Suchergebnisse

BACKGROUND: Chemical exposure leading to ototoxicity is a fresh challenge for occupational healthcare in South Africa. OBJECTIVES: The critical question is: 'what is known about occupational ototoxic chemicals with or without noise exposure in South Africa?' METHOD: This qualitative, mapping study was completed with published (peer-reviewed) and grey literature from 1979-2019. Data was analysed using the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic reviews and Meta-Analyses: extension for Scoping Reviews and the Nursing and Allied Health Resources Section subcommittee on Mapping the Literature of Nursing and Allied Health (adapted). Numerical analysis of article type was completed, but the primary focus was on capturing patterns/trends using thematic analysis and ideology critique. RESULTS: The African Journal of Disability, African Journal of Primary Health Care and Family Medicine, South African Medical Journal, The South African Journal of Communication Disorders [SAJCD] and Health SA Gesondheid) were included with the SAJCD containing one relevant item and seventeen other items were analysed. Research focusses on the mining sector (gold) in Gauteng, and ototoxic medication (tuberculosis and/or human immunodeficiency virus) take precedence. In KwaZulu-Natal, the focus is on commerce and industry across formal and informal sectors. There are no governmental policies that refer to chemical ototoxicity. Occupational hearing loss is configured exclusively on the meme that noise exposure is the only toxin. CONCLUSION: Chemical exposures are only just beginning to be recognised as ototoxic in South Africa. Hearing conservation programmes should always serve the workers' interests and never bow down to the econometric interests of employers.

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No abstract available.

Background: Most people with disabilities the world over can be found in the Majority (or 'economically developing') World. This is also where most of the world's hungry and malnourished are found. We argue that the intersectionality between disability and nutrition may best be understood through a food security framework, and we position all people living with disability, including those experiencing feeding and swallowing disabilities, as at risk for food insecurity, especially those living in humanitarian emergency contexts.Objectives: This study aimed to explore and describe the knowledge and experience of humanitarian aid workers (HAWs) and health care professionals (HCPs) in food assistance contexts with regard to the nutrition and food security of people living with disabilities.Method: In this exploratory, descriptive study, 16 participants with experience in sub-Saharan Africa and Southern Asia participated in an online survey. Three survey participants with extensive experience were also interviewed. Data analysis involved descriptive statistics and thematic content analysis.Results: Results revealed that participants had generally low levels of exposure to and experience with disability, including swallowing and feeding disorders.Conclusions: Reduced knowledge of HAWs and HCPs regarding disability and the lack of professionals such as speech–language therapists, who manage disability-specific issues such as feeding and swallowing disorders, may affect the food security of people living with disabilities in food assistance contexts.

BACKGROUND: Occupational health laws must recognise the constitutional requirement of substantive equality, and its role in 'the progressive realisation' of the rights provided by Section 27. OBJECTIVES: Our main aim is to review current South African occupational health law (vis-à-vis workers' constitutional rights) in relation to hearing loss. We focus on gaps in the law regarding occupational hearing loss in South Africa. METHOD: Our review of legal texts relies on experience as a methodological device augmented by the use of a critical science. Guided by literature or evidence synthesis methodologies, South African primary and secondary laws were reviewed along with unpublished (non-peer-reviewed) grey literature. An established six-step framework guided our thematic analysis. A semantic approach aided the critical interpretation of data using the Bill of Rights as a core analytical framework. RESULTS: Four themes are discussed: (1) separate and unequal regulatory frameworks; (2) monologic foregrounding of noise; (3) minimisation of vestibular disorders; and (4) dilution of ototoxic agents. The highly divided legal framework of occupational health and safety in South Africa perpetuates a monologic 'excessive noise-hearing loss' paradigm that has implications for the rights of all workers to equal protections and benefits. There is a need to harmonise occupational health and safety law, and expand the scope of hearing-protection legislation to include the full range of established ototoxic hazards. CONCLUSION: Occupational audiology is dominated by efforts to address noise-induced hearing loss. A 'noise' despite the reality of workers' exposures to a range of ototoxic stressors that act synergistically on the ear, resulting in audio-vestibular disorders.

This paper explores professional identity formation in undergraduate education. The paper positions professional identity formation within coloniality. A qualitative case study was conducted using critical theory as a guiding conceptual framework. Data collection included document reviews, observations and arts-based research methodologies. We present a case study of a speech-language pathology student, Aqueelah, transitioning from a traditional clinical placement to a learning site which encourages the development of an emerging practice. The paper focuses on how Aqueelah forms her emerging professional identity through her learning. We foreground the concept of "centring the self" as essential in developing patient-centred care and challenge coloniality of being embedded in clinical education. The paper argues that liminal spaces are necessary to allow students to explore different ways of thinking and doing to support new ways of being. The paper advocates for arts-based methodologies and critical reflection as essential pedagogic tools in shaping professional identity.

As a profession, speech-language pathology (SLP) continues to struggle with equitable service delivery to both people with communication challenges and disabilities. SLP clinical practice in its traditional form has an individual focus and therefore cannot adequately serve the large population in need, which, in South Africa is the majority population. Using the concept of social embeddedness of professions as a guiding frame, the article explores the history of the profession and the influence of the medical model and coloniality in shaping SLP profession's knowledge and practices. As such, we argue that professionalisation in its current form perpetuates injustice. The article proposes innovation across clinical practice, education and research as leverage points for imagining new practices.