Is there a missing-middle in Australian mental health care?

Objective The term ‘missing-middle’ has been prominent in discourse relating to provision of mental health care in Australia, particularly by proponents of non-governmental youth mental health services such as headspace and related adult services. We investigate whether there is an empirical basis for use of the ‘missing-middle’ term, founded on qualitative and quantitative research. Conclusions Despite the widespread use of the term ‘missing-middle’ for advocacy in Australia, there is a lack of research characterising the epidemiological characteristics of the group. The validity of advocacy predicated on the basis of the ‘missing-middle’ care-gap should be reconsidered. Research, such as systematic service mapping and health needs assessment, is a necessary foundation for evidence-based mental healthcare policy, planning and implementation. Without such research, vital government funds may be deployed to ‘missing-middle’ programmes that may not improve Australian public health outcomes.

The Global Greyfields Transition: Why Urban Redevelopment in Low-Density, Car-Based Middle Suburbs Needs a New Model

This chapter provides the framework and rationale for Greening the Greyfields and its two new models for greyfield precinct regeneration (GPR): place-activated and transit-activated GPR. They provide a basis for regenerative urban redevelopment in the middle-ring greyfield suburbs of fast-growing, low-density cities. Place-activated GPR advances a new development model for the ‘missing middle’ in cities: new medium-density housing at precinct scale. Transit-activated GPR extends new sustainable modes of mobility into car-dependent suburbs. Both processes are required for retrofitting suburbia to fix the shortcomings of mid- to late-twentieth-century urban planning and development.

Health Insurance for India's Missing Middle

Policy paper on increasing health insurance coverage for India's missing middle population

Quiet Revolution by SMEs in the midstream of value chains in developing regions: wholesale markets, wholesalers, logistics, and processing

Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in the midstream (processors, wholesalers and wholesale markets, and logistics) segments of transforming value chains have proliferated rapidly over the past several decades in Africa, Asia, and Latin America. Their spread has been most rapid in the long transitional stage between the traditional and modern stages, when value chains grow long and developed with urbanization but are still fragmented, before consolidation. Most of Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia, and parts of the other regions, are in that stage. The midstream SMEs in output and input value chains are important to overall food security (moving about 65% of food consumed in Africa and South Asia), and to employment, farmers, poor consumers, and the environment. The midstream of value chains is neglected in the national and international debates as the “missing middle.” We found that it is indeed not missing but rather hidden from the debate, hence “the hidden middle.” The midstream SMEs grow quickly and succeed where enabling conditions are present. Our main policy recommendations are to support the SMEs further growth through a focus on infrastructure investment, in particular on wholesale markets and roads, a reduction of policy-related constraints such as excessive red tape, and regulation for food safety and good commercial practices.

Theropod guild structure and the tyrannosaurid niche assimilation hypothesis: implications for predatory dinosaur macroecology and ontogeny in later Late Cretaceous Asiamerica

Well-sampled dinosaur communities from the Jurassic through the early Late Cretaceous show greater taxonomic diversity among larger (>50 kg) theropod taxa than communities of the Campano-Maastrichtian, particularly to those of eastern/central Asia and Laramidia. The large carnivore guilds in Asiamerican assemblages are monopolized by tyrannosaurids, with adult medium-sized (50–500 kg) predators rare or absent. In contrast, various clades of theropods are found to occupy these body sizes in earlier faunas, including early tyrannosauroids. Assemblages with “missing middle-sized” predators are not found to have correspondingly sparser diversity of potential prey species recorded in these same faunas. The “missing middle-sized” niches in the theropod guilds of Late Cretaceous Laramidia and Asia may have been assimilated by juvenile and subadults of tyrannosaurid species, functionally distinct from their adult ecomorphologies. It is speculated that if tyrannosaurids assimilated the niches previously occupied by mid-sized theropod predators, we would expect the evolution of distinct transitions in morphology and possibly the delay of the achievement of somatic maturity in species of this taxon.

Missing middle housing in Toronto: past & present forms

Toronto has a rich history of Missing Middle Housing forms that have contributed to the overall character of the city’s built environment. The research paper maps the locations of Missing Middle Housing in Toronto, which I define as residentially zoned properties between 12 and 36 meters in height. It provides information on the broad development trends of this type of housing, and explores the forms of Missing Middle Housing in Toronto in the past and present. The research paper indicates that forms of Missing Middle Housing along avenues are being constrained by the City of Toronto’s Mid-Rise Performance Standards (2010), making it challenging to build forms that have shaped Toronto’s past.

Students in my backyard: locating areas for purpose-built student accommodations near campus

The City of Toronto is home to four major universities and over 184,000 post-secondary students, most of whom will need a place to call home. It has become typical for students at urban universities to be housed on campus in student residences for first year, after which most students will seek accommodation in the neighbourhoods closest to campus. There are many factors affecting the ability for students to locate close to campus, of which affordability is at the forefront. The research of this paper is two-fold; locate areas close to each of Toronto’s four university campuses which may accommodate purpose-built student accommodations and refine these areas to identify areas where the development can be delivered as a mid-rise typology. Through intensification capacity modelling, underutilized sites within areas close to campus were identified for their suitability to respond to both city initiatives of providing student housing and finding the missing middle on housing density were identified. Identifying these sites allows for city planners and universities to anticipate the concentration of students in existing neighbourhoods and plan for the effects of ‘studentification’, both as a tension between students and neighbours and for the regenerative effects on the community. Key Words student housing, studentification, mid-rise housing, missing middle, intensification

Students in my backyard: locating areas for purpose-built student accommodations near campus

The City of Toronto is home to four major universities and over 184,000 post-secondary students, most of whom will need a place to call home. It has become typical for students at urban universities to be housed on campus in student residences for first year, after which most students will seek accommodation in the neighbourhoods closest to campus. There are many factors affecting the ability for students to locate close to campus, of which affordability is at the forefront. The research of this paper is two-fold; locate areas close to each of Toronto’s four university campuses which may accommodate purpose-built student accommodations and refine these areas to identify areas where the development can be delivered as a mid-rise typology. Through intensification capacity modelling, underutilized sites within areas close to campus were identified for their suitability to respond to both city initiatives of providing student housing and finding the missing middle on housing density were identified. Identifying these sites allows for city planners and universities to anticipate the concentration of students in existing neighbourhoods and plan for the effects of ‘studentification’, both as a tension between students and neighbours and for the regenerative effects on the community. Key Words student housing, studentification, mid-rise housing, missing middle, intensification