Mental health and historical trauma among social workers working with victims of violent crime in South Africa
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 2169138 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Aldridge Munyoro (0000-0001-8396-1541, University of the Witwatersrand), Carol Mavhungu (National Institute for Community Development and Management (NICDAM), Centurion, South Africa) |
| Year | 2022 |
| Volume | 32 |
| Issue | 3 |
| Pages | 308-324 |
| Publication date | 2022-04-03 |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Journal of Human Behavior in the Social Environment (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1091-1359 • E-ISSN: 1540-3556 |
| Publisher | Informa UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1080/10911359.2021.1896408 |
| OpenAlex | W3161470585 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 2 |
| References cited | 39 |
The social work profession has become critical in assisting victims of violent crime at social service agencies in South Africa. Social workers have been spearheading efforts to help trauma victims at the expense of their mental health. For Black South African social workers, the mental burden of working with victim collides with historical trauma to create new ways of experiencing mental health challenges. The study aimed to explore the experiences of social workers working with victims of violent crime at select social service agencies in Johannesburg. The study was qualitative in nature and a case study design was used. Data was collected using in-depth interviews. The researchers used purposive sampling and data was analyzed using thematic analysis. Results from the study showed that Black South African social workers working in the field of violent crime face challenges such as prolonged sadness, emotional exhaustion and vicarious trauma. All these psychological problems are amplified by the fact that social workers in South Africa work under strenuous conditions. This increases the impact of psychological problems on social workers. Therefore, this paper argues that when the psychological effects of working with victims of violent crime, intersect with historical trauma, it produces unique ways of experiencing trauma for Black South African social workers. This study has strong implications for research about the health and wellbeing of social work practitioners working with trauma victims. The study exposes the need to prioritize the wellbeing of social workers especially those working in contexts with a traumatic past
Criminology · Environmental health · Mental health · Nonprobability sampling · Political science · Population · Psychiatry · Qualitative research · Social science · Sociology · Thematic analysis · Grief, Bereavement, and Mental Health · Homelessness and Social Issues · Medicine · Migration, Health and Trauma · Psychology · Social Work
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Vicarious traumatization
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Service providers’ perceptions of barriers to the implementation of trauma-focused substance use services for women in Cape Town, South Africa
Historical trauma as public narrative
A systematic review of stress among mental health social workers
Generational victimhood in post-apartheid South Africa
Violent Crime in South Africa
Work-Related Trauma Effects in Child Protection Social Workers
Modeling violent crime rates
Statutory Social Workers
Prevalence of Secondary Traumatic Stress among Social Workers
Work Load and Burnout
Impact of Trauma Work on Social Work Clinicians
Social worker trauma
Secondary trauma among social workers treating trauma clients
Compassion fatigue and psychological distress among social workers
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A history of sexual violence and political authority in South Africa
The Politics of Crime
Political and collective violence in Southern African historiography
Rethinking Historical Trauma
Enhancing resilience as a self-care strategy in professionals who are vicariously exposed to trauma
| Citations per year | 2 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 2025 - 2025 (1) |
| Highly cited | No |