Robert Kudakwashe Chigangaidze
Kialla,Australia
Overview
12
12
years of professional experience
Work History
Mental Health Clinician / Social Worker
Goulburn Valley Health
02.2026 - Current
Lecturer in Health, Wellbeing and Social Care
Global Banking School
11.2024 - 01.2026
- Teaching modules in Mental Health and Wellbeing.
- Equality and Social Justice in Health and Social Care.
- Introduction to Use of Research and Evidence in Health and Social Care;
- Communication and Ethics in Health and Social Care at undergraduate level.
Lecturer in Social Work, Health and Social Care
Staffordshire University
Stoke-on-Trent, United Kingdom
02.2023 - 11.2024
- Taught Courses MSc in Social Work
- Social Work in Context
- Critical Theory for Social Work
- Supervising MA in Social Work Dissertations
- BSc in Social Work
- Lifespan, Human Growth and Development
- Research 1
- BSc in Health and Social Care
- Mental Health and Wellbeing Perspectives
- Human Growth and Development
- Introduction to safeguarding children and vulnerable adults
- Stoke-on-Trent United Kingdom
Mental Health Assessment Practitioner
Belmont Recruitment Agency
02.2024 - 08.2024
- Conducting mental health assessments for mental health service users that are in crisis or at the point of admission to facilitate treatment in the community and where possible prevent hospitalization.
- Crisis management – offering brief talking therapies to help in de-escalating mental health crisis.
- Care planning: offering person centred care planning sessions to service users to ensure holistic care provision and inclusion of their voices in the planning process.
- Attending multi-disciplinary team meetings to collaborate with other professionals such as Clinical Psychologists, Nurses, Psychiatrists and others to ensure holistic care.
Qualified Social Worker
Search Consultancy Limited
Manchester, United Kingdom
11.2022 - 07.2023
- Carrying out annual reviews of care plans for older adults in care homes.
- Conducting safeguarding enquiries.
- Conducting Mental capacity assessments for care provisions and financial welfare.
- Attending Best Interest Decisions Meetings.
- Writing reports to the Court of Protection.
Mental Health Coordinator (Band 6)
NHS Professionals
Trafford
08.2022 - 11.2022
- Conduct assessments and care planning.
- Home visits and brief interventions such as anxiety management.
- Clinical Triaging on Duty Desk.
- Reviewing of care planning.
- Offering psychotherapies to service users.
- Report writing.
- Attending multidisciplinary meetings.
- Referring service users to community resource systems.
Qualified Social Worker/ Mental Health Practitioner
Bluestones Medical
Trafford
05.2021 - 11.2022
- Conducting mental health assessments and care planning.
- Reviewing care planning and ensuring person-centred care approaches to service users.
- Offering brief talking therapies such as anxiety management to service users.
- Report writing.
- Attending multidisciplinary meetings.
- Referring service users to community resource systems.
- Clinical Triaging and attending duty desk to deal with all referrals regarding the service.
- Completing and escalating referrals for service users requiring secondary mental health services.
- Quest Pay Solutions NE LTD
Writing, publishing and reviewing articles for Journals.
01.2021 - 05.2021
Temporary Full-Time Lecturer
Midlands State University School of Social Work
Harare, Zimbabwe
02.2020 - 12.2020
- Taught Courses MSc Social Work (Clinical)
- Advanced Drugs and Substance Abuse Treatment
- Post Graduate Diploma in Social Work
- Criminal Justice System
- Introduction to Socio-economic Development
- Bachelor of Social Work (Honours)
- Introduction to Socio-Economic Development
- Certificate in Social Work
- Introduction to Community Health
- Developed course packages of the above.
- Attended Departmental Board Meetings such as Examination Boards.
- Set and marked examinations for taught courses.
- Attended student assessment meetings such as Vivas.
- Published articles in International Journals (Routledge)
- Harare Campus Zimbabwe
Part- Time Lecturer
Women’s University in Africa
Harare, Zimbabwe
03.2020 - 10.2020
- Taught Courses Bachelor of Social Work (Honours)
- Social Casework
- Diploma in Social Work
- Individual and Social Pathology
- Socio-Economic Development 1
- Harare Campus Zimbabwe
Medical Psychiatry Social Worker
Parirenyatwa Groups of Hospitals
03.2014 - 07.2020
- Conducted psychosocial assessments for mental health clients.
- Conducted psychosocial therapies.
- Mediated between the clients, families and the hospital.
- Advocated for an optimum therapeutic milieu for clients.
- Reintegrated clients into the community.
- Attended forensic mental health clients.
- Participated in case conferences.
- Attended departmental and divisional meetings.
- Write expert witness reports to the courts.
- Facilitated assessments for recommendations in line with curatorship.
- Contributed to the drafting of the Treatment of Substance Abuse Regulations.
- Contributed to enhanced quality assurance for service provisions.
- Facilitated for the placement of clients in halfway homes.
- Supervised fieldwork placements of Masters, Bachelor, Diploma and Certificate students in Social Work.
- Dealt with child welfare issues in line with mental health cases.
- Annex Psychiatry Hospital
Guest Tutor
Parirenyatwa School of Nursing
01.2018 - 12.2019
- Taught Courses and topics Sociology and Psychiatry Nursing
- The role of social work in psychiatry
- Indigenous Knowledge Systems and Mental Health
- Mental Health Law and practice
Guest Tutor (once per quarter)
University of Zimbabwe
01.2016 - 12.2019
- The role of social work in mental health
- The ecological systems thinking.
- Social work and mental health legislation.
- Social determinants affecting mental health
- Department of Psychiatry
Consultant Social Worker
Highlands Halfway House (HHH)
03.2017 - 05.2017
- Facilitated community awareness projects on mental health.
- Conducted psychosocial assessments to community members.
- Attended case conferences and meetings.
- Trained mine employees on ergonomic stress management.
- Assisted the Coordinator in the assignment of duties and shifts.
- Facilitated safety talks and health education discussions to employees on morning and evening shifts.
Education
PhD - Doctor of Philosophy by Published Works: An Exposition of the Relevance of Ubuntu Philosophy in Social Work: A Humanistic Social Work Perspective
University of Staffordshire
United Kingdom11-2025
Postgraduate Certificate in Higher Professional Education - Distinction
University of Staffordshire
United Kingdom06-2024
MSc - Social Work (Clinical)
Midlands State University
Zimbabwe12-2019
BSc - Social Work (Honors)
University of Zimbabwe
Zimbabwe06-2012
GCE Advanced Level -
Sandringham High School
Zimbabwe12-2007
GCE Ordinary Level -
Sandringham High School
Zimbabwe12-2005
Skills
- Mental health assessment
- Crisis intervention
- Care planning
- Academic instruction
- Research methodologies
- Team collaboration
Affiliations
- Australian Association of Social Workers, 680189, 2025
- Social Work England, SW135667, 2020
- African Social Work Network: Ubuntu Research Group, 2022
- Allied Health Practitioners Council of Zimbabwe, 2014, 2020
Peer Reviewer
- International Social Work
- Journal of Human Rights and Social Work
- International Journal of Offender Therapy and Comparative Criminology
- Journal of Current Psychology
- South African Journal of Social Work and Social Development
- Clinical Social Work Journal
- International Perspectives in Psychology: Research, Practice, Consultation
- Gerontological Social Work
Media Appearances
Mental health awareness in commemoration of 2020 International Mental Health Day, Radio Zimbabwe, 10/10/20, 1900 hours - 1930 hours, Thandikile Simango, Daviro
Personal Information
- Date of Birth: 05/09/89
- Gender: Male
- Nationality: Zimbabwean
- Marital Status: Married
Awards
International Social Work Journal 2023 best article of the year, 2023
Community Service
Methodist Church in Zimbabwe, National Youth Council Secretary, 2015, 2020, Trained Voluntary Youth Workers on youth development, Drafted project proposals for youth training, Conducted team building and coaching
Published Peer Reviewed Work
1) Chigangaidze, R.K. (2026). Humanistic Social Work theorizations in the parable of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:25-37): A directed qualitative content analysis. Journal of Religion & Spirituality in Social Work: Social Thought, 1-20. Https://doi.org/10.1080/15426432.2026.2668579.
2) Chigangaidze, R.K.(2026). Co-produced participatory lived experience activism through the eyes of the African philosophy of Ubuntu. In Goldstraw, K (Ed), How to tackle poverty with Co-produced Activism: Knowledge from Lived Experiences (pp.45-54). Bristol University Press.
3) Chigangaidze, R.K.(2025). Client-Centred Theory and Humanistic Theories. In Franklin, C and Jordan, C (Eds.), Turner’s Social Work Treatment: Interlocking Theoretical Approaches. Seventh Edition. Oxford Press.
4) Chigangaidze, R.K. (2024). Ubuntu and a New Global Order based on Social Justice: Insights from Oliver Mtukudzi’s music. In: Chitando, Ezra; Okyere-Manu, Betarice; Chirongoma, Sophia, and Musa, W. Dube (Eds), The Palgrave Handbook of Ubuntu, Inequality and Sustainable Development. Palgrave.
5) Chigangaidze, R.K, & Chikanya, N. (2024). Ubuntu as a philosophy advancing Human Rights: Humanistic Social Work thinking beyond COVID-19 pandemic. In: Chitando, Ezra; Okyere-Manu, Beatrice; Chirongoma, Sophia, and Musa, W. Dube (Eds), The Palgrave Handbook of Ubuntu, Inequality and Sustainable Development. Palgrave. (Book Chapter: In print).
6) Chigangaidze, R.K, & Breitbart, M. (2024). Racism dehumanises the racist: A deep dive into the African philosophy of Ubuntu and concepts of Transactional Analysis. In: Chitando, Ezra; Okyere-Manu, Betarice; Chirongoma, Sophia, and Musa, W. Dube (Eds), The Palgrave Handbook of Ubuntu, Inequality and Sustainable Development. Palgrave. (Book Chapter).
7) Mafa, I.H., Simango, T.G., Chigangaidze, R.K., & Mudehwe, E. (2024) “Semester Marriages” and the unintended psycho-social challenges within Institutions of Higher Learning: Implications for Social Work Practice. Qualitative Sociology Review, 20 (2), 30-45.
8) Muridzo, N.G., Simbine, S.L., & Chigangaidze, R.K. (2024). Some religious, myths, beliefs and cultural dispositions as contributors to child sexual abuse in Zimbabwe. Journal of Religion & Spirituality in Social Work: Social Thought. DOI:10.1080/15426432.2024.2311412.
9) Chigangaidze, R.K. (2023). Social Work ethos in indigenous Shona music: a qualitative content analysis of the song Mugariro (Ephat Mujuru, 1994) through Ubuntu philosophy and Ukama construct in Zimbabwe. African Journal of Social Work, 13 (6), 285-293.
10)Chigangaidze, R.K., Muridzo, R.K., & Simbine, S.L. (2023). How deep is the cancerous cut of substance use disorders on human rights? The effects of substance use disorders from a human rights perspective: The thinking of Developmental Clinical Social Work. Social Work in Health Care, 62 (6-7), 228-242.
11)Chigangaidze, R.K., Mafa, I.H., Simango, T.G., & Mudehwe, E. (2023). The relevance of Ubuntu in disability: A political, economic, social, technological, legal and environmental analysis (18-29). In: Mutanga, O, Ubuntu Philosophy and Disabilities in Sub-Saharan Africa: Interdisciplinary Studies. London: Routledge.
12)Chigangaidze, R.K., & Chikanya, N. (2023). Ubuntu Social Work benefits both the Practitioner and Service Users: An axiological reflection of a Clinical Social Worker and a Theologian. In: Mayaka, B., Uwihangana, C., & Van Breda, A.D., The Ubuntu Practitioner: Social Work Perspectives (pp. (171-188). Rheinfelden: International Federation of Social Workers.
13)Chigangaidze, R.K., & Dudzai, C. (2023). Positioning the natural environment in Ubuntu’s axiom ‘Umuntu Ngumuntu Ngabantu’: An Ecospiritual Social Work Perspective. In: Mayaka, B., Uwihangana, C., & Van Breda, A.D., The Ubuntu Practitioner: Social Work Perspectives (pp.156-170). Rheinfelden: International Federation of Social Workers.
14)Dudzai, C., & Chigangaidze, R.K. (2022). The conundrum of corruption during a Coronavirus Lockdown in Zimbabwe. Lessons for Social Work. Ethics and Social Welfare, DOI:10.1080/17496535.2022.2147203.
15)Chigangaidze, R.K. (2022). Environmental Social Work through the African philosophy of Ubuntu: A conceptual analysis. International Social Work, 1-12. DOI:10.1177/00208728211073382.
16)Chigangaidze, R.K. (2022). A call for a new perspective in social work and health care: the developmental-clinical social work perspective. COVID-19 pandemic through the human rights perspective. Social Work in Health Care, 61 (1), 1-21. DOI:10.1080/00981389.2022.2027847.
17)Chigangaidze, R.K., Mafa, I.T, Simango, T.G., & Mudehwe, E. (2022). Establishing the relevance of the Ubuntu philosophy in Social Work Practice: Inspired by the Ubuntu World Social Work Day, 2021 Celebrations and the IFSW and the IASSW's (2014) Global Definition of Social Work, International Social Work, DOI:10.1177/00208728221078374.
18)Chigangaidze, R.K., & Chinyenze, P. (2022). What it means to say, ‘a person is a person through other persons’: Ubuntu through humanistic-existential lenses of transactional analysis. Journal of Religion & Spirituality in Social Work: Social Thought, DOI:10.1080/15426432.2022.2039341.
19)Chigangaidze, R.K. (2022). The Environment has rights: Eco-spiritual social work through Ubuntu Philosophy and Pachamama. A commentary. International Social Work, https:// doi.org/10.1177/00208728211056367.
20)Chigangaidze, R.K & Chinyenze, P. (2021). Is it “Aging” or Immunosenescence? The COVID-19 Biopsychosocial Risk factors aggravating immunosenescence as another risk factor of the morbus. A Developmental-clinical social work perspective. Journal of Gerontological Social Work, 1-16. DOI:10.1080/01634372.2021.1923604.
21)Chigangaidze, R.K. (2021). Utilising ubuntu in social work practice: ubuntu in the eyes of the multimodal approach. Journal of Social Work Practice, Doi:10.1080/02650533. 2021.1981276.
22)Chigangaidze, R.K., Matanga, A.A., & Katsuro, T. (2021). Ubuntu philosophy as a humanistic-existential framework for the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic. Journal of Humanistic Psychology, 1-15, DOI:10.1177/00221678211044554.
23)Chigangaidze, R.K. (2021) Defending the African Philosophy of ubuntu and its place in clinical social work practice in mental health: The biopsychosocial and ecological systems perspective. Social Work in Mental Health, 19 (4), 276-288.
24)Chigangaidze, R.K. (2021). COVID-19 and the calls of humanistic social work: Exploring the developmental-clinical social work concerns of the pandemic. International Social Work,https://doi.org/10.1177/00208728211007911.
25)Chigangaidze, R.K. (2021) Risk factors and effects of the morbus: COVID-19 through the biopsychosocial model and ecological approach to social work practice. Journal of Social Work in Public Health, 36 (2), 98-117.
26)Chigangaidze, R.K. (24 December 2020) An exposition of humanistic-existential social work in light of ubuntu philosophy: Towards theorizing ubuntu in social work practice. Journal of Religion and Spirituality in Social Work: Social Thought, 1-20. DOI:10.1080/15426432.2020.1859431.
27)Mudehwe, E., Simango, T.G., Mafa, I., & Chigangaidze, R.K. Demystifying the national case management system in child protection. In: Professional Social Work in Zimbabwe: Putting Children First.
Conference Presentations
- Realizing the Right to Development: Honouring Past and Future Generations. Ubuntu Philosophy, International Federation of Social Workers North America virtual side event for the United Nations 62nd Commission of Social Development, New York, United States of America, 02/09/24
- Establishing the relevance of Ubuntu in Social Work: A Human Rights Perspective, International Federation of Social Workers Africa Conference, Rwanda, 11/23/21
Timeline
Mental Health Clinician / Social Worker
Goulburn Valley Health
02.2026 - Current
Lecturer in Health, Wellbeing and Social Care
Global Banking School
11.2024 - 01.2026
Mental Health Assessment Practitioner
Belmont Recruitment Agency
02.2024 - 08.2024
Lecturer in Social Work, Health and Social Care
Staffordshire University
02.2023 - 11.2024
Qualified Social Worker
Search Consultancy Limited
11.2022 - 07.2023
Mental Health Coordinator (Band 6)
NHS Professionals
08.2022 - 11.2022
Qualified Social Worker/ Mental Health Practitioner
Bluestones Medical
05.2021 - 11.2022
Writing, publishing and reviewing articles for Journals.
01.2021 - 05.2021
Part- Time Lecturer
Women’s University in Africa
03.2020 - 10.2020
Temporary Full-Time Lecturer
Midlands State University School of Social Work
02.2020 - 12.2020
Guest Tutor
Parirenyatwa School of Nursing
01.2018 - 12.2019
Consultant Social Worker
Highlands Halfway House (HHH)
03.2017 - 05.2017
Guest Tutor (once per quarter)
University of Zimbabwe
01.2016 - 12.2019
Medical Psychiatry Social Worker
Parirenyatwa Groups of Hospitals
03.2014 - 07.2020
PhD - Doctor of Philosophy by Published Works: An Exposition of the Relevance of Ubuntu Philosophy in Social Work: A Humanistic Social Work Perspective
University of Staffordshire
Postgraduate Certificate in Higher Professional Education - Distinction
University of Staffordshire
MSc - Social Work (Clinical)
Midlands State University
BSc - Social Work (Honors)
University of Zimbabwe
GCE Advanced Level -
Sandringham High School
GCE Ordinary Level -
Sandringham High School