For some people with profound hearing loss, cochlear implants offer a way back to patterns of communication that most of us take for granted. Travel, shopping and work contexts are largely dependent on the ability to recognize and respond to speech. This study examined implant user and partner perspectives on problems and coping strategies. The aim was to map the experiences of adults and their hearing partners living with deafness; and the changes brought about by cochlear implant use. Information was gathered by means of recorded joint interviews in a semi‐structured form with implant users and their partners. Interview themes including social isolation, employment difficulties and loss of confidence emerged as main difficulties prior to implantation. All participants were positive regarding the use of cochlear implants and, after implantation, benefits accrued in communication and social interaction. Provision of multidisciplinary support and consumer information for severe/profoundly hearing impaired adults was seen as problematic. Sample size – six couples – reflected the limited number of adult cochlear implant operations performed in Scotland. However, the results indicate their interactional experiences to be worthy of further investigation on a larger scale.

This paper considers the scope for the integration of service user involvement within services for people with disabilities in South Korea at a time of rapid development in social policy and practice. Using the UK experience of introducing community care and a mixed economy of service provision over the last 14 years, this paper considers the barriers to service user involvement inherent in the South Korean context and concludes that in a society where there is a shortage of services and a provider-orientated delivery system where most services are delivered by voluntary organisations, more public services are needed and a 'democratic' rather than a consumerist approach to user involvement is required. Some elements of the UK system could inform the development of a systematic approach to user involvement in South Korea, notably the right to assessment within a care management structure, the setting of quality care standards and inspection processes and a complaints procedure.

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of Birmingham, UK S u m m a r y Focus group discussions were undertaken amongst five primay health care teams in the West Midlands in order to explore and define issues relevant to the participation by general practitioners in the child protection process. It was found thar general practitbners were uncertain of what was prekdy required of them in this respect and that child protection work was a source of significant anxiety for them. It would appear that in many instances, the lead role for child protection work within the team was delegated by default to health nniiron who fiequendy represented the views of general pracritioners at child proteerion case conferences. General pactithers acknowledged their unmet training nee& in child protection and expressed a preference for practice based, multidisciplina y, clinicd!'entated seminars. It is recommended that the role of g w a l practitioners in this area is more accurately defined and that fresh approaches to their training are initiated Commitment on the part of general practitioners to the guiding prinCipleJ of the child pmtection process is essenrial to ensure the protection of children from abuse. The importance of child protection as an essential issue for primay care must be recognised by all those who have a responsibility for the training and continual medical education of general practitioners.

The development of British radio broadcasting technology in the 1920s and 1930s and, equally importantly, the progressively widespread purchase and use of radio sets established a new platform from which to engage and influence the population on a number of matters. The British Broadcasting Corporation's public service principles of programmes to inform, educate and entertain gave rise to various content experiments at a time when there were very few precedents. One such innovation was the cookery talk. This was broadcast live, accomplished without the possibility of practical demonstration, and constituted a new, and abstract, form of communication primarily designed for women in their own homes. In this, women were the earliest and most frequent contributors, and their broadcast content differed from that provided by men. By reference to archive material, this article examines the social context and the thinking behind those early years of radio cookery talks and documents the contributors who were to establish this now‐familiar genre of broadcasting.