Misconceptions around social work drive confusion and hatred
Correspondent | Friday June 5, 2020 12:48
In terms of the history of professions, social work is a new profession, which was first established in the USA and UK around 1800 and later imported to Africa around 1910 in the Union of South Africa.
Social work as a profession came to Botswana very late around 1974 with certificate in Social Welfare and Community Development offered at the Botswana College of Agriculture, which on its own brought the confusion in the profession (Jongman, 2015).
The University of Botswana started offering social work in 1986 at certificate, diploma and degree level and later on masters and doctorial. The university has produced around 3,500 social workers in the past 34 years and this is not enough to deal with social issues that the country is grappling with such as widespread poverty, unemployment, mental health issues, suicide, child abuse, adoption, child custody, child neglect and delinquency among the youth, marriage issues and high rate of divorce.
Despite all these issues, the last time government employed a large number of social workers was in 2011. This leaves a huge gap in trying to balance material support that the population needs and the psycho-social support issues. By nature, social workers are supposed to be doing both the material support and the psycho-emotional-social support.
This is indicated in the definition of social work as indicated by the international federation of social workers (IFSW, 2014) as, a practice-based profession and an academic discipline that promotes social change and development, social cohesion, and the empowerment and liberation of people. Principles of social justice, human rights, collective responsibility, and respect for diversities are central to social work.
Underpinned by theories of social work, social sciences, humanities and indigenous knowledge, social work engages people and structures to address life challenges and enhance wellbeing. This is what a social worker should be doing; the aim of social work is to enhance the human well-being.
Since the beginning of COVID-19, the social work profession has been trending. The moment someone talks of trending, there are questions that are raised. The trending has been both positive and negative.
Social workers have been complaining that they are always left behind when the senior government officials are appreciating the frontline workers. President Mokgweetsi Masisi and Maun West Member of Parlaiment, Goretetse Kekgonegile, made efforts to thank the social workers in their speeches and at long last that brought a bit of happiness and excitement amongst the social work professionals.
Apart from all that, people have been waiting for the assessment from Mmaboi/Rraboi (social worker) for food parcels. This has caused quite a stir with some people appreciating what social workers have done, while others have been complaining.
I have been using the word social work(er) loosely so that the reader can follow. In Botswana Mmaboi/Rraboi is someone who works at the Department of Social and Community Development (S&CD) under the Ministry of Local Development and Rural Development. These are not only trained social workers.
They are those who are not trained in social work. When the nation bashes on social workers, they should bear in mind that it is not only social workers doing the work. Having worked at S&CD I will say, there are some social workers who are doing their work wholeheartedly, diligently and adhering to the ethics of social work as prescribed by IFSW (2017).
There are some who are not doing the work at all and you will even question their training because there are no traces of social work ethics and principles in their delivery of service to the nation. On the other hand there are non-social workers who are doing more social work than trained social workers out there in the field.
Before I go too deep into those issues let me go back to the issue at hand that need my attention. Actually, it is not one issue but several that need attention. The first thing is assessment. What is currently being done is not assessment. It is actually the writing of names and providing food or not providing food.
Assessment in social work involves gathering and assessing multidimensional information about the client’s situation using appropriate social work knowledge and theory with a focus on strengths-based assessment to develop a plan that involves all the relevant parties and levels. What is currently being done is not social work assessment.
I believe government has missed an opportunity to gather social information of the nation. This should have been used as an intervention for COVID-19 and also to gather social information or data for future development of proper interventions to avoid a repeat of what we are currently witnessing.
Moving on to other issues, it has been disturbing to receive news that ‘social workers’ have been abused by the community that they serve. I believe we all have heard of the Chobe issue where an officer is fighting for his dear life after being attacked by a man when he was doing assessment. There has been an issue that the victim is not trained as a social worker but is a finance person and employed as an assistant community development officer.
From where I stand, whether he is a trained social worker or not is neither here nor there. He is working in the field of social work and as such social workers should protect and advocate for justice to be served on his behalf. Today it is him and tomorrow it may be me; we cannot sit and watch.
We need to condemn with the strongest possible words what happened to him and also urge government to protect us as social workers working in the frontline. It is not only during COVID-19 that social workers are being exposed to abuse and harm.
Their daily lives are in danger, especially for those in the district councils. We need more protection and appreciation. We should not be used as paracetamol (ha go le botlhoko). We are also asking government to try by all means to employ those that are trained for the job to do the job. As a profession we feel we are so infiltrated to the point where we do not know who is doing our job and we cannot take serious action against those who are not adhering to the ethics of the profession. This has put the nation and the profession at danger and a crossroads.
There have been other cases in Kopong, Gantsi and Kweneng where social workers were attacked by clients and needed the protection of the security personnel. We are not saying we are doing everything right.
There are cases where the principles of the profession have been flouted by our fellow professionals. The principles of social work are clear; respect the client and keep the client’s information as confidential as possible unless the client is going to hurt him/herself or the society.
What has been coming out in different districts is scary and I wish to condemn that in the strongest possible words. Even though we do not take an oath in Botswana, we still need to adhere to the principles and ethics of Social Work. The Kgatleng issue is not clear and has a lot of politics around it. What we have also picked around is that politicians are using the plight of the people to push their political mileage and those who are suffering are the social workers, who are used as pawns in this game of politicking.
Social work by nature is political but social workers should stay away from partisan politics. As a social work educator, I believe we are training ethically sound professionals and I believe we need not to generalise one particular behaviour to all ethically upright social workers.
If government is serious with monitoring and regulating the behaviour of social workers, it is up to government to come up with regulatory infrastructure to regulate the profession of social work in Botswana.
The Botswana National Association of Social Workers has long advocated for a regulatory body and the government has taken long to put this in place. Some of these issues could have been avoided.
At the end, social work is not about giving out food parcels. It is about assessing (proper assessment) and providing government with data for intervention. Distribution of food parcels can be done by any other person (purchasing and supplies).
Social workers are supposed to be dealing with psychosocial support issues that are crippling families during the lockdown not cases of food distribution.
If proper measures are in place, every person will do what they are supposed to do but if proper measures of intervention are not in place, we are going to go around in circles and complain that social workers are not providing food. Their role is not to provide food.
It is to provide data and support those who are emotionally troubled during these difficult times.
*Kgomotso Jongman is International Federation of Social Workers (Africa) Human Rights Commissioner
KGOMOTSO JONGMAN*