A pre-experimental design evaluation of brief harm reduction interventions to improve coping self-efficacy of carers of people with substance use disorder.

BACKGROUND: Globally, the rise in the number of people living with a substance use disorder (SUD) carries a multitude of individual and social health implications for carers and their families, often impacting negatively on their quality of life. Considered from a harm reduction approach, SUD is understood as a chronic protracted, complex health and social condition. From the extant literature, there is no evidence of the harm reduction approach being applied to address the needs of carers/family members who carry the burden of SUD care. This study preliminarily evaluated the Care4Carers Programme. It is a purposively designed set of brief interventions to improve the coping self-efficacy of carers of people with SUD (PwSUD carers) by equipping them to think about ways to exert control over their motivation, behaviours and social environment. METHODS: A pre-experimental, one group pretest-posttest design was implemented with 15 purposively selected participants in the Gauteng Province of South Africa. The intervention was conducted by the lead researcher, a registered social worker. Eight brief intervention sessions were held, over 5-6 weeks at research sites where the participants were identified. The coping self-efficacy scale was completed before and directly after exposure to the programme. Results were analysed using paired t-tests. RESULTS: There were statistically significant (p < .05) improvements in carers' coping self-efficacy, both overall and in respect of each of its constituent components: problem-focused coping, emotion-focused coping and social support strategies. CONCLUSIONS: The Care4Carers Programme improved the coping self-efficacy of carers of people living with SUDs. The application of this programmatic harm reduction intervention to support PwSUD carers should be tested on a larger scale across South Africa.

Generation Z Undergraduate Social Work Students' Knowledge of and Attitudes Toward Older Persons: Implications for Professional Training.

Appropriate gerontological social work services are, amongst others, dependent on social workers' knowledge of and attitudes toward older persons. The current cohort of students, known as Generation Z, are global citizens. This study determined and described South African undergraduate social work students' knowledge of and attitudes toward older persons. A cross-sectional survey was undertaken with B Social Work students (N = 395) at two universities. Data collection included the three scales of Palmore's First Facts of Aging Quiz in multiple-choice format (1996) and four scales of Fraboni's Scale of Agism (1990). Age and five categorical factors were considered to determine their simultaneous impact on each of the seven scales/subscales of the two instruments by performing multi-way ANOVA models. An unexpected finding was that the factor 'completed a course in gerontology' did not have any impact on any scale. Year level of study, area of childhood residence and consideration to work exclusively with older persons after graduation simultaneously impacted respondents' 'overall attitude' toward older persons. Two factors (i.e., year level of study and area of childhood residence) mutually impacted respondents' 'overall knowledge' of aging. Recommendations for the training of Generation Z students are offered concerning course content and pedagogical interventions.

Voices of HIV&AIDS-affected educators: how they are psychosocially affected and how REds enabled their resilience.

The aim of this article is to hear the voices of HIV- and AIDS-affected educators regarding their experiences of the psychosocial effect that the HIV and AIDS pandemic has on them as well as to voice their experiences of how Resilient Educators (REds), a support programme to enable educators affected by HIV and AIDS towards resilience, enabled them. A qualitative study was undertaken with 100 affected educators from different provinces in South Africa. Open-ended questionnaires were used to collect data prior to and after exposure to REds. The results suggested that the pandemic had a devastating effect not only at a professional level, but also at all the personal levels of educators' well-being, namely, at an emotional, spiritual, physical and social level. However, the results also indicated that REds empowered them to cope more resiliently with the overwhelming personal and professional impacts of living and teaching in an HIV- and AIDS-altered milieu. It thus seems as if REds, as an empowering programme, has the potential to become a valuable protective resource in an educational context that is HIV-lacerated.