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Community participation and the right to health for people with disability: a qualitative study into Health Committees' understanding and practise of their governance role in relation to disability
Includes bibliographical references
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| Other Authors: | |
| Format: | Thesis |
| Language: | English |
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Department of Public Health and Family Medicine
2016
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| _version_ | 1867613237353119744 |
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| access_status_str | Open Access |
| author | Abrahams, Theodore William John |
| author2 | Haricharan, Hanne Jensen |
| author_browse | Abrahams, Theodore William John Haricharan, Hanne Jensen |
| author_facet | Haricharan, Hanne Jensen Abrahams, Theodore William John |
| author_sort | Abrahams, Theodore William John |
| collection | Thesis |
| description | Includes bibliographical references |
| format | Thesis |
| id | oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/16435 |
| institution | University of Cape Town (South Africa) |
| language | eng |
| last_indexed | 2026-06-10T12:32:57.328Z |
| license_str | Not specified — see source repository |
| provenance_str_mv | Harvested via OAI-PMH from UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository |
| publishDate | 2016 |
| publishDateRange | 2016 |
| publishDateSort | 2016 |
| publisher | Department of Public Health and Family Medicine |
| publisherStr | Department of Public Health and Family Medicine |
| record_format | dspace |
| source_str | UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository |
| spelling | oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/16435 Community participation and the right to health for people with disability: a qualitative study into Health Committees' understanding and practise of their governance role in relation to disability Abrahams, Theodore William John Haricharan, Hanne Jensen London, Leslie Health Systems Delivery of health care Health Economics Community participation Health Committees Disability Rights Includes bibliographical references BACKGROUND: People with disabilities encounter major barriers that prevent them realising their right to health in South Africa. Health committees are legislated structures for community participation in health at a local level. This study investigated how health committee members understand and practise their role in community participation and how this advances the right to health for persons with disability. METHODS: A qualitative study was conducted with three health committees in the Cape Town Metropole in the Western Cape province of South Africa purposively selected for the study. Three facility managers and eight health committee members took part in focus group discussions and semi-structured interviews, supplemented by participant observations of committee meetings. Additionally, semi-structured interviews were conducted with 2 disability activists. These methods were used to gain a rich understanding of health committees’ roles and practises in relation to persons with disabilities. Thematic analysis was used to analyse the data. RESULTS: The main research findings were: (i) health committees did not prioritise disability on their respective agendas; (ii) persons with disabilities were not adequately represented on health committees; (iii) health committees exhibited poor understanding of disability barriers relating to health; (iv) lack of egalitarian values led to persons with disabilities not trusting the health committee, and distrust amongst health committee members; lastly (v) health committees augment health facility operations instead of fulfilling their governance and oversight function. These factors may have contributed to health committees not helping to advance the right to health for persons with disabilities. CONCLUSIONS: Health committees should include mandated representation of persons with disabilities, whilst addressing marginalisation directed toward persons with disabilities on committees. Training of health committees, as well as networking with disabled organisations, could help improve their limited understanding of disability. Health committees should consider addressing disability a human rights issue, which critically involves community mobilisation, raising awareness around issues of disability and promoting agency amongst persons with disabilities to claim their rights. 2016-01-19T12:16:06Z 2016-01-19T12:16:06Z 2015 Master Thesis Masters MPH http://hdl.handle.net/11427/16435 eng application/pdf Department of Public Health and Family Medicine Faculty of Health Sciences University of Cape Town |
| spellingShingle | Health Systems Delivery of health care Health Economics Community participation Health Committees Disability Rights Abrahams, Theodore William John Community participation and the right to health for people with disability: a qualitative study into Health Committees' understanding and practise of their governance role in relation to disability |
| thesis_degree_str | Master's |
| title | Community participation and the right to health for people with disability: a qualitative study into Health Committees' understanding and practise of their governance role in relation to disability |
| title_full | Community participation and the right to health for people with disability: a qualitative study into Health Committees' understanding and practise of their governance role in relation to disability |
| title_fullStr | Community participation and the right to health for people with disability: a qualitative study into Health Committees' understanding and practise of their governance role in relation to disability |
| title_full_unstemmed | Community participation and the right to health for people with disability: a qualitative study into Health Committees' understanding and practise of their governance role in relation to disability |
| title_short | Community participation and the right to health for people with disability: a qualitative study into Health Committees' understanding and practise of their governance role in relation to disability |
| title_sort | community participation and the right to health for people with disability a qualitative study into health committees understanding and practise of their governance role in relation to disability |
| topic | Health Systems Delivery of health care Health Economics Community participation Health Committees Disability Rights |
| url | http://hdl.handle.net/11427/16435 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT abrahamstheodorewilliamjohn communityparticipationandtherighttohealthforpeoplewithdisabilityaqualitativestudyintohealthcommitteesunderstandingandpractiseoftheirgovernanceroleinrelationtodisability |