The challenges faced by social workers rendering services to children and adolescents with mental health disorders in child and youth care centres

Abstract

Social workers rendering services to children and adolescents with mental health disorders in Child and Youth Care Centres play a significant role in supporting these children. They liaise with various stakeholders and professionals to ensure that the children receive the necessary support and care. Despite their crucial role in these centres, they seem to be confronted with several challenges, of which some are undocumented. Furthermore, this topic has not been adequately researched, which propelled the researcher to conduct a qualitative research study aimed at exploring and describing the challenges experienced by the social workers in Child and Youth Care Centres. The study was conducted in Pretoria, South Africa, in the Tshwane municipal area in Gauteng province. The researcher used the exploratory, contextual, descriptive and phenomenological research designs and viewed and described the phenomenon from the perspective of the ecological systems theory. Throughout the study, the researcher was guided by and upheld the ethical principles of anonymity, confidentiality, debriefing, informed consent, beneficence and management of information. Data was collected through semi-structured online interviews and analysed by means of Braun and Clarke’s six steps of qualitative data analysis. Through the analysis, six themes and twenty-two subthemes emerged, which were presented and discussed, supported by findings from existing literature and the adopted theoretical framework. The research findings detailed a variety of challenges that social work participants encountered both internally and externally, followed by the strategies adopted by them and their opinions on what was needed for the betterment of CAMH in CYCCs. The researcher then, through findings derived from the study, compiled a list of recommendations for social work practice, future research and training.