Social Work / Maatskaplike Werk (E-Journal)
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FAMILY PRESERVATION SERVICES: TYPES OF SERVICES RENDERED BY SOCIAL WORKERS TO AT-RISK FAMILIES
Get PDFFamily preservation services are considered essential in order to avoid the removal of children from their families. In accordance with South African legislation and policy documents, social workers at family welfare organisations must focus on family preservation services in order to prevent children being placed in foster care. Theoretically family preservation services consist of different types of services, namely family support services, family-centred services and intensive family preservation services, or crisis services. In this article the different types of services will be discussed with reference to policy documents. The services delivered by social workers in the context of family preservation are reviewed
PATTERNS OF CONTACT AND INVOLVEMENT BETWEEN ADOLESCENTS AND THEIR NON-RESIDENT FATHERS
Get PDFThis study examined the patterns of contact and involvement between adolescents and their non-resident fathers after divorce. The data were analysed to determine the role of Lamb, Pleck and Levine’s (1986) three constructs in the involvement of non-resident fathers, i.e. interaction, availability and responsibility. The results indicated that the majority of male and female adolescents reported continued direct and indirect contact with their fathers, regardless of paternal remarriage and the lapse of time since the divorce. Boys reported higher levels of communication and feelings of emotional closeness than girls. Overall, the study postulates that non-resident fathers play a less significant role in providing parental guidance to their children
CONTINUOUS PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT WORKSHOPS CAN BE AN OPPORTUNITY FOR CONSCIOUS AND INTENTIONAL KNOWLEDGE DEVELOPMENT: CASE-SPECIFIC REFLECTIONS
Get PDFThere is often a divide between the world of formal theory development and the world of social work practice. The author explored how Continuous Professional Development workshops could be used consciously and intentionally in knowledge development by applying the six steps of the reflexive cycle in the Heuristic Research model to data collected at a workshop on disability care management presented to social workers of the Ekurhuleni Metropolitan Municipality. From the reflections it seems that teaching the Osmond’s Knowledge Spectrum (2005) to workshop participants could empower participants to actively participate in knowledge development within the field of social work
HISTORIOGRAPHY OF SOUTH AFRICAN SOCIAL WORK: CHALLENGING DOMINANT DISCOURSES
Get PDFThe task of examining the origins and development of social work is fraught with competing narratives. In South Africa individualist, liberal, colonial, masculine and “white” discourses prevail. The dialectical-historical perspective, rather than chronological “progress”, shows how socio-political and economic dynamics are formative of societal conditions and of social work, which in turn has a role in shaping these dynamics. The fiction of purely historical records of progress and freedom of choice is challenged, and hegemonic and counter-hegemonic discourses uncovered. Social workers are urged to be engaged with the full complexity of events emerging from the class and race-based antagonisms of South African societ
PREPARING SOCIAL WORKERS FOR ALTERNATIVE DISPUTE RESOLUTION IN CARE AND PROTECTION CASES
Get PDFThe Children’s Act 38 of 2005 contains provisions enabling utilisation of alternative dispute resolution (ADR) in cases involving children. This article focuses on the specialised training required to prepare social workers to be effective ADR practitioners. By drawing on comparative data, the article demonstrates that it is essential for social workers to receive such training in South Africa. The nature of the training that would be required to empower South African social workers to be effective ADR facilitators in care and protection cases is explored. Proposals for a South African training programme are put forward
THE CIRCUMSTANCES AND NEEDS OF ADOLESCENT ORPHANS IN FOSTER CARE
Get PDFHIV and AIDS have a major impact on families and on community structures in South Africa. Children are especially affected when they are orphaned. Research was undertaken to identify the circumstances and needs of adolescent orphans affected by HIV and AIDS in foster care. Thirty adolescent orphans from the researcher’s caseload and 85 social workers who work with such cases completed questionnaires. The results indicated that these adolescents have unique circumstances and needs. This information is essential for social workers in order to help these adolescents to obtain the necessary knowledge and skills to enable them to improve their social functioning
THE IMPACT OF THE CHILD SUPPORT GRANT ON PARTICI-PATION IN THE LABOUR MARKET IN RURAL EASTERN CAPE
Get PDFSouth Africa suffers from high and rising poverty levels and extreme inequality. The social security system (mainly social grants) is the government’s chief initiative in tackling these problems. It aims to reduce poverty among groups not expected to participate fully in the labour market, thereby increasing investment in health, nutrition and education. The provision of social security has historically been seen as a core feature of the welfare system aimed at the prevention of poverty during the transition to a multiracial democracy in South Africa. Post-apartheid South Africa moved from residual and institutional models of welfare policy to developmental social welfare, focusing on needy people who have been excluded from mainstream welfare and social security systems. The focus of welfare was on moving people out of poverty, and not only on the construction of social security for prevention, social compensation and income distribution (Department of Social Development, 1997)
KHOMANANI: AN HIV AND AIDS COMMUNITY MOBILISATION PROGRAMME FOR RESOURCE-CONSTRAINED SETTINGS
Get PDFAn overview of HIV and AIDS statistics indicates that there were 31.6 million people living with HIV in 2010, and that 68% of those people were from Sub-Saharan Africa (UNAIDS, 2011:07). In South Africa, one of the countries in Sub-Saharan Africa, HIV prevalence among people between the ages of 15 and 49 has stabilised at 17.8%, with the absolute number of people living with HIV (PLHIV) showing a steep increase of approximately 100 000 additional PLHIV each year. The number of people aged 15 and older living with HIV is estimated to be 5 300 000. These figures actually mean that one out of every six people with HIV in the world lives in South Africa (UNAIDS, 2011:21). The authors therefore postulate that these statistics encapsulate the devastation that HIV and AIDS is causing, particularly in South Africa, which arguably carries the heaviest HIV and AIDS burden in the world. Initially South Africa’s efforts to mitigate the impact of HIV and AIDS were characterised by programme designs which followed an inflexible biomedical approach that did not focus on the influence of socio-economic and structural factors in addressing the pandemic. This situation, among others, contributed to raise the country’s HIV infection growth rate to among the highest in the world (Kahn, 2006:4)
THE INFLUENCE OF BINGE DRINKING ON SOCIAL SUPPORT NETWORKS
Get PDFPeople and environments influence each other, negatively and positively. The abuse of alcohol affects any network negatively. The concepts “social support” and “networks” are described to demonstrate the interdependence and interrelatedness of systems and how they are affected by binge drinking. The emphasis is on the type of support, recipient perception, reciprocal support and behaviour of providers. Social support is important for the optimal functioning of social support networks and binge drinking could inhibit provision of such support and lead to social dysfunctioning. In order to address the problem of alcohol abuse an appropriate, relevant, holistic multidisciplinary intervention strategy is neede
SHE’S NOT A VICTIM! SHE’S MY WIFE! INTIMATE PARTNER VIOLENCE: FUELLED BY DANGEROUS PERPETRATOR ATTITUDES
Get PDFThis study used mixed methodology research; chose 53 male and 47 female respondents through purposive sampling, selected intervention research: design and development methodological framework to develop guidelines, used a Canadian Risk Assessment Tool to “assess risk”/“predict dangerousness”. The findings highlighted the need for “risk factor assessment”, showing specific risk factors predicted violence, with sexual violence playing a role. Perpetrators disregard their partners as victims when sexual violence was employed. Qualitative data from female respondents showed that perpetrators use physical assault and sexual violence in their attacks, and their behaviours were fuelled by attitudes that supported/condoned intimate partner violence (IPV).