Using Intervention Research to Promote Lay Counselor Support to Students in an Urban South African Neighborhood

• In Event: Intervention Research for Social Justice in South African Education

Abstract

The role of community care workers in ensuring the stability of vulnerable families they work with cannot be underestimated. The extent of their responsibilities is sometimes not clear-cut and so is the effect on their personal well-being. These responsibilities transcend the basic personal care work, social support and administrative skills they are trainined in and move into conceptualising and presenting the family problems to the coordinator and auxiliary social workers. The resultant occupational stress of these workers requires them to develop methods of coping and managing the stress related to the demands and expectations of their jobs.

Both the statutory and assumed roles and responsibilities of care workers should be fully understood with a view to establishing how they cope; replicating strategies that prove effective and providing support where it is needed. The study aimed to explore the coping strategies embraced by care workers in dealing with their duties. A qualitative research design was used and data collected using questionnaires, focus group discussions and semi-structured interviews. There were ten participants purposively selected from a non-profit organisation (NGO) working with vulnerable families.

Vulnerability was found to be on two levels: the physical and emotional. The care workers appear to be prepared to handle the physical aspects of their responsibilities, but the emotional aspects appear to have long lasting repercussion on the workers. The coping strategies used by the care workers include debriefing and collegial support. However, we believe their training should include rudimentary counselling, case-conceptualisation skills and self-care.

Author

• Motlalepule Ruth Mampane, University of Pretoria