Abstract:
The point to which caregivers are satisfied with the care they receive for themselves
and their children from the health professionals, has increasingly become an issue for all
stakeholders concerned with improving health outcomes. The Salvation Army Community
Rehabilitation and Orthopaedic Centre Agona–Duakwa, provides rehabilitation services to
children with cerebral palsy and for their caregivers. These caregivers mostly seek these
services to address the problems of their children and themselves as caregivers as well. The
purpose of this study, was to use a qualitative research approach; case study, to find out the
views of caregivers on satisfaction they derive from utilizing the rehabilitation services on
offer at the Centre. These views on satisfaction encompasses the prior expectations, the
enabling factors to service utilization and identification of barriers that caregivers
encounter that might affect their satisfaction with service delivery. Five in-depth interviews
were conducted with five caregivers out of the anticipated six caregivers who had attended
the centre for ten sessions or more. Data was collected and a thematic analysis was
undertaken. The results showed that most of the caregivers generally reported being
satisfied with the rehabilitation services. The areas caregivers reported as satisfying
included the assurance, responsiveness, empathy and support services that they received
from the rehabilitation team. Respondents were also content with the outcome of the service
encounter on the basis of the improvement each of them had seen in their children, which
they attributed to compliance with home base therapy/programmes. However, majority of
the caregivers were dissatisfied with the information provided on the condition of the child,
caregiver involvement in decision making and participation in treatment regimes (e.g.
therapy/exercise sessions) and timely and appropriate communication of the personnel
during the service encounter. Consequently, this may have been attributed to the inability
of the personnel to find out the expectations of caregivers, what they perceived to be
enabling or barriers in their utilization of service. In conclusion, the study findings were
similar to findings of earlier researchers. The study also made some recommendations to
the management which included, incorporating caregiver satisfaction into the quarterly and
annual evaluation of the Salvation Army Community Rehabilitation and Orthopaedic
Centre, Agona – Duakwa
Description:
A THESIS IN THE DEPARTMENT OF SPECIAL EDUCATION, FACULTY OF
EDUCATIONAL STUDIES, SUBMITTED TO THE SCHOOL OF GRADUATE
STUDIES, UNIVERSITY OF EDUCATION, WINNEBA IN PARTIAL
FULFILMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR AWARD OF THE MASTER
OF PHILOSOPHY (SPECIAL EDUCATION) DEGREE.
MAY, 2017.