This qualitative study explored child protection social workers' perceptions of how their working experience and wellbeing positively and negatively influence each other. It also further considered child protection social workers' perceptions of the support currently available to them as well as any other supportive measures they require in order to cope effectively with their work demands while maintaining a good sense of well-being. The research was conducted in a Non-Governmental Organisation and permission was granted by the research site to conduct the qualitative study with child protection social workers employed by them. Purposive sampling was used to select the 20 participants and semi-structured online interviews were conducted with these participants. The interviews were recorded, transcribed and then translated from Afrikaans to English. Tesch's (1990) data analysis model was utilised in order to analyse data obtained from the interviews. The findings of this study illustrated the mutual influence that participants' work experience and wellbeing have on each other. Positive relationships with colleagues, supervision, training, time off, experience, protection of children and the unpredictability of the job were highlighted as factors positively influencing participants' wellbeing. Conversely, participants' wellbeing was also negatively influenced by certain challenges encountered at work such as changes due to Covid 19, unpredictability of the job, high caseloads, lack of resources, high level of responsibility, threats to personal safety, repeated exposure to trauma, supervision and the expectations of communities and other stakeholders. Supportive personal relationships, selfcare, spirituality, a positive attitude, boundaries and self-assertiveness enabled participants to cope with work stressors. Certain emotional health factors such as stress and low mood levels negatively influenced participants' work experience. Participants highlighted the need for certain supportive practices such as teambuilding activities, access to debriefing services and a space for reflection. Recommendations were made around the implementation of regular teambuilding activities, provision of debriefing services, continuation of time off policies as well as training opportunities. Recommendations were also made for future research.

The statics of children experiencing trauma is extremely high in South Africa, with the expectation of 1 in 3 children experiencing sexual abuse before eighteen years of age. Trauma is defined as experiences which overwhelm the internal resources of a child and changes their perception of their lives and environment. Dissociation is a protective mechanism functioning to shield the conscious from trauma by preventing the processing of these experiences. The researcher was interested in whether dissociation is a phenomenon which is present in children living in South Africa who have a history of trauma. To determine this, the researcher applied a qualitative approach and phenomenological design to the research. The researcher used a purposive sample of sixteen clinicians practicing in the Western Cape metropole, to determine whether dissociation is present and how it appears in children who have a history of trauma. The findings showed that dissociation was found to be present in children who have experienced trauma living in the Western Cape metropole. Furthermore, the data indicated that between 60 and 80% of children who had experienced trauma present with dissociation. The dissociative symptoms and features identified were misbehaviour and daydreaming. Predisposing and precipitating factors were found to be risk factors for the development of dissociation after a trauma is experienced. These factors were the younger the child when the trauma happened the more likely the development of dissociation. Secondly, the type of trauma experienced and a disorganised attachment style with the caregiver. A protective factor identified was the presence of a secure attachment between the child and caregiver before trauma is experienced. The therapeutic treatment of dissociation was described as holistic in nature by involving the child's caregivers. The main therapy used by the participants with children who present with dissociation were based on play therapy techniques and recreating a sense of safety for the child needs to be a primary goal of treatment. Recommendations for further study was given due to the impression of limited understanding and knowledge of dissociation. The findings emphasised the importance of the caregiver being involved in the therapeutic process and therefore it is recommended that clinicians who render therapeutic services to children include the caregivers in the therapeutic process. The data showed that trauma informed polices and interventions need to be developed to further assist children who have a history of trauma and present with dissociation.

Includes abstract. / Includes bibliographical references. / This study was an exploration into the perceptions of race of coloured children in a child and youth care centre, Leliebloem House. The aim of this study was to evaluate the ways in which race is still present in the lives of these children, who were supposedly “untouched” by the former Apartheid dispensation.

A primary stressor in the South African Navy is the routine deployment of men to sea. This requires repeated adjustments of the family system, decreasing family well-being, which in turn decreases the morale, productivity and retention of sailors. This dissertation describes and critiques the process of developing an occupational social work intervention to assist families in resisting the stress of deployments, that is, to increase their 'deployment resilience. The study began with four years of problem analysis, comprising an analysis of clinical work, a literature review, a sample survey of the experience of sailors and their wives of naval deployments, an investigation of factors associated with effective coping and a social survey of naval employees. The resultant data were reviewed and seven factors associated with deployment resilience were identified and operationalized. These factors included emotional containment, presence of social supports, financial preparedness, adjustment of children, a 'husband-aware' family structure, a secure and progressive marital relationship and positive attitudes towards the navy and deployments. A one day seminar to enhance these seven factors was designed, the process of which is described. The first complete trial implementation of the Deployment Resilience Seminar is described and evaluated. The seminar was attended by 34 individuals, representing 18 couples, from one of the Navy's ships. The implementation was, on the whole, successful, although some changes were required. The seminar was rated as helpful by subjects, who completed a seminar evaluation immediately after the seminar and two months thereafter. Pre-seminar and post-seminar assessments of participants were conducted at a two month interval using three scales: the Heimler Scale of Social Functioning, the Family Assessment Device and the Deployment Resilience Scale (being developed by the author). T-tests of the 24 participants who returned both sets of questionnaires indicate that the seminar was successful in enhancing the social and family functioning and deployment resilience of participants. Participants who actively implemented changes based on the seminar evidenced substantially greater improvements than those who did not. Implications of the seminar for military and civilian communities and areas requiring ongoing design and development are discussed. Recommendations to naval management to reduce the risk of deployment stress are suggested. The views expressed in this work are those of the author alone and not those of the South African Medical Services, the South African National Defence Force or any other organization.

This study explores the adoptee's desire for, and experience of reunion with the birth mother, from within a Psychoanalytic framework, and with an emphasis upon the Object Relations Theory perspective. Adoption reunion may be considered to be an attempt on the part of the adoptee to reclaim the lost object. There are numerous international studies on different aspects of adoption, however, South African studies are sparse. This study seeks to unite the dialectic of the clinical practitioner and adoption practitioner in order to provide a rich and meaningful understanding of post adoption practitioner in order to provide a rich and meaningful understanding of post adoption reunion in South Africa. The study is conducted from 'Within a non-probability framework and is an empirical ethnographic study with a predominantly qualitative, inductive approach, which is exploratory and descriptive in nature. The quantitative research provides width to the in-depth, qualitative data and takes the form of a content analysis. The qualitative aspect of the study employs an in-depth, face- to- face, unstructured interviewing technique, followed by an interview schedule. This approach enables the researcher to enter the world of the adoptee and render it understandable through providing an ''insider" view of the personal narratives and experiences of the subjects. The qualitative sample is comprised of 8 adult adoptees, who experienced face-to-face reunion with the birth mother, while the quantitative sample is comprised of 207 contacts named in the post adoption register of Cape Town Child Welfare between 1989 and i995. The conclusion drawn from the study is that the adoptee's desire for reunion is a health -promoting process which may be motivat0d by both external, social factors as well as intra-psychic forces; the latter resulting from the interruption of early psychic processes. Reunion is seen to be a response to these forces and enables adoptees to establish a mom coherent and integrated sense of Self, and to place themselves within an historical and biological narrative. Adoptees, whilst seeking to reclaim the lost object, do so as a means of reclaiming and completing the Self, the development of which was disturbed as a result of premature Interruption of the primary infant-mother bond. it is further concluded that the value of reunion is not synonymous with the success or outcome of reunion or of the adoption, that the majority of reunion comics are discontinued, and that a negative adoption experience is not more likely to result in the adoptee seeking reunion. Furthermore, reunion constitutes a form of retrospective mourning, which sets the adoptee free to relinquish ties to the lost object and to reclaim Self.

According to the World Health Organisation, more than a billion people are living with a disability, with the vast majority being in low- and middle-income countries. In low-income communities, caregivers of children with a disability face multiple challenges related to poverty and lack of resources, which make it difficult for them to raise their child. This study explored the experiences of caregivers raising children with disabilities in South Africa. The aim of the study was to understand the experiences and needs of the caregivers of children with disabilities, through gathering sufficient primary and secondary data to reach a deep and broad understanding of the phenomenon. Twenty primary caregivers of children living with disability from the two disadvantaged communities – Khayelitsha and Gugulethu, both Cape Town townships participated in the research. The caregivers were all the biological mother of the child and living with the child at home. This research took the form of a qualitative exploratory study, (which is the research method that will be used in as a form of research method which we will be used in the paper) allowed for obtaining data in a flexible manner and to engage with the participants within their natural setting. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic in-depth telephonic interviews were conducted with the participants. A semi-structured interview schedule was used to facilitate the discussion, which was recorded using an audio recorder. The findings revealed that caregivers experienced different challenges in caring for a child with a disability. This led to them feeling isolated in their role, which was reinforced by a lack of community resources and social welfare support services; a lack of services delivery from government social services including social work intervention for caregivers of CWD left them often feeling hopeless. In these circumstances, it is recommended that the Department of Social Development incorporate systematic efforts to provide services to caregivers of children with disabilities. In addition, training should be provided to social workers to acquire skills on how to work with families of CWD. Disability should further be incorporated in the curriculum as part of social work studies.

Vol. 2, Case studies, confidential. / Die benadering wat in hierdie studie toegepas is, is dié van die psigiatriese maatskaplike werker. Dit beteken dat die fokus hoofsaaklik op die psigo-maatskaplike aspekte van homoseksualiteit, sowel as die maatskaplike funksionering van die homoseksuele persone, gerig is. Die basiese kennis van die psigiatriese maatskaplike werker is geleë in persoonlikheidsontwikkeling wat ten nouste met die psigo-seksuele ontwikkelingstadia saamval. Gesinsdinamika sowel as persoonlikheidsdinamika is dus faktore wat as essensiële studiemateriaal deur die psigiatriese maatskaplike werker beskou word. Die studie moes egter uitgebrei word om ander aspekte ook te behels, veral weens die hoogs-gekompliseerde en menigvuldige aard van hornoseksualiteit as verskynsel. Sosiologiese faktore wat die sosiale milieu van die mens grotendeels bepaal, moes ingesluit word, asook die toepassing van sosiale sanksies wat ten nouste saamhang met verskynsels soos stigma, konflikte en baie ander veranderlikes. Regsaspekte kon allermins oor die hoof gesien word - hulle bepaal die raamwerk waarin homoseksueles lee£ en weerspieël in belangrike wyses die houdings van die gemeenskap. Terapie moes ook bespreek word, beide om die bydrae van maatskaplike werk te bestudeer en om die bydraes van ander beroepe in verband te sien.

This study is an exploration of theoretical propositions and their integration with a clinical illustration in order to facilitate an understanding of the universal role of the good-enough father in the psychic development of the child. The premise underlying this study rests on the theoretical object relations framework of Margaret Mahler (197 4), extended by Abelin (1971, 1975), and taken into the phase of adolescence by Blas (1967,1985,1991), which provides a solid, clinical basis for understanding the dynamics of the separation-individuation process. This theoretical basis is expanded by an understanding of analytical psychology, providing the Jungian perspective on individuation, which is encapsulated in the archetypal themes of union, separation, and the capacity to sustain the tension of opposites. As a synthesis of these conceptual frameworks, the writer adopts the propositions put forward by Seligman (1986) that the absent father causes the child to remain enmeshed with the mother. Without a father's emotional support, it becomes almost insurmountably difficult for a child to negotiate the unavoidable separation from the mother, a prerequisite for the confirmation of his identity and the establishment of an autonomous lifestyle. As a treatment modality, Seligman (1986) further proposes that the analyst be "used" by the client's unconscious psyche to build up a live paternal presence within, a symbolic reinstatement of the father image, necessary for the crucial completion of the separation-individuation process. With the re-emergence of the father image, thus enabling a reconciliation of the inner parents, the mother can gradually be relinquished. Those aspects of the client's personality which had been committed to a real or imaginary "oneness" with the mother, and were thus unavailable for the enrichment of his own life, are restored to him, making him more "alive". The illustrative case study demonstrates this therapeutic approach with an adolescent boy who experienced father absence and presented in clinical social work practice with the symptomology of role confusion I individuation avoidance.

Bibliography: pages 143-152. / This study explores brief dynamic psychotherapy as a model of intervention with the individual adult client. The rationale for examining this area emanated from a few aspects. Firstly, increasing numbers of research studies indicated that the median length of psychotherapy, whether in private practice, or in community mental health centres, was actually of brief duration, whether planned or not; secondly, emerging studies indicated the proven effectiveness of brief intervention; and thirdly, the current emphasis on practice accountability with a more conscious use of time and outcome, were motivating factors to explore this model in practice. In addition, the study aimed to explore elements from the broader psychoanalytic tradition, which could be shaped and offered within a brief dynamic model of therapy.

Bibliography: leaves 100-113. / The study is based on psychoanalytic theory of the development of gender identity. The basic premise is that there are at least two levels of gender-related identity, viz. gender identity and sex-role. Thirty-three male and thirty-nine female university students participated in the study. They were asked to complete questionnaires designed to measure gender identity, sex-role and sexual orientation. Gender identity was measured by means of fantasy patterns which emerge in story-telling. The Bern Sex-Role Inventory was used to measure sex-role. Subjects' sexual orientations were described with the aid of the Kinsey Seven-Point Rating Scale. Results indicate a number of unanticipated complexities which need further investigation. The type of picture used in the measurement of gender identity seems to determine whether or not a subject's true gender identity will emerge or whether it will be distorted. There is a relationship between sex-role and gender identity, but it is indirect. The gender identities of persons whose sex-roles are feminine, masculine or undifferentiated tend to conform to biological sex. Persons whose sex-roles are androgynous, however, tend towards feminine gender identity whatever their biological sex. Further research is recommended to confirm or refute these results.