Browsing by Subject "rehabilitation"

Now showing 1 - 5 of 5
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    Blindness, rehabilitation and identity: a critical investigation of discourses of rehabilitation in South African non-profit organisations for visually impaired persons
    (2021) Botha, Michelle; Watermeyer, Brian
    This study explores the role of rehabilitation in shaping the subjectivity of blind persons. It considers what engaging with rehabilitation services might communicate to people with visual impairments about their status, their value and their place in the world. Rather than being concerned with the practical aspects of rehabilitation, it explores how rehabilitative practices operate at the symbolic level, and interrogates the meanings about blindness which are produced within relationships where help is given and received. Drawing on Foucauldian concepts, this research traces the interplay between discourse, power and knowledge in rehabilitation services. The research design includes two phases. Through analysing the website copy of eight organisations located across South Africa, Phase One identified discourses employed by organisations as they represent themselves in the public realm. In Phase Two, semi-structured interviews were conducted with eight service providers and eighteen service users across four organisations operating in the Western Cape province of South Africa. This phase identified the discourses framing rehabilitative activities and relationships. Visually impaired participants described sight loss as a significant trauma – as dislocation from society and self – revealing that service users might be particularly vulnerable to the shaping influence of rehabilitation. Data analysis found, firstly, that the discourses which frame rehabilitation services position visually impaired service users as passive recipients in relation to the work of service providers and the gifts of the public. This positioning objectifies service users and may signal to them that they are neither valued as stakeholders nor recognised as autonomous adults, while also requiring that they demonstrate gratitude towards service providers and the public. Secondly, rehabilitation is constructed as a linear journey with strictly defined outcomes. This ‘journey discourse' relies on polarised fantasies about blindness involving, on the one hand, dependency, dislocation and struggle and, on the other, independence, integration and coping. Visually impaired service users are required to demonstrate evidence of the latter while the former shadowy figure of pre-intervention blindness must be defended against. This discourse prohibits nuance and expressions of ongoing struggle, underpinning an imperative to cope found within organisations. Amid limiting discursive practices in rehabilitation, a key finding is that visually impaired service users are involved in complex negotiations of self and place. Investigating the discourses which frame and support rehabilitative practices sheds light on investments in promoting particular ways of being for visually impaired people, prompting us to consider what service providers, service users and, indeed, society as a whole might be colluding with. This work offers a novel perspective on blindness rehabilitation in South Africa as it explores an interplay between essential practical interventions found in rehabilitation and the influences on identity which those who experience sight loss undergo as they move into a new life with visual impairment.
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    Disability Studies poster collection from Africa Day 2012
    (2012) Disability Studies Division
    This poster collection, developed by the Disability Studies Division and presented for Africa Day in May 2012, address the issue of disability from a range of social justice, inclusion and developmental perspectives. Poster 1 looks at the inclusion of disability in the University of Cape Town; Poster 2 explores residential options for intellectually disabled adults in the Western Cape; Poster 3 outlines the roles, purpose and scope of the Disability Studies Unit itself; and Poster 4 explores how the childhood experiences of community disability workers (CDWs) in rural communities in South Africa, Botswana and Malawi influenced their career choices and how their current experiences influence their work.
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    Education for All Week 3 - Job's story
    (2018-06-01) Nseibo, Job
    In this video, Nseibo Job Kofi discusses his experiences with education as a child growing up with polio meningitis in Ghana. He discusses how the attitudes of his family affected the kinds of care he was able to access, and how his educational achievements led to changes in how he was perceived by his family. He discusses his experience with inaccessible higher education institutions, and ends with asserting that children with disabilities should remain in mainstream education where learning environments can be made more accessible with sufficient planning and forethought.
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    Position paper: The essential role of physiotherapists in providing rehabilitation services to people living with HIV in South Africa
    (2013) Cobbing S; Chetty, V; Hanass-Hancock J; Jelsma J; Myezwa H; Nixon S A
    Despite increased access to highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) in South Africa, there remains a high risk of people living with HIV (PLHIV) developing a wide range of disabilities. Physiotherapists are trained to rehabilitate individuals with the disabilities related to HIV. Not only can South African physiotherapists play a significant role in improving the lives of PLHIV, but by responding proactively to the HIV epidemic they can reinforce the relevance and value of the profession in this country at a time when many newly qualified therapists are unable to secure employment. This paper offers recommendations that may help to fuel this response. These ideas include enhancing HIV curricula at a tertiary level, designing and attending continuing education courses on HIV and researching Southern African rehabilitation interventions for HIV at all levels of practice. Furthermore, it is vital that physiotherapists are at the forefront of directing multi-disciplinary responses to the rehabilitation of PLHIV in order to influence stakeholders who are responsible for health policy formulation. It is hoped that this paper stimulates discussion and further ideas amongst physiotherapists and other health professionals in order to improve the quality and access to care available to PLHIV in South Africa.
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    Restoration of oiled African penguins Spheniscus demersus a decade after the Apollo Sea spill
    (2008) Wolfaardt, A C; Underhill, L G; Altwegg, R; Visagie, J
    The bulk ore carrier Apollo Sea sank south-west of Dassen Island off western South Africa in June 1994, oiling approximately 10 000 African penguins Spheniscus demersus, most of which were collected from Dassen Island. A total of 4 076 de-oiled penguins was released with flipper bands. From 1994 to 2005, follow-up research using re-sighting and capture-mark-recapture methods indicated that about 73% of the de-oiled penguins observed back at Dassen Island attempted to breed, and were thus successfully restored into the breeding population. For de-oiled breeders, the median interval between their first recorded sighting and first recorded breeding attempt was 11 months, indicating a short-term delay in restoration. At least 45% of the de-oiled breeders were still being re-sighted five years after their release, and a minimum of 4% survived into their ninth year. These results represent the most successful restoration estimates anywhere in the world. The proportion of de-oiled juvenile penguins re-sighted back at Dassen Island and recorded breeding was lower than that of birds in adult plumage. De-oiled non-breeders spent significantly more time along the shore and less time within breeding colonies than de-oiled breeders. The mean proportion of de-oiled breeders that abstained from breeding each year during the study period was greater than expected. There was a negative relationship between breeding and subsequent survival and breeding, suggesting a cost of reproduction for de-oiled birds.