This is the report of four social work students engaged in the process of developing a longitudinal study. The original concerns guiding the enquiry involved two general concepts: (I) non-utilization of agency services and (II) lack of awareness re such services. It was felt that a large risk population are not aware of the services available to them and thus they were unable to utilize community resources. The public relations program has also felt to be a factor which should be examined. In order to study this problem in an actual setting, the Family and Children's Service's Fernwood-GIadstone neighbourhood team was chosen as the vehicle for the research project. This study is an attempt to design a data collection instrument which will measure the level of awareness about a particular agency team and Its program in a specific community. The instrument developed was a questionnaire designed to elicit responses concerning: (I) what people know about a particular agency team and its program. (II) what people know about the general services of an agency. (III) what people think of the method of publicity used by the agency. The questionnaire was administered to a population selected through utilizing the multiple phase sampling of the random sampling techniques. The responses to the questionnaire are precoded to facilitate the use of the MVTAB computer program in the analysis of the data obtained. The material obtained from the pretest sample indicates that the instrument will obtain the desired Information. The highly tentative findings (due to the small sample size) suggest that the members of the community studied have a general knowledge about the Family and Children's Service agency but are not as aware of the agency team operating out of an office in their community. The respondents stated a general willingness to utilize the services of this team when needed. This suggests that advertising is important that methods utilized thus far have not been too successful. Based on the findings of the pretest it is recommended that the data collection instrument be refined and a full study be conducted. / Arts, Faculty of / Social Work, School of / [co-authors, John Farr, Robert Leach, George Phillon] / Graduate

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The thesis explores the role of inscription in the management of social work and the effect of this on front-line practice. Inscription is a response to current trends in public sector management, in particular the focus on transparency, accountability and performance management, which drive an increasing demand for the documentation of work in areas of professional practice, traditionally assumed to be at odds with codification. The research investigates the effect of new documenting procedures in social work, specifically, the introduction of a ‘standard assessment format’ and responses to this by social work practitioners. The thesis uses a constructivist theoretical framework drawn from Actor Network Theory, which understands inscription as a performative technology, which is used to manage the process and content of practice through representation and translation. The thesis is based upon an exploratory, critical case study in a Local Authority Children and Families Social Work Service between November 2004 and May 2006. The thesis explores the translations between practice (doing), articulation (describing) and textual representation (documenting). For front-line practitioners, practice is understood as the ‘doing’ of work whilst the ‘describing’ and ‘documenting’ of work are categorised as secondary, bureaucratic concerns, with no material effect on the core processes and outcomes of social work practice. The research indicates that social work practice is in fact is a series of practices, which include the doing, describing and documenting of work. The research suggests that the conceptualisation of practice as ‘doing’, rather than ‘describing’ and ‘documenting’ work determines practitioner responses to the use of inscription in managing social work practice.

D.Litt. et Phil. / Please refer to full text to view abstract

After nine years of working in the field of social work, this including counselling, training and supervision, the researcher became aware of the need to develop a tool by which social workers could identify how they work. This study is for the social workers. It will review theory and techniques and then will go one step further. It will offer a new product to the social worker, a product whereby he or she can internally reflect on, investigate, argue about, integrate and finally, within the relationship the social worker has with his or her own working self, developed a personal practice model. Developmental research was selected as the research design. The tool to achieve the goal of developing a personal practice model was a workshop. A pilot study was undertaken at Family Life Centre. / Social Work / M.A. (Social Science (Mental Health))

After nine years of working in the field of social work, this including counselling, training and supervision, the researcher became aware of the need to develop a tool by which social workers could identify how they work. This study is for the social workers. It will review theory and techniques and then will go one step further. It will offer a new product to the social worker, a product whereby he or she can internally reflect on, investigate, argue about, integrate and finally, within the relationship the social worker has with his or her own working self, developed a personal practice model. Developmental research was selected as the research design. The tool to achieve the goal of developing a personal practice model was a workshop. A pilot study was undertaken at Family Life Centre. / Social Work / M.A. (Social Science (Mental Health))

The purpose of this study was to examine forensic social workers' levels of knowledge about skepticism toward Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID) in light of the controversy that surrounds the diagnosis. Relationships between demographic and professional practice variables and workers' levels of knowledge and skepticism were analyzed to assess the possible etiology of skepticism toward DID.

The problem identified as the focus of this study is the absence of a scale that measures social functioning with validated norms for any population group in South Africa. The need for such an instrument is highlighted by the importance of measurement to social work practice. Descriptions and definitions of "social functioning" in social work literature are evaluated and social functioning is operationally defined. Various approaches to the measurement of social functioning and contemporary ideas concerning the measurement of marital and family life are explored. Literature pertaining to the Heimler Scale of Social Functioning (HSSF), the measurement instrument selected in this study to measure social functioning, is examined and systematized and research findings on the HSSF are reviewed. The examination of the HSSF is focussed on the reliability of the scale for three population groups in South Africa : Whites, Indians and Blacks. The HSSF was administered to client sample groups (N = 281) from three types of welfare agencies in Durban, South Africa. These welfare organisations represent the counterparts of the British welfare agencies from which samples were drawn in the original validation study of the HSSF. As English and Zulu speaking clients are included in sample groups, the HSSF had to be translated into Zulu. The questions included in the HSSF appear to be suitable in a construct that attempts to measure social functioning and the Zulu translation of the HSSF appears to be acceptable. Findings of the study show that the international norms of the HSSF cannot be applied without adjustment across racial and ethnic boundaries and certain changes to the norms for specific client groups are recommended. / Thesis (Ph.D.)-University of Natal, Durban, 1986.

This work was based on an investigation of the subject of burnout, as observed by the researcher among social workers that worked for various social services organizations - both Government Departments and Non-Governmental Organizations - based in the Eastern Cape Province. The study of burnout was conducted with the aim to obtain information from the respondents about their conditions at work, and how those conditions contributed, as alleged, to burnout experienced by them. A qualitative research method was used as an approach that the researcher found best in that it allowed for an in-depth probe into the circumstances of the respondents (including the attitudes and emotions of the respondents), to give a broad picture of the situation as experienced by the respondents at work. A qualitative method was handled through the exploratory research principle of sampling and gathering of data, as the researcher felt it a sufficiently appropriate route to help yield the required outcomes of the study. The researcher's motivation to pursue the research was prompted by several indicators which included an article in the Daily Dispatch of 26 August 2003 that wrote 'Social workers quit in droves' and some personal contact with graduated students of social work, recently employed as social workers in various settings. Interesting dynamics about social work practice and its frustrations surfaced, and out of that premise, the researcher felt that it was an opportune moment to carry out an investigation to discover the facts about burnout as experienced by social workers. The findings on the research would be published, and the researcher intended to inform the social work community about the outcomes of research, hoping that the information would become useful to them in curtailing or preventing future encounters of burnout as experienced by them at the work place. In other words, recommendations for solutions would be provided based on the findings as an outcome of that investigation. To allow for the success of the research process, the researcher planned to draw from several resource centers and other researchers' data, any valuable piece of information, record, or existing data that could assist in evaluating information that became available during data collection. Such information was seen as very important since it helped in making the data analysis process easier and more than enough information could thus be obtained. Finally the researcher had found the study quite fascinating in that it addressed human concerns in the form of social work issues at work, which the researcher personally considered important and shared as one of the issues affecting social work professionals.

Aim of this study. The problem of poverty, especially in rural S.A ., formed the basis for the questions and hypotheses posed in this study. Poverty stricken communities, with the accompanying suffering, the immobilizing effect of poverty and the present climate of urgent changes in S.A., were also apparent in Wartburg (study area). The problem was to initiate development in such a way that the chances of failure and therefore the wasting of already scarce resources is minimized. The manner in which development is initiated and what are viewed as desirable elements of development should culminate into achieving self-sustaining development in the long term. It became clear therefore that a complete data base needs to be established in order to initiate such a development process. In this study the aim was to investigate the role which research plays in the process of development. Method. This study can be divided into two sections, viz an investigation into the theoretical basis for achieving a self-sustaining process of development and how research should be done within such a process. Secondly, the practical application of such a theoretical basis was tested and forms the empirical section of this study. The first section was completed by undertaking a literature study. The conditions set for the development process guided the researcher increasingly to a holistic perspective, Community Development and the state of the art of Social Work Practice. The second part of this study was done through empirical research. The questionnaire method was utilized where structured interviews were conducted by properly trained field workers who were of similar cultural background as the community involved in the survey. The data was processed by using the B.M.D.P. programme and recorded in section B of this report. From section A and B of this report conclusions were drawn regarding the development process, the role research has in this process and the task of the Social Work Profession in this regard. Findings. From the theory it seemed that the state of the art regarding social Work Practice upholds a holistic perspective and views community practice and development as an important function within this perspective. It seems that a unitary approach to Social Work is increasingly becoming a reality in the pursuit of a holistic perspective as well as by stressing the importance of community practice. The integrated approach to Social Work Practice seems to collaborate with these views. The role of research is equally important to social Work Practice as it is to Community Development and should be viewed as an integral part of the Social Work Process/Practice. The empirical section of this study is a clear example of what can be achieved by a properly planned and executed research project which forms an integral part of a development process. Together with the community valuable data were drawn from the data base. These conclusions were directly employed to identify priorities and in planning specific projects. Conclusions. This study concludes, firstly, that Social Work Practice has an obvious task in the field of community development. This profession can contribute to a large extent toward making development more human and to acknowledge the importance of both man and his environment when considering development. The study also showed that research is an integral part of a development process, especially where the aim is that of a perpetuating, self-sustaining development process. In short, it seems that the Socio-economic research meets the requirements set by the aforementioned development process, but that refining seems necessary in order to make it more effective and useful as an instrument for initiating such a process of development as discussed in the above paragraphs.