Browsing by Subject "households"

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    Biological monitoring of workers exposed to pesticides - guidelines for application in field settings
    (2011) London, Leslie
    This guideline was produced for those persons responsible for the maintenance of health and safety measures at agricultural workplaces handling potentially hazardous organophosphate and carbarnate. This guideline has been produced by the Occupational and Environmental Health Research Unit at the Department of Community Health, University of Cape Town as part of its research in the field of pesticide hazards and pesticide safety. The support of the International Development Research Centre (IDRC) in this regard is acknowledged.
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    How does AIDS illness affect women's residential decisions? Findings from an ethnographic study in a Cape Town township
    (2009) Bray, Rachel
    This paper explores the nature and consequences of residential decision-making for women on treatment for AIDS illness in a poor urban settlement in South Africa. Drawing on ethnographic data collected over a two-year period, it points to the subtle shifts in ‘householding’ practices and kinship relationships prompted by women's individual experiences and understanding of their HIV status, illness and treatment. Women's decisions to move or to arrange that other family members move can be explained by pre-existing threats to individual wellbeing or family residential security. But an HIV diagnosis can intensify a mother's thoughts and actions in relation to residential and emotional security, in particular on behalf of her children. In a context where extended periods of childcare by rural relatives is common, mothers with AIDS illness may gather all their children in their home to offer direct care, achieve intimacy and facilitate disclosure. They are likely to avoid making frequent contact with, and demands on, their elderly parents. Siblings are favoured as co-residents and confidants in disclosure, but their long-term support is contingent on reciprocity. Partners, where present, are valued for economic, social and emotional security. Women attempt to balance their children's nurturing, in the short and long term, with care of the self. Their efforts do not always succeed and can incur high costs to their wellbeing and relationships with their children.
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    How does AIDS illness affect women's residential decisions? Findings from an ethnographic study in a Cape Town township
    (National Inquiry Services Centre (NISC), 2009) Bray, Rachel
    This article explores the nature and consequences of residential decision-making for women on treatment for AIDS illness in a poor urban settlement in South Africa. Drawing on ethnographic data collected over a two-year period, it points to the subtle shifts in "householding" practices and kinship relationships prompted by women's individual experiences and understandings of their HIV status, illness and treatment. Women's decisions to move or to arrange that other family members move may be explained by pre-existing threats to individual well-being or family residential security. But an HIV diagnosis can intensify a mother's thoughts and actions in relation to residential and emotional security, in particular on behalf of her children. In a context where extended periods of childcare by rural relatives is common, mothers with AIDS illness may gather all their children to their home to offer direct care, achieve intimacy and facilitate disclosure. They are likely to avoid making frequent contact with, and demands on, their elderly parents. Siblings are favoured as co-residents and confidants in disclosure, but their long-term support is contingent on reciprocity. Partners, where present, are valued for economic, social and emotional security. Women attempt to balance their children's nurturing, in the short and long term, with care of the self. Their efforts do not always succeed and can incur high costs to their wellbeing and relationships with their children.
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    Knowledge is power: Empowering households with Energy information
    (1996) Qase, Nomawethu; Blom, Samkelo; Mehlwana, Anthony
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    Promoting equitable access to health care for households
    (2014-09-19) McIntyre, Diane; Gilson, Lucy
    To develop an understanding of the dimensions of access to health care; Create greater awareness of health care access constraints from the household perspective; Promote critical evaluation of policy options to address access constraints in relation to equity goals; Promote and strengthen effective development and implementation of equitable health sector policies. The idea for developing this set of training materials arose from the ‘Affordability Ladder Program’ (ALPS). The ALPS initiative focused on the experience of households of illness and of seeking health care. As the name would suggest, a key focus of ALPS was that of affordability and other aspects of access to health care for households. The ALPS team recognised that almost all of the training materials presently available focus on illness and health services from the health system’s perspective, with little or no attention devoted to the perspective of households. In addition, few of the available materials focus explicitly on the issue of equity, which should be seen as a priority in the context of growing awareness of substantial inequities in existing health systems; the majority of training materials are presently directed towards efforts to promote efficiency of health services. This was seen as an important gap, in that health care managers and policy makers will be better placed to design and implement health care policies and detailed plans that meet population needs if they are aware of the experience of households and if equity is the ‘lens’ through which alternative policies are considered. Finally, despite access to health care being a key policy objective by many countries, there is a lack of clarity about how access is defined and what constitutes access. It is, thus, also important to explore the different aspects of access in greater detail so that equitable access can become a reality. On this basis, it was decided to develop a set of training materials that present participants with an equity ‘lens’ through which to view the challenges of promoting health system access, focusing attention on households’ experience of illness and health service access. TARGET GROUPS: The training materials can be used for a diverse set of target groups, but are primarily aimed at current and future health sector managers. It is also envisaged that the case studies can be used on an ad-hoc basis in post-graduate programs such as Masters in Public Health programs. CASE STUDY MATERIALS: Six case studies have been prepared for this course: *Experiences of households in Sri Lanka; *Availability of health services and resource allocation; *Affordability of drugs in the context of the World Trade Organisation (WTO); *Tax and insurance funding for health systems; *Health service acceptability issues; *Access board game
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