No description available.

No description available.

The issue investigated in this thesis concerned the adaptive coping strategies that caregivers of the mentally ill adopt at different stages of encounter with their family member’s illness. Specifically, family caregivers’ responses to the illness were investigated within the parameters of the Spaniol and Zipple (1994) 4-stage model of the evolution of caregivers’ responses to mental illness. The accuracy of the model’s representation of the experience of caregivers across all kinship relationships to the care-recipient was evaluated. Spaniol and Zipple proposed four stages which they termed (1) Discovery/Denial, (2) Recognition/Acceptance, (3) Coping and (4) Personal/Political Advocacy. The first stage is characterised by persistent denial of mental illness and seeking answers from multiple sources. The second stage involves caregivers’ expectations of professionals providing answers when the illness is recognised. At this stage caregivers experience guilt, embarrassment and blame. The cyclical nature of the illness impedes acceptance and caregivers experience a deep sense of loss and crisis of meaning as they gradually accept the reality of the situation. In the third stage coping replaces grieving and the issues encountered include loss of faith in professionals, disruption to family life and recurrent crises. Belief in family expertise grows and the focus of coping changes. The fourth stage proposes that caregivers become more assertive, self-blame decreases and the focus is upon changing the system. New meanings and values are integrated. This study found that the model did not accurately describe the experience of all caregivers. Caregiver did not deny mental illness and adaptive coping occurred throughout all stages. Coping evolved as the issues encountered changed and was independent of resolution of grief. The issues encountered were more extensive than the model proposed and differed according to kinship relationship to the care recipient. The ways in which adaptive coping evolved were identified, as were the issues and their accompanying responses. Caregivers coped by adaptively responding to the requirements of care provision, maintaining a sense of self worth and generating positive effect.

Thesis (M. Soc. Sc.)--University of Hong Kong, 2006.

Thesis (M. Soc. Sc.)--University of Hong Kong, 2006.

Thesis (M. Soc. Sc.)--University of Hong Kong, 2003.

Thesis (M. Soc. Sc.)--University of Hong Kong, 2003.

The story of the mentally ill is a tale which is filled with unpleasant facts. Only a very few persons have even a semblance of knowledge about mental deficiencies and those citizen unfortunates who have borne, or will travail, under the throes of such a mysterious affliction. Those people who do know the narrative of the "lunatic," too often are unwilling to reveal their expertise.Therefore, the purpose of this dissertation is to follow the history of those multitudes of mentally ill persons from primitive to contemporary times. One's attention will be focused upon the diagnosis and subsequent treatment of insanity in ancient Egypt and Greece, Europe during the Dark and Middle Ages, England prior to and during the adventures at empire, colonial America, Indiana prior to and after statehood, and specifically Delaware County, Indiana from 1869 through 1927.The research has shown that ages of abuse, restraints, banishment by popular consent from society, sequestration, and indifference toward the mindless in humanity have not explained the ambiguity of mental illness, dwindled man's apprehension regarding the mentally incapacitated, or put to rest his troublesome inner thoughts.In conclusion, little has changed. In contemporary times mankind tends to waver between throwing madness wholly out of perception and out of psyche, and complying with humanitarian impulses to heal the sick souls.It appears that the treatment of the mentally ill has gone full cycle. From remote but centralized places of containment in earliest times, the mentally ill were then supported rather ineffectively at county and local places in accordance with poor law regulations. Then came the advent of state-supported hospitals to replace the often despicable county and local poor farms and jails. But today the collapse of that whole system seems virtually ready to take place as funding becomes less adequate. The feeling is that the mentally ill can better be cared for at local levels. And so once again, the "unwanted" human cargo of concern will soon be back on the serpentine path to resume the life that just a little over a century ago was thought to be grossly inhumane.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Chicago, School of Social Service Administration, June 2001. / Includes bibliographical references. Also available on the Internet.

Thesis--PlanB (M.S.)--University of Wisconsin--Stout, 2002. / Includes bibliographical references.