Objectives-This study aimed to establish prevalence of adolescents' exposure to violence and related symptoms in the South African context and to explore relationships between exposure and symptoms. Setting-Four high schools in Cape Town, South Africa. Methods-Self report questionnaires were administered to 104 students. Types of violence explored included: witnessing or being a victim of violence perpetrated by someone known to the child or in the home and witnessing or being a victim of violence perpetrated by a stranger. The Harvard Trauma Scale, Beck Depression Inventory, and Zung Self-Rating Anxiety Scale were used to assess potentially related symptoms. Results-The majority of children had been exposed to at least one type of violence, and exposure to the one type of violence was related to the other type. Symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder and depression appear to be related to most types of exposure to violence, but anxiety symptoms only to exposure to violence perpetrated by someone known to the child or in the home. Conclusions-Rates of exposure to violence, and related symptoms, were unacceptably high. Symptoms were associated with exposure to violence. (Injury Prevention 2001;7:297-301)
Homelessness on the streets has been of concern to governments and civil society for hundreds of years, and the number of homeless tends to rise when economic conditions take an adverse turn. Laying stress on questions of access to housing, livelihoods and services, this paper compares the historical causes of homelessness in Britain and Europe, India, the US and South Africa, in order to approach a better understanding of South Africa's own homelessness situation. Internationally, the key debate is whether homelessness is due to simple lack of affordable housing, or to a range of complex factors involving poverty and unemployment. The paper argues that spatial access to street livelihoods and access to the metro core zones are critical factors linking housing access to poverty economics, and it questions whether in South Africa's situation street homelessness can be eliminated in the foreseeable future.homelessness, street people, shack settlements, government policy, poverty, housing delivery, Britain, Europe, India, United States, South Africa,
As part of the formative phase of screening and brief interventions (SBIs) for substance use amongst patients presenting for emergency services in South Africa, the present study explored health care providers' attitudes and perceptions towards SBI. Twenty-four health care providers working in two 24-hour emergency departments (EDs) were interviewed using an open-ended semi-structured interview schedule designed to identify factors that may hinder or promote the implementation of SBI for substance use in these settings. All respondents felt that screening patients for substance use in EDs is possible; however, they emphasised the need for an additional staff member dedicated to these activities. Secondly, they felt this dedicated individual should meet certain educational criteria and be from a specific socio-demographic background in order to increase the likelihood of intervention uptake. Thirdly, a number of patient- and clinic-level barriers were revealed that could potentially hinder the successful implementation of SBIs in EDs.
The prevalence of child emotional and behavioral problems is an international problem but is higher in low and middle-income countries (LMIC) where there are often less mental health supports for families. Parenting programs can be an effective means of prevention, but must be low-cost, scalable, and suitable for the local context. The RISE project aims to systematically adapt, implement and evaluate a low-cost parenting program for preventing/reducing child mental health problems in three middle-income countries in Southeastern Europe. This small pre-post pilot study is informed by the Reach, Efficacy, Adoption, Implementation, and Maintenance (RE-AIM) framework and tested the feasibility of the intervention, the implementation and evaluation procedures: Phase 1 of the three-phase Multiphase Optimization Strategy (MOST) for program adaptation. Local facilitators delivered the Parenting for Lifelong Health (PLH) for Young Children program to parents of children aged 2 to 9 in North Macedonia, the Republic of Moldova, and Romania in 2018. Parents completed assessments pre-and post-program. Results demonstrated positive prepost change for participating families (N = 140) on various outcomes including child externalizing and internalizing symptoms and parenting behavior, in all three countries, all in the expected direction. Program participation was associated with positive outcomes in participating families. Based on the experiences of this pilot study, we outline the practical implications for the successful implementation of parenting programs in the three countries that will inform our next study phases, factorial experiment and RCT.
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