Professional nurses working at a campus health service have to cope with challenges such as staff shortages and budgetary constraints associated with working in a complex environment providing primary health care. The aim of primary health care includes promoting health, preventing disease and the early detection and treatment of illness. Mental health services form an integral part of the integrated primary health care package as implemented in the campus health service. Students attend the Campus Health Service for help related to their health. Health care is provided by professional nurses and counsellors through a comprehensive primary health care service which serves students as well as staff. Some students may state that they experience feelings of being stressed or depressed. Other students may complain of physical symptoms such as headache or upper backache. Upon further investigation emotional problems may be identified as the cause of the psychosomatic symptoms. The professional nurses working in the campus health service verbalised that it is sometimes difficult to identify a mental illness or mental distress as there is no effective assessment tool that they can use. Management of conditions is also problematic as there are no protocols indicating the therapeutic interventions that can be taken. The research question in this study was therefore: What information should be included in a protocol to assess and manage a student experiencing mental distress that can be used by professional nurses working in a Campus Health Service? The aim of this study is to develop a mental health care protocol for campus health service professional nurses to assess and manage university students who are experiencing mental distress. The research design of this study was qualitative, explorative, descriptive, explanatory and contextual. In this study the Delphi research technique was used to create an instrument to standardise mental health care in a campus health service. The Delphi technique is a series of sequential questionnaires or “rounds” interspersed with controlled feedback that seeks to gain the most reliable consensus of opinion of a group of experts. A questionnaire was developed based on an extensive literature review. The research population of this study consisted of two groups: professional nurses with knowledge of student health care needs and expert psychiatric nurses. The study was conducted at the Campus Health Service at a university in the Eastern Cape. The data collection and analysis was done utilising the Delphi technique. Trustworthiness was ensured by using the Lincoln and Guba Model utilising the criteria of credibility, applicability, dependability and conformability. In this study the ethical principles of beneficence, non-maleficence, justice and self determination were applied to ensure that participants are treated with respect and consideration and ensured high ethical standards. Informed consent was obtained from the participants in this study. The findings of this research were utilised to assist the researcher in developing a protocol for mental health care of students in campus health service settings.

No description available.

Workplace stress has been found to be a causal agent of psychological distress consequences in employees. Chronic stressors have been well researched, in particular, role conflict, role ambiguity, and work overload have been extensively studied. A meta-analysis was conducted in order to aggregate past research to gain a better understanding of the impact these stressors have on the psychological distress consequences of depression, tension/anxiety, somatic complaints, and generalized feelings of stress. Only role ambiguity was found to be a significant contributor to psychological distress, in particular to feelings of depression and stress. In general, however, effect sizes for all three stressors were moderate to large. While chronic stressors have been well researched, acute stressors have been widely overlooked. Since research in this area is limited, the Daily Work Hassles Survey was developed and validated in order to analyze the role daily hassles play in the workplace. The survey yielded two factors, Interpersonal Hassles and Task Hassles. The former of which was found to be significantly related to the distress consequences of depression, tension/anxiety, somatic complaints, and general feelings of stress. The ultimate goal of this project was to compare chronic and acute stressors. Results from the daily hassles study were contrasted to the results of the aforementioned meta-analysis. It was found that the chronic stressors of role ambiguity, role conflict, and overload are significantly greater predictors of selected distress consequences than the acute factors of Interpersonal Hassles and Task Hassles. However, when somatic complaints was employed as the dependent variable, no significant differences were found between chronic and acute stressors.

This study investigates the link between anguish and artistic creativity. It became possible to follow this link through the concept of anguish and its related aspects that were explored in the works of Jacques Lacan. The concept of art that was adopted in this study is based on the theories of Georges Dickie and Arthur Danto, which explain the role of the idea of institutional art through the artworld. The current study pursued its enquiries through the analysis of the texts of interviews with selected South African artists namely Albert Munyai, Azwimpheleli Gerson Magoro and Norman Catherine and through selected artworks by these three artists. A mix of discourse analysis and iconography was employed to analyse the data. Anguish is an affect that is not readily apparent or detectable but is more likely to be recognized as something displaced, inverted or adrift. Therefore, anguish in the data was approached from diverse angles. Discourse analysis helped to find patterns in the language that linked to signs of anguish as described through a psychoanalytical framework. For the analysis of the artworks, a combination of iconography and the categories of the borromean knot was adopted. These methodologies permitted the translation of aspects of artworks into texts. Anguish as an affect related with the absence of an absolute meaning for existence may also be present in the motivation to create something from nothingness. There is an indication that through creating art one may be trying to symbolize the real that affects the subject.

This study examines stress and distress experienced by working age individuals in the urban environment. The goals of this research are twofold: (1) to test for a social gradient in stress and distress; and (2) to test for environmental effects on the reporting of stress and distress, specifically focussing on variations in stress and distress across neighbourhoods in Montreal. Montreal was selected as the focus of this study because it is a large metropolitan region with some of the highest income disparities in Canada. Individual-level logistic regression models and multilevel analyses of the 2000/01 Canadian Community Health Survey were applied to identify the determinants of stress and distress and to determine the degree of variation in stress (n = 1944) and distress (n = 1836) captured at the neighbourhood level. Results showed that a social gradient exists with distress in Montreal, but not stress, and that neighbourhoods have an effect on distress above and beyond individual characteristics.

No description available.

Thesis (MA (Psychology))--University of Stellenbosch, 2008. / Few studies have assessed the prevalence of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) associated with the receipt of an HIV-positive diagnosis and no published studies in South Africa have used a structured clinical interview to assess the above-mentioned. The present cross-sectional study assessed the prevalence of HIV-related PTSD among a sample of recently diagnosed patients attending public health clinics in the Boland region of the Western Cape. The PTSD module of the Composite International Diagnostic Interview (CIDI), together with a battery of self-report instruments assessing symptoms of traumatisation, depression and anxiety were administered to 85 patients who had been diagnosed with HIV in the year preceding data collection. In addition, HIVrelated PTSD and symptomatology were assessed using an adapted version of the PTSD module of the CIDI. The self-report instruments administered were (a) a demographic questionnaire, (b) the Posttraumatic Stress Diagnostic Scale (PDS) which assessed current PTSD symptom severity, and (c) the 25-item Hopkins Symptom Checklist (HSCL-25) which assessed psychological distress, and symptoms and intensity of anxiety and depression. The primary aim of the present study was to determine the prevalence of HIV-related PTSD among a sample of recently diagnosed HIV-positive individuals attending HIV clinics in the Boland region. The second aim was to determine the lifetime prevalence of PTSD among the sample. The third aim was to determine the percentage of the sample that endorsed the DSM-IV’s PTSD A2 criterion and the subsequent HIV-related PTSD symptomatology among those who did and did not meet full criteria for HIV-related PTSD. The fourth aim was to determine the level of psychological distress reported by the sample. The prevalence of lifetime PTSD was 29.4% (95% confidence interval [CI], 20.7% - 39.8%). Sixty-nine of the eighty-five participants (81.2%) endorsed the DSM-IV’s PTSD A2 criterion. Of the total sample, 34 participants (40%) (95% CI, 30.2% - 50.6%) met the full criteria for HIV related PTSD. The majority of participants reported mild PTSD symptom severity (45.8%). Over half the sample (51.4%) experienced clinically significant distress. Of those participants diagnosed with HIV-related PTSD, 82.4% were clinically distressed, and 76.5% and 58.8% experienced high levels of depression and anxiety, respectively. The present study’s findings suggest that receiving an HIV-positive diagnosis and/or being HIVpositive may be considered a traumatic stressor that frequently results in HIV-related PTSD. Findings of the present study indicate the need for adequate support and care for HIV-positive individuals. Given the various barriers to efficient mental health interventions and services in South Africa, there are significant challenges that need to be addressed in order to ensure that the mental health and welfare of HIV-positive individuals are both adequately assessed and appropriately maintained.

A sample of 22 persons who care for relatives exhibiting initial symptoms of senile dementia were administered paper-and- pencil questionnaires to determine their level of subjective burden and psychological symptomatology. Each participant's attributional style was measured on an internal-external dimension, and their causal attributions regarding their relative's symptomatic behaviors were assessed. Results indicated that attributional style did not predict specific attributions about illness-related behaviors, but the tendency to not blame an afflicted relative for their behavior was predictive of subjective burden and symptoms of depression and anxiety. Subjective burden was found to predict feelings of hostility in caregivers.

The Community Mental Health Act of 1963 launched the deinstitutionalization movement, whereby individuals with serious mental illnesses were released from psychiatric hospitals and began living and receiving mental health care in the community (Carling, 1995). However, these actions have not necessarily integrated those individuals into all aspects of community life (Dewees, Pulice, & McCormick, 1996). This is unfortunate because people with serious mental illnesses frequently report that community integration is not only important to them, but that it also aids in reducing symptoms and promoting recovery (Townley, 2015). Although past research suggests that receiving mental health care in the community has a positive impact on symptom management, the influence of other community factors (e.g., sense of community, community participation) has yet to be fully explored (Segal, Silverman, & Temkin, 2010). Furthermore, there is lack of understanding as to how these community factors influence other aspects of recovery, such as mental and physical health. As such, the goal of the current study is to better understand the association between community participation and recovery by investigating sense of community as a potential mediating factor between community participation, psychological distress, mental health, and physical health. Data were collected from 300 adults with serious mental illnesses utilizing community mental health services in the United States. Results indicated that sense of community partially mediated the association between community participation and mental health, as well as psychological distress, and fully mediated the association between community participation and physical health. Implications include contributing to the current knowledge base about the role of community factors in recovery and informing future interventions aimed at promoting community integration of adults with serious mental illnesses.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Michigan State University. School of Social Work, 2008. / Title from PDF t.p. (viewed on July 23, 2009) Includes bibliographical references (p. 274-285). Also issued in print.