PROBLEM STATEMENT AND RATIONALE FOR THE STUDY

A problem or purpose statement is similar to a compass. It points towards the broad goal of the research. It is there to keep one directed, always heading in the same direction. It stipulates what knowledge gap exists that needs to be filled and how to close this knowledge gap. The rationale is the reason for the study, describing the difference it will make to the body of knowledge if the research is conducted (Creswell 2009; Badenhorst 2008).

From the discussion on family resilience it appears that:

(1) Within the South African context, a knowledge gap exists in translating family resilience theory into practice. Interwoven into the family preservation services that social workers within the South African context render, there are only fragmented aspects of family resilience enhancement.

(2) None of the existing family resilience interventions that presently exist comprehensively and holistically address family resilience. These interventions only incidentally address particular aspects of family resilience. Programmes for families in general, as confirmed by Mackay (2003), most often look at very specific outcomes and seldom mention the strengthening of family resilience as focus. This also applies to the South African context. Moss (2010) found that although social workers have knowledge of the family resilience construct, they do not consciously use this knowledge in their interventions. Family preservation services that social workers render, as an example, often include elements that could be perceived as characteristics related to family resilience, such as communication and skills training, but these are not recognised as such. This leads to interventions that only address particular aspects of family resilience without realising that if planned holistically, these interventions could be used to consciously address the other family processes on which the intervention will have an influence (e.g. gender empowerment programmes for women implemented without a relational view on the impact of the intervention on members of the family of opposite gender; providing housing to disaster victims without considering the general well-being of the family and ability of the family to reconstruct family life and adapt to new circumstances).

(3) There is no attempt to foster and sustain family resilience as an outcome of social welfare services in the South African context. Moss (2010) established that local social workers are able to identify resilient families and family resilience processes, but that in rendering family preservation services, the strengthening of family resilience is not clearly identified as an outcome. Interventions linked with the basket (range) of social welfare services (see “concepts”) to families across the family life cycle, have no clear target to enhance family resilience, despite it being stipulated and promoted in policy documents.

(4) From this it seems that the understanding of family resilience and its synergistic nature has not as yet been thoroughly introduced to social workers in South Africa. A lack of knowledge amongst social workers and other service providers on the family resilience construct and family processes could be the reason. From the researcher’s experience as social work manager, monitoring the implementation of the Norms and Standards for

Services to Families in provinces, and rolling out family preservation capacity building workshops in provinces, social workers are already implementing interventions that include aspects of strengthening family resilience, but they do not contextualize these services within a broader understanding of the family resilience construct and processes.

The unintentional enhancement by social workers of what could be regarded as family resilience strengthening could on the other hand indicate, as already been stipulated, that social workers have a knowledge base of which they are unaware and that could be used in developing interventions that could foster and sustain family resilience.

(5) The increasing references to family resilience in existing policy, legislation and programmes in South Africa led to the researcher being tasked by the Department of Social Development to develop practice guidelines for social workers to foster and sustain family resilience. By tasking the researcher with this, it can be concluded that there is acceptance that when the White paper on Families (2013) is implemented, social workers will require guidelines to implement and to design appropriate programmes for the South African context with family resilience as outcome of family preservation services. Such guidelines will complement the Manual on Family Preservation Services (2015).

(6) There are, however, additional reasons why guidelines for social workers directed at fostering and sustaining family resilience need to be developed:

• The perilous state of South African family structures as indicated at the beginning of the introduction.

• The impending implementation of actions arising from the White Paper on Families in South Africa (2013) will require guidance to design programmes that have family resilience towards family preservation as an outcome.

• Enhancement of the Social Work profession through development of research based interventions (Fraser, Galinsky, Richman & Day 2009).

• A need to recognise and use existing local indigenous social work knowledge and experience on family resilience. Although models to foster and sustain family resilience exist, they are not necessarily contextually appropriate and suited to meet local challenges. There are also no contextual local guidelines for strengthening family resilience. Moss’s conceptual framework on family resilience (2010), tested during research conducted with local families that were perceived as resilient, could be used to develop a local, indigenous intervention model to foster and sustain family resilience.

The potential benefits of this research resulting in the development of “The Guidelines”

could be summarized as follows:

• Social workers will have clear guidance on how to foster and sustain family resilience in services rendered to families.

• The enhancement of family resilience can be considered as a family preservation effort as the strengthening and sustaining of family resilience will empower families to rebound from adversities and adjust and adapt to changing circumstances.

• The research-based intervention will enhance the social work profession. A profession requires, by its nature, research that encourages development as such professions should embrace change. This in turn contributes to further design and development of intervention knowledge. Furthermore, intervention research could assist in developing implementation guidelines for such programmes (Fraser et al 2009).

• Social work practice could benefit from the development of guidelines for fostering and sustaining family resilience as part of a family preservation service rendered on four levels of intervention as mentioned before, i.e. prevention, early intervention, statutory intervention and protection, and aftercare and reunification.

From the above, there appears to be a need to develop guidelines, but in doing so also explore the question: “what are the existing practices rendered at grass-roots level, with a focus on family preservation, that should be considered in order to foster and sustain family resilience, even if only indirectly”. An in-depth understanding of those already known social work interventions that strengthen families and foster and sustain family resilience needs to be obtained. Social workers must also be asked what obstacles and successes they are experiencing in implementing such intervention to families because these may point to salient aspects to be included in “The Guidelines”. It will also be important that the social workers’ understanding and experiences of the family resilience processes will be explored, as their level of understanding will impact on their responses given on the research question and will indicate what information on the family resilience construct needs to be included into “The Guidelines”. All the above will be a guide towards identifying elements to be included in the practice guidelines for programmes that will foster and sustain family resilience.

The international and local studies and interventions will contribute to the understanding of family resilience enhancement interventions that should be put into place. Their contribution will be described in Chapter 6 when the functional elements of a family resilience intervention will be discussed. These interventions will have the potential to contribute to the strengthening of families so that they may be better equipped to honour their responsibilities towards their family members and to address the needs of their members, without compromising their protective systems.

In summary, there is, therefore, a need for developing practice guidelines for social workers on fostering and sustaining family resilience. Guidelines will provide social workers with a practical guide in translating the family resilience construct and processes into practical reality. It will provide social workers with a framework and pointers to support and assist families to foster family resilience and rebound when confronted with crises and adversities.