People who have been diagnosed HIV positive often experience distress and anxiety due to uncertainties pertaining to the implications of an HIV positive status. These individuals are often reluctant to seek counselling and treatment due to the fear of being rejected and discriminated against (Parker, et al., 2002). There are limited formal networks for HIV support and psychological help in the South African context. Considering this, structured support groups were implemented for recently diagnosed HIV positive pregnant women. These women were recruited from ante natal clinics in Atteridgeville and Mamelodi as part of the Serithi project. Six support groups were implemented and facilitated by various experts including Masters students, of whom the researcher was part. This project is part of the larger study of the Serithi project in which interviews were conducted with three hundred and seventeen HIV positive pregnant women from disadvantaged locations of Tshwane. Based on these interviews, a support group intervention was developed. This research forms part of the evaluation of the support group intervention. The aim of this study was to explore the experiences of women who attended the support groups. Women who had attended 7-10 sessions were selected and interviewed individually using semi-structured interviews. With the permission of the participants, the discussions were tape recorded and transcribed. The data was analyzed, using qualitative research methods, from an interpretative phenomenological approach. This involved systematically studying meanings, themes and general descriptions of experiences by the research participants. The main findings in this study showed that women who participated in support groups adopted positive coping and behaviour that is conducive to their livelihood, learned more about HIV and AIDS, seem to have a positive future outlook and are overall empowered. These findings support previous research and literature in regards to the importance of social support in the form of support groups in effectively assisting HIV positive women in their journey to adjust to psychosocial consequence of the disease. / Dissertation (MA)--University of Pretoria, 2012. / Psychology / unrestricted

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The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of a workshop/support group for parents raising children with type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1DM). Diagnosis of a chronic disease in a child generally arouses acute anxiety and stress in parents. Parental stress when raising a child with type 1 diabetes is often centered on worry about their child's health and parents' ability to maintain the care activities needed by these children. Parents are the primary caregivers of children with Type 1 diabetes, and the effect of stress on parents can impact the health of both children and parents. The present study examined parents of children with type 1 diabetes who attended four separate two hour support groups/workshops. The Pediatric Inventory for Parents (Streisand, 2001) measured parenting stress. The parents completed the Pediatric Inventory for Parents, at the beginning of the first workshop and again at the end of all the workshops. Parents also completed an open ended questionnaire at the end of each workshop. Parents responded positively to the workshops. Parents stated that hearing how others worked through difficult situations while raising their child with type 1 diabetes was helpful. In quantitative analyses, parents had lower mean scores, post- vs. pre- test on measures of stress related to emotional functioning, communication, medical care, and role function. Research shows that support groups that involve the entire family are most beneficial (McBroom & Enriquez, 2009). Nurse practitioners should consider sponsoring or becoming involved in workshops for parents raising children with type 1 diabetes.

Although the research on the effects of cancer on the patient and its impact on the family system, as well as on the benefits of support groups for this population is abundant, there is relatively little research that examines the benefits of online cancer support groups, the meaning that users attribute to giving and receiving support, and the effects of use on the user's significant other. Using the theoretical frameworks of phenomenology, and Social Interactionism online surveys were conducted with seven individuals who considered themselves active members of the online Cancer Survivors Network, were all diagnosed with cancer and living with a significant other. These surveys were coded for themes using Thematic Analysis. The main themes identified included: feeling normal, belonging to a community, hope, honest and open place to talk about fears, feelings and possibility of death, that experiencing and recovering or dealing with cancer is a process, gaining understanding, acceptance and support, as well as information, a better sense of well-being related to hope and humor, and feeling helpful. The themes that emerged when looking at the partner relationships were: feelings of jealousy, and sharing the online community with their partner. Implications for clinical practice and suggestions for future research are included. / Master of Science

This thesis focused on the situation of family members of persons with psychotic illness, particular on their experience of the approach of the healthcare professionals and of their feelings of alienation regarding the professional care of their family member. A further aim was to explore how siblings who have participated in a support group for siblings experienced their situation. A questionnaire was developed that enabled the aims of this thesis to be investigated (I). Seventy family members from various parts of Sweden participated, and data were collected via the questionnaire developed in study I (II-III). Thirteen siblings who previously had participated in a support group participated in follow-up focus groups interviews (IV). The questionnaire developed was shown to be reliable and valid in these studies (I). In many cases, the participants had experienced an approach from professionals that indicated that they did not experience openness, confirmation and cooperation, and that they felt powerless and socially isolated in relation to the care. There was also found to be a certain degree of association between how the participants experienced the approach and whether they felt alienation (II). The majority of the participants considered openness, confirmation, and cooperation to be important aspects of professional’s approach. The result also identified a low level of agreement between the participants’ experience and what they considered to be significant in the professional’s approach (III). The findings revealed the complexity of being a sibling of an individual with psychotic illness. Participating in a support group for siblings can be of importance in gaining knowledge and minimizing feelings of being alone (IV). Although the psychiatric care services in Sweden have been aware of the importance of cooperating with family members, the results indicated that there is a need for further research in this area.

Support groups for suicide loss survivors are a relatively common resource used by those who are left to cope in the aftermath of a suicide death. Though descriptive studies have been used to provide an overview of support groups in the past, there have been no efforts to understand nuances of these groups and the impact of these groups and differing facilitation styles on the bereavement experience for attendees. This study explores primary data collected between March 2015 and December 2015 with a sample of 138 survivor of suicide loss support group facilitators in the United States and several other countries. Meaning making and meaning reconstruction is presented as the primary theory used to examine the attitudes of support group facilitators. Basic analytic procedures were used to explore sample descriptives, and an Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) with an oblique rotation was used to identify the factors within the Survivor of Suicide Loss Support Group Facilitator Scale. Three factors were revealed with a simple structure, representing the latent themes of (1) Facilitator Perspective on the Role of the Story (α=.73), (2) Facilitator Perspective on the Role of the Facilitator (α=.63), and (3) Facilitator Perspective on Role of the Loss Survivor (α.59). Bivariate analyses revealed that factors 1 and 2 both had a significant relationship with length of time the facilitator had been leading the group, facilitator’s level of compassion satisfaction, and facilitator’s level of burnout. The findings of the EFA support the use of the scale as a tool to discern differences in attitudes about the role of meaning making and sharing of stories in the group as well as the role of the facilitator in aiding this process. The findings provide important information for understanding variation in support group facilitation styles and have implications for future exploration of outcomes for group attendees based on facilitator attitude and style. Implications for practice and future research are discussed.

The health care setting and available health resources impact the health seeking behavior of people. The transnational migrants from Bangladesh find the health care system of the U.S. fundamentally different from that of their place of origin. This study aims to explore the health seeking behavior of Bangladeshi transnational migrants living in Atlanta, USA. Through analyzing data obtained from interviews, participant observation, and autoethnography, this research explains how their transnational status impacts their perception of health and health seeking behavior.

According to research applying a social constructionist perspective, the sense of self is not lost in people with Alzheimer’s disease (AD). It is, however, greatly influenced by the symptoms and by how they are treated by other people. Without support, it is difficult to preserve a positive sense of self, when living with progressing cognitive impairments. The stigma associated with cognitive impairment also threatens their sense of self. Harré’s social constructionist theories of self and positioning have been used to study how people with AD express their sense of self. As there is a need to expand the previous research by involving additional participants and research contexts, the aim of the present thesis was to describe, in accordance with Harré’s theories of self and positioning, how people with AD expressed their sense of self in personal interviews and in support groups with other people with AD. The research consists of four substudies (I–IV), and has a qualitative, descriptive, and theory-testing approach. Thirteen people with mild and moderate AD were included, 11 of whom had the early onset form of the disease. Two support groups were formed, led by facilitators who supported the communication and the participants’ expressions of self. Each group met 10 times during an eight-month period. Topics were not predetermined, and introduced by both facilitators and participants. Semistructured interviews were conducted before the groups started and after they ended. The interviews and support group conversations were audio-recoded and analysed with qualitative content analysis, guided by Harré’s theories. In substudy I, the initial interviews were deductively analysed. The findings showed that Self 1 (the sense of being a singular, embodied person) was expressed by the participants without difficulties. Self 2 (the perception of one’s personal attributes and life history) was expressed as feeling mainly the same person. While some abilities had been lost, other had been developed. Self 3 (the socially constructed self) was described as mostly supported, but sometimes threatened in interactions with other people (I). In substudy II, support group conversations were analysed abductively with respect to expressions of Self 2. It was found that participants expressed Self 2 in terms of agency and communion, and a lack of agency and communion (II).In substudy III, a secondary analysis of the data from substudy II was performed inductively with the aim of describing how Self 3 was constructed in the interaction of the support group. Five first-order positions, generating lively interaction, were described: the project manager, the storyteller, the moral agent, the person burdened with AD, and the coping person (III). In substudy IV, all the collected data were reanalysed inductively, focusing on how participants expressed the experience of being research participants. Three themes were constructed: contributing to an important cause, gaining from participating, and experiencing risks and drawbacks (IV). In conclusion, it was found that participants constructed positive social selves through the support from each other, the facilitator, and researchers in the support group (III), and as research participants (IV). Agency and communion were central to Self 2, and decreased with the progression of AD (II). In spite of change, participants perceived themselves as basically the same people, with a potential to learn and develop as persons (I).

The purpose of this study was to describe and analyze how Homecourt, a nondirective support group at a public high school in the Dallas/Fort Worth area, operates and how it affects students.