Practitioners experience in Years
5.3. Formulation of themes and sub-themes
5.4.3. Theme 3: The social worker and student counsellors’ views on the effectiveness of services rendered to undergraduate students
The researcher asked the practitioners to share the effectiveness of their services in addressing students’ challenges. All the practitioners said that their services are effective in addressing the challenges faced by students. Therefore, the absolute majority of the practitioners is that the services they render to the student populace are somewhat effective. However, the practitioners further mentioned that it is difficult to mention the extent to which this is the case because they do not have a viable way to evaluate their services after intervention. To affirm this, the following are some of the responses from the practitioners:
“We can’t really tell because we do not have a feedback or evaluation form, but some of the students who have used our services return to thank us, some call us to let us how things are going”.
“Our services are effective, but I am not sure to what level because it’s not only counselling services that are rendered to students, I can’t say it for sure that my services solely solve challenges faced by students.”
Furthermore, there was one practitioner who said that the services they render are
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very effective. He backed this statement with the following remarks:
“Since 2012, I have seen our services change students’ lives, which also reflects on their academic performance, other graduates refer their siblings even after they have graduated. Other students refer their fellow students”.
Nkwanyana (2013) stated that counselling is thought to be helpful during tough times.
Makola and Mogale (2017) uncovered that students in institutions of higher learning are aware that social work and counselling services are helpful during difficult times.
This means that there is no question regarding the effectiveness of counselling services. The finding of this study concurs with a study conducted by Makola and Mogale (2017). This means that the effectiveness of the services is not a contributing factor in the underutilisation of the Student Psychosocial Support Services by the student population.
5.4.3.1. Sub-theme 1: Post intervention feedback from students
The practitioners’ responses had some commonalities regarding the effectiveness of their services. One of the common points is that it was difficult to objectively tell the level of the effectiveness of their services since they did not have a feedback form for students to rate the services they received and whether the services were effective in solving their challenges. Despite the lack of a feedback form, the researcher asked the practitioners to share insights on how they receive feedback about their services from students who have received them. Two (2) practitioners said that they see feedback when the same students who have utilised the services refer other students.
Three (3) of the practitioners said that they only get feedback when the students return to thank them, which some students do and others do not. The finding of the study is that the practitioners do not have a formal way to get feedback from students who have accessed the services. To affirm the finding, here are some of the responses:
“They come back to thank us and share with us their progress.”
“Some graduates refer their siblings even after they have graduated. Other students refer their fellow students”.
In light of the above information, the researcher is of the view that the lack of a formal way to get feedback about their services may leave them in the dark as to how their
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services were received. This will also help improve the services to suit students from time to time. However, it is worth noting that lack of a formal feedback tool does not equal ineffective services. This simply means that the practitioners render their services to the best of their capabilities with the belief that their intervention is effective.
Be that as it may, evaluation is a necessary process that seeks to measure effectiveness, improve the services and is used for accountability (Haji et al., 2013).
This adds value to this study because it was able to highlight the importance of post intervention evaluation and feedback.
5.4.3.2. Sub-theme 2: Social Work and counselling service practitioners’
collaboration with internal and external stakeholders
According to Hepworth et al. (2013), one of the roles of social workers is to be case managers in the sense that they initiate a multi-discipline collaboration to help their clients holistically. This is done to ensure that their clients receive all the services required to effectively address the client’s challenges and enhance their way of living.
As such, the researcher asked the practitioners to describe their relationship with other stakeholders within and outside the university. The overall majority of the practitioners indicated that they have good and working relationships with stakeholders that are both on-campus and off-campus. The researcher further asked what the practitioners do when they are assisting a student who also needs services from other stakeholders.
The practitioners said that they sometimes refer the student if they are done with their intervention, but they involve the other stakeholders if they are still assisting the student. Furthermore, they said that they refer or involve other stakeholders with the consent of the student, and they follow up on the progress after referring or involving the stakeholder. Some of the responses are presented below:
“We take a multidisciplinary approach to allow the intervention from other stakeholders to be featured.”
“We refer to the relevant centre and follow up later”.
“Involve them and then make follow up”.
The practitioners were further asked to share some of the changes that should happen to improve their collaborations with other stakeholders if there is any. The responses pointed to the fact that there was no need to change anything because their inter-
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stakeholder relationship is good. To affirm this, the following are some of their responses:
“For now we are working very well with other stakeholders on campus, but when it comes to referring students to public hospital sometimes they miss classes, so we should have a psychiatrist who comes to the university on a given day in a week.”
“For now we are working very well with other stakeholders both on campus and outside the campus”.
“The relationship is okay”.
“No, it is viable”.
One of the practitioners further indicated that it would help students if a psychiatrist can operate from the university once a week on a given day to save students’ time.
The researcher is convinced that the relationship between stakeholders that are found on-campus or off-campus is healthy. The suggestion made by the practitioner to save students’ time is about giving students first priority as opposed to them queuing like the public in public settings. This supports the view that the Student Psychosocial Support Services works well with other stakeholders to ensure that students’ wellbeing is ensured and the institution works like a well-oiled machine just as the General Systems Theory suggests.
5.4.4. Theme 4: The referral channels of students for and from Student