A dissertation submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Clinical Psychology in the Department of Psychology at the University of Zululand, 2001. / Sporadic violence, both politically and criminally related, has led to KwaZulu-Natal being labeled the most volatile region in South Africa. The Human Science Research Council, in a nationwide survey conducted in 1994, found that one in four South Africans has been a direct or indirect victim of crime. The urban areas offer a multiplicity of lay counseling services' to victims of violence; however, the availability of basic counseling services is almost non-existent in many far-reaching rural areas. Factors such as poverty, the subsequent non-availability of transport and telephonic linkage disadvantages the rural inhabitants even further.
The University of Zululand, a founder member of the Zululand Community Mental Health Programme, has initiated various community projects in and around northern KwaZulu-Natal. As part of the University of Zululand's Community Psychology Project, the Psychology Department has been actively involved in various community outreach programmes in northern KwaZulu-Natal, including the Mandeni region.
From a series of meetings organised by the Mandeni Transitional Council that comprised representatives of the local community, it emerged that there was a dire need to equip laypersons with basic counselling skills. It was decided by these representatives (who comprised people from all professional spheres including members of the police force and nurses from the surrounding clinics and hospital) that police personnel and nurses were most often the first line of contact for victims of violence. However, these individuals themselves felt that they were ill equipped to counsel victims of violence. An appeal was thus made to the University of Zululand's Psychology Department to assist in training these first-line contacts who deal with victims of violence on a daily basis.
The aim of this research was to use phenomenological explication to determine the nurses' and police personnel's experiences of dealing with victims of violence and, extending from this, to tailor a lay counselling programme that will benefit the community. Whilst the evaluation of lay counsellors' performances indicated a reasonable success in equipping them with basic counselling skills, an interesting extension of these findings portray a degree of resistance exhibited by select rural male lay counsellors. This could indeed provide an impetus for further research in the area of training rural male counsellors. / Centre for Science Development
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:uzulu/oai:uzspace.unizulu.ac.za:10530/658 |
| Date | January 2001 |
| Creators | Desai, Aasya B I |
| Contributors | Edwards, S.D. |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
| Format | application/pdf |
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