Southern African Journal of Social Work and Social Development

Oncology Healthcare Professionals’ Awareness and Uptake of the Employee Assistance Programme in Three Public Healthcare Facilities in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa

2024-09-18T07:52:50+00:00

Institutional psychosocial support services have gained traction, globally, more so within the context of healthcare facilities. This is mainly due to the recognition that institutional psychosocial support services are beneficial to both employees and employers, alike. However, while these institutional psychosocial support services are important, their uptake remains relatively low. With the focus being on the employee assistance programme (EAP), this study aimed to explore the awareness and uptake of institutional psychosocial support services among oncology healthcare professionals (OHPs) in public healthcare facilities in KwaZulu-Natal (KZN), South Africa. Using the interpretative phenomenological approach, the qualitative study was conducted in three public healthcare facilities that offer oncology services in KZN. Semi-structured in-depth interviews were conducted among 31 participants who were OHPs in the three public healthcare facilities. Thematic data analysis produced two main themes and six respective sub-themes. The main themes were awareness of institutional psychosocial support services and low uptake of institutional psychosocial support services, mainly owing to adequate personal support systems, privacy and confidentiality concerns, and stigma. The study findings point to the need for stronger EAPs that are needs-based, promoted regularly, and evaluated, in public healthcare facilities. To encourage service uptake and address privacy, confidentiality and stigma concerns, innovative and non-stigmatising ways of promoting these services are required, including hybrid approaches to the provision of EAP services. The study findings can provide a valuable contribution to the continued development and strengthening of institutional psychosocial support services in public healthcare facilities.

Interrogating the Meagre Response of Social Work to the “Social Question” Exposed by the COVID-19 Pandemic

2024-09-18T07:52:54+00:00

The outbreak of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic in South Africa in March 2020 unleashed not only a health crisis, but also a “tsunami” that disrupted every aspect of human and social life. Social work practice and education were not spared. The aftermath of the pandemic saw various services declared essential while the conventional delivery of others, including social work, were brought to a complete halt. In response, social workers elsewhere explored innovative strategies to continue rendering services remotely. In South Africa, some social workers embarked on consultative engagements through various formations whilst, others either remained mum or lamented the exclusion of social work as an essential service. Notwithstanding the fact that the above were not the only responses, the consequences of the lack of a unified professional voice and leadership may have far-reaching and negative consequences. This article presents a critical interrogation of the South African social work response throughout the pandemic. The interrogation reveals three explanatory factors behind the ineptness of social work, namely: professional decadence; a perpetual struggle for recognition; and the need to improve the status of the profession in society. These factors explain the unsatisfactory responses of the social work profession. The author argues that this amounts to failure to engage the social question, which inadvertently leads to the erosion of the value, status and societal recognition of social work. The author proposes serious professional reorientation to a focus on the social question which translates into focusing primarily on societal rather than disciplinary issues and problematics.

Parental Awareness of Children’s Psychosocial Needs: Parents’ and Childcare Professionals’ Perspectives

2024-09-18T07:52:52+00:00

Despite high rates of child mental health needs globally, these remain largely unmet. Barriers to the provision of psychosocial support to children include stigma and sparse resources. To address this gap, local professionals can promote change by working to capacitate parents on children’s mental health needs. In the current study, five childcare professionals (also referred to as “trainers”) attended a Train-of-Trainer (ToT) child mental health programme before facilitating three awareness workshops for 48 parents. Of those, 16 parents and the five trainers participated in focus groups before and after the workshops to discuss factors that either enabled or hindered psychosocial awareness. Established themes emerged that were related to the concepts of psychosocial needs, parental influences, help-seeking and knowledge generation. The findings suggest that a psychosocial model with social workers at the centre can maximise existing resources, with parents playing an important peer support and education role in mobilising communities.

The Perils of Service Provision in Unsafe Areas: Providing Continuing Services to Youth during Gang Violence in the Cape Flats, South Africa

2024-09-18T07:52:58+00:00

Youth involvement in criminal gangs is rife in a particular area of Cape Town, the capital city of Western Cape, South Africa, known as the Cape Flats. But the Cape Flats is not unique and the youth’s susceptibility to join these gangs cuts across cultures and societies. Wherever there is marginalisation and disadvantage, social issues emerge that are difficult to combat because of systemic and structural barriers. Community workers and those who live in these areas are often at their wits end trying to combat the allure that gang membership holds for their teenage children. This article reports on a study that was part of a larger research study conducted between 2016–2018 by social work students at a university situated in the area. The article reflects the findings of the 2018 study that focused on the perceptions and experiences of those who work or provide services in the area. The aim of the study was to explore the participants’ experiences of gang violence during service provision and their opinions about ways to address their concerns. A qualitative approach, utilising an intervention mapping design was used. Individual interviews were conducted with 325 service providers on the Cape Flats. Two main themes emerged from thematic data analysis, namely, impact on service providers and service delivery, and suggested interventions and solutions. The implications of the findings are that the increasing violence has severe consequences on service provision in communities and is disruptive and traumatising to everybody involved.