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Aim: The overall aim of this thesis is, from the point of view of parents of a child with asthma, to describe meanings of being a parent, parents’ quality of life, and to describe how family relations are influenced by their child’s disease. The aim is also to increase the understanding of what strategies professional caregivers use in their work with teenagers suffering from asthma. Methods: Informants in the three qualitative studies were 29 parents (17 mothers and 12 fathers) of children with asthma and 7 professional caregivers. Informants in a quantitative quality of life study were 371 parents. The data collections were undertaken by means of interviews, observations and a questionnaire. The data was analysed by means of a phenomenological-hermeneutic method, grounded theory and statistics. Results: A meaning of being a parent of a child with asthma is to live a strenuous life and to fear that the child might die during a severe asthma attack. The parents’ actions involve both protecting and liberating and their feelings involve sadness as well as acceptance. Mostly the mothers act in a protecting manner and express feelings of sadness. The fathers mostly act in a liberating manner and express feelings of acceptance. The core concern in families of a child with asthma was found to be disease-engendered uncertainty. The mothers describe that feelings of uncertainty always are present owing to the unpredictability of the disease. These feelings make the mothers more or less available for family members. For the child with asthma the mothers’ experience that they are always available. Thus, control and tight bonds characterize the mother-child relationships. The mothers’ constant availability for the child with asthma is experienced to lead to a decreased availability for other family members and theses relationships are characterised by feelings of forsakenness and lack of understanding. However, when parents of children with asthma estimate their quality of life by a questionnaire, they estimate it as comparatively high. In the same family the parents scoring of separate items was to a large extent similar. The result also shows that professional caregivers’ central concern is to assist teenagers with asthma to conquer life. This gives rise to five strategies: showing respect, being at hand, promoting personal sense of responsibility, promoting exceeding boundaries, and promoting reflections. In professional caregivers’ attempt to assist teenagers to conquer life some differences are seen in the way they support boys and girls. Conclusion: One conclusion drawn from this thesis is that being a parent of a child with asthma involves feelings of uncertainty. In meeting the parents in question, caregivers should reflect upon these feelings and consider how the parents could be assisted. As mothers and fathers describe different attitudes in relation to the care of the child, it is also important to reflect upon how professional caregivers can assist the balance between the mothers’ protecting and the fathers’ liberating attitudes. It is also important for professional caregivers to reflect upon how they meet teenage girls and boys with asthma respectively, and to take their needs and understanding of the situation into consideration.

The dissertation brings sociological and socio-psychological view on working conditions and health promotion of professionals working in the field of long-term care and examines the impact of these conditions on their well-being. Its overall objective is to map the current work conditions and work situation of this working group in the Czech Republic and draw attention to an area that is not adequately reflected. Specific objective is the verification of the model Effort Reward Imbalance and the concept of wellbeing on the population studied. The side effect is to provide the results of the conducted applied research to the management of participating organizations for practical purposes. The work is divided into theoretical and empirical part. Theoretical background characterizes basic concepts; health promotion and long-term care. The central theoretical and methodological tools used in the applied research are then described: socio-psychological concept well-being and model Effort Reward Imbalance (ERI). The model, which was introduced by contemporary German sociologist J. Siegrist, presents a key resource of mapping stress in the workplace. The empirical part of the dissertation describes the research that was conducted in two parts during 2012 - 2014. In the first part held in form of focus...

Text in Afrikaans / Rituals are part of our everyday life and are usually performed unconsciously. In this dissertation rituals are used consciously, within a therapeutic context, with the purpose to facilitate healing and growth. The aim of the research is to focus the readers' attention on the therapeutic potential of rituals and its value as an intervention strategy. The study concentrates on the grieving process. The researcher therefore specifically wants to show how rituals are used during grief counselling. The following research problem was investigated in the study: "What is the attitude, opinion and knowledge of professional caregivers concerning the use of rituals as a therapeutic tool during grief counselling?" Out of the research data the following hypothesis was formulated: - To grief over a loss is essential. Because of the basic properties and remedial functions of rituals, rituals can be a valuable therapeutic tool in the facilitation of this process. - There is an inherent connection between professional caregivers' attitudes, opinions and knowledge of therapeutic rituals and the regular and effective use of them during grief counselling. - The use of rituals during grief counselling is only one component in the comprehensive pastoral care of the bereaved. / Practical theology / M.Th.

Text in Afrikaans / Rituals are part of our everyday life and are usually performed unconsciously. In this dissertation rituals are used consciously, within a therapeutic context, with the purpose to facilitate healing and growth. The aim of the research is to focus the readers' attention on the therapeutic potential of rituals and its value as an intervention strategy. The study concentrates on the grieving process. The researcher therefore specifically wants to show how rituals are used during grief counselling. The following research problem was investigated in the study: "What is the attitude, opinion and knowledge of professional caregivers concerning the use of rituals as a therapeutic tool during grief counselling?" Out of the research data the following hypothesis was formulated: - To grief over a loss is essential. Because of the basic properties and remedial functions of rituals, rituals can be a valuable therapeutic tool in the facilitation of this process. - There is an inherent connection between professional caregivers' attitudes, opinions and knowledge of therapeutic rituals and the regular and effective use of them during grief counselling. - The use of rituals during grief counselling is only one component in the comprehensive pastoral care of the bereaved. / Practical theology / M.Th.