OBJECTIVES

This study investigates the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on social service accessibility for persons with disabilities in the Philippines, with a focus on disability related opportunity costs and out-of-pocket expenses.

A mixed-methods approach was employed, combining both qualitative and quantitative data collection techniques. Focus group discussions (FGDs) and interviews were conducted to gather qualitative insights, while quantitative analysis, utilizing one-sample t-tests, was used to assess the impact of the pandemic on key areas such as income, access to essential goods, employment, healthcare, mental health, and social support.

Using a mixed-methods approach, data were collected from 141 participants. Qualitative insights highlighted that 89% of participants reported negative effects on daily living conditions due to rising costs and limited access to necessities. Parents of children with disabilities indicated that early childhood care and development services were adversely affected by school closures, and transitioning to online learning posed significant barriers, with 62% lacking access to training and resources. While many participants had access to healthcare, lockdowns exacerbated disability-related opportunity costs, complicating access to routine care. Quantitative data findings were analyzed through one-sample t-tests to assess the impact of COVID-19 on various aspects of daily life, including income, access to essential goods, employment status, healthcare access, mental health, and social support. Findings revealed significant challenges, with an average income decrease rating of 7.39, reflecting substantial financial loss. Ratings for access to essential goods and healthcare services also averaged 7.39, while employment status was rated at 7.82, indicating instability. Mental health impacts averaged 7.13, and social support was rated at 7.42, underscoring inadequacies during this crisis.

Overall, the study emphasizes the urgent need for targeted interventions and inclusive responses in emergency planning to mitigate the pandemic's disproportionate impact on this marginalized group in the Philippines.

OBJECTIVES: To use focus-group interviews (FGI) to determine the current state of the Korean mental health service delivery system, inter-agency patient links, and identify associated problems. METHODS: The FGI were conducted by seven workers from psychiatric rehabilitation centers and community mental health centers and seven social workers from mental health hospitals. RESULTS: Within the mental health service delivery system, disconnection of the community network after discharge is considered a serious problem. The following improvement proposals are suggested : 1) the control tower should govern the community network after discharge, 2) consider insurance costs during activation of hospital links, and 3) expand information sharing related to community social facilities. With regard to non-voluntary admission and long-term hospitalization, most focus group members considered the revolving-door phenomenon to be more serious than non-voluntary admission. In order to prevent unnecessary long-term hospitalization, the FGI results indicated that the government should proactively intervene in the admission/discharge process. In addition, the following improvement proposals were suggested : 1) functional activation of the mental health review board via the reinforcement of workers' expertise, 2) expansion of local mental health centers, and 3) undertake institutional changes related to the family-related issue of preferring hospitalization over a stay at a secure facility. CONCLUSION: For the government to improve the efficiency of the mental health service delivery system, it is necessary to improve institutional linkages, expand mental health infrastructure, and develop an integrated management system.
Community Mental Health Centers ; Community Networks ; Focus Groups ; Hospitalization ; Humans ; Information Dissemination ; Insurance ; Mental Health Services* ; Mental Health* ; Psychiatric Rehabilitation ; Social Work ; Social Workers

Literature produced by the government and the private sector in the colonial era was reviewed to determine the knowledge of the people of colonial Chosun of mental illness and mental patients and the mental patient management system that they implemented or intended to implement. The results of this study show that the people of Chosun realized the need to sterilize mental patients because they considered mental patients very violent, dangerous and eugenically inferior and they believed that mental patients would eventually impede the prosperity of Chosun. The people of colonial Chosun had learned about the lifelong mental hygiene movement, which had knowledge of mental illness prevention. However, they also recognized that people who developed mental illness despite efforts to prevent such condition needed help from the modern system, especially from modern Western psychiatry. The primary responsibility to attend to mental patients was imposed on their family. The family had to understand the symptoms of mental illness according to the modern medical classification and how to deal with them. When the family could not afford to take care of its mentally ill family member due to the increase in the member's risk behavior such as frenzied-convulsive excitement, paranoia and delusion of jealousy, the family was also responsible for isolating him and connecting him with a mental hospital. The police and social workers were also responsible for observing and monitoring mental patients in their community and for connecting them with a mental hospital. The police made a list of mental patients within their area of jurisdiction and prohibited them from wandering based on the law. It was also considered desirable for mental patients who could not identify their family members to be sent to a mental hospital. Social workers were responsible for managing mental patient sanatoriums, and district commissioners sent to the police mental patients who had no family to look after them or who posed a threat to others, or else commissioned them to the government hospital. Thus, the final responsibility for mental patients was imposed on the modern Western medical team, because the district commissioners sent them to the police and the police sent them to the government mental hospital. Most educated people and government personnel in the colonial era thought modern Western psychiatry circles were responsible for mental patient management, and the Japanese empire enacted mental-health-related laws and made efforts to secure funds for the establishment of mental hospitals. As the literature at that time also show the position of the modern Western medical circle, their ambivalent attitude to mental patients must also be clarified to interpret the modern approach to treating mental patients in colonial Chosun. In this context, a research on historical figures in Japanese psychiatry, a study on the specific treatment methods used by the modern Western psychiatric team in the colonial era and their effects, and the extension of the subject period for such researches are suggested.
Asian Continental Ancestry Group ; Delusions ; Eugenics ; Financial Management ; Hospitals, Psychiatric ; Humans ; Jealousy ; Jurisprudence ; Mental Health ; Mentally Ill Persons ; Paranoid Disorders ; Police ; Private Sector ; Risk-Taking ; Social Work

OBJECTIVES: Although impulsivity has long been thought as an important factor influencing suicidal behaviors, it is unknown whether impulsivity increases the risk of dying from suicidal behaviors and what specific component among constructs of impulsivity contributes to the risk of dying among suicide attempters. METHODS: To elucidate the association between impulsivity and medical lethality of suicide attempt among suicide attempters, we consecutively recruited 46 suicide attempters who visited an emergency room of a general hospital located in a metropolitan area, Seoul, Republic of Korea, due to suicide attempts and consented to participate in this study. Then we assessed medical lethality with the Beck Lethality Scale (LS) and impulsivity with the Korean version of the Barratt Impulsiveness Scale-11-Revised (BIS). Demographic variables were obtained from medical records and structured social work reports for suicide attempters. RESULTS: Although total scores of the BIS did not correlate with LS scores, only the scores of self-control, that is one of the Barret's six theoretical constructs of impulsivity in which the higher score indicates less self-control and more impulsivity, had a significant positive correlation with scores of LS (p = 0.003). The association remained significant after adjusting for variables known to affect suicide lethality such as job status, recent alcohol consumption, diagnosis of depressive disorders, and having a plan for suicide (β = 0.429, p = 0.009). CONCLUSIONS: Not impulsivity in general, but poor self-control, in particular, predicts lethal suicidal behaviors among suicide attempters. The degree of self-control should be evaluated when assessing patients with elevated suicide risk, and proper measures should be installed to prevent possible future lethal suicide attempts.
Alcohol Drinking ; Depressive Disorder ; Diagnosis ; Emergency Service, Hospital ; Hospitals, General ; Humans ; Impulsive Behavior* ; Medical Records ; Republic of Korea ; Self-Control ; Seoul ; Social Work ; Suicide* ; Suicide, Attempted ; Trauma Severity Indices

PURPOSE: The main purpose of this study was to describe the relationship of mothers' parenting attitude as perceived by the child to self-esteem, and school adjustment of school age children with Tetrology of Fallot (TOF). METHODS: In this study a self-administered questionnaire survey was used to collect the data. The participants included 38 children who were registered in a pediatric cardiology clinic in one tertiary medical center. Their ages were between 11 and 15 years. They were diagnosed with TOF, and had no other congenital problems. Data were collected from November 1 to November 30, 2009. After obtaining telephone consent from the mothers and children, questionnaires were mailed to 64 participants and 38 questionnaires were returned. Data were analyzed using Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) WIN 15.0 version. RESULTS: There was a significant correlation between perceived parenting attitude, self-esteem, and school adjustment of children with TOF. CONCLUSION: Children who perceive their mothers' parenting attitude to be more positive also report higher self-esteem and better school adjustment. These findings are similar to other studies done with healthy school age children. However, parents of children with TOF may require different parenting approaches to foster positive self-esteem and school adjustment.
Cardiology ; Child ; Heart ; Heart Diseases ; Humans ; Mothers ; Parenting ; Parents ; Postal Service ; Social Adjustment ; Social Sciences ; Telephone ; Child Health ; Surveys and Questionnaires

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of emotional labor and organizational justice on organizational socialization of emergency room nurses. METHODS: This study was done over a 4 month period, with 185 emergency room nurses from general and tertiary hospitals in 2 regions of Korea. The nurses completed self-report questionnaires from August 20 to September 30, 2015. The data from the self-report questionnaires were analyzed using descriptive statistics, independent t-test, one way ANOVA, Pearson correlation coefficients, and Hierachial multiple regression analysis with the IBM SPSS 21.0 program. RESULTS: The significant predictors of organizational socialization for the emergency room nurses were procedural justice (β=.38), emotional labor (β=.−23) and distributive justice (β=.19). These variables explained 54% of the variance in organizational socialization of emergency room nurses. CONCLUSION: The results indicate that it is necessary to formulate a plan for enhancing procedural justice and distributive justice, and for decreasing emotional labor.
Emergencies* ; Emergency Service, Hospital* ; Korea ; Social Justice* ; Socialization* ; Tertiary Care Centers

Currently, dietary life in Korea is rapidly changing. New food from other countries introduced to the diet with changing economic and social environment. The number of meals away from home is increasing. Also, number of students who served by the school food service are increasing. In this paper, the menu in the school food service are compared between 1995 and 2001. Analysis was done to see changes in the use of Korean traditional foods. Between July, 2001 and August, 2001, by mail 103 schools were surveyed to analyzed menu. Menu from 2001 survey are compared with menu from 1995 survey. The results are following; 1) New menus are introduced in 2001 compared with 1995. 2) The number of menu using animal foods are increasing in 2001. 3) Among cooking methods, stir frying, and deep frying, are used more in 2001 than that of 1995. 4) The number of Korean dish served are decreased in 2001. 5) Students favorite dish are changed. Students like dishes cooked with deep frying method and western foods. With these results, menu of school food services become more westernized and using more frying methods because of students' taste preference. These trend are not recommendable for the students health, because it is known that Korean traditional dishes are more healthful. There should be more research and effort to keep Korean tranditional foods in the menu of the school food service for students health.
Animals ; Cooking ; Diet ; Food Services* ; Humans ; Korea ; Meals ; Postal Service ; Social Environment

The objectives of this study are (1) to examine the training and working conditions of residents after revision of the 'Regulations on Specialist Training and Accreditation,' (2) to determine the causes of problems with these training and working conditions, and (3) to seek improvement in these conditions. A questionnaire survey was conducted over two weeks. A total of 10,768 respondents and 1,793 valid responses were analyzed. Although revised regulations had been implemented, training conditions did not appear to have undergone any improvements. 52.9% of residents work over 80 hours per week and 27.1% respondents exceeded 100 hours per week. 76.9% of respondents indicated that they exceed the maximum continuous training time of 36 hours. 64.5% of respondents said their emergency room training time was over 12 hours. 25.4% of respondents' duty days exceeded three days a week. 34.7% of respondents said that they had less than three days off per month. The proportion of those with annual leave under 14 days is 70.2%. For substantive improvements in training and working conditions, new plans must consider practical factors in the implementation of improvements. This requires a governance structure based on participation, and an independent, objective training evaluation organization should be established to perform a reliable assessment. Above all, the government financial compensation plan must prepare for improving the training environment.
Compensation and Redress ; Education ; Emergency Service, Hospital ; Social Control, Formal ; Specialization ; Surveys and Questionnaires

This study describes the relation of physician's income and price of medical service and social welfare through microeconomic view, reviews the literature of influencing factor on physician's income, and it describes general distribution of physician's income, and analyzes influencing factor of physician's income. A total of 844 persons responded to the mail survey, through stratified sampling by 23 branches of medical society in Korean RBRVS study. The design of the study is cross sectional study, and the unit of analysis is a physician. To examine the change of average income per month, multiple regression was used to test the change according to physician's characteristics, demographic characteristics, scale of clinic(or hospital), average intensity of ordinary work, and specialty. The major findings of this study are as follows; 1. As for self-employed physicians, the difference of average income per month among specialties was 4,850,000won, but the difference was 6,020,000won under the control of control variables, and average income per month was significantly higher for physicians who had sick-beds than physicians who had no sick-beds. 2. The number of average out-patients per month and number of nurses and nursing aides significantly positively associated, but the number of physician significantly negatively associated with average income per month. In conclusion, the number of out-patient and number of nurses and nursing aides is the major influencing factor, and the difference of average income per month among specialties existed in self-employed physicians. So this study suggests basic hypothesis that the price of medical service and supply of physician by specialties are not pertinent. Being a cross-sectional study, this study can not suggest causal explanations. In the future, further study is needed for causal explanations.
Cross-Sectional Studies ; Humans ; Nursing ; Outpatients ; Postal Service ; Social Welfare ; Societies, Medical

This paper applies a qualitative perspective and method to a highly quantitative dataset. Data on 4275 consecutive patients with sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) who reported to the Daru General Hospital STD Clinic between 1980 and 1992 are critically examined. Prevailing public health approaches to the epidemiology of STDs presume a linguistic, social, cognitive and geographical fixity to both STDs and the people whom they afflict in ways that are empirically unsound. Some of the problems of and some of the problems with the presentation and treatment of gonorrhoea, syphilis and donovanosis are discussed. Because Daru is characterized by high levels of sexual violence, low levels of condom usage and a deeply entrenched sex industry, this total of 4275 is surely a dramatic under-accounting. In particular it misses the embodied, highly gendered nature of disease. Male and female STD Clinic patients appear to think about, feel and report their problems in greatly different ways.
STD brand of sodium tetradecyl sulfate ; Clinic ; SOCIAL ; Public health service ; Study of epidemiology