Living with Disfigurement

Part 1 Introduction: general introduction; the nature of cleft lip and/or palate; potential problems associated with a cleft; the Cleft Palate Team (CPT); statement of the problem; the research of Beryl N. Hammond (1950s-1980s); summary of the implications of BNH's work for the present study; hypotheses to be addressed. Part 2 Literature on disfigurement: the pre-school stage - 0-approximately five years old; the childhook stage - approximately 5-12 years old; the adolescent stage - 13-17 years old; the adulthood stage - 18 years old and over. Part 3 Design of the study: stage one - the formulation of the research proposal; stage two - the nature and process of data collection; stage three - the analysis of data; stage four - structure of the report of research results; stage five - method of handling conclusions and recommendations for clinical practice. Part 4 The developmental years: the classification of data collected by BNH - results I; the analysis of data collected by BNH; examination of hospital records - results II; the analysis of hospital records data. Part 5 The adult years: the presentation of postal questionnaire data - results III; the analysis of postal questionnaire data. Part 6 Making connections - from birth to adulthood: factors defining the participant's life history - circumstances and experiences encountered during the developmental years; the private and public personae of the participants in the study; a longitudinal perspective - the impact of aspects of the participants' past life history upon their present perceptions. Part 7 Living with disfigurement - personal reflections: section A - personal details; section B - education; section C - employment; section D - speech and appearance; section E - National Health Service (NHS) treatment for the cleft; section F - experiences and perceptions related to the cleft; recommendations. Part 8 The implications of the findings: factors relating to the participants' psychosocial development and functioning during the developmental years (hypotheses i-vi); the adult participant's retrospective perceptions of being born with a cleft, and factors relating to their current psychosocial functioning (hypotheses vii-viii); factors determining the impact of circumstances and experiences encountered during the developmental years, upon the participants' psychosocial functioning in adulthood (hypotheses ix-x). Part 9 Conclusion and recommendations - what now?: parent counselling/education; school involvement; support during adolescence; the importance of continuity; indications for future research. Appendices: survey of 249 children with a cleft conducted by Hammond and O'Riain (1968-1972) - basis of data set 1; additional data elicited on interviewing two of BNH's former colleagues; data collection form - hospital records - data set 2; the postal questionnaire - data set 3; the interview schedule - data set 4; quality and standards of job description for Specialist Liaison Professional.