Browsing by Person "Shaw, KL"
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Item The Prevocational and Early Employment Needs of Adolescents with Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis: The Adolescent Perspective(SAGE Publications, 2006) Shaw, KL; Hackett, Janine; Southwood, TR; McDonagh, JEThe purpose of this study was to explore the prevocational needs of adolescents with juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA) from their own perspectives. A focus group discussion was undertaken with eight adolescents with JIA (14.2–16.6 years) attending one United Kingdom hospital. The topics of interest were (i) attitudes towards education, prevocational readiness and employment in relation to JIA; (ii) perceived barriers; (iii) coping strategies; and (iv) preferred sources of support. The data were analysed according to standardised procedures that included data reduction, data display, conclusion drawing and conclusion verifying. The provision of vocational support for young people with JIA was reported to be uncoordinated, limited and unresponsive to individual needs. A recurrent theme was that professionals generally underestimated adolescents' educational and vocational potential. This was felt to be true of teachers, careers advisers, admissions personnel at colleges and universities and potential employers. Most adolescents worried about discrimination and those in whom the JIA was not visible felt a dilemma about disclosure to potential employers. The current framework of careers advice appeared to have failed the adolescents in this study who, in the absence of satisfactory support, found themselves consulting health professionals instead. Greater careers advice support for adolescents and professionals is warranted.Item The Prevocational and Early Employment Needs of Adolescents with Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis: The Occupational Therapy Perspective(SAGE Publications, 2006) Shaw, KL; Hackett, Janine; Southwood, TR; McDonagh, JEThe purpose of the study was to explore the prevocational needs of adolescents with juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA) from the perspective of occupational therapists and to examine the role of occupational therapy in addressing these. A questionnaire was distributed to members of occupational therapy organisations (n = 494) to assess the perceived importance of addressing prevocational issues for adolescents with JIA and the respondents' knowledge, confidence and perceived role. The questionnaire was completed by 175 (35.4%) individuals. The results showed that although the occupational therapists felt that they were an appropriate profession to address the vocational needs of adolescents, they reported limited knowledge and confidence to do so. Significant unmet training needs were highlighted. This study echoes previous calls for vocational issues to be addressed within adolescent rheumatology and provides evidence that occupational therapy is well placed to coordinate this area of need.