M.A. (Social Science) / The work environment in which social workers are fulfilling their duties are today demanding more and more of them. These demands are different from those demands of other professions and is the result of the distinctiveness of the helping professions. Social workers boast that they are because of their work situation always in a state of emotional exhaustion. To this the literature refers as the burnout syndrome. Articles and research reports on the topic of burnout appeared in the past on a regular basis and are new articles and reports published regularly. A research study was undertaken to determine what the extent of burnout is in social workers and to determine if there are reason for the widespread claims that they are victims of the burnout syndrome. The aim was also to determine those factors that are involved in causing burnout. A literature study were undertaken with the aim to describe the burnout syndrome. The literature showed that burnout is a syndrome characteristic of the helping professions. The literature also describes specific elements by which burnout could be recognised. It further gave some indications of those factors that are instrumental in the development of burnout. A sample were selected, a questionnaire compiled and distributed with the aim to collect information on the appearance of burnout. The results of the study showed different results. The most important result that was established was the lack of high levels of burnout in the sample. Only a small percentage of the respondents displayed high levels of burnout. The results also indicated that work dissatisfaction, a lack of autonomy, role problems (role conflict and role ambuguity) related to high levels of burnout. A sample were selected, a questionnaire compiled and distributed with the aim to collect information on the appearance of burnout. The results of the study showed different results. The most important result that was established was the lack of high levels of burnout in the sample. Only a small percentage of the respondents displayed high levels of burnout. The results also indicated that workdissatisfaction, a lack of autonomy, role problems (role conflict and roleambuguity) related to high levels of burnout in respondents. The results of the study led to certain recommendations concerning the prevention of burnout in social workers.

M.A. / Many countries have shown dissatisfaction and frustration with the formal punitive justice system. There is a resurging interest in preserving and strengthening traditional and customary justice practices, which has led to an outcry for alternative responses to crime and for social order. This requires the involvement of all parties, including the victim, offender and community, in participating and resolving conflict and addressing its consequences. This study addressed the following question: What are the roles, functions and competencies that social workers require in restorative justice? A review of the literature compared the different justice theories and, ultimately, restorative justice. Restorative justice, as a growing movement, aims to change the direction of criminal law by focusing on the needs of victims and repairing harms to the communities. The victim is afforded an opportunity in court as well as outside the court by actively participating in the outcome of the sentence of the offender. The offender, on the other hand, is directly confronted with the responsibility for the wrong and is more likely to do something positive for the victim. The community‟s susceptible, healing approach offers a new way of dealing with crime. Restorative justice programmes are, in some instances, based on local decision-making and community-building. This attitude promotes and encourages a peaceful expression of conflict, tolerance and inclusiveness which builds respect for diversity and enhances responsible community practices.

In most modern communities, a large array of health services and welfare services are at least potentially available to all. Whether any individual or family receives a co-ordinated balanced welfare service, however, depends on many factors, including the extent to which two "helping professions", social work (as represented by social workers employed in various agencies) and medicine (as represented by general practitioners) know of each other's services and actually work together. The present study is a preliminary survey of the situation. As background, the impact of industrialization and urbanization on the development and contemporary roles of medicine and social work is reviewed. Information for this qualitative study was obtained through questionnaires submitted to sample groups of doctors and social workers. The purpose of the questionnaires was to gain some definition of the concept of "reciprocal awareness and utilization". In each case, the attempt was made to evaluate the knowledge one profession had of the other's role and function, and the extent to which this knowledge was used for the benefit of the population they served. In addition, directors of three key agencies were interviewed to determine their views on the role of the agency in furthering reciprocal awareness and utilization. The findings of the study indicate that a fairly typical situation is that the doctor's awareness of the social worker's role and function is limited and outdated. Social workers, in general, are more aware of the doctor's role and function, but on the other hand, their expectations are somewhat high and perhaps unrealistic. As indicated by the test of referral patterns, the utilization of each other's resources is minimal. The doctor's utilization of social work skills and resources is hampered by two facts: (a) patients have mixed feelings about being referred, and (b) doctors believe that agency policy and procedure is ineffective and frustrating. There is evidence that besides not recognizing a modern social worker's role and function, general practitioners appear to underestimate social and emotional factors in illness. Reciprocity, the main concept evaluated in this study, is minimal. Both doctors and social workers recognized that there are gains to be realized from more co-operation and some methods are recommended; but the low degree of reciprocal awareness and utilization existing between doctors and social workers must be tackled by recognizing that rather than lack of communication, faulty and hostile communication is the issue. This does not necessarily apply to medicine and social work in institutional settings and this difference demands further exploration. / Arts, Faculty of / Social Work, School of / Graduate

This study developed from results obtained in a recent MSW thesis entitled, "Utilization of Manpower at Children’s Aid Society of Vancouver, B.C." by Adams, et. al. (U.B.C. School of Social Work, 1967). In the main, our assignment was to select and rank a wide range of tasks performed by agency staff in the field of child welfare. Using the Adams et. al. recommendation regarding "worker autonomy," we selected a panel of fifteen judges representing the three levels of employment - administrative, supervisory, and line worker, developed an adequate method of judging, and analysed the data. The Adams, et. al. study proved useful in our inquiry in providing clues to the various personal assignments we had set for our project group. The entire project covered a period of less than three months and because of this comparatively short research period, we resorted to simplified techniques of judging. We found a high percentage of agreement among the judges. This not only indicates that the tasks can be differentiated by social workers in the field of child welfare but also that the "forced choice" phase of the judging probably does not adversely affect reliability. Further, we suggested in the Adam's study, it would appear that "worker autonomy” can usefully be used as a criterion in ranking tasks in a child welfare agency. / Arts, Faculty of / Social Work, School of / Graduate

Due to the emotional draining and potentially stressful nature of social work practice, the availability of social work supervision becomes desirable and necessary. Supervision has to be implemented continuously in order to render an effective and sufficient service to clients, families and communities. Social work supervisors have very important and necessary roles to play in the professional development of social workers and the effective functioning of the social services organisations in which they are employed. Additional to the responsibility pertaining to the social workers, supervisors are middle managers and thus have specific management responsibilities as well. The result is that the supervisor has to implement both supervision and management functions. Supervisors function under stress that is enforced by expectations from social workers and senior management. Social workers do have formal channels of feedback and support in the supervisors that provide opportunities for commendation. Supervisors have no such formally assigned sources of feedback or support. There is little recognition for their accomplishments and little or no support when they encounter problems. The problem is that the lack or absence of support and support systems for social work supervisors has a negative influence on their supervisory and managerial services to social workers. The supervisory and managerial expectations were identified as prove of the demands placed on supervisors as well as the work-related stress that they are subjected to. A few management strategies have been identified as possible support systems for supervisors in the management of supervisees. Support systems that were identified and discussed are employee benefits, employee incentives, job description, knowledge of the budget and financial controls, employee assistance program, supervisors’ peer support group, career planning, organizational culture, organizational climate and the immediate superior. The empirical research was done through the quantitative research technique and a mailed questionnaire as data gathering method. The social work supervisors of the Department of Welfare were the research population and the participating provinces were Mpumalanga, Free State and Eastern Cape. The data received through the questionnaires supported the indication that supervisors do not receive support in the execution of their responsibilities. It was confirmed that the identified support systems, if utilised and applied effectively, could provide supervisors with support. The empirical research and the literature study have confirmed the following research statements: 1. Insufficient support systems are available to supervisors in the social work profession. 2. The available support systems for social work supervisors are inadequately administered and utilised . 3. Due to the inadequate utilisation of support systems, supervisors experience lack of support resulting in neglected supervisory and managerial practice. Relevant data from the questionnaires and the literature study formed the basis for the development of guidelines for application of the support systems. It is recommended that these guidelines be implemented for the support systems to be effectively utilised and applied. / Thesis (DPhil (Social Work))--University of Pretoria, 2007. / Social Work and Criminology / unrestricted

This study was initiated by the desire to do a piece of research which would not only be a useful experience for us as social work graduate students, but also would be meeting the needs of an ,agency in the local community. In exploring the opportunities available to us, we found that the three of us were all employed by the Louise Home for Girls in Portland. In addition we each had a concern for the quality of treatment being provided by the Home. Therefore, we approached the administration of the Louise Home to see if they would be interested in our doing a research project involving the agency.

The purpose of this study is to assess the attitudes of a select group of social workers in the Portland area. The study will focus on their attitudes about the causes of poverty and actions to deal with problems of poverty. These attitudes will be examined in the context of a theoretical framework. The sample consists of those social workers and social work-related professionals who serve as field instructors for the Portland State School of Social Work. This means that the study will also provide information about the attitudes that Portland State social work students are likely to encounter in the field during the master's program. This information may be useful to the school in evaluating, developing, or modifying curriculum.

The development of mental health services emerged from South Africa’s colonial history and the racist policy of apartheid’s influence on colonialism, race and legislative framework within mental health services. In social work practice, the critical issue relates to the required knowledge of DSM as it relates to the process of diagnosis guidance in social work education and practice. Assessment is a cornerstone of social work practice in the mental health field to gain a comprehensive and holistic view of our clients and their lives, not only a focus on both the person and the environment, but also to assesses their strengths and capabilities. Social workers are viewed as an important profession which have a huge contribution to mental health issues through prevention and early intervention, without considering whether they are working in a specialised mental health role, and regardless of the setting in which they work. The present study explored and described the experiences of social workers in the provision of mental health services in Johannesburg. The present study followed a qualitative research approach which was utilised and guided the research study. A case study design was selected and used in this qualitative study to explore the experiences of social workers in the provision of mental health services in their respective mental health institutions with Johannesburg. The research study made use of the purposive sampling technique and a semi-structured interview guide with open-ended questions, which were used in face-face interviews to collect data for the study. Ten interviews were conducted with social workers who provide mental health services in Johannesburg, whereby seven participants were from CGMHS and three were from Tara Psychiatric Hospital. The researcher reported on all ten participants who participated in the present study, which also included the pilot done prior the actual study. The findings indicated that social workers have knowledge and understanding of mental health services, what mental health services are, and how mental health care should be aligned with social work practice. The study found that social workers provide numerous services in their respective mental health institutions where they worked. The study found that social workers have working relations with other stakeholders who also have a role in mental health issues such as the police, to mention few. The findings also indicated a lack of continuous mental health training for social workers who work in the field of mental health as well as a lack or limited support and supervision. Lastly, the findings showed that social workers in the field of mental health encounter a numerous challenges such as lack of resources, staff compliment, relapse of mental health care users, financial support, stigma towards users, lack of leadership and ineffective policies and systems in the field of mental health. The study concludes that social workers do understand what mental health services are, and their role and tasks in the field of mental health. It can be also concluded that a lack of support and supervision is overlooked for social workers who are providing mental health services in respective mental health institutions and they are faced with various challenges which makes their work difficult to cope with under certain circumstances. Recommendations in the present study include that professional social workers be trained very diligently and comprehensively in the mental health field and such training should be continuous so as to improve the services provided by social workers in the field of mental health. / Mini Dissertation (MSW (Health Care))--University of Pretoria, 2021. / Social Work and Criminology / MSW (Health Care) / Unrestricted

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