M.A. / Kinship families have cared for children on a full-time basis for thousands of years, and for many years it has been standard practice for welfare agencies to consider the placement of children with kin whenever it becomes necessary to find an alternative way of caring for them. Many welfare experts believe that children will be better served if their care is provided by family members rather than strangers and yet, ironically, little scientific research has been done by welfare agencies and researchers to assess the value of kinship foster placement. Research focusing specifically on black foster parents is very scant. Generally, the decision about the placement of children in kinship homes has been based primarily on the professional observation of social workers as opposed to information derived from research findings. Despite the apparent growth in the use of kinship foster care and the concomitant suspicions about its advisability, children are still being placed in kinship homes. Kinship foster care placement is advocated most by welfare agencies, without the practice having been scientifically assessed. This deficiency has left the field with little information on which to base work with kinship foster families. The main purpose of this study was therefore to gain knowledge and to analyse the facts pertaining to kinship foster placement, and to draw a profile of kinship foster families in the urban residential area of Vosloorus. Quantative descriptive methods were used in this study. The main concern of the study was to collect data in such a way that it could be systematically processed and interpreted reliably. A descriptive design was chosen, as explanations can be tested by means of research questions. Eight research questions were formulated and put to the test. Facts were also established by studying literature reviewing case records, and interviewing foster parents as well as social workers. The results of this study suggest that we have not scientifically thought the purpose and goals of placing children with relatives through, but we have done so on the bases of certain assumptions, that is, we have assumed that relatives would be more willing to care and provide for the children of relatives than those of non-relatives. The study has provided information about kinship foster care and foster family care, focusing on the demographic characteristics of kinship foster parents, the services received by kinship foster parents, the manner in which kinship foster children are treated and the issue of visits by case workers. This study has provided insight and knowledge upon which agencies can base their selection of kinship foster parents. The findings have been discussed, and recommendations offered for policy, practice and future research.

M.A. / This study is born from the motivation to empower psychiatric social workers in South Africa with a classification system that compares well to classification systems used by other disciplines in the psychiatric setting. The classification system in question is the Person-in-Environment Classification System (PIE) and therefore this study sets out to investigate and report on the value the PIE might have for psychiatric social work in South Africa. Another objective then is to highlight what problems were experienced in using the PIE which will form the foundation for recommendations on further research and possible adaptations. The first part of this dissertation sets out the motivation and objectives of this study, where the second part gives a thorough description of psychiatric social work, the ecological approach in psychiatric social work, classification systems and the PIE itself. The research process is described whereafter the results of the data are explained. The results are discussed within the framework of three evaluative factors, namely image, applicability and structure which gives an indication of the value the PIE has for psychiatric social work. The conclusion can be drawn from this study that the PIE has definite value in all three evaluative factors. It can be concluded that the PIE can serve as an empowering tool in establishing and defining psychiatric social work's unique contribution to South African psychiatry.

M.A. (Social Work) / South Africa is a society undergoing major and rapid social change. An understanding of psychiatric services in the psychiatric hospital should also be identified within this context. The needs of the mentally ill and other interested parties will determine the extent of the services that need to be rendered. The social worker as part of the interdisciplinary team in the hospital, must have a clear perception of her professional role in order to render a relevant service. Social work must become more responsive to the consumers' needs and allow itself to be shaped by the context in which it is practised. In this study the role of the social worker in Weskoppies Hospital was identified by means of a descriptive research design with qualitative and quantitative methods of data collection. The qualitative research was done by means of in depth interviews and focus groups with interested parties. The quantitative research was done by means of questionnaires completed by patients of the hospital. A model for the role description of the social worker was derived from a literature study; the view of Lister, as described by the authors Hepworth & Larsen; the view of other authors and the results of the qualitative and quantitative research. The results of the research confirmed a need for social work services in Weskoppies Hospital. The greatest need expressed, was a need for help with material problems, followed by a need for help to be linked with other resources. Although community involvement was emphasised, there still was a need for individual counseling and support. Other important roles were also identified. The model serves as an integrated description of the role of the social worker in the hospital. From the results of the research it was thus possible to convey a clear picture of the role of the social worker in Weskoppies Hospital. Hopefully this will enable the social workers in the hospital to render a better and more understanding service to the patients, hospital and community.

This thesis focuses on Catholic Charities (Hereafter CC), a non-profit agency that provides pregnancy and adoption support to families in times of crisis. Research and agency data reflect a positive association between the amount of time clients engage in services and the resolution of crises. Both theoretically and empirically, a key determinant of the depth and breadth of clients' engagement with both for-profit and non-profit services is their satisfaction with such services. In 2009-2010, CC's in-house, client surveys reported a decreasing level of client engagement with services. One clear trend was that clients discontinued services after thirty days or less. Against this trend, CC aims to provide social services for an extended period of time (i.e. longer than thirty days) in order to insure that clients have fully recovered from crises. In order to understand possible reasons for clients' low or short engagement rates, this thesis analyzes clients' satisfaction with CC services. Using a grounded-theory approach, twenty semi-structured interviews with former and current CC clients were analyzed for communication-based themes involving clients' satisfaction with services. Four macro-themes emerged: (1) Positive Caseworker Personality, (2) Feeling Emotionally Supported, (3) Feeling Helped, and (4) Positive Counseling Environment. Findings have implications for both theories of satisfaction and the offering and practice of CC services.

No / Existing research on the impact of growing up in care focuses upon either the care experience itself or the period of transition from care to independence. Our knowledge of outcomes largely ceases when former residents of the care system reach their early twenties. There are strong social justice reasons for extending research into the older adult lives of such young people. We know a great deal about the multiple disadvantages that such individuals face as children. But research is largely silent about their subsequent adult lives. While we must be cautious in drawing causal links to the childhood care experience as the time period since life in care extends, we know that early experiences can affect care-leavers across their life coursejust as childhood experience affects all adults in a variety of ways. In this review, we highlight evidence drawn from research in Australia, the United Kingdom, Canada, Ireland, and the United States, with particular attention paid to the first two of those countries. We use a wide range of sources and identify areas for further consideration, including access to personal records, mental health, education, and parenting. By doing so, we seek to open up this area for further research with the hope that such research will lead to an increasing recognition of care-leavers' needs and thus to improvements in social policy and service provision.

We conducted the study to explore and define the role of the social worker in Primary Health Care. The medical care model on its own is viewed as inappropriate for developing countries. We see Primary Health Care as holding the key to improving the health status of the many disadvantaged communities in South Africa. The Primary Health Care approach demands those health care providers, including social workers work collaboratively to provide the best possible services to the communities. Social Work is a profession concerned with the disadvantaged. However, social workers are assigned a very limited role in Primary Health Care. Since participants are concerned about subjective and experiential realities, participatory research was the appropriate research method. The major findings and conclusions were that, social workers have a role in Primary Health Care. They have to be assertive and tell others what is it that they do to find a place in Primary Health Care / Social Work / M.A. (Social Science (Mental Health))

In this study, the researchers explored child welfare workers’ perceptions on placement changes for youth in foster care and the impact these changes had on youths’ overall outcomes. Using a Post Positivist paradigm, qualitative research was completed using snowball-sampling procedures. The researchers conducted in-depth interviews with sixteen members from their personal networks of child welfare social workers that have direct contact with foster youth. The research participants included current child welfare social workers from two counties in Southern California. The study’s findings suggest that children’s behaviors and foster parents’ reactions to those behaviors impacted placement changes. Further, participants felt that these changes significantly impacted youths’ educational outcomes. Participants identified a variety of interventions they used to try to mitigate placement changes, some with more or less success. Finally, workers identified barriers within the child welfare system, including communications and compensation, that might have an impact on placement changes. Implications for social work practice, policy and research are discussed.

This dissertation analyses the relationship between social work and social policy in Europe from a comparative historical perspective. Central to this analysis is the dynamic interplay of forces which led to the consolidation of the European nation state as a welfare state, including the current crisis of the welfare consensus. The role of social work emerges as central to the project of national cultural integration, a perspective which frequently gets overlooked from a purely national perspective. Social works enmeshment with this nation state project is revealed in the current transformation of the welfare states in the light of neo-liberal principles and in the context of globalization. This perspective underlines the need for the development of intercultural communicative competences and in particular a consistent anti-racist approach in social work. At the same time the particular position in relation to social policy requires the development of research methods specific to the discipline in the light of its hermeneutic tasks. / Die Arbeit behandelt die Beziehung zwischen Sozialer Arbeit und Sozialpolitik in Europa aus vergleichender historischer Perspektive. Untersucht wird die Dynamik des Nationalstaats und seine Konsolidierung als Wohlfahrtsstaat bis zur gegenwärtigen Krise des Wohlfahrtskonsenses. Dabei gewinnt die Rolle der Sozialen Arbeit in der Aufgabe kultureller Integration besondere Bedeutung, da dies aus rein nationaler Sicht oft nicht zu erkennen ist. Ihre Verkoppelung mit dem Nationalstaat wird besonders deutlich in der gegenwärtigen Transformation durch neo-liberale Prinzipien im Kontext der Globalisierung. Hieraus ergeben sich neue Aufgaben für die Soziale Arbeit, insbesondere in Bezug auf die Entwicklung interkultureller kommunikativer Kompetenzen und eines konsistenten antirassistischen Ansatzes. Gleichzeitig erfordert die besondere sozialpolitische Position die Entwicklung disziplinspezifischer Forschungsansätze im Lichte der hermeneutischen Bedeutung der Sozialen Arbeit.

We conducted the study to explore and define the role of the social worker in Primary Health Care. The medical care model on its own is viewed as inappropriate for developing countries. We see Primary Health Care as holding the key to improving the health status of the many disadvantaged communities in South Africa. The Primary Health Care approach demands those health care providers, including social workers work collaboratively to provide the best possible services to the communities. Social Work is a profession concerned with the disadvantaged. However, social workers are assigned a very limited role in Primary Health Care. Since participants are concerned about subjective and experiential realities, participatory research was the appropriate research method. The major findings and conclusions were that, social workers have a role in Primary Health Care. They have to be assertive and tell others what is it that they do to find a place in Primary Health Care / Social Work / M.A. (Social Science (Mental Health))

This dissertation analyses the relationship between social work and social policy in Europe from a comparative historical perspective. Central to this analysis is the dynamic interplay of forces which led to the consolidation of the European nation state as a welfare state, including the current crisis of the welfare consensus. The role of social work emerges as central to the project of national cultural integration, a perspective which frequently gets overlooked from a purely national perspective. Social works enmeshment with this nation state project is revealed in the current transformation of the welfare states in the light of neo-liberal principles and in the context of globalization. This perspective underlines the need for the development of intercultural communicative competences and in particular a consistent anti-racist approach in social work. At the same time the particular position in relation to social policy requires the development of research methods specific to the discipline in the light of its hermeneutic tasks. / Die Arbeit behandelt die Beziehung zwischen Sozialer Arbeit und Sozialpolitik in Europa aus vergleichender historischer Perspektive. Untersucht wird die Dynamik des Nationalstaats und seine Konsolidierung als Wohlfahrtsstaat bis zur gegenwärtigen Krise des Wohlfahrtskonsenses. Dabei gewinnt die Rolle der Sozialen Arbeit in der Aufgabe kultureller Integration besondere Bedeutung, da dies aus rein nationaler Sicht oft nicht zu erkennen ist. Ihre Verkoppelung mit dem Nationalstaat wird besonders deutlich in der gegenwärtigen Transformation durch neo-liberale Prinzipien im Kontext der Globalisierung. Hieraus ergeben sich neue Aufgaben für die Soziale Arbeit, insbesondere in Bezug auf die Entwicklung interkultureller kommunikativer Kompetenzen und eines konsistenten antirassistischen Ansatzes. Gleichzeitig erfordert die besondere sozialpolitische Position die Entwicklung disziplinspezifischer Forschungsansätze im Lichte der hermeneutischen Bedeutung der Sozialen Arbeit.