The potential perceived roles of social workers in public health within Gauteng health

Abstract

Public health as an approach to ensuring high-quality healthcare services has been implemented globally. It has gained popularity as it aims to address health disparities between those who cannot afford private health and those who do. In the Gauteng province specifically, about 66% of the province’s total population relies on public health and the number continues to increase. Although it may have challenges, the provision of public health services helps people improve their health and mitigate factors that threaten health generally. Thus, its implementation emphasises the integration of various helping professions, including social work. Unlike other health professionals, social workers in public health can address social factors influencing health (i.e. unemployment, social injustices, environmental factors). However, the roles of social workers within public health are not clearly understood by other professionals. Therefore, it was the goal of this study to explore and describe how social workers’ roles are perceived in public health within Gauteng health facilities. A qualitative approach was used in this study to explore the in-depth knowledge of the perceived roles of social workers. To gain an understanding of those perceptions, the researcher employed face to face individual semi-structured interviews where five (5) social workers at primary and secondary public health facilities were interviewed (Mamelodi Regional Hospital and Mamelodi West Clinic). A focus group discussion was conducted with four multidisciplinary members, including 1 professional nurse, 1 psychologist, and 2 occupational therapists, at the Mamelodi Regional Hospital. Collective case study was applied to draw knowledge of the case being studied and non-purposive sampling was used to select participants based on the inclusion criteria. The findings of the study illustrate that a lack of knowledge and understanding of the roles of social workers in public health has resulted in misconceptions and poor recognition of the profession. Subsequently, this affects the quality of social work services and roles in health settings. In addition, the study revealed that lack or limited resources for social workers is a challenge in practice impacting the effectiveness of the service provision. SACSSP was also criticised as the body of the profession for the lack of support for social workers in public health facilities. The study indicates a limited focus of BSW programme on all areas of social work. However, departmental trainings and workshops provided were found to be closing this gap. The study recommends that the BSW programme incorporates various fields in social work and allows students to choose their area of interest. This will help ensure that professionals are capacitated and will effectively operate within the selected field of work. A larger study on this phenomenon is recommended as it will allow for the generalisation of these findings