News & events

Events

Feats of Family Functioning in a Public Sector Anti-Retroviral Treatment Programme in the Free State Province

15 November 2011
12:00 - 13:30

Date :

15 November 2011

Time :

12:00 – 13:30

Presenter :

Professor Frikkie Booysen, University of the Free State

 

Support within family networks is a well-recognized strength in assisting individuals and families cope with challenges of ill health, particularly in the case of chronic, life-long diseases. In the era of anti-retroviral treatment (ART), the scale-up of which continues at pace, including in South Africa, which has the world’s largest treatment programme, HIV/AIDS has been transformed into a chronic condition for people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA).

A greater understanding of families’ role in effective and sustainable ARV treatment programmes is particularly important in the context of UNAIDS’s new Treatment 2.0 response to the epidemic, especially its fifth pillar, community mobilization. This paper explores the potential role of inter-temporal shifts in perceptions of actual-ideal family functioning and of family and family change types as adaptive-like antecedents and/or consequences of key dimensions of ARV treatment success. Data on the Family Attachment and Changeability Index (FACI8) were collected from adult ART clients and other adult household members enrolled in the Effective Aids Treatment and Support in the Free State (FEATS) study, a three-year longitudinal cohort study of public sector ART clients conducted in Free State province during 2007-10. Based on preliminary results from descriptive, bivariate and multi-variate statistical and econometric analyses, recommendations are put forward regarding the potential role of family-focused social work interventions as part of comprehensive, integrated global responses to HIV/AIDS at the national, regional and global levels.

Born in Namibia, Professor Frikkie Booysen holds a PhD in Economics from the University of Stellenbosch. He is attached to the Department of Economics, the Centre for Health Systems Research & Development (CHSR&D) and the Centre for Development Support (CDS) at the University of Free State (UFS). His fields of speciality are development and health economics, with a special focus on poverty and health and socio-economic impacts of HIV and AIDS, as well as applied research methods, methodology of Economics and quantitative research synthesis. He has published in various national and international scientific journals and received a Fulbright Scholarship in 2010-11, during which he was hosted by The RAND Corporation in Santa Monica and Bryn Mawr College, Philadelphia.

Kindly RSVP by 11 November 2011

Venues

Cape Town: HSRC, 12th Floor, Plein Park Building (Opposite Revenue Office), Plein Street, Cape Town. Contact Vuyokazi Ngxubaza, Tel +27 (0) 21 466 8004, Fax (021) 461 0299, or VNgxubaza@hsrc.ac.za, Cell: +27 (0) 82 050 8453 
 
Durban: First floor HSRC board room, 750 Francois Road, Ntuthuko Junction, Pods 5 and 6, Cato Manor, Contact Ridhwaan Khan, Tel +27 (0) 31 242 5400, cell: 083 788 2786 or RKhan@hsrc.ac.za

Pretoria: HSRC Video Conference, 1st floor HSRC Library Human Sciences Research Council, 134 Pretorius Street, Pretoria. Arlene Grossberg, Tel: +27 (0) 12 302 2811, e-mail: acgrossberg@hsrc.ac.za