Mitigating moral distress by enhancing healthcare workers' understanding of challenges faced by carers of children with disabilities in low-resource settings in Kenya.
IF 2.2 3区 医学Q2 PUBLIC, ENVIRONMENTAL & OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH
Anne Geniets, Jarim Omogi, Laura Hakimi, Alice Lakati, Niall Winters
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引用次数: 0
Abstract
Background: Little is known about the psychological wellbeing and the potential moral distress faced by female carers of children with disabilities living in low-resource settings in East Africa. In such environments, caregiving often requires resilience and resourcefulness, yet can also increase the vulnerability of caregivers and their children.
Objective: The objective of this study is to identify factors affecting female caregivers' psychological well-being, and to suggest ways healthcare workers can support these caregivers' psychological well-being to alleviate moral distress.
Methods: Employing an intersectional convergent parallel mixed-methods approach, the research explores the factors affecting the psychological wellbeing of caregivers in one urban and one rural low-resource setting in Kenya.
Results: The study identifies strengthening and inhibiting factors, across three dimensions, that moderate caregivers' experiences of moral distress, and puts forward suggestions for healthcare workers on how to support caregivers' psychological wellbeing.
Conclusions: Female carers of children with disabilities in low-resource settings in Kenya face numerous psychological, social and systemic challenges which jeopardize their caregiving, leading to moral distress. Paediatricians and nurses can contribute to enhance the caregivers' coping-strategies and psychological well-being through simple changes, like explaining a child's condition in non-technical language. Community health workers can help strengthen the caregivers' already existing resources by accompanying them in the day-to-day care of their children and by helping them establish self-support groups. Consequently, improved training of healthcare- and community health workers in the field of childhood disability is needed to strengthen health systems, and to support these caregivers and their children.
期刊介绍：
Global Health Action is an international peer-reviewed Open Access journal affiliated with the Unit of Epidemiology and Global Health, Department of Public Health and Clinical Medicine at Umeå University, Sweden. The Unit hosts the Umeå International School of Public Health and the Umeå Centre for Global Health Research.
Vision: Our vision is to be a leading journal in the global health field, narrowing health information gaps and contributing to the implementation of policies and actions that lead to improved global health.
Aim: The widening gap between the winners and losers of globalisation presents major public health challenges. To meet these challenges, it is crucial to generate new knowledge and evidence in the field and in settings where the evidence is lacking, as well as to bridge the gaps between existing knowledge and implementation of relevant findings. Thus, the aim of Global Health Action is to contribute to fuelling a more concrete, hands-on approach to addressing global health challenges. Manuscripts suggesting strategies for practical interventions and research implementations where none already exist are specifically welcomed. Further, the journal encourages articles from low- and middle-income countries, while also welcoming articles originated from South-South and South-North collaborations. All articles are expected to address a global agenda and include a strong implementation or policy component.
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