| Summary: | Student Number : 8805489T -
MA research report -
School of Human and Community Development -
Faculty of Humanities === A casual scan of workplace based mental health services in South Africa reveals a
developing tendency and trend towards the outsourcing of this service. Most
companies that previously boosted relatively huge integrated and comprehensive
workplace mental health services have ceased offering these services internally in
favour of sourcing them from external service providers. Most occupational social
workers who previously worked in these departments are now part of the
outsourced services. Occupational social work theory advocates for practitioners
to go beyond focusing on the individual by also seeking to impact on the
environment and the community in the quest to serve the needs of their clients.
Some services, particularly if the practitioner seeks to change the host organisation,
are easier to render when the practitioner is within the organisation. The present
study investigated, using robust statistical methods, firstly, the desirability of
comprehensiveness and integration in workplace mental health services, and,
secondly, whether observed levels of comprehensiveness and integration in service
delivery in a single organisation that uses outsourced workplace mental health
services are in line with desired levels. The research results indicate that host
organisations desire more comprehensiveness and integration in workplace mental
health services than is currently observed from an outsourced mental health
service.
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