CHALLENGES RELATED TO WORKING CONDITIONS EXPERIENCED BY SOCIAL WORKERS PRACTISING IN RURAL AREAS

Subsequent to the research conducted by Schenck (2003, 2004) describing problems that rural social workers experience and to contemporary reports in the printed media echoing similar sentiments, the researchers decided to embark on a research project aimed at revisiting and exploring the challenges related to working conditions experienced by social workers practising in rural areas. Thirty-two rural areas were engaged in this study. The findings indicated that the status quo on the subject of the working condition-related challenges and the problems experienced by social workers practising in rural areas remains and that the mentioned challenges seem to be specifically related to context, service organisation and clients