Madison Harding
Printed Fashion
What is Fair Trade
Fair Trade……is about better prices, decent working conditions, local sustainability and fair terms of trade for farmers, workers and craftspeople in the developing world, such as Asia, South America and Africa. The price paid is socially just and a realistic reflection of the needs of the makers.
Fair Trade……addresses the injustices of conventional trade which traditionally discriminates against the poorest, weakest producers. It enables them to improve their lives and gain more control. It is about trade, not aid or charity. Beautiful products should not come at the cost of exploitation.
The more business we give these producers, on fair terms, the more they are able to expand and develop based on the financial security that this trade gives them. In turn, as their own business grows stronger and more secure, their prospects, and those of their families and communities, improve.
Fair Trade…..creates a “win:win” scenario. A “win” for the consumer as the products are of the highest quality and a “win” for the producer as they receive a fair price with a minimum price guaranteed.
International trade can seem like a remote issue, but when commodity prices fall dramatically it can have a catastrophic impact on the lives of small scale producers. Too many producers in the developing world have to contend with fluctuating prices which may not even cover the cost of production. Imagine that, for a second and you can see why an alternative way of trading needs to be offered.
Why do some people never get depressed?
Confronted with some of life’s upsetting experiences – marriage breakdown, unemployment, bereavement, failure of any kind – many people become depressed. But others don’t. Why is this?
A person who goes through experiences like that and does not get depressed has a measure of what in the psychiatric trade is known as “resilience”.
According to Manchester University psychologist Dr Rebecca Elliott, we are all situated somewhere on a sliding scale.
“At one end you have people who are very vulnerable. In the face of quite low stress, or none at all, they’ll develop a mental health problem,” she says.
“At the other end, you have people who life has dealt a quite appalling hand with all sorts of stressful experiences, and yet they remain positive and optimistic.” Most of us, she thinks, are somewhere in the middle.
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A measure of resilience
Aeron, a subject in the Manchester study:
I used to have a business that we ended up having to close. I lost my employment, my income, and my home.
I’m generally a happy person. Everybody has stressful moments but there would be something wrong with you if you were happy all the time. But I haven’t ever had an episode of depression.
In my childhood, when I first realised I was gay, I didn’t come out to my parents or friends, not until I was much older. I think, perhaps, it resulted in me building up a strong defence mechanism and helped me deal with situations better later on in life.
I think that if there’s a problem there’s always a remedy. It’s not that I don’t think about stressful issues in my life, but I always think you can find a solution.
But what is this resilience? Is it something we inherit or do we learn it? Can it be traced in the chemistry of the brain? Or in its wiring, or its electrical activity? And if we lack it, can we acquire it?
The answer, regrettably, to all those questions is much the same. We don’t really know. But we’d like to, and we need to. According to the World Health Organization, depression affects just over 120 million people worldwide.
“We think about a fifth of the UK population will suffer from depression at some point in their lifetime,” says Bill Deakin, professor of psychiatry at Manchester University. Worryingly, he adds that more people are getting depressed now than in the past, and that it is beginning to affect younger people.
With the support of the Medical Research Council, Bill Deakin, Rebecca Elliott and their colleagues are peering into the brain, trying to fathom the origins and nature of resilience. They think that a better understanding of it might pay dividends in helping those who lack it.
The subjects of their study are a mixed bunch – intentionally so. Some have suffered bouts of depression, others have not. Some have had more than their share of adverse life events, while others have had an easier time of it.
In knowing where to start looking for the differences that might underpin resilience to depression the Manchester group has the advantage of being able to draw on previous work that has investigated resilience to post-traumatic stress disorder.
This, says Bill Deakin, has pointed them to several relevant features of brain function. They include cognitive flexibility – our capacity to adapt our thinking to different situations – and also the extent to which our brains concentrate on processing and remembering happy, as opposed to sad, information.
Emotional memory
Each subject in the Manchester study has been allocated to one of four groups based on the four possible combinations of high and low life stress, with or without depression. All have given saliva samples from which their stress hormone levels can be measured, and many of them will undergo a brain scan.
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Depression – the global picture
Depression affects about 121 million people worldwide
Among the leading causes of disability worldwide
Fewer than 25% of those affected have access to effective treatments
2011 survey found 15% of the population from high-income countries were likely to get depression over their lifetime – in low and middle-income countries the rate was 11%
Women twice as likely to suffer depression as men
Source: WHO World Mental Health Survey Initiative
Lab UK: BBC stress test results
A scanning technique much used by brain researchers called functional magnetic resonance imaging allows them to see which parts of the brain are active while subjects are performing specific tasks.
“In one task we give them pictures to look at which are emotionally charged,” says Rebecca Elliot. “They have to memorise them.” Shortly afterward they’re shown these pictures again, with others, and have to identify those they’ve seen already. “This probes emotional memory – how well people remember material which has an emotional component to it.”
The research is not yet complete, so Rebecca Elliott can’t say whether there are distinct differences in brain function between the groups. But there are encouraging hints, such as the correlations she’s finding between the psychological measurements of her subjects’ resilience and how they perform on some of the tests.
“For example, our early data suggest that people who are more resilient are more likely to recognise happy faces and less likely to recognise sad or fearful faces. The more resilient someone is, the better they remember positive words and pictures.”
Precisely how a clinician might eventually use whatever the Manchester research reveals about our brain activity is still an open question. What we refer to as resilience is the outcome of a complex and continuing set of interactions between our genes, our body chemistry, the wiring of our brains, and our life experiences.
But broadly speaking, the hope is that an understanding of the brain activity that underpins resilience might offer pointers towards new treatments, or better ways of using existing ones.
A resilience pill?
Bill Deakin talks of using brain scanning to create what he calls a “neuroscientific profile” of an individual’s problem. This might be used to identify relevant aims and goals in deciding on the best treatment.
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Find out more
Geoff Watts’ two part programme on depression is broadcast on the BBC World Service programme Discovery
Listen to Part 1: Why do we get depressed?
Listen to Part 2: At 19:32 GMT on January 30
A patient may turn out to have normally functioning cognitive flexibility but a tendency to dwell on sad thoughts. “This might allow you to tailor-make a therapy to reduce the likelihood of a further episode of depression,” says Deakin. In the first instance this would most likely be a talking therapy of some kind.
Responding to the suggestion that a drug, a daily “resilience pill”, tailored to our brain activity or chemistry might be a useful development, Rebecca Elliott is cautious. “I suppose this is something that would theoretically be possible,” she says. “Whether people would be willing to take that kind of drug, I’m not sure.”
But whatever the means, finding some way to boost resilience is an ambition well worth pursuing. To be assured of that you have only to compare Aeron’s experiences with those of Pauline, another of the Manchester research subjects.
While out of work, struggling financially, and single-handedly responsible for three children, Pauline had several bouts of depression during which she felt completely isolated. “And emotionally I was very detached. I would come in and sit on my bed and cry. And when it got so bad I didn’t want to be with the children, that’s when I went to the doctor.”
No clinician can yet prescribe what she most needs – resilience. But one day… maybe.
Walking could be a useful tool in treating depression
Something as simple as going for a brisk stroll could play an important role in fighting depression, according to researchers in Scotland.
Vigorous exercise has already been shown to alleviate symptoms of depression, but the effect of less strenuous activities was unclear.
A study in the journal Mental Health and Physical Activity showed walking had a “large effect” on depression.
One in 10 people may have depression at some point in their lives.
The condition can be treated with drugs, but exercise is commonly prescribed by doctors for mild symptoms.
Researchers at the University of Stirling scoured academic studies to find data on one of the mildest forms of exercise – walking.
They found eight studies, on a total of 341 patients, which fitted the bill.
Therapy
The report’s authors showed “walking was an effective intervention for depression” and had an effect similar to other more vigorous forms of exercise.
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The beauty of walking is that everybody does it”
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Prof Adrian Taylor
University of Exeter
They said: “Walking has the advantages of being easily undertaken by most people, incurring little or no financial cost and being relatively easy to incorporate into daily living.”
However, they cautioned that much more research needed to be done. There are still questions over how long, how fast and whether walking should take place indoors or outdoors.
Prof Adrian Taylor, who studies the effects of exercise on depression, addiction and stress at the University of Exeter, told the BBC: “The beauty of walking is that everybody does it.”
He added: “There are benefits for a mental-health condition like depression.”
How any form of exercise helps with depression is unclear. Prof Taylor said there were ideas about exercise being a distraction from worries, giving a sense of control and releasing “feel-good” hormones.
The mental-health charity Mind said its own research found that spending time outdoors helped people’s mental health.
Its chief executive, Paul Farmer, said: “To get the most from outdoor activities it’s important to find a type of exercise you love and can stick at. Try different things, be it walking, cycling, gardening or even open-water swimming.
“Exercising with others can have even greater impact, as it provides an opportunity to strengthen social networks, talk through problems with others or simply laugh and enjoy a break from family and work. So ask a friend to join you.”
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