Understanding the training and support needs of crisis interventionists at an organisation for the abused.

• Main Author: Howlett, Samantha.
• Other Authors: Collins, Anthony.
• Language: en_ZA
• Published: 2013
• Subjects: Caregivers > South Africa.; Social service > Citizen participation.; Volunteers > South Africa.; Community organization > South Africa.; Theses > Psychology.
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10413/9251

Using a qualitative and interpretive approach, this research focuses on the training and support needs of crisis interventionists volunteering at an organisation for the abused. This research developed out of a need identified by the board for recommendations to be made in order to compile a new training manual as well as to explore and improve the support services offered to volunteers at the organisation. The research used a thorough examination of the current literature available dealing with crisis intervention and intimate partner violence both nationally and internationally to provide a framework and standard for all recommendations. This was then supplemented with a participatory and interpretive approach to understand the experiences of the crisis interventionists themselves currently volunteering at the organisation. The major themes that emerged from the data included an understanding of the current training process, the impact of volunteering for the desk, the impact and importance of organisational culture and the organisation and self care techniques used by the volunteers. These were then interpreted in terms of their relevance to the training and support needs of the volunteers looking specifically at the training process to ensure an ideological shift and information retention as well as explore supportive services that would be the most beneficial and accessible to the volunteer. The research was then able to provide the most appropriate recommendations for the organisation going forward. === Thesis (M.A.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2012.