İskitler Region of Ankara Determination of Waste Pickers' Activities and Roles

Background: Well-being is defined as a state of contentment with one’s physical/mental health, emotional/spiritual health, personal and economic security, self-worth, sense of belonging, opportunities for... [ view full abstract ]

Background:
Well-being is defined as a state of contentment with one’s physical/mental health, emotional/spiritual health, personal and economic security, self-worth, sense of belonging, opportunities for self-determination, opportunities to engage in meaningful and purposeful occupations, sense of hope. Identifying the activity of waste pickers who have adverse working and housing conditions would be quite beneficial in order to protect as well as promote the well-being and health of pickers.
Method:
The universe of the study was formed by 700-800 waste pickers. The sample group, on the other hand, was formed by 30 male waste pickers who were chosen by the random selection in the universe. The data was collected through structured questionnaires and diseases form designed by the researcher and through Canadian Occupational Performance Measure(COPM) after doing a careful literature review.
Results:
According to the results obtained from the COPM in the study, it is found that the areas of activity performance is more important self-care activities. In the self care activities, take a bath(9,2±1,6) is very important for waste pickers. The second activity is talking on the phone(9±1,98). The 'Death, survival, plastic!' sentence of waste picker was best summed up to waste pickers' point of view for their job. It is recommended to improving the service for balance of activity performance areas and well-being.
Conclusion:
It was found that 83.3% of waste pickers work at least 11 hours a day, 53% of has negative attitude to his own affairs, viewpoint of the community has negative sense according to 50% of.