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"Occupational therapists believe that occupation gives meaning to life, and are therefore well placed to explore the meaning and purpose of young men's involvement in gangs. However, there is little previous research in this area by occupational therapists."

"Five themes emerged: Why am I where I am?; To strengthen the camp; Attraction to gangs; It's difficult but it's life; and Threshold to manhood. The participants' involvement in gangs meant social support, material resources including drugs and money, independence, thrills and excitement. The purpose of engaging in gang-related occupations was to strengthen the gang, gain belonging, prove manhood and for survival. However, gang-involvement deprived participants from engaging in other occupations and roles including schooling, leisure activities and relationships with mothers and girlfriends."

Wegner, L. et al. (no date) Meaning and purpose in the occupations of gang-involved young men in Cape Town, South African Journal of Occupational Therapy. Available at: http://www.scielo.org.za/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S2310-38332016000100011 (Accessed: 20 October 2023).

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Homer Simpson in The Simpson: occupational alienation/imbalance.
Fred Flintstone of The Flintstones: occupational alienation/imbalance.
Mammy Two Shoes in Tom & Jerry: occupational injustice/marginalisation (lacks such agency that she is a pair of legs in many scenes).
Postman Pat, Fireman Sam: job role as personal identity for male characters (not female).
Shaggy in Scooby Dooby Do: meeting occupational need "investigator" in own personal time.
Sleeping Beauty in Disney: no occupation or existence until "woken up" by a male figure.

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A large body of research has shown that those who do not work for pay or are unemployed are less healthy than those in the paid labor force, based on their risk of mortality, self-rated health, and mental health (Krueger & Burgard, 2011; Rogers, Hummer, & Nam, 2000; Ross & Mirowsky, 1995).        Burgard, S.A. and Lin, K.Y. (2013)

Bad jobs, bad health? how work and working conditions contribute to health disparities, The American behavioral scientist. Available at: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3813007/#:~:text=A%20large%20body%20of%20research,Ross%20%26%20Mirowsky%2C%201995). (Accessed: 18 October 2023).

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The rise in unemployment is not distributed evenly across society. While the unemployment rate was estimated at 5.1% in January 2021, the highest rates were among young people aged 18–24 (14.0%), people with lower qualifications (7.8%) and people from minority ethnic groups (7.6%).

Unemployment and mental health (no date) The Health Foundation. Available at: https://www.health.org.uk/publications/long-reads/unemployment-and-mental-health (Accessed: 18 October 2023).

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Analysis from our healthy lives team shows it’s vital for policymakers to act upstream in tackling unemployment and mental health together as part of the nation’s COVID-19 recovery.

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Unemployment and mental health (no date) The Health Foundation. Available at: https://www.health.org.uk/publications/long-reads/unemployment-and-mental-health (Accessed: 18 October 2023).

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Conclusions: The present review shows that two factors enhance elderly people's wellbeing: first, variation and independence in undertaking activities; second, having a choice between the occupations and a structure of activities that make up daily life.

The two factors are influenced by a balance between having activities alone and with others.

This review is not intended to identify specific occupations that enhance elderly people's wellbeing, but rather to indicate which types of occupations enhance the wellbeing of the elderly, and provide value and meaning to their daily lives. Both the dependability and the credibility of the studies have been rated as moderate (Ibid).

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1. The influence of occupation on wellbeing, as experienced by the elderly: a systematic review.          

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1. The influence of occupation on wellbeing, as experienced by the elderly: a systematic review.          

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Introduction: Being active is an important part of managing the daily challenges of advanced old age.

Occupational therapy and occupational science are based on the premise that a person's occupations are intertwined with their health and are thus needed for them to experience a meaningful life and improve their wellbeing.

AL;, J.-W.C.M. (no date) The influence of Occupation on wellbeing, as experienced by the elderly: A systematic review, JBI database of systematic reviews and implementation reports. Available at: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29762312/ (Accessed: 17 October 2023).                                                                              Image attribution: Age-friendly vectors from Range of free-to-use ‘age-positive’ icons launched to replace stereotypical symbols of ageing | Centre for Ageing Better (ageing-better.org.uk)

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Bankrobber and serial prison escapee Jacques Mesrine had many names during his two-decade criminal career in the 1960s and 70s.

In disguise and on the run from police, he made headlines as " the man of a thousand faces " and "public enemy number one". In Canada and the US with his girlfriend, Jeanne Schneider, the couple were nicknamed France's Bonnie and Clyde.

Now hundreds of letters Mesrine wrote to Schneider during more than 10 years in prison are to be auctioned in Paris. Like the notorious Al Capone, Ronnie Biggs and Jesse James, Mesrine has entered popular culture as the 21st century's ideal antihero, despite a record that included armed robberies and hold-ups, swindles, kidnappings, abductions and - allegedly - murders.

Said to be charismatic and intelligent, roguish and romantic, he had a good line in pithy maxims that played to his image as a French Robin Hood.

"I've no remorse about stealing from banks. I've the impression of stealing from someone more of a thief than I am," he wrote in his book L'instinct de mort ( Death Instinct) published in 1977.

At one of several court appearances in the 1970s, he said: "I am not a public enemy. I am the enemy of the banks. I eat the cake, not the grandmother nor Little Red Riding Hood."

At the same time, the man who said "I became a crook as one becomes a doctor, by vocation", would mock those who would depict him as a good guy for the poor and downtrodden. "The terrible thing is that some people are going to make a hero out of me, but there are no heroes in crime. There are only men who are marginal and who don't accept the law."

Pauline Ribeyre, of auctioneers Baron Ribeyre, selling the letters on behalf of Schneider's daughter, Murielle, said they were of historic interest. "Mesrine remains a major criminal and it's not our intention to glorify him or do any publicity for him. The family [Schneider] do not defend what he or their mother did," Ribeyre told the Observer.

"This private correspondence shows another face of the man Mesrine. We see he could be quite funny, romantic, a bit misogynistic, but very much in love."

She added: "The question is what you do with all the letters like this? Mesrine was what he was - a serious criminal - but do you just throw them away or do you see them as a vital historic souvenir?"

Jacques Mesrine in 1957 during French military service in the war in Algeria. Photograph: Apic/Bridgeman/Getty Images

Jacques René Mesrine was born in Clichy, near Paris, in 1936 into a well-off Catholic family. His parents ran a luxury clothing outlet and hoped he would join the business, but the young Mesrine was not interested in school or becoming a salesman. His criminal career began at the age of 23 after his return from decorated military service in Algeria. It ended 19 years later in a hail of police bullets on a street in the north of Paris.

He and Schneider, nicknamed Janou, met in a Paris bar in about 1965. Two years later, while Mesrine was being hunted by police for mostly petty swindles in the Canary Islands, Switzerland and France, the couple fled to Canada. There they continued a joint life of crime, including holding a disabled millionaire hostage and demanding a ransom from his family.

Later jailed, Mesrine escaped and travelled to Venezuela. Schneider was extradited to France where she served out the rest of her sentence and began a crime-free life on her release. She died aged 66 in 2006.

In 1973, after returning to France where he was arrested, Mesrine staged a spectacular escape from a courthouse by taking the judge hearing his case hostage.

When his nemesis, the police commander Robert Broussard, now 87, came to arrest him at his flat, Mesrine received him, cigar in mouth, holding a bottle of champagne and offered him a glass. The 400 letters in the sale were written to Schneider between 1972 and 1977, mostly from Mesrine's time in the high-security wing at La Santé prison in Paris. He was a prolific, if uninspiring, letter writer whose aim seemed to be to continue charming the women under his spell with declarations of enduring love.

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In one letter to be auctioned, he recalls visiting Cape Kennedy with Schneider for the launch of Apollo 11 before moving to proclaim: "You are my right shoe and I'm your left shoe...two are needed to run fast", signing the letter "Good night, my sweet".

In another, Mesrine describes France as "Chicago" : "The cops shoot three hoodlums and that evening the hoodlums shoot two cashiers..." adding that he is for the death penalty. "I am for and I've always been...you are against," he writes.

In 1977 he escaped once again and abducted a billionaire and a journalist, crimes that sparked the creation of a massive manhunt and an "anti-Mesrine" police squad. Mesrine, who claimed to have killed 39 people - though criminologists suspect this was bravado - was shot dead at the wheel of his BMW in November 1979.

In 2008 a two-part feature film was made of his dubious career with Vincent Cassel in the title role and Gérard Depardieu in the cast. Schneider was played by Cécile de France.

Guardian film reviewer Peter Bradshaw described director Jean-François Richet's telling of Mesrine's brutal story as "a fascinating premonition of our modern age of gangsters, gangstas and 'respect' ".

More than 40 years since his death he continues to fascinate, as a Facebook page in his name shows.

"We don't know who will buy these letters," said auctioneer Ribeyre. "There aren't many people from his era who might have known him still alive, but even today he is interesting and appeals to a larger public."

In a recording left for his last companion, Sylvia Jeanjacquot, who was with him in the car when he died, Mesrine said: "If you are listening to this cassette, it's that I am in a cell from which there is no escape."

The letters are on show from 2 November at Salle Baron Ribeyre, 3 rue de Provence, 75009, Paris until the sale on 23 November.

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Private life of France's Bonnie and Clyde revealed in love letters

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Prison letters sent by 'public enemy No 1' Jacques Mesrine to his girlfriend Jeanne Schneider to be sold at auction

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Study showing ppts views on managing daily activities following attending a pain rehab program.

Clients responded with themes of:
Adapting to pain over trying to ‘fix’ it
Adjusting activities rather than avoiding them.
Using activities for purposes other than those deemed ‘typical’.
Activities as distraction.
Balance of activity and rest.

All relevant to work completed by OTs - demonstrates that utilising occupations as would be done in occupational therapy, fits with how those experiencing pain tend to wish to handle their condition.

Qualitative research - fits with OT standard of client centred as looks at individuals’ own experiences as they perceive them.

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Another qualitative study looking at management themes amongst those with chronic pain. Showed similar themes to previous, including altering ways of completing tasks and slowing down (balance). Showed theme of ‘prioritising pain defiers’ - activities which are so engaging and positive that pain is ‘forgotten’. Other activities which are less engaging were stopped if pain increased. Shows importance of occupations which are enjoyed. Similarly, daydreaming of desired occupations, such as travel  also helped distract from pain.

Ppts aged 25-74, so quite representative. 141 ppts in total which is quite large for qualitative data.

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Neerja Bhanot was a 22-year-old flight attendant working on Pan Am Flight 73 when it was hijacked by terrorists during a layover in 1986.  

Soon after taking control, the terrorists killed an Indian-American traveler and discarded his body outside the plane.   

They ordered… https://t.co/5wDnXFcsb3

# data[].attributes.wish_content.attachment_props.original_text
Neerja Bhanot was a 22-year-old flight attendant working on Pan Am Flight 73 when it was hijacked by terrorists during a layover in 1986.  

Soon after taking control, the terrorists killed an Indian-American traveler and discarded his body outside the plane.   

They ordered… https://t.co/5wDnXFcsb3 https://t.co/s2kmZjV3rM

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.embed_code
Neerja Bhanot was a 22-year-old flight attendant working on Pan Am Flight 73 when it was hijacked by terrorists during a layover in 1986.

Soon after taking control, the terrorists killed an Indian-American traveler and discarded his body outside the plane.

They ordered… pic.twitter.com/s2kmZjV3rM
— Fascinating (@fasc1nate) October 24, 2023

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.metadata.attachment_props_source.data.text
Neerja Bhanot was a 22-year-old flight attendant working on Pan Am Flight 73 when it was hijacked by terrorists during a layover in 1986.  

Soon after taking control, the terrorists killed an Indian-American traveler and discarded his body outside the plane.   

They ordered… https://t.co/5wDnXFcsb3 https://t.co/s2kmZjV3rM

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.metadata.attachment_props.original_text
Neerja Bhanot was a 22-year-old flight attendant working on Pan Am Flight 73 when it was hijacked by terrorists during a layover in 1986.  

Soon after taking control, the terrorists killed an Indian-American traveler and discarded his body outside the plane.   

They ordered… https://t.co/5wDnXFcsb3 https://t.co/s2kmZjV3rM

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.metadata.attachment_props.text
Neerja Bhanot was a 22-year-old flight attendant working on Pan Am Flight 73 when it was hijacked by terrorists during a layover in 1986.  

Soon after taking control, the terrorists killed an Indian-American traveler and discarded his body outside the plane.   

They ordered… https://t.co/5wDnXFcsb3