- Title
- The feasibility and acceptability of Prolonged Exposure Therapy for PTSD at a community trauma centre in Cape Town: a qualitative analysis
- Creator
- Markham, Kate Emily
- Subject
- Uncatalogued
- Date Issued
- 2025-04-25
- Date
- 2025-04-25
- Type
- Academic theses
- Type
- Master's theses
- Type
- text
- Identifier
- http://hdl.handle.net/10962/478339
- Identifier
- vital:78178
- Description
- South Africa deals with pervasive trauma stemming from its history of political violence, high crime rates, and social challenges, ultimately contributing to a significant burden of trauma exposure and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) among its population. Despite the prevalence of PTSD, evidence-based psychological treatments (EBTs) such as Prolonged Exposure Therapy (PE) remain underutilised, particularly in low-resourced areas. This study aimed to assess the feasibility and acceptability of PE among social workers at The Trauma Centre for Survivors of Violence and Torture in Cape Town. This study used a qualitative research design, with special emphasis on Implementation Science. The study used the concepts of feasibility and acceptability to guide the research. The results revealed several key themes. Social workers’ pre-implementation themes included the perceptions around PE and implementation in South Africa, with three subthemes emerging. First, the impact of South African socioeconomic and political factors on The Trauma Centre. Second, perceptions surrounding the implementation of PE. And finally, the improvements and feasibility of PE; the social worker’s post-intervention findings focused on the feasibility and improvement of PE, post-treatment views, and the hurdles and limitations to implementation. The client's post-intervention findings explored refugee struggles, associated psychological distress, with two sub-themes of self-worth and suicidal ideation, and second, a lack of support and helplessness, loneliness, and isolation. The final theme looked at the experiences of PE, more specifically the positive client experiences with PE, and the challenges of PE. The implementation of PE at The Trauma Centre revealed both successes and challenges. Findings from this study suggest that PE can be effectively administered through task-shifting in low-resource settings. However, this study also highlighted significant challenges in the feasibility of implementing PE long-term in this context. Clients revealed ambivalent feelings regarding PE. Those who experienced positive outcomes demonstrated the potential for PE to be utilised in resource-limited settings. Those who did not find PE beneficial, highlight the need for future research to adapt PE to be culturally specific and feasible for a resource-constrained setting.
- Description
- Thesis (MA) -- Faculty of Humanities, Psychology, 2025
- Format
- computer
- Format
- online resource
- Format
- application/pdf
- Format
- 1 online resource (146 pages)
- Format
- Publisher
- Rhodes University
- Publisher
- Faculty of Humanities, Psychology
- Language
- English
- Rights
- Markham, Kate Emily
- Rights
- Use of this resource is governed by the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons "Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike" License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.0/)
- Hits: 23
- Visitors: 21
- Downloads: 0
Collections
RU Department of Psychology
| Thumbnail | File | Description | Size | Format | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| View Details Download | SOURCE1 | MARKHAM-MA-TR25-06.pdf | 7 MB | Adobe Acrobat PDF | View Details Download |