Browsing by Author "Patrick, Hosea Olayiwola."

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Exploring Vrede Community views on government communications on COVID-19.
(2022) Akpan, Udoh James.; Mkhize, Sazelo Michael.; Patrick, Hosea Olayiwola.
The unprecedented speed and scale of the global pandemic of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) have literally shut down countries and the global economy. Though a limited outbreak of the disease was noticed around December 2019 in Wuhan, China, the World Health Organisation declared the outbreak a Public Health Emergency of international concern on 30 January 2020, and a pandemic on 11 March 2020. While the impact of the disease is unique in different countries because of cultural norms, mitigation efforts and health infrastructure, the biggest challenge of various countries is communicating the behaviour of the disease and public health programmes articulated by various governments to inform and educate their citizens. Vrede in Free State Province, South Africa, has also seen these challenges, ranging from cultural challenges to infodemics, which is a major concern for WHO. Using a qualitative approach, the study adopted the Health Belief Model (HBM) theory to examine the views of the residents of Vrede community on government crises and risk communication strategies with a view to evolving effective communication strategies to achieve public safety. The study adopted the semi-structured interview data collection method and spoke with 12 participants of different sex and age, and analysed the data using the applied thematic analysis. The study concluded that, while infodemic was perceived as misleading information, there is a need for governmental information to become bottom-up in ensuring effective communication.
The role of indigenous language and appropriate channel as strategies for effective health communication in Vrede.
(2022) Akpan, Udoh James.; Mkhize, Sazelo Michael.; Patrick, Hosea Olayiwola.
The World Health Organization (WHO) constitution declares health as a fundamental right of every human being, and describes it as a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being, not merely the absence of disease or infirmity. WHO mandates member states to promote the health of her citizens as the value is to all including the state. To this end, governments including the ones in the global south have evolved policies, institutions and programmes to achieve these objectives. However, the successes or failures of these objectives differ in communities, and it is based on the how health information is delivered to members of the communities so that they can make informed health decisions. In delivering this health information, the use of language that is indigenous and intelligible to the people is important. Thus, indigenous language is autochthonous, and spoken among native people in a community. It is used for communication, expression of identity, play, imaginative expression, and emotional release. This paper examined how health information is communicated to members of the community in Vrede, and which indigenous language has been mobilized to address the dominant groups without excluding the others, to what extend do the indigenous people participate in this mobilization, and also the appropriate medium that is preferred by the community members to achieve their health information needs in order to bring about health development and social change in the community. The paper mobilized a qualitative approach by undertaking interviews with varied demography of Vrede to ascertain which indigenous language is preferred and dominant in the town, and if the people including the migrant community are unilingual, bilingual or trilingual. The paper also ascertained the experiences of the residents on health information from government and health institutions, how they receive it, and the medium they consider appropriate. The outcome of the research concluded that indigenous language is an effective communication strategy in disseminating health information in Vrede, thus leading to the social change in the community and improve their wellbeing. It shows that dominant indigenous language should be used in that communication, and the medium of communication to be deployed by the health information planners should be face-to-face communication, community engagement, and the use of social media, especially Facebook.
Securing the privacy of patients’ electronic personal information in South African hospitals during COVID-19.
(2021) Singh, Ashwini.; Mnyongani, Freddy Duncan.; Patrick, Hosea Olayiwola.
South African organisations have been noticeably ill-prepared in their prevention of data breaches, even amidst the coronavirus public health predicament, where a palpable onslaught of cyberattacks targeting the healthcare sector has arisen locally and globally. The true victims of hospital data breaches in particular remain the patients, who are ultimately deprived of their constitutional right to privacy when electronic records containing their personal information become ‘free real estate’ to cybercriminals. The crux of deterrence of such cybercrime is within the principle of prevention via the utilisation of appropriate cybersecurity and information security controls at an organisational level. With the newly promulgated Protection of Personal Information Act (2013) and Cybercrimes Act (2020), greater legal scrutiny is placed upon South African hospitals to defend the privacy of patients’ data stored on their systems. As per the National Health Act (2003), hospitals have a further obligation to maintain the confidentiality of their patients’ records. This study proposes effective cybersecurity and information security practices that lend support in ensuring the confidentiality, integrity and accessibility of patients’ electronic personal information records in South African private hospitals. Compliance thereof would definitively result in enhanced service delivery and data security for these hospitals and patients alike, whilst adhering to the national legislative requirements.