Search

Objective: Pediatric clinicians caring for children with acquired brain injury have noted that many individuals requiring assistive technology (AD go unserved or face delays until devices are obtained, with potential adverse implications for recovery and development. In this article we map the pathways by which AT is prescribed and assess delays and barriers to access. Methods: We conducted a retrospective chart review of patients with moderate to severe brain injury admitted to Blythedale Children's Hospital over a 2-year period using a database drawn from the medical record. Results: We identified 72 children diagnosed with brain injury requiring at least 1 device. Devices were used to improve mobility and positioning, self-care, safety, and communication, and enable access to other technologies and foster social integration. We found that 550/0 of devices were delivered, with most deliveries to home or the hospital's outpatient department for fitting, training, and instruction. Time to delivery ranged from 12 to 250 days with an average of 69.4 days. Twenty percent of nondeliveries were attributable to change in medical status, transfer to a skilled nursing facility, or continued inpatient status, while 31% were canceled by the family. Other nondeliveries were attributed to insurance coverage. We also found that the medical record is not designed for the longit·udinal tracking of devices, indicating the need for a prospective process to document the AT trajectory. Conclusion: Instead of tolerating delays and denials, there should be a normative expectation that children have a right to medically necessary devices, consistent with disability law. This analysis was undertaken as a step toward formulating a prospective means of tracking AT recommendations, approvals, denials, and/or deliveries. Our findings should be understood as a promissory note toward structural reforms that are reflective of society's responsibility to better meet the needs of vulnerable children and their farnmes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, we investigated the relationship between traditional masculine ideology, mental health and health risk behaviours. A secondary aim was to investigate the influence of coping styles and school [...]

Background: Development of a serogroup B meningococcal vaccine is an urgent healthcare priority. Previous attempts at a killed whole cell vaccine have been largely abandoned because of local and systemic [...]

The current socioeconomic and political impasse, and the accompanying deep-seated social mobilization, movement and crisis it generated in post-colonial Zimbabwe, speaks very eloquently of the very sharp contradictions inherent in the socio-economic formation of the independent states of Africa, and the tortuous, complex and long processes involved in resolving these challenges, or holding them in abeyance. The increasing economic misery in Zimbabwe, the struggle by Zimbabwe's ruling class to keep afloat in the midst of a drowning global economic downturn, the struggle to hold on to state power, the depoliticization of faction a of the ruling class and the masses generally, and the clever but clandestine manoevoure of the Western powers to perpetuate her economic, social and political agenda, are some of the dynamic social forces which are fomenting the revolutionary consciousness and the revolutionary pressures that has put Zimbabwe on the path to its second phase of chimurenga (social revolution) . Using the class analysis model, this paper argues that this social movement presents a classical case of both intra and inter class struggle which are more or no less than a revolution. The character of the struggles, the paper posits, runs counter to the classical notion that social revolution was only possible on well-developed productive forces. In instead, Zimbabwe's second phase of revolution arose out of the serious contradiction in the country's post colonial liberal and neoliberal economic policies, the subsequent growing socio-political and economic alienation of the mass of Zimbabwe's working class and peasantry, and the development of consciousness among this marginalized faction of the populace and the factionalized unit of the hegemonic ruling class in Zimbabwe. The paper concludes by noting that what emerged from the crucibles of the crisis is but a specific kind of reactionary, de-radicalized revolution, which has only eventuated into recreating and reproducing the old social order and class system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: To identify factors influencing patients' anti-retroviral therapy (ART) adherence at four clinics in Botswana. Design: Quantitative descriptive. Structured interviews were conducted with a random sample of 400 patients out of the population of all patients attending the four randomly selected ART clinics in Botswana during April and May 2007. Methods: Data were analysed using SPSS version 13. Chi-square and p-value calculations were done to test significance of the relationships between categories or variables. Findings: Patient-centred barriers to ART adherence included inadequate knowledge about ART, human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS), CD4 cell and viral-load results, stigma, travelling costs, waiting times at clinics, side effects of ART, use of traditional (indigenous or folk) medicines, and abuse of alcohol. Service-centred barriers included nurses' attitudes and knowledge, health workers' inability to conduct home visits and to contact defaulters, limited clinic hours, delays in getting CD4 and viral-load results. Conclusions: ART adherence requires more than free ART. Adherence levels will improve if both patient-centred and service-centred barriers are addressed. Clinical Relevance: Nurses play key roles in educating patients about ART adherence and side effects, but they should also educate patients about CD4 and viral-load test results and about the dangers of using traditional medicines and alcohol with ART. Shorter waiting times at clinics could make ART patients' lives more manageable. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Focuses on child sexual abuse directed against boys. Prevalence estimates of sexual abuse for males and females; Difference in the retrospective accounts of abused men and women; Masculine indifference in sexual abuse experiences; Reasons why boys can be harmed by pedophiles.