The research reviews that the majority of Black South Africans will frequent a traditional African healer as a primary means of health care. This may be partly due to the fact that traditional African healer is accredited as offering more affordable means of health care. Traditional African healing has been esteemed in treating the physical, mental and spiritual health of the population. This paradigm is also respected for its holistic approach which stretches beyond sole biological assumptions in the pursuit of optimum health. Depression is also confirmed as being an illness which is rife in contemporary living. South Africans may also be at an increased risk with regards to this mood disorder, due to harsh psychosocial circumstances including poverty, unemployment and crime. The research offers that the social worker and mental health care professional alike are under increased pressure to obtain ‘cultural competence’ in understanding how traditional African discourse constructs common mental illnesses like depression. Therefore in light the above, the research attempted to explore an understanding of depression amongst a sample of traditional healers in Johannesburg. There is little research done on this subject. Therefore a qualitative research approach was adopted. Qualitative research may offer a more reflective space as a point of entry into a subject which has not been explored. The case study research design, specifically a collective case study was used and semi-structured interviews were conducted, using an interview schedule. The researcher interviewed 10 traditional healers. The interview aimed to explore how traditional healers understand depression. iii The research used a content analysis to draw common themes from the transcribed interviews with the participants who formed part of the sample, selected by means of purposive sampling. The themes derived from the interviews offer some reflections on the traditional healers’ understanding of depression. These themes included: relevancy of depression; distinctions between depression and sadness; intuitive assessments of depression; external circumstances and psychosocial circumstances; relevance of biomedical interventions; treatment by the African traditional healer; counselling; supernatural and spiritual influences; punishment; depression experienced as a collective vs. individualistic cultural experience; somatisation and specific emotional difficulties related to the vocation of traditional African medicine. The research concluded that the traditional healers’ conception of depression was in a state of flux and was very much dependent on the individual interpretations by the traditional healer. This appeared to be influenced by the level of the traditional healers’ acculturation into westernized culture and exposure to biomedical interventions. The relevancy of the concept of depression was viewed as being both redundant and ripe in relevance by the sample. Depression and sadness could not always be distinguished between. However, there was a conceptualization of depression as being a more intense and severe form of sadness. Intuitive assessments of depression were generally adopted as opposed to exploring specific diagnostic criteria. Cognitive distortions such as ‘thinking too much’ and external circumstances were recognized as significant contributors. Depression was mostly indirectly recognized as an illness. Allopathic medicine was both rejected and held in high regard. Counselling was viewed as being necessary. This was not always adopted by the traditional healers. The spiritual significance was graded on a subjective spectrum of making meaning of depressive experiences. However the ancestors were still revered in all assessments and interventions. Depression was viewed on a continuum between individualistic and collective cultures. There were no significant somatic reports. In a nutshell the research concludes that there is no unified perception of depression, but highlights some common cultural variables. The research specifically highlighted the psychosocial and spiritual qualifying factors which may differentiate and qualify this paradigm from other biological and allopathic interventions. iv The research paves the way for further research to be done in this area. Recommendations are made for social workers and mental health care professionals alike to become more fluent in traditional African healing discourse in the area of mental health and depression in order to understand their clients from the African culture. / Dissertation (MSW)--University of Pretoria, 2013. / Social work and Criminology / unrestricted

Social work literature has documented that social workers may be the victims of client violence. However, to date, no studies have documented the nationwide prevalence of client violence towards social work students. This study examined direct and indirect incidents of physical assault, threats of physical harm, verbal abuse, threats of lawsuit, and property damage. The randomly selected national sample of social work students were selected from the National Association of Social Workers (N = 595). Findings revealed that 41.7% of social work students directly experienced client violence during their practicum. The highest rate of the violence reported by students was verbal abuse (37.5%) while the lowest rate of reported violence was physical assault (3.5%). Being male was the most significant predictor of social work students' exposure to client violence. Other factors related to increased violence were found, such as ethnicity and degree program. This study also examined whether students received safety training in 17 content areas and where they received the training. Fewer than 50% of students received training in most training content areas, regardless of where training was received. Furthermore, increased safety training in the field agency was significantly related to increased threats of physical harm and overall client violence. When training from all venues was totaled, increased training was significantly related to increased verbal abuse, property damage, and overall direct client violence. This study found that when students experience client violence directly or indirectly, they have increased fear of future violence in social work practice. Implications for social work programs, field agencies and educators and social work students are discussed. Training content and strategies are suggested.

Tidigare forskning gällande insatsbeviljade familjer visar på att klienterna är stigmatiserade eller stämplade. Syftet med studien är att undersöka, bland socialarbetare inom barn- och familjeenheten, medvetenheten om och arbetet med stigmatisering och stämpling gällande de familjer de har kontakt med i sitt arbete inom socialtjänsten. Stigmateori och stämplingsteori utgjorde studiens teoretiska tolkningsram. Studien genomfördes med en kvalitativ ansats i form av sex semistrukturerade intervjuer som sedan analyserades med hjälp av en tematisk analys vilket härledde till två teman: bortprioriterat arbete och indirekt arbete. Studiens resultat visade på att medvetenheten hos socialarbetarna om risken att klienterna var stigmatiserade och stämplade var låg. Det saknades riktlinjer och rutiner gällande ämnet och att arbetet som gjordes för att stödja familjerna var indirekt och inte preciserat för bearbetning av stigmatisering och stämpling. Slutsatsen drogs att en ökad medvetenhet bland socialarbetarna som möter familjer inom socialtjänsten gällande risken att familjerna stigmatiseras och stämplas behövs. / Previous research has shown that families receiving interventions from the social services are stigmatized and labeled. The purpose of this study is to examine, among social workers within the family unit’s awareness of and work with stigmatization and labeling regarding the families they meet in their work. Stigma and labeling theory make up the theoretical framework for the study. It was conducted with a qualitative approach with six semi-structured interviews, the data was analyzed with a thematic analysis. Two themes emerged: de-prioritized work and indirect work. The results showed that the social workers awareness about family’s risk of being stigmatized and labeled was low. Guidelines and routines were missing and the work to support the families was indirect and not specified for processing stigma and labeling. It was concluded that there needed to be a greater awareness of the stigmatization and labeling of the clients among the social workers.

(in English): The diploma thesis deals with the topic of destigmatization efforts as a task of social workers in selected organizations. Its aim is to describe the destigmatization efforts of social workers, focusing on individual attributes of destigmatization efforts and mapping the possible opportunities and pitfalls that social workers most often encounter in the long-term effort to eliminate stigma in people with mental illness. In this work we will cooperate with selected organizations whose target group are people with mental illness. The theoretical part brings a comprehensive view of mental illness, a description of the system of care for people with mental illness,and presents the issue of destigmatization efforts in the Czech Republic, including a description of destigmatization elements and campaigns that support this effort. At the same time, this part of the thesis describes the area of stigmatization of people with mental illness, manifestations of stigmatizing behavior in the public and social workers or generally the role of social workers in working with this target group. The practical part of the diploma thesis will work with the results of qualitative research, which is focused on functioning or non-functioning destigmatization efforts of social workers in selected...

(anglicky) The diploma thesis covers the topic of supporting children within the children's crisis centers. The thesis is exploring various possibilities of provided support and psychosocial help within these facilities. The theoretical part contains description of what traumatizing events are (traumatizing stressors x stressors causing / causing trauma), and describes various options in dealing with crises within children's crisis centers and impact of those methods on the child and it's family. In the empirical part, I focus on mapping the assistance provided, using interviews with social workers, and I outline possible innovations in this area.

Det här är en studie om hur nyutexaminerade socionomer upplever och hanterar sin arbetssituation efter sin socionomexamen på Ersta Sköndal Högskola. Studiens fokus har varit att beskriva och förstå hur de nyutexaminerade socionomerna hanterar sin arbetssituation samt att undersöka hur förberedda dessa socionomer är från sin utbildning för att möta sitt första arbete som socionom. Tio nyutexaminerade socionomer har intervjuats.Resultatet i studien visar att samtliga intervjupersoner upplever höga krav på sin arbetsplats. Det som är avgörande för om socionomerna är tillfreds eller till och med upplever kraven som positiva är om de upplever tillräckligt med stöd från sina kollegor och chef. Det privata stödet för socionomerna är också av vikt för hur de upplever sin arbetssituation. Hur utbildningen har påverkat socionomerna är varierande, mönstret i studien pekar på att utbildningen har förberett socionomerna med en generell kunskap i hur de ska förhålla sig till och hur de hanterar sitt arbete. De saknar dock till viss del direkta kunskaper i vissa avgörande delar i arbetet. Att nyutexaminerade studenters upplevelse av arbetslivet undersöks är av vikt för både professionen, utbildningen och studenten själv.

The profession of a social worker has a significant role in the society context. The task of the social worker is to help people to solve their problems, cope with difficult everyday life situations, provide courage for active solutions and reinforce the responsibility for one's own life. This thesis presents the social worker's profession and it is divided into six main chapters. In theoretical segment social work is defined in the first chapter. The second chapter contains information on history of the social work and analyses the current state of it. The third chapter is devoted to the ethics of social work, ethical dilemmas, ethical code and professional values. The fourth chapter defines the social worker's profession, mentions the required personal qualities and competences as well as its roles. Furthermore, it describes the characteristics of the profession itself and professional identity, studies the prestige of the profession and education of social workers. The practical part starts with the fifth chapter and it maps the opinions of social workers about their profession. The research strategy, the selection of the respondents and course of the survey and the data evaluation methods are described there. The final chapter interprets the collected data and provides their graphical depictions.

1 Abstract Thesis Burnout syndrome amowg social workers in residental service deals with the issue of burnout as such. It focuses on the definition of the term as well as its development. So are related phenomena - stress, depression, fatigue, but also existential neurosis. It also mentions internal and external influences, which can often be the cause of burnout, as well as high-risk persons - ie the most risky types of personality as well as professions who often fall victim to burnout. In the second large chapter, the common symptoms of burnout are described and what changes occur in a person who is affected by burnout. In the third chapter are introduced individual options of prevention of burnout but also supervision, which is also helpful against the burnout. This chapter also describes the diagnostic methodology - various methods that help to identify or detect certain changes in the worker's behavior and thus to re-evaluate their behavior in a timely manner. In the final chapter - fourth is carried out quantitative research through a questionnaire. The collected data are then evaluated and presented in a graphical representation.

The purpose of the study was to examine social workers 'experience of work-related stress atthe investigation unit for children, young people and families. Five semi-structuredinterviews were done. Results were analyzed using previous research, the requirementscontrol-support model and ’’sense of coherence’’ (SOC) as theoretical starting points. Theresults of the study show that the social workers who participated had a similar experience ofwork-related stress. The stress occurred because of the workload. An informant's experienceof stress differed from other informants as that informant's work-related stress wasknowledge-based. The results analysis shows that four out of five informants were in a tensejob based on requirements-control-support model due to the demands placed and the controlcarried out by the social workers being out of balance. An informant was at an active job andhad a higher SOC than the rest. All informants mention some type of support given to helpdeal with the work-related stress, how much this support helps the social workers havedifferent opinions about. The informants gave different suggestions for changes for the workrelated stress to reduce, but all suggestions lead to the factor that there is a shortage of staffand high staff turnover. / Syftet med studien var att undersöka socialsekreterares upplevelse av arbetsrelaterad stresspå utredningsenhet barn, ungdom och familj. Genom målstyrt bekvämlighetsurvalgenomfördes fem enskilda semistrukturerade intervjuer för att insamla empiri. Dessatranskriberades och tematiserades. Resultatet analyserades med hjälp av tidigare forskning,krav-kontroll-stödmodellen och ‘’känsla av sammanhang’’(KASAM) som teoretiskautgångspunkter. Under arbetets gång framträdde tre teman. Studiens resultat visar att fyraav fem socialsekreterare upplevde att stressen beror på den arbetsbelastning arbetsplatsenpräglas av. En informants upplevelse av stress skiljde sig från andra informanter dåinformantens arbetsrelaterade stress var kunskapsbaserad. Resultatanalysen visar på att fyraav fem informanter befann sig på ett spänt arbete enligt krav-kontroll och stöd modellen ochhade lägre KASAM jämfört med och en informant befann sig på aktivt arbete och hade högreKASAM. Alla informanter nämner någon typ av stöd som ges för att hjälpa till med atthantera den arbetsrelaterade stressen som uppstår, hur mycket detta stöd hjälper är det olikaåsikter om. De förslagen till förändring som uppgavs för att minska den arbetsrelateradestressen var olika, samtliga förslagen leder dock slutligen till det faktorn att det är brist påbemanning och hög personalomsättning.

Syftet med denna studie har varit att utifrån perspektiv på gräsrotsbyråkrati skapa en djupare förståelse för socialsekreterares upplevelser av att arbeta till skydd för det ofödda barnet när mamma missbrukar under graviditeten. För att uppnå studiens syfte har kvalitativa semistrukturerade intervjuer med socialsekreterare genomförts. Det empiriska materialet har med tematisk analys analyserats utifrån Lipskys (1980) teori om gräsrotsbyråkrati samt handlingsutrymme och studien har på så vis genererat en djupare förståelse för socialsekreterarnas upplevelser. Studien har behandlat avsaknaden av riktlinjer och lagstöd, slitningen mellan organisationens ramar och de moraliska värderingarna, samt socialsekreterarnas upplevelse av sitt handlingsutrymme. Resultatet visar att det råder en brist på riktlinjer och rutiner för att hantera dessa ärenden, och att socialsekreterarna upplever en avsaknad av lagstöd för att ingripa till skydd för det ofödda barnet när insatser på frivillig väg inte är möjliga, vilket även resulterar i att deras handlingsutrymme blir begränsat eller obefintligt. Detta medför att socialsekreterarna många gånger tvingas välja mellan att gå emot sina moraliska värderingar eller hitta sätt att kringgå lagen. Vidare påvisar studien att socialsekreterarna upplever ansvar för det ofödda barnet trots att de enligt organisationens ramverk egentligen inte har ett ansvar för denne. Att inte kunna agera till skydd för det ofödda barnet, i kombination med omvärldens förväntningar på socialsekreteraren, skapar en stark känsla av frustration. Våra resultat visar därför på ett behov av riktlinjer och rutiner för hur socialsekreterare ska arbeta med det ofödda barnet när mamma missbrukar under graviditeten. Emellertid täcker vår studie bara en liten del av socialsekreterares upplevelser av att arbeta till skydd för det ofödda barnet, varför det finns behov av vidare forskning inom området. Möjligen skulle förståelsen för deras upplevelser berikas av att belysas ur andra perspektiv, såsom makt och etik.