Community-Based Occupational Therapy for Adolescent Children with Low Level of Social Health - Research Paper Example

Community- Based Occupational Therapy for Adolescent Children with Low Level of Social Health Background of the Project In the diverseand busy communities around selected areas of Leeds, West Yorkshire in UK some teens may have been strolling around, chatting with some friends, other teens are spending quality time with their family; while others continue to live with suffering from certain kind of societal problems such as alcoholism, domestic violence, drug abuse, delinquency, depression, abnormal sexual behaviors and many others. Although, there are several strategies that were used by the government in order to eliminate the problem in relation to the aforementioned societal problems. Over the last few months (Leedsinitiative.org, 2009), there have been programs intended for children, example is the Children & Young People's Plan for Leeds Plan which has been updated to mirror out the feedback about children's concerns. Some agencies are starting to get involve in the public information campaign on various drug prevention and control programs whereby it adheres to the idea of using social influence and role playing to discourage adolescents from starting drug use and encourage them to refuse drugs in the future and consequently improve children's social health status. Historically, human infants are born without any culture. There must be transformation by their parents, teachers, and others into cultural and socially proficiently animals. The overall process of acquiring culture is referred to as socialization. During socialization, people learn the language of the culture they are born into, so as the roles they are to play in life. For instance, girls learn how to be daughters, wives, sisters, friends, and mothers. In addition, they learn about the occupational roles that their society has in store for them. People also learn and usually adopt culture's norms through the socialization process. Norms are the conceptions of appropriate and expected behavior that are held by most members of the society. While socialization refers to the general process of acquiring culture, anthropologists use the term enculturation during the socialization process to a particular culture. Early childhood is the period of the most intense and the most critical socialization. It is then that we acquire language and learn the fundamentals of our culture. It is also when much of one's personality takes shape. But, note that if one continue to be socialized throughout lifetime. As people age, we enter new statuses and need to learn the appropriate roles for them. We also have experiences that teach us lessons and potentially lead us to alter our expectations, beliefs, and personality. For instance, the unpleasant experience of being raped would tend to cause a woman to be distrustful of others. According to Stoffel and Moyers (2004), individuals with problem on substance abuse are often referred to occupational therapy with the help of professional that deals more on self care, productivity through purposeful activities to help achieve the client's full recovery. Occupational therapy is a therapeutic activity or workshop that provides real life experiences to enhance individual's personality uplift self and has a meaningful life by means of rehabilitation. The major role of occupational therapists is to help the client become a successful member of the society again by allowing individual to develop a healthy lifestyle and participate in therapeutic activities (Gerrie ter Haar and James J. Busuttil 2005). Gordon (2003) stated that individual should change old habits by learning new skills and living a balance life that changes addictive behaviors to positive lifestyle, which uniquely outfitted to occupational therapy. Occupational therapy teaches skills to establish individual's role in the community. The purpose is to help individual balance responsibilities through learning effective coping strategies can communicate effectively and can be able adjust to stressful situation. The therapists also evaluates the persons ability, helps formulate goals for the whole recovery process, and implement ways to help the client gain control if his life. The therapist also evaluates the adherence of individual to plans and find out strategies to prevent relapse. For the strategies to be effective, the family should also need to collaborate with the health care providers to be educated about substance abuse. Family members should also maintain a good relationship with the client, provide an alcohol-drug free environment, and healthy activities to prevent relapse and improve quality of life (American Occupational Therapy Association, Inc., 2008). Another point, the social health of individuals refers to the dimension of an individual's well-being that concerns how he gets along with other people, how other people react to him and how he interacts with social institutions and societal mores. This definition is broad it incorporates elements of personality and social skills, reflects social norms, and bears a close relationship to concepts such as well-being, adjustment, and social functioning. (Haw Hawe, P., and Shiell, A. 2000). In addition, social skills are a group of skills which people need to interact and communicate with others. Social rules and relations are created, communicated, and changed in verbal and nonverbal ways. The process of learning these skills is called socialization. Social skills are those communication, problem-solving, decision making, self-management, and peer relations abilities that allow one to initiate and maintain positive social relationships with others. Deficits or excesses in social behavior interfere with learning, teaching, and the classroom's orchestration and climate. Social competence is linked to peer acceptance, adult acceptance, and inclusion success and post school success (Castle, 2006). Socialization in the same manner, refers to the process of learning one's culture and how to live within it. For the individual it provides the skills and habits necessary for acting and participating within their society. For the society, inducting all individual members into its moral norms, attitudes, values, motives, social roles, language and symbols is the means by which social and cultural continuity are attained. Social Norms have been defined as the rules that a group uses for appropriate and inappropriate values, beliefs, attitudes and behaviors. These rules may be explicit or implicit. Failure to stick to the rules can result in severe punishments, the most feared of which is exclusion from the group. The social norms indicate the established and approved ways of doing things, of dress, of speech and of appearance, also known as self-esteem. Furthermore, self-esteem reflects a person's overall evaluation or appraisal of her or his own worth. Self-esteem encompasses beliefs and emotions. Self-esteem is the collection of beliefs or feelings we have about ourselves, our "self-perceptions."How we define ourselves influences our motivations, attitudes, and behaviors and affects our emotional adjustment. The concept of success following persistence starts early. As kids try, fail, try again, fail again, and then finally succeed, they develop ideas about their own capabilities. At the same time, they're creating a self-concept based on interactions with other people. This is why parental involvement is the key to helping kids form accurate, healthy self-perceptions. Self-esteem also can be defined as feelings of capability combined with feelings of being loved. A child who is happy with an achievement but does not feel loved may eventually experience low self-esteem. Likewise, a child who feels loved but is hesitant about his or her own abilities can also end up with low self-esteem. Healthy self-esteem comes when the right balance is reached. (Sheslow, 2005). Social Functioning is the most consistent predictor of children's social development through the early school years turns out to be the sensitivity of maternal behavior across the infant, toddler, and preschool years. Children's social and behavioral competencies and problems in the early grades are important indicators of both early and later school success. This study proposes to gather up-to-date information on the demographic profile of children in selected villages of Leeds, Yorkshire in UK and assess their social health. At the same time, come up with a recommendation appropriate for the improvement of children's social health status. This study is anchored on the theories of Fishein and Ajeen, who formulated the Theory of Reasoned Action. It was designed to explain not just health behaviors but also a volitional (willful) behavior. According to this theory, a person's intention to perform a specific behavior is a function of two factors, 1.) Attitude (positive or negative) toward the behavior and 2.) The influence of the social environment (general subjective norms) on the behavior. It is also supported by the idea taken from the Social Network Theory which explained that social environment and social ecology is important to support individual's motivation in changing lifestyle to have a better health and better quality of life. However, this behavioral change will solely depend on the individual's participation on the programs being implemented. Social networks can be the family support includes emotional support (listening and encouraging the person), instrumental support (offering real like time), informational support (advice, suggestions) and appraisal support which is affirming and giving feedback. This theory emphasized the necessity of socialization or social relationship to meet the goal of the strategies. Nevertheless, Person- Environment - Occupational Performance Model stresses the interaction between the individual and the environment as the point of occupational performance skills and an increased sense of health and well - being are the expected outcomes. Intervention would focus on the treatment activities similar to those in the Person- Environment Occupation Model, but would also include family education and identification of the said sports and networks. Stress in the children's life maybe contributed by occupational performance deficits that if improved, can help client to better adjust with life challenges. Group therapy strategy focused on development of occupational competence; such as in skills, stress management and development of work-related skills. Artworks made by teenagers may be effective occupational therapy, particularly the accessory making and home decor making as strategy in diverting the dilemma. Although the study cannot promise that old habits will drastically change into a healthy one through the proposed therapeutic activities, however, it can help them gain new knowledge with pleasure in making several worthwhile activities (Spring, 2008). Programs that are research based and that involves the community are valuable in educating the young people. The future findings of the study would be beneficial to the (1) Rugby-sniffing children, they will benefit from the said study because this will help improve their quality of life, sense of well being, free from harmful substances, and to achieve their developmental stage as teens; (2) Family, it can strengthen protective factors among young children by teaching parents better family communication, appropriate discipline styles, firm and consistent rule enforcement, and other family management approaches. It also confirms the benefits of parents talking to children about drugs, monitoring their activities, and being involved in learning; (3) Community, they can also benefit because it will help the community enhance anti-drug norms and pro-social behaviors as well as to lessen violence and crimes; and (4) Government and Private Health Institutions for they to acquire ideas for appropriate community extension services. Research Questions The study aims to assess the level of social health among children with low level of social health and appropriate for an appropriate occupational therapy program. Specifically, the study will provide answers to the following questions: 1. How can teenagers from the selected households of Leeds, West Yorkshire be characterized according to the following demographic profile 1.1 Age 1.2 Gender 1.3 Sources of family income 1.4 Family size 1.5 Status of living 1.6 Educational attainment 2. What is the level of social health among teenagers from the selected households of Leeds, West Yorkshire in terms of the following: 2.1 Social norms 2.2 Social skills 2.3 Social functioning 3. Is there a significant difference between the level of social health of teenagers from the selected households of Leeds, West Yorkshire when analyzed based on their: 3.1 Gender 3.2 Age 3.3 Family size 4. What occupational therapy program could be recommended for teenagers with low level of social health from the selected households of Leeds, West Yorkshire Hypotheses Ho1 : There is no significant difference in the level of social health among teenagers from the selected households of Leeds, West Yorkshire. Ho2 : There is no significant difference in the level of social health among teenagers from the selected households of Leeds, West Yorkshire when analyzed by age. Plan of Investigation Design of the Study The study will adopt the descriptive design-survey method. According to Relis (2002), this method is concerned with conditions of relationships that exist, practices that prevail, points of view or attitudes that helps processes that are going on; effects that are being felt; or trends that are developing. It describes with emphasis the actual existence of current condition, practices, situation, or any phenomena. Participants The number of participants will depend on the total teenage population in the selected selected households of Leeds, West Yorkshire. The study will be pursued upon the approval of the local government units, the parents of the teenagers and the teenagers themselves, who will all be given a letter of consent and request to participate in this study. From the teenagers responses the level of social health and only those who will garnered a score with "Low social health status" shall be included in the investigation. Ethical Considerations To ensure that the investigator adheres to the standards in research ethics, the following steps must be undertaken during the conduct of the entire research process: 1. Permission to the conduct of study in selected areas of Yorkshire must be properly sought from the government officials, the parents of the respondents both verbally and ion writing. 2. There must be an orientation for the concerned parents as well as teenagers about the entire research, particularly informing them about the study's objectives, purpose and contributions, utilization of data, respondents remuneration (if there is) or any form of benefits, the risks involved and others. 3. Government representatives, parents and the investigator should agree and must reflected on the Memorandum of Agreement and/or Letter of Consent that will have to signed by the concerned parties. Research Instruments The researchers used the interview guide containing 30 item questions. Questionnaires were formulated, validated, and pilot tested prior to actual administration or conduct. Variables like social norms, social skills and social functioning were the indicators used to assess and evaluate the level of social health among rugby sniffing children. In interpreting the results, the study made use of the Likert - scale using the following numerical representations: Scale Equivalent Description 5 Always Indicates that the situation described is happening all the time. 4 Often Indicates that the situation described is happening frequently or often times. 3 Sometimes Indicates that the situation described is happening sometimes or in many ways but not the majority of the case. 2 Seldom Indicates that the situation described is happening occasionally or at long interval of time. 1 Never Indicates that the situation described is never happening at all times. Bases of interpretation were described as follows: 4.21 - 5.00 Very high Indicates that the level of social health is very high 3.41 - 4.20 High Indicates that the level of social health is high 2.61 - 3.40 Moderate Indicates that the level of social health is moderate 1.81 - 2.60 Low Indicates that the level of social health is low 1.0 - 1.80 Very low Indicates that the level of social health is very low Data Analysis Mean, Weighted Mean, and t Test are the primary statistical tools which will be utilized to meaningfully interpret the data of the study. Data collation process will continue soon after the retrieval of questionnaires responded by the respondents. Every response of the participants will be checked, tallied and will be tabulated into a master data sheet. later, data will be treated for analysis using SPSS Software. Note that the items found in the questionnaire shall undergo validity and reliability tests by conducting item analysis and pilot testing prior to the administration process. Brief summary This study will assess the level of social health among of teenagers from the selected households of Leeds, West Yorkshire in UK and later will generate an effective occupational therapy program for them. Following the guidelines of ethics in research, teenagers will be recruited to participate in the in depth interview that will be conducted by the researcher. The occupational therapy program may recommended as diversion program in a form of therapeutic activities. Furthermore, health teachings about addictive drugs and their unwarranted results and deadly effects should be carried out with the community, parents and their children can also be facilitated. The government ought to support information dissemination and occupational therapy programs for teenagers who have low social health, in collaboration with academic institutions and other health affiliates. Appendix A: Sample Questionnaire Instruction: Please read the following items carefully by supplying the needed information or checking the box that corresponds to your answer as described below. Please be guided with the following parameters. A. Demographic Profile: Name (optional): ________________________________- Gender: ___F____M Age______ Monthly Income of Parents: [ ] P 1-P5000 [ ] P10, 001- above [ ] P 5001-10000 Family Size: [ ] 3 members [ ] 4 members [ ] 5 members [ ] 6 members [ ] 7members [ ] more than 7 Educational Background: [ ] Elementary [ ] Elementary Graduate [ ] High School [ ] High School Graduate Status of Living: [ ] Intact / Living with family [ ] Living with guardians [ ] Living with relatives [ ] Independent living [ ] Broken family B: Social Health Instruction: Please read each statement and put a check () mark on the response most appropriate for you. Please answer it honestly as possible. Your answer will be based on the following scales: Scale Descriptive Equivalent Description 5 - Always Indicates that the situation described is happening all the time. 4 - Often Indicates that the situation described is happening frequently or often times. 3 - Sometimes Indicates that the situation described is happening sometimes or in many ways but not the majority of the case. 2 - Seldom Indicates that the situation described is happening occasionally or at long interval of time. 1 - Never Indicates that the situation described is never happening at all times. Social Norms: 5 4 3 2 1 1. I prefer to be with others. 2. I believe I can do the things that others can do. 3. I listen to appraisals, either positive or negative. 4. Realizing the criticisms towards me, makes my life go on. 5. Failing at any one thing makes me stronger as a person. 6. I am confident, smart and skilled as I should be. 7. As I look back on my life, I am fairly satisfied. 8. I am just as happy as when I was younger. 9. I expect some interesting and pleasant things to happen to me. 10. When people criticize my shortcomings, I take in good humor and do not try to get back at them. Social Skills 1. I get along very well with my peers. 2. My peers seem to like having me around. 3. I have made plans for things I'll be doing in month or year. 4. When problems go my way, I think of solutions critically. 5. When I try to influence people, I make a great effort not to offend them 6. I can manage my time to finish the things I really want 7. I feel confident of my ability to deal with most of the personal problems I am likely to meet in life. 8. When I have a decision to make, I ask for advices. 9. When things go wrong, I ask help from my friend. 10. Someday, I will be good in doing the things that I really care about. Social Functioning 1. As a child, pleasing my parents is very important. 2. I believe that how other people treat me, makes a difference in how much I like myself. 3. Other people think I am fun to be with. 4. My parents are proud of the kind of person I am. 5. I am an important person to my family. 6. My parents believe that I will be a successful one in the future. 7. My teachers are usually happy with the kind of work I do. 8. My parents feel that I can be depended on. 9. When people point out my mistakes, I feel challenged and determined. 10. People would still respect and accept me even if I fail. Works Cited American Occupational Therapy Association, Inc., (2008) 'Occupational therapy', Occupational Therapy Guidelines, Bethesda, MD, 4720 Montgomery Lane. Castle, L. (2006) 'Drug trends, costs, and primary care', Internal Medicine World Report, Sept. 2006; p 1. Gerrie, T. H. and Busuttil, J.J. (2005), 'Bridge or Barrier: Religion, Violence and Visions for Peace', Brill, Leiden, 2005, p. 7. Gordon, P. (2003) 'Running fast and injury free', The Times, 1992. Leedsinitiative.org, (2009) 'Children leeds', Accessed Jun 01, 2009 Moyers, P. A. & Stoffel, V. C. (2001). Community-based approaches for substance use disorders. In M. Scaffa (ed.). Occupational therapy in community-based practice settings (pp. 318-342). Philadelphia: F. A. Davis. Sheslow, D. (2005). Developing your child's self-esteem. Retrieved September 12, 2006 from http://www.kidshealth.org/parent/emotions/feelings/self_esteem.html Read More