The present study focuses on families of children with disabilities living in low-income communities. Little research has been done previously on these families in poverty and the importance of social supports for children with disabilities. The sample consisted of 663 participants; there were 523 families of children without a disability and 140 families of children with a disability living in low-income communities. Poverty is associated with negative influences that may hinder a child’s development, moreso, the development of children with disabilities. Additionally, elevated levels of maternal depression, stress and diminished social support is related to poverty and/or at-risk situations. Importantly, social support may minimize the pressures faced by parents or children within the community. There were four parental variables used in this research along with the use of social supports (formal and informal), concerns about access to formal supports and perceived social support. Chi-squares, independent t-tests and correlation analyses were conducted to determine significant differences between both groups. The results indicated that both groups are quite similar; whereas families of children with a disability were statistically more likely to visit a health and social service professional.

No description available.

<p>Social support is generally viewed in the addiction field as an important consideration in assessment and a potentially valuable component of a comprehensive treatment plan. The literature would suggest that strong social support can benefit individuals during many stages of the recovery process, including both active recovery and longer term maintenance. Less is known about social considerations in the initial stages of seeking support to begin recovery.</p> <p>This report seeks to explore social support considerations for a specific population, Ontario Works recipients who have identified substance use as a barrier to employment, and to do so in a hopefully reciprocal manner which values understanding context from those with lived experience. This qualitative study is informed by the principles of grounded theory in a general manner, began with no specific hypothesis, and allowed participants flexibility in their responses. Previously documented barriers facing this population were generally reflected by the circumstances revealed by this study’s participants.</p> <p>The principle findings outlined the lack of social supports currently in place for participants and their struggle to seek help. Seeking help appeared to require an emotional low point and a recognition that overcoming the substance use concern would not be realistic without additional help. Support seeking appears to be encouraged by specific nurturing characteristics of supporters. From a practice perspective the findings illustrated the need for increased focus on clinician/client engagement and a greater focus on practitioner’s appreciating the unique challenges facing this population and utilizing creative approaches to address them.</p> / Master of Social Work (MSW)

Lymphoedema is a chronic health condition characterized by the accumulation of lymphatic fluid in the subcutaneous tissues resulting in arm swelling and can significantly affect physical and psychological health and QOL. Although significant research on lymphoedema has developed over the past decade, the literature reveals that there are gaps in knowledge on framing the illness, communication, and effective practices to improve the QOL for individuals living with lymphoedema. This research contributes to this growing field of research through a qualitative investigation of twelve women's reported understandings, experiences, and perceptions of lymphoedema using Brown’s (1995) theory of framing disease and illness. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with women living with lymphoedema to determine the impact of health messaging, to explore the ways in which these women made sense of conflicting messages on exercise, and to better understand how barriers to the effective adoption and integration of good management practices can be overcome.

Lymphoedema is a chronic health condition characterized by the accumulation of lymphatic fluid in the subcutaneous tissues resulting in arm swelling and can significantly affect physical and psychological health and QOL. Although significant research on lymphoedema has developed over the past decade, the literature reveals that there are gaps in knowledge on framing the illness, communication, and effective practices to improve the QOL for individuals living with lymphoedema. This research contributes to this growing field of research through a qualitative investigation of twelve women's reported understandings, experiences, and perceptions of lymphoedema using Brown’s (1995) theory of framing disease and illness. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with women living with lymphoedema to determine the impact of health messaging, to explore the ways in which these women made sense of conflicting messages on exercise, and to better understand how barriers to the effective adoption and integration of good management practices can be overcome.

Lymphoedema is a chronic health condition characterized by the accumulation of lymphatic fluid in the subcutaneous tissues resulting in arm swelling and can significantly affect physical and psychological health and QOL. Although significant research on lymphoedema has developed over the past decade, the literature reveals that there are gaps in knowledge on framing the illness, communication, and effective practices to improve the QOL for individuals living with lymphoedema. This research contributes to this growing field of research through a qualitative investigation of twelve women's reported understandings, experiences, and perceptions of lymphoedema using Brown’s (1995) theory of framing disease and illness. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with women living with lymphoedema to determine the impact of health messaging, to explore the ways in which these women made sense of conflicting messages on exercise, and to better understand how barriers to the effective adoption and integration of good management practices can be overcome.

Lymphoedema is a chronic health condition characterized by the accumulation of lymphatic fluid in the subcutaneous tissues resulting in arm swelling and can significantly affect physical and psychological health and QOL. Although significant research on lymphoedema has developed over the past decade, the literature reveals that there are gaps in knowledge on framing the illness, communication, and effective practices to improve the QOL for individuals living with lymphoedema. This research contributes to this growing field of research through a qualitative investigation of twelve women's reported understandings, experiences, and perceptions of lymphoedema using Brown’s (1995) theory of framing disease and illness. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with women living with lymphoedema to determine the impact of health messaging, to explore the ways in which these women made sense of conflicting messages on exercise, and to better understand how barriers to the effective adoption and integration of good management practices can be overcome.

No description available.

No description available.

Au début des années 1990, au terme d’une décennie de guerres internes, le Salvador et le Nicaragua ont été les théâtres d’une multiplication sans précédent d’associations de développement et d’ONG humanitaires. Provenant des anciennes mouvances révolutionnaires du Front sandiniste de libération nationale au Nicaragua et du Front Farabundo Martí pour la libération nationale au Salvador, ces organisations nouvelles ont été le signe de l’apparition d’un militantisme professionnel et technicisé proche de « l’humanitaire-expert » et en rupture avec les engagements politico-militaires qui avaient jusqu’alors dominé les scènes militantes centraméricaines. Comment dès lors comprendre l’émergence de ces phénomènes associatifs ? Nés à la croisée de bouleversements sociaux et politiques majeurs, entre la fin des guerres, l’effondrement des gestes révolutionnaires et l’avènement de régimes démocratiques, ces faits associatifs ont d’abord été le fruit d’une conversion de leurs dirigeants. Anciens cadres révolutionnaires du parti-État sandiniste et des guérillas salvadoriennes, ceux-ci occupaient en effet déjà à la fin des années 1980 la tête des mouvances associatives du Front sandiniste et du Front Farabundo Martí. Or c’est là, au sein de ces nébuleuses, que ces acteurs se sont saisis de schèmes humanitaires nouveaux et de registres managériaux, entraînant dans leur sillage « l’ONGisation » de leurs organisations et l’investissement de causes féministes, indigénistes ou environnementalistes. De sorte que l’histoire de ces associations et de leur émergence est l’histoire de cette conversion. D’où le choix de ce travail de retracer le parcours de ces militants depuis leur basculement dans la lutte armée et les organisations révolutionnaires jusqu’à leur conversion à l’humanitaire-expert et leur insertion dans le monde des ONG. Ce faisant, ce travail met en résonance plusieurs analyses. Une réflexion d’abord sur les modalités de basculement dans la violence armée et d’incorporation aux organisations de guérillas. Une réflexion ensuite sur les logiques de conversion politique et de reconversion professionnelle des acteurs politico-militaires. Une réflexion enfin sur la naissance des milieux associatifs et la constitution de carrières militantes. Et au travers de ces analyses se dessine in fine une enquête plus générale sur la nature même des phénomènes associatifs au Salvador et au Nicaragua, leurs usages et leurs fonctions, et montrent le rôle de « supports » sociaux et politiques qu’ils jouent aujourd’hui dans les nouvelles démocraties centraméricaines. / At the beginning of the 1990s and after a decade of internal wars, El Salvador and Nicaragua were the stages of an unprecedented growth of development’s organizations and humanitarian NGOs. Originating from the former revolutionary movements of Sandinista National Liberation Front in Nicaragua and from Farabundo Marti National Front in El Salvador, those new organizations were a sign of professional technologized militancy close to « expert humanitarian work » but also breaking with the military-political commitments which had preponderated over the Central American activist scene so far. How then can we understand the emergence of those voluntary phenomena? Resulting from major social and political disruptions, as well as the end of wars, the collapsing of revolutionary actions and the advent of democratic regimes, those voluntary actions first started with the conversion of their leaders. As former revolutionary officers of the Sandinista state-party and of the Salvadorian guerrillas, by the end of the 1980s those were already heads of the non-profit movements of Sandinista Front and Farabundo Marti Front. Yet this is in the middle of this political maze that those leaders seized upon a new humanitarian framework as well as managerial repertories, bringing in their wake the « NGOzation » of their organizations and their commitment to the feminist as well as indigenist and environmentalist causes. In this way, the history of the emergence of those organizations is actually the history of that conversion. Hence the choice that has been made to work on recounting the activists’ paths from the moment they turned into an armed conflict and revolutionary organizations to their actual conversion into expert humanitarian work and the world of NGOs. In order to do this work several analyses have been compared; first, a reflection about the ways and means of their changeover into armed violence and their enlistments in guerrillas’ organizations; then a thought about the mindset of political conversion and the career change of the military-political leaders; then finally a reflection about the birth of the non-profit domain and the development of activists’ careers. And so, through these analyses appears a more general study on the true nature of voluntary phenomena in El Salvador and Nicaragua, and on their practices and functions, that shows the roles they play as social, political supports in the new Central American democracies nowadays.