Since parental authority in South African law is based on German customary law, and not on Roman law, it exists for the protection of the child. Various protective measures exist to ensure that this goal is reached, mainly in the form of judicial interference with parental authority. An example is the termination of parental authority, or some of its incidents, by means of a court order. This takes place either in terms of the common-law authority of the High Court, or in terms of certain statutory provisions. One of the statutory provisions in terms of which the children's court can terminate some of the incidents of parental authority, is the Child Care Act 74 of 1983. If the children's court is of the opinion that a child is in need of care, it can order that the child be returned to the custody of its parents, or that the child be placed in foster care, or in a children's home or school of industries. There is at present no mechanism in the Child Care Act for ensuring legal representation for children. The draft Children's Bill expands the possible orders that the children's court can make and further provides that a child is entitled to legal representation in children's court proceedings, if necessary at state expense. In New Zealand, families participate in decision-making regarding children in need of care by means of the family group conference. In Scotland, children in need of compulsory measures of supervision are dealt with by a lay tribunal known as the children's hearing. The global movement to recognise and protect both the welfare and autonomy rights of children formed the basis of international-law protection of children, and the children's clause contained in section 28 of the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa 108 of 1996. In order to ensure that the protective goal of child law is reached, I propose that a multidisciplinary lay tribunal be instituted in South Africa to deal with children in need of care, and that legal representation for children in children's court proceedings be made compulsory in certain circumstances. / Private Law / LL. D.

The purpose of this quantitative, descriptive study was to identify shortcomings in the implementation of the Batho Pele Principles in a public hospital. Findings were obtained from a range of patients who had been admitted to specific units for three or more days, and more evidence was gathered from articles in mass media. Data was collected through a structured questionnaire from one hundred respondents (n=100) and analysed by means of descriptive statistics. The research findings revealed that none of the Batho Pele Principles were implemented effectively and that patients in general were not satisfied with treatment in public hospitals. Shortcomings are attributed to insufficient management skills and knowledge on different levels of the health care system, as well as a lack of awareness among patients of their rights and responsibilities in health care. / Health Studies / M.A. (Public Health)

Text in Afrikaans / The Convention on the Rights of the Child was adopted by the United Nations General Assembly on 29 November 1989. Included in the inherent rights set out in the Convention is the right to the highest attainable standard of health. In implementing the Convention states parties must refer to the requirements of article 2 of the Convention, which places them under a duty to respect and ensure the rights in the Convention to each child. The term “respect” implies a duty of good faith to refrain from actions which would breach the Convention. The “duty to ensure”, however, requires states parties to take whatever measures are necessary in order to enable children to enjoy their rights. A state party must also review its legislation in order to ensure that domestic law is consistent with the Convention. South Africa showed commitment to protecting and promoting children’s health when it ratified the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child in 1995 and subsequently adopted the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, 1996, which includes provisions guaranteeing the health rights of children. South Africa also showed commitment to give legislative effect to the protection and promotion of children’s health by reviewing the Health Act 63 of 1977 (reviewed as the National Health Act 61 of 2003) and the Child Care Act 74 of 1983 (reviewed as the Children’s Act 38 of 2005). The review of the Child Care Act 74 of 1983 revealed that the act is virtually silent on the issue of child health. This led to the decision to identify and evaluate existing policy and legislation, as well as pending relevant law reform and policy affecting child health in order to assess how well South African legislation addresses the issue. The research showed that although much legislation exists, none provides comprehensively for child health rights. The legislation that does exist contains obvious gaps. Most importantly, there is no reference to the core minimum requirements for the state in providing for the health of children, particularly in the way of health services and nutrition. Further, there is a complete lack of legislation which protects the health needs of disabled children. A comparative study was also undertaken. Legislation of India and Canada were evaluated in order to make recommendations as to how the gaps in South African legislation can be rectified. However, the research showed that South Africa has made far more significant progress in promoting a rightsbased approach to children’s health in legislation. In order to ensure that the health rights of children are protected and promoted, I propose more comprehensive legislative protection. / Private Law / LL.D.

The study aimed to explore and described the assessment of patient’s satisfaction with the quality of health care services rendered by the Crossroads Community Health Centre (CHCC). The target population comprised of adult male and female patients who have attended the clinic more than once. One hundred and twenty patients participated in the study. The convenience sampling method was used to select the respondents. A questionnaire was used to collect data. Validity and reliability were ensured. The Chronbach’s alpha reliability test was used to measure the internal consistency of the likert scale questionnaire items and was less than 0.4 for sections B-F, and 0.675 for section E. Descriptive and inferential data analysis was conducted using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences 16.0 for Windows, release 16.0.1 with the assistance of a statistician. The findings indicated a positive perception of the quality of health care services rendered by the Crossroads CHCC. It was concluded that despite a positive perception of the health care services, there was a percentage of the respondents that rated the quality of the service as poor in relation to environmental cleanliness, staff attitudes, long waiting times, medications shortage, the complaints system reporting and health care service drainage to other CHCC where patient’s resided. The issue of quality improvement in these aspects was noted to be crucial and recommendations were made to improve the quality of the health care service at Crossroads CHCC. / Healh Studies / M.A. (Health Studies)

A qualitative study aimed at exploring the nature and extent of the perceived social support available to male prisoners living with HIV at Pretoria Central Prison was conducted. A literature investigation into the life and world of male prisoners, with a focus on the nature and extent of the perceived social support provided to prisoners living with HIV, is presented. Fifteen (15) prisoners were identified by means of non-probability purposive sampling. In-depth interviews were conducted to collect information on how male prisoners living with HIV at Pretoria Central Prison viewed the nature and extent of the social support available to them. The study shows that the research participants living with HIV tended to receive social support from practitioners and other prisoners trained as voluntary caregivers. The study recommends that prisoners living with HIV should have greater access to social support from their significant others. / Social Work / M.A. (Social Behaviour Studies in HIV/AIDS)

The purpose of the study was to describe the effects of an EMR on patient management in selected HIV clinics in Johannesburg. A quantitative, descriptive, cross-sectional study was undertaken in four HIV clinics in Johannesburg. The subjects (N=44) were the healthcare workers selected by stratified random sampling. Consent was requested from each subject and from the clinics in Johannesburg. Data was collected using structured questionnaires. Median age of subjects was 36, 82% were female. 86% had tertiary qualifications. 55% were clinicians. 52% had 2-3 years work experience. 80% had computer experience, 86% had over one year EMR experience. 90% used the EMR daily, 93% preferred EMR to paper. 93% had EMR training, 17% used EMR to capture clinical data. 87% perceived EMR to have more benefits; most felt doctor-patient relationship was not interfered with. 89% were satisfied with the EMR’s overall performance. The effects of EMR benefit HIV patient management. / Health Studies / MA (Public Health)

OBJECTIVE/ METHOD The study examined implementation challenges faced by primary health care workers within the Ekurhuleni Metropolitan Municipality in Gauteng South Africa. Data collection was based on semi-structured interviews carried out on a purposive sample (n=19) of frontline clinicians working within the district as primary health care practitioners. RESULTS Participants confirmed that work within the primary health care service disproportionately focussed on curative and rehabilitative functions of their roles with little prioritisation of preventive and promotive interventions. Primary identified reasons included, institutional culture that prioritised short-term curative approaches. Clinicians also cited a range of other organisational barriers, such as – poor strategic planning, and a lack of understanding of health promotion and illness prevention. CONCLUSIONS Although the challenges that exist in implementing primary health care are clearly understood, clinicians perceive the solutions for these as being within the control of policy makers and those with power within the organisation. / Health Studies / M.A. (Public Health)

The purpose of the study was to determine professional nurses’ knowledge of culture- competent care at selected medical and oncology wards and outpatient departments in Mopani District, Limpopo Province. A quantitative descriptive design was used and data collected from one hundred and five professional nurses by means of a structured questionnaire. The study found that cultural knowledge needs to be nurtured through continuing education and mentoring and that culture-competent care should be included in the curriculum. Furthermore, cultural knowledge is not effective if there is no correlation of theory and practice and early clinical placement of student nurses during their basic training / Health Studies / M. A. (Health Studies)

The aim of this study was to identify the health needs and problems of black employees within the Germiston City Health Department in order to indicate a possible relationship between such needs and problems and a high rate of absenteeism. Although the findings could relate to all employees, this study was limited to black employees only. Data was collected by means of observation, perusal of health records and personal interviews with personnel as well as with the selected sample. The results of the study highlighted the specific health needs and problems of employees as well as factors which could influence their health status and which could contribute to the problem of absenteeism. The main factors identified included interalia poor working conditions and unsatisfactory methods of solving employees problems. Relevant recommendations were made ;· to address the problem of absenteeism in the Germiston City Health Department / Health Studies / M.A. (Nursing Science)

We conducted the study to explore and define the role of the social worker in Primary Health Care. The medical care model on its own is viewed as inappropriate for developing countries. We see Primary Health Care as holding the key to improving the health status of the many disadvantaged communities in South Africa. The Primary Health Care approach demands those health care providers, including social workers work collaboratively to provide the best possible services to the communities. Social Work is a profession concerned with the disadvantaged. However, social workers are assigned a very limited role in Primary Health Care. Since participants are concerned about subjective and experiential realities, participatory research was the appropriate research method. The major findings and conclusions were that, social workers have a role in Primary Health Care. They have to be assertive and tell others what is it that they do to find a place in Primary Health Care / Social Work / M.A. (Social Science (Mental Health))