Occupational Therapy Intervention with Children Survivors of War

A preventive occupational therapy program with children surviving the Kosovo conflict is examined. The objective of the program was to facilitate the emotional expression of traumatic experiences in order to prevent the development of future psychological problems. The intervention was based on a community-centred approach with spirituality as a central focus of the intervention.The Model of Human Occupation and the Occupational Performance Process Model were utilized to guide the identification and intervention of occupational performance issues.The children’s return from a land of war to a land of children demonstrates the potential of occupational therapy intervention in this field. With increasing awareness of populations facing social and political challenges, there is a growing importance of the concept of occupational justice and the need to work against occupational apartheid.Cet article décrit un programme de prévention en ergothérapie qui était destiné aux enfants ayant survécu au conflit du Kosovo. L’objectif du programme était d’aider les enfants à exprimer les émotions qu’ils avaient ressenties lors d’expériences traumatiques afin de prévenir l’apparition de problèmes psychologiques. L’intervention était basée sur une approche communautaire s’articulant autour de la spiritualité. Le Modèle de l’occupation humaine et le Modèle du processus d’intervention dans le rendement occupationnel ont été utilisés pour cibler les difficultés en matière de rendement occupationnel et pour déterminer les interventions requises. Le retour des enfants d’un monde de guerre vers le monde de l’enfance démontre la possibilité de proposer une intervention ergothérapique dans ce domaine. La conscientisation de plus en plus grand face à la détresse des populations confrontées à des problèmes politiques et sociaux entraîne une augmentation de l’importance du concept de la justice occupationnelle et du besoin de lutter contre l’apartheid occupationnel

School dropout, problem behaviour and poor academic achievement : a longitudinal view of portuguese male offenders

This study examines school drop outs from the perspective of male adults themselves through interviews with offenders currently serving sentences. Participants were 10 Portuguese male inmates, between the ages of 19 and 46 years of age, incarcerated in two prison facilities of the Azores. Qualitative and interpretative methods were carried out using a semi-structured in-depth individual interview that was audiorecorded and conducted on the basis of a list of topics. Interview transcripts and thematic analysis were used in data treatment and analysis. The findings primarily indicate that poor academic achievement and emotional and behavioural difficulties of participants played a particular role in early school drop out. The trajectories these individuals followed within the education system presented problem behaviour, learning disabilities, and/or foster care interventions. While school drop out circumstances were apparently various, analysis showed that they were underpinned by three distinct sets of conditions generally not addressed by the education system. The analysis of the triggering factors and the maintenance dynamics of school drop outs indicated three distinct types: retention/absenteeism, life turning points and positive resolution. Implications for secondary prevention and screening practices are discussed.FCT (SFRH/ BD/ 44245/ 2008)CIEC - unidade de investigação 317 da FC

Educação como aprendizagem da vida Education as learning of life

Uma sociedade-mundo que oscila entre a ocidentalização do planeta e a diversidade cultural, entre progresso e miséria, e entre as "alternativas de metamorfose da sociedade ou sua catástrofe" (MORIN, 2008a, p.38) parece ter na educação uma chave importante para enfrentar o cenário de incerteza que caracteriza nosso futuro comum. Ultrapassar a fragmentação dos conhecimentos, religar saberes e transpor as deficiências da sociedade da informação configura o horizonte aberto do conhecimento complexo e de uma reforma do pensamento e da educação. "Educar para a vida" passa a ser, segundo Edgar Morin, o papel e a missão da educação afinada com uma ecologia das idéias.<br>A world-society that ranges from the Westernization of the world to cultural diversity, from progress to poverty, and from the "society's metamorphosis alternatives or its disaster" ( MORIN, 2008a, p.38) seems to have in education an important key to face the scenario of uncertainty that characterizes our common future. Overcoming the fragmentation of knowledge, reconnect knowledge and transpose the shortcomings of the information society set the open horizon of complex knowledge and a reform of thought and education. 'Educating for life' becomes, according to Edgar Morin, the role and mission of education tuned with an ecology of ideas