This study identifies differing interests which have impacted how Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) prevention programmes in Vancouver have evolved. Drawing largely upon the writings of Michel Foucault with respect to power, knowledge and sexuality, discursive trends in materials are identified, categorized and compared to consider how pertinent subjugated knowledges have developed. The interplay between knowledge-regimes (the benedicted) and subjugated knowledges (the interdicted) are explicated through textual analyses of the materials collected. The findings suggest that knowledges cultivated within the male homosexual communities of Vancouver ensured the implementation of prevention programmes contextually relevant to their own milieu. These strategies were also integrated into broader prevention initiatives designed for society in-general, once their efficacy was apparent. Implications for community education and public health education are discussed, and areas for future research are identified.

Bakgrund: Den medicinska och ekonomiska kostnaden för hjärt- kärlsjukdomar är idagmycket omfattande. Största delen av dessa sjukdomar liksom andra kroniska, ickesmittsamma sjukdomar som cancer, lungsjukdom och diabetes, hör ihop med påverkbara,livsstilsrelaterade riskfaktorer. Genom att göra hälsosamma val när det gäller mat, rökning,alkohol och motion kan livsstilssjukdomar förhindras eller fördröjas. Livsstilsfrågor är enav distriktssköterskans huvuduppgifter och efter vårdvalet är det få distriktssköterskor somverkligen får arbeta med detta. Syfte: Syftet med denna studie är att beskriva hurdistriktssköterskan arbetar med sjukdomsförebyggande metoder inom primärvården.Metod: Studien är baserad på en kvalitativ metod med en induktiv ansats. Genomintervjuer samlades data in från sex distriktssköterskor och analyserades med hjälp avinnehållsanalys. Resultat: I resultatet framkom två huvudteman som benämndes; Att finnavägar till förändring och Att utgå från tillgängliga resurser. Konklusion:Livsstilsförändringar är ett svårt område att arbeta med, livsstilen är något som är starktförankrat hos alla. Det krävs att patienten har förmåga till egenvård samt är beroende avdistriktssköterskans kompetens för att resultatet skall bli lyckat. Detta arbete underlättasinte av att resurserna blivit färre inom primärvården. Vårdvalet tros vara den störstaorsaken till att arbete med diagnosrelaterade sjukdomar prioriteras. / Background: The medical and economic cost of cardiovascular disease is now very extensive. Most of these diseases as well as other chronic, non-communicable diseases such as cancer, lung disease and diabetes, is associated with modifiable lifestyle -related risk factors. By making healthy choices when it comes to food, smoking, alcohol and exercise lifestyle diseases can be prevented or delayed. Lifestyle issues are one of the main tasks of the district nurse but after the health care election, few district nurses really get to work on this. Aim: The aim of this study is to describe the work of the district nurse with disease prevention methods in primary care. Method: The study is based on a qualitative content analysis with an inductive approach. Through interviews, data were collected from six district nurses and analyzed using content analysis. Results: The results revealed two main themes called: Finding ways to change and Using available resources. Conclusions:Lifestyle modification is a difficult area to work with, the lifestyle is something that is deeply rooted in all of us.It requires that the patient is capable of self-care and dependent on district nursing skills for the result to be successful. This work is not being helped by the fact that resources are cut down in primary care. The health care election is believed to be the largest cause that diagnosis related work is prioritized.

<p>This project suggested tha HIV people in Region A (Nelson Mandela Metropole, formerly Port Elizabeth) health districty of the Eastern Cape, seek HIV testing when they are already in stages three (late disease) and four (AIDS) of HIV infection. Data had been obtained from the AIDS Training Information and Counselling Centre in the Nelson Mandela Metropole in 2000. The consequences of diagnoses onlu in the advanced stages of HIV infection will have a devastating impact on case management. Therefore, this paper yielded important data for South African policy makers to write health and welfare policies that might improve the quality of life of those terminally infected with HIV.</p>

Sexuality is made relevant in the way language is used as a matter of the identity of a group or individuals. Sex, for human beings, is not merely instinctive behaviour. It is meaningful-cultural behaviour and as such is semiotically loaded with meaning. Listening and talking about sex highlights conventions, taken-for-granted assumptions about the way things have to be done. Language as the most powerful representational system shapes our understanding of what we do and how we do them in relation to sex. Our understanding of sexual scripts about the sexuality of a particular group of people is through language as a signifying practice. The study of listening and talking is not merely an investigation of how sex is talked about, but how respondents enact sexuality and sexual identity vis-à-vis its linguistically loaded forms of representations in a variety of discourse genres. Representation and its inherent process of signification draws on lived experiences and the daily talk of people in interaction. A theoretical perspective is presented not as a model to be tested, but as testimony to the rich literature on the nature and function of language as a political arena, semiotically loaded with meanings that are taken for granted. It is concluded that the appropriation of cultural myths is encoded in language and as such language is a legitimate area of inquiry especially in understanding sexual scripts in the context HIV/AIDS. The study engages reported high risk sexual encounters such as multiple and concurrent partnerships, as well as unsafe sex practices which have been identified in literature as fanning the embers of the epidemic. Ideologies influencing developing communication campaigns in light of these discourses become a serious challenge as the conventional basis for such campaigns is in socio-cognitive theories, few of which can be assumed to apply with regard to the discursive representations of sexual practices and the inherent risks. Drawing on a cross-sectional survey of 1400 students on seven campuses, conceptually triangulated via focused-ethnography, listening analysis and discourse analysis, this research examines perceptions, interpretations, attitudes, and practices of sexuality and HIV/AIDS. The research is a multi-method and inter-disciplinary approach located within cultural studies to interrogate the gap between knowledge, attitudes, beliefs and behaviour modification in the light of the HIV/AIDS epidemic. This research discusses these findings and offers a critical appraisal of sexual behaviour in the context of ABC (Abstain, Be faithful, Condomise) as ideologically encoded in cultural and relational myths. I found that students are sexually active with reported multiple and concurrent sexual partnerships. Postgraduate students were less likely to report having had used a condom at their last coital encounter compared with the often younger undergraduate students. Condom use continues to be a norm in the universities surveyed. This is truer for students who reported multiple sexual partnerships. Amongst the dominant scripts that came out in the ethnographic inquiry are: sex as uncontrollable biological drive; females are responsible for safe sex practices; strong social scripts elevate male sexual prowess and show disdain for female affirmative sexualities, risk is discounted using a form of post modern fatalism (resistance to regulation); and physical status, based on appearance of a possible partner, is used to select ‘sexually safe’ partners. I have concluded that a deeper understanding of the cultural and sexual scripts obtained from students is critical for appropriate design and implementation of interventions aimed at stemming the tide of the HIV epidemic. I have also demonstrated that interventions that only emphasise the rational dimensions of human behaviour are more likely to miss their target audience as sex is more than a choice of Cartesian rationality (linear choice). / Thesis (Ph.D.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2008.

Paul Germond and Sepetla Molapo have defined bophelo as a particular BaSotho conception of health and religion. This scholarship defining bophelo derives several policy principles for public health seeking to appreciate religious entities as assets: 1) should actively engage religious entities and to treat them as potential assets in HIV prevention 2) that the value of religion for health is typically not tangible to western scientific and technical methodologies 3) health and religion are sought at a communal level, at which individuals are united through bonds of trust and a common set of cultural practices, often expressed with reference ancestor reverence. Germond and Molapo argue that conceptions of health and religion in other southern African cultures and nations are closely analogous to bophelo, and sketch the relevance of these conceptions for the effectiveness of the public health response to the HIV epidemic in southern Africa. The President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) is the United States initiative to prevent HIV and treat AIDS across the globe. PEPFAR is notable for funding a high proportion of faith-based organizations for HIV prevention relative to other major HIV and AIDS initiatives. This is study of two faith-based organizations, HOPE Worldwide and Youth for Christ. Both received funding from PEPFAR to conduct HIV prevention programs in Durban in 2007. The study assesses the conceptions of religion as an asset for their interventions with specific reference to the principles of Germond and Molapo’s bophelo scholarship. / Thesis (M.A.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2011.

This exploratory study investigates the factors that facilitate or inhibit the uptake of voluntary counseling and testing (VCT) among students aged 18-24 at the Howard College campus of the University of KwaZulu-Natal. It also examines the sexual behaviour of the students in order to determine if, and to what they are at risk of HIV infection. The study used a self-completed survey questionnaire to elicit participants' responses. On one hand, the key factors that were found to motivate the students to undergo VCT include: the desire to know one's HIV status, peer influence, future planning and commitment to long-term relationships. On the other hand, factors that inhibit VCT uptake among students include lack of awareness, low risk perception, stigma, fear of an HIV positive test result, lack of confidentiality, long waiting period to secure an appointment, and perceived lack of benefits of counselling . The study also established that among the sexually active students, some engage in risky sexual behaviour such as involvement with multiple sexual partners and inconsistent condom use. In the light of the findings, the study recommends measures that would be taken to improve VCT uptake amongst students, and contribute in curbing the spread of HIV. / Thesis (M.A.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2005.

Thesis (M.Ed.) - University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2009.

RN/AIDS has had a particularly devastating effect on sub-Saharan nations, including South Africa. Thus, a national rollout of antiretroviral drugs - capable of mitigating the effects of the epidemic - has been vigorously demanded by the South African public. Eventually bowing to public pressure, the Government began to implement the rollout of the drugs at public health facilities in early 2004. The University of KwaZulu-Natal announced in 2004 that it too would provide access to antiretroviral drugs for all students who require them. Thus, there is an urgent need for the institution to develop promotional campaigns that not only promote the service but that also deal with the fall-out from the problematic national rollout, and that address the complicated nature of antiretroviral therapy. The focus of this dissertation is on a promotional needs analysis for the antiretroviral rollout at the University. Specifically, the primary research aimed to determine the knowledge, attitudes and beliefs of the general student population on the topic of antiretrovirals, and by doing so, identify the needs of this audience that will have to be addressed by future promotional campaigns. The theoretical framework used to inform the research design and questions is that of social marketing; a relatively new approach to social change that uses principles of commercial marketing to achieve results among target audiences. The results of the research suggest that future promotional messages and campaigns directed at the general student population will need to focus on the following issues: clarifying the distinctions between different contexts of ARV use; increasing the awareness of the rollout at UKZN as a prerequisite to stimulating demand; addressing negative beliefs and misconceptions regarding ARVs; emphasising complementary practices to be used by individuals with RN/AIDS; addressing issues of stigma and discrimination and encouraging students to act as sources of support and information for other students. In the case of certain messages, segmentation - on the basis of race and campus - may result in a more effective dissemination of information to the target audiences. / Thesis (M.Soc.Sc.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, 2005.

This thesis examines the use of the participatory forum theatre methodology for HIVIAIDS education ina factory setting in Durban, 2003. The paper explores the field of Entertainment Education (EE), which is the strategic use of entertainment forms for health education and behaviour change. This thesis offers an overview of some of the modern theories of behaviour change and how EE is used in development communication. I investigate participatory communication theory, the work of Brazilian educationalist Paulo Freire, and the principles that inform Augusto Boats forum theatre methodology. EE strategies and communication and behavioural change theories inform the design and practice of the PST (problem solving theatre) projec( which is the case study for this thesis. This thesis outlines the process of the PST project, researching the environment at the chosen factory site, and the prevailing knowledge and attitudes towards HIV/AIDS, the creation of an appropriate forum theatre play, as well as observations and comments on the performance at the factory. Final summative research investigates the impact that the forum theatre had on the audience. The conclusion points to the tensions in theory and practice that were highlighted through the PST project, and suggests how forum theatre, as an EE strategy, can be further used in a factory setting. / Thesis (M.A.)-University of Natal, Durban, 2003.

The present project evaluates and examines a communication campaign carried out at the University of Durban-Westville (UDW) in 2003, which publicized the introduction of a HIV/AIDS Voluntary Counselling and Testing (VCT) facility on campus. Drawing on theories 'of entertainment education (EE) and behaviour change, the campaign's effectiveness is analysed in relation to (1) audience reception; (2) take-up of the service promoted; and (3) visibility and penetration of the media employed. The thesis is that the message in campaigns of this nature benefits from avoiding claims of bringing about behaviour change by the mere fact of commurlication or information transfer. Instead, it is proposed that anti-H1V behaviour-change messages focus on urging audiences to act in presenting for VCT, because the ongoing counselling of VCT is a proper communicative forum for such changes. In conclusion, the present campaign's shortcomings are noted, and considered in the context of how to address these in relation to the opportunities offered by the merger ofUDW with the University of Natal from 2004. / Thesis (M.A.)-University of Natal,Durban,2003.