Editorial

In this issue the articles fall into two fields: social work services in occupational settings and social work pertaining to vulnerable children. Four articles discuss how special needs of employees or clients can be addressed in their work environment: one offers client satisfaction scales for an occupational setting, two suggest how employee assistance programmes can deal with critical incident stress management and the needs of farm workers alternatively, while the fourth provides an overview of literature on how to deal with the problem of substance abuse and substance dependence in the workplace.

A cluster articles offer insights into the welfare needs of vulnerable children. One treats of factors that contribute to offending behaviours of adolescent sexual offenders, another describes the value of programmes, focussing on the rights of children, offered to children awaiting trial at secure care centres. The less significant role of non-resident fathers in providing parental guidance to their children is the focus of another, while the need for hel ping professions to involve "street children" in a conceptual analysis of the label "street children" in order to initiate transformative intervention for these children is covered by another.

In Do social workers really make a difference? Measuring client satisfaction in an occupational setting, Huisamen and Weyers report on the considerable time, effort and money that go into the provision of social work services and the lack of proof that these services meet the needs of client systems. To fill this gap, client satisfaction scales for an occupational setting are developed and tested. The article deals with the nature of these scales and the implications of their use for the broader social work field.

Critical incidents and critical incident stress management (CISM) - An Employee Assistance Programme (EAP) perspective is an article presented by Terblanche and Van Wyk. Employees, it is argued, are increasingly becoming victims of critical incidents which impact not only on their personal lives, but on the workplace itself. The most common consequences of critical incidents is the heightened risk of developing post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and/or depression. This phenomenon requires management - through the Employee Assistance Programme (EAP) - that effectively deals with such critical incidents.

Botes, Van der Westhuizen and Alpaslan write on Informing Employee Assistance Programmes for farm workers: An exploration of the social circumstances and needs of farm workers in the Koup. This qualitative research study focusses on exploring and describing the needs of farm workers in Central Koup in the Western Cape. The aim was to contribute to finding solutions to deal with the identified needs through Employee Assistance Programmes (EAPs), a specialisation in the field of occupational social work.

Substance abuse, dependence and the workplace: A literature overview is an article presented by Smook, Ubbink, Ryke, and Strydom. Employers are legally obliged to provide opportunities for the treatment of substance dependence before dismissal is considered. This article addresses these issues by providing an overview of literature on how to deal with substance abuse and dependence in the workplace. Addressing this problem calls for specialist intervention measures which this article discusses.

In The life experiences of adolescent sexual offenders: Factors that contribute to offending behaviours, Naidoo and Sewpaul report on how case studies of adolescent sex offenders enhanced an understanding of factors that contribute to adolescent sexual offending. The impact of micro-, mezzo- and macro-level factors on family and individual functioning is acknowledged. Most noteworthy are external structural factors that penetrate the lives of individuals and families to manifest in a range of problems that human service professionals such as psychiatrists, social workers and psychologists deal with day by day.

The article by Singh and Singh is A review of legislation pertaining to children, with particular emphasis on programmes offered to children awaiting trial at secure care centres in South Africa. The Constitution ushered in a new constitutional dispensation in South Africa, increasing the pressure on the government to give effect to the rights of children awaiting trial. Consequently, a plethora of different Acts was promulgated, and they form the basis of this discussion. While the thrust of the Acts deals with the rights of children, this article focusses specifically on programmes offered at secure care centres to determine their value for the lives of children awaiting trial.

The article Patterns of contact and involvement between adolescents and their nonresident fathers by De Wit, Louw and Louw examines the patterns of contact and involvement between adolescents and their non-resident fathers after divorce. The results indicate that the majority of male and female adolescents reported continued direct and indirect contact with their fathers, regardless of paternal remarriage and the lapse of time since the divorce. Overall, the study postulates that non-resident fathers play a less significant role in providing parental guidance to their children.

A conceptual analysis of the label "street children ": Challenges for the helping professions is offered by Makofane. The literature review was inspired by research findings of student social workers at an open distance university, who found that "street children" are vehemently opposed to being referred to in this way. The implications for social work practice are that, unless professionals key stakeholders and affected children engage in conversations on this matter, initiatives for effective and sustainable transformative intervention for affected children will remain a pipe dream.

In Notes from practice, Kondowe and Booyens describe a post-graduate student's experience of gaining access to a research site for a qualitiative research project.

Prof Sulina Green, Department of Social Work, University of Stellenbosch, Stellenbosch.