The purpose of this study was to explore the level of integration of health promotion and disease prevention services with the curative care provided at hospitals and health centres in Addis Ababa, and to propose recommendations that could improve such an integrated health service. A quantitative approach, using an exploratory and descriptive design was applied at 22 public health facilities in Addis Ababa followed by the Delphi technique to reach consensus on ways to improve the integration of health promotion, preventive and curative care. An integrated health service (IHS) framework was used as the conceptual framework upon which the study was based. Multistage sampling involving stratified simple random sampling was applied to select hospitals and health centres while a systematic sampling technique was used to sample patients from the outpatient and inpatient medical departments. Data was collected by means of two questionnaires from patients and health service managers, respectively, following which two Delphi rounds with experts resulted in agreement on a contextually accepted integrated framework. The findings revealed that promotive and preventive services for chronic diseases were not optimally integrated in the routine health care services of the health facilities. Most health facilities lacked skilled health professionals, adequate medication and equipment to provide a comprehensive integrated service. The study emphasized the need for health service providers to undergo a paradigm shift and additional training in order to provide a comprehensive, patient-centred, integrated health service instead of only treating patients’ complaints. To assist this approach, the study affirmed the Integrated Health Service (IHS) framework as a tool which comprehensively demonstrates the cause, effect and progression of chronic diseases and the appropriate interventions which health professionals can apply in managing diseases or their risk factors. Recommendations for effective, integrated promotive and preventive health care, included the development of guidelines, protocols and policy documents for cultivating a healthy lifestyle, adopting effective disease prevention approaches, re-designing medical school curriculums, and staffing health facilities with trained and specialized staff, capacitating health facilities with the necessary equipment, medication and supplies that would enable the provision of an integrated health care service. / Health Studies / D. Litt. et Phil. (Health Studies)

Traditional Chinese medicine is one of the oldest curative methods in the world. It is focused particularly on the support of a body to recover balance and harmony that have become impaired. Owing to the growing number of the Chinese and the Vietnamese minorities in the Czech Republic, the medical staff providing healthcare may meet members of these minorities for whom this medicine may be of a large importance both when being ill and when being healthy. The new conception of the Czech nursing is outlined to provide every individual, regardless of the race, with the care which is able to satisfy their bio-psycho-social-religious needs. The nursing staff must possess a basic knowledge of the traditional Chinese medicine so that they are able to satisfy the needs of these patients/clients better. The objective of this diploma work is to ascertain what health problems are treated by members of the Chinese and the Vietnamese minorities through the traditional Chinese medicine, and what curative methods are used most frequently by them. The empirical part was processed in the form of a qualitative research. The data collection technique was a semi-structured interview of selected informants of the Chinese and the Vietnamese nationalities living in the Czech Republic. Based on the interviews of individual minorities, case studies were established and used as the research base for elaboration of categorization tables and charts presenting the most important results of the research. The main results of the research include the ascertained heath problems which are treated by means of the Chinese medicine by members of both minorities, and the ascertainment what curative methods are used most frequently, and whether the members of both minorities wish to make use of the medicine also during hospitalization. Based on the results of the research, the information material was elaborated that may be of use for the nursing staff in healthcare facilities and for other specialized public as a brief summary of methods of the Chinese medicine and of their application by the members of the Chinese and the Vietnamese minorities.

Psykisk ohälsa hos äldre behandlas ofta enbart med mediciner trots kända risker. Psykoterapi erbjuds inte alla äldre, vilket kan vara en konsekvens av ålderism, åldersbaserad diskriminering, som även kan visa sig genom avsaknad av flexibilitet och specialanpassade ramar i terapin och prägla den äldre patientens och terapeutens föreställningar om varandra och terapin. En tematisk analys genomfördes efter sex intervjuer med psykoterapeuter i syfte att undersöka vilka faktorer som är viktiga att beakta vid en psykodynamisk terapi med äldre och vad som anses kurativt. Analysen visade att det är en förbisedd möjlighet mot välbefinnande för äldre personer som lider av oro, ångest och depression samt kan vara i livets slutskede och önskar tala om sådant som kan behöva redas ut innan livet tar slut. Tid är en viktig faktor i terapin där sorg och existentiella frågor får ta plats. Terapeuten kan med fördel vara flexibel, erbjuda specialanpassade ramar och göra en omsorgsfull differentialdiagnos för att möjliggöra terapi för de äldre och upptäcka demens. Utmaningar för terapeuten beskrivs som regression, lyssna efter suicidtankar och bedöma när man ska arbeta bearbetande eller stödjande, ibland på ett symbolplan. Förutom den nödvändiga alliansen mellan terapeut och patient och att aktualisera gamla trauman, konflikter och sorg är det kurativt att tala om existentiella frågor. Resultaten diskuteras och förslag ges på framtida forskningsuppslag.

This study aims to discuss the conditions for a curative work with detained children in Sweden. Furthermore we will illuminate the connection between the conditions and the different professional roles at the detention centers. Along with this discussion we want to shed light on the psychosocial health of detained children to see if there is a need for curative work. The two research questions are: ●  What are the conditions for curative work for detained children? ●  In what way do professional roles affect the conditions for curative work? The method that was used to examine our research questions was semi-structured interviews with professionals working with detained children in the same arena but with different approaches. The interviews were conducted with seven people. Five of whom are employed by Kriminalvården (The Swedish correctional service - ‘The criminal care’) and two who are employed by an external actor and work with children in detention centres. The result shows that the discretion for curative work differentiates depending on what professional role the person is assigned. It appears that curative work is needed for the children's wellbeing. The result also shows that the guidelines and work ethics of Kriminalvården have not been adapted to the high number of detained children.

Previous research has shown there is a lack of studies made about school counselors and their work with secondary school students, especially in a Swedish context. Although the research is limited, there are a few studies who can show that there is a distancing of students towards school counselors and students seeking help, but there also seems to be a lack of direction that makes school counselors work tasks to appear unclear. Previous research shows that there seem to be a few explanatory factors that may impact this behavior of students such as a lack of trust, a fear that confidentiality will be compromised as well as other people's opinions. The purpose of this study was to describe, analyze and find possible connections between secondary students' knowledge and attitudes towards school counselors and counselors' work tasks, and also secondary students' tendency to seek help. The study was carried out by a quantitative questionnaire study with focus on two different schools in two different municipalities. Empirical material was collected through google forms and participants were asked to fill out the survey online. We visited a few schools who were interested in participating in the questionnaire. The reason for this was because we had an idea of an increasing number of participants by visiting schools and informing them about this study and its purpose, and also to be able to answer any questions they might have. The results were analyzed through a univariate and a bivariate analysis and by using the Statistical package for the social sciences (SPSS). The results showed that students had a rather positive attitude towards school counselors, but still tend to not seek help if needed, which can be due to a lack of trust to the counselor.

Using hauntology as a linchpin, this dissertation explores the undertheorized connection between intersex and disability. Building on important feminist research in the fields of intersex, queer, disability, crip, and hauntology studies, I ask, how do we understand and reconcile the contested meanings, responses to, and effects of intersex? Intersex is “a perpetually shifting phantasm” (Holmes 2002: 175), yet intersex is typically represented and treated as innate disorder, disability, or disease by medical professionals. That said, many intersex people appear to distance from disability. By engaging intersex studies with feminist disability and crip theories, however, I demonstrate that an intersex politic and intersex studies must be rooted in a disability politic and disability studies. Through a feminist disability and crip lens, I conduct a textual and critical discourse analysis of three case studies of interphobic violence or, what I term, “compulsory dyadism,” meaning the instituted cultural mandate that people cannot have intersex traits or house the “spectre of intersex” (Sparrow 2013: 29); such a spectre must be exorcised. The three case studies include nonconsensual medical interventions, sport sex testing, and employing reproductive technologies to select against intersex variations. My analyses of these case studies produce three important observations. First, intersex is presently and effectively being integrated into conventional notions of disability; second, ableist logics underpin interphobic violence; and third, compulsory dyadism is intertwined with, or is an iteration of, compulsory able-bodiedness. In recognizing this interconnection, theorizing intersex and disability together is not merely beneficial, doing so is necessary. Ultimately, my dissertation interrogates and extends questions of the ever-shifting categorization of body-minds, culturally mandated ways of being, and (the haunting effects of) pathologization. I apply pressure to the academic field of intersex studies as well as intersex activist and advocate communities to center disability in discussions concerning intersex human rights and interphobia.

Curative primary health care nurses are the first level of contact with health personnel the patient has when entering the district-driven health system of South Africa. It is imperative that these nurses are competent, or patients may suffer. Several factors exist as barriers to competent curative care. Donabedian's structure-process-outcome framework has been used in the study of these factors. Literature were selected from international and national studies of nursing to discover barriers and enablers in general nursing care but also specifically in curative primary health care. The curative primary health care nurses in the Southern Cape/Karoo region were used as a sample for the study. Data gained from questionnaires were organised to present the findings: Barriers to a curative PHC service seem to be multifactorial, with scarce resources causing great stress for the workforce. This have a negative impact on relationships between employer and employee, CPHCNs and their patients, the type of managing that take place, and the quality of the examination and treatment of patients. Slow changes frustrates workers, causing more stress and poor attitudes, feelings of not being valued, and not being motivated (internally and externally). Enablers examined showed that although the workforce may be discontented and overworked, they still try to deliver their best, with few medical mistakes. Patients still have a lot of respect for their healthcare deliverers, but this trend may not continue for much longer. Patients are already returning more often to clinics, causing even more stress for staff. / Health Studies / M.A. (Health Studies)

Curative primary health care nurses are the first level of contact with health personnel the patient has when entering the district-driven health system of South Africa. It is imperative that these nurses are competent, or patients may suffer. Several factors exist as barriers to competent curative care. Donabedian's structure-process-outcome framework has been used in the study of these factors. Literature were selected from international and national studies of nursing to discover barriers and enablers in general nursing care but also specifically in curative primary health care. The curative primary health care nurses in the Southern Cape/Karoo region were used as a sample for the study. Data gained from questionnaires were organised to present the findings: Barriers to a curative PHC service seem to be multifactorial, with scarce resources causing great stress for the workforce. This have a negative impact on relationships between employer and employee, CPHCNs and their patients, the type of managing that take place, and the quality of the examination and treatment of patients. Slow changes frustrates workers, causing more stress and poor attitudes, feelings of not being valued, and not being motivated (internally and externally). Enablers examined showed that although the workforce may be discontented and overworked, they still try to deliver their best, with few medical mistakes. Patients still have a lot of respect for their healthcare deliverers, but this trend may not continue for much longer. Patients are already returning more often to clinics, causing even more stress for staff. / Health Studies / M.A. (Health Studies)