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

dc.contributor.advisorBila, Nontembeko
dc.contributor.emailanna.lesegomodise@gmail.comen_US
dc.contributor.postgraduateModise, Lesego Annah
dc.date.accessioned2025-02-10T14:06:15Z
dc.date.available2025-02-10T14:06:15Z
dc.date.created2025-04
dc.date.issued2024-10
dc.descriptionMini Dissertation (MSW (Healthcare))--University of Pretoria, 2024.en_US
dc.description.abstractPublic 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 findingsen_US
dc.description.availabilityUnrestricteden_US
dc.description.degreeMSW (Healthcare)en_US
dc.description.departmentSocial Work and Criminologyen_US
dc.description.facultyFaculty of Humanitiesen_US
dc.description.sdgSDG-03: Good health and well-beingen_US
dc.identifier.citation*en_US
dc.identifier.doihttps://doi.org./10.25403/UPresearchdata.27240684en_US
dc.identifier.otherA2025en_US
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/2263/100673
dc.language.isoenen_US
dc.publisherUniversity of Pretoria
dc.rights© 2023 University of Pretoria. All rights reserved. The copyright in this work vests in the University of Pretoria. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the University of Pretoria.
dc.subjectUCTDen_US
dc.subjectSustainable Development Goals (SDGs)en_US
dc.subjectSocial work rolesen_US
dc.subjectPublic healthen_US
dc.subjectPrimary healthcareen_US
dc.subjectMulti-disciplinary teamen_US
dc.subjectCommunity oriented primary careen_US
dc.titleThe potential perceived roles of social workers in public health within Gauteng healthen_US
dc.typeMini Dissertationen_US

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