The developing and evolving social welfare system in South Africa coupled with inadequate human and material resources and high staff workloads, all impact on student learning in the Bachelor of Social Work (BSW) degree. This paper focuses on the challenges experienced by social work practitioners with regard to student supervision in the BSW. A qualitative case study design was used, in which the researcher purposively selected social work practitioners involved at third-year level teaching and learning in the BSW at a selected South African university. The findings point to challenges relating to limited agency resources, institutional-agency cooperation and students' personal challenges. These findings have implications for social work education and practice in South Africa as well as for continued professional development of social workers and agencies who offer student placements to universities.

IntroductionSub-Saharan Africa continues to be disproportionately affected by HIV/AIDS. As such, several countries in sub-Saharan Africa are implementing the UNAIDS’ recommendation to test and treat people living with HIV (PLHIV) irrespective of their CD4 count. However, most of the antiretroviral treatment (ART) programmes, in this region, continue to struggle with poor adherence to treatment stemming from patient-related factors including their religious beliefs. Unfortunately, the role of religious beliefs on ART adherence has been underexplored in the literature. In this study protocol, we propose the steps of a scoping review to explore, identify and map the literature on the impact of religious beliefs on adherence to ART among Pentecostals living with HIV in sub-Saharan Africa.Methods and analysisWe will use Arksey and O’Malley’s framework and the Joanna Briggs Institute methodology guidelines to conduct this scoping review. The following databases will be searched for relevant literature: Web of Science, PubMed/Medline, Psych-ARTICLES, Academic Search Complete, Cumulative Index of Nursing, Allied Health, Google Scholar and published articles from conference proceedings. Studies published between January 2010 and February 2022 will be eligible. The identified literature will be independently screened for eligibility by two reviewers based on predetermined inclusion and exclusion criteria. An Excel form will be designed to electronically capture data from studies that meet the inclusion criteria. Finally, we will use a narrative synthesis to summarise the data extracted to report on the nature of existing evidence and the impact of religious beliefs on ART adherence.Ethics and disseminationEthical approval will not be required for the scoping review since it will entail synthesising information from already published articles and conference proceedings. The study findings will be disseminated through publication in a scientific journal and presented at conferences and workshops aimed at improving adherence to ART in PLHIV.

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Fatherhood intervention programmes seek to redress fundamental issues that prevent men from succeeding in their fathering role. An understanding and evidence of the influence of fatherhood interventions on the role of the father in the family are thus required. This study, conducted in South Africa, explored the perceptions and experiences of fathers and their partners after the fathers’ exposure to a fatherhood intervention programme. A qualitative approach with semi-structured interviews was utilised to this end. A thematic analysis was used to analyse the data and three main themes emerged from the analysis. The study found that fathers and their partners perceived and experienced the fathers to be more involved, responsible, and sharing in parenthood after exposure to the fatherhood intervention programme. This led to an increase of father involvement with children – childcare activities, schoolwork, the well-being of the children, and an increase in involvement in the home.

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A spirituality discourse in substance abuse treatment offers useful unconventional constructs in treatment services to ethnic minority groups with substance use disorder (SUDs). It is important to locate spirituality within culture, place, and history in order to understand the spiritual needs of persons from minority groups with SUDs. There are many studies that merit a spiritual approach in treatment for ethnic minority groups with SUDs. However, spirituality is a broad concept that means different things to different people. Therefore, such an unconventional approach should be approached critically and cautiously. This chapter looks at the utilisation of an integrated eclectic approach with a focus on inclusion of spirituality in treatment services from a biopsychosocial-spiritual perspective. Tapping into the spiritual needs and the meaning that people ascribe to spirituality and religion (S&R) in treatment services is often more valued than conventional secular treatment services. Also, the client's spirituality is generally overlooked by professionals offering such services simply because it is so controversial. This chapter proposes an integrated eclectic methodology calling for a biopsychosocial-spiritual perspective to address the needs and well-being of ethnic minority groups with SUDs as a comprehensive person-centred and holistic approach, utilising mindfulness techniques.

In this study, we focused on the effects of parental substance abuse on family well-being in a selected rural area in the Western Cape province of South Africa, because of the lack of research in this community. The farm workers in this community were paid partially with alcohol, which is historically associated with the tot system. In this study, we used a qualitative approach to conduct semi-structured individual interviews with six known substance-abusing parents and six family members of substance-abusing parents. Purposive and snowball sampling were used to recruit the participants from farms in the rural community. The themes centred on the effects of parental substance use on intimate relationships, parenting, children and family functioning. The findings confirm that parental substance abuse in the selected rural area seemed no different to the effects in an urban setting. We therefore suggest that the sociocultural setting of the rural area underscore the ways in which these effects play out. This is because rural settings make the effects substantially more significant with regard to available resources, geographic distances, the enduring effects of the tot system, and norms regarding alcohol, which feed into risk factors. We recommend that a substance abuse framework redress the obstacles which influence the kinds of support and resources that people have access to and partnerships with farm owners for multilevel and appropriate services. We also recommend that the existing policies be amended to focus more strongly on rural areas.

Social work services globally started as a result of society’s response to basic human needs, and thus facilitated alleviating, based on doing good, the plight of those in need. Since its inception as a professional discipline, social work has always been associated with poverty relief and services to persons with substance use disorders (SUDs). The high prevalence of SUDs in South Africa makes it one of the top 10 substance abusing countries globally. As such, the demand for social work services, aimed at substance abuse intervention, has increased rapidly over the past 20 years, resulting in the emergence of many non-profit organisations (NPOs). However, there are gaps in evidence-based research on social work services provided by NPOs to persons with SUDs. The focus of the article is on the nature and scope of social work services provided by NPOs to adults with SUDs. The population for the study was supplied by NPOs across the Cape Metropole, offering services to persons with SUDs. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 10 social workers, purposively selected from 10 NPOs across the Cape Metropole. Thematic data analysis was done and yielded three main themes, namely theoretical approaches, levels of intervention, and methods in social work practice when delivering services to adults with SUDs.