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Social inclusion and mental health of children with physical disabilities in Gaza, Palestine

NASSER, Khaled
MACLACHLAN, Malcolm
MCVEIGH, Joanne
2016

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Purpose: Social inclusion of children with physical disabilities is essential for their mental health. The long-standing conflict and political instability in Palestine since 1948 has resulted in an unprecedented number of children with disabilities. This study aimed to assess social inclusion and mental health of children with physical disabilities in Palestine.

 

Method: A mixed methods research design was used. The 12-item General Health Questionnaire and a Social Inclusion Questionnaire were administered to 100 children with amputations, 12-18 years of age, in the Gaza Strip. Ten semi-structured interviews were also conducted with personnel working across civil society rehabilitation services in the area, particularly in services that focussed on the physical rehabilitation of children who had lost a limb.

 

Results: Quantitative findings indicated that 88% of children’s disabilities were caused by war-related incidents. While the sample of children showed on average relatively low levels of psychological distress, males reported feeling more socially included and having better mental health than did females. Furthermore, there was a strong positive correlation between mental health and social inclusion, and a moderate positive correlation between psychological distress and social inclusion. The qualitative data identified different factors that hinder social inclusion, mainly: political instability; under-resourced disability organisations; lack of coordinated efforts; and negative societal attitudes towards disability.

 

Conclusion: A new questionnaire for social inclusion was developed, which can now be used as a tool to assess social inclusion in similar contexts; as well as a culturally-adapted form of the General Health Questionnaire-12 to assess mental health. There is a clear need for service-providers to move beyond a medical model of care to one that embraces community-based rehabilitation and the realisation of rights, in order to promote the social inclusion and mental health of children with disabilities in Palestinian society.

Communication rehabilitation in sub-Saharan Africa: A workforce profile of speech and language therapists

WYLIE, Karen
MCALLISTER, Lindy
DAVIDSON, Bronwyn
MARSHALL, Julie
2016

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Background: There is an urgent global need to strengthen rehabilitation services for people with disabilities. In sub-Saharan Africa, rehabilitation services for people with communication disabilities continue to be underdeveloped. A first step in strengthening services for people with a communication disabilities is to understand the composition and conditions of the current workforce.


Objectives: This research describes a sample of the speech and language therapists (SLTs) working in SSA (excluding South Africa). This study explores the characteristics of this workforce, including their demographics, education, experience and geographical stability.


Method: A mixed-methods survey was used to collect data from SLTs within Anglophone countries of SSA. Completed surveys were received from 33 respondents working in 44 jobs across nine countries. Analysis included descriptive and non-parametric inferential statistics. This study reports on a subset of descriptive and quantitative data from the wider survey.


Results: A background profile of SLTs across the region is presented. Results indicated that the workforce of SLTs comprised a mix of local and international SLTs, with university-level education. Local SLTs were educated both within and outside of Africa, with more recent graduates trained in Africa. These data reflected the local emergence of speech and language therapy training in SSA.


Conclusion: This sample comprised a mix of African and international SLTs, with indications of growing localisation of the workforce. Workforce localisation offers potential advantages of linguistic diversity and stability. Challenges including workforce support and developing culturally and contextually relevant SLT practices are discussed.
 

Understanding Hearing Impairment in Individuals from a Perspective of Social and Emotional Functioning

Kodali, Prakash Babu
CT, Anitha
Kopparty, Swarajya
2016

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Purpose: Hearing Impairment is one of the most neglected forms of disability. It accounts for the loss of thousands of disability adjusted life years (DALYs) worldwide (WHO, 2005). Developed countries have made some progress in the measuring and management of hearing impairment (HI), but this is still in the initial stages in developing countries such as India. The International Classification of Functioning disability and Health (ICF) has shifted the approach towards a holistic perspective in defining and measuring disability. This paper tries to measure HI from the perspective of social and emotional functioning of individuals.

 

Method: The sample population consisted of 1160 individuals, selected by systematic random sampling from among those who complied with inclusion criteria. 51.7% of the total respondents were females, and 48.3% were males. The participants were administered a questionnaire (Standardised) and their responses were quantified. The data was analysed using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 20.

 

Results: Prevalence of HI was found more among males than females. 84.6% of the total population had no hearing impairment, whereas 13.7% had mild to moderate impairment, and 1.7% had significant hearing impairment. The TotalImpairment score obtained by the individuals was divided into Social Impairment score and Emotional Impairment score. Correlation and Multivariate regression analysis were used. Correlation - Age and Social Dimension Score r= 0.609,p≤0.01, n=1160, R2= 0.370; Age and Emotional Dimension score: r= 0.622, p≤0.01, n=1160, R2= 0.386; Regression- Gender and Social Dimension score b= 0.703, t (1160) = 2.988, p<0.05; Age and Total HI score b= 0.787, t (1160) =27.096, p< 0.01.

 

Conclusion: Measuring HI in terms of social and emotional functioning is more holistic and cost-effective, and could be used in resource-poor settings, and for initial screening in large-scale studies.

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