The perceptions and attitudes of Social Workers regarding their own mental health in Pretoria, South Africa

Abstract

Health care workers, including social workers, are exposed to high risk of mental health issues, increased anxiety, and depression symptoms due to the high caseload, emotional exhaustion, and depersonalisation associated with their work. This is because public hospitals in South Africa serve a large proportion of the population, often with constraint resources. Consequently, this qualitative study explored the perceptions and attitudes of Social Workers regarding their own mental health in Pretoria, South Africa. Descriptive, exploratory, and contextual research designs were thus adopted. A sample of social workers employed in Gauteng Department of Health, working in Pretoria, was selected using purposive sampling technique. Data was collected from participants by means of face-to-face semi-structured interviews with research questions embedded in an interview guide. The data collected was analysed using thematic analysis Throughout the study the researcher adhered to ethical obligations such as informed content, confidentiality, anonymity, privacy, management of information, avoidance of harm and beneficent. The study contributes to new knowledge by bridging a literature gap identified in the scarcity of documented perceptions and attitudes of social workers regarding their own mental health. The study also identified that participants have difficulty in working with individual (colleagues) with mental illness as they feel they are unpredictable, aggressive and unable to control their emotions. The social workers are convinced that trauma debriefing sessions, team building, supervision, self-care should be promoted in the workplace to enhance mental health. Based on the findings, recommendations were made for social work practice, policy review and future research to improve the mental health of social workers in the hospital settings.