Services on Demand
Article
Indicators
Related links
-
Cited by Google
-
Similars in Google
Share
South African Journal of Occupational Therapy
On-line version ISSN 2310-3833
Print version ISSN 0038-2337
S. Afr. j. occup. ther. vol.41 n.3 Pretoria 2011
ARTICLES
The burden of psychiatric disability on chronically poor households: Part 2 (coping)
Madeleine DuncanI; Leslie SwartzII; Harsha KathardIII
IMSc OT (UCT), D.Phil (Psych) (Stell). Associate Professor, Division of Occupational Therapy, University of Cape Town
IIPhD. Professor, Department of Psychology, University of Stellenbosch
IIID.Ed. Associate Professor and Director, Department of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences, University of Cape Town
ABSTRACT
Studies in occupational therapy on the strategies which people with psychiatric disability and their households use to navigate the daily struggle for survival in the context of chronic poverty are rare. This qualitative study, published in two parts, identified multiple layers of action, reaction and interaction used by everyone in the household to cope with the demands of daily subsistence including the costs of poor mental health. Major organising ideas centred on the discursive social forces that shaped people's daily activities, tasks and roles. While poverty aggravates the precarious situation of mentally ill individuals and their households, they mobilise coping strategies by drawing on locally relevant ways of knowing and 'being-in-the-world'. Socially engaged occupational therapy, cognisant of the cost burden of psychiatric disability, could work towards enhancing individual and household resilience through occupation focussed interventions that strengthen self-action and inter-action within indigenous explanatory frameworks.
Key words: poverty, psychiatric disability, coping strategies, relational economy
“Full text available only in PDF format”
References
1. Duncan M, Swartz L, Kathard H. The burden of psychiatric disability on chronically poor households: Part 1 (Costs). SAJOT, 2011; 41:3. In this edition. [ Links ]
2. Sauerbom R, Adams A & Hien, M. Household strategies to cope with the economic costs of illness. Social Science and Medicine, 1996; 43(3): 291-301. [ Links ]
3. Ellis F. Household strategies and rural livelihood diversification. Journal of Development Studies, 1998; 35(1): 1-38. [ Links ]
4. Christiansen CH, Townsend EA. Introduction to occupation: the art and science of living. New Jersey: Pearson Education Inc., 2004. [ Links ]
5. Banerjee AV, Bénabou R, Mookherjee D. Understanding poverty. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006. [ Links ]
6. Hulme D, Moore K. Shepherd A. Chronic poverty: meanings and analytic frameworks. Chronic Poverty Research Centre, Institute for Development Policy and Management. Manchester: University of Manchester, 2001: Working Paper No. 2. [ Links ]
7. Hoogeveen JG, Özler B. Poverty and inequality in post-apartheid South Africa: 1995-2000. In Bhorat H, Kanbur R (eds). Poverty and policy in South Africa. Cape Town: Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC) Press, 2006: 1-17. [ Links ]
8. Collins D, Morduch J, Rutherford S, Ruthven O. Portfolios of the poor: how the world's poor live on $2 a day. Cape Town: UCT Press, 2009. [ Links ]
9. Marais H. South Africa pushed to the limit: the political economy of change. Claremont: UCT Press. [ Links ]
10. Seekings J. Do South African unemployed constitute an underclass? Centre for Social Science Research (CSSR), Social Surveys Unit. Rondebosch: University of Cape Town, 2003: Working Paper No. 32. [ Links ]
11. Narayan D, Chambers R, Shah MK, Petesch, P Voices of the poor: crying out for change. New York: Oxford University Press, 2000. [ Links ]
12. Patel V, Kleinman A. Poverty and common mental health disorders in developing countries. Bulletin of the World Health Organisation, 2003; 81 (8): 609-615. [ Links ]
13. Lund C, Breen A, Flisher A, Swartz, L, Joska, J, Corrigall J, et al. Mental health and poverty: a systematic review of the research in low and middle income countries. The Journal of Mental Health Policy and Economics, 2007; 10 (Supplement 1): S26-S27. [ Links ]
14. Patel L. Social welfare and social development in South Africa. Oxford: Oxford University Press; 2005. [ Links ]
15. Lund F. Gender and social security in South Africa. In Padayachee V (ed). The development decade? Economic and social change in South Africa: 1994-2004. Cape Town: Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC) Press, 2006: 160-179. [ Links ]
16. MacGregor H. 'The grant is what I eat': the politics of social security and disability in the post-apartheid South African state. The Journal of Biosocial Science, 2006 (38): 43 -55. [ Links ]
17. Eidelman T, Gouws V Howe C, Kulber T, Kumm J, Schoenfeld L, Duncan M. Women surviving chronic poverty and psychiatric disability. South African Journal of Occupational Therapy, 2009; 40 (3): 4-8. [ Links ]
18. Macgregor H. Maintaining a fine balance: negotiating mental distress in Khayelitsha, South Africa. Philosophy doctoral dissertation, Darwin College: University of Cambridge, 2002. [ Links ]
19. Haddad L, Hoddnott J, Alderman H. (eds). Intrahousehold resource allocation in developing countries: models, methods and policy. Baltimore: John Hopkins University Press, 1997. [ Links ]
20. Wilkinson-Maposa S, Fowler A, Oliver-Evans C, Mulenga CFN. The poor philanthropist: how and why the poor help each other. The Southern Africa-United States Centre for Leadership and Public Values. Graduate School of Business: University of Cape Town, 2005. [ Links ]
21. Mosoetsa S. Eating from one pot: the dynamics of survival in poor South African households. Johannesburg: Wits University Press, 2011. [ Links ]
22. De Swardt C. Cape Town's African poor. Programme for Land and Agrarian Studies (PLAAS), School of Government: University of the Western Cape. 2004; Chronic Poverty and Development Policy Series No. 3. [ Links ]
23. Wood G. Staying secure, staying poor: the Faustian bargain. 2003. World Development, 31 (3): 455-471. [ Links ]
24. Field J. Social capital. 2003. London. Routledge. [ Links ]
25. Chronic Poverty Research Centre (CPRC). The chronic poverty report 2004-05. 2005. Manchester. Chronic Poverty Research Centre. www.chronicpoverty.org/resources/cprc_report_2004-2005_con-tents.html. [April 3, 2005]. [ Links ]
26. Seekings J, Alexander K, Joost T, Matzner M. The 2003 Cape area survey: a user's guide. Centre for Social Science Research (CSSR). Social Surveys Unit. Rondebosch: University of Cape Town. 2003; CSSR Working Paper No. 32. [ Links ]
27. Mkhize N. Psychology: an African perspective. In Hook D (ed). Critical psychology. Cape Town: University of Cape Town (UCT) Press, 2004: 24-51. [ Links ]
28. Yen J, Wilbraham L. Discourses of culture and illness in South African health care and indigenous healing, Part 1: Western psychiatric power. Transcultural Psychiatry, 2003; 40(4): 542-561. [ Links ]
29. Lund F. Gender and social security in South Africa. In Padayachee V (ed). The development decade? Economic and social change in South Africa. 1994-2004. Cape Town: Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC) Press, 2006: 160-179. [ Links ]
30. Aliber M. Study of the incidence and nature of chronic poverty and development policy in South Africa: an overview. Institute of Development, Policy and Management (IDPM). Manchester: University of Manchester, 2001; Chronic Poverty Research Centre Working Paper No.3. [ Links ]
31. Teffo, L. J. The concept of ubuntu as a cohesive moral value. Pretoria: Ubuntu School of Philosophy, 1994. [ Links ]
32. Yen J, Wilbraham L. Discourses of culture and illness in South African mental health care and indigenous healing, Part II: African mentality. Transcultural Psychiatry, 2003; 40(4), 562-584. [ Links ]
33. Niehaus I. Witchcraft, power and politics. London: Pluto Press, 2001. [ Links ]
34. Wilcock AA. A theory of the human need for occupation. Journal of Occupational Science, 2002; 9 (special issue): 3-9. [ Links ]
35. Wilcock A A. Reflections on doing, being and becoming. Canadian Journal of Occupational Therapy, 1998; 65(5): 248 - 256. [ Links ]
36. Eidelman T, Gouws V, Howe C, Kulber T, Kumm J, Schoenfeld L, Duncan M. Women surviving chronic poverty and psychiatric disability. South African Journal of Occupational Therapy. 2009; Volume 40 (3): 4-8. [ Links ]
37. Cutchin MP Aldrich RM, Baillard A L, Coppola S. Action theories for occupational science: the contributions of Dewey and Bourdieu. Journal of Occupational Science, 2008; Voll5 (3): 157-164. [ Links ]
38. Galheigo SM. Occupational therapy in the social field: concepts and critical considerations. In Kronenberg F, Pollard N, Sakellariou D. Occupational Therapies without Borders: Towards an Ecology of Occupation-Based Practices, Edinburgh: Churchill Livingstone Elsevier; 2011: 47-56. [ Links ]
Correspondence:
E. M. Duncan
E-mail: eve.duncan@uct.ac.za