1,720,956 research outputs found
Community-based primary care approaches to supporting families of children with developmental disabilities: Experts’ perspectives using the capabilities framework
No full textBackground: Families raising children with developmental disabilities face complex, interconnected challenges requiring coordinated support across multiple professional domains. While interdisciplinary collaboration is widely endorsed in policy and practice guidelines, significant knowledge gaps exist regarding how healthcare professionals operationalise these collaborative approaches in real-world settings.Methods: A qualitative study was conducted using individual semi-structured interviews with 12 experts representing diverse disciplines. The study was grounded in the Capabilities Approach as both a theoretical lens and a methodological framework. Data were analysed using Braun and Clarke’s six-step thematic analysis, with the Capabilities Approach framework informing each analytical phase.Results: Five major themes emerged from the capability-guided analysis: facilitating emotional transformation, building system navigation competence, creating inclusive participation opportunities, strengthening family functioning and fostering adaptive identity development. Across all themes, participants consistently emphasised three critical mechanisms for effective interdisciplinary support: coordinated care delivery as capability enhancement, comprehensive emotional support as capability development and whole-family capability strengthening interventions.Conclusion: The findings highlight the significance of interdisciplinary approaches informed by the Capabilities Approach in providing comprehensive support for parents of children with developmental disabilities. Rather than traditional deficit-focused models, participants systematically described how they enhance family capabilities by functioning as capability facilitators who orchestrate conversion factors, build emotional capabilities while respecting family agency and create environmental modifications that expand family possibilities.Contribution: This study contributes a novel capability-focused framework for understanding interdisciplinary collaboration in developmental disability support, moving beyond traditional service coordination models to emphasise systematic capability enhancement approaches that build sustainable family strengths across multiple domains simultaneously
Caregiver capabilities: Healthcare interventions for children with developmental disabilities
No full textBackground: Developmental disabilities (DDs) involve impairments affecting children's abilities, impacting development and necessitating specialised care. Many caregivers face challenges caring for these children, lacking access to supportive healthcare interventions. Addressing this issue aligns with United Nations (UN) goals for ensuring access to quality services for children with disabilities and their caregivers. Objectives: This study aimed to systematically review and synthesise evidence on healthcare interventions enhancing caregiver capabilities for children with DDs, identifying intervention types, components and effectiveness. Method: Our systematic review analysed peer-reviewed English-language studies from 2014 to 2024, focusing on interventions for caregivers of children with DDs. The review investigated healthcare interventions designed to enhance caregiver capabilities across diverse cultural contexts, examining international research to understand strategies supporting caregivers of children with DDs. Results: We found significant improvements in caregiver well-being through five interventions. Parent education reduces stress and improves parenting. Peer support decreased isolation while counselling enhanced family functioning. Condition-specific interventions increased intervention adherence among minorities. Combined interventions showed strong positive effects, especially when tailored. Comprehensive programmes greatly improved caregiver quality of life. Further research is needed for underserved communities and culturally adaptive interventions. Conclusion: Our review indicates potential positive parental impacts with limited evidence. Small samples warrant future research using larger studies, emphasising rigorous methods, cultural adaptation and diverse community representation. Contribution: Our review identifies promising intervention types and highlights the need for further research to optimise caregiver support and promote access to quality services
Strengthening Parental Capabilities: Examining the Role of Interdisciplinary Support in Enhancing Parental Well-Being and Capabilities in Developmental Disability Care
No full textPurpose: The purpose of this study was to explore parents’ lived experiences raising children with developmental disabilities (DDs), examine their emotional and physical challenges, and investigate the role of interdisciplinary support in strengthening parental capabilities. Materials and Methods: A qualitative descriptive study was conducted using two focus groups (n = 23 parents). Data were analyzed using Braun and Clarke’s six-step thematic analysis. Results: Five major themes emerged: (1) acceptance and emotional journey, (2) healthcare system navigation challenges, (3) educational and community integration barriers, (4) the development of coping strategies and support systems, and (5) resilience and positive growth. Parents reported significant emotional challenges but demonstrated remarkable resilience when supported by comprehensive care systems. Conclusions: The findings highlight the need for integrated support systems that address both the practical and emotional needs of parents raising children with DDs. Healthcare providers and community stakeholders must work collaboratively to create more inclusive and supportive environments for these families
Assessment of SDG 3 Research Priorities and COVID-19 Recovery Pathways: A Case Study from University of the Western Cape, South Africa
No full textThe COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted the progress toward Sustainable Development Goal 3, particularly in developing countries, exacerbating existing health disparities and creating new challenges for health systems worldwide. This study explores the role of university research in advancing SDG 3 targets in a post-pandemic context using the University of the Western Cape as a case study. Through qualitative data analysis of research titles and abstracts registered between 2020 and 2022, we applied the WHERETO model of McTighe and Bloom’s Taxonomy to categorize research according to the SDG 3 targets and indicators. This approach provides insight into which health priorities were addressed through scholarly research at UWC in alignment with the UN 2030 Agenda, particularly during pandemic recovery. Our findings indicate that research priorities largely corresponded with South Africa’s health challenges, with the highest concentration of studies addressing non-communicable diseases and mental health (Target 3.4), infectious diseases (Target 3.3), and medicine development (Target 3.b). These priorities align with the National Health Research Committee’s identified health priorities for disadvantaged communities in the Western Cape. Notably, research on mental health and emergency preparedness (Target 3.d) increased significantly during the pandemic period, reflecting shifting priorities in response to COVID-19. This study offers critical insights into how university research shifted priorities adapted during the pandemic and identifies areas requiring focused attention to support post-pandemic recovery. By highlighting research gaps and opportunities, our findings provide a foundation for developing more comprehensive approaches to health research that address the disparities exacerbated by COVID-19 while advancing the 2030 agenda. This model could inform research prioritization at other institutions facing similar challenges in both local and global contexts
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Full text linkThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Variations on the Author
Full text link“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis
Full text linkWe provide a number of new insights into the methodological discussion about author cocitation analysis. We first argue that the use of the Pearson correlation for measuring the similarity between authors’ cocitation profiles is not very satisfactory. We then discuss what kind of similarity measures may be used as an alternative to the Pearson correlation. We consider three similarity measures in particular. One is the well-known cosine. The other two similarity measures have not been used before in the bibliometric literature. Finally, we show by means of an example that our findings have a high practical relevance.information science;Pearson correlation;cosine;similarity measure;author cocitation analysis
Dispelling the Myths Behind First-author Citation Counts
Full text linkWe conducted a full-scale evaluative citation analysis study of scholars in the XML research field to explore just how different from each other author rankings resulting from different citation counting methods actually are, and to demonstrate the capability of emerging data and tools on the Web in supporting more realistic citation counting methods. Our results contest some common arguments for the continued
use of first-author citation counts in the evaluation of scholars, such as high correlations between author rankings by first-author citation counts and other citation
counting methods, and high costs of using more realistic citation counting methods that are not well-supported by the ISI databases. It is argued that increasingly available digital full text research papers make it possible for citation analysis studies to go beyond what the ISI databases have directly supported and to employ more
sophisticated methods
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