In today's world of work, change can be seen as a given. For companies to not only survive but to thrive, they need resilient and healthy employees. Healthy employees can deal more effectively with stress, which result from increases in work overloads, work pressure and job insecurity. They are more productive, deliver higher work output, and cope better with higher work demands. Studies show that people, who maintain a healthy lifestyle through regular exercise and healthy eating, have much fewer weight-related medical expenses, and are thus generally in better health. Poor health, on the other hand, results in higher absence from work, lower productivity and lower morale. This has a snowball effect in organisations, because the absence of unhealthy employees exacerbates the stress and work overload of those employees who are present at work and, in turn, negatively impact their morale. The aim of the study is to evaluate the impact of a physical wellness programme (referred to as a Corporate Wellness Programme or CWP) on employee absenteeism and motivation within a specific company. The evaluation was conducted using a mixed method approach. It was performed on the pilot study of the CWP. Hundred and thirteen people participated on a voluntary basis. The programme ran over six months (December 2008 to May 2009). A health risk assessment (HRA) includes glucose, blood pressure, cholesterol tests and a body mass index (BMI) and was conducted on all the participants before they embarked on the programme, as well as after completing the programme. The pre- and post-tests of the health risk assessment were statistically compared to evaluate whether participation in the programme affected the physical health of the participants. After the programme, focus group discussions were held with a sample of 36 of the 113 participants to assess their experience of the programme. Absenteeism data were used as an indirect measure to determine the impact of the programme on absenteeism. The results from the health risk assessments indicated that the systolic blood pressure and cholesterol levels were significantly lower after the programme. From the focus group discussions it appeared that participants reported less absenteeism from work due to illness. They further reported an improvement in their mood, attitude toward work, sleeping patterns, eating habits and sense of overall wellbeing during participation in the programme. Based on the results of health risk assessments, it seems if the CWP had some positive impact on employee state of wellness. Copyright 2010, University of Pretoria. All rights reserved. The copyright in this work vests in the University of Pretoria. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the University of Pretoria. Please cite as follows: Du Preez, H 2010, The impact of a Corporate Wellness Programme on employee wellness, motivation and absenteeism, MCom dissertation, University of Pretoria, Pretoria, viewed yymmdd < http://upetd.up.ac.za/thesis/available/etd-02222012-115232 / > C12/4/191/gm / Dissertation (MCom)--University of Pretoria, 2010. / Human Resource Management / unrestricted

Mémoire numérisé par la Direction des bibliothèques de l'Université de Montréal.

Mémoire numérisé par la Direction des bibliothèques de l'Université de Montréal.

Approaches to projects and development have undergone considerable change in the last decade with significant policy shifts on governance, gender, poverty eradication, and environmental issues. Most recently this has led to the adoption and promotion of the sustainable livelihood (SL) approach. The adoption of the SL approach presents challenges to development interventions including: the future of projects and programmes, and sector wide approaches (SWAPs) and direct budgetary support.This paper `A livelihoods-grounded audit of the AIDS/STD programme in Uganda¿ the thirteenth in the series of project working papers. / Department for International Development

No / At the University of Bradford, the midwifery team have developed an innovative approach to the delivery of their midwifery programme. This includes the use of a spiral curriculum that is underpinned by problem based learning. A spiral curriculum is one that facilitates an iterative revisiting of topics, subjects or themes throughout the programme. The approach is not simply one of repetition but one that enables the student to achieve deeper knowledge with each turn of the spiral.

Yes / Living in an area with high levels of child poverty predisposes children to poorer mental and physical health. ActEarly is a 5-year research programme that comprises a large number of interventions (>20) with citizen science and co-production embedded. It aims to improve the health and well-being of children and families living in two areas of the UK with high levels of deprivation; Bradford in West Yorkshire, and the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. This protocol outlines the meta-evaluation (an evaluation of evaluations) of the ActEarly programme from a systems perspective, where individual interventions are viewed as events in the wider policy system across the two geographical areas. It includes investigating the programme's impact on early life health and well-being outcomes, interdisciplinary prevention research collaboration and capacity building, and local and national decision making. The ActEarly meta-evaluation will follow and adapt the five iterative stages of the 'Evaluation of Programmes in Complex Adaptive Systems' (ENCOMPASS) framework for evaluation of public health programmes in complex adaptive systems. Theory-based and mixed-methods approaches will be used to investigate the fidelity of the ActEarly research programme, and whether, why and how ActEarly contributes to changes in the policy system, and whether alternative explanations can be ruled out. Ripple effects and systems mapping will be used to explore the relationships between interventions and their outcomes, and the degree to which the ActEarly programme encouraged interdisciplinary and prevention research collaboration as intended. A computer simulation model ("LifeSim") will also be used to evaluate the scale of the potential long-term benefits of cross-sectoral action to tackle the financial, educational and health disadvantages faced by children in Bradford and Tower Hamlets. Together, these approaches will be used to evaluate ActEarly's dynamic programme outputs at different system levels and measure the programme's system changes on early life health and well-being. This meta-evaluation protocol presents our plans for using and adapting the ENCOMPASS framework to evaluate the system-wide impact of the early life health and well-being programme, ActEarly. Due to the collaborative and non-linear nature of the work, we reserve the option to change and query some of our evaluation choices based on the feedback we receive from stakeholders to ensure that our evaluation remains relevant and fit for purpose. / This work was supported by the UK Prevention Research Partnership (MR/S037527/1), which is funded by the British Heart Foundation, Cancer Research UK, Chief Scientist Office of the Scottish Government Health and Social Care Directorates, Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council, Economic and Social Research Council, Health and Social Care Research and Development Division (Welsh Government), Medical Research Council, National Institute for Health Research, Natural Environment Research Council, Public Health Agency (Northern Ireland), The Health Foundation and Wellcome.

Background: The World Health Organization (WHO) recommends the community-based Outpatient Therapeutic Program (OTP) as a standard treatment protocol for the management of uncomplicated Severe Acute Malnutrition (SAM) at the community level. OTP has been scaled up and integrated into the existing grassroots level government health systems in several developing countries. The aim of this thesis was to assess the implementation and outcome of a scaled-up and integrated OTP service provided at community level. Methods: One qualitative study and three quantitative studies were conducted in southern Ethiopia. Children admitted to 94 integrated OTPs, their caregivers and health extension workers providing primary health care services in the nearby health posts were included in this study. The quantitative studies were based on data generated from observation of a cohort of 1,048 children admitted to the integrated OTPs. Result: On admission 78.8% of the children had SAM. The majority of these children 60.2% exited the program neither achieving program recovery criteria nor being transferred to inpatient care. Fourteen weeks after admission to OTP, 34.6% were severely malnourished and 34.4% were moderately malnourished, thus 69.0% were still acutely malnourished. Ready-to-use Therapeutic Foods (RUTFs) provided for SAM children were commonly shared with other children in the household and sold as a commodity for the collective benefit of the family thus admitted children received only a portion of the provided amount. Further, the program suffered a severe shortage of RUTFs, where only  46.6% of admitted children were given the recommended amount of RUTFs by providers on admission and only 34.9% of these had uninterrupted provision during the follow-up. Conclusion: The integrated OTPs we studied provide a constrained service and the use of RUTFs by families is not as intended by the program. The majority of admitted children remained acutely malnourished after participating in the program for the recommended duration. For integrated OTPs to be effective in chronically food-insecure contexts, interventions that also address the economic and food needs of the entire household are essential. This may require a shift to view SAM as a symptom of broader problems affecting a family rather than as a disease of an individual child. In addition, further research is needed to understand the health system context regarding RUTFs and medication supply and service utilization of integrated OTPs.

Thesis (DPhil (Sociology and Social Anthropology))--Stellenbosch University, 2008. / The aim of the study was to design an alcohol abuse prevention program for the workplace that was based on a sound program theory. Ultimately the study aimed to indicate an approach to the improvement of social service programs by the incorporation of program theory in the design, implementation and evaluation of social service programs. In the first phase of the study the program theory was developed. Literature studies on the prevention of alcohol abuse and on program evaluation were done. This was followed by a survey in the workplace to determine alcohol consumption and abuse, factors contributing to alcohol consumption, workplace factors contributing to abuse and attitudes towards the responsible consumption of alcohol. The survey was complemented by focus group discussions. Eight hundred and fifteen respondents completed the survey. The most important findings were that 46% of respondents indicated that they drink alcohol, nine percent could be classified as alcohol dependent according to the Michigan Alcoholism Screening Test (Selzer, 1971) and 24% of men and 15 % of women drank at risky levels. The most important factors contributing to alcohol consumption were social problems, social drinking and dependence. Workplace factors contributing to alcohol consumption were the lack of control, availability of alcohol, social pressure to drink and the quality of work. The program theory was formulated from the results of the literature study, the survey and the focus group discussions. The all-inclusive program theory was that life skills training will lead to a reduction in frustration and therefore a reduction in the abuse of alcohol, within a positive work environment. In the following phase the program was implemented and evaluated. The program consisted of life skills training, supervisor training and the revision of the alcohol policy. Quantitative and qualitative methods were used to test the program theory and evaluate the program. The life skills program was tested by means of an experimental design. The experimental groups showed an improvement in psychosocial functioning, but the differences were not statistically significant. The intervention had no significant effect on the consumption of alcohol. Respondents’ knowledge about the moderate drinking of alcohol improved significantly, but attitudes towards moderate drinking were not affected. Supervisor training was done to improve relationships at work and to lower frustration. Supervisors improved their knowledge of managing a troubled employee significantly and felt more comfortable in managing troubled employees after the training. The substance abuse policy of the workplace was revised successfully. The study contributes significantly to the methodological improvement of substance abuse prevention programs in the workplace and illustrates the importance of program theory in the design and evaluation of social programs. The study also illustrates how a process of formative evaluation can be used to improve social programs. More specifically the value of a systematic process of program development and program evaluation has been demonstrated, including that an in depth problem analysis has been done, an intensive and collaborative process of theory development has been undertaken and a rigorist evaluation design (with quantitative and qualitative components) has been applied.

School and learning readiness are continually being placed under the spotlight in an attempt to protect the grade 1 learner from possible learning failures, since unsuccessful learning experiences have negative effects even on a person's adult life. A factor that plays a significant role in the current teaching situation in the RSA is the fact that many grade 1 leamers are not instructed in their mother tongue and that they are not familiar with the concepts which are used in the language of learning and teaching. Another important factor is the fact that since 2004 learners may enrol as grade 1 learners at primary schools if they are five and a half years old and did not attend a grade R class. In this study the problems experienced by grade 1 leamers in primary schools since the implementation of Outcomes-based Education in the RSA in 1998, were determined by means of a pilot study. It was followed up by a literature study on the brain and factors that influence the working of the brain among young learners, as well as learning and factors that cannot only promote learning among this age group, but also disadvantage it. The literature was also consulted to look at stimulation of the child's development in the early development stage (0-9 years). As cross control for the study, the influence of the implementation of the RNCS was determined by means of a Likert-type questionnaire that was sent to grade1 teachers. As a result of factors that were identified from the above-named literature study and from the information acquired from the pilot project and Likert-type questionnaire, a conceptual stimulation programme for multicultural grade 1 classes was developed to provide in the shortcomings that currently occur among grade 1 learners. The Aptitude Test for School beginners (ASB), a standarised school readiness test of the HSRC, was used as a measuring instrument to acquire a differentiated image in a scientific way of the grade 1 learners (n = 39) for the purpose of this study. Thereafter, the learners were divided into an experimental and a control group. The conceptual stimulation programme was presented to the experimental group for ten consecutive weeks. The AS6 test was then conducted again with all the grade 1 learners involved. Both the first and final tests were marked according to the prescribed marking keys, interpreted according to the norm tables and statistically processed. The pre and post test scores of the two groups were compared and the experimental group improved in all 8 sections of the test battery, namely perception, spatial, reasoning, numerical, Gestalt, co-ordination , memory and verbal comprehension. In each of these categories there was an increase of d = 0.5 and more which according to Cohen's d-values, can be regarded as practically meaningful. The above-mentioned results indicate that the effective presentation of a conceptual stimulation programme to a group of multicultural grade 1 learners provides positive results and that the didactical methods used during the presentation can be recommended to grade 1 teachers in the current multicultural schools in the RSA. The programme can serve as a prototype to adress the shortcomings identified in the practise (questionnaires) and the literature study. Keywords for indexing are: stimulation programme, schoolreadiness, schoolreadiness programme, cognitive development, learning theories, conceptual learning, brain development. / Thesis (Ph.D. (Education))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2006.

Mémoire numérisé par la Direction des bibliothèques de l'Université de Montréal.