B08 - last change: 17-01-2007
BOBCATSSS 2008
Providing Access to Information for Everyone
| Speakers | |
|---|---|
|
Ncamsile Nombulelo Dlamini |
|
Maritha Snyman |
| Schedule | |
|---|---|
| Day | 2 |
| Room | Donat Exhibition Area |
| Start time | 16:00 |
| Duration | 01:30 |
| Info | |
| ID | 118 |
| Event type | Poster |
| Track | Poster |
| Language | English |
Adapting messages to suit the information needs and cultural profile of patients with schizophrenic:
a South African case study
Background
South Africa is a multilingual, multicultural country with more than eleven official languages and big educational and economic inequalities. These differences are pertinent barriers that often obstruct communication in the country. Overcoming these barriers also complicates the communication of health communication in South Africa as can be seen in the struggle to curb the HIV/AIDS epidemic in South Africa. Under these circumstances the communication of health messages to mentally patients is an ever bigger challenge.
Purpose
To adapt externally produced schizophrenia information material (The Alliance Programme) for the effective dissemination of information to a specific group of South African patients suffering from schizophrenia.
• This study is a joint venture between the Department of Psychiatry and the Department of Information Science at the University of Pretoria in South Africa. It was conducted at the Weskoppies hospital in Pretoria among Thswana speaking patients suffering from schizophrenia. • This study focuses specifically on how the existing Alliance Programme was adapted with regard to content, language and design
to render it culturally compatible with the Tshwana speaking patients suffering from of schizophrenia at the Weskoppies psychiatric hospital.
Methods used for the study
Since this study’s main aim was to evaluate and adapt the Alliance Programme (developed in the USA) to make it more suitable for the South African context, a formative research design was implemented. Usability testing was chosen as the research method.
Findings From the findings of this study, it seems that research participants in “Group B”: • had a much greater understanding of the information communicated to them compared to research participants in “Group A”; • appreciated and liked the schizophrenia information classes they attended better than the research participants in “Group A”.
Conclusions
The adapted messages produced by an audience participatory message design did improve the patients’ reception of the information. Messages should either be adapted or created to suit the needs of a specific audience.