Social work in health care delivers essential services to South Africa’s vulnerable populations. The social development approach attempts to address inequalities and uplift vulnerable people. An explanatory-sequential mixed methodological study explored the application of the social development approach to social work in health care in the Gauteng Department of Health. The findings indicated that social workers in health care deliver a diverse service in attending to patients’ needs and are ideally situated to address and implement the social development approach. However, challenges are experienced in the absence of strategic policies regarding the implementation of the social development approach in health care. Keywords: Gauteng Department of Health, health care reform, health care settings, social development approach, social work in health care, transformation
The authenticity of pedagogy becomes compromised when students’ psychosocial needs are considered paramount, especially in the current transformation-driven context, when overstepping boundaries flies in the face of academics’ terms of employment, their teaching responsibilities and the academic canon. The nexus between the practices of this helping profession and the academic development of social work professionals has ignited considerable debate and presented significant challenges. This article explores academics’ conditions of employment regarding their teaching and learning responsibilities alongside the profession’s ethical obligation to respond to students’ psychosocial needs, a duality that presents numerous pedagogical dilemmas.
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