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Inspired by new feminist materialism, this paper seeks to reimagine existing knowledge of girls, sexuality and playgrounds by considering how the socio‐material reality may unlock girls' capacities for what is possible through play. Focusing on semi‐structured interviews of girls (aged 12–13), the paper draws attention to the playground as an 'assemblage' of human and non‐human matter that connect to illuminate other ways of being, feeling and doing. We argue that the assemblage not only creates spaces for girls to disrupt hetero‐patriarchal ideologies but simultaneously serves to reinforce them. Interventions require attention to the oppressive materialities that underpin play. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: A disability studies approach seeks to understand and address political and social issues that affect disabled individuals. Disability studies scholars employ various models of disability to address and oppose the oppression and discrimination of disabled individuals. A disability studies approach, however, has largely been absent in studies that have investigated the lived experiences of people who stutter. Aim: To examine the understandings young adult South African men who stutter hold of whether, and in what way, stuttering may be considered to be a disability. Methods & Procedures: A total of 15 men who stutter, aged 20–39 years, participated in the study. Semi‐structured interviews and two focus groups discussions were conducted to collect data for the study. The data were analysed according to a phenomenological approach and the affective turn in social research. Outcomes & Results: The results indicated that some men in this study understood stuttering as a speech disorder that can be controlled, while other men constructed stuttering as a disability, subjectively positioning themselves either as disabled or non‐disabled men. Conclusions & Implications: This article emphasizes the importance of adopting a disability studies approach when examining the lived experiences of people who stutter and enhancing intervention strategies to adequately address the disabled needs of such individuals. WHAT THIS PAPER ADDS: What is already known on the subject?: The past few decades have seen researchers investigating the personal and social experiences of people who stutter. However, empirical studies exploring the disabling experiences of people who stutter have been absent from the existing body of knowledge. What this paper adds to existing knowledge?: This research aimed to provide comprehensive insight into the disabling experiences of people who stutter. The results gave an insight into the oppression and disablism experienced by people who stutter. More specifically, the findings demonstrated how individuals who stutter are disabled by oppressive communication practices that dominate spaces of education and employment. What are the potential or actual clinical implications of this work?: Several men in this study attended speech therapy to gain control over their stuttering. For a number of participants, speech therapy proved a valuable experience, while others saw speech therapy as being out of touch with their lived reality of stuttering. Speech and language therapists are encouraged to employ a disability studies approach in order to enhance intervention strategies to adequately address the disabling needs of people who stutter. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents empirical and methodological findings from an art-based, participatory process with a group (n  = 16) of adolescent and young advisors in the Western Cape Province of South Africa. In a weekend workshop, participants reflected on their participation in 12 years of health and development-related research through theatre, song, visual methodologies and semi-structured interviews. Empirical findings suggest that participants interpreted the group research encounter as a site of empowerment, social support and as a socio-political endeavour. Through song, theatre and a mural illustration, they demonstrated that they value 'unity' in research, with the aim of ameliorating the conditions of adolescents and young people in other parts of South Africa and the continent. Methodological findings document how participants deployed art-based approaches from South Africa's powerful history of activism, including the struggle against apartheid, the fight for anti-retroviral therapy and more recent social movements towards decolonization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reflecting global trends, migrant farm workers in South Africa experience challenges in accessing healthcare. On the commercial farms in Musina, a sub‐district bordering Zimbabwe, Medécins sans Frontières and the International Organization for Migration both implemented migration‐aware community‐based programmes that included the training of community‐based healthcare workers, to address these challenges. Using qualitative data, this paper explores the experiences that migrant farm workers, specifically those involved in the programmes, had of these interventions. A total of 79 semi‐structured interviews were completed with migrant farm workers, farm managers, NGO employees and civil servants between January 2017 and July 2018. These data were supplemented by a review of grey and published literature, as well as observation and field notes. Findings indicate that participants were primarily positive about the interventions. However, since the departure of both Medécins sans Frontières and the International Organization for Migration, community members have struggled to sustain the projects and the structural differences between the two programmes have created tensions. This paper highlights the ways in which local interventions that mobilise community members can improve the access that rural, migrant farming communities have to healthcare. However, it simultaneously points to the ways in which these interventions are unsustainable given the realities of non‐state interventions and the fragmented state approach to community‐based healthcare workers. The findings presented in this paper support global calls for the inclusion of migration and health in government policy making at all levels. However, findings also capture the limitations of community‐based interventions that do not recognise community‐based healthcare workers as social actors and fail to take into account their motivations, desires and need for continued supervision. As such, ensuring that the ways in which migration and health are included in policy making are sustainable emerges as a necessary element to be included in global calls. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pre‐abortion counselling may play a key role in abortion seekers' understanding of their decision to terminate a pregnancy and the subsequent emotions that they feel. In this paper, we report on a study conducted in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa concerning womxn's experiences of the pre‐abortion counselling offered as part of the implementation of the Choice of Termination Act that governs the provision of legal abortion in the country. Using a narrative‐discursive lens, the analysis revealed four micro‐narratives in which participants appreciated non‐directive and empathic counselling, as well as being provided with information. They also indicated that the counselling was upsetting and hurtful, particularly when providers drew on the awfulisation of abortion discourse to suggest that abortion leads to terrible consequences, and foetal personhood discourse to intimate that terminating the pregnancy is wrong and other alternatives (adoption, parenting) are better. The connection between these broadly positive and negative responses may lie in the dominance of anti‐abortion discourses coupled with the powerful positioning of healthcare providers as experts. The attendant disempowerment of clients within the health clinic setting may constrain pregnant people's ability to question such 'expert' information. The implications for feminist client‐centred pre‐abortion counselling are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

South Africa has increasing numbers of persons living with HIV on antiretroviral treatment (ART). There is evidence for a relationship between food, food security and HIV. Despite increasing rates of people older than 50 living with HIV coinciding with greater levels of co-morbidity, the existing research is largely limited to those aged 15–49 years. In this paper, we therefore explore how older people living with HIV (OPLWH) in two urban communities within South Africa negotiate and ensure they have sufficient access to food and how food insecurity may affect their retention in care and ART adherence. This study used exploratory qualitative semi-structured in-depth interviews with 23 OPLWH to collect data in isiXhosa. Data were analysed using thematic content analysis. Factors at the community, household and individual levels influence (a) access to sufficient and quality food, and (b) beliefs about ART and food based on (mis)understandings of messaging from health care providers. The results demonstrate the need to explore further and clarify the nutritional guidelines that OPLWH receive from providers to ensure this does not result in reduced adherence or retention in care. They also demonstrate the role that social welfare and family or kin obligations plays in ensuring the food security of OPLWH. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The effects of HIV and AIDS have devastated families and communities in South Africa. The scourge has also left many children orphaned in the country. Given the vulnerability of orphaned children, social workers are in the forefront of ensuring that these children are cared for and protected from any harm. Hence, the purpose of this paper was to explore the role of a social worker in issues related to children orphaned by AIDS in their middle childhood. This study was situated within a qualitative research paradigm utilizing purposive, non-probability sampling of 10 participants recruited from Potchefstroom in the Northwest Province of South Africa. A semi-structured interview schedule was employed as a research tool, and in-depth one-on-one interviews were adopted as the method of data collection. A thematic content analysis was used to analyze the data collected during the interviews. The main findings point towards the need to educate children about HIV and AIDS and to empower their caregivers. The primary conclusion drawn from this study is that social workers play various key roles which contribute towards the well-being of orphaned children. Recommendations are posed in relation to social work service providers, government interventions, and future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many mental health clinicians in South Africa use informal interpreters, who are employed to perform other functions, such as cleaners and security guards; there are no formally trained interpreters. Drawing on qualitative semistructured interviews, this paper examines the experiences of informal interpreters working within a psychiatric setting. Furthermore, this paper explores how working in this invisible capacity affects informal interpreters’ views of themselves and the contribution they feel they are making by acting as interpreters. An interpretative phenomenological approach enabled an in-depth analysis of the experiences of the ad hoc interpreters. The results of this study reveal a dilemma. On the one hand, informal interpreters interviewed jeopardize ethical principles by breaching confidentiality and reporting on patient behaviour without their consent. On the other hand, they report fulfilling an additional beneficial role in terms of the overall care of patients which goes beyond the ambit of the interpreting session. The impact and extent of the informal interpreters’ involvement in care could not be ascertained solely from the data obtained in this study, but it is clear that informal interpreting may usefully be viewed as a form of hidden care work. A detailed ethnographic study aimed at exploring this further is therefore recommended. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Men and women living with HIV with access to ARVs are living longer, healthier lives that can and often do include bearing children. Children occupy a key space in men and women's personal and social lives and often play a fundamental role in maintaining these relationships, irrespective of illness concerns. Couples living with HIV need to balance prevention needs and ill-health while trying to maintain healthy relationships. Health-care providers serving the reproductive needs of HIV-affected couples need to consider the social and relational factors shaping reproductive decisions associated with periconception risk behaviors. This paper based on qualitative research at three hospital sites in eThekwini District, South Africa, investigates the childbearing intentions and needs of people living with HIV (PLHIV), and the attitudes and experiences of health-care providers serving the reproductive needs of PLHIV, and client and provider views and knowledge of safer conception. This research revealed that personal, social, and relationship dynamics shape the reproductive decisions of PLHIV, and “unplanned” pregnancies are not always unintended. Additionally, conception desires are not driven by the number of living children; rather clients are motivated by whether or not they have had any children with their current partner/spouse. Providers should consider the relationship status of clients in discussions about childbearing desires and intentions. Although many providers recognize the complex social realities shaping their clients' reproductive decisions, they have outdated information on serving their reproductive needs. Appropriate training to enable providers to better understand the relationship and social realities surrounding their clients' childbearing intentions is required and should be used as a platform for couples to work together with providers toward safer conception. The adoption of a more participatory approach should be employed to equalize client–provider power dynamics and to ensure clients are more involved in decision-making about reproduction and conception. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: This paper outlines stakeholder views on environmental barriers that prevent people who live with psychosocial disability from participating in mental health policy development in South Africa. Method: Fifty-six semi-structured interviews with national, provincial and local South African mental health stakeholders were conducted between August 2006 and August 2009. Respondents included public sector policy makers, professional regulatory council representatives, and representatives from non-profit organisations (NPOs), disabled people's organisations (DPOs), mental health interest groups, religious organisations, professional associations, universities and research institutions. Results: Respondents identified three main environmental barriers to participation in policy development: (a) stigmatization and low priority of mental health, (b) poverty, and (c) ineffective recovery and community supports. Conclusion: A number of attitudes, practices and structures undermine the equal participation of South Africans with psychosocial disability in society. A human rights paradigm and multi-system approach is required to enable full social engagement by people with psychosocial disability, including their involvement in policy development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]