The findings may encourage professionals working in health and rehabilitation settings to assist clients in identifying meaningful, creative occupations that are feasible within the limits imposed by illness or injury.

This study explored women's strategies for living with multiple sclerosis (MS).Twenty-seven women were interviewed, most of whom had lived with MS for more than five years. Analysis of the semi-structured interviews followed the interpretative phenomenological approach. The women portrayed living with MS as an ongoing process of negotiation, and described gaining quality of life through looking after their health; maintaining a familiar self-image, particularly through meaningful occupations, and adapting pre-illness skills and interests to their changing levels of physical functioning; actively valuing positive life experiences, including finding benefits in adversity; clarifying values, priorities and philosophy of life; and maintaining mutual, caring relationships. Some regarded MS as presenting opportunities for personal growth. Without minimizing the very substantial difficulties that MS presents, the findings suggest that well-being derives from both managing the illness and also embracing life's wider experiences, including change and growth. Implications for rehabilitation and counseling professionals are considered.1 "Sticking jewels in your life": Exploring women's strategies for negotiating life with multiple sclerosis.

The aim of this qualitative research was to understand why some people with cancer take up art as a leisure activity, and how visual art-making in daily life might support identity maintenance/ reconstruction. The study forms part of a larger project with people who view art-making as a resource for living with chronic illness. In order to provide a detailed, holistic analysis, the paper focuses on the accounts and artwork of three participants, two women (aged 47 and 59) each with breast cancer, and a man (aged 51) with stomach and lung cancer. The participants turned to art after a process of reflection but did not necessarily reject their pre-illness lifestyles or selves. Rather, art-making afforded many opportunities to retain familiar personal and social identities, and to resist being dominated by labels related to their illness. A practical implication is that people coping with cancer may need not only cognitive and emotional support, but opportunities to find meaningful activities. Such activities can be understood to have a powerful role in maintaining a familiar, positive identity in cancer, and providing a resource for coping.

This study explored experiences of obesity, its perceived causes, and motives for surgery, as described by seven Saudi women contemplating bariatric surgery. The women experienced cultural restrictions on their physical and social activities. Obesity embodied these restrictions, attracting stigma and moral failure. Traditional clothing, foods, hospitality norms, and limited outdoor female activities were regarded as barriers to weight loss.Bariatric surgery was chosen to protect health and to access normative female roles. Some were encouraged by relatives who had undergone surgery. Opting for surgery reflected both participants' sense of powerlessness to self-manage weight and the social acceptability, within their family context, of this biomedical approach.

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Abstract:Chronic illness and impairment commonly restrict the individual's access to work and leisure activities.Furthermore, if increasingly dependent upon family care, the individual may experience loss of valued roles and self-esteem. A qualitative study was carried out on the written narratives of 35 women, aged 18 to 87 years. All had acquired a disability or chronic illness in adulthood, and although facing different health problems, they shared needlecraft as a common leisure pursuit. The narratives explored the circumstances in which needlecraft had been adopted as a leisure pursuit, and the personal benefits experienced. Most of the women had taken up this activity in adulthood to cope with the crisis of illness. Needlework activities were commonly viewed as providing a means of managing pain, unstructured time, selfimage and reciprocal social roles. The women's accounts confirm the value of creative activity for patients learning to cope with chronic conditions.

Implications for health and safety risks cannot be assessed without longitudinal research on workforces with substantial numbers of workers over age 60 in order to address the healthy worker effect.

. What are the experiences of adults returning to work following recovery from Guillain-Barre´ syndrome? An interpretative phenomenological analysis. Disability and Rehabilitation, 31(22): 1817-1827. AbstractPurpose. Guillain-Barre´ syndrome (GBS) is a transient inflammatory disorder affecting peripheral nerves, characterised by weakness and numbness in limbs, upper body and face. Residual problems affect a large minority, and complicate return to work. This qualitative study explored the experiences of people who returned to work following their diagnosis of GBS and recovery, to gain insight into factors that facilitated or inhibited this process.Method. Five people participated in in-depth interviews. Individual and common experiences were explored through interpretative phenomenological analysis.Findings. Three recurring themes are presented: the perceived value of work; losing and recovering a familiar identity at work; and dilemmas around using support and adaptations at work. Certain individual issues also emerged but are beyond the scope of this article. Participants tended to measure their recovery in terms of returning to work yet continued to experience certain physical and psychosocial difficulties at work related to GBS, which required active coping strategies. Limited public awareness of GBS was perceived as a hindrance when returning to work.Conclusion. This study provides a rich account of the experiences that people encounter returning to work following GBS. Rehabilitation specialists may offer more effective preparation for this process, drawing upon the issues identified.