The experiences of social workers in the provision of mental health services in Johannesburg

Abstract

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.