Providing psychosocial support to special needs children: A case of orphans and vulnerable children in Zimbabwe

Negative Mental Health Factors in Children Orphaned by AIDS: Natural Mentoring as a Palliative Care

“…Owing to the shame associated to HIV infection, children may feign ignorance of HIV-related cause of parental death (Chitiyo et al, 2007;Gillespie, Norman, & Finley, 2005). We assigned to the AIDS-orphaned group, children when answered "Don't Know" to the cause of parental death, if their both parents were deceased.…”

“…Chitiyo, Changara, and Chitiyo (2007) suggest that AIDS-orphaned children may be unique orphans. Unlike other children orphans, they may begin to grieve long before parental death(s), owing to the protracted human "wasting" AIDS-defining illnesses that may precede death.…”

RESEARCH SECTION: The acceptability of psychosocial support interventions for children orphaned by HIV/AIDS: an evaluation of teacher ratings

“…In order to guide service providers, UNICEF (2004) developed a multifaceted framework to be used by governments and other stakeholders in providing interventions that meet the diverse needs of orphaned children. The framework incorporates the following elements: providing support that strengthens the capacity of families to care for orphans; involving the community; enhancing the accessibility of essential services to orphans; promoting legal protection of orphans through governmental policy and legislation; and raising and promoting awareness in communities (Chitiyo et al, 2008). This framework has been incorporated into different models of intervention across sub‐Saharan Africa.…”

“…Children who are orphaned by HIV/AIDS face daunting challenges in their struggle to cope with the reality of losing either one or both parents. The challenges include the stress of losing their parent(s), stigma and poverty, and these affect the children's education (Chitiyo, Changara & Chitiyo, 2008; Mbugua, 2004). The purpose of this article is to examine the social validity of the psychosocial support model described by Chitiyo et al (2008), which is designed to help children cope with these challenges.…”

The psychological well-being of orphans in Malawi: “Forgetting” as a means of recovering from parental death

“…This research is reflected in national and international policies that stipulate the importance of providing programmes which complement, rather than undermine informal social systems providing orphan care. Yet, in the development of a new literature on the psychology of orphans in sub-Saharan Africa, attention to local sociocultural systems, which manages the psychological impact of parental death on children, has been noticeably absent (Chitiyo, Changara, & Chitiyo, 2008;Cluver, Gardner, & Operario, 2008;Daniel, 2005;Kaggwa & Hindin, 2010;Kumakech, Cantor-Graae, Maling, & Bajunirwe, 2009). Building on concerns first identified in the 1990s (Danziger, 1994;Hunter, 1990;Sengundo & Nambi, 1997), this new body of knowledge relies heavily on the conceptual frameworks with universalist assumptions about emotion and grieving (Cluver & Gardner, 2007;Cluver et al, 2008;Kaggwa & Hindin, 2010;Kumakech et al, 2009;Wild, 2001).…”