The COVID-19 pandemic has instigated global lockdowns, profoundly altering daily life and resulting in widespread closures, except for essential services like healthcare and grocery stores. This scenario has notably intensified mental health challenges, particularly among children and adolescents. Influenced by a myriad of factors including developmental stages, educational backgrounds, existing psychiatric disorders, and socioeconomic status, the pandemic’s impact extends beyond the immediate health crisis. This paper critically examines the multifaceted effects of the pandemic on mental and physical health across various age groups. It highlights the increased incidence of stress, anxiety, and depression, underscoring the pandemic’s deep psychological footprint. Additionally, the paper explores the societal implications, from altered family dynamics and educational disruptions due to the shift to online learning, to workplace transformations. These changes have led to a mix of adaptive responses and adverse effects, including heightened domestic tensions and mental health issues. The paper also delves into the ethical challenges faced by medical professionals during this crisis, balancing urgent patient care with ongoing medical research and mental health considerations. This analysis aims to provide a comprehensive understanding of the COVID-19 pandemic’s extensive impact on health and society, emphasizing the importance of addressing mental health as a crucial component of the response strategy.

In Urban development, diversity respect is needed to prioritize and balance the urban development design for sustainable eco-city development. As a result, this research aimed to investigate the causal factor pathways of social network factors influencing sustainable eco-city development in the northeastern region of Thailand through a quantitative research approach. With the aim to survey insightful information, the analysis unit was conducted at the individual level with three hundred and eighty-three (383) samplings in Khon Kaen and Udon Thani provinces, including univariate analysis and multivariate analysis, using path analysis and multiple linear regression. The study results indicated that two pathways of social network factors influencing sustainable eco-city development were indirect influence factors. The indirect influence factor consists of information exchange, benefits exchange in the network, and members’ role in the social network. Additionally, the study revealed that the pathway has influences through social network types and the economic and social dimensions of sustainable cities (R² = 0.330). Therefore, this study concluded that sustainable eco-city development should be implemented through community networks and economic and social network development for environmental development through social network types.

Food security presents a complex challenge that spans multiple sectors and levels, involving diverse stakeholders. Such a challenge necessitates collaborative efforts and the creation of shared value among participants. Through the lens of service-dominant logic (S-D logic), food security can be redefined to achieve a more comprehensive understanding and sheds light on the dynamic interplay among stakeholders, enabling the realization of potential value co-creation. As a theoretical contribution, this research addresses the gap in explaining stakeholder interactions. This aspect is crucial for fostering collaboration, and the study accomplishes this by leveraging Social Network Analysis to identify clusters and assign them roles as sub-orchestrators to support the National Food Agency as the main orchestrator who responsible to implement co-creation management strategy (involvement, curation, and empowerment). The study also proposes stakeholder roles in the context of food security: regulator, operator, dominator, niche player, and supporter. Moreover, the practical significance of this research is highly relevant to the early stages of the National Food Agency (NFA) since its establishment in 2021. As the NFA seeks optimal structure, networks, and resources to enhance Indonesia’s existing food system, the study offers valuable insights. This comprehensive study highlights key issues in developing food security in Indonesia and provides recommendations for overcoming future challenges.

Community policing has emerged as a vital instrument for combatting crime and enhancing public safety in South Africa. As a result, it has the capacity to go beyond traditional law enforcement functions as a mediator in disputes, fostering improved relationships between the police and the communities where they work. This paper analyses the implementation of community policing strategies by the South African police with the purpose of resolving conflicts. This study aims to address social crime prevention-related concerns through community policing methods in the Galeshewe police area within the Francis Baard policing regions of the Sol Plaatje Municipality, South Africa. The paper examines the tactics that community police employ to enforce the law, avoid social issues, and manage conflict resolution in the communities. A qualitative method and descriptive design were employed. Comprehensive document analysis, semi-structured interviews, and observations were employed as data collection strategies. An inductive reasoning model was used to analysis data. The findings of the study demonstrated that community policing plays an important role in optimizing problem mapping and it increases public knowledge of the importance of upholding security and order in the different police operations that support the community policing program.

Objectives: The unprecedented COVID-19 pandemic has intensified the stress on blood banks and deprived the blood sources due to the containment measures that restrict the movement and travel limitations among blood donors. During this time, Malaysia had a significant 40% reduction in blood supply. Blood centers and hospitals faced a huge challenge balancing blood demand and collection. The health care systems need a proactive plan to withstand the uncertain situation such as the COVID-19 pandemic. This study investigates the psychosocial factors that affect blood donation behavior during a pandemic and aims to propose evidence-based strategies for a sustainable blood supply. Study design: Qualitative design using focus group discussion (FGD) was employed. Methods: Data were acquired from the two FGDs that group from transfusion medicine specialists (N = 8) and donors (N = 10). The FGD interview protocol was developed based on the UTM Research Ethics Committee’s approval. Then, the data was analyzed using Nvivo based on the General Inductive Approach (GIA). Results: Analysis of the text data found that the psychology of blood donation during the pandemic in Malaysia can be classified into four main themes: (i) reduced donation; (ii) motivation of donating blood; (iii) trends of donation; and (iv) challenges faced by the one-off, occasional, and non-donors. Conclusions: Based on the emerging themes from the FGDs, this study proposes four psycho-contextual strategies for relevant authorities to manage sustainable blood accumulation during the pandemic: (1) develop standard operating procedure for blood donors; (2) organize awareness campaigns; (3) create a centralized integrated blood donors database; and (4) provide innovative Blood Donation Facilities.

The study examined the socio-demographic factors affecting access to and utilization of social welfare services in Yenagoa Local Government Area of Bayelsa State, Nigeria. Quantitative and qualitative approaches were adopted to select 570 respondents from the study area. Probability and non-probability sampling techniques were adopted in the selection of communities, and respondents. The quantitative data were analyzed using frequency distribution tables and percentages, while chi-square statistic was used to determine the relationship between socio-demographic variables and access to and utilization of social welfare services. The qualitative data were analyzed in themes as a complement to the quantitative data. This study reveals that although all the respondents reported knowing available social welfare services, 44.3% reported not having access to existing social services due to factors connected to serendipity variables, such as terrain condition, ethnicity and knowing someone in government. Therefore, the study recommends that the government and other stakeholders should push for the massive delivery of much-needed social welfare services to address the issue of welfare service deficit across the nation, irrespective of the ethnic group and whether the community is connected to the government of the day or not, primarily in rural areas.