Jo Billington
Biographic Data
| ID | 259781 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Jo Billington |
| GIVEN NAMES | Jo |
| FAMILY NAME | Billington |
| SIGNATURE | BILLINGTON J |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Liverpool |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-0632-612X |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 15 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 36 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 15 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2011 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 3 |
Toward Epistemic Justice: Using a Multimodal Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis Methodological Approach in Research With Autistic Children
In this paper we critically examine the systemic marginalisation of autistic children's contributions in research and make the case for how a multimodal application of Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) can contribute towards more inclusive and equitable knowledge production. Drawing on an empirical study into the subjective everyday experiences of ten autistic children aged nine to eleven years in mainstream primary schools in Englan…
Shared1: Building a network of arts and humanities-based initiatives in mental health and well-being across the globe
This article reports on the learning from a series of workshops organized by the Seeing Arts Health Research EnacteD (SHARED) project that aimed to establish an international network of researchers, arts and health providers and practitioners. Online workshops were designed to provide a platform for exchange of best practices in arts in health research and to encourage a dialogue between various international arts in health researchers and practi…
Children’s engagement and caregivers’ use of language-boosting strategies during shared book reading: A mixed methods approach
For shared book reading to be effective for language development, the adult and child need to be highly engaged. The current paper adopted a mixed-methods approach to investigate caregiver’s language-boosting behaviours and children’s engagement during shared book reading. The results revealed there were more instances of joint attention and caregiver’s use of prompts during moments of higher engagement. However, instances of most language-boosti…
Regional Innovation in Arts Provision Spawned by Covid-19: “It Became a Lifeline for a Lot of People Who Are Stuck at Home”
Although the impact of the global COVID-19 pandemic on the arts and cultural sector due to the closure of galleries, museums, arts venues, and other cultural assets represents a significant health risk, new opportunities for arts and cultural engagement have arisen. Interviews with 24 representatives including service providers and creative practitioners from 15 arts and cultural organizations within the Liverpool City Region were conducted. The …
Lifting lockdown: Renewed access to arts and cultural activities
As engagement in community and cultural activities plays a public health role, a hybrid delivery of arts and culture - ensuring continued online access alongside in-person provision - will be vital for people's recovery. Alongside efforts to reimagine arts in mental healthcare in the wake of the crisis caused by the pandemic, the role of arts and culture in providing stigma-free environments to reconnect the vulnerable and isolated is more critic…
Evaluating the Effectiveness of a ‘Real‐World' Shared Reading Intervention for Preschool Children and Their Families: A Randomised Controlled Trial
Background Shared reading interventions can impact positively on preschool children's language development and on their caregiver's attitudes/behaviours towards reading. However, a number of barriers may discourage families from engaging with these interventions, particularly families from lower socio‐economic status (SES) backgrounds. We investigated how families from such backgrounds responded to an intervention designed explicitly to overcome …
Barriers and solutions to participation in family-based education interventions
The fact that many sub-populations do not take part in research, especially participants from lower socioeconomic (SES) backgrounds, is a serious problem in education research. To increase the participation of such groups we must discover what social, economic and practical factors prevent participation, and how to overcome these barriers. In the current paper, we review the literature on this topic, before describing a case study that demonstrat…
The Very Grief a Cure of the Disease
This article uses Elizabethan poetics and the Renaissance sonnet as a template for understanding the power of reading as it is exhibited in modern-day mental health contexts, specifically in the work of national charity The Reader. Our concern is with the medicine of verbal beauty, representative expression and formal ordering towards perfection – in particular, the relation of ‘erected wit’ and ‘infected will’ in Sidney’s Defence of Poetry. We e…
A literature-based intervention for women prisoners: Preliminary findings
Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate whether Shared Reading (SR), a specific literature-based intervention, is transposable to a prison context and whether mental health benefits identified in other custodial and non-custodial settings were reported by women prisoners. Design/methodology/approach In all, 35 participants were recruited within an all-female maximum security prison and attended one of two weekly reading groups. Qualit…
A comparative study of cognitive behavioural therapy and shared reading for chronic pain
The case for psychosocial interventions in relation to chronic pain, one of the most common health issues in contemporary healthcare, is well-established as a means of managing the emotional and psychological difficulties experienced by sufferers. Using mixed methods, this study compared a standard therapy for chronic pain, cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT), with a specific literature-based intervention, shared reading (SR) developed by nationa…
Making sense of mental health difficulties through live reading: An interpretative phenomenological analysis of the experience of being in a Reader Group
Background: Reader Groups (RGs) involve a skilled facilitator reading aloud complex literature in a group setting, followed by group discussion of the text. This paper explores the experience of eight individuals with mental health problems participating in general community RGs, relating this to making sense of life experiences and relationships inside and outside the group. Method: Semi-structured interviews were transcribed and analysed using …
Shared Reading: Assessing the intrinsic value of a literature-based health intervention
Public health strategies have placed increasing emphasis on psychosocial and arts-based strategies for promoting well-being. This study presents preliminary findings for a specific literary-based intervention, Shared Reading, which provides community-based spaces in which individuals can relate with both literature and one another. A 12-week crossover design was conducted with 16 participants to compare benefits associated with six sessions of Sh…
A literature-based intervention for people with chronic pain
Background: This study investigated the impact of a literature-based intervention – The Reader Organisation's "Get into Reading (GIR)" shared read-aloud model – on people with chronic pain in a clinical setting. Methods: A mixed methodology approach was used. Quantitative self-report measures tested the effect of GIR on participants' psychological symptoms and function before, during and after the reading group. Qualitative individual interviews …
Get into Reading as an intervention for common mental health problems: Exploring catalysts for change: Figure 1
There is increasing evidence for the efficacy of non-medical strategies to improve mental health and well-being. Get into Reading is a shared reading intervention which has demonstrable acceptability and feasibility. This paper explores potential catalysts for change resulting from Get into Reading. Two weekly reading groups ran for 12 months, in a GP surgery and a mental health drop-in centre, for people with a GP diagnosis of depression and a v…
Family Likeness: Sex, Marriage, and Incest from Jane Austen to Virginia Woolf
Corbett's feminist–historicist study of the significance of intra-familial relationships in personal and cultural identity formation in the nineteenth century contributes to a field that has received some noteworthy and welcome attention in recent years in works which have given notice of the potential range of interest this subject evokes. In her feminist-psychoanalytic study Siblings (2003), Juliet Mitchell demonstrated that while Western ideal…
Get into Reading as an intervention for common mental health problems: Exploring catalysts for change: Figure 1
There is increasing evidence for the efficacy of non-medical strategies to improve mental health and well-being. Get into Reading is a shared reading intervention which has demonstrable acceptability and feasibility. This paper explores potential catalysts for change resulting from Get into Reading. Two weekly reading groups ran for 12 months, in a GP surgery and a mental health drop-in centre, for people with a GP diagnosis of depression and a v…
Shared Reading: Assessing the intrinsic value of a literature-based health intervention
Public health strategies have placed increasing emphasis on psychosocial and arts-based strategies for promoting well-being. This study presents preliminary findings for a specific literary-based intervention, Shared Reading, which provides community-based spaces in which individuals can relate with both literature and one another. A 12-week crossover design was conducted with 16 participants to compare benefits associated with six sessions of Sh…
Making sense of mental health difficulties through live reading: An interpretative phenomenological analysis of the experience of being in a Reader Group
Background: Reader Groups (RGs) involve a skilled facilitator reading aloud complex literature in a group setting, followed by group discussion of the text. This paper explores the experience of eight individuals with mental health problems participating in general community RGs, relating this to making sense of life experiences and relationships inside and outside the group. Method: Semi-structured interviews were transcribed and analysed using …
A comparative study of cognitive behavioural therapy and shared reading for chronic pain
The case for psychosocial interventions in relation to chronic pain, one of the most common health issues in contemporary healthcare, is well-established as a means of managing the emotional and psychological difficulties experienced by sufferers. Using mixed methods, this study compared a standard therapy for chronic pain, cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT), with a specific literature-based intervention, shared reading (SR) developed by nationa…
A literature-based intervention for people with chronic pain
Background: This study investigated the impact of a literature-based intervention – The Reader Organisation's "Get into Reading (GIR)" shared read-aloud model – on people with chronic pain in a clinical setting. Methods: A mixed methodology approach was used. Quantitative self-report measures tested the effect of GIR on participants' psychological symptoms and function before, during and after the reading group. Qualitative individual interviews …
A literature-based intervention for women prisoners: Preliminary findings
Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate whether Shared Reading (SR), a specific literature-based intervention, is transposable to a prison context and whether mental health benefits identified in other custodial and non-custodial settings were reported by women prisoners. Design/methodology/approach In all, 35 participants were recruited within an all-female maximum security prison and attended one of two weekly reading groups. Qualit…
Family Likeness: Sex, Marriage, and Incest from Jane Austen to Virginia Woolf
Corbett's feminist–historicist study of the significance of intra-familial relationships in personal and cultural identity formation in the nineteenth century contributes to a field that has received some noteworthy and welcome attention in recent years in works which have given notice of the potential range of interest this subject evokes. In her feminist-psychoanalytic study Siblings (2003), Juliet Mitchell demonstrated that while Western ideal…
Get into Reading as an intervention for common mental health problems: Exploring catalysts for change: Figure 1
There is increasing evidence for the efficacy of non-medical strategies to improve mental health and well-being. Get into Reading is a shared reading intervention which has demonstrable acceptability and feasibility. This paper explores potential catalysts for change resulting from Get into Reading. Two weekly reading groups ran for 12 months, in a GP surgery and a mental health drop-in centre, for people with a GP diagnosis of depression and a v…
A literature-based intervention for people with chronic pain
Background: This study investigated the impact of a literature-based intervention – The Reader Organisation's "Get into Reading (GIR)" shared read-aloud model – on people with chronic pain in a clinical setting. Methods: A mixed methodology approach was used. Quantitative self-report measures tested the effect of GIR on participants' psychological symptoms and function before, during and after the reading group. Qualitative individual interviews …
Making sense of mental health difficulties through live reading: An interpretative phenomenological analysis of the experience of being in a Reader Group
Background: Reader Groups (RGs) involve a skilled facilitator reading aloud complex literature in a group setting, followed by group discussion of the text. This paper explores the experience of eight individuals with mental health problems participating in general community RGs, relating this to making sense of life experiences and relationships inside and outside the group. Method: Semi-structured interviews were transcribed and analysed using …
Shared Reading: Assessing the intrinsic value of a literature-based health intervention
Public health strategies have placed increasing emphasis on psychosocial and arts-based strategies for promoting well-being. This study presents preliminary findings for a specific literary-based intervention, Shared Reading, which provides community-based spaces in which individuals can relate with both literature and one another. A 12-week crossover design was conducted with 16 participants to compare benefits associated with six sessions of Sh…
The Very Grief a Cure of the Disease
This article uses Elizabethan poetics and the Renaissance sonnet as a template for understanding the power of reading as it is exhibited in modern-day mental health contexts, specifically in the work of national charity The Reader. Our concern is with the medicine of verbal beauty, representative expression and formal ordering towards perfection – in particular, the relation of ‘erected wit’ and ‘infected will’ in Sidney’s Defence of Poetry. We e…
A literature-based intervention for women prisoners: Preliminary findings
Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate whether Shared Reading (SR), a specific literature-based intervention, is transposable to a prison context and whether mental health benefits identified in other custodial and non-custodial settings were reported by women prisoners. Design/methodology/approach In all, 35 participants were recruited within an all-female maximum security prison and attended one of two weekly reading groups. Qualit…
A comparative study of cognitive behavioural therapy and shared reading for chronic pain
The case for psychosocial interventions in relation to chronic pain, one of the most common health issues in contemporary healthcare, is well-established as a means of managing the emotional and psychological difficulties experienced by sufferers. Using mixed methods, this study compared a standard therapy for chronic pain, cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT), with a specific literature-based intervention, shared reading (SR) developed by nationa…
Barriers and solutions to participation in family-based education interventions
The fact that many sub-populations do not take part in research, especially participants from lower socioeconomic (SES) backgrounds, is a serious problem in education research. To increase the participation of such groups we must discover what social, economic and practical factors prevent participation, and how to overcome these barriers. In the current paper, we review the literature on this topic, before describing a case study that demonstrat…
Evaluating the Effectiveness of a ‘Real‐World' Shared Reading Intervention for Preschool Children and Their Families: A Randomised Controlled Trial
Background Shared reading interventions can impact positively on preschool children's language development and on their caregiver's attitudes/behaviours towards reading. However, a number of barriers may discourage families from engaging with these interventions, particularly families from lower socio‐economic status (SES) backgrounds. We investigated how families from such backgrounds responded to an intervention designed explicitly to overcome …
Regional Innovation in Arts Provision Spawned by Covid-19: “It Became a Lifeline for a Lot of People Who Are Stuck at Home”
Although the impact of the global COVID-19 pandemic on the arts and cultural sector due to the closure of galleries, museums, arts venues, and other cultural assets represents a significant health risk, new opportunities for arts and cultural engagement have arisen. Interviews with 24 representatives including service providers and creative practitioners from 15 arts and cultural organizations within the Liverpool City Region were conducted. The …
Lifting lockdown: Renewed access to arts and cultural activities
As engagement in community and cultural activities plays a public health role, a hybrid delivery of arts and culture - ensuring continued online access alongside in-person provision - will be vital for people's recovery. Alongside efforts to reimagine arts in mental healthcare in the wake of the crisis caused by the pandemic, the role of arts and culture in providing stigma-free environments to reconnect the vulnerable and isolated is more critic…
Children’s engagement and caregivers’ use of language-boosting strategies during shared book reading: A mixed methods approach
For shared book reading to be effective for language development, the adult and child need to be highly engaged. The current paper adopted a mixed-methods approach to investigate caregiver’s language-boosting behaviours and children’s engagement during shared book reading. The results revealed there were more instances of joint attention and caregiver’s use of prompts during moments of higher engagement. However, instances of most language-boosti…
Shared1: Building a network of arts and humanities-based initiatives in mental health and well-being across the globe
This article reports on the learning from a series of workshops organized by the Seeing Arts Health Research EnacteD (SHARED) project that aimed to establish an international network of researchers, arts and health providers and practitioners. Online workshops were designed to provide a platform for exchange of best practices in arts in health research and to encourage a dialogue between various international arts in health researchers and practi…
Toward Epistemic Justice: Using a Multimodal Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis Methodological Approach in Research With Autistic Children
In this paper we critically examine the systemic marginalisation of autistic children's contributions in research and make the case for how a multimodal application of Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) can contribute towards more inclusive and equitable knowledge production. Drawing on an empirical study into the subjective everyday experiences of ten autistic children aged nine to eleven years in mainstream primary schools in Englan…
Psychology (12 works) · Sociology (7 works) · Medicine (6 works) · Mental health (6 works) · Reading (process (6 works) · Art Therapy and Mental Health (5 works) · Intervention (counseling (5 works) · Psychotherapist (5 works) · Developmental psychology (4 works) · Music Therapy and Health (4 works)