Frequency of depression and anxiety among heart failure patients in a tertiary care hospital of Faisalabad, Pakistan Depression & anxiety among cardiac patients

Heart failure (HF) is a chronic illness with high prevalence and mortality, leading toeconomic burden ofhealth due to prolonged hospital stay and re-admissions. Failure to comprehend the importance of identifying mental illnesses could lead to explanations that why the morbidity and mortality of heart failure patients endure to be very high. Objective: To determine the frequency of anxiety and depression in heart failure patients. Methods: It is a descriptive cross sectional study including 323 CHF patients admitted to the Faisalabad Institute of Cardiology hospital, 250 were males and 73 were females, mean age was 54.1 ± 9.2 years having 70 years as maximum and 25 years as minimum.  Data was collected with the help of HADS questionnaire. Patients were interviewed for assessment of anxiety and depression. Data was analyzed using SPSS version 24. Mean and standard deviation was calculated for quantitative data and for qualitative data frequency and percentageswas calculated. To measure the association of anxiety and depression with age categories and gender, chi square test was used. P values less than and equal to 0.05 were taken as significant. Results: The results showed that 43% subjects had <11 score indicating no anxiety, 57% had >11score indicating anxiety. 45% subjects had<11 score indicating no depression, 55% had >11score indicating depression. Conclusions: The study concluded that frequency of depression and anxiety is high in congestive heart failure patients. Strategies are required to assess and diagnose these mental illnesses to establish early treatment which may foster multidisciplinary health care team approach and interventions that address the psychological burden.

Exploring Perceptions and Practices of Teachers in Supporting Educational Needs of Differently Abled Children Dac in a Mainstream School of Karachi, Pakistan

This small-scale case study explores perceptions and practices of middle school teachers regarding inclusion of Differently Abled Children (DAC) in a private urban mainstream school in Karachi. The purpose of the study was to understand how perceptions of teachers influence their teaching learning practices in their classrooms. Within the qualitative research design, the data was mainly collected through semi-structured interviews and classroom observations. Furthermore, a thematic analysis approach was used to make sense of the data and draw conclusions. The study revealed that teachers’ perceive that inclusion of DAC particularly those who have learning and behavioral difficulties should be included in the main stream classrooms. It was witnessed that DAC of those teachers were engaged in various curricular and co-curricular activities such as group and peer work, sports and participation in parents’ day activities. It was found that DAC in their classes learn far better than working in isolation. The teachers deliberately engaged all students to develop sense of responsibility such as sharing and caring attitude with peers and DAC and uphold such attitudes in their home environment. However, it was found that these teachers were concerned to accommodate children with severe disabilities in their regular classes due to lack of infrastructure, rehabilitations facilities at school, availability of resources and their own capacity to deal with such students which was currently detrimental for DAC. Nevertheless, it was learnt due to personal commitment of teachers, DAC have flourished and have met expectations of teachers and parents in terms of improved writing, reading and mathematical skills and have also developed social skills. The study concluded that parental involvement particularly parents of DAC in school events and teachers’ professional development with regard to their educational needs is essential for fulfilling the commitment of education for all.