The effectiveness of psychoeducation and peer support programs for children of mentally ill parents is frequently measured by demonstrating children’s ability to meet program goals according to pre-defined categories determined by adults. Little is known about how children respond to these goals, whether they share them, and how, or if, their needs are met. I conducted an ethnographic study of one such group for school-aged children. I examined how specific discourses framed the content of the program manual designed to educate and support children and I observed how children responded to the program. My study is rooted in Goffman’s (1959) dramaturgical analyses of the reciprocal influence individuals have on one another in face-to-face encounters. From a critical dramaturgical perspective the participants were expected to conform to behavioural expectations of the setting, itself framed by broader arenas of interaction in which shared institutionalized meanings govern (often idealized) presentations of self. Data collection included: 1. a critical discourse analysis of the program manual; 2. participant observation of interactions during the eight-week program; and 3. children’s evaluations of the program in a separate group interview. Being identified as “as all in the same boat” was meaningful and consequential for children who were expected to learn mental health/illness information because, “knowledge is power”, and to express difficult feelings about being a child of a mentally ill parent. Children could be said to have achieved the goals of the program because they developed a mutual understanding about how to interpret and give meaning to their circumstances; “recognizing” unpredictable behaviours as signs of illness and becoming responsible for managing only how “their own story would go”. Children were not expected to care for ill parents, even when they wanted some responsibility, and were strongly discouraged from turning to friends for support. Children strategized to negotiate and resist group expectations and challenge assumptions about being “all in the same boat”. Suggestions are made for determining what constitutes “good” mental health literacy based on children’s preferences for explaining their circumstances in ways they find relevant and for supporting children’s competencies to manage relationships that are important to them.

No description available.

According to the 1 991 Annual Report of the Department of Health and Social Services of former Bophuthatswana, there were 364 reported malignant conditions found in women with cancer of the breast and cervix being the most prevalent. What causes great concern is t.he fact that patients present for the first time at health facilities during advanced stages of these diseases thus making the prognosis poor. Black patients in this study were found to present with cancer of the breast at an earlier age than their white counterparts. In addition to the above named problems, no facility exists for the treatment of cancer in the area of study and patients have to be referred to other areas. It was on the strength of the above observations that the researcher embarked upon this study to establish the effects of the diagnosis cancer and mastectomy on the victims. The aims of the study therefore were: to explore and describe the psycho-social effects of the diagnosis and treatment on Black women; develop guidelines for oncology nurses and doctors to assist with the adaptation of these patients to the diagnosis and treatment; and provide information that could lead to better training of oncology personnel as well as develop a proper support system to facilitate adjustment of the mastectomised patient to the disease and its treatment. Data were collected using the qualitative and quantitative approaches with individual in-depth interviews forming the main strategy. The findings revealed that the diagnosis cancer of the breast was equated with death among all respondents. The mastectomy added more stress for the patient, which was further compounded by chemo- and radiotherapy. The latter was described as causing more pain than the tumour itself. Problems experienced by the patients were reported to include: financial difficulties; general weakness; fear of recurrence and metastasis; concern for dependent children and fear of unemployment. All respondents in this study expressed the need for the formation of a voluntary care group, which could assist them with adaptation to the disease and its treatment. / Advanced Nursing Sciences / D. Lit. et Phil. (Advanced Nursing Sciences)

This research studies the social support in a group of adult persons with HIV: 14 women and 41 men between 18 and 58 years of age, from medium- low social economic status that appeal to state health centers, non government entities and mutual support groups of Lima. The resultsof perceived social support, effective social support, social support satisfaction and social support need ha ve been correlated with variables age, sex, diagnostic time, presence of symptoms associated lo H!V, participation in a mutual support group, sex and sexual orientation(heterosexual males, men that have sex with other men and heterosexual women).The results showed that the social support indexes behaved differently according to weather they participated in a mutual support group or not, according to sex, according to sex and sexual orientation. Also, the need for social support rate varies according to diagnostic time. / Se investiga el soporte social en un grupo de adultos con V!H: catorce mujeres y cuarenta y un hombres. de entre 18 y 58 años. de estrato socioeconómico bajo y medio bajo que acuden a centros de salud estatales, organismos no gubernamentales y grupos de ayuda mutua (GAM) de Lima. Se correlacionaron los resultados descriptivos de los índices soporte social percibido, soporte social efectivo, satisfacción con el soporte y necesidad de soporte con las variables edad, sexo, tiempo de diagnóstico, presencia o no de síntomas asociados al VIH, participación o no en un GAM y orientación sexual (hombres heterosexuales, hombres que tienen sexo ton otros hombres (HSH) y mujeres heterosexuales). Se encontró que los índices del soporte social se comportan diferente según se pertenezca a un GAM o no, según el sexo, según la orientación sexualy el sexo. Asimismo, el índice necesidad de soporte varía según el tiempo de diagnóstico.

Au Québec, chaque commission scolaire développe sa propre politique d’évaluation de l’«école à la maison» ou AEF (apprentissage en famille). La diversité de ces modalités génère des interactions très diverses entre les parents et les commissions scolaires, laissant certains acteurs insatisfaits de part et d’autre et pouvant compromettre le droit de l’enfant à l’éducation. Notre analyse des situations d’encadrement et de suivi de l’AEF dans le monde révèle plusieurs possibilités de combinaison entre les pouvoirs décisionnels des autorités scolaires, des parents et d’autres acteurs. Parmi ces autres acteurs, il appert que le groupe de soutien, de par sa position intermédiaire et collective, pourrait jouer un rôle régulateur complémentaire et mieux accepté par les autorités scolaires et les parents. Les groupes de soutien d’AEF sont des regroupements locaux et auto-organisés de familles, proposant des activités sociales et d’entraide. Selon la théorie de la gouvernance réflexive, le groupe de soutien peut être considéré comme un lieu d’apprentissage collectif permettant l’émergence de normes sociales régulant les pratiques éducatives des parents. Cette étude vise à décrire les normes sociales établies au sein de groupes de soutien d’AEF québécois et les processus de production normative associés. Les normes sociales collectives implicites et explicites de deux groupes de soutien québécois enregistrés comme organismes sans but lucratif ont été documentées et décrites au moyen d'entrevues de groupe et de documents officiels de chacun de ces organismes. Une analyse de contenu a fait ressortir que les normes sociales collectives explicites formalisent le fonctionnement démocratique des groupes de soutien (modalités de participation des membres), les valeurs prônées (respect d’autrui, ouverture vers les autres) et leurs objectifs sociaux (soutien entre les membres, partage de ressources). Les normes sociales collectives implicites sont les suivantes : 1. Les enfants et les parents-éducateurs doivent socialiser, 2. Le parent-éducateur doit s'engager dans l'éducation des enfants et 3. L'enseignement et l’apprentissage doivent être de qualité et significatifs. Ces normes sociales collectives tendent à rejoindre les normes institutionnelles de l’éducation québécoise, soit la triple mission de l’école québécoise, « instruire, socialiser, qualifier », mais en les dépassant notamment en ce qui a trait à l’importance de l’engagement parental, à l’individualisation de l’enseignement dispensé et à la diversité des possibilités de socialisation. Celles-ci se rapprochent alors davantage des normes juridiques établies par la Loi sur l’instruction publique pour l’AEF: l’enfant doit 1. vivre une expérience éducative et 2. recevoir un enseignement qui soient équivalents à ce qui est vécu et enseigné à l’école, sans nécessairement reproduire la forme scolaire à la maison. Plusieurs processus de construction normative ont été identifiés : par co-construction, par ennoncé et adhésion, par quête partagée et par contact avec des acteurs exterieurs au mouvement d’AEF. Ceci décrit la possibilité d’un apprentissage social et d’une forme d’engagement citoyen des parents-éducateurs à travers ces groupes. Les normes sociales collectives décrites par cette étude et leurs modes de production suggèrent que le groupe de soutien pourrait être un acteur à exploiter davantage dans la gouvernance de l’AEF. / In Quebec, each school board makes its own homeschooling evaluation policy. Those various terms and conditions lead up to a lot of different relationships between homeschooling parents and school agents, leaving some of them unsatisfied, and sometimes, compromising the children’s right to education. Our analysis of homeschooling evaluation policies all around the world shows that parents’ autority, school board’s autority and the autority of a third party could be combined in various ways. Among those third parties, homeschooling support groups, thanks to their collective and intermediary position, could play a complementary role in the homeschooling regulation, with a better acceptance from parents and school agents. Homeschooling support groups are local self-organized groups which gather families for social activities and mutual aid. According to the reflexive governance theory, support groups could be seen as a collective learning place allowing social norms to emerge and regulate parental practices. This study aims to describe social norms currently established in Quebec-based homeschooling support groups and the associated production processes. Explicit and implicit collective social norms of two Quebec-based homeschooling support groups, registered as non-profit organizations, were described using focus groups and offical groups’ documents. Content analysis has showed that collective social explicit norms formalize the democratic mechanism of each group (term and condition of members’ participation), claimed values (respect to and openness toward others) and social goals (mutual support and ressource sharing). Collective social implicit norms were: 1. Children and parents must socialize, 2. Parents must be commited in the child’s education and 3. Teaching and learning must be of quality and meaningfull. Collective social norms seem to be close to institutional norms from Quebec educational school policy, “to provide instruction, to socialize and to provide qualifications”, but they exceed them especialy in matters of parental commitment, which is important, various type of socialization possibilities and individualized instruction. Thus, those norms are closer to the legal framework for homeschooling, in the Public Instruction Act, requiring that a child should 1. receive schooling and 2. benefit from an educational experience which are equivalent to what is provided at school, without necessarily replicating the school form at home. Several norm production processes have been described : co-construction, statement and adherence, shared quest and contact with non-homeschooling persons. It suggests that, through those groups, social learning and citizen commitment of parents are possible. Collective social norms and associated production processes described in this study suggest that homeschooling governance could benefit from using homeschooling support groups as third party in the regulation.

Educational dispensation has brought about radical changes in schools, particularly with reference to curriculum changes and delivery, not only internationally but specifically in South Africa. With a move towards the introduction of new curricular in schools, the concept Continuous Professional Development has been revisited and thus has propagated further review on new approaches of teaching and learning, which leads to the need for establishment of school-based professional development of educators to meet the new challenges of curriculum changes. The school based training of educators should not be seen as short courses or workshops done for the educators, only to be left without a continuous support and guidance. It should be noted that school based educators are part of the community of learners with the shared purpose of ensuring quality learning experiences of all learners, every day, without exception and this is reinforced by the following goals: -- Providing of all school personnel with opportunity of further developing, and enriching their professional skills and knowledge. -- Challenging all school personnel to examine their attitudes and beliefs regarding the capacity of all students at high level, as well as their accountability for continuous improvement in student performance (Fer, 2005:2). The problem is how to cultivate the culture of school based continuous training and participation of all educators in the programmes. The Employment of Educators Act offers enormous possibilities for educators’ professional development. The principal is tasked with the responsibility of establishing staff development progammes, both school based, school focused and externally directed (Personnel Administrative Measures (PAM) of 1998, as determined by the Minister of Education in terms of the Employment of Educators Act, 1998). It also stress that curriculum delivery is the basic of training in order to effect changes. This study draws a distinction between short courses and workshops, and continuous professional development. Short courses is about training educators for about three to five days and leave the on their own. Continuous professional development means training educators on regular bases with follow ups after thereafter. Finally, principals and School Management Teams should ensure that there school based professional development programmes are established at schools and all educators should participate to ensure appropriate curriculum delivery. / Dissertation (MEd (Leadership))--University of Pretoria, 2007. / Education Management and Policy Studies / MEd / unrestricted

No description available.

No description available.

The American Indians population in Minneapolis, Minnesota has experienced limited health care access and threefold diabetes health disparity. The purpose of this study was to measure the extent to which collaborating marketplace clinics and community-based support groups expanded diabetes care and provided self-management education for this largely urban Indian neighborhood. The marketplace clinics located in nearby CVS, Walmart, Target, and Supervalu stores committed financial support, certified educators, and pharmacy staff for the community-based support group. The study was conducted within the patient activation measure (PAM) analytical framework to assess the participants' acquired knowledge, skills, and confidence for diabetes self-management. A case-control study and 3 years retrospective analysis of secondary data were used to test whether the Minneapolis marketplace clinics and the Phillips community diabetes support group participants (n = 48) had improved diabetes health outcomes relative to the control group (n = 87). The intervention group employed motivational interviewing and PAM in coaching diabetes self-care and behavioral modification. The control group received only basic self-management education. T test and Cohen's d effect size measurements were used to quantify the size of the health outcome variables' difference between the study intervention and comparison groups. The positive effects of marketplace clinics and community-based complementation were shown through improved blood sugar control (A1C), weight loss (BMI), and healthful lifestyle changes. Social change progress could be realized by incorporating PAM with diabetes prevention programs for 33 Urban Indian Health Organizations that are located in large cities throughout the United States.

The aim of this research was to support new mothers in groups, so that they can function optimally as educators. During the research mothers with babies up to three months of age were used by means of a support group. This research project was done after it became evident from a literature study that new mothers suffered with unique problems during this adaption phase. In the empirical survey the researcher gave attention to the new mothers' specific needs and problems during this trimester. The researcher aimed to explore the experiences of the new mother as educator through weekly group sessions. From the results it was clear that there was a need of support from other mothers that is going through the same experiences. In this way new mothers could receive emotional support and obtain knowledge regarding relevant issues experienced during this unique life phase. / Educational Studies / M. Ed. (Guidance and Counselling)