Since the introduction of the deinstitutionalisation policy in 1997 in South Africa, many families have agreed or have felt forced to take full responsibility of the care of their mentally ill family members. This impacted the lives of families because they were not well prepared for caring for their mentally ill family members. As a result of this, families were burdened, mentally ill family members defaulted treatment and ultimately revolving door admissions occurred. In spite of these concerns, some families do seem to cope with supporting their mentally ill family members. This makes it vital to explore and describe the strengths of families who take care of mentally ill family members in Potchefstroom, in the North West Province in order to formulate guidelines to support these families. A qualitative, explorative, descriptive and contextual design was employed to understand what strengths families have to support their mentally ill family members. Purposive sampling was used to select potential participants. Unstructured individual interviews with an open-ended question were conducted with nine participants after ethical approval was granted under the RISE study (Strengthening the Resilience of Health Caregivers and Risk Groups), and the permission of the North-West Provincial Department of Health, the psychiatric hospital where the data was collected and the family members of the mentally ill family members were obtained. Data were audio-recorded and transcribed verbatim. A consensus meeting was held between the researcher and the co-coder after they had analysed data independently to identify themes that emerged from the data. Twelve themes emerged from the data namely the strengths of getting the necessary treatment for the mentally ill family member, utilizing external resources, spirituality or faith, social support, supervising the mentally ill family member, finding ways to calm the mentally ill family member, explaining the importance of treatment to the mentally ill family member, finding ways to keep the mentally ill family member busy, trying to keep the mentally ill family member away from negative outside influences, trying creative ways to communicate with or understand the mentally ill family member, giving the mentally ill family member praise for doing something good or right and accepting the situation. From the findings, it is clear that the families do have strengths to support their mentally ill family members, although they seem to rely more on external than on internal strengths. From the findings, literature and conclusions of this study, recommendations were made for nursing practice, nursing research and nursing education, including guidelines to support families in their support of a mentally ill family member. / Thesis (MCur)--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2013.

Since the introduction of the deinstitutionalisation policy in 1997 in South Africa, many families have agreed or have felt forced to take full responsibility of the care of their mentally ill family members. This impacted the lives of families because they were not well prepared for caring for their mentally ill family members. As a result of this, families were burdened, mentally ill family members defaulted treatment and ultimately revolving door admissions occurred. In spite of these concerns, some families do seem to cope with supporting their mentally ill family members. This makes it vital to explore and describe the strengths of families who take care of mentally ill family members in Potchefstroom, in the North West Province in order to formulate guidelines to support these families. A qualitative, explorative, descriptive and contextual design was employed to understand what strengths families have to support their mentally ill family members. Purposive sampling was used to select potential participants. Unstructured individual interviews with an open-ended question were conducted with nine participants after ethical approval was granted under the RISE study (Strengthening the Resilience of Health Caregivers and Risk Groups), and the permission of the North-West Provincial Department of Health, the psychiatric hospital where the data was collected and the family members of the mentally ill family members were obtained. Data were audio-recorded and transcribed verbatim. A consensus meeting was held between the researcher and the co-coder after they had analysed data independently to identify themes that emerged from the data. Twelve themes emerged from the data namely the strengths of getting the necessary treatment for the mentally ill family member, utilizing external resources, spirituality or faith, social support, supervising the mentally ill family member, finding ways to calm the mentally ill family member, explaining the importance of treatment to the mentally ill family member, finding ways to keep the mentally ill family member busy, trying to keep the mentally ill family member away from negative outside influences, trying creative ways to communicate with or understand the mentally ill family member, giving the mentally ill family member praise for doing something good or right and accepting the situation. From the findings, it is clear that the families do have strengths to support their mentally ill family members, although they seem to rely more on external than on internal strengths. From the findings, literature and conclusions of this study, recommendations were made for nursing practice, nursing research and nursing education, including guidelines to support families in their support of a mentally ill family member. / Thesis (MCur)--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2013.

Studies have indicated that relapse is noted as a major problem facing mental health services both nationally and internationally whereby family members caring for mental health care users experience a serious burden. Factors commonly associated with relapse include poor adherence to treatment, substance abuse, co-morbid psychiatric illness, a co-morbid medical and or surgical condition, stressful life events and the treatment setting. Relapse prevention strategies have been identified and they include, empowering people with mental illness to recognize early warning signs of relapse in order to develop appropriate response plans as well as communication and understanding between the mentally ill person, their family, and specialist mental health system and community support services. The researcher was prompted by the problem of relapse faced by mental health services to explore and describe the strengths of families in assisting mental health care users to limit relapse and to formulate guidelines for psychiatric nurses to empower family members caring for mental health care users to limit relapse. A phenomenological design was used in this study and a purposive sampling technique was used to select participants who met the selection criteria. In-depth individual interviews were conducted with 15 family members. All interviews were recorded with an audio recorder after participants gave consent. Data saturation was achieved after 13 participants were interviewed and further two interviews confirmed data saturation. Field notes were written immediately after each interview. Data analysis was done according to Tesch as quoted by Creswell (2007:187) and the researcher and co-analyzer reached consensus on the themes in a meeting. The findings of research resulted in four main categories namely, accepting the condition of a mentally ill family member, having faith in God, involving a mentally ill family member in daily activities and being aware of what aggravates the mentally ill family member. The conclusion that can be made is that “acceptance through education” assisted family members in developing a positive attitude and acceptance of their feelings as well as the condition of their mentally ill family members. A strong spiritual base provides family members with strength and hope in times of adversity and teaches them how to have healthy relationships within the family unit and with others. It is also evident that sharing activities, as the things that all members of the family do together, reinforce and strengthen their togetherness and that if family members can be aware of what aggravates mentally ill family members by communicating well with them, that can bring harmony in families and ultimately limit relapse. Recommendations in this research are made for nursing education, nursing research and psychiatric nursing practice with guidelines for psychiatric nurses to empower families caring for mentally ill family members to use their strengths and contribute to limiting relapse. / MCur, North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2014

Studies have indicated that relapse is noted as a major problem facing mental health services both nationally and internationally whereby family members caring for mental health care users experience a serious burden. Factors commonly associated with relapse include poor adherence to treatment, substance abuse, co-morbid psychiatric illness, a co-morbid medical and or surgical condition, stressful life events and the treatment setting. Relapse prevention strategies have been identified and they include, empowering people with mental illness to recognize early warning signs of relapse in order to develop appropriate response plans as well as communication and understanding between the mentally ill person, their family, and specialist mental health system and community support services. The researcher was prompted by the problem of relapse faced by mental health services to explore and describe the strengths of families in assisting mental health care users to limit relapse and to formulate guidelines for psychiatric nurses to empower family members caring for mental health care users to limit relapse. A phenomenological design was used in this study and a purposive sampling technique was used to select participants who met the selection criteria. In-depth individual interviews were conducted with 15 family members. All interviews were recorded with an audio recorder after participants gave consent. Data saturation was achieved after 13 participants were interviewed and further two interviews confirmed data saturation. Field notes were written immediately after each interview. Data analysis was done according to Tesch as quoted by Creswell (2007:187) and the researcher and co-analyzer reached consensus on the themes in a meeting. The findings of research resulted in four main categories namely, accepting the condition of a mentally ill family member, having faith in God, involving a mentally ill family member in daily activities and being aware of what aggravates the mentally ill family member. The conclusion that can be made is that “acceptance through education” assisted family members in developing a positive attitude and acceptance of their feelings as well as the condition of their mentally ill family members. A strong spiritual base provides family members with strength and hope in times of adversity and teaches them how to have healthy relationships within the family unit and with others. It is also evident that sharing activities, as the things that all members of the family do together, reinforce and strengthen their togetherness and that if family members can be aware of what aggravates mentally ill family members by communicating well with them, that can bring harmony in families and ultimately limit relapse. Recommendations in this research are made for nursing education, nursing research and psychiatric nursing practice with guidelines for psychiatric nurses to empower families caring for mentally ill family members to use their strengths and contribute to limiting relapse. / MCur, North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2014

Afrikaans text / Alhoewel daar al vorige navorsing oor die dowe of hardhorende kind gedoen is, handel dit meestal oor die vroee identifisering van die kind se gehoorverlies,sy/haar plasingsmoontlikhede, en kommunikasie,asook die hantering van die kind met gehoorverlies binne die skoolopset. Die meeste beskikbare literatuur wat handel oor riglyne by die hantering van die dowe of hardhorende kind binne die gesinsopset, is verouderd. Hierdie studie is 'n fenomenologiese navorsingstudie. Uit die semi-gestruktureerde onderhoude is verskeie temas geidentifiseer wat betrekking het op die hantering van die dowe of hardhorende kind in die gesin. Praktiese riglyne is vir ouers daargestel ten op sigte van die dowe of hardhorende kind se kommunikasie, gesinslewe,die skool, asook sy/haar emosionele en sosiale funksionering. / Although previous research has been done abouth the hard-hearing child, most of the available research concentrates on early identification of hearing lost, placement and communication as well as to cope with hearing loss within the school environment. The majority of the literature which is currently available concerning guidelines for the deaf or hard-hearing children within the family group, is outdated. A phenomenological study has been done. By means of semi-structured interviews practical guidelines have been collected. Several themes were identified in the course of these interviews, namely: communication by the child with hearing loss, the effect of the hearing loss on the family members, the impact of hearing loss in the school environment and the implications of hearing loss on the child's emotional and social functioning. Guidelines were suggested for the practical management of deaf and hard-hearing children concerning communication, family life, scool and emotional and social functioning. / Educational Studies / M. Ed. (Voorligting)

Afrikaans text / Alhoewel daar al vorige navorsing oor die dowe of hardhorende kind gedoen is, handel dit meestal oor die vroee identifisering van die kind se gehoorverlies,sy/haar plasingsmoontlikhede, en kommunikasie,asook die hantering van die kind met gehoorverlies binne die skoolopset. Die meeste beskikbare literatuur wat handel oor riglyne by die hantering van die dowe of hardhorende kind binne die gesinsopset, is verouderd. Hierdie studie is 'n fenomenologiese navorsingstudie. Uit die semi-gestruktureerde onderhoude is verskeie temas geidentifiseer wat betrekking het op die hantering van die dowe of hardhorende kind in die gesin. Praktiese riglyne is vir ouers daargestel ten op sigte van die dowe of hardhorende kind se kommunikasie, gesinslewe,die skool, asook sy/haar emosionele en sosiale funksionering. / Although previous research has been done abouth the hard-hearing child, most of the available research concentrates on early identification of hearing lost, placement and communication as well as to cope with hearing loss within the school environment. The majority of the literature which is currently available concerning guidelines for the deaf or hard-hearing children within the family group, is outdated. A phenomenological study has been done. By means of semi-structured interviews practical guidelines have been collected. Several themes were identified in the course of these interviews, namely: communication by the child with hearing loss, the effect of the hearing loss on the family members, the impact of hearing loss in the school environment and the implications of hearing loss on the child's emotional and social functioning. Guidelines were suggested for the practical management of deaf and hard-hearing children concerning communication, family life, scool and emotional and social functioning. / Educational Studies / M. Ed. (Voorligting)