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Parents of adolescents with a mental disorder describe having overwhelming feelings regarding the psychiatric diagnosis, which they respond to with grief. Existing research indicates that these parents face unique challenges, such as self-blame and stigma. Parents are crucial in adolescent care, and healthcare professionals should find interventions that educate parents about the disorder, treatment and symptom management. The aim of this study was to explore and describe parents' experiences in having an adolescent with a mental disorder admitted to the psychiatric unit of a public hospital in Gauteng, South Africa.
The study used Heidegger's interpretive phenomenological design.
A qualitative, exploratory, descriptive and contextual method was used. Data were collected through semi-structured telephonic interviews with 10 parents who had an adolescent with a mental disorder admitted to a public hospital in Gauteng, South Africa. Tesch's thematic coding steps were used for data analysis.
The themes arising from the findings reflected (1) parents experienced that their lives were stuck amid grief for the loss of what their adolescent child used to be, and anxiety about what the future holds, (2) parents experienced that when they reached out for professional help, the healthcare system failed them due to a lack of guidance, information and support, (3) parents experienced that they prayed for divine intervention as a coping strategy, and (4) parents experienced stigma from the community.
The findings illustrate the need for psychiatric nurses to facilitate the mental health of parents of adolescents with a mental disorder. Furthermore, positive attitudes among parents are improved once they are empowered and receive the necessary support, and stigmatization will also be reduced. It is recommended that further research be conducted to explore the effectiveness of emotional and professional support in addressing the challenges parents experience with an adolescent who has a mental disorder.
This paper contributes knowledge to nursing practice by exploring the experiences of parents who have an adolescent with a mental disorder in the South African context.
This scoping review explores the global context, policies and programmes aimed at achieving universal health coverage (UHC) for maternal health services, focusing on progress within low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). Additionally, it maps methodological approaches and indicators used to evaluate UHC progress for maternal health.
Scoping review methodology.
ProQuest, Scopus, Web of Science and Ovid MEDLINE were searched.
Included were peer-reviewed studies that evaluated UHC policies, programmes and progress towards achieving UHC of maternal health services in LMICs, reported primary research and conducted in all healthcare settings.
Two independent reviewers screened and appraised eligible studies using preset criteria based on a ‘population-concept-context’ framework.
The initial search resulted in 959 studies of 61 articles selected in the final review. Most studies provided international (eg, Sustainable Development Goals, n=35), and national context on health system reforms related to healthcare financing and budgets (n=36). While progress was made on the coverage of maternal health services, the equity in maternal health service access was low for most studies. Both studies evaluating interventions and those not evaluating interventions reported high coverage in maternal health indicators, with antenatal care showing low coverage (n=7, 41%), skilled birth attendance (n=6, 55%) and facility delivery (n=6, 60%), while postnatal care coverage remained variable across studies. Two studies reported high coverage of caesarean section births (n=2, 100%). Studies evaluating intervention found equity improved in access and utilisation of maternal health services; conversely, evaluation without intervention for most studies identified low equity in access and utilisation of maternal health services. High inequity in determinants of maternal health outcomes was reported across studies measuring equity domains.
Countries have many approaches to reaching UHC and tackling the problem of achieving UHC for maternal healthcare. Therefore, policymakers in LMICs must decide how to allocate limited resources to prioritise coverage, equity or quality of maternal healthcare.
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