages

Addressing Identity and Belonging in Cross-Cultural Marriages

Published by Jenni Sidey

When two people from different cultural backgrounds choose to build a life together, they are not only blending traditions and families but also continually renegotiating questions such as “Who am I now?” and “Where do I belong?” For cross-cultural marriages, questions of identity and belonging often sit just below the surface of daily life. Choices about language, holidays, child-rearing, faith practices, and even food can evoke powerful feelings of loyalty, loss, pride, or conflict. Over time, these everyday choices shape how each partner may understand themselves and the “we” they are creating together (Popescu & Pudelko, 2024). Recent literature explores the idea that, in cross-cultural marriages, each partner brings a complex, layered identity (Ducu & Hossu, 2025; Nguyen & Benet-Martínez, 2013). Over the course of their marriage, partners may experience identity expansion, a feeling of enrichment from new traditions, languages, and perspectives; identity conflict, when one may feel torn between cultures or pressured to choose one; and identity marginalization, a feeling of not fully belonging in either cultural world (Nguyen & Benet-Martínez, 2013). As practitioners, …

Understanding and Addressing Limited Health Literacy

Understanding and Addressing Limited Health Literacy

Published by Jenni Sidey

Adult literacy advocate Toni Cordell recounts the story of feeling comforted when her doctor told her that her medical concern could be solved with an easy surgery. She agreed to proceed without asking further questions and didn’t understand the medical consent forms because she didn’t read well. At a follow-up office visit a couple of weeks after the procedure, Cordell was shocked when the nurse asked, “How are you feeling since your hysterectomy?” Cordell thought to herself, “How could I be so stupid as to allow somebody to take part of my body, and I didn’t know it?” She admits that although she graduated from high school, she only had a fifth-grade reading level, which she had always tried to hide from others. Cordell’s story is unfortunately all too common, and it reflects the widespread and well-known problem of limited health literacy. Other examples of health literacy difficulties include incorrect use of medicines, filling out medical forms incompletely, failure to carry out health care instructions, and making unhealthy lifestyle choices like smoking, poor diet, and …