Doctoral Degrees (Social Work)

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The rights of child-headed households to care and protection: reflections of role players on social service delivery
(Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2024-03) Diago, Niccoh ; Strydom, Marianne; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. Dept. of Social Work.
ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Across the world, there are many children who are left behind in child-headed households by their parents due to socio-economic challenges, illness, death, or general neglect. In South Africa, children living in child-headed households not only have to cope with going through life without their caregivers; they are also vulnerable to violence, abuse, crime, and a lack of social services. However, in terms of South African legislation and international treaties, social workers must ensure that child-headed households are cared for and protected. It was established that, in South Africa, there was no general research or research from a social work perspective on the rights of children in child-headed households to care and protection or about social services delivered to such households. This indicated that there was a possible lack of appropriate social services available to children living in child-headed households, which thus formed the topic of this study. In order to highlight the injustice, inequality, and poverty of child-headed households as well as how they are marginalised or excluded in society, the human rights-based perspective was applied in this study. This approach also served as a guide in the implementation of remedial strategies. To identify the possible services that should be rendered to child-headed households, based on the identified circumstances, the ecological systems perspective was further utilised. With this study a qualitative research approach was applied as it was an exploratory and a descriptive study within a purposive sample selection of seventeen social workers and five social worker supervisors in Limpopo, Mpumalanga, and Eastern Cape and one designated person of the provincial Department of Social Development. The primary research instrument utilised in this study and that was based on themes emerging from literature, was the semistructured interview schedule. Ten themes were derived from the participant interviews by way of thematic analysis. These themes were then further divided into subthemes and categories. The study revealed that children living in child-headed households were exposed to emotional difficulties and traumatic situations due to the loss of their parents, sexual abuse, and them having to assume adult responsibilities. It became clear that these children needed emotional support and nurturing households as well as counselling services. It was brought to light that other services, such as appointing adult caregivers and rendering family counselling services were difficult to deliver to these children due to social workers’ high caseloads and lack of resources such as vehicles. It was also found that these children received minimal support from extended families and as a result they were socially burdened and would engage in underage drinking and smoking, drop out of school, and in the case of girls, were vulnerable to early teenage pregnancy. It was revealed that, as these children were exposed to poverty and food deprivation and lived in inadequate shelters they needed sufficient income, sustainable food packages and adequate shelter. It was further found that child-headed households could not be regarded as a protective measure, as this form of household did not consider the best interests of these children because many of their rights were being infringed upon. This was exacerbated due to social workers who found it increasingly difficult to deliver social services to child-headed households as these social workers were exposed to multiple challenges, such as high caseloads, staff shortages, transportation shortages and limited funding. It is recommended that sufficient funding be provided to designated child welfare non-profit organisations and that more social workers should be employed to ensure that effective social services are delivered to children living in child-headed households. Finally, due to the grave and difficult circumstances that children of child-headed households are exposed to, there seems to be a need to revise and adapt the current legislation and consider children living in child-headed households to be children in need of care and protection in line with section 150(1) of the Children’s Act of South Africa.
A biopsychosocial perspective on social work intervention to address emotional poverty of older persons in residential facilities
(Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2024-03 ) Human, Melanie; Slabbert, I.; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. Dept. of Social Work.
ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Older persons are often referred to as the ‘forgotten generation’. However, worldwide the population is rapidly ageing. According to the World Health Organization it is estimated that by 2030 one in every eight people will be over 65. Several older persons must move to residential facilities due to unforeseen circumstances such as a deterioration in their health. Social workers form part of the multidisciplinary team that render services to older persons in residential facilities. This study explored the emotional poverty of older persons in residential facilities. Emotional poverty can be described as a condition in which an older person is lacking in the basic needs for a minimum standard of wellbeing, including biological, psychological and social aspects, with specific focus on social wellbeing. Indicators of emotional poverty are social isolation, loneliness, feelings of depression and minimal or no contact with the outside world. The goal of this study was to gain an understanding of a biopsychosocial perspective on social work intervention to address the emotional poverty of older persons in residential facilities. A qualitative approach was followed with an explorative and descriptive nature. Purposive sampling was done to obtain the sample. The sample consisted of two groups, namely 20 older persons in residential facilities and 10 social workers that render services to older persons in residential facilities. Semi-structured interview guides were utilised to collect the data. Faceto- face interviews were conducted with the participants of this study. Ethical clearance was obtained for this medium risk study before interviews commenced and all participants signed informed consent forms before interviews were conducted. Interviews were transcribed and thematic analysis was done to order the data into themes, subthemes and categories. Data were also verified in order to ensure the credibility, transferability, conformability and dependability of the study. Seven themes were identified from the data collected, namely, the reason for moving to a residential facility; physical health and the impact it has on older persons; the awareness of emotional poverty; psychological health and wellbeing; family and friends’ involvement and connection; views of residents on the residential facility and staff; and social work intervention to older persons in residential facilities. Findings from this study indicated a decline in health is the main reason for older persons moving into a residential facility and that physical health plays a significant role in the older persons’ daily functioning and emotional health. It was also found that a loss of independence affected participants’ wellbeing. Regarding the awareness of emotional poverty, it was found that most participants were not aware or familiar with this concept. It was also found that participants of group1 would often deny feelings of loneliness due to a possible stigma attached to feeling lonely as well as to avoid negative comments from fellow residents. Findings from group 2 indicated that the biopsychosocial perspective was useful to assess the wellbeing and psychological health of older persons. Another finding of the study was the invaluable role family and friends play to reduce emotional poverty of older persons in residential facilities. Findings regarding the care older persons received in the residential facilities were mostly positive, although a few participants indicated that the nursing staff were not supportive. It was also found that the social work profession plays a vital part in residential facilities to enhance the wellbeing of older persons and that social workers form a significant part of the multidisciplinary team responsible for the wellbeing of older persons in these facilities. The recommendations of the study mainly emphasised the importance of social workers to assist older persons in residential facilities to strive for high levels of gerotranscendence (the natural progression towards maturation and wisdom) as well as their important role in the multidisciplinary team to combat emotional poverty.
Financial literacy education training of frontline social workers in South Africa: need, content, and scope
(Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2023-12 ) Jordaan, Adriaan; Engelbrecht, L. K.; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. Dept. of Social Work.
ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Poverty remains a key challenge in South Africa. Though social work is to be conducted from within a social developmental paradigm in South Africa, data elucidates that social workers continue to feel unprepared, unequipped, or irresponsible for assisting service users with challenges of a financial nature. As such, the study sought to explore the views of social workers and financial professionals on the need for-, content of-, and scope of financial literacy education training (FLET) of social workers as a means of striving towards more sustainable social developmental practice, and ultimately, poverty alleviation. A qualitative research approach was utilised in this study. Descriptive-, explorative-, and instrumental case study designs were applied, and purposive- and snowball sampling was utilised to recruit 25 participants from two cohorts. All participants were interviewed via semi-structured interviews conducted over Microsoft Teams. Thereafter, reflexive thematic analysis was used to examine the collected data, which resulted in the generation of eight themes, associated with the study’s first three objectives, which pertains to the investigating views of social workers and financial professionals on the need for-, content of-, and scope of FLET of social workers in South Africa. Key conclusions drawn regarding the first objective are that service users continue to display a dire need for financial literacy, social workers remain largely financially illiterate, and debt continues to be a pervasive challenge. Conclusions pertaining to the second objective were found to point to the notion that the content of FLET of social workers would need to teach basics of personal financial management (PFM), most notably pertaining to budgeting, savings, debt and interest, alongside other non-financial themes that impact upon financial wellbeing such as social- and psychological factors. Finally, pertaining to objective three, conclusions were found to indicate that operational barriers may hinder the operationalisation of FLET of social workers, but that there may be ways of circumnavigating them. Various recommendations were presented as well. Most notably, they pertained to the earlier incorporation and exposure of social workers to FLET, a fierier approach when advocating for the importance of FLET of social workers, and the incorporation of financial literacy in conversations at a policy level.
Assessment in child protection services: challenges faced by social workers
(Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2023-03) Ndonga, Moreblessing Memory; Strydom, Marianne; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. Dept. of Social Work.
ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Assessment is the first step in child protection service rendering after a case of possible child abuse and neglect is reported. This assessment is the basis upon which important decisions should be made regarding what actions to take to protect children from abuse and neglect. It is therefore an important part of the task of the social worker in child protection practice worldwide. In South Africa, the execution of assessment in child protection services is paramount in the realisation of the rights of children to care and protection as advocated for in international, regional, and domestic policies and legislation. Despite the importance of assessment in the delivery of child protection services, it remains an under-researched area of enquiry when it comes to daily challenges faced by social workers in executing assessments in child protection services with children and families in South Africa. Hence the goal of this study was to gain an understanding of the challenges that social workers experience in assessment practice in child protection services in the South African context. The rights-based perspective and ecological perspective were chosen as the theoretical frameworks for this study. This study employed a qualitative research approach. It was an exploratory and a descriptive study, within a purposive sample selection of 18 social workers and 5 social work supervisors employed in 3 designated NGOs in the Cape Town area. The primary research instrument utilised in this study was the semi-structured interview schedule, which was developed based on themes emerging from literature. Six themes were derived from the participant interviews by way of thematic analysis. These themes were then further divided into subthemes and categories. The study revealed that when social workers undertake assessments, they are faced with challenges relating to the implementation of tools and challenges in organisations, communities and families that they work in. Many of the challenges that social workers face in regards to the implementation of assessment tools are due to a lack of knowledge and understanding of assessment tools which is linked to a lack of formal and refresher training on the implementation of those tools. As a consequence of the lack of formal training, social work supervisors have been burdened to provide informal training to enable social workers in their organisations to implement assessment tools. It is clear from the study’s findings that there is a strong focus on the implementation of the actuarial-based risk assessment tool which is a standardised scoring tool and that there is a lack of implementation of the consensus-based assessment tool which is the assessment triangle adopted from the United Kingdom. The lack of utilisation of the consensus-based assessment tool seems to impact the ability of social workers to complete comprehensive assessments in relation to alleged child abuse and neglect cases. The findings in this study also revealed that there is a strong emphasis on the implementation of the Children’s Act 38 of 2005 and therefore, professional steps in assessment are not being implemented. This lack of implementation of steps in assessment has been linked to a lack of time due to high caseloads, shortage of organisational resources, shortage of resources, violence in communities, low educational levels in families, and a lack of experience and training of social workers in the implementation of assessment tools and procedures in child protection. Thus, it seems that current assessment practices, including strategies utilised in assessments, are possibly not tailored to the reality of the South African context and therefore pose further challenges to the execution of assessments. It can be concluded that the ability to execute comprehensive assessments will not improve without the improvement of community resources (facilities) and organisational resources (cars, computers, office space, funds and manpower). These resources are necessary to improve the delivery of social services, including the execution of assessments with children and families in order to protect the rights of children to care and protection. Apart from having to address the issue of resources, it is recommended that social workers be provided with sufficient training concerning the implementation of assessment tools and procedures in child protection. Finally, there could be also a need to revise and adapt the current assessment tools to suite the South African context.
Social work services to families caring for adult relatives with a mental illness
(Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2023-03) September, Uwarren; Strydom, Marianne; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. Dept. of Social Work.
ENGLISH ABSTRACT: When families take care of a relative with a mental illness, it can cause tremendous stress to the family and the patient. Rendering social work services to such families would relieve stress and contribute to everyone’s quality of life. Globally, about one in four families has a relative with a mental illness, and with limited access to and limited resources, families must often look after and care for such relatives. Families must thus contend with multiple sources of stress, including stress relating to their relative's mental illness, symptoms and behaviours, and societal stigmatisation. If support services to families caring for adult relatives with a mental illness are limited or unavailable, families and their relatives with mental illness, suffer. Unfortunately, this is the situation in South Africa where the National Mental Health Policy Framework and Strategic Plan (Department of Health, 2012) and the Mental Health Care Act 17 of 2002, are in support of deinstitutionalising mental health patients. This means that patients should be discharged from mental institutions as soon as reasonably possible to be treated in their communities. Nationally, however, South Africa’s existing mental health frameworks are confronted by numerous challenges, such as the exchange of care of patients from institutions to community-based care, political contemplations in developing policy, stigmatisation of people with mental health issues, and a lack of community-based services. These challenges all directly impact families taking care of a relative with mental illness. Due to an unrelenting increase in people experiencing mental illnesses and the number of families reporting such problems, the demand for and necessity of rendering social work services to families taking care of an adult relative with a mental illness have been emphasised. Apart from the increasing demand for rendering direct social work services to families who take care of people with mental illness, there is also a lack of, or poor and rarely available community-based social work services to families of mentally ill relatives. Amid the drive for deinstitutionalisation and the subsequent focus on community-based mental health services in South Africa, there is insufficient empirical research regarding social work services rendered to families caring for a relative with a mental illness. Existing research does not specify social work services to families caring for a relative with a mental illness but focus mostly on interventions for the mentally ill individual.

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