The role of spirituality in specialist psychiatry: A review of the medical literature

A review of the international medical literature was undertaken on the role of spirituality in the discipline of psychiatry, within the context that a perceived change is taking place in the health care environment in South Africa. Revitalized interest in spirituality was evident from the literature partly because Western societies have, through the migration of people, become more heterogeneous in recent years. The literature concurred that spirituality must be incorporated into the current approach to the practice and training of psychiatry, but within the professional scope of the discipline, while all faith traditions and belief systems should be regarded equally. Beyond South Africa, it is envisaged that the review has implications for the practice of psychiatry in Africa.Keywords: Spirituality; Practice and training; Psychiatry; Medical literature; Qualitative inquir

Experience and views of academic psychiatrists on the role of spirituality in South African specialist psychiatry

CONTEXTO: A importância de ter de considerar o papel da espiritualidade na saúde, saúde mental e psiquiatria na África do Sul tem sido especialmente enfatizada pela recente legislação sobre práticas tradicionais de saúde na África. OBJETIVO: Explorar as opiniões e experiências de psiquiatras locais sobre o papel da espiritualidade na prática e no treinamento de especialistas em psiquiatria na África do Sul. MÉTODO: Este estudo é uma pesquisa qualitativa, exploratória, descritiva, contextual, fenomenológica e geradora de hipótese. A fonte principal de dados foram entrevistas semiestruturadas com psiquiatras filiados a uma universidade local. Para assegurar de que os dados fossem confiáveis, as seguintes medidas foram incluídas: credibilidade, transferibilidade, confiabilidade, e confirmabilidade. RESULTADOS: A consciência da espiritualidade, "mindfulness", e uma abordagem de mente aberta sobre a espiritualidade, segundo os participantes, devem ser facilitadas na prática e no treinamento psiquiátrico. Seis temas foram identificados por meio de códigos abertos. DISCUSSÃO: Todos os participantes, independentemente de suas próprias visões sobre espiritualidade e religião, concordaram que, sob certas condições, a espiritualidade deve ser incorporada na abordagem biopsicossocial atual na prática local e no treinamento de especialistas em psiquiatria.BACKGROUND: The importance of having to consider the role of spirituality in health, mental health and psychiatry in South Africa has in particular been emphasized by recent legislation on African traditional health practice. OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study was to explore the views and experience of local psychiatrists regarding the role of spirituality in South African specialist psychiatric practice and training. METHOD: This study is an explorative, descriptive, contextual, phenomenological and theory-generating, qualitative investigation. In-depth, semi-structured interviews with individual academic psychiatrists affiliated to a local university were conducted as primary data source. Measures to ensure trustworthiness included credibility, transferability, dependability and confirmability. RESULTS: Awareness of spirituality, "mindfulness" and an open-minded approach about spirituality should, according to participants, be facilitated in psychiatric practice and training. Six themes were identified through open coding. DISCUSSION: All participants, disregarding of their own views on spirituality and religion, agreed, that under certain conditions, spirituality must be incorporated into the current bio-psycho-social approach in the local practice and training of specialist in psychiatry

The experience of education students in the Technolab. Do engineers and educationalists have to co-operate?

The purpose of this study was firstly to explore and describe post graduate students’ experiences of Technology Education in the TechnoLab and secondly to deduct recommendations to assist and facilitate the learning process of students in the TechnoLab. The research design can be described as qualitative, exploratory, descriptive and contextual. Twenty-eight post graduate students in Technology Education participated in a workshop at the TechnoLab for one morning session. The aim of this workshop was to expose them to the socalled technological process, which they had already studied theoretically

Women’s experience of termination of a pregnancy

In November 1996 the Act on the Termination of Pregnancies (no 92 of 1996) was promulgated. This Act enabled women from the age of twelve years old to decide to terminate their pregnancies before twelve weeks gestation without permission of anybody else. Since February 1997 almost 160 000 terminations of pregnancy have been carried out in South Africa. Little research has been conducted to explore and describe the effect of the termination of pregnancies on women Two aims were formulated for the research project described in this article: (1) the exploration and description of the women’s experience of terminating a pregnancy, and (2) the description of counselling guidelines for caring professionals to assist these women. Participants were included in the sample through purposive sampling. Phenomenological interviews were conducted individually. Data were analysed by means of Tesch’s descriptive approach. Counselling guidelines for educational psychologists and other caring professionals to empower the involved were being logically inferred from the results of the interviews. Measures to ensure trustworthiness have been applied in the research and ethical measures have been strictly adhered to during the research. One central theme was identified from the results of the interviews and naïve sketches, namely women’s experiences of a negative relationship with themselves and other persons as well as their focus on their terminated pregnancies

Life stories of depressed adult women in peri-urban Namibia

The problems with women in peri-urban Namibie are faced with are multi-dimensional.Like women in other communities they face the pressure of having a number of responsibilities, namely working, being a wife and mother, taking care of their families and perhaps caring for aging parents. Sometimes the pressure can be too overwhelming to manage. As a result, many women become depressed. Studies on depression among black African women in Namibia could not be traced. It was therefore considered to find out how women suffering from depression from this part of the world tell their life stories. The purpose of the study was two-fold: Firstly, to explore and describe the life stories of depressed adult women in peri-urban Namibia, and secondly to use the information obtained to describe guidelines for psychiatric nurses working with these patients at psychiatric outpatient clinics as well as in the community. A qualitative phenomenological research design of an explorative, descriptive and contextual nature was used. The researcher approached the subjects and their experiences with an open mind. Ten depressed adult women between 21-55 years were involved in the research. The researcher strived to adhere to the principles of trustworthiness. To ensure this Guba’s model (in Krefting, 1991: 217) of trustworthiness was adopted. All the interviews were analysed following Tesch’s method (Creswell, 1994: 154-55). The services of an independent coder were obtained. The results indicated that impaired interpersonal interactions and stressful life events have a negative influence on the daily life of women leading to the development of depressive symptoms. Guidelines to support psychiatric nurses working with depressed women were drawn up

Students' experiences of challenges and threats in changing epistemic contexts

Students at higher education institutions in South Africa are exposed to changing epistemic contexts and postures. The concept "epistemic posture" refers to the ways in which human beings "do knowing" and the presuppositions they have about the "epistemic meta-narrative" (Newman & Holzman 1997:7). Not taking it for granted that lecturers' changing epistemic postures will live up to students expectations of a lecturer, the researchers found it necessary to pause for a moment to ask the questions: What do students expect from lecturers? And will the introduction of socio-constructivism as a theory of knowledge and learning in an undergraduate Education course live up to the students' expectations of a lecturer? Therefore this article intends to: briefly describe and explain which epistemic changes are taking place in South African higher education; discuss the results of qualitative research done about undergraduate students' expectations of lecturers at a residential university; discuss some possible challenges and threats which students might experience in a changing epistemic context at a higher education institution. South African Journal of Higher Education Vol.15(2) 2001: 158-16

Lived Experiences of Women Victims of Domestic Violence in Rural Areas of Vhembe District: Limpopo Province.

The high rate of domestic violence has become an issue of concern in South African families today. In most instances women and children die due to domestic violence and cases go unreported because of fear, lack of facilities such as: crisis intervention centers, hot lines as well as refugee places (shelters).The overall aim of this research was to explore and describe the lived experiences of victims who are exposed to domestic violence. A qualitative, exploratory, descriptive and contextual research design was used for this study. In-depth phenomenological interviews were conducted with 38 women who shared their experiences of staying with abusive partners.Open coding method was used to analyse the data. Findings from the study revealed that women endure painful experiences in their relationships varying from physical to emotional pain. Findings further revealed that women also perpetuate the situation of domestic violence in their response to the pain. Findings from the study contributed to the development of a programme of support to women experiencing domestic violence, this is not included in this article.Key Words: Assault; Domestic Violence; Lived experiences; Perpetrators; Victims

Towards a reframing of student support: a case study approach

© 2017, Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht. This paper reports on a study that investigated the range of institutional support needs of international students at one Australian university with a view to increasing understanding of their needs and the ways in which support was provided. The study involved a number of data collection methods including focus groups, key informant interviews and a larger scale survey, undertaken in an inductive and sequential process. The results indicated that the levels of awareness about services differed, that lack of knowledge of how to access a service and finding information about it were key reasons for non-use, and that the helpfulness of staff impacted on the perception of services as useful. The paper concludes by recommending a reconsideration of current practices to move towards a model of student support service provision in which the student is at the centre