No strangers to adversity: Resilience-promoting practices among South African women child protection social workers

Abstract

Globally the well-being of child protection social workers (CPSWs) is placed at risk by the taxing nature of their profession. In response, there have been international calls for the prioritization of CPSWs' resilience. Despite the call to enhance the resilience of CPSWs, to date, only five research studies have explored resilience processes in CPSWs. In this article, we present findings that describe resilience-enhancing practices in the lives of 15 South African CPSWs who were considered resilient. They were recruited by means of snowball sampling and engaged in in-depth interviews. Findings reveal that the overall well-being and functioning of these 15 South African CPSWs are endangered by several occupational risk factors including work pressure, inadequate professional support, financial strain, challenges unique to CPSW such as removal of children and exposure to aggressive clients, and emotional exhaustion. Their resilience was informed by four differently weighted but interrelated resilience practices: practiceand purpose-informing creeds, support systems, constructive transactions, and accentuating the positive. These practices are potentially useful to contribute to the body of knowledge on CPSWs' resilience as well as to the development of resilience-enhancing

Risk-Laden Working Lives of Child Protection Social Workers in South Africa

“…One group of social workers that is particularly at risk for negative outcomes are those employed in the child protection practice setting, tasked with the statutory duty to protect children in need of care and protection (McFadden, Campbell & Taylor, 2014;Truter, Theron & Fouché, 2014Truter, Fouché & Theron, 2017). This group of social workers is commonly known as child and welfare workers (Griffiths & Royse, 2017;Schelbe, Radey & Panisch, 2017;Travis et al, 2016); frontline workers (Jones, 2001), designated social workers (Bosman-Sadie, Corrie & Swanepoel, 2013;Truter et al, 2018); statutory social workers (Lombard & Kleijn, 2006;Stanley, 2018) and child protection social workers, or child welfare protective services workers (Conrad & Kellar-Guenther, 2006;Littlechild, 2005;Tavormina & Clossey, 2017). For the purpose of this paper, the term child protection social worker (CPSW) will be used.…”

“…A body of research has found that during the course of performing their statutory duties the wellbeing of CPSWs may be at risk as a result of work-related risk factors such as excessive workloads, staff shortages, exposure to violence and aggression, high stress levels, and deficient emotional and financial support (Gibbs, 2001;Griffiths & Royse, 2017;Gonzalez, Faller, Ortega & Tropman, 2009;Gupta & Blewett, 2007;Hodgkin, 2002;Jones, 2001;Lamothe, Couvrette, Lebrun, Yale-Soulière, Roy, Guay & Geoffrion, 2018;Munro, 1996;Truter et al, 2018). In addition, the nature of CPSW implies doing risk work, i.e.…”

“…Inadvertently, this has negative implications for service delivery, since there may be a surge in staff absenteeism, high attrition rates and unsatisfactory work performance (Coffey, Dugdill & Tattersall, 2004;Griffiths & Royse, 2017;Schiller, 2017). Consequently, the protection of the most vulnerable in society might fall short to the extent that children in need of care and protection may remain in abusive situations (Gibbs, 2001;Lamothe et al, 2018;Littlechild, 2005;Schelbe et al, 2017;Schiller, 2017;Truter et al, 2018). Ultimately, this leads to the violation of children's constitutional rights in most countries, including South Africa.…”

“…Schiller (2017) found that risk factors reported by CPSWs included incompetence of other role players, a failing child protection system, a lack of resources and heavy caseloads. Finally, Truter et al (2018) briefly commented on the risks experienced by 15 CPSWs employed in the Vaal Triangle and other parts of Gauteng, and found that work pressure, inadequate professional support, financial strain, challenges unique to CPSW and emotional exhaustion contributed to the difficulty and strain of their work.…”

“…The few South African studies available offer valuable insights, but they do not represent the experiences of all South African CPSWs in terms of risks and negative outcomes, since some are focused only on CPSWs working in rural settings (Alpaslan & Schenk, 2012), or focus solely on the risks associated with working with particular cases (Schiller, 2017). The study conducted by Bhana and Haffejee was conducted in 1996 and its findings are therefore somewhat outdated; and there is no in depth analysis of risks mentioned by Truter et al (2018).…”