Social Work And Critical Thinking On The Frontline: Implementing A Common Elements Approach In South African Schools

Facing a global youth mental health crisis, this study explores South Africa's innovative school-based implementation of the Common Elements Treatment Approach (CETA). Analysing official data through theoretical lenses of Person-in-Environment, Street-Level Bureaucracy, and Cultural Humility, the research explores how this program delivers care amidst significant constraints. Findings reveal the critical role of non-specialist Learner Support Agents, whose discretionary use of CETA’s flexible modules represents a pragmatic task-shifting strategy that demands constant contextual adaptation. The study highlights the initiative’s deliberate efforts to culturally adapt global guidelines, navigating tensions between model fidelity and local relevance, and between individual-level intervention and unaddressed systemic drivers of distress. It argues that the program exemplifies a form of macro social work practice, shifting professional focus from direct therapy towards designing equitable systems, supervising lay providers, and advocating for sustainable funding and policy change. The study concludes that such innovative, systems-oriented approaches which prioritise contextual critical thinking and resourceful service delivery, are essential for addressing mental health disparities in low-resource settings and must be integrated into modern social work education and practice.