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Health Promotion.

Permanent URI for this communityhttps://hdl.handle.net/10413/12723

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Browsing Health Promotion. by Author "Gwelo, Netsai Bianca."

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    Experiences of home-based care organizations in the context of the global financial crisis.
    (2014) Gwelo, Netsai Bianca.; Akintola, Olagoke.
    Background: The global economic crisis has posed major threats to the fight against HIV and AIDS especially in developing countries. The crisis which originated in well-developed economies such as the US in 2007/2008 (Kin & Penn, 2008) has impacted key drivers of growth in trade, investment, mining and manufacturing at a global level. However, it is unclear how this crisis is affecting small, non-profit organizations providing care and associated services to people living with and affected by HIV/AIDS. Aim: The aim of this study was to explore the experiences of home-based care organizations in the context of the global financial crisis and its implications on the provision of services offered by home-based care organizations through the perspective of the managers. Methods: In-depth qualitative interviews were conducted with 10 managers who work in care organizations that provide care services to people living with HIV/AIDS using an interview schedule containing open-ended questions. Findings: The findings of the study show that the global financial crisis at the macro level has affected government and donors/funders’ grants to non-profit organizations. This has resulted in a reduction of funds allocated to care organizations. Funding cuts have severely affected care organizations at the exo-level. Care organizations were forced to employ different strategies such as organizational restructuring in order to survive in the new funding environment. This led to downscaling of services and the number of communities served, retrenchment of paid staff and reduced incentives for volunteer caregivers. Organizational restructuring had profoundly implications on recruited workers at the meso-level. Paid staff were confronted with retrenchment while volunteer caregivers were confronted with rationalization of incentives. At the micro level, there were severe implications for beneficiaries of care services. People who depended on these services are at a high risk of becoming more vulnerable to diseases and poverty. Recommendations: These findings highlight the need for the government to play a bigger role in the provision of funds and support to home-based care organizations. The government needs to incorporate home-based care into its social and economic policies to create a reliable source of funds for care organizations.
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    Teachers and healthcare workers' perceived reproductive health challenges faced by secondary school adolescents in low resource community of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa.
    (2021) Mbatha, Londiwe.; Akintola, Olagoke Olufikayo.; Gwelo, Netsai Bianca.
    Adolescents’ early sexual debut contributes to the number of sexual and reproductive health challenges that they are faced with. In trying to deal with these reproductive health challenges that adolescents are facing South Africa recently adopted the Integrated School Health Policy, which enables adolescents to access sexual reproductive health care services and information in the school context. This study explored reproductive health challenges from the perspective of the life orientation teachers and school health nurses. Methods: Qualitative in-depth interviews were conducted with 15 participants in some low resource communities in Durban, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. Four of the participants were school health nurses and 11 of the participants were life orientation teachers. Results: The results of this study show that when it comes to reproductive health education teachers and school health nurses face numerous challenges. At the macro and exo level the Department of Education provides life orientation teachers with limited teaching resources and the life orientation curriculum covers the minimum number of reproductive health topics. On the other hand, the Department of Health does not have enough school health nurses, therefore leaving the available school health nurses with a load of work that is beyond their capacity. At the meso level parents find it difficult to communicate with their children about sex-related topics, this however is influenced by culture, religion, and tradition. Due to poor parent-child communication, children find themselves subjected to peers as their source of information and that leaves room for peer pressure or peer influence. At this level of influence families are confronted with poverty which impacts the behaviour of adolescents getting married at a young age and also being sexually active at a young age for transactional sex. This exposes the adolescents to teenage pregnancy, STI’s & STD’s as well as other reproductive health challenges. At the Micro level adolescents are less informed about reproductive health and by the onset of their sexual debut they engage themselves in an act that they are less informed about.