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- Forouzan, Ameneh Setareh, 1967-
(författare)
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Assessing responsiveness in the mental health care system : the case of Tehran
- 2015
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Introduction: Understanding health service user perceptions of the quality of care is critical to developing measures to increase the utilisation of healthcare services. To relate patient experiences to a common set of standards, the World Health Organization (WHO) developed the concept of health system responsiveness. This measures what happens during user’s interactions with the system, using a common scale, and requires that the user has had a specified encounter, which they evaluate. The concept of responsiveness has only been used in a very few studies previously to evaluate healthcare sub-systems, such as mental healthcare. Since the concept of responsiveness had not been previously applied to a middle income country, such as Iran, there is a need to investigate its applicability and to develop a valid instrument for evaluating health system performance. The aim of this study is to assess the responsiveness of the mental healthcare system in Tehran, the capital of Iran, in accordance with the WHO responsiveness concept.Methods: This thesis is a health system research, based on qualitative and quantitative methods. During the qualitative phase of the study, six focus group discussions were carried out in Tehran, from June to August 2010. In total, 74 participants, comprising 21 health providers and 53 users of the mental healthcare system, were interviewed. Interviews were analysed through content analysis. The coding was synchronised between the researchers through two discussion sessions to ensure the credibility of the findings. The results were then discussed with two senior researchers to strengthen plausibility. Responses were examined in relation to the eight domains of the WHO’s responsiveness model.In accordance with the WHO health system responsiveness questionnaire and the findings of the qualitative studies, a Farsi version of the Mental Health System Responsiveness Questionnaire (MHSRQ) was tailored to suit the mental healthcare system in Iran. This version was tested in a cross-sectional study at nine public mental health clinics in Tehran. A sample of 500 mental health services patients was recruited and subsequently completed the questionnaire. The item missing rate was used to check the feasibility, while the reliability of the scale was determined by assessing the Cronbach’s alpha and item total correlations. The factor structure of the questionnaire was investigated by performing confirmatory factor analysis (CFA).To assess how the domains of responsiveness were performing in the mental healthcare system, I used the data collected during the second phase of the study. Utilising the same method used by the WHO for its responsiveness survey, we evaluated the responsiveness of outpatient mental healthcare, using a validated Farsi questionnaire.Results: There were many commonalities between the findings of my study and the eight domains of the WHO responsiveness model, although some variations were found. Effective care was a new domain generated from my findings. In addition, the domain of prompt attention was included in two newly labelled domains: attention and access to care. Participants could not differentiate autonomy from choice of healthcare provider, believing that free choice is part of autonomy. Therefore these domains were unified under the name of autonomy. The domains of quality of basic amenities, access to social support, dignity, and confidentiality were considered important for the responsiveness concept. Some differences regarding how these domains should be defined were observed, however.The results of the qualitative study were used to tailor a Farsi version of the MHSRQ. A satisfactory feasibility, as the item missing value was lower than 5.2%, was found. With the exception of the access domain, the reliability of the different domains in the questionnaire was within a desirable range. The factor loading showed an acceptable uni-dimensionality of the scale, despite the fact that the three items related to access did not perform well. The CFA also indicated good fit indices for the model (CFI = 0.99, GFI = 0.97, IFI = 0.99, AGFI = 0.97).The results of the mental healthcare system responsiveness survey showed that, on average, 47% of participants reported experiencing poor responsiveness. Among the responsiveness domains, confidentiality and dignity were the best performing factors, while autonomy, access to care and quality of basic amenities were the worst performing. Respondents who reported their social status as low were more likely to experience poor responsiveness overall. Autonomy, quality of basic amenities and clear communication were dimensions that performed poorly but were considered to be highly important by the study participants.Conclusion and implications: This is the first time that mental healthcare system responsiveness has been measured in Iran. Our results showed that the concept of responsiveness developed by the WHO is applicable to mental health services in this country. Dignity and confidentiality were domains which performed well, while the domains of autonomy, quality of basic amenities and access performed poorly. Any improvement in these poorly performing domains is dependent on resources. In addition, attention and access to care, which were rated high in importance and poor in performance, should be priority areas for intervention and the reengineering of referral systems and admission processes. The role of subjective social status in responsiveness should be further studied. These findings might help policymakers to better understand what is required for the improvement of mental health services.
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| 2. |
- Hansson, Jonas, 1971-
(författare)
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Mind the blues : Swedish police officers' mental health and forced deportation of unaccompanied refugee children
- 2017
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Introduction: Policing is a public health issue. The police often encounter vulnerable populations. Police officers have wide discretionary powers, which could impact on how they support vulnerable populations. In encountering vulnerable populations the police officers are required to be professional; maintaining mental health in the face of challenges is part of professionalism. Their encounters with vulnerable populations might influence their mental health which in turn might influence the way they use their discretion when making decisions.Background/context: Sweden receives more unaccompanied, asylum-seeking refugee children than any other country in Europe. The number of asylum applications for such children increased from 400 in 2004 to 7000 in 2014 to over 35,000 in 2015. These children come to Sweden and apply for asylum without being under the care of their parents or other legal guardian. Some are denied asylum. If they do not return to their country of origin voluntarily the police are responsible for their deportation. The Swedish government wants an increasing number of deportations and wants them carried out with dignity. This thesis is about the police officers’ perceptions of how to interpret the seemingly contradictory demands for more deportations, that is, efficiency; and concerns for human rights during the deportation process, that is, dignity. This is conceptualized using three theoretical frameworks: a) street-level bureaucracy, b) job demand-control-social support model and c) coping. These theoretical frameworks indicate the complexity of the issue and function as constructions by means of which understanding can be brought to the police officers’ perceptions of deportation work involving unaccompanied, asylum-seeking refugee children and how such work is associated to their mental health.Aim: The current research aims to investigate and analyse Swedish police officers’ mental health in the context of deportations of unaccompanied, asylum-seeking refugee children.Methods: This thesis uses both qualitative and quantitative methodology. The qualitative approach comprised interviews conducted to achieve a deeper understanding of the phenomenon of police officers’ perceptions of deportations of unaccompanied, asylum-seeking refugee children. The quantitative method involved the use of validated questionnaires to investigate the association between police officers’ mental health and psychosocial job characteristics and coping. This approach made it possible to study a complex issue in a complex environment and to present relevant recommendations. A total of 14 border police officers were interviewed and 714 police officers responded to a survey.Results: The police officers utilize their wide discretionary powers and perceive that they are doing what is best in the situation, trying to listen to the child and to be aware of the child’s needs. Police officers with experience of deportations of unaccompanied, asylum-seeking refugee children were not found to have poorer mental health than police officers with no such experience. Furthermore, high job demand, low decision latitude, low levels of work-related social support, shift work and being single are associated with poor mental health. Coping moderates the association between mental health and the experience of carrying out deportations of unaccompanied, asylum-seeking, refugee children, and the police officers seem to utilize both emotional and problem-solving coping during the same complex deportation process.Implications / conclusions: The general conclusion reached in this thesis is that if police officers are subject to reasonable demands, have high decision latitude, access to work-related social support, and utilize adaptable coping, the deportation work does not seem to affect their mental health. When police officers meet vulnerable people, they utilize their discretionary powers to deal with seemingly contradictory demands, that is, efficiency and dignity. The executive role in the deportations of unaccompanied, asylum-seeking refugee children and the awareness of dealing with a child threatened with deportation might give rise to activation of a sense of protection, safety and security. Discretion might make it possible to act on this sense of protection, safety and security and to combine efficiency and dignity. Further studies, which integrate cognitive and emotional discretion with coping, need to be undertaken.
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| 3. |
- Karhina, Kateryna, 1982-
(författare)
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Social capital and well-being in the transitional setting of Ukraine
- 2017
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Background: The military conflict in Ukraine that started in 2014 was accompanied with many changes in the political, economic and social spheres. It brought informal volunteering activities (i.e. one form of social capital) to emerge, function and later to be formalized, in order to support soldiers and their families. This situation is unique given the transitional setting of Ukraine, which has led to comparably low levels of social capital and negative indicators of health and well-being. This thesis aims to explore social capital during military conflict in contemporary Ukraine and to analyze the associations between social capital and well-being, as well as the distribution of social capital among Ukrainian women and men.Methods: The study combines a qualitative and quantitative research design. A case study was conducted using qualitative methodology. Eighteen in-depth interviews were collected with providers and utilizers of volunteering services. Grounded Theory and social action ideal types methodology of Weber were used for the analysis. The quantitative research utilized two secondary datasets. The World Health Survey was utilized to analyze the association between social capital and physical and mental well-being for women (n=1723) and men (n=910) by means of multivariate logistic regression. The European Social Survey (wave 6) was used in order to investigate access to social capital and the determinants of gender inequalities in the access with a sample of 1377 women and 797 men. Multivariate logistic regression and postregression Fairlie’s decomposition analysis were used to analyze the determinants of the inequalities.Results: The key findings of this thesis show that social capital transforms during military conflict and takes particular forms in transitional settings. There are positive and negative effects on well-being connected to crisisrelated volunteering. The associations between social capital and well-being vary for women and men in favour of women. Social capital is unequally distributed between different social groups. Some forms of social capital may have stronger buffering effect on women than men in Ukraine. Access to social capital can be viewed as an indicator for social well-being, and thus social capital can be used both as a determinant and an outcome in social capital and health research.Conclusion: Informal social participation, i.e. volunteering might play an important role in societal crises and needs to be considered in social capital measurements and interventions. Social capital measurements utilized in stable societies do not evidently capture these forms, i.e. it is not taken into account. The associations between social capital and well-being depend on the measurements that are used. Since social capital has both positive and negative effects on well-being, this should be considered in research, policies and practices in order to prevent negative and promote positive outcomes. In Ukraine, as well as in other settings, social capital is an unequal resource for different societal groups. Reducing gender and income inequalities would probably influence the distribution of social capital within the society.
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| 4. |
- Sundqvist, Johanna, 1978-
(författare)
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Forced repatriation of unaccompanied asylum-seeking refugee children : towards an interagency model
- 2017
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Introduction Not all children seeking asylum without parents or other relatives are entitled to residence permits. In the last few years, more than one in four unaccompanied asylum-seeking refugee children have been forced to repatriate, either to their home country or to a transit country. Mostly the children refuse to leave the country voluntarily, and it becomes a forced repatriation. Five actors collaborate in the Swedish child forced repatriation process: social workers, staff at care homes, police officers, Swedish Migration Board officers and legal guardians. When a child is forced to repatriate, the Swedish workers involved must consider two different demands. The first demand requires dignified repatriation, which is incorporated from the European Union’s (EU’s) Return Directive into Swedish Aliens Act. The second demand requires that the repatriation process be conducted efficiently, which means that a higher number of repatriation cases must be processed. The fact that the same professionals have different and seemingly contradictory requirements places high demands on the involved collaborators. Two professionals have a legal responsibility for the children until the last minute before they leave Sweden: social workers and police officers. That makes them key actors in forced repatriation, as they carry most of the responsibility in the process. Further, they often work with children who are afraid what will happen when they return to their home country and often express their fear through powerful emotions. Being responsible and obliged to carry out the government’s decision, despite forcing children to leave a safe country, may evoke negative emotional and mental stress for the professionals involved in forced repatriation. Aim The overall aim of this study is to explore and analyse forced repatriation workers’ collaboration and perceived mental health, with special focus on social workers and police officers in the Swedish context.Materials and methods The study combines a qualitative and quantitative research design in order to shed light at both a deep and general level on forced repatriation. In qualitative substudy I, a qualitative case study methodology was used in one municipality in a middle-sized city in Sweden. The municipality had a contract regarding the reception of unaccompanied asylum-seeking refugee children iv with the Swedish Migration Board. The municipality in focus has a population of more than 100,000 inhabitants. The city in which the data were collected has developed a refugee reception system where unaccompanied asylumseeking refugee children are resettled and await a final decision regarding their permit applications. This situation made it possible to recruit participants who had worked with unaccompanied refugee children without a permit. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with a total of 20 social workers, staff at care homes, police officers, Swedish Migration Board officers and legal guardians. A thematic approach was used to analyse the data. In quantitative substudies II, III and IV, a national survey of social workers (n = 380) and police officers (n = 714), with and without experience of forced repatriation, was conducted. The questionnaires included sociodemographic characteristics, the Swedish Demand-Control Questionnaire, Interview Schedule for Social Interaction, Ways of Coping Questionnaire and the 12- item General Mental Health Questionnaire. Factor analysis, correlational analysis, and univariate and multivariable regression models were used to analyse the data.Results The qualitative results in substudy I showed low levels of collaboration among the actors (social workers, staff at care homes, police officers, Swedish Migration Board officers and legal guardians) and the use of different strategies to manage their work tasks. Some of them used a teamwork pattern, showing an understanding of the different roles in forced repatriation, and were willing to compromise for the sake of collaboration. Others tended to isolate themselves from interaction and acted on the basis of personal preference, and some tended to behave sensitively, withdraw and become passive observers rather than active partners in the forced repatriation. The quantitative results in substudy II showed that poorer mental health was associated with working with unaccompanied asylum-seeking refugee children among social workers but not among police officers. Psychological job demand was a significant predictor for mental health among social workers, while psychological job demand, decision latitude and marital status were predictors among police officers. Substudy III showed that both social workers and police officers reported relatively high access to social support. Furthermore, police officers working in forced repatriation with low levels of satisfaction with social interaction and close emotional support increased the odds of psychological disturbances. In substudy IV, social workers used more escape avoidance, distancing and positive-reappraisal coping, whereas police officers used more planful problem solving and self-controlling coping. Additionally, social workers with experience in forced repatriation used more planful problem solving than those without experience.Conclusions In order to create the most dignified forced repatriation, based on human dignity, for unaccompanied asylum-seeking refugee children and with healthy actors, a forced repatriation system needs: overall statutory national guidance, interagency collaboration, actors working within a teamworking pattern, forced repatriation workers with reasonable job demands and decision latitude, with a high level of social support and adaptive coping strategies. The point of departure for an interagency model is that it is impossible to change the circumstances of the asylum process, but it is possible to make the system more functional and better adapted to both the children’s needs and those of the professionals who are set to handle the children. A centre for unaccompanied asylum-seeking refugee children, consisting of all actors involved in the children’s asylum process sitting under the same roof, at the governmental level (Swedish Migration Board, the police authority) and municipality level (social services, board of legal guardians), can meet all requirements.
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