Electronic Theses and Dissertations (PhDs)

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Browsing Electronic Theses and Dissertations (PhDs) by Author "Nkosi, Nokuthula Gloria"

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    A psychosocial support programme for caregivers of children with developmental disabilities in Ghana
    (University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2024) Abeasi, Doreen asantewa; Nkosi, Nokuthula Gloria
    Background: Informal caregivers, mainly family members of children diagnosed with developmental disabilities [DD], are often left with the responsibility of caregiving. Usually, they receive little or no training, have no time to prepare for the caregiving role, or do not have adequate resources to carry out their responsibilities as caregivers. The complex nature of care and its continuous nature make caregiving stressful, leading to adverse health effects on caregiver’s and child with DD. Aim: The current study’s main goal was to develop a psychosocial support programme for caregivers of children with DD in the Ghanaian context to improve their wellbeing. Methodology: A multi-method research design was employed in this study. This study was organized into three phases. In phase one, a qualitative study and scoping review were done. The phenomenological design was used to explore experiences and needs of caregivers, which influenced the components of the psychosocial support programme. A scoping review was conducted to inform the psychosocial support programme’s design and structure. Phase two consisted of developing the components of the psychosocial support programme by triangulating the results of phase one, guided by the Medical Research Council [MRC] framework for development of complex interventions. Phase three involved the pilot testing and evaluation of the support programme. Results: Phase one a of the study revealed that caregivers mainly saw caregiving as stressful and time-consuming. Five themes were generated, namely: perception of caregiving, stressors, caregiver needs, negative health outcomes and coping resources. Different caregiver support programmes were reviewed from included studies in the scoping review, which were varied in the scope of interest. All the studies were conducted in lower- and middle-income countries. A psychosocial support programme referred to as Caregiver Well-being Improvement [CaWELLIS] programme was developed, confirmed by a group of experts, and implemented for caregivers of children with developmental disabilities in Ghana. There was improvement in caregiver outcomes, namely; stress, burden, anxiety, depression, support, blood pressure, and cortisol levels. Conclusion: The study provided evidence that the CaWELLIS programme had a positive influence on stress, the primary outcome of the study, as well as on secondary outcomes like vanxiety, depression, burden, and blood pressure levels. The CaWELLIS programme is a comprehensive, context-specific programme that has the potential to respond to the needs of caregivers of children with DD. The use of a one group pre-test post-test design to evaluate the effectiveness of the CaWELLIS programme has some limitations, therefore the gold standard of randomised control trial is suggested for future research.