Work meaning constructions by lay community health workers in an HIV/AIDS palliative care setting : community and adult education perspectives

• Main Author: Visagie, Bonita Bernice
• Published: 2015
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10210/14821

Ph.D. (Education) === Lay community health workers (LCHWs) have received increased attention in recent years as many global health programmes emphasise their potential for improving community health. As with many community organisations worldwide, particularly in South Africa, the number of people affected and infected with HIV/AIDS is increasing, directly affecting the palliative care needs of patients, their immediate families, orphans and vulnerable children (OVC). Many of the affected and infected patients, orphans and vulnerable children reach a stage where they can no longer care for themselves or their families, which is why palliative care community organisations are emerging and now becoming more responsible for providing the support and care needed. Lay community health workers have become a solution and community organisations make use of their services to provide constant palliative care to those in need of it in their local and surrounding communities. We, however, do not have any understanding of what happens in those palliative care community organisations, with the employees and volunteer workers, and what meaning they construct about the work they do. We need to understand how lay community health workers perceive their work, and their roles as carers in community organisations providing extensive palliative care to patients, orphans and vulnerable children. It is against this background that this research looks into how lay community health workers’ construct work meaning about their roles as palliative carers in community organisations. This research focused specifically on lay community health workers from Bronkhorstspruit, working at a community organisation in Sizanani Village ...