Globally there seems to be an increase in psychosocial problems in school communities. This tendency can largely be contributed to the increasing complexity of modern society. Research studies indicate that for an organisation like a school to survive and improve the wellbeing of its members, it should become more flexible and adjustable to all sociological changes. In this study, it is reasoned that the complexity of human behaviour as well as the complex nature of a school community are not always fully realised. Leadership is thus not always able to make adjustments to enable the school to adjust to an ever-changing complex modern society. Internationally, most governments address this problem by the implementation of programmes and policies that acknowledge the necessity to view a school community as being part of broader eco-systems. The introduction of whole-school approaches in schools addresses this interaction and the dependency between systems. The reasoning is that change is more likely to occur when the whole community shares a collective vision about their plans, aspirations, and goals. Despite policies that support multi-dimensional interactive approaches, it is unfortunately plagued by systemic problems due to a lack to fully accommodate an understanding of complexity of human behaviour and systems. Although the holistic and collective principles are implicated in policies, the importance of the dynamic nature of relationships does not always receive the necessary attention. This purpose of this study is to focus on the potential of dynamic relationships in order to create a more humanised school community by utilizing dynamic interactive relational processes in the promotion of relational wellbeing. The emphasis is therefore on the role that school leaders can play to promote relational wellbeing by utilising this dynamic nature of relationships as a means to influence and change rigid authoritative leadership control by adopting a more transformative leadership style. Unless school leaders of the future become more sophisticated in their understanding of the complexity and the dynamic relational processes of human behaviour, it is unlikely that relational wellbeing in schools will be promoted. The researcher found it necessary to focus primarily on the current perceptions of leaders at all levels in a secondary school community. The challenge was an attempt to gain a better understanding of their experiences and thoughts about the restraining factors that affected the promotion of relational wellbeing can be addressed and challenged. Accordingly, a single qualitative research case study, consisting of an appreciative inquiry (AI), which was followed-up by a working session, was conducted at this school. In view of the findings of study, several recommendations were made for practice and policy development. / MA (Psychology), North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2015

The present fast-changing economic environment contributes to the daily challenges faced by organisations in their attempts to maintain a competitive edge. Employees need to be innovative continuously and maintain high levels of productivity in order to reach organisational goals. From a global perspective, a lot of research has been done concerning personal financial wellbeing, yet very little research on this topic could be found in the South African context. Seeing that intellectual capital is regarded as one of the most important assets of any organisation, the current study set out to determine the impact of personal financial wellbeing on employee productivity and absenteeism as part of total employee cost. For this purpose, a confidential online questionnaire was completed voluntarily by sampled employees (n=872) from the manufacturing industry. The results showed that financial interference is an outcome of the level of financial wellbeing; therefore, financial wellbeing does have an impact on financial interference. It was also determined that financial interference, in turn, does have an impact on both productivity and absenteeism. According to the results, personal financial wellbeing also affects both productivity and absenteeism directly. One recommendation for future research is to use this study as a basis from which to more generally improve financial wellbeing in the South African context. Also, more research could be conducted on suitable financial educational programmes to improve financial wellbeing in the South African workplace, as well as on determining a monetary value of the impact of financial wellbeing on productivity and absenteeism. / MCur, North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2015

The importance of promoting the health and wellbeing of children in educational contexts are recognised in national and international policy developments. However, according to international and local research, many challenges regarding the promotion of relational wellbeing prevail, despite various efforts to improve relationships within school communities. The continuous media and research reports on the escalation of violence in schools suggest that there are certain vices that act as barriers to the promotion of relational wellbeing in school communities, restraining relationships between all those involved in the school community. However, challenges relating to relational wellbeing are often construed as a matter to be addressed by professionals either in the service of the government or in private practice, who are expected to work with individuals who experience relational problems. Limited attention is given to barriers that might arise within the everyday interactions between the members of the school communities. The need to understand what hinders the promotion of wellbeing in school communities as interactive spaces was therefore evident. The aim of this study, therefore, was to explore perceived barriers to the promotion of relational wellbeing of children in South African school communities. In order to explore such barriers to the promotion of relational wellbeing, a group of postgraduate students, enrolled for a master’s or doctoral programme in Psychology and who work in various school contexts, was involved in a World Café event with a focus on relational wellbeing in school contexts. A combination of theoretical perspectives was applied as a basis for understanding the educational context in which the study was situated. In order to secure the capturing of the complex nature of relationships and relational wellbeing, a qualitative, interpretive descriptive research design was applied. The application of the World Café method created a context suitable to the interpretive and descriptive nature of the research and granted participants the opportunity to render rich and vigorous descriptions of how they perceived the relational wellbeing of children in South African school communities. Twelve postgraduate students were selected through purposive and convenience sampling to take part in the World Café event, hosted in collaboration with a senior research professor on campus. The data gathered during the World Café event was used as the main data source. In addition, three semi-structured Skype interviews were conducted, following the thematic analysis of the data gathered during the World Café event. In order to ensure that the data was trustworthy, crystallization was applied throughout the data collection process. Thematic analysis was conducted and three main themes with subthemes were identified. Firstly, the participants identified a predominant focus on academics. They perceived this uncontested focus on academic results within the school community as a barrier to the enhancement of relational wellbeing in their places of work. The main concern was that this unequivocal focus on academic results held certain consequences for both teachers and learners. One of the consequences of this focus on academics is the stress that it creates for teachers. The participants indicated that the most attention in their school environments was paid to delivering good academic results and that the development of other needs of learners, such as emotional needs, were not deemed important. In addition, the participants indicated that they were most often appraised and rewarded according to the academic performance of their learners and to the extent to which they reached predetermined departmental goals within their schools. In addition to academic pressures to perform, teachers are often over-burdened with additional duties which leave them emotionally drained. As a result of their tapped emotional energy, teachers felt that they could not invest in connecting and caring for learners as they would like to, due to the overwhelming amount of other responsibilities. Furthermore, the participants indicated that, in addition to too little time to connect and care for learners and develop healthy relationships, they also experienced little collegial support. The participants also indicated that, in addition to the stress caused by the predominant focus on academic achievement, the consequence of this stance created the following: limited capacity to develop learners’ social-emotional skills; situations where harm to learners’ self-concept was experienced; and a general problem-focused approach in addressing challenges experienced by learners. Secondly, adults seemed to have a limited capacity to promote relational wellbeing. The participants indicated that, in the contexts and places where they worked, adults, such as teachers and parents, who were mainly responsible to guide and equip learners to create, develop, and maintain healthy and meaningful relationships, were perceived to lack the necessary skills themselves in order to engage in meaningful relationships with one another. With regard to parents’ capacities, the participants argued that the lack of social skills displayed by children in their classrooms might be ascribed to the home environment and the specific contextual challenges that parents and caregivers have to face, in addition to a general limited ability of parents to equip their children with the necessary social and emotional skills to be able to establish healthy and meaningful relationships. Concerning teachers’ capacities, the participants indicated that some teachers were not equipped with adequate knowledge to develop healthy relationships with children and therefore lacked skills to promote relational wellbeing of children in general. In addition to inadequate knowledge, the participants felt that teachers’ attitudes about relationships also played a role in the lack of promoting healthy relationships. Although inadequate knowledge and negative attitudes by teachers were perceived to compromise the development of healthy relationships, participants indicated that, even if teachers had the desire to develop healthy relationships, there were few or no opportunities created for them by their schools to focus on developing healthy relationships; there was also little opportunity to be models of healthy relational beings, due to a lack of time or system-related support, as well as personal contextual restraints. Thirdly, the perception of the participants was that unresolved conflict between role-players often created a barrier to the promotion of healthy relationships. The participants indicated that the conflict between role-players in the school communities were often excessive and remained unresolved, and that the conflict existed on all levels of interrelatedness. The unresolved conflict was perceived as a serious barrier to the promotion of relational wellbeing within their school environments; this conflict was mainly experienced between teachers and learners, teachers and staff, as well as between parents and teachers. / MA (Psychology), North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2015

Bakgrund: Hundterapi är ett relativt outforskat område, i dagsläget finns det en begränsad mängd med evidensbaserad forskning rörande vårdhundens effekter. Vårdhunden har många olika användningsområden inom sjukvården. Sjukdomar som demens och psykisk ohälsa är vida utbrett i världen och det syns en ökning av personer som drabbas av demens vilket kan kopplas till en ökad medellivslängd. Syfte: Syftet med denna litteraturstudie var att beskriva vårdhundens effekter på välbefinnandet hos personer med kognitiv nedsättning samt att som metodologisk aspekt beskriva på vilket sätt hunden använts som oberoende variabel i studiernas interventioner. Metod: En deskriptiv litteraturstudie där tio kvantitativa experimentella studier har granskats och sammanställts. Huvudresultat: Sammanställningen av studierna gav tre olika utfall, förbättrad effekt, försämrad effekt samt oförändrat utfall. Flera av studierna visade på att vårdhunden hade minskat deltagarnas depressiva symtom och deras nedstämdhet. Samtidigt syntes en ökad emotionell stabilitet samt en minskad ångest och aggressivitet hos deltagarna. De ingående studierna visade även en försämrad effekt av välbefinnandet och en ökning av dementa symptom vilket yttrade sig genom att deltagarna blev mindre adekvata och mer verbalt aggressiva, huruvida denna effekt berodde på vårdhunden framkom inte. Utifrån den metodologiska frågeställningen framkom det ur studierna att deltagarna fått klappa, leka, utfodra, promenera samt fått välja själva hur de spendera tiden med hunden. Slutsatser: Ur litteraturstudien framkom det förbättrade effekter på välbefinnandet hos deltagarna med kognitiva nedsättningar efter hundterapin, vilket framhåller hundens hälsofrämjande egenskaper. Vidare saknade stora delar av de ingående studierna statistisk signifikans och blev därför inte tillförlitliga. Det behövs därför mer evidensbaserad forskning för att kunna fastställa vårdhundens effekter inom området. / Background: Dog therapy is an unexplored area within the field of nursing, to date there´s a lack of evidence based research regarding the therapeutic effects of the dog in health-care. The therapy dog has a variety of areas in the healthcare which it can be used. Dementia and mental illness is a widely spread over the world and there is an increase in people diagnosed with the disorder, it´s thought to be related to increased average life expectancy. Aim: The aim of this literature-review was to describe the effects of the therapy dog on the wellbeing on patients with cognitive dysfunctions and as methodological aspect describe in which way the dog has been used as an independent variable in the interventions of the studies. Method: A descriptive literature-review where ten quantitative experimental studies has been reviewed and complied. Main result: The result of the included studies were summarized under three different outcomes, improved effect, degraded effect and unchanged effect. Several of the studies showed a decrease in the participant’s depressive symptoms, it was thought to be due to the effects of the dog. The participants showed an increased emotional stability and a reduced grade of anxiety as well as decreased aggressive behavior. The outcome of the included studies also showed a decreased tendency in the participant’s self-experience quality of life and an increased frequency of dementia symptoms, which were revealed as les adequateness and more verbally aggressive. Based on the methodological question the studies showed that the activities the participants did during the intervention were; pet the dog, play with the dog, feed it, take walks with the dog and they could choose individually what they wanted to do. Conclusion: The literature- review revealed that the therapy dog had a improved impact on the participants wellbeing after the intervention, compared to before the intervention. This emphasizes the dog´s health-promoting characteristics. Furthermore, the outcome of the literature- review shows that the result from the included studies lack statistical significance, therefore these results were not counted as reliable. The present review underlines the need for further evidence- based research regarding the health-promoting effects of the therapy dog.

Introduction: Dementia is a syndrome due to disease of the brain, usually of a chronic nature, in which there is disturbance of multiple higher cortical functions including Memory, Comprehension, Thinking, Judgment, Orientation, language and communication skills and abstract thinking. It is one of the most challenging disorders both in terms of prevalence and economic burden. There are currently approximately 800,000 people with dementia in UK and national cost is 17 billion per year. It is estimated that in next thirty years, number of people with dementia will increase to 1.4 million and the national cost will be over 50 billion. The exceptional advances in modern medicine in terms of prolonging life expectancy do not necessarily improve the care delivered to people with dementia. Dementia is a progressive condition where clinical recovery is not possible despite the discovery of cognition enhancing drugs. This belief leads to low expectations that tend to erode hope and foster indignity. Advances in treatment of Alzheimer’s disease have, however, stimulated new thinking and methods of service delivery. At certain stage of their illness, if not from the very beginning, personal, and social recovery becomes more meaningful for service users than their clinical recovery. Objective: To investigate whether recovery-orientated psychiatric assessment and therapeutic intervention enhances the wellbeing of people with memory problems and their family carers. Method: This study was a preliminary randomised control study. Patients were randomly allocated to recovery focus group or treatment as usual group acting as the control. Participants in the recovery focus group received a recovery-focused pre-diagnostic wellbeing assessment and counselling, diagnostic consultation with written feedback and post-diagnostic support over a period of six months. Participants in both groups were assessed using the WHO Wellbeing Index (WHO-5) as the primary outcome measure. The Mini Mental State Examination, Cornell Scale for Depression in Dementia, EuroQol-5D and Zarit Burden Interview were used as secondary outcome measures. Written records of the narrative accounts of participants in the recovery focus group were also obtained. Results: 48 patients with early dementia were recruited and agreed to take part in the study. Out of these, 34 patients completed the study, of which 17 patients were in the recovery focus group and 17 patients were in the treatment as usual group (control).There was a significant difference between the groups in terms of greater improvement in wellbeing as rated by the WHO – 5 Wellbeing Index in the recovery focus group compared to the control group. The secondary outcome measures in the areas of cognition, quality of life and caregiver burden showed no differences between the groups. However, case histories from the recovery focus group identified the main areas of improvement in improved mood, increased social interaction, reduction in carer strain and/or burden and improved self-worth and/or confidence. Conclusions: This study shows that recovery focused care can enhance the wellbeing of people with mild to moderate dementia. The additional benefits perceived by the patients and their relatives /carers include improvement in mood symptoms, social interaction and confidence as well as reduction in carer burden and strain.

No description available.

Kontorsmiljön kan variera beroende på arbetsplats, därför anses det viktigt att studera hur den fysiska kontorsmiljön kan påverka arbetstagarnas trivsel, gemenskap och arbetssituation. Tidigare forskning har visat att faktorer så som antal personer som delar kontorsrum eller individens möjlighet till att sitta avskilt kan ha en påverkan på arbetstagarens känsla av sammanhang i sitt arbete. Till och med arbetstagarens upplevelse av kontorets luftkvalitet och belysning har visat påverka arbetstagarnas beteenden i arbetet. I januari 2016 bytte arbetstagarna inom Hälso- och Sjukvårdssektorn i en av Göteborgs stads stadsdelsförvaltningar kontorslokaler, de flyttade från kontorslokaler i ett äldreboende till ett av kommunens kontorslokaler. Syftet med denna studie var att få en bättre förståelse över hur deras nya kontorsmiljö kan ha påverkat arbetstagarnas arbetssituation samt känsla av gemenskap och trivsel. Studien genomfördes med hjälp av kvalitativa intervjuer med nio av Hälso- och Sjukvårdssektorns medarbetare samt en mindre observation av den fysiska arbetsmiljön i deras nya kontorslokaler. De mest framträdande slutsatserna som drogs i studien var att det nya kontoret bidrog till att alla sektorns funktioner nu delar kontorslokal. Något som haft en stark påverkan på arbetstagarnas arbetssituation, gemenskap och trivsel. Då de nu fått en förbättrad kommunikation   mellan funktionerna, vilket även bidragit till bättre förutsättningar för samarbete. Studiens resultat visade även att kontorens storlek, struktur och fysiska attribut hade en påverkan av arbetstagarens känsla av sammanhang, genom att skapa bättre förutsättningar för ordning, kontroll och samarbete. / The office environment can variate in different workplaces, therefore it’s important to research how much the physical office environment can influence the employees’ work situation and feeling of community and wellbeing. Previous research has shown that factors such as the amount of people in an office space or the possibility to privacy can influence the employees’ sense of coherence in their work. Even the employees’ experience of the air quality and light has been shown to affect the employees’ behavior at work. In January of 2016 the employees at the Health Care sector in one of the city districts in Göteborgs stad moved their offices, from offices in an old retirement home to a county office building. The purpose of this research is to get a better understanding of how the new office environment have influenced the employees’ experience in regards to their new work situation and feeling of community and wellbeing. The research was conducted with the help of quality based interviews with nine employees and a small observation of the physical work environment at the Heath Care sector’s new office spaces. The major findings in this study showed that the new closeness, were the different functions within the sector now share the same office space, has had a clear influence on the employees work situation and feelings of community and wellbeing. Where the communication between the functions has improved, something that also has improved their conditions for cooperation. The study also showed that the size, the structure and the physical attributed of the office space has had an influence on the employees’ sense of coherence, by creating better conditions for organization, control and cooperation.

Studiens syfte är att beskriva hur människor som lever med hiv, i en stad i västsverige, erfar den egna hälsan. Studien har genomförts med semistrukturerade intervjuer och analyserats med kvalitativ innehållsanalys. Genom bearbetning av textdata blev resultatet fyra kategorier: vitalitet för människan som lever med hiv, kampen med mitt liv, utsatthet på grund av fördomar och okunskap och sorg är att inte kunna leva ett önskat liv. Med tillhörande underkategorier: accepterad för den jag är, strävan efter balans, mognat som människa, frihet att kunna leva mitt liv, livet är som det är, klar med livet, skuldbelagd på grund av hiv, livrädd för okunskap, objektifierad som människa, stort ansvar är en börda, tar min energi, ledsen över människors fördomar, begränsad i livet, jag har förändrats och oärlig då jag inte kan berätta. Resultatet visar att Vitalitet för människan som lever med hiv upplevs då informanterna bland annat erfar mod att vara öppen om hiv. Kampen med mitt liv upplevs då informanten beskriver svårigheten att acceptera ett liv med hiv. Rädsla beskrivs som en kamp i samband med att bli avvisad. Utsatthet på grund av fördomar och okunskap upplevs till exempel då vårdpersonal avslöjar informanternas hiv öppet. Sorg är att inte kunna leva ett önskat liv och beskrivs i samband med hur livet förändrats efter hivdiagnosen. Diskussionen skildrar  bland annat hur informanterna upplever att livet blivit begränsat på grund av biverkningar och rädslan att inte våga avslöja hiv för närstående. Välbefinnande upplevs då informanterna erfar frihet. Stigma är förekommande från samhället och informanterna själva.

SAMMANFATTNING   Bakgrund: Tidigare studier visar att patienter påverkas både fysiskt och psykiskt vid överflyttning från en miljö till en annan. Att överflyttas från den specialiserade, högteknologiska intensivvårdsavdelningen till en vårdavdelning kan skapa upplevelser och känslor av stress, oro, ångest, osäkerhet, depression, sömnstörningar, minnesbortfall, mardrömmar med mera. Syfte: Att utforska hur miljöns utformning för vårdandet påverkar patientens välbefinnande efter överflyttning från intensivvårdsavdelning till kirurgisk vårdavdelning. Metod: Syftet besvarades med hjälp av upprepade observationer med informella intervjuer av tre patienter som hade vårdats på en intensivvårdsavdelning och hade överflyttats till en kirurgisk vårdavdelning. Deduktiv innehållsanalys användes och utgick från en tidigare skapad modell av begreppet miljö. Resultat: Patienternas välbefinnande påverkades av miljön efter överflytten till den kirurgiska vårdavdelningen. Resultatet presenteras efter modellens kategorier atmosfär, omvärld, omgivning, medelpunkt och förhållande. Slutsats: Att överflyttas till en lägre vårdnivå som en vårdavdelning är en stor omställning för patienterna både fysiskt och psykiskt. Resultatet stödjer att det finns en kunskapslucka som består av skillnader i miljön, skillnader i sjuksköterskors kompetens och skillnader i kommunikationen mellan intensivvårdsavdelningar och vårdavdelningar. Det är viktigt att tydliga rutiner finns kring hur en intensivvårdspatient ska tas emot och vårdas vid överflyttningen till en vårdavdelning. För att miljöombytet inte ska bli för omfattande för patienten kan överflyttning först ske till en intermediärvårdsavdelning innan vidare överflyttning till en vårdavdelning sker. / ABSTRACT Background: Previous studies showed that patients are affected both physically and mentally when they transferring from one environment to another. To be transferred from the specialized, high-tech intensive care to a ward can create experiences and feelings of stress, worry, anxiety, insecurity, depression, sleep disorders, memory loss, and nightmares with more. Aim: The aim of this study was to explore how environmental design for care affects the patient's well-being after transfer from intensive care to the surgical ward. Method: The aim was answered with help from repeated observations with informal interviews with three patients who had been treated in an intensive care unit and had been transferred to a surgical ward. Deductive content analysis was used and was based on a previously created model. Result: The patients' well-being was affected by the environment after transfer to the surgical ward. The results are presented according to the categories atmosphere, entourage, surroundings, midpoint and relationship. Conclusion: Be transferred to a lower level of care as a ward is a big change for the patients both physically and psychologically. The result supports that there is a knowledge gap which consist of differences in the environment, differences in nurses' skills and differences in communication between intensive care units and wards. It is important that there are clear procedures on how an intensive care patient to be received and cared for at the transfer to a ward. To move from one environment to another should not be too extensive for the patient can first be transfer place to an Intermediate Care Facility before further transfer to a ward occurs.

This Creative Writing thesis argues for the need to rethink our understanding of climate change and focuses on the response of creative writers to this phenomenon, whilst also offering its own creative contribution. The critical component aims at articulating a post-climate change poetics. It reviews the mainstream literature in popular science writing, fiction and poetry from the point of view of a political frame-analysis of climate change, to demonstrate how a certain understanding of climate change maps onto conventions of literary genre. The thesis takes the view that many mainstream literary attempts to negotiate climate change are compromised by the teleological way in which they conceive of the phenomenon. As an alternative position, it draws on the work of climatologist Mike Hulme and physicist and cultural theorist Karen Barad to encourage participation in climate change as a condition for negotiating its meaning. Lewis Carroll’s Through the Looking Glass is proposed as a model for literary production informed by this poetics and as a model for the author’s own creative practice. The creative component of this thesis is an intra-generic text presenting the fictionalised narrative of a cycle expedition the author made from Salford to the Greek island of Ikaria in the summer of 2010. This substantial work aims to interrogate, imagine, and enquire into the epistemology of a post-climate change world.