Abstract
This study investigated the social workers’ implementation of community work in an HIV and AIDS awareness programme. The motive of the study was to gain an in-depth understanding and to recognise how social workers intervene through community work in addressing HIV and AIDS to derive recommendations for practice, policy and future research. Many studies in social work are done in case-work and group work; however, little research is done on the application of community work. Thus, this study explored the use of community work as a method of intervention that is used by social workers.
The aim of the study was to explore and describe the experiences of social workers practising community work in an HIV and AIDS awareness programme. The objectives of the study were to describe community work activities conducted by social workers; to describe the successes of implementing community work, and to describe challenges that social workers encounter in implementing community work. To achieve the objectives, the study employed a qualitative research approach and an explorative and descriptive phenomenological design. To select participants, purposive sampling was used. Ten social workers from the Gauteng Department of Social Development (GDSD), Tshwane region practising community work in the form of an HIV and AIDS awareness programme, were interviewed. Participants were selected using purposive sampling and semi-structured interviews were employed to collect data with the aid of a semi-structured interview schedule.
The researcher interpreted the findings from the community education theoretical framework using thematic analysis. This study concluded that community work can be one of the solutions to effectively address HIV and AIDS, if implemented adequately, thoroughly and consistently. The key finding of the study was that community work implementation in the HIV and AIDS awareness programme in GDSD occurs mainly through community education in the form of awareness campaigns and presentations. The study recommended that the Department of Social Development (DSD) should make the HIV and AIDS awareness programme a focussed programme where social workers focus all their intervention efforts, including community work, solely on addressing HIV and AIDS as is the case with the substance abuse programme.
The study attempted to add and build original insights in the field of community work and community development. However, further in-depth studies of social workers’ interventions through community
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work in addressing HIV and AIDS are necessary. The findings of the study could not be generalised due to a small sample size, thus, a similar study on a larger scale is merited.
Key-words: Social worker; community work; community development; HIV; AIDS; programme; HIV and AIDS awareness programme.