Abstract:
The study aimed at exploring the perceptions of occupational social workers on how their
service provision has been affected by the HIV/AIDS pandemic. The focus was on
whether they thought that the increasing prevalence of HIV/AIDS in the workplace had
led to a shift in their service provision. That was done through:
- An investigation of ways in which social worker’s service provision has
had to be adjusted in the context of HIV/AIDS in the workplace.
- An assessment of the extent to which occupational social workers perceive
their HIV/AIDS services at macro level to be acknowledged as valuable by
management and the workforce.
- An exploration of perceptions of occupational social workers on how
HIV/AIDS has affected their relationship with management
The research was quantitative and qualitative in approach and the design used was
descriptive. Various sectors like manufacturing, government departments, para-statal,
military and finance that employ social workers were identified. A list of occupational
social workers was obtained from the School of Social Work, University of the
Witwatersrand and from the Gauteng EAP Association. A non-probability sample of
twenty seven social workers participated in the study. Semi structured interviews lasting
for approximately forty five minutes were used as a form of data collection. Data
collected was analysed through simple descriptive statistics and development of core
themes and common concerns. The findings indicated that most occupational social
workers perceived their services not to have been affected by HIV/AIDS, management
and employees to have regarded their HIV/AIDS macro practice as valuable and their
relationship with management have not been affected negatively by HIV/AIDS.
