Betsy Thom
Biographic Data
| ID | 4010275 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Betsy Thom |
| GIVEN NAMES | Betsy |
| FAMILY NAME | Thom |
| SIGNATURE | THOM B |
| AFFILIATIONS | Middlesex University |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-4975-7613 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 33 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 65 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 32 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 1 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1927 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 5 |
‘ Everybody’s just thrown into it ’: Teachers’ perceptions of their roles in drug education in England
The role of UK alcohol and drug (AOD) nurses in a changing workforce
Background This paper presents the findings from an exploratory study on alcohol and other drugs (AOD) nurses’ views on current career opportunities and challenges and on how their role has been affected by clinical and structural changes in service delivery.Methods The paper is based on qualitative interviews with a purposive sample of twelve AOD nurses in the UK. A narrative approach to interviewing aimed to encourage emergence of new insights …
Alcohol and Liver Cirrhosis in Twentieth-Century Britain
The risk matrix: Drug‐related deaths in prisons in England and Wales, 2015–2020
This article explores the factors contributing to drug‐related deaths in English and Welsh prisons between 2015 and 2020. Based on content analysis of all Prison and Probation Ombudsman ‘other non‐natural’ fatal incident investigation reports, descriptive statistics were generated. Qualitative analysis explored the circumstances surrounding deaths and key risk factors. Most deaths were of men, whose mean age was 39 years. Drug toxicity was the ma…
“Some of us need to be taken care of”: Young adults’ perspectives on support and help in drug reducing interventions in coercive contexts in Denmark and the UK
This paper provides an account of young people’s experiences of and perspectives on help and support in drug reducing interventions. It is based on interviews with young people age 14–25 who were in contact with the Criminal Justice System (CJS) and, at the same time, participated in a drug reducing intervention. The interview data forms part of the EU funded EPPIC project. Two main themes emerged from the young peoples’ accounts that cut across …
Unintended consequences of drug policies experienced by young drug users in contact with the criminal justice systems
The aim of this paper is to assess to what extent prohibitive drug policies hamper the management of drug problems from the perspective of young people who have experience with the criminal justice systems (CJS). Qualitative, in-depth interviews were carried out in six European countries (Austria, Denmark, Germany, Italy, Poland, and the UK) following a common interview guide to obtain comparative data on the life trajectories of drug experienced…
Risk and Substance Use: Framing Dangerous People and Dangerous Places
Debate rages over communicating messages to the public regarding alcohol consumption during pregnancy. This chapter considers how research-based evidence has been translated into risk communications through three key mechanisms: ‘official’ publications and guidance issued by government departments or health authorities in the UK; websites run by advocacy groups; and midwives at the front line in delivering advice to women. Concern over drinking i…
Women and Alcohol: The Emergence of a Risk Group
This chapter suggests that explanations for the prominence bestowed on women's drinking in various epochs are to be found in contemporary political and social circumstances and in ideas concerning gender and women's position in society, rather than in any 'neutral' or 'scientific' evidence of women's misuse of alcohol. It focuses on the factors which resulted in the emergence of women as a risk group in modern Britain, and more specifically in En…
Framing ‘drug prevention’ for young people in contact with the criminal justice system in England: Views from practitioners in the field
Drawing on the work of Rein and Schon (1993. “Reframing Policy Discourse.” In The Argumentative Turn in Policy Analysis and Planning, edited by F. Fischer, and J. Forester, 145–166. London: UCL Press., 1996. “Frame-Critical Policy Analysis and Frame-Reflective Policy Practice.” Knowledge and Policy: the International Journal of Knowledge Transfer and Utilization 9 (1): 85–104), we explore the ways in which ‘young people’, ‘vulnerability’, ‘risk’,…
The Sage Handbook of Drug and Alcohol Studies
The article analyzes the enter into and the agency within local drug economies drawing on classical ethnographic studies. It also links the a symbolic interactionist perspective to structural influ ...
The Alcohol Health Alliance: The emergence of an advocacy coalition to stimulate policy change
Drug and Alcohol Studies: Social Science Approaches
Stigma as a public health tool: Implications for health promotion and citizen involvement – A response to Bayer and Fairchild
Stigma as a public health tool: Implications for health promotion and citizen involvement
The role of evidence and the expert in contemporary processes of governance: The case of opioid substitution treatment policy in England
Disruptive innovations: The rise of the electronic cigarette
Perceptions on the role of evidence: An English alcohol policy case study
This paper explores the competing influences which inform public health policy and describes the role that research evidence plays within the policy-making process. In particular it draws on a recent English alcohol policy case study to assess the role of evidence in informing policy and practice. Semi-structured interviews with key national, regional and local policy informants were transcribed and analysed thematically. A strong theme identifie…
Perceptions on the role of evidence: An English alcohol policy case study
This paper explores the competing influences which inform public health policy and describes the role that research evidence plays within the policy-making process. In particular it draws on a recent English alcohol policy case study to assess the role of evidence in informing policy and practice. Semi-structured interviews with key national, regional and local policy informants were transcribed and analysed thematically. A strong theme identifie…
Partnerships: Survey respondents’ perceptions of inter-professional collaboration to address alcohol-related harms in England
Tackling alcohol-related harms crosses agency and professional boundaries, requiring collaboration between health, criminal justice, education and social welfare institutions. It is a key component of most multi-component programmes in the United States, Australia and Europe. Partnership working, already embedded in service delivery structures, is a core mechanism for delivery of the new UK Government Alcohol Strategy. This article reports findin…
Perspectives on alcohol use in a Traveller community: An exploratory case study
Purpose Travellers are consistently found to have poorer health outcomes and health status than other minority ethnic groups. Very few studies have examined alcohol use among Travellers, but some indicate that their drinking patterns are changing. This study aims to explore alcohol use, health needs and health service access within an Irish Traveller population in England with a view to identifying themes for further study. Design/methodology/app…
Binge Drinking: A Confused Concept and its Contemporary History
Binge drinking is a matter of current social, political and media concern. It has a long-term, but also a recent, history. This paper discusses the contemporary history of the concept of binge drinking. In recent years there have been significant changes in how binge drinking is defined and conceptualised. Going on a 'binge' used to mean an extended period (days) of heavy drinking, while now it generally refers to a single drinking session leadin…
Reforming the Soviet model: Alcohol treatment services in Kazakhstan
Based on documentary and interview material this article reviews key aspects of the current alcohol treatment services in Kazakhstan and assesses the extent to which the Soviet model has been superseded. Before 1991, alcohol services in Kazakhstan were typical for the USSR: government providers delivered psychiatry-led treatments free of charge as part of a centralised and hierarchical system in which compulsion and breaches of confidentiality we…
Binge drinking: An exploration of a confused concept
Binge drinking is a matter of current social, media and political concern, and the focus of much policy activity in the UK. Binge drinking is associated with causing a wide range of harm to individuals (e.g. accidents), and the wider community (e.g. crime and disorder). Within the current discourse, binge drinking is seen primarily as a youth issue. Binge drinking is sometimes portrayed as a recent phenomenon, but we know from history that heavy …
Alcohol, Policy and Politics in Kazakhstan
Alcohol consumption in post-communist Kazakhstan remains at high levels and episodic heavy drinking, characteristic of the spirits-drinking regions of the former USSR, is still the national drinking style. Reported levels of alcohol-related harm are rising but assessment of trends in levels of consumption and harm is hindered by the disruption to data collection in the post-independence period and the continuing poor availability of public inform…
Alcohol misuse in older people: The role of home carers
Research on problems associated with alcohol use in older people is scant and contradictory. The “greying” of the population and the current emphasis on care in the community, mean that it is increasingly important to understand patterns of alcohol use which may incur risk in elderly people, and to develop appropriate prevention and early intervention approaches. This paper begins with a brief overview of the literature on alcohol misuse in older…
Alcohol in Transition: Towards a Model of Young Men's Drinking Styles
In Britain, there have been a number of changes in young people's drinking patterns over the last decade. Of most concern is the emergence of a 'binge' drinking culture. While there are considerable descriptive data on these changes, there has been little research which seeks to explore them from the perspective of young people themselves. By drawing on the drinking experiences of a sample of 40, young (16-24), white, males and using a youth tran…
Binge Drinking: A Confused Concept and its Contemporary History
Binge drinking is a matter of current social, political and media concern. It has a long-term, but also a recent, history. This paper discusses the contemporary history of the concept of binge drinking. In recent years there have been significant changes in how binge drinking is defined and conceptualised. Going on a 'binge' used to mean an extended period (days) of heavy drinking, while now it generally refers to a single drinking session leadin…
Research and policy: What determines the relationship
The relationship between research and policy is a matter of much current interest to policy makers in health. This paper uses historical approaches and case studies to examine the nature of the interrelationship. Drug policy (the evaluation of methadone maintenance in the 1970s and of needle exchange in the 1980s) and alcohol policy (the changing fortunes of the Ledermann hypothesis relating total alcohol consumption to population based harm) pro…
Binge drinking: An exploration of a confused concept
Binge drinking is a matter of current social, media and political concern, and the focus of much policy activity in the UK. Binge drinking is associated with causing a wide range of harm to individuals (e.g. accidents), and the wider community (e.g. crime and disorder). Within the current discourse, binge drinking is seen primarily as a youth issue. Binge drinking is sometimes portrayed as a recent phenomenon, but we know from history that heavy …
Special Units for Common Problems’: The Birth of Alcohol Treatment Units in England
In 1962 the Ministry of Health issued a memorandum entitled The Hospital Treatment of Alcoholism. The memorandum was the first official statement specifically regarding the treatment of alcoholism within the National Health Service. It marked the end of an era characterized by Ministry of Health rejection of the need to review policies regarding alcohol consumption and alcoholism treatment and the entry of the Ministry into the emerging alcohol a…
The Alcohol Health Alliance: The emergence of an advocacy coalition to stimulate policy change
Perceptions on the role of evidence: An English alcohol policy case study
This paper explores the competing influences which inform public health policy and describes the role that research evidence plays within the policy-making process. In particular it draws on a recent English alcohol policy case study to assess the role of evidence in informing policy and practice. Semi-structured interviews with key national, regional and local policy informants were transcribed and analysed thematically. A strong theme identifie…
The Right to Take Risks: Alcohol and Older People
This paper examines policy and practice regarding the purchase of alcohol for older clients of home carers in three local authorities in the Greater London area. Data were gathered from interviews with home carers and their managers, focus group discussions, and a postal survey. None of the local authorities had a written policy or written guidance on alcohol purchase or on appropriate responses to the identification of problematic drinking in ol…
The risk matrix: Drug‐related deaths in prisons in England and Wales, 2015–2020
This article explores the factors contributing to drug‐related deaths in English and Welsh prisons between 2015 and 2020. Based on content analysis of all Prison and Probation Ombudsman ‘other non‐natural’ fatal incident investigation reports, descriptive statistics were generated. Qualitative analysis explored the circumstances surrounding deaths and key risk factors. Most deaths were of men, whose mean age was 39 years. Drug toxicity was the ma…
Alcohol, Policy and Politics in Kazakhstan
Alcohol consumption in post-communist Kazakhstan remains at high levels and episodic heavy drinking, characteristic of the spirits-drinking regions of the former USSR, is still the national drinking style. Reported levels of alcohol-related harm are rising but assessment of trends in levels of consumption and harm is hindered by the disruption to data collection in the post-independence period and the continuing poor availability of public inform…
Biology and Society
Journal Article Biology and Society Get access Frank H. Hankins Frank H. Hankins Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Social Forces, Volume 5, Issue 4, June 1927, Pages 656–659, https://doi.org/10.1093/sf/5.4.656 Published: 01 June 1927
The relationship between research and policy: Case studies from the postwar history of drugs and alcohol
Special Units for Common Problems’: The Birth of Alcohol Treatment Units in England
In 1962 the Ministry of Health issued a memorandum entitled The Hospital Treatment of Alcoholism. The memorandum was the first official statement specifically regarding the treatment of alcoholism within the National Health Service. It marked the end of an era characterized by Ministry of Health rejection of the need to review policies regarding alcohol consumption and alcoholism treatment and the entry of the Ministry into the emerging alcohol a…
Research and policy: What determines the relationship
The relationship between research and policy is a matter of much current interest to policy makers in health. This paper uses historical approaches and case studies to examine the nature of the interrelationship. Drug policy (the evaluation of methadone maintenance in the 1970s and of needle exchange in the 1980s) and alcohol policy (the changing fortunes of the Ledermann hypothesis relating total alcohol consumption to population based harm) pro…
The Right to Take Risks: Alcohol and Older People
This paper examines policy and practice regarding the purchase of alcohol for older clients of home carers in three local authorities in the Greater London area. Data were gathered from interviews with home carers and their managers, focus group discussions, and a postal survey. None of the local authorities had a written policy or written guidance on alcohol purchase or on appropriate responses to the identification of problematic drinking in ol…
Women and alcohol: A ‘policy dilemma’
This paper uses a range of primary and secondary documentation along with interviews with service providers, researchers and officials in the Department of Health to examine the specific social and historical circumstances within which concerns over women's alcohol consumption became an issue of public concern and gained a place on the policy agenda in the 1980s. After outlining briefly the emergence of concern over women's alcoholism in the 1970…
Resisting the ‘gaze’: Nurses' perceptions of the role of accident and emergency departments in responding to alcohol-related attendances
Accident and emergency (A&E) departments are increasingly being viewed as possible sites for monitoring and intervention in a broad range of alcohol-related problems.1 A study of alcohol-related attendances was conducted in two London hospitals. One of the aims was to explore the feasibility of routine monitoring in A&E departments and possible methods of screening. The process of carrying out the research and the results of the study raised a nu…
Alcohol in Transition: Towards a Model of Young Men's Drinking Styles
In Britain, there have been a number of changes in young people's drinking patterns over the last decade. Of most concern is the emergence of a 'binge' drinking culture. While there are considerable descriptive data on these changes, there has been little research which seeks to explore them from the perspective of young people themselves. By drawing on the drinking experiences of a sample of 40, young (16-24), white, males and using a youth tran…
Alcohol, Policy and Politics in Kazakhstan
Alcohol consumption in post-communist Kazakhstan remains at high levels and episodic heavy drinking, characteristic of the spirits-drinking regions of the former USSR, is still the national drinking style. Reported levels of alcohol-related harm are rising but assessment of trends in levels of consumption and harm is hindered by the disruption to data collection in the post-independence period and the continuing poor availability of public inform…
Alcohol misuse in older people: The role of home carers
Research on problems associated with alcohol use in older people is scant and contradictory. The “greying” of the population and the current emphasis on care in the community, mean that it is increasingly important to understand patterns of alcohol use which may incur risk in elderly people, and to develop appropriate prevention and early intervention approaches. This paper begins with a brief overview of the literature on alcohol misuse in older…
Reforming the Soviet model: Alcohol treatment services in Kazakhstan
Based on documentary and interview material this article reviews key aspects of the current alcohol treatment services in Kazakhstan and assesses the extent to which the Soviet model has been superseded. Before 1991, alcohol services in Kazakhstan were typical for the USSR: government providers delivered psychiatry-led treatments free of charge as part of a centralised and hierarchical system in which compulsion and breaches of confidentiality we…
Binge drinking: An exploration of a confused concept
Binge drinking is a matter of current social, media and political concern, and the focus of much policy activity in the UK. Binge drinking is associated with causing a wide range of harm to individuals (e.g. accidents), and the wider community (e.g. crime and disorder). Within the current discourse, binge drinking is seen primarily as a youth issue. Binge drinking is sometimes portrayed as a recent phenomenon, but we know from history that heavy …
Binge Drinking: A Confused Concept and its Contemporary History
Binge drinking is a matter of current social, political and media concern. It has a long-term, but also a recent, history. This paper discusses the contemporary history of the concept of binge drinking. In recent years there have been significant changes in how binge drinking is defined and conceptualised. Going on a 'binge' used to mean an extended period (days) of heavy drinking, while now it generally refers to a single drinking session leadin…
Partnerships: Survey respondents’ perceptions of inter-professional collaboration to address alcohol-related harms in England
Tackling alcohol-related harms crosses agency and professional boundaries, requiring collaboration between health, criminal justice, education and social welfare institutions. It is a key component of most multi-component programmes in the United States, Australia and Europe. Partnership working, already embedded in service delivery structures, is a core mechanism for delivery of the new UK Government Alcohol Strategy. This article reports findin…
Perspectives on alcohol use in a Traveller community: An exploratory case study
Purpose Travellers are consistently found to have poorer health outcomes and health status than other minority ethnic groups. Very few studies have examined alcohol use among Travellers, but some indicate that their drinking patterns are changing. This study aims to explore alcohol use, health needs and health service access within an Irish Traveller population in England with a view to identifying themes for further study. Design/methodology/app…
Stigma as a public health tool: Implications for health promotion and citizen involvement
The role of evidence and the expert in contemporary processes of governance: The case of opioid substitution treatment policy in England
Disruptive innovations: The rise of the electronic cigarette
Perceptions on the role of evidence: An English alcohol policy case study
This paper explores the competing influences which inform public health policy and describes the role that research evidence plays within the policy-making process. In particular it draws on a recent English alcohol policy case study to assess the role of evidence in informing policy and practice. Semi-structured interviews with key national, regional and local policy informants were transcribed and analysed thematically. A strong theme identifie…
Perceptions on the role of evidence: An English alcohol policy case study
This paper explores the competing influences which inform public health policy and describes the role that research evidence plays within the policy-making process. In particular it draws on a recent English alcohol policy case study to assess the role of evidence in informing policy and practice. Semi-structured interviews with key national, regional and local policy informants were transcribed and analysed thematically. A strong theme identifie…
Stigma as a public health tool: Implications for health promotion and citizen involvement – A response to Bayer and Fairchild
The Sage Handbook of Drug and Alcohol Studies
The article analyzes the enter into and the agency within local drug economies drawing on classical ethnographic studies. It also links the a symbolic interactionist perspective to structural influ ...
The Alcohol Health Alliance: The emergence of an advocacy coalition to stimulate policy change
Drug and Alcohol Studies: Social Science Approaches
Framing ‘drug prevention’ for young people in contact with the criminal justice system in England: Views from practitioners in the field
Drawing on the work of Rein and Schon (1993. “Reframing Policy Discourse.” In The Argumentative Turn in Policy Analysis and Planning, edited by F. Fischer, and J. Forester, 145–166. London: UCL Press., 1996. “Frame-Critical Policy Analysis and Frame-Reflective Policy Practice.” Knowledge and Policy: the International Journal of Knowledge Transfer and Utilization 9 (1): 85–104), we explore the ways in which ‘young people’, ‘vulnerability’, ‘risk’,…
Psychology (20 works) · Medicine (19 works) · Sociology (19 works) · Political science (18 works) · Law (12 works) · Law (10 works) · Environmental health (8 works) · Homelessness and Social Issues (8 works) · Psychiatry (8 works) · Public relations (8 works)