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The document is the 7th edition of 'The Road to Social Work and Human Service Practice' by Donna McAuliffe, Jennifer Boddy, and Lesley Chenoweth, published by Cengage Learning in 2024. It provides a comprehensive overview of social work and human service practice, covering historical foundations, ethical standards, and various fields of practice. The text includes chapters on engagement, assessment, and working with oppression, aiming to equip readers with the necessary knowledge and skills for effective practice.

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0% found this document useful (0 votes)

234 views338 pages

The Road To Social Work and Human Service Practice 7nbsped 0170470946 9780170470940 Compress

Uploaded by

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THE ROAD TO

SOCIAL WORK
AND

HUMAN SERVICE
PRACTICE
7TH ED
ITION

DONNA McAULIFFE | JENNIFER BODDY | LESLEY CHENOWETH

Copyright 2024 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. WCN 02-300
Copyright 2024 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. WCN 02-300

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For Professors Patrick O’Leary and
Nicholas Buys (Donna)

For Ash, Frankie and Billie (Jenny)

In this International Decade of Indigenous

Languages, this edition is dedicated to all First
People’s in acknowledgement of their traditional
knowledge and culture and their generosity in sharing
them (Lesley)

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The Road to Social Work and Human Service Practice © 2024 Cengage Learning Australia Pty Limited
7th Edition WCN: 02-300
Donna McAuliffe
Jennifer Boddy Copyright Notice
Lesley Chenoweth This Work is copyright. No part of this Work may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval
system, or transmitted in any form or by any means without prior written permission of
the Publisher. Except as permitted under the Copyright Act 1968, for example any fair
Portfolio manager: Fiona Hammond dealing for the purposes of private study, research, criticism or review, subject to
Content developer: Margie Asmus certain limitations. These limitations include: Restricting the copying to a maximum of
Project editor: Ronald Chung/Sharmilee Govindan one chapter or 10% of this book, whichever is greater; providing an appropriate notice
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Cover designer: Alba Design (Rina Gargano) limit access to these copies to people authorised to receive these copies; ensuring
Text designer: Alba Design (Rina Gargano) you hold the appropriate Licences issued by the Copyright Agency Limited (“CAL”),
Editor: Jade Jakovcic supply a remuneration notice to CAL and pay any required fees. For details of CAL
Proofreader: Andrew Liston licences and remuneration notices please contact CAL at Level 11, 66 Goulburn
Permissions/Photo researcher: Liz McShane Street, Sydney NSW 2000, Tel: (02) 9394 7600, Fax: (02) 9394 7601
Cover: Shutterstock.com/AnastasiaNi Email: [email protected]
Typeset by KnowledgeWorks Global Ltd Website: www.copyright.com.au

Any URLs contained in this publication were checked for currency during the For product information and technology assistance,
production process. Note, however, that the publisher cannot vouch for the ongoing
currency of URLs. in Australia call 1300 790 853;
in New Zealand call 0800 449 725
Sixth edition published in 2021
For permission to use material from this text or product, please email
[email protected]

National Library of Australia Cataloguing-in-Publication Data

ISBN: 9780170470940
A catalogue record for this book is available from the National Library of Australia

Cengage Learning Australia

Level 5, 80 Dorcas Street
Southbank VIC 3006 Australia

For learning solutions, visit cengage.com.au

Printed in China by 1010 Printing International Limited.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 27 26 25 24 23

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BRIEF
CONTENTS

Chapter 1: Starting the journey: an introduction to

social work and human service practice 1

Chapter 2: Surveying the landscape: historical and

philosophical foundations for practice 28

Chapter 3: Locating the lighthouse: values and ethics

in practice 53

Chapter 4: Treading carefully: professional practice

and ethical standards 83

Chapter 5: Finding the right maps: the knowledge

base of practice 110

Chapter 6: Travelling many paths: practice fields

and methods 144

Chapter 7: Negotiating the maze: the organisational

context of practice 186

Chapter 8: Plunging in: engagement, assessment,

intervention, closure and review 211

Chapter 9: Traversing landscapes: working with

oppression and privilege 245

Chapter 10: New journeys 271

Copyright 2024 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. WCN 02-300
v

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Contents
Guide to the text. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xii
Guide to the online resources . . . . . . . . . . xvi
Preface. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xviii
About the authors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xx
Acknowledgements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xxi

Chapter 1: Starting the journey: an introduction to

social work and human service practice 1
Introduction 2
Making the most of the educational experience 3
Developing support strategies 4
Choosing the road to social work and human services 6
Motivations for working in social work and human services 7
The purpose of practice: is there a final destination? 15
The domains of practice: scanning the territory 17
Work with individuals 18
Work with families and partnerships 19
Groupwork 20
Community work 20
Social policy practice 21
Organisational practice, management and leadership 21
Education, training and consultancy 22
Research and evaluation 23
Exploring your pre-existing knowledge, skills, values and
beliefs: the place of transformational learning 24

Chapter 2: Surveying the landscape: historical and

philosophical foundations for practice 28
Introduction 29
Histories of helping and welfare 29
Indigenous healing and helping 30
The history of welfare 31
The emergence of the welfare practitioner 33
Towards the welfare state and beyond 34
The professionalisation of helping 40

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CONTENTS

Key philosophies 42
Social justice 42
Human rights 42
The use of power 44
Types of power 45
Power and empowerment 46

Chapter 3: Locating the lighthouse: values and

ethics in practice 53
Introduction 54
The influence of moral philosophy in practice 55
Exploring ethical theory and its application 58
The history of values and ethics 60
The value base of practice: contested territory 62
Core values 64
Distinguishing between ethical issues, problems and dilemmas 68
Ethical challenges in the eight domains of practice 70
Models for ethical decision making 72
The Inclusive Model 73

Chapter 4: Treading carefully: professional

practice and ethical standards 83
Introduction 84
Codes of ethics: care or control? 84
The international context 85
The Global Agenda for Social Work and Social Development 85
The regional context 89
Australian Association of Social Workers 89
Australian and New Zealand Social Work and Welfare
Education and Research 98
Aotearoa New Zealand Association of Social Workers 98
Australian Register of Counsellors and Psychotherapists 100
Australian Community Workers Association 101
Harmful practice: a duty to regulate 102
E-professionalism: standards in the digital era 105
Online personal and professional disclosures 105
Remote service delivery 106
Knowledge and skills for the digital age 106

Copyright 2024 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. WCN 02-300
vii

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CONTENTS

Chapter 5: Finding the right maps: the knowledge

base of practice 110
Introduction 111
What is knowledge? 111
Defining the terms 112
The social and historical foundations of knowledge 115
Knowledge sources and content 118
The sources of knowledge 121
The paradigms influencing knowledge development 123
Using knowledge in practice 125
Evidence-based practice 126
The relationship between theory and practice 128
Practice approaches and theories 129
Systems and ecological perspectives 130
Psychodynamic practice 130
Humanist and existential approaches 131
Cognitive and behavioural approaches 131
Radical, structural and critical approaches 132
Post theories 133
Environmental social work practice 134
The strengths perspective 135
Crisis intervention and task-centred practice 136
Community development 137
Trauma-informed practice 138
Applying theory in practice 139

Chapter 6: Travelling many paths: practice fields

and methods 144
Introduction 145
Fields of practice 145
Issues, interventions and skills in fields of practice 149
The health sector 149
Mental health 151
Child protection 155

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CONTENTS

Domestic and family violence 158

Disability field 161
Ageing 164
Rural, regional and remote practice 166
Income security, employment and housing services 169
Substance misuse 172
Legal settings, corrections and youth justice 174
Environmental and disaster work 176
Choosing a field of practice 178
Approaches to practice 179
Levels of intervention 179
Activism, policy and lobbying work 182

Chapter 7: Negotiating the maze: the

organisational context of practice 186
Introduction 187
Human service organisations 187
Characteristics of human service organisations 188
Types of human service organisations 192
Organisational theories 195
Organisations as machines: bureaucracy and scientific
management 196
The relational organisation 196
Systems and ecological perspectives 197
Ife’s discourses of human services 197
Working in the human service organisation 199
Key roles in the human service organisation 200
The quest for funding 200
Professionals 201
Context and place 202
Management and leadership 203
Collaboration and working in teams 203
The importance of relationships 206
Human services: a risky business? 207
Setting up a human service organisation 208

Copyright 2024 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. WCN 02-300
ix

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CONTENTS

Chapter 8: Plunging in: engagement, assessment,

intervention, closure and review 211
Introduction 212
Exploring the helping process 212
Models of helping 213
The steps of the process 217
Engagement: making connections and building relationships 217
Assessment: making sense of a situation 222
Intervention: moving forward and taking action 230
Closure: tying up loose ends and reaching a conclusion 233
Review: the critical phase of reflective practice 237
Documentation and digital literacy 239
Information technology: out with the old and in with the new 240

Chapter 9: Traversing landscapes: working with

oppression and privilege 245
Introduction 246
Exploring power, inequality, and oppression 246
Defining the terms 247
Influences on diversity 249
Newly arrived migrant minorities 249
First Peoples 251
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples 252
Māori 253
Pasifika peoples 255
Whiteness 256
Sexual orientation and gender identity 256
Disability and mental health 259
Summary 261
Practice contexts and approaches 262
Anti-oppressive practice 262
Indigenous relationality and worldviews 263
Critical and radical practice 264
Cultural competence, humility and safety 265
Using your lived experience 266

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CONTENTS

Chapter 10: New journeys 271

Introduction 272
Developing a practice framework 272
Critical reflective practice 276
Use of self 278
Continuing to learn 279
Professional development 279
Field and professional supervision 281
The importance of self-care 281
Looking to the future 284
The aftermath of managerialism 284
The implications of COVID-19 286
A global focus 287
Climate change 287
Valuing lived experience: service user voice and participation 288
New frontiers 290
Implications for education and ongoing learning 291
Glossary�� 295
Index�� 301

Copyright 2024 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. WCN 02-300
xi

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Guide to the text
As you read this text you will find a number of features in
every chapter that will enhance your study of social work
and human service practice and help you to understand
how the theory is applied in the real world.

CHAPTER-OPENING FEATURES

Chapter roadmap diagrams provide

a visual guide to the journey you will

1
CHAPTER
undertake during the chapter reading. The Starting the journey:
list of aims at the start of each chapter an introduction to
signposts the key content and helps to social work and human
focus your attention. service practice

Chapter 1
Starting the journey It starts
you on the
This chapter introduces you journey
to working in social work
and the human services.

How can I make

Why have I the most of the When will I reach
chosen this path? educational my destination?
experience?

The purpose of
social work and
human service Working
Doing
practice Education with groups
research and
and training and
evaluation
communities

The various domains

It explores of practice
SurveyIng tHe landScaPe: HIStorIcal and PHIloSoPHIcal FoundatIonS For PractIce / cHaPter 2
Working
Leadership with
What do I already Social policy
and individuals,
know? work
management families and
What are my values partnerships
and beliefs that
Aims might impact on my
learning journey?

• Outline the histories of helping and welfare as they relate to social work and human services
• Explore the principles of social
Nowjustice
we are and
readyhuman rights
to go forward on as
thethey relate
learning to ...practice
journey
• Discuss
THE ROAD TO SOCIAL notions
WORK AND HUMANof SERVICE
power and empowerment, power with and power over, and how they
PRACTICE
influence practice 1

• Explore the relevance of these elements in contemporary practice

Aims
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Introduction
• Understand how to make the most of the educational experience
• Consider motivations for choosing the path of social work and human services
In chapter•1,Clarify
we embarked
the purposeonof the
socialjourney
work andto becoming
human servicespractitioners
practice and laid out the definitions and refer to
purposes of• social
Discusswork anddomains
the eight human service
of social workpractice.
and humanThis provided
services practice a starting point on our road to chapter 1
Explore
practice. In •this pre-existing
chapter, knowledge,
we survey the skills, values and
landscape beliefs about
in which the world
practice is carried out, looking back along
the path already travelled by those before us, and examining where we currently find ourselves in the
Introduction
contemporary context of social work and human services. We outline the history of social work and
human All
service
storiespractice, discussing
have to start somewhere. itsYour
antecedents and how
story as a student it has been
or practitioner of shaped over
social work time. Different
or human
social and political
services contexts
may have startedand philosophies
quite influence
recently or a long theEither
time ago. purposes
way, atofsome
practice
point, and how apractice is
you made

FEATURES WITHIN CHAPTERS

decision
undertaken; to take this
therefore, weparticular
exploreforkthein life’s road.foundations
historical In this chapter, we the
and ask you to think about
philosophical your life blocks on
building
story and clearly identify what led you to follow the career path of working with people in a helping
which human services are based. We also explore, at a preliminary level, some of the history of caring
capacity. If you are at the start of your journey, you are encouraged to think of yourself as an ‘emerging
and healing practices
practitioner’ and of Aboriginal,
consider how youTorres
can make Strait Islander
the most of yourand Māori peoples.
educational experience to become a

Watch your language boxes give

competent, reflective and ethical practitioner. This chapter explores the purpose of social work and
WATCH YOUR LANGUAGE
human services and discusses the various domains of practice. This means exploring the many diverse

you quick reminders of appropriate

ways and places that
Indigenous/First you can choose to work in the future. You are also challenged to think about
Peoples
what pre-existing knowledge, skills, values and beliefs you bring on your journey to social work and
This is a guide
human to appropriate
service practice. terminology to be used with respect to Aboriginal and Torres Strait

language use. Islander

• ‘First
peoples
When you have
thatPeople/s’
you can gain
and cultures.
finished
is aan
this first chapter, you will explore the history of social welfare in Chapter 2, so
understanding
collective nameoffor where
the you are located
original people in of
time, what has
Australia come
and before,
their and
descendants.
what
This mayacceptable
is an lie ahead. You willto
term then look at the ethical foundations of practice in Chapters 3 and 4,
use.
including how social work and human services are positioned within the broader industry, what we
• ‘First Nations’ is also a collective name that is becoming more widely used in Australia,
mean by professionalism, and how we work with others from different disciplines. This is known
reflecting the large number
as interprofessional of nations,
practice. In Chapterscultures
5 andand languages
6, you will learnthroughout mainlandand
about the knowledge Australia
and the base
theory Torres Strait Islands.
of practice and explore the diversity of fields and methods that make this work so broad
ranging. The
• ‘Aboriginal andorganisational context
Torres Strait of practice
Islander will then
peoples’ isbepreferred
presented inwhen
Chapter 7, so thatcollectively
referring you can to
think about
Australia’s the types
original of workplaces that might employ you as a practitioner, how these are funded
inhabitants.
and structured, and who you might be working with. The phases of the helping process set out in
• An Aboriginal person is a person or descendant of the First Peoples of mainland Australia and
Chapter 8 will give you a map of how to think about engaging with people, making assessments
Tasmania.
of needs and planning interventions, moving to closure, and reviewing what was done. Finally, in
• A Chapters
Torres Strait
9 andIslander is consider
10, you will a person theor descendant
complex issues ofof a person
working withfrom the understand
diversity, Torres Strait Islands,
what
we mean
located tobythethenorth
term intersectionality, and the importance of developing a practice framework that
of mainland Queensland.
will hone your skills in critical reflection. By the time you finish this book, you
• It is usually acceptable to use the term ‘Aboriginal’ as an adjective – e.g. adding ‘person’ or should have a good
understanding of what lies ahead for your future practice, and will be motivated to continue to engage
‘culture’.
in what is known as ‘life-long learning’ through ongoing supervision and continuing professional
• ‘Indigenous’
developmentis(CPD).
not specific and can be used to describe indigenous peoples around the world.
People choose to work in human services at different points in their lives, and for different reasons.
Some choose
We outline this path asof
the elements soon
twoaskey
theyprinciples
leave secondary education,–certain
of practice social that this is
justice andthehuman
career they
rights – and
want to pursue, so they begin the journey at an early stage. Others have had previous jobs or careers
explore the concept of power and how it influences every aspect of our work. Finally, we discuss how
and decide to change to human service work much later in their working lives. Inevitably, whatever
these elements are integrated
your pathway, asbeen
you will have the philosophical
influenced by lifefoundation for practice
events, relationships with in the contemporary
others, social changes, political
and ideological
economiccontext.
and political imperatives, and exposure to experiences that have shaped your values,
attitudes and beliefs. You do not begin with a clean slate – you bring a multitude of experiences that
are starting points for your new journey.
Histories
This chapterof helping
helps you andpoints
determine these starting welfare
so that you can make the most of the lessons
you have already learnt, the knowledge you have already acquired and the skills you have already
Personaldeveloped.
struggles and social
Exploring problems
these are part
starting points ofyou
gives thea universal human
solid foundation and experience. People
orients you more become sick,
strongly
experience personal
as you or social conflict or violence, grow old or suffer from a lack of essential resources.
move forward.

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GUIDE TO THE TEXT
LoCatIng the LIghthouse: vaLues and ethICs In pRaCtICe / ChapteR 3

Rothman (2011, p. 5) takes the definition of ethical dilemmas a step further, explaining that such
FEATURES WITHIN CHAPTERS
dilemmas often comprise a number of issues and need to be broken down into an accessible form by
using a ‘dilemma formulation’: ___ versus ___ (that is, ‘X’ versus ‘Y’). Only after we have clarified the
actual dilemma can we move towards a resolution by using an appropriate ethical decision-making
Conceptualise how the framework. The following case study shows how a case can be broken down in this way.
theory relates to real-
CASE STUDY
life contexts with case Helen
studies that illustrate the Helen, a social worker employed in a hospital, has a client who is terminally ill. Helen’s client,
key themes of the chapter. Caroline, asks Helen one day if she would be able to find her some information about what

The case study matrix

medications she would need to take to die at home. She says that her sister has agreed to assist
her to die at home, but she wants to be sure that there will be no legal repercussions as she
below makes it easy knows this is not yet legal in the state in which they live. She asks Helen not to tell any of the

for you to identify doctors or nurses about their conversation.

valuable and detailed This case study relates to ethical issue of the rights of terminally ill people to determine the time
real-life examples. and place of their own death. The ethical problem is due to the legal situation not yet allowing choices
around voluntary assisted dying in the client’s state of residence, the hospital’s position on providing
people with information about euthanasia, and sharing client information with members of the
treatment team.
The dual ethical dilemmas for Helen are whether or not to give Caroline the information she has
CASE MATRIX requested, and whether or not to inform other members of the treatment team. The formulations of
these dilemmas are:
Helen.......................................................................................................................69
• the client’s self-determination versus the primacy of the client’s interests
Dorothy..................................................................................................................140
• the client’s right to information versus organisational and legal compliance
• privacy and confidentiality versus the worker’s obligation to colleagues.
Robodebt...............................................................................................................171
In this case study, the values of the social worker, Helen, also influence how she manages Caroline’s
request and at what point she experiences an ethical dilemma. Helen might not experience an ethical
Josh........................................................................................................................180
dilemma about giving Caroline the information because she might have strong beliefs about people
making informed choices based on the most accurate and up-to-date information. She might, however,

Rita........................................................................................................................222
have an ethical dilemma about the issue of disclosure of client information, as she might believe that
this will destroy the trust relationship she has with her client. Another social worker in the same
situation could experience an ethical dilemma based on the belief that to provide such information
Jeriah.....................................................................................................................222
would be potentially harmful but might have no dilemma about immediately informing Caroline’s
doctor based on the belief that all information relating to a patient’s care is a shared responsibility.
Support group.......................................................................................................232
This case illustrates what Banks (2021) argues convincingly: that not every situation will be perceived
THE ROAD TO SOCIAL WORK AND HUMAN SERVICE PRACTICE

in the same way by different workers. What is an ethical dilemma for one worker may not be for
The cyclone emergency intervention plan.technology.
another. As previously .discussed,
.......................................................233
the way that social workers decide what to do may be different
The diversity of fields of practice and the transferability of skills to other countries make
social and human services work an attractive career choice. Additional incentives include the ability for
based on whether theyaccredited
give more importance to rights, duties
workersand obligations orwith
to consequences
Medicare or with and
The eviction..........................................................................................................233
mental health private-practice social to register as providers
considerations of the ‘greater good’.
the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS). This brings more flexibility to the self-employed or
private practitioner, and professional autonomy is a strong motivator for many.

The family.............................................................................................................234
Activity 1.2 Practitioner perspective

Mai.........................................................................................................................237
What do you know about job prospects for social, community and human service workers in
In social work and human service practice, you have a very complex dynamic set up for you,
your area?
and it can be a real minefield.
1 Research You have ausing
job vacancies values-driven profession
http:// seek.com.au to see whatbeing delivered
is available in under
in your area a shifting

Savannah..............................................................................................................237
context where everything is subjective and sociallyordefined
Community Services and Development Healthcare–and
definitions of ‘child
Medical. Be aware abuse’ and
that potential
jobs will have a range of titles (e.g. case manager, community development officer, early
‘relationships’ and ‘acceptable behaviour’ and ‘personal responsibility’ all change depending on
intervention worker, rehabilitation consultant, domestic violence counsellor, mental health

Finding my feet.....................................................................................................261
which political party, church group,
counsellor,
So, there are very few2 fixed
family media outlet
support and or worker,
advocacy charismatic individual
and support facilitator).is calling the shots.
Pay attention to the jobs that appear interesting and attractive to you. What stands out?
moral reference points to begin with. Then you come in and try to
What can you see about rates of pay, incentives, work conditions and required experience?
navigate this with your own sense of right and wrong, based on personal values like ‘integrity’
and ‘social justice’, aligned with
People may alsoprofessional values
be attracted to human like because
services ‘self-determination’
of their interest andand ‘competence’.
previous experience
in particular areas of work, or because of their intention to work in a particular area or country, as
illustrated in the following example.
69
Learn from personalised viewpoints on Practitioner perspective

aspects of practice with practitioner Sanesie graduated with a degree in human services. Fairly ordinary, you might think; but his road

perspective boxes from a range of

to study has not been a smooth one. Here is his story.
BK-CLA-MCAULIFFE_7E-230050-Chp03.indd 69 ‘I was born in Liberia at a time when the country was torn apart by conflict. When I was four 23/06/23 2:51 PM

industry professionals.
years old, our town got attacked and we had to leave. We didn’t take anything. We walked for a
week and a half before getting to the Ivory Coast. I spent 14 years in and out of refugee camps in
neighbouring Guinea before leaving my family to come to Australia in 2005. I was very young and
very lonely. I worked 12-hour shifts in a meat factory, then as an airport security screener before
I got to go to university. Uni was really hard – I thought I would never pass and I had to work three
jobs to support myself and my family back in Africa. But I did pass and even won an academic
award! My experiences have really shaped the kind of work I want to do. While studying I felt I
had a crucial role to play helping fellow refugee students and encouraging others to apply to
study. Having been through the challenges – the loneliness, struggling with assessment, working
long hours to send money back home – I feel I can really empathise with them. It is important to
focus on people’s strengths. Getting through this degree successfully means anything is possible,
as long as you keep fighting, keep your focus. One day I would like to go back to Liberia and work
there but for now there is much to do here working with refugees right here at home.’
Sanesie Dukuly

Role models
People influence all of us – for better or for worse. Knowing a family member or close friend who is a
social worker and discussing the nature of their work can be a strong incentive to find out more about
the possibilities for a future career. Strong, passionate social workers who have a deep sense of social
justice, take pride in their work and ‘walk the talk’ are important role models. However, cynical and
dissatisfied social workers can make an equally strong impression, just as quickly turning others
away from the field by telling stories of traumatic events. One step removed from personal contacts or
the stories of ‘people who know people’ are the figures who stand out in history. Role models such as
Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Jr, Mother Teresa, Bob Geldof, Fred Hollows, Caroline Chisholm
and Mum Shirl exemplify compassion for suffering, a staunch belief in the good of humanity, and the
8

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Copyright 2024 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. WCN 02-300
xiii

BK-CLA-MCAULIFFE_7E-230050-Chp00_Prelims.indd 13 02/08/23 5:11 PM

STARTING THE JOURNEY: AN INTRODUCTION TO SOCIAL WORK AND HUMAN SERVICE PRACTICE / CHAPTER 1

GUIDE TO THE TEXT

Activity 1.6

FEATURES WITHIN CHAPTERS 3 If you have strong religious or spiritual beliefs, how do you work respectfully with others who
may not share these beliefs?
4 If you hold no particular beliefs, how will you respond to clients who wish to discuss their
own belief systems?

Client perspective

Extend your critical thinking with client

I went to see a counsellor once who suggested that I try praying for my son who was addicted
to heroin. It had been years of absolute heartache. We were all exhausted and at the end of

perspective boxes and consider issues from

our
THE ROAD TO SOCIAL ability
WORK ANDto HUMAN
cope. The familyPRACTICE
SERVICE was falling apart, and I was a wreck emotionally, to be honest.
Although I was brought up a Catholic, I was not practising, and if anything was not about to bow

the service consumer’s point of view.

down to a God that had brought us so much suffering. I had hoped that I would come away
with some strategies to cope better with my own feelings of guilt about my son – I didn’t think
have gained
a religious a sense
response was of professional
appropriate, andidentity.
I really Learning
resented about social work
the insinuation values
that of change
I could respect for
persons,
things social
if I would justjustice
‘handand
it allprofessional
over’. integrity has been transformative for me as a person and
emerging practitioner. I have now found what I want to do for the rest of my life.
Jaqueline, aged 48
Ellen Beaumont

Find out what other students are thinking

Entering through another door
While for many the
Student decision to study social work or human services is a conscious and deliberate
perspective
by reading the student perspectives. one, others make their way into these professions more by accident. It is often the case with higher
educational
Since institutions
I was a child,that quotas,
I always feltacademic-merit
a strong desirerequirements
to do something and educational policies dictate
to alleviate poverty. Coming
who enters
fromaMyanmar
particularI course
was often and exposed
who doesto not. Thereand
poverty are many stories of
I occasionally social
gave awayandmy welfare
pocket workers
money
who aspired to careers in
and hand-down medicine,
clothes law or
to those who veterinary
were lessscience,
fortunate. only to find they did
I contemplated notIget
how canahelp
placethese
but
were instead
people. offered a place
I thought in one of
I needed tothe
besocial
rich insciences,
order totherapies or social workand
create opportunities courses.
help It is common
these people
also forunleash
students whofull
their start off in aand
potential discipline
make asuch as psychology,
contribution to a betternursing or education to realise that
society.
they are more
After interested
high school, in working
I chose withto study people in a more
Business holistic sense
Management and seek aout
to become courses that
businessperson
will provide
because a broader
I thought framework
I needed for to bepractice. The increase
in business and have in apostgraduate
lot of moneyqualifying
so I can help courses in
the less
social work shows that many are choosing this direction. While some use study in human services
fortunate people and contribute to positive change in society. Later on, I became inspired as by
a ‘launch
somepad’oftothe
other careers, development
community others find their niche,from
projects realising whenNations
the United they become(UN) in immersed
Myanmar, in such
the
study of social sciences and human behaviour that such a path fits comfortably with their values and
as Micro Finance. I realised the type of work existed where employment involved doing things for
interests. The two
positive student
change in the perspectives
community,below beingillustrate this point.
paid for making positive change. Since then, I wanted
to work with the United Nations. This type of employment could be my future career. However,
it was out of my reach to get a job in the UN in Myanmar. Life took me on aperspective
Student different turn and I
moved to Australia. I decided to start again in terms of my career, and I was pleased because I
I enrolled
had theinchance
a Bachelor
to pursueof Social Work not
the dream knowing
career whatinsocial
that I had my mind.workers
Still, were,
I didn’tI know
just knew I
the name
wanted
of theto profession
be one. I wascalledinitially
socialenrolled
work, how in psychology
to go about part-time
it, and whatand the
wasqualification
employed inrequired.
medical So,
administration.
I looked up theAt work
UN jobI noticed
website social workers
to learn whatstanding
I neededalongside
to achieve people
my dreamin their environment
career. I learnt that
providing
Bachelor support. ThisWork
of Social was or appealing to me and
Human Services wereI changed
the way degrees.
to go towardsWhenmy asked
dreamin ajob.
first
Since
yearthen,
socialmywork
goal course
is to becomewhat area I wanted
a social worker.to work in, I didn’t know. I have since spent my
undergraduate degree exploring the diverse roles of social workers by
I started out studying a Diploma of Community Services Work because I believed that it would joining student groups,
attending
give me conferences and volunteering
a good foundation to social work at university events
study. I read an to gain edition
earlier a better ofunderstanding
The Road to Social
of the
Worksocial
andwork
Human profession. My area
Service Practice andof it
interest
was the has developed
first book I had throughout
ever read my degree
about andwork.
social I
As I was reading the book, I learnt more about myself and became more sure that I couldn’t
be in any other profession except social work. For me, choosing social work is more than the
desire to help. I chose this profession because of my values, personality, morals and interests.
In this area of work, the people we work with and advocate for are vulnerable. Therefore, it
is crucial to recognise the sincere purpose of choosing this profession needs to come from 13
the heart. I believe that strength and resilience, resources and opportunities make a positive
difference to the community and lead to a better society. My aim is to bring these opportunities,
strengths and resources to vulnerable people’s lives and support them, so they can reach their
BK-CLA-MCAULIFFE_7E-230050-Chp01.indd 13 02/08/23 3:11 PM
full potential.
Sawnu Taynaing (Sunny)

THE ROAD TO SOCIAL WORK AND HUMAN SERVICE PRACTICE

Recommended reading
Reflect on what you have read and explore Australian Association of Social Workers. (2022). Why I became a social worker. https://www.aasw.
Activity globalisation
1.4 and internationalisation
asn.au/whoweare/meet-our-members/members-tell-why-i-became-a-social-worker

the complexities of practice by completing The

1 documented
Can you
We can observe a number of changes in contemporary practice and practice contexts. Like most
aspects of life,
stories
identify social work
of people
movies or TVand
who human
series have services
that chosen has
tobecome awho
moreare
enter social
have characters globalised
work profession,
andworkers,
social and thereare
human services is a

questions in the activity boxes. inspiring

transformative
growing
counsellors,
work
Describe
internationalisation.
and interesting
across
journey’;
how these
to read.
therapists,
continental
and
Melcher
child
charactersandare
Cree (2003)
Some welfare
(2002)
protection
national
has
providers
recounts
workers,
boundaries
published
portrayed andtheand
now of
his story
community
thus
operate
have
stories
what roles
whaton
workers
been
ofthey
hea described
global scaleworkers?
or youth and
as practitioners
a ‘clinician’s
mobilised. In China and many
13 social
play. service workers in the
former communist countries, including nations in Eastern Europe and South-East Asia, social work is
2 What impressions do you think are generated by the depiction of these characters, and how
booming. Dozens of new schools of social work have been established, and professional associations are
might this affect how people doing these jobs are viewed by the public?
growing in numbers and influence. By contrast, in Australia and New Zealand, ongoing managerialism
3 If you developed a character
under the neoliberal of a
agenda hascounsellor
produced afor a television
more casualiseddrama based in a ruralhuman service
and de-professionalised
14 community, how(Healy
workforce would& you portray
Meagher, thisMorley
2004). worker? What
(2016) would
argues thatthey be work
social like as a person
education tooand
hasasbeen
‘technicised’
a professional at thein
working expense
a smallof town?
critical social theory in order to meet the demands of industry.
4 What if the character is a social worker in a large hospital or a youth worker in a youth
digitisation
detention centre? Examine your stereotypes of social and human service workers by creating
As well
BK-CLA-MCAULIFFE_7E-230050-Chp01.indd 14a character as (i.e.
arc beinghow professionalised,
the character bureaucratised, scrutinised,
progresses over partialised,
time) and politicised,
a backstory globalised
(i.e. what has and02/08/23 3:11 PM
mobilised,
happened to them it could be argued
in the past). that in the past decade social work and human services have also become
digitised. There has been a rapid rise in information technology and social media use that has seen
the emergence of many new forms of practice, including e-therapy, e-counselling, telehealth, online
social support groups, remote supervision by Skype online platforms, and more recently the use of
Personal experience
bots that rely on artificial intelligence and machine learning to undertake risk assessments.

coverage of challenging and complex difficult time

when
refer
to in their
many
development
to they needed
lives,
more or because
partners
of ‘e-professionalism’
support. People who found
theycare.
in people’s have Theexperienced
FINDING
in education
issues
being helped
THE itstoopposite;
relating
RIGHT
and practice
a positive
digitalTHE
MAPS:
are and
explored
that
impact is,
KNOWLEDGE‘notas
as well being
furtherexperience
enriching
the
BASE helped’
need
in chapter often
OFforPRACTICE / CHAPTER 5
4. In

concepts covered elsewhere in the text.

chapter 4
want to passaddition
on thistoexperience
the challenges facing practitioners
to others. They feel a as they engage
connection withthe
with technology
experience in their work, there
of having been
is also a need for new knowledge about how users of services engage with and use technology in
helped and understand
and dependent childrenthe(a dynamics
process of the change
sometimes process.
referred toThey may have engaged
as ‘attunement’). The twoin counselling
concepts are or
refer to their everyday lives. Bringing a new focus onto assessment of people’s networked lives is explored in
therapy 8 in a crisis
interrelated
chapter or8.
because
chapter
fortrauma
longer-term assistance,
significantly and may
disrupts return
these to thistoatthe
systems, times of vulnerability.
extent that children They
who
understand
have disrupted theThevalue of
attachment seeking help,
experiences and they
can trust
experiencethe therapeutic
life-long relationship.
impacts.
proliferation of data along with increasingly sophisticated technologies has also heralded theOn the other side of
thisTrauma-informed
equation, usepeople who
of predictive were
practice not helped
gives
analytics usinathe
way may feel a deep sense
to understand
human services. of
the complex
While injustice
human and, and
service a drive
at organisations
times, to ensure
counter-intuitive
have usedthat
their experience is not
descriptive repeated
data for somefor others.
time, They
recently, wemay
haveharbour
had the hostility
capacity
behaviour of adults and children in a range of settings. It also leads us to specific responses thattoabout
use bigparticular
data to be interventions
more proactive,
that they to
attempt didto
dealdetermine
not perceive
with thetheaseffectiveness
useful and
underlying of programs
may
trauma hold and to
strong
experience develop
views
rather aboutpreventive
than particular interventions.
the ‘surface’ therapists Wareing
in
presentation and
a personal
(which
sense Headrick (2013)
or therapeutic approachespredicted
more a drive to more
generally. inventive
People who approaches
have health through childhood
had adverse the 2010s to foster non-
may be for drug and alcohol addiction, homelessness, mental treatment, childexperiences,protection/
traditional partnerships and develop creative financing models that invest in social outcomes along
often described
parenting as ‘wounded
intervention healers’, maysocial
or problematic develop a level of resilience
behaviours). There arethat can prove
concerns thathelpful
these in working
approaches
with the use of big data. Models that employ some of these strategies to solve complex problems, such
with
haveothers.
become Surviving
as too
Collective
difficultemerged
medicalised
Impact,and
experiences
regard in trauma
in formative
the United as happening years
States and were
can
only inresult
adopted
in determination
a biological sense.
in Australia
to move
It ismid-2010s.
in the important
forward, independence,
to also considerWe might drive, passion
theunderstand
socio-political
this decadeand asconfidence
dimensions (Newcomb
to trauma
one of creativity andand et al., 2019).
violence,
innovation especially
in response for women
to human problems. and
A warning
children should 2013).
(see Tseris, be sounded here. Such powerful motives can work for good or ill, as people

Extend your understanding through the

entering human Politicalservices action
may bringand an splintered
experience base communities
that can potentially blind them to the quite
different experiences
Recommended Over the last offive
others.
readingyears,For
thereexample,
has beena anwoman whodevelopment
unsettling spends years thatinmay
a situation of domestic
well further shift the

concepts and their

development of values and ethics and discussed the debate about whether some values are absolute or relative,
Questions
depending on cultural considerations. We clarified the definitions and distinctions between what falls under the

significance.
realm of ethical challenges (i.e. ethical issues, problems and dilemmas) and discussed ethics in each of the domains
of 1practice.
What areWethe key ideas
concluded of three
with of the
a model ancientdecision
of ethical and contemporary
making that philosophers
has central who have influenced
dimensions thinking on
of accountability,
moral and
consultation, ethical foundations
interdependence, of human
cultural service practice?
sensitivity and reflection, and explored some cases using this model.
The following chapter explores issues of professional practice and considers the place of ethical codes and other
2 What is your understanding of the concept of interprofessional ethics?
regulatory
3 What mechanisms.
are the key differences between deontology, utilitarianism and virtue ethics?

Test your 4 What are the differences between Western and Indigenous worldviews?
Questions
knowledge and
5 What are the seven core values that form the hub of ethical practice?
1 6What
What are
are thethe differences
key between
ideas of three of theethical
ancientissues, problems and philosophers
and contemporary dilemmas? who have influenced thinking on

consolidate 7moral
Whatand
do ethical foundations
you understand of human
by the service practice?
universalist–cultural relativist continuum?

your learning
2 8What
Whatis your
is an understanding of the concept
example of an ethical dilemmaofthat
interprofessional ethics?of informed consent?
might involve issues
3 9What
Whatare the
are key
the differences and
comparisons between deontology,
contrasts betweenutilitarianism
the process,and virtue and
reflective ethics?
cultural models of ethical decision

through the
making?
4 What are the differences between Western and Indigenous worldviews?
5 10 What
What are
are the
the essential
seven dimensions
core values of the
that form Inclusive
the Model of
hub of ethical ethical decision making, and what are the steps of
practice?

end-of-chapter this model?

6 What are the differences between ethical issues, problems and dilemmas?
7 What do you understand by the universalist–cultural relativist continuum?
questions. 8 What is an example of an ethical dilemma that might involve issues of informed consent?
9 What are the comparisons and contrasts between the process, reflective and cultural models of ethical decision
making?
10 What are the essential dimensions of the Inclusive Model of ethical decision making, and what are the steps of
80 this model?

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LoCatIng the LIghthouse: vaLues and ethICs In pRaCtICe / ChapteR 3

Start your online 80

Weblinks
reading and research Ethics and Social Welfare Journal The International Journal of Social Work Values

using the short list of https://www.tandfonline.com/loi/resw20

BK-CLA-MCAULIFFE_7E-230050-Chp03.indd 80
Ethics updates home page
and Ethics
https://jswve.org
23/06/23 2:51 PM

useful weblinks and http://ethicsupdates.net The Ethics Centre

https://ethics.org.au

references.
References
Banks, S. (2012). Ethics and values in social work (4th ed.). Palgrave. Hardina, D. (2004). Guidelines for ethical practice in community
organizations. Social Work, 49(4), 595–604. https://doi.org/10.1093/
Banks, S. (2021). Ethics and values in social work (5th ed.). Palgrave.
sw/49.4.595
Biestek, F. (1957). The casework relationship. Unwin University Books.
Healy, L., & Thomas, R. (2021). International social work: Professional
Billington, R. (2003). Living philosophy: An introduction to moral thought action in an interdependent world (3rd ed.). Oxford University Press.
(3rd ed.). Routledge.
Hill, M., Glaser, K., & Harden, J. (1995). A feminist model for ethical
Boddy, J., O’Leary, P., Tsui, M. S., Pak, M., & Wang, D. (2018). Inspiring decision-making. In E. J. Rave and C. C. Larsen (Eds.), Ethical decision-
hope through social work practice. International Social Work, 61(4). making in therapy: Feminist perspectives (pp. 18–137). Guilford Press.
https://doi.org/10.1177/0020872817706
Fejo-King, C. (2014). Social work with marginalised Indigenous
Bowles, W., Collingridge, M., Curry, S., & Valentine, B. (2006). Ethical communities, in L. How Kee, J. Martin & R. Ow (Eds.), Cross-cultural
practice in social work: An applied approach. Allen & Unwin. social work: Local and global (pp. 118–128). Palgrave Macmillan.

Braye, S., & Preston-Shoot, M. (1995). Empowering practice in social care. Hugman, R., Pawar, M., Anscombe, A. W., & Wheeler, A. (2020). Virtue
Open University Press. ethics in social work practice. Routledge.

Buila, S. (2010). The NASW code of ethics under attack: A manifestation Hugman, R., & Smith, D. (Eds.). (2001). Ethical issues in social work.
of the culture war within the profession of social work. Routledge.
Journal of Social Work Values and Ethics, 7(2). https://jswve.org/
International Federation of Social Workers. (2014). Definition of social
download/2010-2/f10coe-Code-of-Ethics-under-attack.pdf
work. http://ifsw.org/get-involved/global-definition-of-social-work
Charlesworth, M. (1993). Bioethics in a liberal society. Cambridge
Marinoff, L. (2003). The big questions: How philosophy can change your
University Press.
life. Bloomsbury.
Clark, C. (2000). Social work ethics: Politics, principles and practice. Macmillan.
Marson, S. M., & McKinney, R. E. (Eds.). (2019). The Routledge handbook
Congress, E. (1999). Social work values and ethics: Identifying and of social work ethics and values. Routledge.
resolving professional dilemmas. Nelson Hall.
Mattison, M. (2000). Ethical decision-making: The person in the process.
Connolly, M., & Ward, T. (2008). Morals, rights and practice in the human Social Work 45(3), 201–212. https://doi.org/10.1093/sw/45.3.201
services: Effective and fair decision-making in health, social care and
McAuliffe, D. (2000). Beyond the hypothetical: Practitioner experiences
criminal justice. Jessica Kingsley Publishers.
of ethical dilemmas in front-line social work (unpublished doctoral
Corey, G., Corey, M. S., & Corey, C. (2020). Issues and ethics in the helping dissertation). University of Queensland: St Lucia.
professions (10th ed.). Brooks/Cole Thomson Learning.
McAuliffe, D. (2005). I’m still standing: Impacts and consequences of
Dolgoff, R., Loewenberg, F. M., & Harrington, D. (2012). Ethical decisions ethical dilemmas for social workers in direct practice. Journal of
for social work practice (9th ed.). Thomson Brooks/Cole. Social Work Values and Ethics, 2(1). http://www.socialworker.com/
jswve/content/view/17/34/
Erickson, C. (2018). Environmental justice as social work practice. Oxford
University Press. McAuliffe, D. (2010). Ethical decision-making. In M. Gray & S. Webb
(Eds.), Ethics and value perspectives in social work. Palgrave Macmillan.
Freegard, H. (2006). Ethics in a nutshell. In H. Freegard (Ed.), Ethical
practice for health professionals (pp. 29–45). Thomson. McAuliffe, D. (2021). Interprofessional ethics: Collaboration in the social,
health and human services. Cambridge University Press.
Funston, L. (2013). Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander worldviews
and cultural safety transforming sexual assault service provision for McAuliffe, D., & Coleman, A. (1999). Damned if we do and damned if we
children and young people. International Journal of Environmental don’t: Ethical tensions in field research. Australian Social Work, 52(4),
Research and Public Health, 10(9), 3818–3833. https://doi.org/ 25–31. https://doi.org/10.1080/03124079908416193
10.3390/ijerph10093818
McAuliffe, D., & Sudbery, J. (2005). ‘Who do I tell?’: Support and
Garcia, J. G., Cartwright, B., Winston, S. M., & Borzuchowska, B. (2003). consultation in cases of ethical conflict. Journal of Social Work, 5(1),
A transcultural integrative model for ethical decision-making in 21–43. https://doi.org/10.1177/1468017305051362
counseling. Journal of Counseling and Development, 81(3), 268–77.
Pojman, L., & Vaughn, L. (2010). The moral life: An introductory reader in
https://doi.org/10.1002/j.1556-6678.2003.tb00253.x
ethics and literature (4th ed.). University Press.
Gray, M., & Fook, J. (2004). The quest for a universal social work: Some
Preston, N. (2014). Understanding ethics (4th ed.). The Federation Press.
issues and implications. Social Work Education, 23(5), 625–644.
https://doi.org/10.1080/0261547042000252334 Rawls, John (2001). Justice as fairness: A restatement. Belknap Press.

BK-CLA-MCAULIFFE_7E-230050-Chp03.indd 81 23/06/23 2:51 PM

Copyright 2024 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. WCN 02-300
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BK-CLA-MCAULIFFE_7E-230050-Chp00_Prelims.indd 15 02/08/23 5:11 PM

Guide to the online resources
FOR THE INSTRUCTOR

Cengage is pleased to provide you with a selection of resources

that will help you prepare your lectures and assessments. These
teaching tools are accessible via cengage.com.au/instructors
for Australia or cengage.co.nz/instructors for New Zealand.

MINDTAP
Premium online teaching and learning tools are available on the MindTap
platform - the personalised eLearning solution.
MindTap is a flexible and easy-to-use platform that helps build student confidence
and gives you a clear picture of their progress. We partner with you to ease the
transition to digital – we’re with you every step of the way.
MindTap for The Road to Social Work and Human Service Practice is full of
innovative resources to support critical thinking, and help your students move
from memorisation to mastery! Includes:
• Videos
• Key concept questions
• Case study questions
MindTap is a premium purchasable eLearning tool. Contact your Cengage learning
consultant to find out how MindTap can transform your course.

INSTRUCTOR’S MANUAL
The Instructor’s manual includes:
• Chapter aims
• Chapter overview
• Tutorial discussion starters and activities
• Ideas for further investigation
• and more!

WORD-BASED TEST BANK

This bank of questions has been developed in conjunction with the text for creating
quizzes, tests and exams for your students. Deliver these through your LMS and in
your classroom.

POWERPOINTTM PRESENTATIONS
Use the chapter-by-chapter PowerPoint slides to enhance your lecture presentations
and handouts by reinforcing the key principles of your subject.

BK-CLA-MCAULIFFE_7E-230050-Chp00_Prelims.indd 16 02/08/23 5:11 PM

GUIDE TO THE ONLINE RESOURCES

ADDITIONAL CASE STUDIES

Help students to apply critical thinking skills to real-life scenarios using the
additional case studies that span multiple chapters of the text to show how various
topics impact on practice.

ARTWORK FROM THE TEXT

Add the digital files of graphs, tables, pictures and flow charts into your course
management system, use them in student handouts, or copy them into your lecture
presentations.

FOR THE STUDENT

MINDTAP
MindTap is the next-level online learning tool that helps you get better grades!
MindTap gives you the resources you need to study – all in one place and available
when you need them. In the MindTap Reader, you can make notes, highlight text and
even find a definition directly from the page. If your instructor has chosen MindTap for
your subject this semester, log in to MindTap to:
• Get better grades
• Save time and get organised
• Connect with your instructor and peers
• Study when and where you want, online and mobile
• Complete assessment tasks as set by your instructor
When your instructor creates a course using MindTap, they will let you know your
course link so you can access the content. Please purchase MindTap only when
directed by your instructor. Course length is set by your instructor.

Copyright 2024 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. WCN 02-300
xvii

BK-CLA-MCAULIFFE_7E-230050-Chp00_Prelims.indd 17 02/08/23 5:11 PM

Preface
In preparing the sixth edition, a last minute addition to the preface included the early impact of the global
COVID pandemic in early 2020. Within a matter of weeks, the world was reeling from an unknown threat
that resulted in the loss of millions of lives, a massive effort in health response, galvanised research
endeavours to find a vaccine and treatments. Along with other professions, social work and the human
services rose to the challenges that emerged on a daily basis. Whole communities were locked down, jobs
were lost, people mourned loved ones and the world faced an uncertain future. Through this however, we
learned much about social isolation and the importance of human connection, the long term impacts of the
disease and the ensuing lockdowns. Practitioners played their part in developing practical interventions, as
well as developing new knowledge on many levels: supporting and organising communities to pull together,
learning more about the persistence of inequalities in response to different communities and groups, and
devising innovative ways to provide supports online.
Three years on finds us “living with the virus”, although the threat of resurgence and further pandemics
remain and new challenges arise.
So as we embark on this seventh edition of the text, we find once again, a need to reflect on the landscape
in which social work and human services practitioners engage with the challenges and opportunities of
our world. Looking back at previous introductions to this text we find many of those challenges still with
us some 18 years after the first edition in 2005. Others have emerged, hitherto unknown in our earlier
deliberations. Increasingly, these are on a global scale yet exerting regional and local influence. In 2023
we are living in a world facing serious and significant threats: issues that are crucial to understand and
imperative to address. Perhaps one of the most confronting is the alarming decline of the environment and
the escalation of what is now in reality a climate crisis. For many millions on this fragile planet, this is now
beyond a tipping point. Heightened vulnerability to rising temperatures, more extreme weather events and
disasters, rising sea levels, loss of essential, agricultural land have all led to deeper economic inequalities.
Despite efforts to reach solutions to reduce carbon emissions, stem the tide of species extinction and
taking proactive action to eradicate fossil fuels, the state of our society and environment is more perilous
than even five years ago. Increasingly, we have come to understand that these crises are intertwined: crises
of social and environmental degradation, pandemics, persistent inequality, and a human diaspora on an
unprecedented scale as people flee from increased global conflicts.Added to this, we seem to be unable to
reach consensus internationally at a geopolitical level to bring nations together, to set effective targets,
strategies, and cooperative initiatives to address these challenges. For social workers and human service
practitioners, the interconnection of economic, social, ecological and consequent psychosocial challenges
is familiar territory. At local level, practitioners find the impact on poverty, inequality, social exclusion are
writ large in our everyday work, being lived out in families, neighbourhoods and local communities. So how
do we respond? Clearly, we call for a more transformative action approach to deal with these new ecological
and social challenges. We have several strengths on which to draw. First, our profession has a long history
as a values-based project: drawing on universal human rights, the importance of the dignity and respect
for every person on the planet and working together to achieve these outcomes for current and future
generations. Second, we have significant experience and capacity to engage across micro miso and macro
levels of practice and policy: frameworks that are crucial to achieving such transformative change. Finally,
social workers and human service practitioners come from a long and proud tradition of advocacy. Advocacy
has been a core skill from the earliest practice efforts to address social injustice. Whether at individual or
system levels, we have a responsibility, ethically and professionally, to ensure people are not discriminated
against or disadvantaged. While often difficult, advocacy is still a crucial tool in bringing about change.
So while the challenges are grave and seemingly insurmountable, there are examples of hopeful efforts
bringing people together. The proposal to hold a referendum on constitutional change to enshrine a Voice
for First Nations Australians is one such example where a groundswell movement has led to the potential
for major change to the social contract between citizens and the government. Young people in both
Australia and Aotearoa increasingly seek a fairer and just world, participating in social and environmental
movements. It is these efforts that can give us cause for optimism.

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PREFACE

This seventh edition marks my last as joint author of this remarkable text. It has been a privilege and
pleasure to be involved in this journey. Over the past 18 years we have been humbled by the responses
and feedback from students who have used the text as a guide to their own practice journey. Much of this
has been informative in guiding each edition, ensuring that the text stays grounded and relevant for their
learning and advancing the discipline. I extend my deep respect and thanks to my colleague and friend,
Donna McAuliffe, who has shared this journey since the start. From what seemed a crazy idea in 2002, we
embarked on the task which then kept on going. Donna brings a deep knowledge and experience to the
project, wisely, keeping us grounded at the coalface while insuring we canvas, the broader landscape. And
of course, always keeping the ethical mindset front and centre. We welcome Jennifer Boddy to the writing
team. Jennifer also brings years of knowledge and experience, especially in the area of environmental social
work so crucial to today’s practice.
I commend this seventh addition. I hope it will serve students and the profession well. I wish you all the
very best for your social work, human service journey and hope this humble text continues to support you
and guide you in bringing positive change for the planet and its people.

Be hopeful and go well.

Lesley Chenoweth
April 2023

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About the authors
Donna McAuliffe is Professor of Social Work and Academic Lead for the discipline in the School of Health
Sciences and Social Work, Griffith University, Queensland. Her social work practice experience has been
in the fields of mental health, legal social work and community development, with her PhD completed in
the field of professional ethics. She now specialises in professional ethics education and research using an
interprofessional framework, and provides ethics consultation, training and supervision to social work,
human services practitioners and managers. She is a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy and a
Life Member of the Australian Association of Social Workers.

Jennifer Boddy is an internationally recognised researcher with expertise in climate violence. Most
recently she has focused on the intersections between domestic violence and climate change, and examined
alternative approaches to working with male perpetrators of violence that are situated within the natural
environment. Her work is grounded in a commitment to social and environmental justice, and through her
research, she seeks to create safe and sustainable environments free from violence.
In her role as Dean (Sustainable Development Goals Performance), Jennifer is responsible for driving staff
and student engagement with and performance against the Goals, seeking to ensure that Griffith University
fulfils its vision to transform lives and create a future that benefits all.
Since completing her PhD, Jennifer has developed a strong scholarly background and publication track
record in environmental social work. She has published over 80 peer-reviewed publications, books chapters,
news items, and reports. She also has strong national and international industry connections in social work,
particularly in Australia and Hong Kong, serving on numerous professional bodies.

Lesley Chenoweth AO is Emeritus Professor of Social Work at Griffith University. Lesley worked for more
than 25 years as an academic after a long career in human service in the disability and health sectors. Now
retired, she continues to engage with research and writing in social work practice, disability and new models
and approaches to disadvantage and social exclusion. Lesley has taught numerous courses in social work
theory and practice and disability studies over many years. She is a consultant to many government and
community organisations and now serves on several boards of community organisations.

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Acknowledgements
The authors and Cengage would like to thank Lesley Chenoweth for her contribution to previous editions
of this text.
The seventh edition of this text follows a period of great global upheaval resulting from a pandemic that
created a public health crisis with lasting outcomes. The extent of the post Covid-19 fallout in social and
economic terms is still to be recognised, but there is no doubt that the impacts on the social, health and
human services have been broad-ranging. Environmental and climate change challenges continue to impact
increasing parts of the planet. More than ever before, social workers and human services practitioners have
been called to the front lines to work with people experiencing need, crisis, and disruption. As seen through
history, the values, knowledge and skills that lie at the heart of our profession have held us steady. This
edition draws in a group of new practitioner contributors to share their insights into practice in challenging
contexts. We are grateful for their contributions. The School of Health Sciences and Social Work at Griffith
University, Queensland, has provided support to the two lead authors, and as always, the families, friends
and colleagues of all three authors have provided a solid support network so that the work of the seventh
edition could reach completion. It is hoped that this edition will take the journey even further, and point
students and practitioners into the future with confidence.
The authors and Cengage would like to thank the following for their contribution to selected resources
for the new edition.
Sophie Diamandi – Flinders University of South Australia
Patricia Muncey – University of South Australia
Laura Michelle Dodds – Edgeways Consultancy
The authors and Cengage would like to thank the following for their assistance with reviewing chapters
and provision of feedback.
Rojan Afrouz – Deakin University
Prue Atkins – La Trobe University
Eva Bowers – TAFE NSW
Hilary Gallagher – Griffith University
Ralph Hampson – University of Melbourne
Haidee Hicks – Australian College of Applied Professions
Chris Horsell – University of South Australia
Michele Jarldorn – University of South Australia
Albert Kuruvila – The University of Waikato
Deborah Lynch – University of Queensland
Hannah Mooney – Massey University
Sharlene Nipperess – RMIT University
Vanessa Oatley – University of Otago
Fredrik Velander – Charles Sturt University
Kate Vincent – University of Tasmania

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1
CHAPTER

Starting the journey:

an introduction to
social work and human
service practice

Chapter 1
Starting the journey It starts
you on the
This chapter introduces you journey
to working in social work
and the human services.

How can I make

Why have I the most of the When will I reach
chosen this path? educational my destination?
experience?

The purpose of
social work and
human service Working
Doing
practice Education with groups
research and
and training and
evaluation
communities

The various domains

It explores of practice

Working
Leadership with
What do I already Social policy
and individuals,
know? work
management families and
What are my values partnerships
and beliefs that
might impact on my
learning journey?

Now we are ready to go forward on the learning journey ...

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THE ROAD TO SOCIAL WORK AND HUMAN SERVICE PRACTICE

Aims

• Understand how to make the most of the educational experience

• Consider motivations for choosing the path of social work and human services
• Clarify the purpose of social work and human services practice
• Discuss the eight domains of social work and human services practice
• Explore pre-existing knowledge, skills, values and beliefs about the world

Introduction
All stories have to start somewhere. Your story as a student or practitioner of social work or human
services may have started quite recently or a long time ago. Either way, at some point, you made a
decision to take this particular fork in life’s road. In this chapter, we ask you to think about your life
story and clearly identify what led you to follow the career path of working with people in a helping
capacity. If you are at the start of your journey, you are encouraged to think of yourself as an ‘emerging
practitioner’ and consider how you can make the most of your educational experience to become a
competent, reflective and ethical practitioner. This chapter explores the purpose of social work and
human services and discusses the various domains of practice. This means exploring the many diverse
ways and places that you can choose to work in the future. You are also challenged to think about
what pre-existing knowledge, skills, values and beliefs you bring on your journey to social work and
human service practice.
When you have finished this first chapter, you will explore the history of social welfare in Chapter 2, so
that you can gain an understanding of where you are located in time, what has come before, and
what may lie ahead. You will then look at the ethical foundations of practice in Chapters 3 and 4,
including how social work and human services are positioned within the broader industry, what we
mean by professionalism, and how we work with others from different disciplines. This is known
as interprofessional practice. In Chapters 5 and 6, you will learn about the knowledge and
theory base of practice and explore the diversity of fields and methods that make this work so broad
ranging. The organisational context of practice will then be presented in Chapter 7, so that you can
think about the types of workplaces that might employ you as a practitioner, how these are funded
and structured, and who you might be working with. The phases of the helping process set out in
Chapter 8 will give you a map of how to think about engaging with people, making assessments
of needs and planning interventions, moving to closure, and reviewing what was done. Finally, in
Chapters 9 and 10, you will consider the complex issues of working with diversity, understand what
we mean by the term intersectionality, and the importance of developing a practice framework that
will hone your skills in critical reflection. By the time you finish this book, you should have a good
understanding of what lies ahead for your future practice, and will be motivated to continue to engage
in what is known as ‘life-long learning’ through ongoing supervision and continuing professional
development (CPD).
People choose to work in human services at different points in their lives, and for different reasons.
Some choose this path as soon as they leave secondary education, certain that this is the career they
want to pursue, so they begin the journey at an early stage. Others have had previous jobs or careers
and decide to change to human service work much later in their working lives. Inevitably, whatever
your pathway, you will have been influenced by life events, relationships with others, social changes,
economic and political imperatives, and exposure to experiences that have shaped your values,
attitudes and beliefs. You do not begin with a clean slate – you bring a multitude of experiences that
are starting points for your new journey.
This chapter helps you determine these starting points so that you can make the most of the lessons
you have already learnt, the knowledge you have already acquired and the skills you have already
developed. Exploring these starting points gives you a solid foundation and orients you more strongly
as you move forward.

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STARTING THE JOURNEY: AN INTRODUCTION TO SOCIAL WORK AND HUMAN SERVICE PRACTICE / CHAPTER 1

Making the most of the educational experience

Starting out on a new career path can be exciting, challenging, thought-provoking and at times
daunting. A new world opens up as you begin to engage with literature, theory, knowledge and
approaches to practice. Your time as a student is critical in helping you develop your sense of identity
as an emerging practitioner. This is a time in which you are encouraged to ask questions, read about
social work and human service practice through history, understand and critique the theoretical
ideas of others, and explore your areas of interest. The educational experience guides your emerging
understanding of what social workers and human service workers do and orients you to the many and
varied ways and places in which practitioners operate. For you to make the most of the educational
experience, consider the following suggestions:
• Maintain an open mind about the concepts you are introduced to and the literature you read so that your
focus is not prematurely narrowed and you gain an appreciation of the breadth and depth of the
field of study. Entering education with a narrow mindset – for example, ‘I am only interested in
working with young people who take drugs so this is all I will read about’ or ‘I am only interested
in learning how to practise as a family therapist’ – can blind you to the many opportunities
available. If you have prior experience (e.g. in counselling or in policy work), it is important that
you remain open to new knowledge and focus on developing an awareness of professional issues
for the discipline that you are moving towards.
• Develop an inquiring mind. Ask questions about the literature and research you are introduced to.
Do not accept everything you read as being undisputed. Social work and human service practice
is contested terrain and the ability to use critical thinking is a skill that you should develop as
much as possible.
• Prepare yourself to be challenged about your views of the world and your morals and values. This
work is full of moral and ethical issues and you will encounter many ethical dilemmas across
different fields of practice. You will learn to articulate your position on many important areas of
social interest as you become more immersed in the learning experience and more exposed to the
viewpoints of others. You may find this confronting at times, but it is all part of learning about
yourself so that you can do your best work with others.
• Be prepared to challenge others and learn to do so in a constructive way, mindful that you should
respect the different cultural and lived experiences of others. Listening to alternative experiences
and perspectives helps you to become more aware of cultural sensitivities and to clarify your
views and opinions. You do not have to agree with others, but it is important to be able to listen
respectfully and respond in a non-discriminating and non-judgemental way.
• Acknowledge that work in social and human services demands rigorous attention to appropriate
standards of practice and ethical conduct. Through the educational process, be prepared to debate
the difference between appropriate and inappropriate behaviour so that you are clear about
conduct and decisions that could potentially cause harm to the people you will work with.
• Become attuned to the world around you as you learn more about human behaviour, the dynamics of
relationships, the constructions of power and the sources of structural oppression. Be mindful
of what is happening in current affairs, the political arena and your local and global community.
Learn to observe others more closely and challenge your assumptions more critically. Advances in
technology allow us to connect online using platforms like Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Use online
connections to expand your knowledge and find out about new developments in your areas of interest.
• Acknowledge that initially you may not feel comfortable with some areas of practice – for example,
mental health, aged care, child protection – or you may not want to work with some people, such
as perpetrators of violence or people who have a terminal illness. Be aware that responses may be
related to your own personal experiences and either connection to or lack of exposure to people
who have experienced particular life circumstances. Be prepared to reflect on your responses
to personally confronting situations so that you can make informed choices about the different
areas of practice. Accept that assumptions and value judgements can influence your perceptions
and minimise opportunities for learning. Being open to new experiences can be exciting and
open your horizons.

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THE ROAD TO SOCIAL WORK AND HUMAN SERVICE PRACTICE

Many of the issues touched on here are given more attention later in the book. As a beginning
practitioner, you are encouraged to continue reading with these suggestions in mind.

Developing support strategies

As you make your way along the road to social work and human service practice, you will come to know
others who have walked or are walking the same path. Particularly in the early stages of practice, it
is useful to have others you can talk to, bounce ideas off and turn to for support if the road becomes
rough or if you fear you are losing direction. As a student, it is important that you develop a support
network to sustain you through the years of study, and you may find that many of the people you
connect with at this early stage will become valued colleagues and friends for life. If you are already
a social worker or human service practitioner, then you may also find it useful to consider your social
support network in the organisational context in which you work. Some suggestions for drawing up
your support network follow.

Social work and human service networks

The first step in developing a support network is to use the field of social work and human service.
Often, your peers and other professionals have ‘been there’ and will understand your perspective on
the challenges you may face on your path.

Other students (peer support)

Other students are on the same journey as you at the same time. They may have the same questions,
fears and insecurities about the unknown terrain ahead, and can share the excitement of new learning.
Make an effort to connect with students who are different from you – perhaps from another culture
or a different age group. This will enhance your learning experience. If you do not have direct contact
with other students or are studying online, then you may be able to connect with others using the
internet, email and social networking websites. Advances in technology have made staying connected
much easier. Your fellow students will be your colleagues of the future, so it is important to foster good
working relationships.

Educators
Educators in social work and human services (your lecturers and tutors) have travelled the road before
and know the landscape well. They are charged with ensuring that you receive a sound educational
experience and graduate with the required knowledge and skills for practice. They also have a
responsibility to ensure that when you start working in the field, you are competent and have developed
the required skills and readiness for beginning practice. Educators have a role in assisting you to find
the answers to your questions and should be seen as a valuable resource, particularly as they generally
remain closely connected to practice, are engaged in ongoing research or are practitioners themselves.

Academics and researchers

Academics and researchers are the people whose books you are reading, articles you are critiquing,
theories you are studying, and guidance you are following or discarding. Although you may not
get to know these people personally, you will certainly come to know them through their work.
Some will be important sources of inspiration for the future. People who have published in social
work and human services do so because they have explored particular areas of interest and want to
share these with others through research and writing. You need to be aware that many contradictory
positions are evident in literature, but this is the value of scholarship. It is also important for
academics and researchers to stay connected to practice so that their work remains reflective of real
work experiences.

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STARTING THE JOURNEY: AN INTRODUCTION TO SOCIAL WORK AND HUMAN SERVICE PRACTICE / CHAPTER 1

Practitioners
Practitioners have also travelled on a similar learning path. They will be your field supervisors and
educators and will become your colleagues in the future. They can be important role models and we
encourage you to meet as many practitioners as possible. Ask them about their work, their motivations
and their challenges. Find out how they navigate different organisations, and how they take care of
themselves. The more practitioners you meet, the better sense you will be able to make of the range
of methods and ways of working that are used in contemporary human services. You also will get
a better sense of the diversity of practice, and come to understand how practitioners use theory to
inform their practice.

People who use services

Clients and users of social services, including those in carer roles, will teach you the most about the
work you will do in the future. It is only through listening to the stories of those who have experienced
loss, trauma, disability, alienation, discrimination or isolation that you can ever hope to respect the
uniqueness of an individual’s experiences. These people will also share their experiences of hope,
optimism, resilience, survival and growth, giving you an understanding of the importance of people
realising their potential and the power of change processes. Not only are service users to be found in
hospital wards or in homeless shelters, they are also within reaching distance of all of us, in our social
circles, our families and our workplaces. Valuing what we know as ‘lived experience’ is a critical part
of understanding the unique perspectives of others.

External networks
Those outside your field can be a source of useful perspectives. Workers with different expertise may
still provide valuable insights, and friends and family can give you much-needed support while sharing
differing views.

Workers from other disciplines

These workers have not chosen the same path as you (or they may have in the past but have now taken
a different direction), yet they can offer valuable insights from their perspectives about how social
workers and human service workers operate. Try asking a lawyer, a police officer or a psychologist
what they think a social worker does and listen to the responses. Ask a nurse what they know of the
work carried out by a disability support worker. These workers have their own areas of knowledge and
expertise and they may be important sources of information or referral in the future. Through your
study, you will come to understand the importance of interprofessional practice, and learn ways to
collaborate with people from a range of different disciplines.

Personal support networks

Your families, partners, children and friends will all have their own views about your decision to
study social work and human services. Some may have had experiences as clients, carers or service
users. Some will have no idea about what the work entails and may express fear about the nature
of the work, which is often fuelled by reports in the media that can reinforce negative stereotypes.
These people will be valuable supports as you begin and continue your journey. Some will elect to
walk closely beside you and will be interested and encouraging, while others may express concern
or fear. Observe how others respond to your journey and accept that, as you change and become
more self-reflective and responsive to social issues, some of your close relationships may change.
Figure 1.1 shows this support strategy.

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THE ROAD TO SOCIAL WORK AND HUMAN SERVICE PRACTICE

Figure 1.1 Developing a support strategy

Personal
support
networks

Other
People who use
students
services
(peer support)

SELF
Workers from
Educators
other disciplines

Academics and
Practitioners
researchers

Choosing the road to social work and

human services
A complex array of factors inf luences people’s choices, decisions and actions and inspires them
to follow a certain path. The very factors that motivate one person to pursue a particular life
course may push another in a totally different direction. Vroom (1964) made the point that
‘clearly, a person’s choice among occupations is limited to those about which he [sic] knows
something … if a person has no concept of what an ichthyologist or an epidemiologist is or does,
it can have no effect on his [sic] vocational decisions’ (p. 76). This is why so much effort is made
to provide information to prospective tertiary students about career options at an early stage in
their formal education.
Choice of career path is often inf luenced by parental and family expectations, educational
opportunities, peer influence and practical considerations, such as finances or location. While parents
or carers often have strong ideas about what careers their children should follow, people generally
have a relatively high degree of autonomy in vocational choices. In more traditional societies and
cultures, however, parental expectations, job security and the demands of the government for
training in particular areas are more likely to be influential. In many countries, social work and
human service professions are still developing as social needs emerge, and a trained professional
workforce is required to respond to these needs. Having an international perspective on career choices
can open up many possibilities for students who live or want to work in these countries (Healy &
Thomas, 2021).
Deciding to work with people in the social, health or human services is a very different career
decision from deciding to pursue engineering, veterinary science or architecture. What motivates

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STARTING THE JOURNEY: AN INTRODUCTION TO SOCIAL WORK AND HUMAN SERVICE PRACTICE / CHAPTER 1

people to follow this path? Sheafor and Horejsi (2014, p. 15) describe social work as a ‘life companion’
and encourage individuals intent on pursuing such a career to consider the following questions:

• Is being a social worker a meaningful and worthwhile way for me to live my life?
• Will the practice of social work be an appropriate use of my special gifts, abilities and skills?
• Do my personal beliefs, values, ethical standards and life goals fit well with my social work goals?
• What impact will my career in social work have on my family?
• What impact will this career have on my physical and mental health and the overall quality of my life?

In talking with students and workers about their reasons for pursuing a career in human services,
certain motivations come to light, and these are discussed in the next section.

Activity 1.1

Draw a diagram of your social support network. Include as many people as you can and be
specific about what they offer you, and what you might ask of them. Identify the gaps in your
network and plan how you can draw more supports into your circle. Identify ways that you can
use technology and social media to increase your social networks online.

Practitioner perspective

My journey of becoming a social worker has been an incredible one. There have been many
times in which I have rationalised ‘dropping out’, asking myself if this was really what I wanted
to do. Although I would ask myself this, I would always come back to the reason which led me
to this journey in the first place, a thought I had in my early years of high school: ‘if I have the
capacity to help people, I should do it’. While these four years of university are used to teach the
skills and theories needed to practise as a social worker, I have found that some of the greatest
lessons I have learnt have been about myself. My greatest experiences of this degree have
been on placement where I have had experienced practitioners mentoring me, teaching me the
‘hands on’ lessons that are not taught in textbooks. To these practitioners, I am so grateful.
It has been a wonderful journey, and although it has come to an end, I can see that it is just
the beginning!
Amy Larsen

Motivations for working in social work and

human services
Understanding what motivates yourself and others to want to work in this field can help you clarify
your goals in studying social work and human services.

Employability and career opportunities

Many people consider a career path that provides job security when choosing higher education. In an
economic climate in which unemployment, high costs of living, consumer debt and the accrued costs of
education are realities for many, a critical issue is whether a course of study leads directly to a stable job.
The social work and human service industry provides a diverse range of employment opportunities both in
government and in the community sector. Permanent, part-time, casual and job-share positions in social
work and human services can suit many individuals and families, depending on what responsibilities
need to be accommodated. The field of health is one of the biggest employers of social workers in the
country and the hands-on nature of the work makes it immune to the threat of being taken over by

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THE ROAD TO SOCIAL WORK AND HUMAN SERVICE PRACTICE

technology. The diversity of fields of practice and the transferability of skills to other countries make
social and human services work an attractive career choice. Additional incentives include the ability for
accredited mental health private-practice social workers to register as providers with Medicare or with
the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS). This brings more flexibility to the self-employed or
private practitioner, and professional autonomy is a strong motivator for many.

Activity 1.2

What do you know about job prospects for social, community and human service workers in
your area?
1 Research job vacancies using http:// seek.com.au to see what is available in your area under
Community Services and Development or Healthcare and Medical. Be aware that potential
jobs will have a range of titles (e.g. case manager, community development officer, early
intervention worker, rehabilitation consultant, domestic violence counsellor, mental health
counsellor, family support and advocacy worker, and support facilitator).
2 Pay attention to the jobs that appear interesting and attractive to you. What stands out?
What can you see about rates of pay, incentives, work conditions and required experience?

People may also be attracted to human services because of their interest and previous experience
in particular areas of work, or because of their intention to work in a particular area or country, as
illustrated in the following example.

Practitioner perspective

Sanesie graduated with a degree in human services. Fairly ordinary, you might think; but his road
to study has not been a smooth one. Here is his story.
‘I was born in Liberia at a time when the country was torn apart by conflict. When I was four
years old, our town got attacked and we had to leave. We didn’t take anything. We walked for a
week and a half before getting to the Ivory Coast. I spent 14 years in and out of refugee camps in
neighbouring Guinea before leaving my family to come to Australia in 2005. I was very young and
very lonely. I worked 12-hour shifts in a meat factory, then as an airport security screener before
I got to go to university. Uni was really hard – I thought I would never pass and I had to work three
jobs to support myself and my family back in Africa. But I did pass and even won an academic
award! My experiences have really shaped the kind of work I want to do. While studying I felt I
had a crucial role to play helping fellow refugee students and encouraging others to apply to
study. Having been through the challenges – the loneliness, struggling with assessment, working
long hours to send money back home – I feel I can really empathise with them. It is important to
focus on people’s strengths. Getting through this degree successfully means anything is possible,
as long as you keep fighting, keep your focus. One day I would like to go back to Liberia and work
there but for now there is much to do here working with refugees right here at home.’
Sanesie Dukuly

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conviction that good deeds can contribute to a better world. In more recent times, role models like
Malala Yousafzai, Grace Tame, Dylan Alcott, Anita Heiss and Turia Pitt show how strong advocacy
for important social causes can create lasting social change.

Activity 1.3

1 Who are the people in your life that you admire and look up to?
2 What are the qualities they demonstrate that make them worthy of your respect?
3 Are any of these people involved in professions that work with people?
4 Have any of these people influenced your decisions in this direction?

Practitioner perspective

From a young age it was evident to me that my family demonstrated the embodiment of serving
others. This modelling indelibly showed me that helping others was going to be a way of life,
both personally and professionally. My grandparents were a huge part of my childhood. I once
asked my Nana why she always said hello to people. She told the pre-school aged Rose that
you must always acknowledge others, you might be the only person they speak to in a day.
Being raised around adults I was a deep thinker, I soaked this in and took it with me on my
journey – that we might be the only person another human speaks to in a day. Imagine that!
My grandfather displayed courageous actions behind these caring convictions of what seemed
to be our family culture. A newspaper run driver, he returned home with singed hair and burn
holes in his uniform. Quietly and nonchalant, he advised my Nana he saw a building on fire
and ran in to ensure all occupants were out safely. Upon further extraction, Nana uncovered
further stories of Pa’s kindness towards others. Sitting and having a cup of tea with a homeless
man each week, who lived under a bridge, offering an old motorcycle to a young man who lived
next door as a project of purpose, as Pa stumbled across him one day with a shotgun held
to his head. Pa served others with respect and empathy, and for the true purpose of helping
another human. Not for the accolades, or praise, but genuine care for others, helping others feel
more empowered, respected and included in their communities. Whilst my grandparents never
undertook formal ‘social work’ studies, they certainly dedicated their lives unknowingly to the
values of social work. My grandparents had a large influence on my life, and I felt that following
their example was the path for me into social work. I am perhaps a feisty version of my Pa, who
champions justice for others and a willingness to fight for the disadvantaged.
Rose Creswell, acute care team, Metro North Mental Health, Metro North Health

Popular media
Just as real-life people influence us, so too do fictional characters portrayed in movies, television
dramas and sitcoms. Social workers have taken their place – albeit a comparative back seat – with the
medicos, lawyers, police, detectives and forensic investigators who dominate television drama series.
Social workers are often portrayed in stereotypical ways in the media, from the interfering, bleeding-
heart do-gooder to the strong-willed advocate for social justice who is prepared to take on any system
in the interest of the greater good. The media is a powerful vehicle for shaping social attitudes and
sending important messages to the public. In addition to the fictional characters mentioned, social
and human service workers are presented to the public in documentaries, current-affairs programs
and news broadcasts. It is quite common for workers with professional counselling or social advocacy
backgrounds to be interviewed in the media about contemporary social issues ranging from the fate
of refugees and asylum seekers to parenting practices; grief, loss and trauma; the impacts of natural
disasters; or treatment programs for people with addictions to drugs, alcohol or gambling.

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Activity 1.4

1 Can you identify movies or TV series that have characters who are social workers,
counsellors, therapists, child protection workers, community workers or youth workers?
Describe how these characters are portrayed and what roles they play.
2 What impressions do you think are generated by the depiction of these characters, and how
might this affect how people doing these jobs are viewed by the public?
3 If you developed a character of a counsellor for a television drama based in a rural
community, how would you portray this worker? What would they be like as a person and as
a professional working in a small town?
4 What if the character is a social worker in a large hospital or a youth worker in a youth
detention centre? Examine your stereotypes of social and human service workers by creating
a character arc (i.e. how the character progresses over time) and a backstory (i.e. what has
happened to them in the past).

Personal experience
A powerful motive for pursuing social or human services work is personal experience. A common
theme is that people come to this work either because they have experienced ‘being helped’ at a
difficult time in their lives, or because they have experienced its opposite; that is, ‘not being helped’
when they needed support. People who found being helped a positive and enriching experience often
want to pass on this experience to others. They feel a connection with the experience of having been
helped and understand the dynamics of the change process. They may have engaged in counselling or
therapy in a crisis or for longer-term assistance, and may return to this at times of vulnerability. They
understand the value of seeking help, and they trust the therapeutic relationship. On the other side of
this equation, people who were not helped may feel a deep sense of injustice and a drive to ensure that
their experience is not repeated for others. They may harbour hostility about particular interventions
that they did not perceive as useful and may hold strong views about particular therapists in a personal
sense or therapeutic approaches more generally. People who have had adverse childhood experiences,
often described as ‘wounded healers’, may develop a level of resilience that can prove helpful in working
with others. Surviving difficult experiences in formative years can result in determination to move
forward, independence, drive, passion and confidence (Newcomb et al., 2019).
A warning should be sounded here. Such powerful motives can work for good or ill, as people
entering human services may bring an experience base that can potentially blind them to the quite
different experiences of others. For example, a woman who spends years in a situation of domestic
violence is finally assisted by a social worker to leave her abusive partner. The woman builds a new
life for herself and her children and goes on to study a human services degree. The risk is that this new
worker’s experience may blind her to the fact that not all women want to or have the ability or resources
to leave situations of violence and they may choose to stay with an abusive partner. Alternatively, the
domestic violence support worker could use her experience to understand the fear of leaving and to
work at the pace of her clients, allowing them to decide to leave when they have the capacity to make
the monumental life changes that this entails.
A social worker who was not helped in the past may have a strong need to develop services to fill
gaps, advocate for minority groups and challenge structural factors that contribute to isolation and
despair. Take the example of a social worker who for years parented a child with a mental illness,
receiving little support and assistance through many dark days. This social worker may have a deep
understanding of what parents of children with a mental illness need and may set about educating
others and developing services and support groups to meet these needs. This same social worker could,
however, experience such anger at the mental health system with all its faults, or individuals within
that system, that they are unable to work constructively with it and are hostile and antagonistic to
‘the system’ and those perceived to be a part of it.

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Client perspective

I remember so clearly the day that I found out that the social worker I had been seeing for
counselling had also had a period of significant loss in her life. She had lost a young child in
a tragic drowning accident some years back. It was interesting that this social worker never
used her own experience to make me feel as though I had experienced a lesser loss, and she
never imposed her own experiences or beliefs about how I should be coping. From the way she
connected with my pain, without even saying anything about herself, I knew instinctively that this
woman understood about the darkness of bereavement. I am so grateful now that she was able
to hold my pain, and her own, in such a professional way.
Emily, aged 28

As well as those who have had difficult life experiences, there are people who pursue social work
and human services because they have had what they describe as ‘a privileged life’ and feel grateful
that they have not experienced adverse events. These people may want to ‘give something back’, often
with a genuine altruistic desire to assist others who have had less fortunate experiences. People in this
situation may feel that they lack something in terms of lived experience of poverty, homelessness,
exposure to violence, addictions or disability, and wonder how they could ever be viewed as authentic
by those with whom they will be working. But it is the genuine desire to understand the experiences
of others, to walk alongside them on their path, and an ability to listen and hold steady in the space
of the other that will transcend these concerns.

Activity 1.5

Think about a significant personal experience you have had. Consider how this experience
might influence you as a worker if you were to encounter another person, family or group who
were experiencing something similar.
1 How might your personal experience help or hinder your practice?
2 How do you think you would manage your own feelings about what happened to you when
listening to someone else talk about a similar experience?

Some people pursue a career in human services as a way of self-healing, using the educational
process as a kind of therapy in itself. Many would-be social workers or human service practitioners
bring their myriad life experiences – such as living with depression, suffering a traumatic loss,
being addicted to gambling, living with confusion and guilt about same-sex attraction – into the
classroom in the hope that it will give them a space to work through their personal troubles by
channelling their energies into helping others. While this is a noble hope, studying social work
and human services itself often triggers many self-doubts, insecurities and human frailties that
can inhibit the healing process. Social work and human service education is not therapy and should
not be treated as such. People who bring personal experiences into the educational arena have a
responsibility to recognise that training for a professional career and personal therapy are different
processes. This is not to say that education will not give students insights and knowledge that are
significant and beneficial to healing; however, this should not be the primary purpose of studying
courses about therapeutic interventions, mental health, disability, addictions or family violence.
We encourage students to talk to student support advisers about any support needs they might have.
This will help build an open and collaborative environment, so that personal issues do not impede
the educational process but can be integrated in a positive way, drawing on acknowledgement of
resilience and survival.

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Lived experience is to be valued, and a common question is whether someone who has a mental
illness, a criminal history, past experiences of adverse childhood events, or has had problems with
drugs or alcohol, should pursue study in this field. The answer to this depends on the extent of self-
awareness and the capacity and ability to engage in honest self-reflection, to know one’s limits and
to take responsibility for one’s own behaviours and their potential impact on others. It is important
for educational institutions to keep the doors open for people with lived experience to engage in study
in a supported way (McAuliffe et al., 2012). It is further argued that when educational institutions
use criminal history and working with children checks to screen out and deny access to study, many
prospective students with valuable lived experience may be stopped from entering the professions.
It is of note that working with children checks can also include offences other than those related
to children, and ‘currently, more than two thirds of Australian universities require all social work
students to have a working with children check to enrol to study social work’ (Young et al., 2019,
p. 186). Protection of clients is of paramount importance, and this must be weighed up against the
benefits of having lived experience practitioners as part of the workforce. Serious consideration should
be given to these issues, and the need for diversity in the workforce acknowledged and supported by
both educational institutions and employers.

Practitioner perspective

Frequently the answer to ‘How do we effectively understand and work with people experiencing
mental illness and distress?’ relies on the viewpoints of mental health professionals. Certainly,
mental health professionals may be highly valuable, but it is far from the entire story. There is
another kind of knowledge: the expertise of lived experience. The potential of lived experience
to transform lives and revolutionise services is not limited to the area of mental health. From
breastfeeding to diabetes, lived experience offers deeper understanding, hope, empathy and an
appreciation of our shared humanity. In your studies and in your ambitious plans for the future,
valuing the role of lived experience is essential to sharing the journey of recovery with those who
have experienced mental health challenges and all who aspire to be our allies.
Helena Roennfeldt

Religion or spirituality
The search for a sense of meaning and understanding of what life is about is a common one for most
people at some stage. People who are involved with organised religions or who develop an awareness
of their own spirituality often want to share their understanding with others by entering the helping
professions. Again, this has benefits and pitfalls. Having a strongly developed value base and a moral
compass attuned to the suffering of others can engender a deep caring that is selfless and altruistic.
People who have spiritual strength and the awareness that others must find their own life’s path in
their own time can be a source of comfort for those floundering in doubt and uncertainty. The risks,
however, are posed by those who believe that imposing religious values upon others is part and parcel
of living a religious life. People who seek to convert others to a particular religion or who impress
beliefs and moral judgement on others are not acting from a position of respect and can do a great deal
of harm. It is critical that practitioners whose lives are governed by religious or spiritual convictions
keep these convictions from overshadowing the decisions of others. If they are unable to do so, their
motivations for engaging in helping work become suspect and can inhibit trust. People who actively
use spiritually influenced interventions in their work must do so within an ethical framework of
practice, acting in ways that are transparent and accountable. Development of what has been described
as ‘spiritually sensitive practice’ is an important dimension to include in education (Gale et al., 2007).
Religious literacy is also important, as practitioners need to understand how to engage in conversations
with clients about their beliefs, questions, rituals and activities that have a religious foundation.

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Activity 1.6

Think about the influence of religion or spirituality on your life and answer the following:
1 Do you have a belief system that you can articulate?
2 How do you think your understanding of life’s meaning will influence your practice?
3 If you have strong religious or spiritual beliefs, how do you work respectfully with others who
may not share these beliefs?
4 If you hold no particular beliefs, how will you respond to clients who wish to discuss their
own belief systems?

Client perspective

I went to see a counsellor once who suggested that I try praying for my son who was addicted
to heroin. It had been years of absolute heartache. We were all exhausted and at the end of
our ability to cope. The family was falling apart, and I was a wreck emotionally, to be honest.
Although I was brought up a Catholic, I was not practising, and if anything was not about to bow
down to a God that had brought us so much suffering. I had hoped that I would come away
with some strategies to cope better with my own feelings of guilt about my son – I didn’t think
a religious response was appropriate, and I really resented the insinuation that I could change
things if I would just ‘hand it all over’.
Jaqueline, aged 48

Entering through another door

While for many the decision to study social work or human services is a conscious and deliberate
one, others make their way into these professions more by accident. It is often the case with higher
educational institutions that quotas, academic-merit requirements and educational policies dictate
who enters a particular course and who does not. There are many stories of social and welfare workers
who aspired to careers in medicine, law or veterinary science, only to find they did not get a place but
were instead offered a place in one of the social sciences, therapies or social work courses. It is common
also for students who start off in a discipline such as psychology, nursing or education to realise that
they are more interested in working with people in a more holistic sense and seek out courses that
will provide a broader framework for practice. The increase in postgraduate qualifying courses in
social work shows that many are choosing this direction. While some use study in human services as
a ‘launch pad’ to other careers, others find their niche, realising when they become immersed in the
study of social sciences and human behaviour that such a path fits comfortably with their values and
interests. The two student perspectives below illustrate this point.

Student perspective

I enrolled in a Bachelor of Social Work not knowing what social workers were, I just knew I
wanted to be one. I was initially enrolled in psychology part-time and was employed in medical
administration. At work I noticed social workers standing alongside people in their environment
providing support. This was appealing to me and I changed degrees. When asked in a first
year social work course what area I wanted to work in, I didn’t know. I have since spent my
undergraduate degree exploring the diverse roles of social workers by joining student groups,
attending conferences and volunteering at university events to gain a better understanding
of the social work profession. My area of interest has developed throughout my degree and I

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have gained a sense of professional identity. Learning about social work values of respect for
persons, social justice and professional integrity has been transformative for me as a person and
emerging practitioner. I have now found what I want to do for the rest of my life.
Ellen Beaumont

Student perspective

Since I was a child, I always felt a strong desire to do something to alleviate poverty. Coming
from Myanmar I was often exposed to poverty and I occasionally gave away my pocket money
and hand-down clothes to those who were less fortunate. I contemplated how I can help these
people. I thought I needed to be rich in order to create opportunities and help these people
unleash their full potential and make a contribution to a better society.
After high school, I chose to study Business Management to become a businessperson
because I thought I needed to be in business and have a lot of money so I can help the less
fortunate people and contribute to positive change in society. Later on, I became inspired by
some of the community development projects from the United Nations (UN) in Myanmar, such
as Micro Finance. I realised the type of work existed where employment involved doing things for
positive change in the community, being paid for making positive change. Since then, I wanted
to work with the United Nations. This type of employment could be my future career. However,
it was out of my reach to get a job in the UN in Myanmar. Life took me on a different turn and I
moved to Australia. I decided to start again in terms of my career, and I was pleased because I
had the chance to pursue the dream career that I had in my mind. Still, I didn’t know the name
of the profession called social work, how to go about it, and what the qualification required. So,
I looked up the UN job website to learn what I needed to achieve my dream career. I learnt that
Bachelor of Social Work or Human Services were the way to go towards my dream job. Since
then, my goal is to become a social worker.
I started out studying a Diploma of Community Services Work because I believed that it would
give me a good foundation to social work study. I read an earlier edition of The Road to Social
Work and Human Service Practice and it was the first book I had ever read about social work.
As I was reading the book, I learnt more about myself and became more sure that I couldn’t
be in any other profession except social work. For me, choosing social work is more than the
desire to help. I chose this profession because of my values, personality, morals and interests.
In this area of work, the people we work with and advocate for are vulnerable. Therefore, it
is crucial to recognise the sincere purpose of choosing this profession needs to come from
the heart. I believe that strength and resilience, resources and opportunities make a positive
difference to the community and lead to a better society. My aim is to bring these opportunities,
strengths and resources to vulnerable people’s lives and support them, so they can reach their
full potential.
Sawnu Taynaing (Sunny)

Recommended reading
Australian Association of Social Workers. (2022). Why I became a social worker. https://www.aasw.
asn.au/whoweare/meet-our-members/members-tell-why-i-became-a-social-worker

The documented stories of people who have chosen to enter social work and human services are
inspiring and interesting to read. Melcher (2002) recounts his story of what he described as a ‘clinician’s
transformative journey’; and Cree (2003) has published the stories of 13 social service workers in the

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United Kingdom, who refer to many of the aforementioned reasons in their accounts of what motivated
their journeys into social work. These and your stories continue to form part of the rich tapestry
that makes up the social work and human services landscape. Below are some reflections from two
Australian social workers who previously managed a career centre to help practitioners think about
the directions of their practice.

Practitioner perspective

When you ask people working in the human services to share their thoughts on why they chose
this field, the word ‘diversity’ is often mentioned. Many agree that one of the greatest strengths
of social work and the human services is the wide range of career opportunities it presents.
There are so many different career options that the titles of ‘human service worker’ or ‘social
worker’ can mean very different things depending on where you work. How, then, do you begin
to choose where you will practise? To answer this question, you will need to spend time reflecting
on why you were drawn to human service work. It is ‘why’ we do what we do that stands at the
core of our profession. Because our work is based not only on knowledge and skills, but also a
solid value base, you will need to gain insight into your values and beliefs and what inspires and
motivates you. What are you passionate about and why? Who do you admire and what qualities
do they embody that you value? If you could imagine your ‘perfect’ job, what would it look like?
This ‘dreaming’ process will help you to build a vision of your place in the profession and allow
you to gain clarity about where your unique perspective will best fit.
As you journey through your career, you may find yourself in case management, counselling,
community development, management, consultancy or training. This might be across fields
such as mental health, ageing, child welfare, justice, education or disability, just to name a
few! These traditional experiences also pave the way into using your social work and human
service knowledge, skills and values to explore other pathways of interest, such as politics, or
creative mediums, like filmmaking and writing. How you choose to work is only limited by your
imagination, because it is the why rather than the how that really matters.
Amanda Vos and Leia Greenslade

The purpose of practice: is there a final

destination?
One of the first things you need when starting a journey, as well as a sense of why you started in
the first place, is an idea of the final destination. A common saying in social work circles is that the
ultimate aim of social workers is ‘to do ourselves out of a job’. The ideal world would be one in which
there is no suffering and poverty, people live in harmonious relationships, nations are at peace with
each other, the environment is not under threat, and all people have equal access to what they need
to reach their full potential. There would be no discrimination, as people would have ultimate respect
for others and difference would be cherished rather than merely tolerated. There would be no need
for welfare or income security as the basic necessities of life would be available to and shared by all.
There would be no crime, and no need for punishment. There would be no threat of terrorism or fear
of war. Many brave individuals throughout history have dared to put this vision of hope to the world.
It is an alluring picture of the way that things could be. The world as we know it is far from this ideal.
And yet without this ideal, we have no purpose. What, then, is the purpose of social work and human
service practice?

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Practitioner perspective

Social work is facilitating ideas, conversations and/or activities with individuals, families, groups
and communities that create opportunities for growth and positive change in an ethical and
socially just way.
Jane Bennetto

To our mind, the purpose of practice can be summarised as follows:

To position human wellbeing and human rights as a primary social responsibility, acknowledging that
humanity exists in balance with the environment, and to celebrate and nurture the diversity of humanity.
Social workers and human service practitioners are charged with the responsibility of bringing to public
notice the values, attitudes, behaviours and social structures, as well as the economic and political imperatives,
which cause or contribute to the oppression of human wellbeing and rights. They are further charged with
the duty to respond with passion, hope and care, guided by research, theory and social work values, to
human, social and environmental need wherever and however it is manifested, and to work towards the
attainment of social justice for individuals, groups and communities in a local and global context.

This definition of the purpose of social work and human service practice is not new in its foundations
– it is another contribution to the already substantial body of literature built up over the past century.
As Harris Perlman wrote in 1957, ‘to attempt to define social casework takes courage, or foolhardiness,
or perhaps a bit of both’ (p. 3). It is interesting, however, to explore the ways that other authors have
defined the purpose of the work we do, so we can gain an understanding and appreciation of the
common sense of purpose that permeates our collective vision. As will be illustrated in this book,
social work and human service practice have many faces that change across cultures and contexts,
yet it is argued that an identifiable commonality of purpose is one of the greatest strengths of practice.
This commonality exists in definitions of the purpose of social work, whether these relate broadly to
social welfare or to more specific methods of practice, such as social casework or radical casework,
groupwork or community development work.
The most quoted definition of the purpose of social work is that adopted by the International
Federation of Social Workers (IFSW). The following Global Definition of the Social Work Profession
was endorsed in 2014:

Social work is a practice-based profession and an academic discipline that promotes social change and
development, social cohesion, and the empowerment and liberation of people. Principles of social justice,
human rights, collective responsibility and respect for diversities are central to social work. Underpinned by
theories of social work, social sciences, humanities and indigenous knowledge, social work engages people
and structures to address life challenges and enhance wellbeing. The above definition may be amplified at
national and/or regional levels. (IFSW, 2014)

As we look back over the history of literature on social work, we see that the early writers’ definitions
of purpose were not so far removed from more current definitions, although they tended to reflect a
more individual focus on constructs such as personality, human need and adjustment. Mary Richmond,
writing in 1922, defined social casework as ‘processes which develop personality through adjustments
consciously effected, individual by individual, between men [sic] and their social environment’ (pp.
98–99). Felix Biestek, writing some 35 years later, stated that ‘the purpose of casework … is to help the
client make better adjustment’ through ‘mobilisation of dormant capacities in the individual, or the
mobilisation of appropriate community resources’ (1957, p. 3). While these early definitions focus on
traditional casework models of practice, some writers, such as Fook (1993, p. 41), view purpose from
a radical ideological perspective in which radical social casework is defined as ‘individually oriented
help which focuses on structural causes of personal problems, more specifically on the interaction
between the individual and the socioeconomic structure which causes problems’.

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Other more recent definitions of the purpose of social work and welfare practice are similar to the
IFSW definition, as seen in these examples from some commonly used social work texts. O’Connor
et al. (2006, p. 9) focus, in their definition of social work and social care, on the ‘interaction between
individuals and social arrangements’, emphasising the promotion of equitable relationships and the
development of people’s power and control over their own lives. Connolly et al. (2017) state that ‘in
advocating for social justice and social change, social workers focus on building and sustaining optimal
human experiences and environments’ (p. 37). Zastrow (2017, p. 2) articulates the goal of social welfare
as fulfilling ‘the social, financial, health and recreational requirements of all individuals in a society’.
Sheafor and Horejsi (2014) consider that the primary purpose of social work should focus on ‘the
interconnectedness and interdependence of people and the power of social relationships that underpins
a profession devoted to helping people improve the quality and effectiveness of those interactions and
relationships – in other words to enhance their social functioning’ (p. 4). Sheppard (2006) discusses the
concept of social exclusion and describes social work as occupying the space ‘between the mainstream
and the marginal in society’(p. 40). For those writing from a critical social work perspective, which
will be explored further in Chapter 5, it is about ‘positioning ourselves alongside the people with Refer to
whom we are working, rather than trying to protect and maintain the current systemic inequalities Chapter 5

and power divisions. It is about being on the side of progressive social change, arguing for human
betterment rather than keeping the system (with its associated injustices and inequalities) as it is’
(Morley et al., 2019, p. 3).

Client perspective

I was put in hospital a few years back and the nurse on the ward took me along to a group for
people who had problems with drinking. There was a social worker running that group, and
he was really good at getting us all to draw big messy maps on butcher’s paper of our lives,
and all the things that were going on. I really went to town with the thick black crayons! I didn’t
realise until then that my drinking wasn’t only stuffing up my liver, but it was also wrecking my
friendships, and my finances, and my study, and my accommodation – no wonder I was in such a
bad place when everything was affecting everything else! I still have that piece of paper and won’t
forget that social worker in a hurry.
Alan, aged 52

Through these definitions and others in social work literature, the focus on the relationship between
the personal and the social is clear. It is this relationship – also referred to as ‘person-in-environment’
– that constitutes the basis of work in human services. We now explore how these connections between
people and their social relations are interpreted in actual practice.

The domains of practice: scanning the territory

Social work and human service practitioners have long sought to define and delineate the legitimate
territory of human services. As Trevithick (2012) says, ‘the extent to which social work’s knowledge
base is distinct compared with that of other disciplines and professions can be difficult to gauge’
(p. 6). This delineation is contested both within human services and by other disciplines, particularly
at those points where the borders of activity meet and overlap. As Cree (2003) points out, ‘social work
is always subject to competing claims of definition and practice, and cannot be separated from the
society in which it is located’ (p. 4). Social work and human service workers are not the sole responders
to human welfare and human need. This responsibility also lies with disciplines such as law, medicine,
psychology, teaching, occupational therapy, nursing and social economy, to name a few. To say that
social work and human service practitioners have a legitimate place in a diverse range of practice
contexts does not mean that other practitioners do not have similar legitimacy with the same client
groups. It is, however, the articulation and demonstration of knowledge, skills and methods of practice
that give social work and human service workers a ‘place at the table’ in the human service industry.

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It is also the attention to what Trevithick (2012) calls ‘social analysis’ that gives social work and
human service workers a unique perspective from which to view people in their relationships and
social settings. Social work and human service practitioners, therefore, have a legitimate place in the
domains of practice, as shown in Figure 1.2.

Figure 1.2 Scanning the territory: the eight domains of social work practice

Domain
Work with individuals
1

Domain
Work with families and partnerships
2

Domain
Groupwork
3

Domain
Community work
4

Domain
Social policy practice
5

Domain
Research and evaluation
6

Domain
Organisational practice, management and leadership
7

Domain
Education, training and consultancy
8

Work with individuals

Engaging with people on an individual basis is also known by a variety of terms, such as social
casework, clinical practice, direct practice and case management, and has long been seen as one of the
hallmarks of social work and human service practice. Working with people one-on-one is underpinned
by a broad range of theories and there are many ways that workers in the helping professions apply
their skills. Building relationships with others requires fundamental skills in effective communication,
and this relationship building is also known as ‘use of self ’. Workers use skills such as building
rapport, active listening, reframing and clarifying to assist others to engage in constructive and
therapeutic interpersonal relationships. A diverse range of practice settings provides the opportunity
for individual casework, and these encounters can be one-off (single session) or longer term, depending
on the needs of the client and the organisational context. Work with individuals should always be
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STARTING THE JOURNEY: AN INTRODUCTION TO SOCIAL WORK AND HUMAN SERVICE PRACTICE / CHAPTER 1

purposeful and intentional, which can involve a specific goal, such as to prepare an assessment report
or a recommendation about access to services. Examples of situations in which a practitioner engages
in individual casework include:
• working with a young woman who has been sexually assaulted to prepare a report for criminal
compensation
• engaging in bereavement counselling with a father who has lost his family in a house fire
• engaging in long-term therapy with a child who has witnessed domestic violence in the home
• interviewing a young person about eligibility for social housing and providing a recommendation
for financial assistance
• taking on a case-management role with an older man who is long-term unemployed after an
injury, in order to help him back into the workforce
• assessing an unaccompanied minor who has arrived in the country by boat.

Recommended reading
Corey, G. (2015). Theory and Practice of Counseling and Psychotherapy (10th ed.). Brooks/Cole.
Geldard, D., Geldard, K., & Yin Foo, R. (2021). Basic personal counselling: A training manual for
counsellors (9th ed.). Cengage Learning Australia.
Moore, E. (2016). Case management: Inclusive community practice. Oxford University Press.

Work with families and partnerships

As social and human service workers are concerned with people in the context of their social
relationships, it is common for work with individuals to extend to work with other significant
people in the lives of the individual. More advanced skills are needed to engage in family therapy,
relationship counselling or dispute resolution, as the dynamics of these relationships are important
to the counselling or intervention process. As with individual casework, communication skills and
the ability to make good assessments of presenting problems and issues are important. A practitioner
who takes on work with a family may at times see individual family members, or combinations of
people together, depending on the issues that are being explored. Sometimes the parties to counselling
or mediation are not related to each other, but the same skills of working with difficult interpersonal
dynamics are still required. Examples of work with families and significant others include:
• interviewing separated parents and children to prepare a court report in relation to a dispute
over residence of the children
• counselling a couple whose financial difficulties are affecting their relationship
• assisting a same-sex family to address religious discrimination they are experiencing at a local
school their children attend
• working with a family that has been granted refugee status to settle them into a new community
• working with a Pasifika family to assist them to take on kinship care responsibilities
• providing mediation for neighbours who are in dispute over barking dogs.

Recommended reading
Collins, D., Jordan, C., & Coleman, H. (2013). An introduction to family social work (4th ed.). Cengage
Learning.
Goldenberg, I., Stanton, M., & Goldenberg, H. (2016). Family therapy: An overview. Cengage.
Sanders, J., & Munford, R. (2010). Working with families: Strengths-based approaches. Dunmore
Press.
Trotter, C. (2020). Collaborative family work: A practical guide to working with families in the human
services. Allen & Unwin.

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Groupwork
Working with groups has long been common practice in the community sector but is also becoming
more accepted in government. Groupwork can be goal-oriented, continuing for a specified period of
time, or it can be open-ended. Workers who facilitate goal-oriented therapeutic groups or who assist
self-help groups to become established also need to be skilled in group dynamics and the stages of group
formation and closure. It is common for people who work with groups to also engage in individual,
family or other sorts of practice, again depending on the organisational context. Some examples of
groupwork include:
• establishing an online support group for young mothers isolated in rural communities
• facilitating a focus group to explore the needs of families who care for a person experiencing a
mental illness
• facilitating a men’s behaviour change program for perpetrators of violence against women
• establishing a support group for international students at a university
• providing support for a group to lobby government about the abuse of people in nursing homes.

Recommended reading
Corey, M. S., Corey, G., & Corey, C. (2016). Groups: Process and Practice (10th ed.). Brooks/Cole.
Hutchinson, D. R. (2017). Great groups: Creating and leading effective groups. Sage.
Ortega, R., & Garvin, C. (2019). Socially just practice in groups: A social work perspective. Sage.
Toseland, R., & Rivas, R. (2017). An introduction to group work practice: A global perspective (8th ed.).
Pearson.

Community work
Social and human service workers have a significant role to play in community work, community
development and community capacity building, and the related work opportunities are significant.
Working in the community context requires that you gain skills in social networking, resource
assessment and development, analysis of community needs and social-action strategising. Community
workers often engage in political action; hence they need skills in handling media and facilitating
both small and large groups. In addition to community work at the local or neighbourhood level,
opportunities are increasing for trained practitioners to work in international development, supporting
people in developing countries to build community capacity and grassroots resources. Many national
and international agencies and organisations offer assistance, both financial and in human aid, to
people suffering the impacts of poverty, health crises, war, environmental degradation and climate
change. Social and human service workers have a role to play in these agencies at the levels of policy
and program development, acquisition of funds and resources, training and support of volunteers and
aid workers, and in the actual delivery of services in developing countries.
Examples of community work and community development include:
• assisting a local residents’ action group to petition government about industrial pollution and
environmental impacts
• working with an Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander community to develop a space to run
activities for children and young people
• assessing the needs of farming families who have been struggling to make ends meet as a result
of persistent drought
• lobbying government for funds to develop a program for young people at risk of suicide
• developing local employment schemes to assist people back into the workforce following release
from prison
• working with a group of self-employed women to establish their rights to trade as street vendors.

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STARTING THE JOURNEY: AN INTRODUCTION TO SOCIAL WORK AND HUMAN SERVICE PRACTICE / CHAPTER 1

Recommended reading
Eversley, J. (2018). Social and community development: An introduction. Red Globe Press.
Beck, D., & Purcell, R. (2020). Community development for social change. Routledge.
Forde, C., & Lynch, D. (2015). Social work and community development: A critical practice perspective.
Palgrave Macmillan.
Kenny, S., & Connors, P. (2016). Developing communities for the future (5th ed.). Cengage.

Social policy practice

Human service workers are well placed to contribute to social policy practice, helping to determine how
resources should be allocated and under what guidelines. Understanding the interconnected nature
of social systems and analysing how welfare policies affect the distribution of resources is critical to
developing and maintaining streamlined health and welfare systems that deliver services in a just and
equitable manner. As with community work, practitioners engaged in social policy practice may focus
on local, national or international initiatives. Examples of ways that workers contribute to developing
and evaluating social policy include:
• developing policies to ensure that low-income earners have access to affordable social housing
• evaluating social policies that promote community control over Aboriginal and Torres Strait
Islander land
• developing social policies that provide leave for workers who have experienced domestic or
family violence
• revising organisational policies about responses to cyber-bullying in the workplace
• developing a policy to guide appropriate use of social media for an agency working with
young people.

Recommended reading
Alston, M., & Bowles, W. (2018). Research for social workers: An introduction to methods (4th ed.).
Taylor & Francis.
Babbie, E. (2016). The practice of social research (14th ed.). Wadsworth Cengage Learning.
York, R. O. (2019). Social work research methods: Learning by doing. Sage.

Organisational practice, management and leadership

Social and human service workers are often able to move into positions of management and leadership
after some years in the workforce. Organisational skills, an understanding of the internal functioning
of workplaces and the ability to work constructively with people from other disciplines are critical
in human services management. It is important to give attention to understanding interdisciplinary
practice, so that workers consider the ways that people work together in the context of management.
This might include supervising staff in a work team or managing an agency at a more senior level.
Management responsibilities, which are also often administrative in nature, include recruiting
and employing staff, training volunteers, negotiating funding arrangements and budgets, evaluating
services, developing policy, public speaking, marketing and promotion, and coordinating services.
Examples of organisational practice, management and leadership positions include:
• being responsible, as senior social worker, for a staff team in a major hospital and coordinating
organisational responses to staffing issues
• managing a community agency responsible for providing domestic and family violence services
across a vast outback region
• developing a funding proposal and business case for a new service to respond to needs of
communities impacted by natural disasters like floods and bushfires

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THE ROAD TO SOCIAL WORK AND HUMAN SERVICE PRACTICE

• managing a multicultural community agency responsible for providing language programs to

culturally and linguistically diverse communities
• managing rosters of casual staff who provide additional support for children living in out-of-
home care
• providing clinical supervision within a child protection agency.

Recommended reading
Field, R., & Brown, K. (2019). Effective leadership, management and supervision in health and social
care (3rd ed.). Sage.
Ozanne, E., & Rose, D. (2013). The organisational context of human service practice. Palgrave
Macmillan.
Rofuth, T. W., & Piepenbring, J. (2019). Management and leadership in social work: A competency-
based approach. Springer Publishing Company.
Scourfield, P. (2018). Putting professional leadership into practice in social work. Learning Matters
Ltd.

Education, training and consultancy

The complexity of the work in social and human services means that staff and volunteers need
ongoing opportunities to continue professional education and development and, therefore, the need
for skilled educators and trainers is increasing. Practitioners may specialise in particular areas of
practice and then offer education and training through consultancy contracts in these areas as an
‘expert’. Consultancy can also extend to outsourcing services providing advice, evaluation or service
development for client organisations. The increasing numbers of tertiary education courses in human
services offered in different countries also require educators to have sound practice experience, good
theoretical knowledge and the ability to prepare students for professional practice within a specified
context. There are increasing opportunities for educators to work in other countries that may be
developing social welfare and human service systems, or to assist the development of academic
programs to train human service practitioners. Some examples of education and training include:
• evaluating the effectiveness of a program for children with learning difficulties
• providing staff training on child protection risk assessments
• developing a postgraduate course on professional ethics for health workers
• training volunteers who provide ‘meals on wheels’ to elderly people in their homes
• writing competency guidelines for services that provide online counselling
• offering education seminars on managing workplace discrimination
• providing a consultancy service to an organisation to review administrative functions and
collaborative team relations.
The diversity of practice, as illustrated in the previous examples, gives social work and human service
workers incredible scope for working in an array of fields throughout their careers. Knowledge and skills
can be transferred from one practice field to another, and it is rare that experience gained in one field will
not be useful in another. It is also possible for a worker to engage in many of the aforementioned practices
within the scope of one job. Combining groupwork within community development, or social policy within
management and administration, is common. The upcomming ‘Practitioner perspective’ illustrates this
diversity of experience.

Recommended reading
Carson, E., & Kerr, L. (2020). Australian social policy and the human services (3rd ed.). Cambridge
University Press.
Garrett, P. M. (2017). Welfare words: Critical social work and social policy. Sage.
Maidment, J., & Beddoe, L. (Eds.) (2016). Social policy for social work and human services in Aotearoa
New Zealand: Diverse perspectives. Canterbury University Press.
Mendes, P. (2017). Australia’s welfare wars: The players, the politics and the ideologies. UNSW Press.

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Research and evaluation

The work undertaken in human services relies on evidence-based research that explores, evaluates
and validates the effectiveness of the interventions that take place in health and welfare services.
Without research and evaluation, we have no way of knowing whether our work is achieving the
desired outcomes and whether client needs are being addressed.
Research has traditionally been seen as the domain of academia, but practitioners are increasingly
interested in using research and evaluation in their workplaces. Collaborative partnerships have
become much more common and there has been growing inclusion of service users and community
stakeholders in research endeavours. This has meant that practice-based research has gained a more
prominent place and increased legitimacy in the social work and human service research landscape.
Examples of research and evaluation include:
• exploring the experiences of people living with acquired brain injuries and their use of social
networking
• evaluating the effectiveness of suicide-prevention programs
• testing the hypothesis that family breakdown can contribute to youth criminal behaviour
• evaluating the outcomes of a ‘healthy ageing’ program for older people
• investigating why some pregnant women do not attend scheduled antenatal appointments
• interviewing international aid workers who assist after natural disasters to establish the extent
of training required.

Recommended reading
Dudley, J. (2020). Social work evaluation: Enhancing what we do (3rd ed.). Oxford University Press.
Kettner, P. M., Moroney, R. M., & Martin, L. L. (2016). Designing and managing programs: An
effectiveness-based approach. Sage Publications.
McDonald, C., Craik, C., Hawkins, L., & Williams, J. (2011). Professional practice in human service
organisations. Allen and Unwin.

Practitioner perspective

I graduated with a Bachelor of Social Work in 1986 and began my social work career as a
caseworker in a mental health unit in a major hospital. In this position, I worked with individuals,
families and groups, engaging in assessment and a range of intervention strategies. After four
years, I moved on to work in a legal service where I prepared Family Court, pre-sentence and
criminal compensation reports and engaged in mediation and dispute resolution. Another four
years later, I moved into a community development position based in a neighbourhood centre,
and was involved in a range of social-action projects with local community residents. From
there, I moved into a social policy position in government, focusing on community development
and ‘healthy ageing’, and then went back to university to complete my research PhD on ethical
dilemmas in social work practice. I now teach undergraduate and postgraduate students and am
involved in a range of research projects and community consultations and training. I can safely
say that I have covered all the domains of practice over a 15-year period, often combining many
at once in jobs that were stimulating and rewarding.
Donna McAuliffe

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Exploring your pre-existing knowledge,

skills, values and beliefs: the place of
transformational learning
Every experience, interaction and conversation you have has the potential to shift your mindset and
values in subtle ways and increase your knowledge. Accumulating knowledge is part of the experience
of living in the world, so that every time we engage with people or the environment around us, we
take in new knowledge and add it to our repertoire of human experience. It is important as workers
in social and human services that we have a clear awareness of how we position ourselves in the
world and develop an understanding that the world around us is socially constructed by powerful
influences. Knowing ourselves is the precursor to the concept known as effective ‘use of self’, which
was mentioned earlier and is explored later in this book.
The practice of social work and human services requires the use of our emotional resources (e.g.
relationships, insight, compassion, social engagement) as tools to get the job done, in the same way
other professions might use tools (e.g. hammers or computers) or different parts of themselves (e.g.
intellect, dexterity or physical strength).
One of the big challenges for new practitioners is how to use empathy in a purposeful and effective
manner, without losing our capacity to think rationally and to maintain a distinct sense of ourselves.
Gerdes and Segal (2011), drawing on the work of earlier writers, describe empathy as having two
aspects: emotional (feeling what another person is feeling) and cognitive (knowing what another
person is knowing). They state that ‘empathy can be taught, increased, refined and mediated to make
helping professionals more skilful and resilient’ (p. 143). Practitioners who have well-developed
empathic responses can engage authentically with clients, have a strong sense of self as separate from
others and can avoid emotional enmeshment, and can demonstrate mental flexibility and emotional
regulation. They can also be emotionally ‘present’ with clients without losing control. In learning to
know ourselves, we need to be conscious of the range of factors that influence our knowledge, values
and beliefs. Hawkins and McMahon (2020) discuss the need for people who move towards the helping
professions to know themselves and their motives well so that they can be of real help to others.
There are many psychological and sociological theories about the ways that people integrate and
make sense of experiences, and these theories assist us to understand about stages of human and
moral development and the influences of culture, gender, class and power. For the purposes of this
discussion, we focus on who we are now, how we came to be this way and how we might change, as
we learn more about ourselves as emerging practitioners.
A useful concept that summarises what can happen when students are in a supportive learning
environment is that of transformational learning, which is defined as:

a significant learning experience that engages the learner intellectually, emotionally and socially.
Transformational learning moves the learner beyond the attainment of factual knowledge into his or her
own experience, thinking and meaning making. Learners have opportunities to reflect on and analyse their
learning, build on their previous learning and assess the relevance of this learning for a future situation.
(Giles et al., 2010, p. 7)

It is useful to think about the way we acquire knowledge about people and the dynamics of human
relationships. Texts about interpersonal skills and effective communication commonly emphasise
the importance of exploring what is often termed your ‘family of origin’. Your early experiences of
childhood and the formative years of development give strong messages about your sense of self and
identity in relation to others. Early experiences of abuse or abandonment or, alternatively, of safety
and secure attachment can be influential in shaping how you trust others and establish intimacy and
connectedness. The nature of your relationships with parents, carers, siblings and significant others
influences how you engage with people in later life. Exploring your family of origin is a good starting
point for thinking about what early messages you learnt and how these messages were challenged

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STARTING THE JOURNEY: AN INTRODUCTION TO SOCIAL WORK AND HUMAN SERVICE PRACTICE / CHAPTER 1

as you grew up and became more independent. Thinking about your early life experiences, it is also
important to consider the influences of your ethnicity or culture and your experiences of sexual
orientation and gender identity, class, education, and religion or spirituality. These early experiences –
whether you have retained or rejected the knowledge gained from them – have created a context for
your life and will continue to provide a personal context for your work in social and human services.
Exploring these in depth will give a good baseline for development of new knowledge and skills, and
will also provide a checkpoint for how your values align with those of the human services.

Activity 1.7

1 Describe some of the early childhood messages or rules you remember hearing as you were
growing up. Which of these do you still believe? Which have you now discounted? How have
these influenced your life?
2 Describe your early memories about the relationship dynamics between the people who
were significant in your life. What do you think you learnt about relationships from your
experiences? How will this influence your work?
3 Describe your memories of your early and later educational experiences. What did you learn
to value from your education? How has this been important for your life?
4 Describe your experience of growing up in your assigned gender. How did your early
experiences inform your beliefs about gender identity and sexual orientation? How do you
think your life might have been different if you were assigned a different gender at birth or if
you identifed as non-binary?
5 Describe the ethnic or cultural community you grew up in. What messages did you absorb
as a member of that culture? How did your experience of ethnicity or culture influence your
beliefs about race or cultures that are different from your own?
6 Describe the early messages you learnt about the meaning of life, the creation of the
universe, or the ‘rightness’ of a particular religion or spiritual expression. Have you continued
to accept these messages or have you rejected them and developed a new belief system?
How will these beliefs influence your practice?
7 Describe yourself as you are now. What knowledge, skills, values, and beliefs do you bring
with you into social work and human services? In one sentence, summarise who you are in
the world, and what you hold as most important.

STUDY
TOOLS

Conclusion
Choosing to become a social worker or human service practitioner inevitably will have involved deciding between
different career options, based on a number of influencing motivations. We encourage you to consider the challenging
question posed by Cree (2003, p. 6), ‘Why do you think that you have something to offer others?’ In thinking about
your life and previous experiences and what you bring with you to social work and human services, you are asked

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to become aware of your starting points so that you can set the compass in the direction of where you want to go on
this journey. You have been given a map of the territory and some examples of practice to orient you more clearly in
these beginning stages. You have also been encouraged to consider yourself as an emerging practitioner, engaging
in the task of learning in a constructive and reflective way. Developing a strong support network and considering
ways to maximise the educational experience assists you to make the best use of the resources, both literary and
human, available to you as you progress towards your goal. Chapter 2 provides you with more contextual detail
about the landscape ahead and Figure 1.3 shows ‘How to get there’.

Figure 1.3 How to get there

From Short Notes from the Long History of Happiness by Michael Leunig. Copyright © Michael Leunig 1996. Reprinted by permission of
Penguin Random House Australia Pty Ltd.

Questions
1 What are some of the key support strategies that have proven useful for the beginning practitioner?
2 What might be the value of learning from the ‘lived experiences’ of others? What do you understand this to
mean?
3 What are the motivating factors that influence people to pursue a career in the human services, and what are
some of the challenges that come with personal experiences brought to this work?
4 What is your understanding of the purpose of social work and human service practice, and what is your
response to the most recent version of the International Federation of Social Workers’ global definition of the
profession of social work?
5 What are the eight domains of social work and human service practice? Select two of these and give examples
of the types of activities that a practitioner might undertake.
6 What areas of pre-existing experience is it useful to explore at the beginning of study and work in this area?
Why might it be important to start off your journey with consideration of your early life experiences?

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STARTING THE JOURNEY: AN INTRODUCTION TO SOCIAL WORK AND HUMAN SERVICE PRACTICE / CHAPTER 1

Weblinks
Australian Council of Social Service Social Policy Research Centre
http://www.acoss.org.au https://www.unsw.edu.au/research/sprc
International Federation of Social Workers The New Social Worker: The social work careers
http://ifsw.org magazine
Our Community http://www.socialworker.com
http://www.ourcommunity.com.au Making & Breaking Social Policy
https://anchor.fm/makingandbreaking

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(5th ed.). Open University Press.
Trevithick, P. (2012). Social work skills and knowledge: A practice
Healy, L., & Thomas, R. (2021). International social work: Professional handbook (3rd ed.). Open University Press.
action in an interdependent world (3rd ed.). Oxford University Press.
Vroom, V. (1964). Work and motivation. John Wiley.
International Federation of Social Workers. (2014). Definition of social
Young, P., Tilbury, C., & Hemy, M. (2019). Child-related criminal history
work. http://ifsw.org/get-involved/global-definition-of-social-work
screening and social work education in Australia. Australian Social
McAuliffe, D., Boddy, J., McLennan, V., & Stewart, V. (2012). Keeping the Work, 72(2), 179–187. https://doi.org/10.1080/0312407X.
door open: Exploring experiences of, and responses to, university 2018.1555268
students who disclose mental illness, Journal of Social Inclusion, 3(1),
Zastrow, C. (2017). Introduction to social work and social welfare:
117–129. https://doi.org/10.36251/josi.46
Empowering people (12th ed.). Brooks/Cole.
Melcher, M. J. (2002). Becoming a social worker: Reflections on a clinician’s
transformative journey. White Hat Communications.

Morley, C., Ablett, P., & Macfarlane, S. (2019). Engaging with social work:
A critical introduction (2nd ed.). Cambridge University Press.

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2
CHAPTER
Surveying the
landscape: historical
and philosophical
foundations for practice

Chapter 2
Surveying the landscape
This chapter explores the
historical and philosophical
foundations for practice

Key philosophies
underpinning
welfare work

Social justice – legal Human rights – civil and

History of
justice, commutative political, economic and
welfare in
justice, distributed justice cultural, environmental rights
Australia and
New Zealand

Central notions of
POWER and
EMPOWERMENT

Power WITH
Empowerment Client and service user
vs
dilemmas perspectives
power OVER

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Surveying the landscape: historical and philosophical foundations for practice / CHAPTER 2

Aims

• Outline the histories of helping and welfare as they relate to social work and human services
• Explore the principles of social justice and human rights as they relate to practice
• Discuss notions of power and empowerment, power with and power over, and how they
influence practice
• Explore the relevance of these elements in contemporary practice

Introduction
In Chapter 1, we embarked on the journey to becoming practitioners and laid out the definitions and Refer to
purposes of social work and human service practice. This provided a starting point on our road to Chapter 1

practice. In this chapter, we survey the landscape in which practice is carried out, looking back along
the path already travelled by those before us, and examining where we currently find ourselves in the
contemporary context of social work and human services. We outline the history of social work and
human service practice, discussing its antecedents and how it has been shaped over time. Different
social and political contexts and philosophies influence the purposes of practice and how practice is
undertaken; therefore, we explore the historical foundations and the philosophical building blocks on
which human services are based. We also explore, at a preliminary level, some of the history of caring
and healing practices of Aboriginal, Torres Strait Islander and Māori peoples.

WATCH YOUR LANGUAGE

Indigenous/First Peoples
This is a guide to appropriate terminology to be used with respect to Aboriginal and Torres Strait
Islander peoples and cultures.
• ‘First People/s’ is a collective name for the original people of Australia and their descendants.
This is an acceptable term to use.
• ‘First Nations’ is also a collective name that is becoming more widely used in Australia,
reflecting the large number of nations, cultures and languages throughout mainland Australia
and the Torres Strait Islands.
• ‘Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples’ is preferred when referring collectively to
Australia’s original inhabitants.
• An Aboriginal person is a person or descendant of the First Peoples of mainland Australia and
Tasmania.
• A Torres Strait Islander is a person or descendant of a person from the Torres Strait Islands,
located to the north of mainland Queensland.
• It is usually acceptable to use the term ‘Aboriginal’ as an adjective – e.g. adding ‘person’ or
‘culture’.
• ‘Indigenous’ is not specific and can be used to describe indigenous peoples around the world.

We outline the elements of two key principles of practice – social justice and human rights – and
explore the concept of power and how it influences every aspect of our work. Finally, we discuss how
these elements are integrated as the philosophical foundation for practice in the contemporary political
and ideological context.

Histories of helping and welfare

Personal struggles and social problems are part of the universal human experience. People become sick,
experience personal or social conflict or violence, grow old or suffer from a lack of essential resources.

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THE ROAD TO SOCIAL WORK AND HUMAN SERVICE PRACTICE

Fundamentally, many social problems are not new, although they may manifest in different forms
throughout history. How people have defined human problems at different times and how they have
responded to them is socially determined. What was viewed as a ‘problem’ requiring intervention
hundreds of years ago may not be seen as a problem today or may now be understood in an entirely
different way. For example, behaviours that we now regard as associated with psychosis were in
medieval times thought to be the result of demonic possession or witchcraft and were dealt with by
torture or burning at the stake! Cultural context also determines how problems are understood and
treated. Over the course of human history, all cultures developed ways of helping and caring for others.
Many cultures have overarching cultural practices that are holistic and designed to promote the whole
group or community as well as specifically treating the sick, the elderly or other vulnerable people.
It is important that, as practitioners, we gain an understanding of our many helping histories. This
section, therefore, first includes an acknowledgment of First Peoples’ healing and helping practices
with recommendations for further reading in this area, and then discusses the history of welfare in
Western colonial contexts.

Indigenous healing and helping

Australian First Peoples and Māori healing practices reflect ancient understandings and knowledge,
which are still upheld and supported today despite oppression over centuries of colonial rule. We
acknowledge that this text is largely shaped by Western ideas and events. The vast majority of
social work and human service texts adopt a Judaeo-Christian and European perspective. Aboriginal
and Torres Strait Islander peoples and Māori and Asian cultures have their own histories of human
problems and ways of addressing them within cultural traditions. Many of these helping histories were
not recorded in writing but rather were handed down through oral traditions. These cultures often had
quite a different way of caring for people with a focus on collective responses, rather than the more
individual responses that are the basis of traditional Western welfare systems. Many of these have
persisted, often under opposition from Western systems and oppression.
Refer to In Chapter 9 we describe some of the ongoing impacts of colonisation, as well as social work’s role
Chapter 9 in colonial state practices. We also describe Indigenous ways of knowing, being and doing. While
social work has emerged from, and has been heavily shaped by, Western worldviews, there are large
movements within social work to foreground the importance and centrality of Indigenous relationality
and worldviews, which are holistic, recognising the interconnectedness of the domains of body,
mind and emotions, family and kinship, community, culture, country and spirituality (Dudgeon &
Bray, 2017).
For Australian First Peoples, healing and culture are inextricably linked. Traditional healing
includes use of bush medicines and spiritual practices to integrate spiritual, emotional and social
health and wellbeing. This also includes approaches to strengthen communities through the
recovery of language, art, dance and stories as well as traditional food (bush tucker) and medicine.
It is important to note here that any healing programs were specific to that local region or group and
delivered by those cultural members. The impacts of colonisation saw Aboriginal and Torres Strait
Islander peoples subjected to social, economic and educational disadvantage (described further in
Chapter 9). Despite this, ‘traditional practices and extended family systems have persisted and
made it possible for Indigenous people to develop resilience, as there have been important and
pervasive cultural changes affecting many Indigenous families, resulting in domestic violence,
substance misuse, suicide and self-harm, and contributing to further risk’ (Ward, as cited in Price,
2015, p. 153).
Many communities have upheld these cultural practices to this day, particularly in central Australia
and the Kimberley region. Increasingly, Aboriginal people are using traditional healing and old cultural
knowledge to address contemporary problems and treat trauma, reconnect with country and build
pride in cultural identity.

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Māori
Māori focus on the interconnectedness of mind, body, spirit (wairua), family (whānau) and land
(Mark & Lyons, 2010). Central to Māori helping is the enhancement of wellbeing through traditional
healing practices, called Rongoā Māori. This is informed by a body of knowledge that is different from
Western medicine, where the focus is essentially the absence of health, which requires treatment to
return to health and wellbeing. Rongoā Māori adopts a range of responses including rakau rongoā
(native flora herbal preparations), mirimiri (massage) and karakia (prayer; Mark, 2012). Again, the
focus is holistic, where healing and culture are inextricably connected.
Aotearoa New Zealand has had a similar colonial history to Australia and the impact of Pākehā
brought deaths through infectious diseases, tuberculosis and alcohol (Lang, 1999). Māori traditional
healing was upheld and protected by elders over centuries. Today, the integration of Rongoā Māori
with mainstream services in the health and disability sectors is strongly supported by government
through the Ministry of Health (see https://www.health.govt.nz).
As future practitioners, you need to be aware of all histories and develop a broader knowledge of
the importance of culture in helping and healing. We can offer only a partial and limited account
here; we suggest that you engage further with these histories and practices through recommended
readings below.

Recommended reading
Dudgeon, P., & Bray, A. (2017). Indigenous healing practices in Australia. Women & Therapy,
41(1–2), 97–113. https://doi.org/10.1080/02703149.2017.1324191
Korff, J. (2019). Traditional health care. https://www.creativespirits.info/aboriginalculture/health/
traditional-aboriginal-health-care
Mark, G., & Lyons, A. (2010). Māori healers’ views on wellbeing: The importance of mind, body,
spirit, family and land. Social Science & Medicine, 70(11), 1756–1764. https://doi.org/10.1016/
j.socscimed.2010.02.001

Activity 2.1

1 Can you identify any services in health or community services you are aware of where
Indigenous approaches are being used today? What might be some of the advantages of
adopting such approaches?
2 Can you think of any potential difficulties for health practitioners where traditional healing is
integrated with Western medicine? How might these be addressed?

The history of welfare

Social work and human services had their origins in Judaeo-Christian charity traditions, largely in
Europe. Looking back along the path of history to reflect on the origins of practice provides us with
useful lessons. We can trace the development of new theories and ideas, identify the beginnings of
formal education and training, and discover how social work and social welfare have been shaped
by their times. In this partial account of social welfare histories, we highlight a few key events that
illustrate how current policies and practices can be traced through history to gain a sense of the
traditions of practice and practitioners.
An important distinction, however, is between wellbeing and welfare. These terms are often used
interchangeably. This is because welfare is concerned with the wellbeing of individuals, families
and communities. In this chapter we look at the history of the welfare state, acknowledging that
a person’s wellbeing can be enhanced by the welfare provisions they receive from government and
non-government agencies.

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The idea of governments taking responsibility for giving assistance to those in need is thought
to have originated in the English Poor Laws of the seventeenth century. Before then, people who
were poor, disabled or sick were supported either by a feudal lord, who ruled their lives, or by the
church. In feudal times, most of the population were landless serfs who were bound to the aristocratic,
landowning hierarchy. Serfs had to work for the lord and pay taxes to him. They were bound in this
situation for life. In return they had a measure of security and protection, although life was certainly
difficult. When feudalism started to break down in the fourteenth century, efforts were made to create
a system whereby aid could be provided to the needy and a level of social control be maintained to
avoid uprisings or unrest.
What we might recognise as contemporary social work practice in the West emerged at the start
of the seventeenth century with the enactment of the first Poor Law: the English (Elizabethan) Acte
for the Releife of the Poore of 1601 (although more than 150 Poor Laws were introduced between this
time and 1834). This required local parishes to administer funds from local taxes for giving money
to people who could not work, finding work for able-bodied people and organising some form of foster
care or apprenticeships for orphaned children.
There were two later amendments to these laws. The first, in 1662, made a provision for returning
people who had become destitute or likely to be dependent on public aid to their former parish. This
greatly reduced the mobility of the ‘underclass’, who had to rely on begging or criminal activity to
survive outside their home parish, and preserved the social and political order. The second reform
in 1834, coinciding with the rise of the Charity Organization Society, curtailed the amount of relief
that could be given and controlled who would be given assistance and how much. It was a tougher
administration, reducing aid to below the lowest wage and making it available only to people working
in the workhouses. These moves were based on a social theory that saw individual hardship as resulting
from moral problems and not economic circumstances or the impacts of class structure.
The notion of the ‘deserving poor’ – that only people who fulfilled certain obligations deserved relief –
evolved from the administration of this reform. The focus was on categorisation and administration
of a fair system rather than giving assistance based on altruistic ideals. Thus, a distinction was made
between the ‘worthy poor’ – those who were unable to work because of sickness or disability, or who
were orphaned children – and the ‘undeserving poor’ – those who were assumed to be fraudsters and
malingerers, often referred to as the ‘able-bodied poor’.
The ‘worthy poor’ were usually housed in institutions or poorhouses, while orphans were fostered
out to families. This was termed ‘indoor relief’ in that the people were given housing (although they
received token care). The ‘able-bodied poor’ were dealt with through a system called ‘outdoor relief’
that prevented their admission to institutions, rather offering them minimal help in their homes or
placing them in prison. The purpose of outdoor relief was to punish rather than support people and to
deter others from applying for it. Although these laws were developed more than 400 years ago, and
Australia never introduced a Poor Law, the inherent assumptions and principles still resonate today.
Those earlier notions, including the ideas from the 1834 amendment about the ‘deserving’ and
‘undeserving’ poor, are expressed through contemporary claims about welfare cheating, ‘dole bludging’
or ‘malingering’. It can be argued that applying for help through contemporary income support systems
can often be experienced as an arduous and punishing process designed to deter rather than support.
Social workers are often at the forefront of assessing individual and family circumstances so that a
more holistic picture can be obtained to inform decisions about access to support. This assessment
goes beyond a focus on the individual to look at all impacting factors.

Activity 2.2

Think about what the Poor Laws were trying to achieve and compare this to the aims of some
current social policies, such as welfare reform.
1 In what ways are the aims of the Poor Laws and the current policies similar? In what ways
are they different?

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2 What are current policies trying to achieve?

3 How are people still seen as ‘undeserving’ in the current day? Can you think of any examples
of when this occurs, perhaps in health settings or when people need government income
support and benefits?

The emergence of the welfare practitioner

Who administered these early welfare programs? Who gave assistance and aid and visited the poor
and the sick? Who made decisions about which people were deserving of help, and who strove to
change systems that provided inequitable relief? The following sections will reveal the answers to
these questions.

Friendly visitors
The earliest social work or welfare practitioners were the so-called ‘friendly visitors’ who began
volunteering in the early 1800s and whose work continued into the early twentieth century. Friendly
visitors were usually middle-class women who visited poor and needy families in their homes and in
local neighbourhoods. They were motivated by Christian charity and a desire to reform the character
and modify the behaviour of the poor. Theirs was an investigative role – they had to determine
the root causes of poverty and assess what steps the family had taken to improve their situation,
whether the family had relatives to call upon, if alcoholism was a factor, whether the children were
cared for properly and so on. Friendly visitors had no formal training, initially, learning in a kind of
apprenticeship model. It soon became apparent, however, that formal instruction was needed, so
manuals were written for new visitors to follow.

Charity Organization Society movement

Beginning in England in the 1840s, the first Charity Organization Society, or COS as it came to
be known, was privately run and funded by philanthropists, with many of the friendly visitors
involved in its establishment. The COS, however, did not consider how external factors, like poverty,
discrimination and housing, affected quality of life. The organisations in each COS were staffed by
volunteers who provided direct service to people in need and coordinated community efforts to solve
social problems. The COS movement soon spread to the United States, Australia and other colonies and
formed the basis of many charities still in existence today. For example, in Australia, the Benevolent
Society has operated as a non-profit charity ever since it was established in 1813.
Using science, the various COS determined how to administer relief to those who most deserved it.
The period of the Enlightenment, beginning in the opening years of the eighteenth century in Europe,
heralded a rapid increase in scientific work and the use of scientific methods such as classifying and
gathering data to address all kinds of human problems. These methods were applied to relief and
charity by emphasising the need for detailed assessment of individuals and families and coordinating
services and aid. COS personnel also followed up their clients to ensure they were using aid properly
and were still in need. They collected detailed data on clients and resources and used this to analyse
broader social problems. This soon became more than mere ‘good works’ done by volunteers, and the
need for formal training of friendly visitors was quickly identified.
Mary Richmond, an advocate for formal training of early social workers, was heavily involved in
the COS movement in the United States. She was instrumental in establishing the New York School
of Philanthropy in 1898, which later became the Columbia University School of Social Work. She
wrote several books on the subject, of which the most famous is Social Diagnosis, published in 1917.
Her principles still underpin much of social work training today and she is widely acknowledged as
the founder of social casework.

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Settlement movement
The settlement movement began in London in 1884 at Toynbee Hall and soon spread overseas after
Jane Addams visited the London base and went on to found the movement in the United States.
Neighbourhood-based houses were established to bring together people of different socioeconomic
and cultural backgrounds to share knowledge, skills and values. It was expected that the volunteers
or workers would also live in the houses – hence they were called ‘settlement houses’. Jane Addams
established Hull House in Chicago in 1889 for the poor and disadvantaged as part of the movement.
She was the second woman to receive a Nobel Peace Prize. Unlike the philosophy of the COS, Addams
believed that problems resulted from environmental deficiencies, and she is regarded as the founder of
the social reform movement in social work. Many of the workers were young and idealistic graduates
who were committed to living and working either as volunteers or for a small stipend.
While the COS had adopted individual assessment and intervention methods, the settlement
movement approach was very different. It worked with people in the context of their environments
and used ‘macro’ approaches such as adult education or community development. Addams argued that
this was not just a difference of method but also reflected the clash between two ethical standards:
the cold, scientific approach of the COS visitor who determined moral worthiness, and that of the
movement, which focused on environmental factors and social reform (Fisher et al., 2013; Hopps &
Lowe, 2013). Both organisations, however, formed the basis of social work and human service work,
and their work still influences and informs training and education today.
Throughout the nineteenth century, charities continued to provide the majority of support for the
disadvantaged. The twentieth century heralded the beginning of formal training for welfare workers
and the emergence of the social work profession around the world. Mary Stewart was appointed to the
Royal Free Hospital in London in 1895 as the first trained social worker in Great Britain. In Australia,
trained welfare workers were first employed in 1929 when public hospitals took the first steps to paid
employment of these workers. They were known as almoners, and the positions were largely based on
British models. The Victorian Institute of Almoners was the first professional body of welfare workers
in Australia. Schools of social work emerged from these bodies in the late 1930s.

Towards the welfare state and beyond

Understanding the development of the welfare state requires a journey back to the First World War and
the Great Depression that followed. These events highlighted nationalist ideas such as that nations
were worth fighting for and the Great Depression brought into question the whole idea of a moral theory
of poverty; that is, thousands of citizens, hitherto deserving, hardworking people, were suddenly thrust
into unemployment and deep poverty through systemic and global factors, and not individual ‘fault’.

The welfare state and bureaucratisation

The period after the Second World War saw the rise of the welfare state in the United Kingdom and
its dominions. There was much investment in social administration, whereby energy and resources
went into social planning and developing social services. This provided the impetus to employ social
workers as service providers and managers. In the post-war period, professionalised practice was
advanced by university training and the development of professional bodies. During the 1960s, most
welfare jurisdictions increased the number of government positions for social workers and human
service personnel, a move that was reinforced by the professional bodies.
Other important advances in the United Kingdom resulted from the 1968 Seebohm Report, which
recommended reorganising social services to direct them to the wellbeing of the whole community.
In the late 1970s and 1980s, powerful ideological shifts under Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher
(‘Thatcherism’) and in the United States under Ronald Reagan (‘Reaganomics’) brought about the
downscaling of government welfare support and increased competition and privatisation of welfare.
In New Zealand this shift was especially profound, where managerialism and contractualism in public
administration were implemented to extremes (Easton, 1999), and social work was bureaucratised.

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Direct social action and politicisation

A strong tradition of socialism and radicalism in the twentieth century called for direct social
action, and during this period social work became politicised. The socialist movement of the early
twentieth century greatly influenced some sectors of social work. For example, community work
and radical practice approaches were influenced by the conflict model of social change, which is
based on the belief that the interests of the poor can only be safeguarded by using direct action to
confront power structures. In the United Kingdom, radical social work was promoted by the Case
Con manifesto in 1975, which held, for example, that individual casework diverted attention from the
structural causes of poverty, social work was an agent of social control, and social workers needed
to organise as separate from the state (O’Connor et al., 2008). These radical approaches gained a
strong following for a time, but lost traction due to their inability to alter the direction of public
policy. In the United States, the union movement was pivotal in corresponding developments. This
approach is still evident today in some social movements; for example, the disability rights movement
uses demonstrations and political action to push for the removal of barriers or the development of
antidiscrimination legislation.

Scrutiny, neoliberalism and managerialism

During the late 1970s and early 1980s, social work and human services came under increased
scrutiny. Some questioned the effectiveness of welfare services and raised doubts about whether
social work was a potent force for change. This period of scrutiny intensified through the 1980s
and 1990s as neoliberalism, managerialism and competition divided up different programs and
needs, which meant that human services became partialised. The number of government-provided
services diminished and many human services were contracted out, resulting in the strengthening
of private for-profit human services in prisons, child care, aged care and employment services.
Concepts of welfare reform and new public management resulted in strategies designed to focus
on efficiency and cost-effectiveness at the expense of equity and justice (Marston et al., 2014).
Without doubt, neoliberalism and its accompanying policies of small government, consumer
choice, individual responsibility, contestability and competition have had a profound impact
on the disadvantaged and how social work and human service practitioners do their jobs. These
agendas continue to play out in the present, although some now argue that neoliberalism has had
its day, having failed to deliver on its promises and become ‘the ideal cloak behind which to conceal
enormous shifts in Australia’s wealth and culture’, and thus the ideas of neoliberalism have become
contested (Denniss, 2018).
Over the last ten years the role of social workers and human service practitioners has been shaped
by managerialist demands for risk assessment, service audits and resource manipulation, often at
the expense of face-to-face work and deeper critical analysis. Social workers experience an increased
demand for specialisation in both knowledge and skills to work in more prescribed areas of intervention
(e.g. mental health). In the pursuit of legitimacy, social work as a profession is engaged in efforts
to hold a steady place in the complex interprofessional array of government and non-government
organisations, including the private sector. Additionally, practitioners are partnering with an
increasing number of service user and consumer groups in an effort to uphold anti-discriminatory
practices and policies, and advocate for social justice. At no other time in history has social work been
in such a position to assert its ability to respond to challenges passionately and with vigour. Gilbert
and Powell (2010, p. 4) state that ‘social work is essentially a political activity, constantly having
to respond to challenges that reflect dynamics produced by the shifting priorities of government’.
Essentially, social work in this decade has become scrutineer as well as scrutinised, and has managed,
despite many pressures, to survive continued threats to its legitimacy. At a time when professional
disciplines are vying for recognition of competencies and skills, social work and human services
continue to attend to the needs of those most marginalised while maintaining a stance that attests
to values of inclusivity, accountability and integrity.

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Globalisation and internationalisation

We can observe a number of changes in contemporary practice and practice contexts. Like most
aspects of life, social work and human services has become a more globalised profession, and there is a
growing internationalisation. Some welfare providers now operate on a global scale and practitioners
work across continental and national boundaries and thus have been mobilised. In China and many
former communist countries, including nations in Eastern Europe and South-East Asia, social work is
booming. Dozens of new schools of social work have been established, and professional associations are
growing in numbers and influence. By contrast, in Australia and New Zealand, ongoing managerialism
under the neoliberal agenda has produced a more casualised and de-professionalised human service
workforce (Healy & Meagher, 2004). Morley (2016) argues that social work education too has been
‘technicised’ at the expense of critical social theory in order to meet the demands of industry.

Digitisation
As well as being professionalised, bureaucratised, scrutinised, partialised, politicised, globalised and
mobilised, it could be argued that in the past decade social work and human services have also become
digitised. There has been a rapid rise in information technology and social media use that has seen
the emergence of many new forms of practice, including e-therapy, e-counselling, telehealth, online
social support groups, remote supervision by Skype online platforms, and more recently the use of
bots that rely on artificial intelligence and machine learning to undertake risk assessments.
The digitised world has created many new challenges for social workers as professional boundaries
are tested, ethical issues of privacy and confidentiality are highlighted, and records are now accessible
to many more partners in people’s care. The issues relating to digital impact as well as the need for
Refer to development of ‘e-professionalism’ in education and practice are explored further in Chapter 4. In
Chapter 4
addition to the challenges facing practitioners as they engage with technology in their work, there
is also a need for new knowledge about how users of services engage with and use technology in
Refer to their everyday lives. Bringing a new focus onto assessment of people’s networked lives is explored in
Chapter 8
Chapter 8.
The proliferation of data along with increasingly sophisticated technologies has also heralded the
use of predictive analytics in the human services. While human service organisations have used
descriptive data for some time, recently, we have had the capacity to use big data to be more proactive,
to determine the effectiveness of programs and to develop preventive interventions. Wareing and
Headrick (2013) predicted a drive to more inventive approaches through the 2010s to foster non-
traditional partnerships and develop creative financing models that invest in social outcomes along
with the use of big data. Models that employ some of these strategies to solve complex problems, such
as Collective Impact, emerged in the United States and were adopted in Australia in the mid-2010s.
We might understand this decade as one of creativity and innovation in response to human problems.

Political action and splintered communities

Over the last five years, there has been an unsettling development that may well further shift the
responses to social issues. There has been a sense of agitation as political parties and governments
seem to falter in developing and implementing policies and laws to take action on climate change;
deliver humane responses to First Peoples, refugees and asylum seekers; and address lack of housing
affordability. Increasingly the community services sector faces challenges in funding, resourcing and
delivering effective programs. Concurrently, we have seen increases in extremism and what has been
termed the ‘radical right’, with communities splintered. While these political imposts play out in their
own indulgent space, there is a movement of social innovation that is emerging, creating responses
more aligned to social justice goals.
In fields of disability, mental health, homelessness, domestic and family violence, and climate
change, those at the frontline of service delivery are not so quietly going about creating new responses
that address needs head on. Collective action is seeing a resurgence in an era of uncertainty, as people

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Surveying the landscape: historical and philosophical foundations for practice / CHAPTER 2

are drawn to others who share their views and values. An example is the co-design of programs
and interventions, where human services workers and those being assisted determine solutions
collaboratively. In many parts of the world, people recognise that building strong social and family
structures supported by concepts of collaboration and reciprocity is the best way forward for rapidly
ageing populations. As well, a number of social movements have emerged, particularly driven by
young people, demanding action on climate change. Further, individually allocating funding to people
living with disabilities provides more choice and autonomy in decision making. Understanding that
supported housing is a cost-effective solution to ending homelessness has given rise to many social
housing initiatives.

Marketisation and the gig economy

There has been discussion that neoliberalism is dying as the failures of the private sector in social
care are revealed in very personal and public ways; for example, through Royal Commissions into aged
care, disability and sexual abuse of children. Richard Denniss (2018) poses questions such as: ‘Why
are so many aged care residents malnourished?’ and ‘How did the big banks get away with so much?’
There has also been growing resentment regarding government inaction on climate change. How these
forces play out will undoubtedly influence the future of our community services. Our sector has become
marketised, with the rise of the so-called gig economy, whereby the labour market is characterised by
a prevalence of short-term contracts and freelance work rather than permanent jobs, which has begun
to affect the human services. Initiatives around innovation and change in the community services
sector are tackling the real challenges of investment reform: for instance, how do we invest for a social
dividend as a society rather than depend on diminishing government funding? After enduring the
ravages of managerialism, how can the community sector be reconnected with its roots in community?
The last nine decades of social welfare and human service practice are summarised in Figure 2.1.
The summary largely reflects movements in Australia, but similar patterns can be observed in
Aotearoa New Zealand.

Figure 2.1 Features of social work and human services from 1929 to the present

Time period Trends Features and developments

1929–1950s Professionalised • University education for social work

• Professional associations such as Australian Association
of Social Workers (AASW) are created
• Skill and technique development

1950s–1960s Professionalised • Growth of positions in government

and • Growth of bureaucracy
bureaucratised • The bureaucracy and the profession successfully reinforce each
other’s positions – the bureaucracy provides employment and
the profession is used to assert worth and importance

1970s Professionalised, • Commitment to social reform

bureaucratised • Debates about social work as an agent of change or an agent
and politicised of social control
• Influence of overseas movements (radical social work) and
work with Indigenous peoples
• Changes in the composition of the social work profession
(people of different political perspectives, of different
socioeconomic status)
• Changes in Australian politics (social welfare, national
concerns), numerous social reform programs after the
election of the Labor government in 1972
• New social work courses are developed
• Many new social work positions and new areas of working
(e.g. local government)
• Professional associations not growing as traditional
professionalism
Copyright 2024 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May is not
not be copied, scanned, appealing
or duplicated, to younger
in whole social
or in part. WCN workers
02-300
37
Late 1970s Professionalised, • Period of intense scrutiny
–1980s bureaucratised, • Questioning effectiveness of social work in the public arena
BK-CLA-MCAULIFFE_7E-230050-Chp02.indd 37
politicised and • Doubt and questioning of social work and social welfare 02/08/23 8:23 AM
scrutinised • Growth of human service courses
1970s Professionalised,
• Commitment to social reform
bureaucratised
• Debates about social work as an agent of change or an agent
and politicised
of social control
• Influence of overseas movements (radical social work) and
work with Indigenous peoples
THE ROAD TO SOCIAL WORK AND HUMAN SERVICE •PRACTICE
Changes in the composition of the social work profession
(people of different political perspectives, of different
socioeconomic status)
• Changes in Australian politics (social welfare, national
Figure 2.1 (Continued) concerns), numerous social reform programs after the
election of the Labor government in 1972
• New social work courses are developed
• Many new social work positions and new areas of working
(e.g. local government)
• Professional associations not growing as traditional
professionalism is not appealing to younger social workers
Late 1970s Professionalised, • Period of intense scrutiny
–1980s bureaucratised, • Questioning effectiveness of social work in the public arena
politicised and • Doubt and questioning of social work and social welfare
scrutinised • Growth of human service courses

1990s Professionalised, • Rise of market welfare

bureaucratised, • Ideas of competition
politicised, • Managerialism
scrutinised and • Privatisation
partialised • Outcomes and standards
• User pays
• Diminishment of the public sector

2000s Professionalised, • Ongoing impact of managerialism

bureaucratised, • Casualisation of human service workforce
scrutinised, • Growth of social work in former Eastern bloc and Asia
partialised, • Rise of international social work
politicised, • Growth of consumer partnerships
globalised and • Strengthening professional identity and legitimacy
mobilised, • Signiﬁcant advances in technology and online communications
digitised

2010s–2020 Splintered, • Further impacts of managerialism

marketised, • Contestability of services
contested • Data analytics
• Innovation in community sector
• Decline of neoliberalism
• Gig economy
2020–2025 Activised, • Demands for action on climate change
catalysed, • Increases in disaster social work practice
personalised, • Government policies mandating individual responsibility for
individualised health management
• Interprofessional solutions to tackling global problems
• Geopolitical shifts, tensions, wars and upheaval
• Explosion in artificial intelligence and machine learning
• Demands for fair, transparent and trustworthy political leadership

Activity 2.3

Some jobs in human services are now delivered on an individual contractual basis because of
privatisation and self-directed models of service delivery such as the NDIS.
1 What parts of the human services industry are currently moving to this model, and what areas
of social work and human service practice might remain under human service organisations?
2 Where do you think jobs and career opportunities will be in the human services of the future?
3 What skills might practitioners need, and what might be some of the dilemmas that will face
practitioners in these new models of care?

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Surveying the landscape: historical and philosophical foundations for practice / CHAPTER 2

Social justice and addressing global issues

Increasingly, there is recognition across professions about the need for interprofessional collaboration
in research, education and practice to solve global problems. We have seen an explosion in applications
and bots using artificial intelligence and machine learning to meet people’s individual needs. There
have also been demands, among citizens, for trust, transparency and fairness in government with
a focus on sustainability. In 2015, all member states of the United Nations (UN), agreed to the 2030
Agenda for Sustainable Development. This agenda includes 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)
that are centred around social, environmental and economic goals (as shown in Figure 2.2) and
are grounded in a commitment to people, planet, prosperity, peace and partnerships. The goals are
an urgent call for action. According to the blueprint, the goals ‘recognize that ending poverty and
other deprivations must go hand-in-hand with strategies that improve health and education, reduce
inequality, and spur economic growth – all while tackling climate change and working to preserve
our oceans and forests’ (UN, 2015). Social workers will be at the heart of making this happen. Social
justice is a key underlying value of this plan. The plan is particularly important given the significant
geopolitical shifts that have occurred with changes in governments across the globe, disrupting trade,
growing investment in defence, and geopolitical tensions and wars.

Figure 2.2 The Sustainable Development Goals wedding cake from Stockholm Resilience Center

Azote for Stockholm Resilience Centre, Stockholm University CC BY-ND 3.0.

This has occurred concurrently with rising costs of living and with natural disasters increasing
in frequency and severity. Social workers have drawn attention to the effects of environmental
degradation on human health and wellbeing, with some scholars advocating for the profession to
recognise not only the inherent value of the ecosystems in which humans are a part, but also their
innate value (Ramsay & Boddy, 2017). In 2019, the Australian Association of Social Workers
(AASW) declared a climate emergency, and in 2021 they released a Climate Action Statement. This
statement argues that climate change is a social justice issue, with the effects of climate change
most adversely impacting people who are marginalised and disadvantaged. The statement also calls
on governments around the world to act on climate change and listen to, respect and work with First
Nations people across the globe. Social workers have again become activised, this time to respond

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to the climate emergency, and we have been catalysed by the increasing frequency and severity of
disasters. Social workers have long been at the frontline of helping people to access support, housing,
financial assistance, and with long-term recovery as we work to prevent, prepare, respond and help
communities recover from disasters (Alston et al., 2019). We are becoming increasingly vocal about
the need for urgent action.
The impacts of f loods, bushfires, and terrorism have been exacerbated by the effects of the
COVID-19 pandemic that has radically changed and ravaged the world. Social workers have put the
spotlight on the mental and physical impacts of COVID-19, recognising that those most vulnerable
in society are most affected by it (Fronek & Smith Rotabi-Casares, 2021). Social workers have
found new ways to work during the pandemic, innovating in online delivery of services. However,
as Ashcroft et al. (2022) point out, this has not been without its challenges. Social workers in their
study in Canada reported that clients were presenting with increasingly complex problems, there
have been challenges in delivering care online, and social workers have had to work quickly to
adapt in-person services. This has been compounded by the emphasis of governments on people
needing to exercise personal responsibility for their own health and wellbeing. We are thus
at a crossroads where, as a society, we may move towards becoming more individualised and
personalised versus the need for a more collectivised response to the global problems humans
are facing.

The professionalisation of helping

As already discussed, social work emerged from the voluntary work of the friendly visitors and
almoners to become what is viewed as a highly educated profession today. It has historically been a
highly gendered profession, predominantly undertaken by women. This is in part because traditionally
in Western society caring has been seen as women’s work. In the past, this meant that women needed
to leave the profession when they had children as was standard practice in the public service and
many other organisations until the late 1960s. It also meant that social work has historically been a
lower-paid profession, although in recent decades this has changed.
The idea of human services is relatively recent when compared with the several hundred years
since the English Poor Laws. The term ‘human services’ is used worldwide to describe the breadth
of social welfare and community agencies and programs. Along with this, there has been a steady
growth in human service courses and numbers of practitioners. Just as social work has moved to a
professionalised status, a similar trend to professionalisation has occurred for human service work.
The idea of ‘profession’ has multiple meanings and is contested, especially in the social sciences. For
example, professionalism is seen as a form of elitism by some practitioners.
So, what do we mean by the terms ‘profession’, ‘professionals’ and ‘professionalisation’? In everyday
conversations about professions, we usually refer to traditional occupations such as law and medicine.
For social scientists, however, ‘profession’ has a particular meaning. Hodson and Sullivan (2011)
characterise a profession as having:
• abstract specialised knowledge
• a degree of autonomy
• authority over clients and subordinate occupational groups
• a certain degree of altruism.
We explore some of these characteristics in later chapters.

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Surveying the landscape: historical and philosophical foundations for practice / CHAPTER 2

Activity 2.4

1 Do you think that social work and human services are professions?
2 What characteristics do we share with professions such as medicine, nursing, psychology
and teaching?
3 Do you feel you are being prepared for a professional role?
4 How important is it to you that you are seen as a professional?

Around the turn of the century, some scholars argued that the distinction between professions and
non-professions was somewhat blurred and was no longer important. Shapiro (2000), for example,
posited that one of the impacts of the post-industrial labour market on human services was the
declassification of many positions and the consequent permeability of boundaries across different
professional groups and between professionals and non-professionals. For example, in the mental
health field, nurses, occupational therapists, psychologists and social workers all have generic
case-management roles. In employment agencies, workers without social work or human service
qualifications work with unemployed people to help them find jobs. However, more recently there has
been emphasis on interprofessional practice, whereby practitioners from diverse disciplines work
together to achieve positive outcomes for clients. This requires a recognition of the value of diverse
professions in solving real world problems.
However, the debate about what constitutes a profession continues. As early as 1915, Abraham
Flexner posed the question ‘Is social work a profession?’ at a conference on charities and correction
(Syers, 2013). He argued that social work failed to meet the essential criteria that he proposed were
characteristic of a true profession:
• a learnt character
• practicality
• a tendency towards self-organisation
• altruistic motivations
• individual responsibility
• being educationally communicable.
Social work met the first four but failed on the last two. Flexner claimed that social work was not
based on a scientific body of knowledge (McNutt, 2013; Syers, 2013).
The debate that ensued from Flexner’s proposition is still current. There are two main arguments
about professionalism and social work and human services. The first is that social work and human
service practice is not sufficiently based on evidence and that, to be considered a profession, more
research into practice and evaluation of outcomes is needed. We explore this further in Chapter 5. Refer to
The other argument is that social work and human services, being founded on ideals such as social Chapter 5

justice, should not adopt a professional elitist position that effectively disempowers those it intends
to support. This is a key argument for many community practitioners who see their role as working
alongside the community as it identifies its own goals and path rather than acting as the professional
expert who determines the ‘right’ way to solve problems.
The move to registration and licensing is another expression of professionalism. In many countries,
the registration of social workers has been required for some years – in the United States, Hong Kong
and Singapore, for example, registration is a prerequisite for membership of the professional body.
Aotearoa New Zealand and the United Kingdom have implemented registration in recent years.
Australia, however, is still to implement registration, although there is considerable support to do so. Refer to
Issues relevant to regulation of the social work profession are covered in Chapter 4. Chapter 4

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Key philosophies
Social work and human service practice is founded on a rich history and has been driven by social
Refer to values and philosophies. We discuss the value base of practice in Chapter 3. Here, we discuss two
Chapter 3 important philosophical foundations that are crucial to practice: social justice and human rights.

Social justice
A commitment to social justice is at the heart of social work and human service practice. Practitioners
work towards combating injustices that beset people, communities and entire nations because of
oppression, violence or exploitation, or simply the denial of basic human needs. The notion of social
justice comes from a range of philosophical theories or frameworks.
Three main ideas of social justice are summarised in the Encyclopedia of Social Work (Finn et al.,
2013). First is the concept of legal justice, which is concerned with what a person owes to society.
Second is the notion of commutative justice, which is about what people owe to each other and is
related to interpersonal equity. Third is the idea of distributive justice, which is about what society
owes a person. The third concept is most relevant to social workers and human service practitioners
because it deals with the allocation of basic resources, such as food, housing and health care. If the
way resources are distributed is unjust, it is more likely that legal and commutative injustices will
occur as well.
More recently, social workers have also engaged with the concepts of environmental justice and
ecological justice. Environmental justice is an extension of social justice in that it retains a focus on
people and is concerned with how environmental degradation affects people. For example, a social
worker practising from an environmental justice framework would advocate for people living in
polluted areas to have access to clean air and fresh drinking water. Ecological justice, however, goes a
step further, working towards justice not only for people but for all ecosystems, species and the planet.
According to Hudson (2019), ecological justice ‘honors a human-nature nexus paradigm in social work
from which both people and the natural environment can benefit, because they are equally valued as
contributing to a just and sustainable world’ (p. 487).
Deciding how resources should be distributed requires some rules or parameters. How do we decide
these parameters? Three views of philosophy, all very different, offer ways to make this decision.
The first is libertarianism, which focuses primarily on liberty and individual freedom. Libertarians
argue that people should be free from any coercion or oppression to obtain the resources they require
and to dispose of them as they please. Libertarians support a free-market economy and are opposed
to government intervention in redistributing resources, such as welfare rights.
The second view is utilitarianism. Utilitarians weigh up decisions about the distribution of
resources according to what will deliver the greatest good for the greatest number. The concept of the
‘greatest good’ is slippery and can be defined very broadly. For example, should we allocate resources to
increase the number of police in the community or assign funding to health care and adult education?
The final view is egalitarianism. Egalitarians adopt a moral position, arguing that we cannot justify
the common good if some people are forced into hardship or denied basic liberties. Egalitarianism is
based on the notion that a just society requires all its citizens to have the same basic rights. There
should be equality of opportunity and no inequality in power, income and other resources, unless for
the benefit of the worst-off members of society (Rawls, 1971). The egalitarian view is most sympathetic
to social and human service work.

Human rights
The principle of human rights underpins social work and human service practice. As discussed in
Refer to
Chapter 1, the fundamental purposes of human services are to combat oppression and to empower
Chapter 1 and liberate people so that they meet their needs and achieve their goals. Human rights are ‘those

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Surveying the landscape: historical and philosophical foundations for practice / CHAPTER 2

entitlements that people possess simply by virtue of their humanity’ (Nipperess & Briskman, 2009,
p. 62). Notions about the inherent worth of the individual and the right to self-determination – found
in codes of ethics for social workers and other human service practitioners – originate in discourses
on human rights.

Recommended reading
Androff, D. (2015). Practicing Rights: Human rights-based approaches to social work practice.
Routledge.
Ife, J., Soldatic, K., & Briskman, L. (2022). Human rights and social work practice: Towards rights-
based practice (4th ed.). Cambridge University Press.

Ife et al. (2022) argue that a human rights perspective is a powerful framework for practice. They
propose that three generations of human rights inform and guide practice. This three-generation
typology follows the historical evolution of different perspectives on rights. First-generation rights
emerged around the time of the Enlightenment and the rise of liberalism. Second-generation rights
originated in the social democracy and socialism of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Third-
generation rights – associated with environmental issues, economic sustainability and concerns of
colonised peoples – emerged on the world political scene during the twentieth century.
What are the implications for practice? The first generation of rights, often referred to as civil and
political rights, are regarded as fundamental to a fair and effective democracy and civil society. The
large number of rights in this group includes freedom of speech, the right to vote and the right to a fair
trial, citizenship, privacy and freedom of religious affiliation. Also covered are the rights to be treated
with dignity; to be free from discrimination, intimidation or torture; and to be safe in public arenas.
Sometimes these are called ‘negative rights’ because they need to be protected. They are regarded
as inherent in the individual and therefore are also sometimes called ‘natural rights’. The promotion
of first-generation rights tends to focus on preventing abuses and protecting rights rather than the
matter of granting or achieving the rights. First-generation rights often have legal and constitutional
guarantees, such as a bill of rights or laws to protect citizens.
In practice, the prevention of abuse usually rests with governments and legal processes. However,
social workers, community workers and human service practitioners also work within this framework.
For example, a practitioner working in a community development role may act to protect a group of
people from intimidation and harassment as they exercise their right to vote during a turbulent election
in a fledgling democracy. Working within privacy laws in an agency is based on the fundamental right
to protection of privacy.
The second generation of rights are economic, cultural or social rights. Examples of such rights
are individuals or groups receiving basic provisions such as food, shelter or housing; being given
employment or a fair wage; receiving an education; and adequate health care. These are referred to as
‘positive rights’ in that governments take a more active role to realise these rights. Second-generation
rights, therefore, usually require resources. Whereas first-generation rights often come from legal
guarantees, second-generation rights are less likely to do so. For this reason, second-generation rights
are debated more often because countries with fewer resources may not be in a position to provide free
education or adequate health care to all their citizens.
Finally, third-generation rights relate to a community or a population; they do not really apply at
the individual level. These rights only emerged during the twentieth century and are associated with
economic and environmental issues. Examples include the right to breathe clean air, have access to
clean water and to benefit from economic growth and world trade. These rights have arisen out of social
movements, such as those to promote self-determination for colonised people or to campaign about
environmental concerns. They are quite new on the human rights agenda and so do not yet have the
same level of support through international instruments or legal processes.
The UN has developed more than 190 conventions, declarations or treaties on human rights since
it first proclaimed the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948. These instruments address

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economic, social and cultural rights, as well as the rights of specific groups of people and particular
issues. For example, there are declarations that relate to women, children, workers, people with
disabilities, refugees, First Peoples and prisoners. Other instruments address particular conditions
and practices such as armed conflict, forced labour, prostitution, torture and statelessness. Many of
these instruments carry considerable weight and can guide and inform practitioners’ work.
In practice, human rights constitute a powerful grounding for social work and human service
practice. Many practice approaches are founded on a human rights framework. Some of these are
Refer to discussed in more detail in Chapter 5 but include, for example, anti-oppressive practice and anti-
Chapter 5 racist practice.
There is a strong connection between the concepts of social justice and human rights, and it is
important that this connection can be articulated. To put this in simple terms, ‘social justice is the
way that human rights are realised’, meaning that working towards social justice is a way of ensuring
that people have what they need to live a life that is productive, free from fear and discrimination, and
able to make use of opportunities for growth and change (McAuliffe, 2021, p. 62).

The use of power

Understanding the concept of power is critical to making sense of the interrelationships between
individuals, families and social systems and, therefore, it is a central theme of practice. No doubt
you have had power exercised over you by teachers, parents or bosses, for example. You too will have
exercised power over others. You instruct your children to do their homework or coerce your colleagues
into finishing a project at work. Power is ever-present in human relationships, although some people
or groups wield more than others.
We need to understand how power works in social work and human service practice in two ways.
First, we must be aware that many of the people we work with are disempowered by experiences and
systems, and second, we need to understand the dynamics of power in our working relationships
with people, families, groups and communities. It is important to understand the tension that exists
between the notions of social care and social control, which essentially links to concepts of power.
Gambrill (2013) describes social workers as working as ‘double agents’ (for the state and the client),
charged with responsibility for keeping people safe and maintaining the status quo (control) while
maintaining concern for people’s wellbeing and trying to provide optimal chances for growth and
change (care). Examples include a child protection worker who removes a child from a home that is
unsafe in the interests of caring for a family, or a mental health worker concerned about a client’s
risk of suicide who admits them to hospital involuntarily. This care/control dichotomy is one of
the inherent tensions in social work and human services practice and needs to be recognised and
understood. McComb (2020), reflecting on her own experience as a student and youth worker, described
how challenging it was to be ‘grappling with values of care and social justice that do not always lend
themselves to systems which can disempower and oppress’ (p. 425).
Many people who use human services are disempowered by other people or by systems through
personal, economic or social circumstance. They may not be able to pursue their chosen life goals
or access the necessary resources to live the life they would wish. They may be treated unjustly or
excluded from roles, resources and opportunities. As a practitioner, inevitably you will be in a position
of power and authority over those you purport to serve, and the tensions of social care and social
control will be part of the terrain you must learn to navigate.

Recommended reading
Beckett, C. (2016). Essential theory for social work practice (2nd ed.). Sage. (Particularly Chapter 6)
Lane, S. R., & Pritzker, S. (2018). Political social work: Using power to create social change. Springer
Link.
Sheedy, M. (2013). Core themes in social work: Power, poverty, politics and values. McGraw-Hill.

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What do we mean by power? The concept of power has always interested sociologists, philosophers
and politicians and has come to be understood in different ways. Early theories viewed power
as a commodity that could be transacted from one person to another. More recent theories have
acknowledged that there are many sources of power and ways in which power operates.
The mechanisms through which power is exercised include relationships, structures and forms of
knowledge. It has been long argued that knowledge is power (Freire, 1970) and that the way knowledge
is developed and used (discourse) is also a source of power in the social sciences (O’Connor et al., 2008).
For example, different discourses coexist and operate under different ideologies and assumptions. In
the disability sector, competing discourses include those that assume a charity focus (i.e. that people
with disabilities are to be pitied and protected) and those that assume a rights focus (i.e. that people
with disabilities should be afforded rights as fully participating citizens).
As practitioners, our sources of knowledge and power confer on us authority over many of the
people we serve. It is important for us to be aware that power can be understood in many ways and
takes many forms.

Types of power
Power can be conceptualised in many different ways although the various categories tend to be
contested by different authors. We present here the types of power you are most likely to encounter
in future practice, as outlined by Smith (1997).
Authority is a form of power whereby one person obeys another without question; such as how
soldiers obey their commanding officers. The power lies in the source of the order or command; that
is, in the status of the leader.
Direct physical intervention or force is applied to make a person or people behave in a certain way
or to change their actions; for example, when police use physical force to stop a riot. More extreme
examples include war or genocide. Coercion involves the threat of physical violence without violence
actually being used. A young person may be coerced into joining a gang by threats of violence if they
do not comply. Bullying is a form of power that can involve both coercion and force.
Less violent types of power include persuasion, whereby the virtues of taking a particular course
of action or the perils of not doing so are spelled out. During election campaigns, persuasion is widely
used to convince people to support a particular political party. Another form of power is inducement,
whereby a reward is offered for certain actions. Rewards can be material, such as money or goods in
exchange, or intangible, such as an award or approval for certain behaviour. Manipulation occurs when
persons hide their true intentions or identity to get another to do what they want. You might feel this
happens when you purchase a new appliance or car. The true features of the item may be hidden in
order to manipulate you to buy it.
But is power all bad? Foucault, one of the most influential and controversial twentieth-century
philosophers, had a different perspective on power, arguing that several forms of power should be
considered (Dean, 2010). Sovereign power was exerted by the monarch or the feudal lord; that is, it
existed within the individual. Anyone committing a crime was considered a threat to the sovereign
and had to be punished in a very public and usually violent way, such as by public execution, flogging
or being placed in the pillory, where they would be ridiculed, spat upon and publicly humiliated.
Foucault argued that, during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, a new form of power,
which he called disciplinary power, emerged. People were put under constant surveillance rather than
being physically punished. Over a relatively short period of time, torture was replaced by a system of
surveillance that worked on the psychology of individuals. Once you knew you were being watched,
you regulated your behaviour. This power was applied in prisons and asylums, and later in hospitals
and schools – even in factories.
Buildings were designed to maximise surveillance of the population. An example of this was
the panopticon designed in 1787 by Jeremy Bentham, an English philosopher and social reformer.
The panopticon was a circular tower or structure with prison cells radiating from the central point.

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The prisoners knew they were watched at all times by an unseen observer in the tower. Aware that they
were always subjected to the ‘gaze’ of the observer, the prisoners modified their behaviour accordingly.
In this way the exercise of power became automatic and very efficient. Whole populations of schools,
factories or hospitals could be managed by this approach.
The concept of the panopticon is still evident today in many human services. The nurses’ stations of
some hospitals or nursing homes are the central point and focus of all activity. A more recent example
is the use of computer technologies that have increased the extent to which a person’s activities can be
monitored, from using credit cards to getting a traffic fine, applying for welfare payments or borrowing
a book from the library. You may see other examples of this disciplinary power in human service
agencies or at university.

Power and empowerment

As practitioners, we need to go beyond merely understanding theories of power to applying them to our
practice – to move into action. How can an understanding of power be relevant to how we work? We
have briefly discussed the issue of gaining power through knowledge. One of our major roles in social
work and human service practice is that of educator or facilitator of the acquisition of knowledge. But
we also have power and authority vested in us by virtue of the positions we hold as helpers, and by
the disadvantaged and oppressed position of many of our clients.
Beckett (2016) outlines five varieties of power that are directly relevant to social work and human
service practice, which are shown Figure 2.3.
The abuse of power in practice has been debated and you will find many references to empowerment-
oriented practice and empowerment models of practice in the literature on human services (e.g.
DuBois & Miley, 2019; Rose, 2000). Empowerment is the process by which individuals, groups and
communities increase their personal, interpersonal and political power in order to improve their
situations (DuBois & Miley, 2019). Empowerment is also strongly related to social justice and to the
democratic ideal of citizens making decisions about their lives.
Before we begin to apply these ideas to practice, we need to understand the assumptions that
underpin empowerment. DuBois and Miley (2019) outline a number of assumptions. For example,
empowerment is a collaborative process between practitioners and those with whom they work. It
is based on the position that people are inherently competent and capable if they are given the right
resources and opportunities.
An empowerment approach requires that clients are able to change and define their own goals and
the means to achieve them. Building and maintaining informal social networks are highly significant
in this approach. Competence comes from affirming experiences rather than being told what to do. The
process of empowerment is dynamic and synergistic and, because problems are caused by multiple
factors, solutions need to be diverse and creative.
Rose (2000) suggests that empowerment can be conceptualised at five levels in practice: personal,
interpersonal, political, professional and organisational. We can apply this framework to the eight
Refer to domains of practice identified in Chapter 1. At the personal or individual level, empowerment helps a
Chapter 1 person to make positive changes. In work with families, partnerships and others at the interpersonal
level, empowerment-oriented practice works towards strengthening social networks. Working with
groups can involve collective action to influence governments; for example, by lobbying politicians or
voicing collective concerns. Empowerment approaches in community work usually involve working
alongside communities to support them in determining their goals and accessing the necessary
resources to achieve them.
For practitioners working in policy contexts, an empowerment approach means consulting with
interest groups and stakeholders affected by a particular policy, and then following through to include
recommendations in policy outcomes. Community work and policy practice can also involve political
action to influence government decisions.
In research and evaluation, an empowerment approach would use methods such as participatory
action research in which the participants are involved in all steps of the process, including

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Surveying the landscape: historical and philosophical foundations for practice / CHAPTER 2

Figure 2.3 Types of power

Legitimate power
Gained through rules and
oﬃcial roles, e.g. the power
to allocate in-home
supports through your
oﬃcial role as an aged care
needs assessor.

Coercive power Expert power

Gained through ability to Gained through being viewed
exert physical force or employ as having (but not necessarily
legal means to physically possessing) particular skills or
restrain or punish someone, knowledge, e.g. a social worker
e.g. a social worker may sign gives court evidence regarding
an application for someone to custody of children and their
be detained in hospital under recommendations are
mental health laws. Types of power followed.

Referent power Reward power

Derived from others’ This power is gained through
admiration and respect due one’s capacity to give
to personal qualities or rewards, e.g. the capacity to
social status, e.g. some determine eligibility for
clients may perceive human emergency accommodation
service professionals as may be seen as a ‘reward’ by
being of higher status and a desperate homeless
therefore more powerful. person.

determining the questions to research and how to collect the data. Emancipatory research seeks
to find liberating solutions to human problems, explicitly taking the side of oppressed people and
marginalised groups and ending inequality (Humphries et al., 2000). This approach, which has been
strongly advocated by disabled people and those living with mental illness, is expressed in the slogan
‘nothing about us without us’. For example, an emancipatory research project could be undertaken
in partnership by people with mental illness, carers, researchers and other stakeholders to bring to
attention the need for more community supports.
The domain of organisational practice, management and leadership is also one in which we can
apply empowerment-oriented principles. For example, as managers and leaders, we can work towards
creating service delivery systems that work in partnership with service users and provide access to
appropriate resources for service users to achieve their goals. This is often very difficult to sustain

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within large, complex human service organisations. In the example below, a practitioner in a large
bureaucracy relates how a particular approach empowered the clients of his agency.
Education and training is a central strategy for any empowerment approach. As discussed,
knowledge and power are associated. In education or training roles, teachers use empowerment
approaches; for example, by adopting principles of adult learning in which they start from the
capabilities of the learner and work in partnership with co-learners and co-teachers. Education
provides people with valuable information, such as where to access resources, and skills, such as how
to lobby for change or write submissions.

Practitioner perspective

Non-government organisations delivering specialist homelessness services are a crucial part of

Australia’s housing and homelessness service system. These organisations work in partnership
with the Commonwealth and state and territory governments to achieve policy goals of reducing
homelessness and, wherever possible, to end homelessness. These services reflect new
approaches such as Homestay Support, Homelessness Early Intervention Services, Street to
Home Services and supportive housing, including Common Ground as well as more traditional
homelessness responses, such as youth shelters, domestic and family violence refuges and
other forms of temporary supported accommodation and support services for homeless
people. All specialist homelessness services are required to provide case-management services
to clients and the focus of case management is to help the client to obtain a secure and safe
housing outcome and be able to maintain this housing and develop skills for independence
and self-reliance.
My role has involved working in a social policy and program development and management
context, supporting specialist homelessness services to achieve these policy goals and client
outcomes. The provision of case-management services, as part of the services provided to
homeless people or people who are at risk of homelessness, is critical to the achievement of
these goals. Social workers and human service workers are so well placed because of our training,
skills, knowledge and values base, which allows us to form effective relationships with clients.
This allows us to focus on ending a person’s experience of homelessness by finding housing
and support services. Homeless people are among the most disempowered and disadvantaged
groups in Australian society, facing many forms of social exclusion as they go about their day-to-
day lives. Practice can be both complex and challenging, but also rewarding when outcomes are
achieved with clients. It is so exciting to see frontline social workers and human service workers,
supported by their employing organisations and government policy, implement evidence-based
practice in a skilful way achieving goals and outcomes with clients, sometimes in the most
challenging of environments.
Shane Warren

Empowerment dilemmas and a move to power with

While signifying a collaborative and innovative approach, empowerment practice is also problematic.
The term ‘empowerment’ can have different meanings for different service users. The process can also
be taken over by powerful managers or professionals for their own agendas, and it implies that some
people can give power to others at their discretion, thus ignoring the structural and multifaceted
nature of oppression. Consequently, working in this way brings with it many challenges and dilemmas.
Fook (2016) identified that an underlying assumption of empowerment practice is a striving for
equality. But equality might mean ‘becoming the same’, and this could deny personal choice and a
valuing of difference. Therefore, in efforts to empower we could inadvertently oppress others in a bid
to achieve sameness. Fook warns that we need to be clear about asking the questions ‘empowerment
for what?’ and ‘for whom?’ so that we do not fall into the trap of perpetuating oppressive structures.

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Surveying the landscape: historical and philosophical foundations for practice / CHAPTER 2

There are cultural differences, too, about whether empowerment is valued, and the concept might
have different meanings in different cultural contexts. For example, Yip (2004) explains the strong
Western foundations of empowerment and argues for adaptation when applying it in different cultures.
He found that empowerment practice was adapted by social workers in Hong Kong, so they worked
towards empowerment of others, such as family members, as well as the individual. He identifies
how Confucian, Taoist and Buddhist interpretations of empowerment influence the practice of social
workers in Hong Kong. Values of harmony, gradual change and compassion run through Chinese culture
and have implications for empowerment. In cultures that value family roles and responsibilities to the
collective instead of the pursuit of personal goals, the empowerment of individuals can be difficult.

Practitioner perspective

As a social work student, I have revisited the importance and implications of properly understanding
the issue of power, particularly the misuse of power. As a woman who has experienced a
considerable degree of abuse of power in the past, I feel very strongly that social work as a
profession must fully understand and engage intelligently and compassionately with people who
have experienced powerlessness and abuse. When workers can’t clearly define or recognise the
signs and manifestations of power being used to manipulate, coerce or control individuals or
groups of people, they can inadvertently contribute to further harm and trauma to people in
highly vulnerable situations. Often people who misuse power hide behind well-concealed masks
and can hold responsible positions in society. In my own experience of powerlessness, I lost
my identity, personality and self-worth. I felt I lost everything and was highly misunderstood
and maligned, assaulted as a person, even though a hand was never raised against me. That is
the effect of misuse of power and why it is imperative for social workers to fully recognise and
understand this topic.
Tracey (new social work graduate)

Power with versus power over – including service user

perspectives
More service user voices are now heard in research, and there is considerable growth in literature that
explores client perceptions of the relationships between those engaged in providing and receiving
services. Westlake and Forrester (2016) revealed that parents involved in research about engagement
with children’s services in England found their participation helpful, even when some questions were
distressing. Some therapeutic value was therefore found in the research process itself. The quote
below is from a group of young people, published in the journal Ethics and Social Welfare, reflecting
on what they feel about good practitioners, and some of the differences they perceive between social
workers and youth workers. Certainly these young people are very aware of power and how it is used
to control them.

Social workers have more authority over young people such as what goes on in your life, for example in the
area of placements. We say this because if you are in the care of the local authority they will have a say on
where you will be placed, who you are allowed contact with and they will also decide on whether you are
ready to move on.
Social workers are perceived to be more professional than youth workers. There are many reasons for
this: they go to university to become professionally qualified and are paid a lot more money; everyone knows
how much power they have as social workers. Youth workers may have a say and young people may respond
better to the youth worker, but when it comes to it, who can make things happen? (Amy, Claire, Jordan &
Glen, 2010, p. 92)

An important part of working in the social and human services is ensuring that the voices of service
users are fully included in evaluating how programs are achieving their goals, what changes might
need to be made to services to increase inclusivity, and whether organisations are operating in ways

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that are respectful, anti-oppressive and in accordance with human rights and social justice principles.
Building these service user relationships into the operations from the outset will ensure that there is
a much more reciprocal experience for both clients and practitioners. This is because there is also an
unavoidable power imbalance between practitioner and client. Parker et al. (1999), following Foucault’s
ideas, suggest that we need to understand how power relationships produce and are produced by
the discourses of all parties. Practitioners need, therefore, to be open to different interpretations of
situations and to resist expressions of power in society.
Much of contemporary practice is constrained by organisational and policy agendas that may
effectively disempower the people we serve. In this situation, we need to determine which aspects of
the helping relationship we do have power over. Many practitioners speak of trying to ensure that their
relationships with clients are founded, as much as possible, on respect and mutual collaboration. In
many cases, practitioners become the advocate for their clients within the organisation or agency. The
notion of power with clients rather than power over them is perhaps a more constructive framework to
explore power and how it is used. This idea of negotiated or reciprocal power, rather than hierarchical
and imbalanced power, resonates more strongly with social work and human service practice (Bundy-
Fazioli et al., 2009). In our work both the client and the worker have active roles and responsibilities
in the helping process of change.

STUDY
TOOLS

Conclusion
We have surveyed the landscape of social work and human service practice: its historical roots and philosophical
and ideological foundations. History has shaped contemporary human services and some themes recur as societies
grapple with the scope and causes of human problems. The key philosophies of social justice and human rights have
contributed significantly to both the purposes of practice and how practice is undertaken. Part of the challenge for
us as practitioners is to retain a social justice and human rights perspective in all that we undertake, especially
when faced with very different ideologies in the broader society and specifically in our workplaces. Appreciating
power dynamics and processes and how to work towards the empowerment of oppressed and marginalised people
are also pieces of the practice landscape in which you will work. The importance of values in practice is discussed
in more depth in the following chapter.

Questions
1 What were the English Poor Laws and how did they respond to the social needs of the time? What are some of
the more contemporary constructions of ‘deserving’ and ‘undeserving’ poor?
2 What were some of the key features of the Charity Organization Society movement and settlement houses?
How have these influenced current practice and what are some examples?
3 What were the main trends in the development of social work and human services from the 1920s to the
present day? What are some of the impacts of technology in relation to human services?
4 What are some of the characteristics of Indigenous caregiving and healing? Do you think there is any evidence
of these practices today?
5 What are the two important philosophical foundations that underpin practice? How would you explain the
concepts of social justice and human rights? How are these concepts interrelated?
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Surveying the landscape: historical and philosophical foundations for practice / CHAPTER 2

6 What are the dilemmas of the empowerment approach? What is your understanding of the concept of ‘power
with’? How might you work to acknowledge power in relationships with others, and strive to ensure this power
does not disempower others?

Weblinks
UN Declaration of Human Rights NASW Social Work Pioneers (USA)
https://www.un.org/en/universal-declaration-human- http://www.naswfoundation.org/pioneers/default.asp
rights Australian Policy Online
http://www.apo.org.au

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3
CHAPTER
Locating the lighthouse:
values and ethics
in practice

Chapter 3
Locating the lighthouse
This chapter focuses on
values and ethics in
practice Making ethical decisions

What informs my practice?

Challenges
in diﬀerent
Moral philosophy Ethical theories Values
ﬁelds

Uh oh! I’m in ethics territory!

Ethical Ethical Ethical Making my

issue problem dilemma decision

Ethical
decision
making
models

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THE ROAD TO SOCIAL WORK AND HUMAN SERVICE PRACTICE

Aims

• Understand the influence of moral philosophy in practice

• Explore ethical theory and its application
• Outline the value base of practice and contested territory
• Identify ethical challenges in the eight domains of practice
• Explore models for ethical decision making

Introduction
The lighthouse has long been a symbol of guidance. It sends out a beacon of light to travellers to warn
of potential danger lying ahead. If social work and human service practice needs a lighthouse – and
we argue strongly that it does – then logically this means that practice involves potential hazards and
that practitioners need to be aware of the threats, risks and perils that threaten effective practice.
Just as the lighthouse exposes these threats, it also lights a clearer path ahead. These opportunities
Refer to and threats are twofold. First, as we have seen in Chapter 2, as a social or human service worker,
Chapter 2 inevitably you are, by virtue of your education and employment, in a position of either real or perceived
power. How you choose to use this power depends on how you conceptualise your role in relation to the
people you work with. Misusing or abusing power, overtly or covertly, has the potential to harm others,
particularly those who are vulnerable, marginalised or dependent as a result of personal, economic or
social circumstances. While you are in a position to engage in effective practice and will have many
opportunities to do so, you also have the potential to do harm. While no one likes to think that they
could cause harm to others, the first threat in occupying a position of power is to others. A strong
internalised sense of the accepted values underlying social work and human service practice can
safeguard against this. So too can a practice framework that clearly includes an ethical dimension,
thus allowing ongoing scrutiny of values and beliefs that might influence practice.
The second set of opportunities and threats relate to your identity as a worker. Throughout your
career you will have opportunities for continued development of your knowledge and skills. You
have an ethical responsibility to ensure that your practice is based on solid foundations. There is,
however, a danger that you could end up in ‘deep water’ because you have not taken sufficient care
of yourself and have failed to keep up with new knowledge or develop your skills through ongoing
professional development and supervision. Again, an awareness of your own value positions and the
ethical dimensions of practice will strengthen your ability to make decisions in the best interests of
others and of yourself as a worker.
The term ‘ethical literacy’ has been defined by McAuliffe (2021) as a prerequisite for professional
practice. An ethically literate practitioner will have a clear understanding of professional
integrity, appropriate conduct, personal and professional congruence, and a commitment to
transparent and accountable practice. This will ensure sound judgement, responsible decision making,
and good awareness of ethical responsibilities. Developing good ethical literacy will help you to
view situations through an ‘ethical lens’, ensuring that knowledge and skills are also founded on
strong values.
It is important to understand that social work and human services practitioners rarely work in
isolation, and in fact most practice takes place in agencies and organisations that have many staff
from different disciplines. The field of interprofessional ethics is becoming increasingly important,
as professionals learn not only about their own ethical positions and codes of ethics, but also the
ethical positions of others. Understanding the values of other members of a multidisciplinary team, for
example, can assist in reaching consensus when difficult decisions need to be made with clients, their
families and others. Conflicts can arise when there is lack of understanding of the positions of others,
and this can result in tensions within teams that may not be conducive to good outcomes (McAuliffe,
2021). In a hospital setting, for example, a social worker, a nurse and an occupational therapist may

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be involved together in discharging an elderly man from hospital following a heart attack. Physically,
there may be no reason for the patient to be kept in hospital and the nurse has another person in urgent
need of the bed. The occupational therapist has assessed the patient as ready for discharge but needs
a carer in the home to ensure compliance with medications. The social worker has just discovered
that the man’s wife has taken the opportunity of her husband’s hospitalisation to go on an overseas
holiday, so there is no carer waiting for him. Think about how the discussion between these three
professionals might proceed and what value positions might be highlighted.
In Chapter 1, you were encouraged to explore your motivations and reasons for choosing this path Refer to
of study and were reminded that you bring with you a range of values, beliefs and attitudes about the Chapter 1

world and about how people relate to each other, born of life experience, socialisation and cultural
expectations. In this chapter, you will read about the contested nature of social work and human
service values and ethics, and examine the ethical foundations of the work from a philosophical and
professional base.
Chapter 4 explores internationally recognised ethical principles, professional associations and Refer to
practice standards, ethical codes and issues of regulation. Fortunately, some of the best literature Chapter 4

guiding and informing practice has been written by practitioners and academics with a passion for
human rights and ethical practice, who are committed to laying a clear path for workers of the future. A
prime example of this scholarship can be found in The Routledge handbook of social work ethics and values
(Marson & McKinney, 2019) that has brought together more than 80 chapters from an international
collective of writers. The literature on moral philosophy, values and ethics; ethical decision-making
models; and ethical codes and standards of practice collectively are the beacon that guides us towards
understanding the importance of the moral and ethical foundations of practice.

The influence of moral philosophy in practice

It would be a rare person who has not had the experience of being in a conversation that has turned
to such questions as ‘What is the meaning of life?’, ‘Why do people suffer?’ and ‘Why are there such
extremes of wealth and poverty in the world?’ In the current environment of civil and political unrest
in many parts of the world and increasing concern about how we should live a moral life as individuals
and as a global community, attention turns to such troubling topics as the legitimacy of war, the
management of refugee crises, the legalisation of euthanasia, capital punishment, human trafficking,
genetic manipulation, and the use of animals for research purposes. As Marinoff (2003, p. 3) says,
‘Human beings want and need to make sense of things that happen – or don’t happen – in the short
run as well as over the long haul. Our ability to inquire is our primary means to that end. People ask
even more questions in times of tribulation; the tougher the situation, the bigger the questions. But
ironically, the answers we seek most urgently are sometimes the hardest to find.’
One of the central questions to plague human service workers is how best to understand the
nature of humanity, human behaviour and interactions between people. In other words, why are we
as humans the way we are and why do we do the things we do? This is why courses that explore
human behaviour and the stages of development across the lifespan are important in early years of
social work and human services curriculum. Looking back at the lives and thoughts of many early
philosophers, we see that these scholars spent their lives considering the nature of humanity, truth,
freedom and love and exploring relationships between individual freedoms, obligations, duties, rights
and the public good. We have much to learn from the story of moral philosophy and can be guided by
the ideas and propositions attributed to these scholars. We now explore the contributions of classical
and contemporary philosophers to our understanding of ethics and consider their relevance to social
and human service work.
One common underlying assumption in contemporary moral philosophy, as viewed from a Western
perspective, is that in liberal democratic states humans are free and autonomous individuals and this
autonomy is to be respected (Charlesworth, 1993). From this standpoint, philosophers have debated
notions of human rationality, individual liberty and freedom, and the meaning of justice, virtues and
values, means and ends, right and wrong, good and bad. The Western bias in philosophical literature

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has been balanced by the inclusion of many different cultural and world views. First Peoples’ and
Eastern cultures bring a rich diversity to the moral philosophy story. Wolfe and Gudorf (1999), for
example, explore 18 cases of ethical conflict from a range of cultural and religious perspectives
including Islamic, Jewish, Christian, Baha’i, Confucian, Yoruban (African), Hindu, Buddhist and
Voudou. Indigenous worldviews that focus on the importance of connectedness, kinship, communalism
and spirituality are more recent additions to the literature and provide an alternate perspective
to more individualistic Western paradigms (Fejo-King, 2014). Indigenous worldviews have some
important differences from Western worldviews; for example, the belief that human beings are not
the most important in the world; comfort is measured by the quality of relationships rather than the
achievement of goals; time is non-linear and cyclical rather than structured and future-oriented;
society is spiritually oriented rather than scientific and sceptical. The concepts of cultural competency
and cultural safety refer to the ability to try to see across worldviews so that different ways of viewing
the world can be acknowledged and incorporated into a deeper understanding of and respect for these
differences. Funston (2013) describes the sorts of practical issues that should be attended to when
working in spaces like child sexual abuse and family violence in Indigenous communities that require
an awareness of Indigenous worldviews. An example here is the need to view violence as a product of
the socio-political context rather than as a product of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander culture. She
states: ‘Not only does ongoing colonial and postcolonial oppression create the context for interpersonal
violence to occur, but it also creates innumerable barriers for victims of abuse to disclose violence and
receive effective support’.
Philosophers from many places and periods in history have deliberated on issues of health,
welfare and justice, which continue to be of direct concern to our contemporary systems. The
ancient philosophers were concerned with understanding human nature and finding the balance in
both behaviours and social relations. The process of reflection was emphasised, so many of these
philosophers were introspective in their search for meaning.
With the advent of Christianity and the rise of the church and state as powerful social institutions,
philosophers of later centuries were concerned with the relationship between laws of religion and
laws of politics. During the period of the Enlightenment, the pursuit of truth through science and
reason was emphasised. The concepts of justice, rights, morality, and equality and egalitarianism
were examined by philosophers.
Philosophers of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries paved the way for philanthropic endeavours
and social reform with their thinking about the structural issues of oppression and exploitation based
on class, race and gender. Much of the sociological, feminist, anti-oppressive and postmodern theory
that now influences human services was developed and expanded by the following philosophers. The
philosophies of social reform are summarised in Table 3.1.

Table 3.1 Philosophies of social reform

Ancient philosophers
Confucius Advocated the pursuit of excellence in personal and public life and spoke of ways to achieve
(551–479 BCE) harmonious living
Siddhartha Gautama, or Buddha A teacher who founded Buddhism and taught ways to achieve enlightenment through compassion
(563–483 BCE)
Socrates Emphasised the importance of asking questions and actively engaging with dialogue – ‘the
(c. 469–399 BCE) unexamined life is not worth living’
Plato Deliberated on human nature, virtues as desirable character traits, the meaning of moral health, the
(c. 428–348 BCE) concept of the social good and relationships between individuals, the state and morality
Aristotle Explored rational emotions and desires and clarified the concept of moral responsibility.
(384–322 BCE) Was concerned with finding the ‘golden mean’ – the avoidance of extremes
Theano of Croton Believed that women had responsibility for creating harmony and order – it was ‘better to be on
(c. 546–? BCE) a runaway horse than to be a woman who does not reflect’

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Table 3.1 (Continued)

Enlightenment philosophers
Thomas Hobbes (1588–1679) Wrote on self-preservation and self-interest and believed that people are inherently hungry
for power
David Hume (1711–1776) Wrote on justice and property rights and believed that ideas are not innate
Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712–1778) Championed equality, egalitarianism and education and wrote on the corruption of innocence
Immanuel Kant (1724–1804) A rationalist who tried to ascertain definitions of ‘reason’. He discussed (among many things)
suicide and the issue of truth-telling
Jeremy Bentham (1748–1832) Wrote on punishment and legal reform. He was the founder of utilitarianism, the concept of
‘the greatest good for the greatest number’
Mary Wollstonecraft (1759–1797) Wrote about the need to abolish inequalities based on wealth, class and gender
John Stuart Mill Contributed greatly to works on liberalism, toleration, paternalism and early feminist
(1806–1873) developments. He strongly advocated freedom of speech and individual responsibility
Philosophers of social reform
Karl Marx (1818–1883) Both an influential philosopher and social scientist, who wrote about class struggle, oppression
and exploitation
Jane Addams (1860–1935) Advocated pacifism and argued for women’s right to education. Was one of the early founders of
social work, and was awarded a Nobel Peace Prize in 1931
Mahatma Gandhi (1869–1948) Advocated non-violent responses to oppression
Martin Buber (1878–1965) Wrote on the reciprocity of human relationships
Jean-Paul Sartre (1905–1980) Believed strongly in individual responsibility
Hannah Arendt (1906–1975) Wrote about oppression based on class, race and gender
Simone de Beauvoir (1908–1986) A philosopher and feminist, wrote on the social consequences of the difference between the sexes
Antonio Gramsci (1891–1937) Post-Marxist critical theorists who wrote about power and exploitation
Herbert Marcuse (1898–1979)
Roland Barthes (1915–1980)
Michel Foucault (1926–1984)
Iris Marion Young (1946–2006) A political theorist and feminist who promoted political action and wrote on the ‘five faces of
oppression’: exploitation, marginalisation, powerlessness, cultural domination and violence
Peter Singer (1946–) An Australian utilitarian philosopher, writes controversially on such topics as animal liberation,
abortion, infanticide, euthanasia, world poverty and affluence
Nancy Fraser (1947–) A critical theorist and feminist philosopher who writes on justice and injustice, and challenges
structural forces of gender domination in capitalist societies
Joan Tronto (1952–) A professor of political science who writes on the ethic of care and how this applies to caring
institutions, and to democratic processes in the giving and receiving of care

The lives, philosophies and contributions of these women and men of history have been well
documented (Billington, 2003; Pojman & Vaughn, 2010; Waithe, 1995), but our task is to make links
between literature on moral philosophy and that on social and human sciences. These philosophical
underpinnings are relevant to social and human service work as they provide us with ways of
understanding the world and are a starting point for analysis of human behaviour, social systems,
welfare state instrumentalities, politics and power, gender roles and the influence of class, race and
religion on human interactions. They also can become incorporated into a practitioner’s value base and
framework for practice. We argue that we are all ‘philosophers’ of the social sciences in that we make

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it our business, as have ancient and contemporary philosophers, to ask questions and to ‘go deeper’.
As Billington (2003, pp. 3–4) stated in relation to those who might call themselves a ‘philosopher’:

He or she will look and reflect beyond the headlines of the daily newspaper, above the reverberations
of the self-assured know-all, and will feel uneasy when encountering glib answers to complex questions.
Instead, one will look for underlying attitudes which influence opinions, create points of view, and determine
ideologies – which in their own turn, may establish procedures. The philosopher will ask ‘Why is this so?’
when faced with an affirmation; ‘Are you sure?’ when reacting to a wild statement; ‘On what grounds do you
go along with this?’ when confronted with an attitude. For the philosopher, few points of view are likely to be
totally cut and dried, right or wrong.

This is exactly what we as workers should be doing when we begin to engage with the attitudes,
opinions and expressions of belief of others. How we manage this influences whether we can work
effectively with others in a way that is consistent with the expectations of the value base of the
helping professions.

Recommended reading
Banks, S., & Nohr, K. (2012). Practising social work ethics around the world: Cases and commentaries.
Routledge.
Morley, C., Ablett, P., Noble, C., & Cowden, S. (2020). The Routledge handbook of critical pedagogies
for social work. Routledge.

Exploring ethical theory and its application

Ethical theory is a way of applying moral philosophy to contemporary situations. There is a broad range
of perspectives on human nature and the relationship between individual freedoms and the role of the
state, the law and public good. As social and human service workers, we need to think through what
we believe about humanity and the ways that people behave and to explain relationships between
people and their social environments. Theories offer us many ways of viewing the world, and ethical
theory gives us ways of articulating and justifying decisions that have a moral or value basis to them.
Using knowledge of ethical theory can help with ethical decision making, which is an important skill
in all fields of practice.
Anyone who has delved into literature on moral philosophy and ethical theory knows that it is
highly complex and contested terrain that raises more questions than it answers. The purpose here is
to give a brief overview of some of the main ethical theories that help explain situations that might
be encountered in practice. A distinction can be drawn between different levels of ethical thought.
The term metaethics refers to the broader philosophical questions that relate to whether certain
phenomena exist (e.g. morality, love, truth and duty). These questions plagued early philosophers and
continue to generate debate in contemporary times. How we understand ‘truth’, for example, is often
called into question when there are so many assertions about the place of ‘fake news’ in the digital era.
We are more concerned at the practice level with what is referred to as ‘normative’ or ‘applied’
ethics – theories that guide our conduct and assist us to make decisions based on a philosophical
premise about what is morally right or wrong (Reamer, 1993). The term ‘applied ethics’ also commonly
refers to specific areas of interest, such as euthanasia, bioethics or environmental ethics. As an
example, take a situation in which a youth worker is confronted with a 13-year-old runaway who
has been exposed to unsafe situations on the streets. The youth worker has to decide whether to
contact the teenager’s parents. A metaethical reflection centres on what is the meaning of duty and
paternalism, what is the moral obligation of citizens, and whether it is even a ‘moral’ situation at all.
A normative ethical response would centre on the worker’s duty of care responsibilities and would
weigh up whether issues of a young person’s rights, self-determination or confidentiality, as well as the
rights of parents, should be considered before ultimately deciding on a course of action. How situations
with a moral dimension are debated and dealt with relies on how we make sense of what we believe
about ‘right’ and ‘wrong’ and what factors we believe are worthy of consideration.
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A range of ethical theories help us to articulate our thoughts about what is important. Ethical
theories are essentially either consequentialist or non-consequentialist; that is, the theories either
take possible consequences of actions into account or they see consequences as irrelevant. The most
commonly referenced ethical theory that is not concerned with possible consequences or outcomes
is deontology. This theory originated from the work of Immanuel Kant and is often called ‘Kantian
ethics’. Deontology considers that what is right is determined by duty, rights or obligation; it assumes
that human beings are rational and that moral rules are universal and will apply across all cultures and
times (e.g. ‘do not lie’ or ‘do not kill’). In the example of the young person above, a deontologist might
argue that a youth worker confronted with an at-risk runaway teenager should always immediately
inform the parents, as they have the right to know if their child is in danger. This would apply in all
situations regardless of possible consequences.
According to Preston (2014, p. 41), there is a ‘criterion of universal reciprocity’ inherent in
deontological theory, which is summarised as ‘do unto others as you would have them do unto you’.
The position of youth workers would therefore be determined by what they would expect to happen
if it was their child who was the runaway. Deontology is an absolutist position that emphasises the
importance of respect for people and places value on people being autonomous and responsible for
their own decisions but does not take cultural considerations or circumstances into account. Critics
of this approach cite inflexibility, excessive reliance on human rationality, and lack of consideration
for contextual factors as problematic.
The other main ethical theory is known as teleology or consequentialism. Subscribers to this
theory consider consequences and circumstances to be of greater importance than prescribed duty or
obligation. Under the teleological (or consequentialist) umbrella are utilitarian theories, advocated by
philosophers such as John Stuart Mill and Jeremy Bentham. As discussed in Chapter 2, utilitarians Refer to
believe in the ‘greatest good for the greatest number’, the maximisation of pleasure over pain, and make Chapter 2

decisions based on weighing up alternatives. In our example, the youth worker would get information
about the teenager’s circumstances to establish whether contacting the parents would cause more
harm than good. Rules, duties and obligations would be secondary to consideration of consequences.
One problem with utilitarianism is that the most marginalised and oppressed are often overlooked in
calculations about what actions are for the greater public good.
Other theories, in addition to deontological and utilitarian ones, focus on character and virtues
(virtue ethics); relationships and collaborations (feminist ethic of care); protection of civil, human,
legal and political status of individuals through a social contract (contractarianism); and the viewing
of individuality as part of a community (communitarianism). Each of these theories has its own
philosophical premises and poses questions of great relevance for social work and human services.
Virtue ethics (from the Aristotelian tradition), for example, considers what character traits and virtues
are most desirable for those who aspire to be good moral citizens. If we ask ourselves what character
traits are desirable for social workers, virtues such as compassion, honesty, integrity and tolerance
would come to mind. Hugman et al. (2020) add in virtues such as courage, hope, perseverance, humility,
resilience and practical wisdom. Webb (2010, p. 113) argues that ‘the practice of virtue is developed
through experience, reflection and circumspection, which are the very stuff of good social work’. The
‘ethic of care’, discussed by Carol Gilligan in her critique of the work of Lawrence Kohlberg, a renowned
moral development theorist, considers whether women and men have different ways of engaging in
ethical reasoning. The ethic of care approach moves beyond the focus on the individual to consider
the individual in their relationships with significant others and in their sociopolitical context. The
central question to be asked in ethical decision making is not about what is right or just, but what a
caring and compassionate response would involve. Writers such as Joan Tronto (1993, 2010), a political
scientist, take this concept a step further to argue that caring must also be placed within a political
context and there are differences between caring that happens within family systems, and those
that happen within institutional systems. Contractarianism, espoused by philosopher John Rawls,
focuses on social order and the agreements that people have with each other about how they should be
governed in relation to principles of justice and fairness. The ‘veil of ignorance’ scenario proposed by

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Rawls (2001) asks one to consider how they would design a society if they did not know what place they
would have in it. This is an interesting way of considering the value of equality, wealth, wellbeing, and
how (or whether) these should apply to all or to some and on what criteria. Communitarianism, a theory
advanced by Alistair MacIntyre, is like the feminist ethic of care and utilitarianism in some respects;
it requires us to look more closely at social context and the notion of the common good and posits that
‘justice finds expression in the social and associational life of human communities through community
partnerships and local capacity building’ (Preston, 2014, p. 53). This communitarian concept aligns
well with some of the Indigenous worldviews discussed earlier in its focus on human connections, but
perhaps does not go as far in connections to the natural world.

Activity 3.1

1 Are there particular ‘rules’ that you think are universal; that is, should they apply to all
cultures and times?
2 Are there any exceptions to these rules? Think, for example, about the saying ‘honesty is the
best policy’.
3 Do you agree that ‘honesty is the best policy’? Are there situations in which lying is justifiable
or even desirable?
4 Can you think of situations that might require different responses depending on accepted
cultural norms, for example discipline of children or care of the elderly?

The reality of practice is that we combine these ethical theories when we decide how to manage
ethically challenging situations. While following the rules, obeying the law or abiding by agency policy
(all of which are dominant within managerialist contexts) may win out in one situation, circumstances
and possible consequences may still have been considered. Social workers are trained to pay close
attention to social context, locating the person within their environment and balancing issues of
justice with issues of care. It is this focus that differentiates social and human service disciplines from
others like psychology. A multitude of factors influence the way we work and become integrated into
what we discuss later as our ‘frameworks for practice’. We now explore in more detail the underlying
values that are important in focusing our attention on the best interests of others as well as some of
the debates about the definition of these values.

Recommended reading
Hugman, R. (2013). Culture, values and ethics in social work: Embracing diversity. Routledge.
Hugman, R., Holscher, D., & McAuliffe, D. (2023). Social work theories and ethics: Ideas in practice.
Springer.
Marson, S. M., & McKinney, R. E. (Eds.). (2019). The Routledge handbook of social work ethics and
values. Routledge.
Reamer, F. G. (2018). Social work values and ethics (5th ed.). Columbia University Press.

The history of values and ethics

It is interesting to look at how the following terms are defined in the Oxford English Dictionary,
particularly as they are often used interchangeably in literature. Values are standards of behaviour;
principles are rules or beliefs governing one’s personal behaviour; morality is concerned with the
difference between right and wrong; and ethics are the moral principles that govern a person’s behaviour
or how an activity is conducted. Looking at these definitions, we see that what we are concerned with
are the expectations we have of ourselves and of others about our actions and behaviour, as well as
the rules we use to distinguish between right and wrong. On closer exploration, right is defined as
‘morally good or justified’, while wrong means ‘unjust, dishonest or immoral’. Given that social and
human service work is all about promoting social justice and because our mandate is to challenge
unjust systems, it is logical that we should be concerned in a major way with values and ethics.
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Surveying historical literature about the development of the value base of helping professions
shows that, over time, many writers have struggled to lay down foundational values. These values
are the bedrock of what is commonly accepted as professional practice, a concept introduced in the
previous chapter and which underpins the various ethical codes and standards of practice developed
in many countries.
Frederic Reamer (1998), writing in the North American context, detailed the evolution of social
work values and ethics and delineated four distinct periods. Starting with what he terms the ‘morality
period’, he identifies the time (late nineteenth century) in which those concerned with charitable
works were predominantly concerned with the deservedness or morality of clients. As we saw in
Chapter 2, the early almoners and settlement house workers were focused on understanding the Refer to
behaviour of people who were poor, destitute, mentally ill or in need of assistance and were charged Chapter 2

with the responsibility of deciding who should be given resources based on their respective needs.
The ‘values period’, identified by Reamer as spanning from the 1920s to the 1970s, saw an explosion
of writing about the value base of the helping professions, with many debates about what truly
constituted the professional values on which social work and welfare education were based. The
strengthening of professional associations and the development of a plethora of core value statements
began to give social work, in particular, a more distinct identity that led the profession into the ‘ethical
theory and decision-making period’ of the early 1980s to the 1990s. Through this period, social work
was challenged by the rise in professional and applied ethics that emerged from the medical and health
fields and began to explore ethical theory and moral philosophy as they applied to complex practice
situations and to resource allocation. As human rights began to be enshrined in ethical codes, social
workers needed to improve their understanding of practice standards, giving rise to the final period
that Reamer termed the ‘ethical standards and risk management period’. This period, which takes us
to the present day, is concerned with identifying the areas of ethical risk that can leave clients open
to poor service and practitioners open to legal liability. Examples of situations of ethical risk include
a practitioner who decides to pursue an intimate relationship with a client or a counsellor who fails
to keep adequate case notes about a client’s threats to harm another person. While risk management
is certainly a major force driving service delivery in the neoliberal environment, and has been for
some time, there are also many examples of ways in which people are still judged as worthy or not of
assistance on the basis of their contributions, behaviours and motivations. The Australian move to
drug-test people who are recipients of income security payments is just one example of targeting of
people who are seen to have suspect motives for not working.
Reamer (2017) has provided a useful extension to this original 1998 article in his exploration of the
ethical challenges emerging from rapid developments in technology and the move into the digital age.
He identifies challenges around informed consent and confidentiality in the context of online services
such as counselling; boundaries and dual relationships that become even more blurred with electronic
communications, and problems caused by unprofessional online conduct. Reamer describes the digital
age as ‘the newest frontier in social work’s noble efforts to keep pace with the times and develop
ethically informed innovations to meet the needs of vulnerable people and communities’ (p. 157).
Banks (2021), writing from the British perspective, traced a similar historical pathway, defining
three decades of importance and reflecting on the social conditions that gave rise to the changing
perspectives on individual rights and the role of the state. According to Banks, the period of the 1960s
and 1970s was a time in which the focus of social services was on individualism and freedom. The
demands of agencies for control were seen as constraints on this freedom. During the 1970s and 1980s,
awareness of structural oppression was brought to the fore, influenced by the growth of radical social
work and the focus on collective action based on Marxist, anti-racist and feminist perspectives. The
1980s and 1990s saw the influence of ‘new right’ ideologies, with a reduction in the role of the state
in the provision of welfare services. There was also a recognition that, although ‘respect for persons’
and ‘individualisation’ were still predominant values, some behaviours needed to be ‘controlled’ in
the interests of protecting those vulnerable to exploitation or abuse. More recent decades have seen
a rise in concerns for environmental justice and promotion of green social work as important moves
forward in addressing threats to human life and wellbeing on a global scale.

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The literature from which social work education in Australia, New Zealand, Asia and the South
Pacific is drawn has both American and British origins, and it is difficult to trace our distinctive history
in the development of values and ethics. It would seem, however, a similar path was followed by the
early hospital almoners as they struggled to assist people in need of welfare assistance within the
context of a ‘blame the victim’ mentality. Social workers have worked hard to develop ethical codes
and practice standards, have worked under scrutiny of the public and have had to carve out a legitimate
Refer to territory within the broad social welfare landscape. Developing and sustaining a professional identity
Chapter 4 has not been easy, as will be seen in Chapter 4.

The value base of practice: contested territory

Shardlow (2009, p. 30) sums up the experience of ‘getting to grips with social work values and ethics’:
it is ‘rather like picking up a live, large and very wet fish from a running stream. Even if you are
lucky enough to grab a fish, the chances are that just when you think you have caught it, the fish
will vigorously slither out of your hands and jump back in the stream’. In trying to ‘grab the fish’, we
find a starting point in the work of the Jesuit priest Felix Biestek, whose classic book The Casework
Relationship (1957) provides a ‘list’ of values to which we still subscribe today (Banks, 2012; Hugman
& Smith, 2001; Shardlow, 2009). In Figure 3.1, Biestek outlines seven core values that caseworkers
must demonstrate in order to engage in the therapeutic relationship.

Figure 3.1 Biestek’s core values

Individualisation
Recognition of unique
qualities of the
individual
Purposeful
expression of
Conﬁdentiality
feelings
Preservation of
Freedom of client to
information disclosed
express feelings
in the professional
without fear of
relationship
condemnation by
worker

User self- Biestek’s core Controlled

determination values emotional
Recognition of rights involvement
and need for clients Worker’s sensitivity to
to have freedom in client’s feelings and
choices and decisions appropriate response
to them

Non-judgemental Acceptance
attitude Dealing with clients as
Refraining from they are by
judging clients; maintaining focus on
focusing only on their dignity and personal
behaviour worth

Source: The casework relationship by F. Biestek, 1957, Unwin University Books.

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Although this value list was quite definitive at the time it was written, and even though many
of the concepts are now contested on ethical and cultural grounds (e.g. it is sometimes justifiable to
breach confidentiality when someone is at risk of harm), it is nevertheless an important part of the
historical record.
The broad overview of the mission of social work and its core values compiled by Reamer (1998,
p. 490), was based on predominantly North American literature on social work values and ethics from
the 1950s to the 1970s, and is more expansive than Biestek’s list. It includes values such as respect
of persons, valuing an individual’s capacity for change, client empowerment, commitment to social
change and social justice, professional competence, professional integrity, non-discrimination, equal
opportunity, respect for diversity and willingness to transmit professional knowledge and skills.
This list of values is focused on the individual and on the worker–client relationship, with little
recognition of structural factors, such as poverty or racism, that influence the way we engage with
human services. British writers Braye and Preston-Shoot (1995, p. 36) argue that two distinct themes
in social care are ‘traditional values’ and ‘radical values’. Traditional values include respect for persons,
paternalism and protection, normalisation and social role valorisation, equality of opportunity, anti-
discriminatory practice and partnership. Radical values include ideas of citizenship, participation,
community presence, equality, anti-oppressive practice, empowerment and user control.
Clark (2000) extended this discussion to argue that social work values – a term he contended was
problematic – should be about both social care and social control, focusing on four key areas:
1 the worth and uniqueness of every person
2 entitlement to justice
3 aspiration to freedom
4 essentiality of community.
While these lists of values are undoubtedly useful in providing a sense of what is expected of people
working in human services, as well as being ‘a powerful rallying cry’ (Clark, 2000, p. 44), there are
concerns about whether such values are universal; that is, can these values be expected of workers
in all countries and cultures? Healy and Thomas (2021) conclude that, despite the many differences
of opinion about exactly which values are universal or culturally relative, we can view universalism
and cultural relativism as a continuum, with middle ground ranging from whether culture/context is
irrelevant (universalism at the extreme end), acknowledged or considered, weighted and emphasised,
or whether it is a determining factor (relativism at the extreme end). The International Federation of
Social Workers (IFSW) has taken a leading role in grappling with these concerns, developing in 1994 a
statement of ethical principles that has formed the basis of ethical codes of many countries. The IFSW
also reworked the definition of social work in 2000 to incorporate social justice as a fundamental ethical
principle. However, it is only more recently, as seen in Chapter 1, that the IFSW, in an international Refer to
collaborative effort, rewrote the ethical principles statement, and also the definition of social work Chapter 1

(IFSW, 2014), in an attempt to define the values that are consistent across cultures and countries. For
our purposes, it is important to note that the very notion of values in social and human service work
is contested and that there are many debates about definitions, distinctions and the applicability of
values to a global context (Gray & Fook, 2004).
A common theme in literature about values is that workers should respect people and the choices
they make about their lives and should work to promote good, minimise harm and challenge social
structures that contribute to disadvantage and oppression. These concepts are also clearly evident
in the principles of bioethics that underpin medical and health care and include a commitment
to principles of autonomy, beneficence, non-maleficence and justice (Freegard, 2006). Exactly
how workers achieve the aim of upholding these important principles is through recognising and
understanding ethical practice. A useful way of delineating what is important in ethical practice is
to be clear about the difference between virtues (i.e. personal qualities and character traits), ethical
skills (i.e. techniques that connect ethics to practice) and ethical knowledge (i.e. concepts, theories
and principles that form an ethical vocabulary). Bowles et al. (2006, p. 17) give examples of virtues
as ‘being reflective and having moral courage’, ethical skills as ‘ethical decision-making and critical

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reasoning’ and ethical knowledge as ‘ideas such as human rights and social justice’. Thinking about
ethics in this way gives depth to self-reflection and additional impetus for incorporating the ethical
dimension to an emerging framework for practice.

Core values
It is useful to weave together the threads that form the unique tapestry of social work and human
service values, principles and ethics. When we value something, we attribute a level of importance
to it. Figure 3.2 is a summary of what we consider is important in the work we do with others across
all domains of practice.

Figure 3.2 The hub of social work and human service values

Valuing diversity
Valuing humanity
and inclusivity

Valuing privacy Valuing positive change

Ethical practice

Valuing quality service Valuing choice

Valuing the
environment

Practitioner perspective

In one of our first assignments, we were asked to write about our personal values. One of the
values I chose to include was integrity – I believe that integrity is who you are when no one is
watching. For me this means being a good practitioner at all times and working within ethical
boundaries – not just when the boss is watching, but all the time.
Amy Larsen

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Valuing humanity
The core values of respect for others and acceptance that each person has unique worth as an individual
are universal and cross time and cultures. In valuing people as individuals, workers are able to
acknowledge the importance of human rights, the fundamental cornerstones that create and uphold
a moral and just society. It is when respect for others breaks down that abuses are perpetrated. In
valuing humanity, workers are able to see individuals within their social context – as a product of their
genetics, family upbringing, life opportunities and experiences, socialisation and cultural background.
The concept of being able to work with a non-judgemental attitude has been criticised on the basis that
it is simply not possible to be value-free. While it is often far from easy, it is desirable to avoid making
personal judgements when working with others. This is the only way that we can work effectively
with people whose behaviour is seriously challenging (e.g. people who sexually abuse children or who
are violent to others). In supporting human rights-based practice, for example, Connolly and Ward
(2008, p. 82) argue that ‘human rights pervade multiple practice contexts and can potentially provide
a fertile moral and therapeutic resource for practitioners working with offenders’. If it is not possible to
suspend personal judgements, resulting in a loss of respect, then it may be more ethical to discontinue
working with that person, as effective practice is likely to be compromised.

Valuing positive change

It would be fruitless to be involved in social and human service work if we did not believe in the capacity
for individuals and social systems to change. Valuing change that brings about positive growth and
development is one of the commitments we make in our work with people who are marginalised or
oppressed. When we talk about valuing change, we are referring to change at several levels. Change
can be attitudinal, behavioural or social. When we talk about commitment to social justice, we mean
bringing about changes that enable people, groups and communities to have better and more equitable
access to resources and services that meet human needs and promote human welfare. Change in itself,
however, is not always a desirable outcome. In some situations, it may be more beneficial to maintain
the status quo. This is why the emphasis is on positive change – the opportunity to make a situation
better for some, while not making it worse for others. A related concept here is that of hope. Much
has been written on the need for practitioners to hold and create hope, in the belief that change and
growth is possible (Boddy et al., 2018).

Valuing choice
Many in the field have debated the concepts of self-determination and autonomy and some would argue
that such values could not be held as universal for cultural reasons. Self-determination allows people
to make choices about the way they live. One problem with self-determination is that it sometimes
occurs at the expense of others. Supporting a mother to continue a drug habit, for example, may put
her children at risk. We believe that self-determination is an important value, although it needs to be
balanced against dangers to others if decisions have the potential to harm. Ultimately, it is empowering
for people to have a worker stand beside and support them as they make decisions about how to move
forward in life. Even if the choices seem to be bad or may have perceived negative consequences,
we must remember that it is not us who will have to live with the outcomes. If another is in danger,
however, we then may have a duty of care to intervene. In these situations, self-determination may
be justifiably limited.
Not all people have opportunities to make beneficial choices, as the only available options may not be
desirable, and sometimes choices must be made between two or more equally unwelcome alternatives.
This does not negate the importance of encouraging people to take ownership of their decisions, even
if, in some cases, the final decision is to do nothing. An example would be an elderly woman who has
the choice of moving into a hostel where she is not allowed to take her beloved pet dog or continuing
to live independently but with great difficulty, who decides to stay in her home.

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Valuing quality service

Workers have a responsibility to practise in ways that are beneficial and not harmful to others.
Important values here are competence, integrity and honesty, accountability and transparency
(i.e. being able to justify actions and be open about reasons for decisions), reliability and impartiality
(i.e. acting without bias). Workers should engage in ongoing professional development so that their
knowledge and skills continually develop, and they should be able to share knowledge and skills with
others so that new ideas and ways of doing things can be discussed and tested. It is important that
social workers engage in research about their practice so that results based on evidence can be shared
with others, and the effectiveness (or otherwise) of interventions investigated. Ethical codes and
practice standards provide guidelines for quality service, as do organisational codes of conduct and
legislative requirements. As well as the focus on one’s own practice, it is important to remain aware of
the practice of others and the implications for service quality if colleagues or managers are not adhering
to appropriate standards. Practitioners have an ethical responsibility to act upon observations or
evidence of others’ behaviour that could result in harm to vulnerable clients. The responsibility for
quality service extends also to the important issues of accessibility, cultural appropriateness, and
safety in the physical and built environments within which human services operate.

Valuing privacy
Historically, the right to privacy and confidentiality of personal information shared with a therapist
or counsellor was absolute (a tradition passed down from the priesthood in the Catholic Church in the
context of the confessional). There has been much debate about the limitations to confidentiality,
particularly as it relates to potential harm to oneself or others. It is now commonly accepted that there
is no such thing as a guarantee of absolute confidentiality and it is good practice to inform clients of
this in the early stages of a therapeutic relationship. Having said this, clients certainly have rights
to privacy, and in some cases rights to anonymity, and these rights should be respected. It is not
acceptable for people’s personal information to be openly shared without their consent and it is also
not acceptable for privacy rights to be used as a way of denying others access to information they need
to have to ensure the safety of third parties. It is recognised that the concept of confidentiality has
different meaning in some cultures and the ‘keeping of secrets’ can be seen as offensive and contrary to
the workings of some communities. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander social workers, for example,
have criticised confidentiality practices that are not acceptable when working with Aboriginal and
Torres Strait Islander peoples and communities. The way forward is to understand that clients have
a right to privacy, but absolute confidentiality is not guaranteed if there is any suggestion of harm
involving duty of care or if it is not culturally appropriate. There are also particular challenges for
practitioners who live and work in rural or remote communities, as keeping information private can
be very difficult. Confidentiality should also be respected after a person passes away unless there are
compelling legal reasons to do otherwise.

Valuing diversity and inclusivity

Perhaps more than in any other field, social and human service work cannot accommodate intolerance
of diversity based on race, culture or language, gender, health status, sexual orientation, ability, age,
appearance, relationship status, religious or spiritual belief, political affiliation or socioeconomic
circumstance, where this means that discrimination is evident. Active discrimination is prohibited
by law in many countries and is antithetical to notions of non-discrimination and respect of diversity.
Workers should strive for equality of opportunity for all – a concept that is the foundation of social
justice and human rights. Diversity, many argue, is to be celebrated and respected and not used as a
basis for prejudice, discrimination or oppression. This value goes hand-in-hand with valuing choice
and autonomous self-determination, and is a fundamental cornerstone of respect for persons. This
value is one of the most controversial because some religious or faith-based organisations and doctrines
believe that certain behaviours and life choices cannot be condoned, tolerated, accepted or supported.

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The other side of this coin, however, is that social workers and human service workers cannot be
discriminated against for their own particular worldviews. When the focus comes back to the practice
itself, it is clear that despite the philosophical arguments about difference and diversity, sameness and
equality, the bottom line is about discrimination. As Buila (2010) has succinctly stated:

If a social worker’s worldview differs from that presented in our professional code, perhaps it is not too much to
ask that the social worker take steps to avoid the act of discrimination. Just as a social worker might recognise
an inability to help a certain client and refer that client to someone else, they may do so in this circumstance.

The concepts around diversity, oppression, and privilege will be discussed in more detail in Refer to
Chapter 9
Chapter 9.

Valuing the environment

The concept of attention to ‘person-in-environment’ is an often-used catchcry that forms a
distinguishing feature of social work. Environment in this context has historically been taken to mean
a broadly encompassing notion that includes networks of social relationships and interconnections
between many systems, and it situates the individual as part of more complex social arrangements.
As global awareness of the fragility of the physical environment and the emergence of a climate
emergency has become more prominent, however, there is an additional level of concern about ‘person-
in-environment’ that extends beyond the social. As we witness the realities of climate change, and
increasingly deal with natural disasters of horrific magnitude in the wake of earthquakes, floods, fire,
tsunami and drought, we become attuned to the impact of environment on quality of life, livelihood
and poverty, homelessness, violence, displacement and health. It is not only humans that we need
to have concern for, but also other sentient and non-sentient beings. It is difficult to separate social
relationships from the physical environment in which we live, and it is for this reason that a valuing of
both natural and built environment and a commitment to protection of the environment is becoming
as central to understandings of human wellbeing as any of the other core values. Furthermore, there
is a deep connection between spirituality and environment, particularly for First Peoples, leading
many to argue for the revision of ‘person in environment’ to ‘person and environment’ or ‘person with
environment’ (Zapf, 2005). The concept of environmental justice in social work practice is moving
forward in the literature of the profession and establishes a legitimate place for activism in this
increasingly important area (Erickson, 2018).

Practitioner perspective

I find it weird to be asked why we ought to be saving the environment, like asking someone whose
home is on fire with their Mum stuck inside why they want the fire put out. I suppose we still have
denialists in prominent positions, so I try to learn a few facts, like in 2019 the UN said that over
a million species are at risk of extinction, or that we are losing 24 billion (yes with a ‘b’) tonnes of
soil annually. I thought that’s scary enough to motivate anyone. However, I’ve still known some
people that say yeah, but that’s some other profession’s concern because social work is about
humans. Well maybe they are happy to eat Soylent Green and live in a desert because that’s
where we are headed if we do nothing but anyway there are other reasons social workers ought
to get involved – environmental problems like rising sea water, pollution, heat waves, droughts,
floods – these problems have a greater impact on the people social workers are most likely to
be working with. Old people, children, Indigenous people, people who lack resources and so are
least able to adapt and are most likely to be affected because they live in low-lying areas or near
industrial areas and can’t afford home insulation or air con. Another reason is that social workers
are supposed to respect other cultures and beliefs and the UN has also reported the culture
and wellbeing of Indigenous communities is being depleted by the destruction of the natural
environment through activities like mining, resource extraction, transport infrastructure (like the
oil pipeline in Alaska) – actions driven by a white, Western economic value system. So ignoring

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the natural environment is allowing modern-day colonialism. Therefore, there’s a lot of reasons
for social workers be environmentally active and actually we are well placed because many of the
barriers are not scientific or technical, they are human problems that can be helped with stuff
like respectful communication, networking, collaboration, increasing equality and equity, critical
thinking and advocacy. So returning to my earlier analogy – social workers have a firehose but
we need to turn it on to the climate emergency fire and save our home.
Sylvia Ramsey

In presenting the values that we consider to be the foundations of social and human service work,
we acknowledge the balance between absolutism (i.e. some values and principles hold across all places
and times) and relativism (i.e. some values and principles are culturally determined and not universal).
Which values and principles fall where on this moral continuum is a matter for ongoing debate at an
international level.

Client perspective

In my earlier years, I spent a lot of time in and out of psychiatric hospitals. I was seriously
depressed and constantly suicidal. I had given up on myself, over and over again. I had resigned
myself to a future of seclusion rooms and ‘close obs’, being in a zombie-medicated state, losing
my family and friends, and never working again. I had no hope. I was completely lost in the worst
sort of space. I had many social workers, psychologists, psychiatrists and nurses who cared for
me over a long time. Many of them had no hope for me either. During one admission (my last),
the treating team decided that they would change tack and began to give me a new message,
one that validated my slim thread of survival and resilience. They focused on how I managed to
stay alive, and constantly reinforced the potential for change. It took time but something clicked.
I walked out that door and never went back. I am now a professional myself and will never forget
the power of others believing in me when I had no ability to believe in myself.
Anne Elizabeth, aged 46

Distinguishing between ethical issues, problems

and dilemmas
Banks (2021, p. 24) clearly sets out the difference between ethical issues, ethical problems and ethical
dilemmas. According to Banks, the distinction is as shown in Figure 3.3.

Figure 3.3 The distinction between ethical issues, problems and dilemmas

These include what appear to be legal or technical matters. They pervade social work in that
Ethical
practice takes place in the context of the welfare state, premised on principles of social justice
issues
and public welfare, and social workers have professional power in the relationship with the user.

Ethical These arise when social workers see that a situation involves a difficult moral decision, but the
problems right course of action is clear.

These occur when social workers see themselves as faced with a choice between two equally
Ethical
unwelcome alternatives that may involve a conflict of moral principles and it is not clear which
dilemmas
choice will be the right one.

From Ethics and values in social work (5th ed.) by S. Banks, 2021, Palgrave.

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Rothman (2011, p. 5) takes the definition of ethical dilemmas a step further, explaining that such
dilemmas often comprise a number of issues and need to be broken down into an accessible form by
using a ‘dilemma formulation’: ___ versus ___ (that is, ‘X’ versus ‘Y’). Only after we have clarified the
actual dilemma can we move towards a resolution by using an appropriate ethical decision-making
framework. The following case study shows how a case can be broken down in this way.

CASE STUDY
Helen
Helen, a social worker employed in a hospital, has a client who is terminally ill. Helen’s client,
Caroline, asks Helen one day if she would be able to find her some information about what
medications she would need to take to die at home. She says that her sister has agreed to assist
her to die at home, but she wants to be sure that there will be no legal repercussions as she
knows this is not yet legal in the state in which they live. She asks Helen not to tell any of the
doctors or nurses about their conversation.

This case study relates to ethical issue of the rights of terminally ill people to determine the time
and place of their own death. The ethical problem is due to the legal situation not yet allowing choices
around voluntary assisted dying in the client’s state of residence, the hospital’s position on providing
people with information about euthanasia, and sharing client information with members of the
treatment team.
The dual ethical dilemmas for Helen are whether or not to give Caroline the information she has
requested, and whether or not to inform other members of the treatment team. The formulations of
these dilemmas are:
• the client’s self-determination versus the primacy of the client’s interests
• the client’s right to information versus organisational and legal compliance
• privacy and confidentiality versus the worker’s obligation to colleagues.
In this case study, the values of the social worker, Helen, also influence how she manages Caroline’s
request and at what point she experiences an ethical dilemma. Helen might not experience an ethical
dilemma about giving Caroline the information because she might have strong beliefs about people
making informed choices based on the most accurate and up-to-date information. She might, however,
have an ethical dilemma about the issue of disclosure of client information, as she might believe that
this will destroy the trust relationship she has with her client. Another social worker in the same
situation could experience an ethical dilemma based on the belief that to provide such information
would be potentially harmful but might have no dilemma about immediately informing Caroline’s
doctor based on the belief that all information relating to a patient’s care is a shared responsibility.
This case illustrates what Banks (2021) argues convincingly: that not every situation will be perceived
in the same way by different workers. What is an ethical dilemma for one worker may not be for
another. As previously discussed, the way that social workers decide what to do may be different
based on whether they give more importance to rights, duties and obligations or to consequences and
considerations of the ‘greater good’.

Practitioner perspective

In social work and human service practice, you have a very complex dynamic set up for you,
and it can be a real minefield. You have a values-driven profession being delivered in a shifting
context where everything is subjective and socially defined – definitions of ‘child abuse’ and
‘relationships’ and ‘acceptable behaviour’ and ‘personal responsibility’ all change depending on
which political party, church group, media outlet or charismatic individual is calling the shots.
So, there are very few fixed moral reference points to begin with. Then you come in and try to
navigate this with your own sense of right and wrong, based on personal values like ‘integrity’
and ‘social justice’, aligned with professional values like ‘self-determination’ and ‘competence’.

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Some days you can’t even tell who the final arbiter is. Are we ultimately accountable to our
employers? Our clients? Our gut? The profession? The community at large? I think that ‘social
work’ is pretty much synonymous with ‘ethical dilemma’ – these are the problems we solve on a
daily basis, like laying bricks on a building site or packing bags at a checkout. So, you had better
have your foundations in place – don’t even attempt to enter the workplace unless you have a
reasonable idea of where your reference points are, how you will seek guidance and support,
and what process you will use to untangle the inevitable knot of competing values and demands.
Matthew Armstrong

Ethical challenges in the eight domains

of practice
If social and human service work is essentially a ‘moral endeavour’, as has been argued by many,
then it is reasonable to expect that value-based challenges will arise in all the domains of practice
Refer to identified in Chapter 1. Empirical research and anecdotal evidence certainly suggest this is the case.
Chapter 1 We have already established that misuse of power, unclear boundaries and motivations, and lack of
awareness or competence all have the potential to cause harm to others, and that having good ethical
literacy can guard against this.
One hallmark of good practice is the ability to recognise the ethical dimensions of each encounter,
whether it is in a one-to-one interaction or work with groups or with communities. You will recall
that the eight domains of practice overlap significantly and that workers can have responsibility
for working in a number of these domains in the one job. If a worker claimed that they had never
encountered an ethical challenge in their practice, we would argue that they have been practising with
blinkered vision. Values are the cornerstone of the work we do, and ethics are values in action. We
now explore examples of ethical issues, problems and dilemmas that can arise across these domains
of practice.
When working with individuals (Domain 1), ethical challenges become intrinsically tied up with
relationships, and clarification of the boundaries of these relationships. It is the responsibility of
the worker, not the client, to establish these boundaries clearly. Much has been written about the
dangers of workers having ill-defined boundaries that increase the potential for confusion and can
lead to unrealistic expectations that, if not met, can be traumatic for vulnerable clients (Reamer,
2001). It is never acceptable for a worker to engage in a sexual relationship with a client with whom
they have a current therapeutic relationship. Other questions that are not so black and white include
whether to receive or give gifts to clients; provide personal mobile telephone numbers to clients; accept
a ‘friend’ request from a client on a social networking site; engage in social activities with clients; form
friendships with current or past clients, or with the relatives or friends of clients; disclose personal
information to clients; or engage with clients in the many events that take place outside the working
relationship (e.g. commitment ceremonies, funerals or graduations).
For practitioners in rural communities, such questions take on an added dimension and require
strategies and responses that maintain relationships but allow the worker to preserve a professional
position. Some argue that overzealousness in defining boundaries does more harm than good to
relationships and that rigid boundaries set up power imbalances that make true exchange impossible.
While there might be some truth in these assertions, the counterargument is that failing to negotiate
the relationship territory in a responsible way sets up potentially damaging situations. It is the
‘potential’ for harm that workers have an ethical responsibility to avoid where possible.
The ethical challenges that arise in work with individuals are multiplied when more than one person
is involved in the working relationship. The most common ethical dilemmas to confront practitioners
who work with couples, families or groups (Domains 2 and 3) relate to secrecy, confidentiality,
privacy, disclosure and truthfulness (Corey et al., 2020). Such issues generally result in decisions
having to be made about disclosure; who should be told what information by whom and with what

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consequences? If workers fail to make clear from the outset what information is to be shared, workers
can find themselves in situations with conflicting obligations. Facilitating a group for sex offenders
in a correctional setting can turn into an ethical nightmare if, for example, a group member discloses
information about other offences for which they have not been charged. Where are the limits of
confidentiality? What agreements are made about what ‘stays in the group’? Would future groups
trust the facilitator if they decide to tell someone in authority what was said in the group? What if
another group member decides that they will inform someone in authority?
Work in the community (Domain 4) can be challenging at a number of levels. Assessing community
needs and developing responses and interventions to engage people in building the community’s
capacity can be fraught with indecision and conflicting agendas. Community workers typically need
to balance competing claims, and issues of resource allocation and distribution are often problematic
and politically motivated. Decisions often need to be made about who is most deserving of support
and, if support is given to one part of the community, does this disadvantage another part of the
community? Hardina (2004) argues that traditional ethical codes do not take account of the difficulties
that community organisers face in resolving conflicts of interest associated with finances, managing
the dual relationship when a community worker is a member of the community, and choosing strategies
and tactics when these might involve confrontation. Returning to the discussion of boundaries in
community practice, Shevallar and Barringham (2016) describe this as a ‘risky conversation’ and
argue that community practitioners must engage with ambiguity and find ways to discuss boundary
tensions within a culture of safety. The complexity of work in community requires a reimagining
of understandings of professionalism, taking into account the need for ‘authentic community
engagement’ where traditional notions of boundary crossings may come into question.
Work in the areas of social policy, research and evaluation (Domains 5 and 6) can present ethical
challenges for those trying to balance the needs of society with the needs of individuals and groups.
Social policy is driven largely by economic and political agendas that often override the needs of the
most disadvantaged. Policies that dictate how we should distribute limited healthcare resources, how
we should assess claims for income maintenance payments and how we should provide housing for
people on low incomes, are examples of how government is responsible for people disadvantaged by
ill-health, disability, poverty or homelessness. Social and human service workers are in a good position
to elevate the human face of disadvantage to a position of priority in economic rationalist calculations
about service provision. They are also in a good position to evaluate the effects of social policy and
make recommendations about service quality and improvement. Engaging with research is one way of
doing this. Research protocols designed to preserve research integrity ensure that participants are not
physically or psychologically harmed by the research, they give fully informed and voluntary consent,
their privacy and anonymity is ensured, data is kept safe and secure, and findings are disseminated
with integrity and accuracy. Academic research requires ethical clearance from the relevant university
and research conducted in the healthcare sector generally requires ethical clearance by an established
ethics committee. As practice research and evaluation has gained more importance and recognition,
with moves towards evidence-based practice, it is important that workers understand the ethical
implications and ensure that they address any potential problems. It is also important that researchers
define their role as different from that of a practitioner or therapist (McAuliffe & Coleman, 1999).
In Organisational practice, management and leadership (Domain 7), workers need to allocate
resources and this can result in some people’s needs taking priority over others. Once a worker becomes
responsible for monitoring the performance of others, overseeing financial arrangements or ensuring
that service delivery or development outcomes are met, a new set of ethical challenges is likely to
emerge. Staff relationships can be problematic at times and managers need to be skilled in negotiating
conflict and in ensuring that staff maintain acceptable standards of practice so that quality service
can be upheld. Managers also need to be mindful about how stressful, difficult or traumatic work can
affect their staff, making provisions for quality supervision and appropriate debriefing to ensure that
professional development and self-care is a high priority. Managers can be confronted with ethical
challenges if agencies are forced to rationalise services due to economic imperatives and/or provide
evidence of a continued need for resources.

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The need for specialised consultation, education and training (Domain 8) in many areas of practice
is increasing as the work in human services becomes more complex and contentious. Social work and
human services compete for territory with other disciplines, so education and training need to target
the specific skills that differentiate social and human service workers from others. Education and
training is now largely accessed by those able to pay for professional qualifications. This raises new
ethical challenges for academia as well as for trainers in the field. If, for example, a student has paid
to undertake a course in counselling and writes to a high standard, they might get the counselling
qualification, despite having appalling interpersonal skills and being likely to do damage in therapeutic
relationships (unless, of course, the assessment criteria also relate to demonstrated competency in
those particular skills). On the other hand, a student from a country where English is not the first
language may have excellent interpersonal skills but may not get the qualification because their
written English is not of an ‘acceptable’ standard – despite the fact that they intend to practise in
their own country, speaking their own language.

Models for ethical decision making

We have now reached a stage in this journey of values and ethics where it is time to reassemble the
knowledge into a framework for action – in this case, ethical decision making. It is apparent from social
work and human services literature that these professions lead the way in developing and presenting a
broad range of models and frameworks for ethical decision making. Work in human services demands
that decisions be made on a daily basis. However, when decisions have an ethical dimension – that is,
they are in some way to do with rights, obligations, duties or what is morally right or wrong – specific
ways of thinking about such decisions ensure that we pay attention to the critical points. Ethical
decision making has been defined as ‘the process by which social workers engage in an exploration of
values – that may be evident in the personal, professional, social and organisational spheres – in order
to establish where an ethical dilemma might lie according to what competing principles, and what
factors take priority in the weighing up of alternatives’ (McAuliffe, 2010, p. 41).
Essentially, ethical decision-making frameworks and models are presented in literature in three
ways. The first are those models that are based on a clear structure, with defined steps that are followed
in a linear sequence. These are what are referred to as process models – certain processes and rules
must be followed to reach a reasoned decision. Bowles et al. (2006) also refer to these types of models
as ‘rational’ models. These models provide very useful checklists of what should be taken into account
and are of varying levels of complexity. One of the clearest, as developed by Congress (1999), is the
ETHIC model of decision making, involving five steps, as shown in Figure 3.4.

Figure 3.4 The ETHIC model of decision making

E Examining a range of value positions from

all identified stakeholders

T Thinking about ethical codes and legal issues

H Hypothesising possible consequences

I Identifying benefits and harms

C Consulting with relevant others

From Social work values and ethics: Identifying and resolving professional dilemmas by E. Congress, 1999, Nelson Hall.

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Another more complex model developed by Dolgoff et al. (2012) outlines some general steps to take
as a matter of course. The first step is the ethical assessment screen (a series of nine steps similar to
those of Congress’s model) and is followed by the ethical rules screen in which the practitioner asks
whether a code of ethics applies and, if so, follows it. An ethical principles screen assists in rank-
ordering values based on a hierarchy of ethical principles, ranked in order of priority. While this model
does set out a clear process, the location of ethical principles on various levels of the hierarchy could be
questioned. For example, in some cases or cultures, quality of life could be seen as more important than
autonomy and freedom, or equality and inequality could be determined as being of less importance
than determining least harm.
Other process models include that of Corey et al. (2020), in which a series of logical but not
necessarily linear steps are followed, and Robison and Reeser (2000), which is based on the tracking
of ‘harms’. All these models encourage exploring personal, professional, organisational and social
values; applying ethical codes and clarifying the relationship between ethics and law; generating
alternative options and weighing up consequences; and evaluating decisions. Such models combine
deontological and utilitarian perspectives because they consider both obligations and duty, as well
as consequences and context.
The second set of models is referred to as the reflective models of ethical decision making. These are
based on feminist perspectives and encourage the inclusion of clients in the decision-making process.
They question the use of power and emphasise the importance of relationships with others and self-
reflection at all stages. The feminist model of ethical decision making proposed by Hill et al. (1995)
requires workers to explore both the ‘rational–evaluative process’ and the ‘feeling–intuitive process’.
In defining the problem in collaboration with the client, the worker asks, ‘What do I feel about this?
What am I worried about? What are the feelings of the other?’ In developing solutions with the client,
the worker also asks, ‘What are my reactions to these choices?’ In the model developed by Mattison
(2000), a ‘cycle of reflection’ is identified, and she poses a series of questions to explore personal biases,
preferences and motivations. These reflective models strongly encourage consultation with others and
focus on what the worker learned from the experience so that it can be applied to future situations.
Cultural models of ethical decision making have been slower to emerge. An example is the
transcultural integrative model of ethical dilemma resolution developed by Garcia et al. (2003). This
model has similar steps to the process models and does incorporate a reflective element, but the central
focus at all times is on the cultural context in which the decision is being made. The model highlights
at each stage the importance of recognising any cultural factors, including identity issues, worldviews,
cultural values or any culturally relevant information. Consultation with others who have pertinent
multicultural expertise is encouraged and ethical codes, laws and policies need to be examined for
potential discrimination. Cultures that value individualism are those that uphold personal autonomy,
self-interest and competitiveness, whereas collectivist cultures value group solidarity.

The Inclusive Model

As there are valuable elements in the process, reflective and cultural models, it is a challenge to create
a new, more inclusive model to assist ethical decision making. At the core of the Inclusive Model that
was developed for the first edition of this book back in 2005, there were four essential platforms or
dimensions considered critical to sound ethical decision making. It was only recently that a fifth
essential dimension has been added to the Inclusive Model to draw in the concept of interdependence
(McAuliffe 2021).

The essential dimensions

The interlinked dimensions of the Inclusive Model are shown in Figure 3.5.
The five dimensions are central to the decision-making process, and you can build a number of steps
around this core. Each step involves asking questions, finding out information, assessing alternative
actions, implementing action and evaluating outcomes. An important distinction should be made at
this point. As a practitioner, you might find yourself in a situation in which the ethical dilemma relates

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Figure 3.5 Essential dimensions of the Inclusive Model

The ability to make decisions that can be clearly

articulated and justiﬁed and that take into account
Accountability the personal, professional, organisational, legal,
cultural and social context

The ability to make decisions that can be scrutinised

by others, clarify practice and lead to better practice
Reﬂection in the future, with this reﬂection being both critical
and contemplative

The ability to make decisions that are culturally

Cultural
appropriate, taking into account diﬀerent value
sensitivity
positions and drawing on cultural expertise

The ability to use resources wisely and to engage in

appropriate discussions with others who may assist
Consultation
accountability, cultural sensitivity and personal
reﬂection

Consideration of the relational connections between

humans, non-humans and the environment, and the
Interdependence
awareness that actions impact upon and are
impacted by many factors

to your practice. For example, the ethical dilemma formulation might be maintaining confidentiality
(preserving a trust relationship with a client) versus a duty of care to a third party (safeguarding the
safety of someone else). You have to make a decision and bear the consequences. In a different scenario,
you might be confronted with a situation in which you assist someone else to make a decision. In this
case, the ethical dilemma belongs to someone else but you are in the position of assisting them to
reach a decision; for example, a mother has to decide whether to consent to her conjoined twins being
separated, knowing that it is likely that one child will not survive and that without the operation both
children could live for some time. While we refer to the ethical dilemmas experienced by workers, it
is useful to note that this process can be equally applied to help others make ethical decisions. The
steps are discussed in the following sections.

Defining the ethical dilemma

The first question to ask is whether there is, in fact, an ethical dilemma present in the situation at hand.
The best way to ascertain this is to apply the ethical dilemma formulation outlined by Rothman (2011):

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what are the competing ethical principles? Is there an X vs Y? Is it possible to break the situation down
into competing ethical principles? Is it a case of one principle versus another? If this is not possible,
then either sufficient clarity has not yet been reached or a decision may not be required. There may
still be an ethical issue or problem – issues to do with duties, obligations, rights or responsibilities – but
a clear course of action that does not involve weighing up options may be available.
Being clear about whether you face an ethical dilemma assists in framing what action you decide to
take. As unravelling ethical dilemmas can be difficult, particularly if there is more than one in a given
situation, it might be useful to get someone else to help you think it through. Consulting a supervisor
or a colleague can be a good idea at this early stage, as previous research shows that collegial support
is highly beneficial in ethically conflicted situations (McAuliffe & Sudbery, 2005). Another step in this
initial stage is to ask whether you are, in fact, the person who needs to make the decision. Sometimes
it is not appropriate for a practitioner to make a decision that requires someone in higher authority to
be accountable. Also ask whether it is a new situation that you have never dealt with before or whether
you have had previous experience with similar situations in the past. This gives you a starting point
to reflect on your level of comfort with the dilemma, whether you feel confident in moving forward or
whether you experience anxiety because of lack of experience, knowledge or information.
Useful questions to ask are:
• Can I clearly define competing ethical principles in this situation? If so, what are they? If not, do
I need to consult with an appropriate other to clarify my thoughts? Are issues of culture involved
here? (Consultation; cultural sensitivity)
• If I determine that this is an ethical dilemma, where am I placed within it? Is it my role to make a
decision, or should this situation be referred to someone with higher authority? (Accountability)
• What is the nature of the relationships that I share with others involved in this situation? Are
these relationships dependent, independent or interdependent? (Interdependence)
• Is this situation familiar to me or do I need new knowledge? Can I draw on experience or on what
I have learned from work in other contexts? (Reflection)

Mapping legitimacy
Once it has been established that an ethical dilemma (or dilemmas) exists, that some ethical principles
are in conflict and that you need to make a decision, you must determine who are the legitimate ‘others’
in the situation. In the previous step you have already considered what the nature of relationships
are in the situation. In some cases, this will be very clear – a situation with a client, family, group,
community or colleague creates a dilemma in which you are now involved. Co-workers or people from
other agencies may be actively involved in the situation. It is important to consider whether it is
appropriate to discuss your thoughts about the dilemma with key players at this early stage. Keeping
such a dilemma to oneself can be difficult and disempowering to others. In some situations, you might
need to consider cultural factors – is it a problem that requires engagement with significant others
(e.g. extended family or elders of a community)?
Sometimes, it is important for a client to be informed that something they have told you, for example,
has led to an ethical dilemma about whether you should pass on this information. It might be important
for your manager to know that a particular organisational policy has made it impossible to provide a
proper service to a client and that you face the dilemma of whether to provide the service anyway, even
though the agency prohibits it. Mapping the legitimate players is a useful exercise and can share the
burden of decision making. Sometimes the dilemma may even be resolved at this stage because your
client might agree that what they told you in ‘confidence’ can be passed on, or your manager might
decide to make an exception to the rule and allow you to provide the service given the circumstances.
Useful questions to ask are:
• Who has legitimacy in this situation? Are there any cultural factors to consider (e.g. extended
family or kin in the case of Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander clients)? (Cultural sensitivity)
• What are the relationships between those involved in the situation? Would any of these
relationships be changed, strengthened or harmed by inclusion or exclusion? (Interdependence)

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• Is it appropriate to share this ethical dilemma with others? Is this an ethical dilemma that I am
facing alone, or are others involved? Who should be talking to whom at this stage? (Consultation;
accountability; reflection)

Gathering information
It is important to have the information you need to make the decision efficiently, based on knowledge
of processes and protocols. Thinking back to the discussion of accountability, it will be helpful to
explore what your professional values dictate and what the ethical responsibilities are, as set down in
relevant codes of ethics and documented practice standards. If these are vague or give little guidance,
you may want to consult someone from the profession (e.g. a member of the professional association, a
member of an ethics committee) for assistance. You also need to consider your organisational context.
Does your agency have formal or informal policies, guidelines, protocols or standards of conduct that
dictate what you can and cannot do as an employee?
Taking this a step further, are there legal considerations and is there legislation that applies to this
situation (e.g. privacy laws, antidiscrimination laws, duty of care or mandatory reporting obligations)?
Will you be breaking the law if you pursue a particular course of action? If you are unsure, you might
want to consult a lawyer, either one who works for your agency or professional association or one
you source yourself. Many community legal services provide this sort of assistance. Reflect on this
information to decide if your personal values are in conflict or concordance with your professional
values. Are your professional values in conflict with organisational values? How do you feel about
potential conflicts of values? Does this make the situation more difficult? Does it become a matter of
personal principle or integrity?
As well as obtaining information of this nature, you should find out whether anyone else has been
confronted with a similar ethical dilemma before and, if so, what did they do and what justification
did they provide? It goes without saying that every situation is contextually unique but there is still
value in exploring the experiences of others. Sometimes you will find cases in literature or research
that offer guidance about the possible implications of following a particular course of action. Again,
consultation is important. Ask yourself who you know who might have the experience in this area,
and what relationship you have with them that allows you to request their assistance. Would you trust
this person and the advice or information they might provide? Is this person a supervisor or manager,
a colleague from a similar or different discipline, or someone totally removed from your professional
life – a partner, family member or friend? With whom is it appropriate to share information about this
situation? Also, you should consider whether any cultural factors need to be explored. If you are a non-
Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander worker, for example, and the situation involves an Aboriginal or
Torres Strait Islander family, do you need knowledge about Indigenous cultures and values before you go
any further in the process? If you do not know much about Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples’
views about sharing information without consent, then it would be wise to consult an Aboriginal or
Torres Strait Islander worker. Sometimes, as previously mentioned, the ethical dilemma can be resolved
at this stage because, by gathering information, the path becomes clear and there is no longer a dilemma.
One acceptable course of action becomes clear as others have been eliminated by gaining information.
Useful questions to ask are:
• What guidance is provided by professional codes of ethics, protocols, policies or procedures, and
are there any legal considerations? (Accountability)
• Are there any conflicts between personal values, professional requirements and organisational
mandates, and are these conflicts likely to present problems for the decision maker or others?
(Critical reflection)
• Are there other resources that could shed light on this dilemma such as research, literature or
the experiences of others? (Consultation; critical reflection)
• Who could be consulted at this stage for the acquisition of new knowledge, or for clarification of
positions taken by ethical codes, policies or law? (Consultation, interdependence)
• Is specific cultural knowledge required, and if so, who should be consulted for this? (Cultural
sensitivity)
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Alternative approaches and action

If you follow the process to this point, you will have a much better idea of the feasible options. You
may still have to deal with an ethical dilemma or assist others in resolving it, but you will be able to
weigh up the alternatives with greater clarity. If you involved any key players in the process, they
might have a role in weighing up the options, particularly if they are the ultimate decision makers.
One of the difficulties in thinking about the possible implications of your decision is that none of us
has a crystal ball to see into the future. We can only do the best with the information and knowledge
we have and the awareness that there are always multiple realities and many sides to the story.
We can start by considering the basic value of ‘do no harm’. Are any of the options likely to cause
harm to others? How can you evaluate this harm? For instance, is harm to a child worse than harm
to an adult? Is long-term harm better or worse than short-term harm? Are you likely to be harmed
in terms of your reputation or employment? In some cases, this utilitarian way of weighing up
consequences and considering ‘pleasure over pain’ is useful. If you are called to account, you know that
you carefully considered all options and made a decision on the strength of these considerations. For
others, deontological reasoning may prevail – if an organisation has a strict policy against providing
information about abortion services, a young woman who requests a referral to such a service cannot
be given it. Case closed. Others will rely more on virtue ethics, asking what a morally good person
would do in this situation. For example, a worker provides their home telephone number to a client
at risk of further domestic violence in the belief that a morally good person would do this, while
another worker would not, based on the belief that a morally good person would put the safety of her
or his own family first. These scenarios highlight the necessity for reflective practice so that you are
clear about what motivates your decision and influences the weight assigned to each option. Once a
course of action has been decided, it must be implemented and then documented in some way. It is not
always wise to leap headlong into acting on a decision, particularly one that has been complex and
difficult to make, so taking time to reflect and perhaps consult with others is a good move. You need
to consider how the decision will be documented, so that you will have a record of your assessment
and intervention should the need arise later. This is good practice and is recommended as a way to
ensure accountability.
Useful questions to ask are:
• What are the available courses of action now that I have gathered knowledge and information,
and considered the range of value positions? (Accountability)
• On what basis will I make this decision and how will I justify my actions? (Accountability)
• Am I missing other alternatives, and how can I be sure that I have weighed up all the options?
Who can I talk to about this and can someone else play ‘devil’s advocate’ to help clarify my
position? (Consultation)
• Are any of these options or alternatives culturally discriminatory or insensitive? (Cultural
sensitivity)
• Are any of these options likely to result in changes to relationships, and have I fully considered all
possible implications for human, non-human and environmental interactions? (Interdependence)
• How do I feel about the decision I have come to, and is there anything I need to do differently?
Can I live with this decision and can I justify it if called upon? How do I implement and document
this decision? (Reflection; accountability)

Critical analysis and evaluation

The final stage of the process is to engage in reflective analysis about what you did and what you
learned to make your practice stronger in the future. If faced with a similar situation, would you
have more confidence about how to proceed? Do you now have more knowledge about your personal
values, professional obligations, organisational policies and legal obligations? What have you learned
about cultural issues? Did the people you consulted offer valuable advice or did you hear conflicting
viewpoints? Were there people you should have consulted but did not and for what reasons? Did
you involve others in the actual process of decision making and at what points? What would you

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do differently if you had your time over again? How can you share with others the knowledge you
gained from your experience of this ethical dilemma? What has been the impact on yourself and
others of your decisions and actions? It is important to explore this last question, in particular, as
previous research into the impacts of ethical dilemmas on social workers has found a mix of positive
and negative emotional, physiological and behavioural consequences (McAuliffe, 2000, 2005). We
would strongly recommend that you make the time to reflect on the experience with someone else,
perhaps in professional supervision or with a trusted colleague. This can give you a sense of completion
and the ability to move on in your practice, having incorporated new knowledge and skills.
Useful questions to ask are:
• What have I learned from this situation about the way I make decisions and have I changed my
behaviour from previous decision-making patterns? (Critical reflection)
• Do I feel confident that I acted in a culturally sensitive manner throughout the process or were
there any aspects of culture that I neglected to explore? (Cultural sensitivity)
• Did I use consultation and support wisely, and who did I choose to talk with about the
ethical dilemma? Were there others that I could, or should, have contacted for information?
(Consultation, interdependence)
• Are there issues that I need to bring attention to in relation to deficits in organisational policies
or procedures, ethical codes or other processes that impact negatively on service users? At the
end of the day, can I own my decision and confidently discuss my actions and take responsibility
for my own part in the decision-making process? (Accountability)

Activity 3.2

Work through the following ethical dilemmas using the process outlined in the inclusive model
of ethical decision making.
1 Sasha is a counsellor working with a family where there are child protection concerns.
A male member of the extended family has been prohibited from having contact with the
children because of allegations of inappropriate sexual behaviours. Sasha suspected that
contact was happening because of a comment made by one of the children. Sasha decided
to ‘Google’ various members of the family and came across photographs of the man in
question with two of the children at a theme park. Sasha wanted to use this information to
take action to remove the children from the family but did not want to admit to having used
the internet to access this information. She decided to print out the photos and pretend they
had been sent to her by an anonymous concerned third party. No one would ever know.
What is Sasha’s ethical dilemma?
2 Henry is a human service worker and facilitates a group for men who have been violent
to their partners. One group member, Angus, is particularly difficult and is argumentative
and aggressive towards other members of the group. Henry knows from experience that
the group discussions are having a significant impact on Angus and that he is beginning to
develop important insights into his behaviour. Unfortunately, three other group members
have stopped attending, telling Henry that they will only return to the group if Angus is
banned. What is Henry’s dilemma and what should he do?

All of the dimensions and associated steps of the decision-making process that have been covered
in the previous sections are represented in Figure 3.6.

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Figure 3.6 An inclusive model of ethical decision making

Mapping
Deﬁning the legitimacy
ethical dilemma

Consultation
Accountability

Cultural
sensitivity
Reﬂection

Gathering
Critical
information
analysis Interdependence
and
evaluation

Alternative approaches and actions

Source: Interprofessional Ethics by Donna McAuliffe, Cambridge University Press, 2021.

Practitioner perspective

When I first graduated with a social work degree, I anticipated that ethical decision making would
be an integral part of my practice. I was, after all, launching into a values-based profession. What
I couldn’t anticipate was the regularity in which I would be engaging in ethical decisions. Ethical
dilemmas were essentially a part of my daily routine. Working in a busy inner-city metropolitan
hospital, some days I felt like they were being fired at me like arrows. I quickly learned to value
ethical decision-making models. As a new graduate, they guided my learning and growth and
enabled me to feel confident that I was covering all the bases that needed to be covered. As I
became more experienced, I would still turn to them routinely as a way of ensuring that I didn’t
become complacent in the way I approached individual cases.
Recently I have introduced Chenoweth and McAuliffe’s Inclusive Model to the multidisciplinary
team with whom I work. I believe that social workers are well positioned to keep ethical
considerations on the agenda, but it can be exhausting if you feel that you have to battle often
against the competing agendas of various professionals and the organisation. I thought a better
strategy was to get everyone involved and take a team approach to ethical decision making
when it was appropriate. The team liked the Inclusive Model because, as a young physiotherapist
said, ‘It transforms that social-workey stuff like culture and values into a professional tool.’ A
newly graduated doctor commented that he hadn’t realised that each professional discipline
had their own code of ethics and valued a model that directed him to think beyond his own
framework. The team especially liked that the Inclusive Model embraced accountability, which
looms ever-present in our current sociopolitical context. For me personally, I enjoy the fact that
ethical decision making is now seen as not solely the domain of the social worker. I recently
overheard a dietitian telling a newcomer to our team that, ‘An amputee isn’t just an amputee.
Each amputee is a person with their own life story and value system’. The model has clearly also
been a great tool of advocacy.
Anita Covington

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The perspective above from an experienced social worker summarises the importance of clear
attention to the foundations of ethical decision making.

Recommended reading
McAuliffe, D., & Chenoweth, L. (2008). Leave no stone unturned: The Inclusive Model of ethical
decision making. Ethics and Social Welfare 2(1), 38–49.

STUDY
TOOLS

Conclusion
In this chapter, we have laid out the foundations of values and ethics in social work and human services and
identified the ways in which philosophy applies to our deliberations about moral quandaries. We traced the historical
development of values and ethics and discussed the debate about whether some values are absolute or relative,
depending on cultural considerations. We clarified the definitions and distinctions between what falls under the
realm of ethical challenges (i.e. ethical issues, problems and dilemmas) and discussed ethics in each of the domains
of practice. We concluded with a model of ethical decision making that has central dimensions of accountability,
consultation, interdependence, cultural sensitivity and reflection, and explored some cases using this model.
The following chapter explores issues of professional practice and considers the place of ethical codes and other
regulatory mechanisms.

Questions
1 What are the key ideas of three of the ancient and contemporary philosophers who have influenced thinking on
moral and ethical foundations of human service practice?
2 What is your understanding of the concept of interprofessional ethics?
3 What are the key differences between deontology, utilitarianism and virtue ethics?
4 What are the differences between Western and Indigenous worldviews?
5 What are the seven core values that form the hub of ethical practice?
6 What are the differences between ethical issues, problems and dilemmas?
7 What do you understand by the universalist–cultural relativist continuum?
8 What is an example of an ethical dilemma that might involve issues of informed consent?
9 What are the comparisons and contrasts between the process, reflective and cultural models of ethical decision
making?
10 What are the essential dimensions of the Inclusive Model of ethical decision making, and what are the steps of
this model?

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Locating the lighthouse: values and ethics in practice / CHAPTER 3

Weblinks
Ethics and Social Welfare Journal The International Journal of Social Work Values
https://www.tandfonline.com/loi/resw20 and Ethics
Ethics updates home page https://jswve.org
http://ethicsupdates.net The Ethics Centre
https://ethics.org.au

References
Banks, S. (2012). Ethics and values in social work (4th ed.). Palgrave. Hardina, D. (2004). Guidelines for ethical practice in community
organizations. Social Work, 49(4), 595–604. https://doi.org/10.1093/
Banks, S. (2021). Ethics and values in social work (5th ed.). Palgrave.
sw/49.4.595
Biestek, F. (1957). The casework relationship. Unwin University Books.
Healy, L., & Thomas, R. (2021). International social work: Professional
Billington, R. (2003). Living philosophy: An introduction to moral thought action in an interdependent world (3rd ed.). Oxford University Press.
(3rd ed.). Routledge.
Hill, M., Glaser, K., & Harden, J. (1995). A feminist model for ethical
Boddy, J., O’Leary, P., Tsui, M. S., Pak, M., & Wang, D. (2018). Inspiring decision-making. In E. J. Rave and C. C. Larsen (Eds.), Ethical decision-
hope through social work practice. International Social Work, 61(4). making in therapy: Feminist perspectives (pp. 18–137). Guilford Press.
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Fejo-King, C. (2014). Social work with marginalised Indigenous
Bowles, W., Collingridge, M., Curry, S., & Valentine, B. (2006). Ethical communities, in L. How Kee, J. Martin & R. Ow (Eds.), Cross-cultural
practice in social work: An applied approach. Allen & Unwin. social work: Local and global (pp. 118–128). Palgrave Macmillan.

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Reamer, F. G. (1993). The philosophical foundations of social work. Shevallar, L., & Barringham, N. (2016). Working in complexity: Ethics
Columbia University Press. and boundaries in community work and mental health. Australian
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Reamer, F. G. (1998). The evolution of social work ethics. Social Work,
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sw/43.6.488 Tronto, J. (1993). Moral boundaries. Routledge.

Reamer, F. G. (2001). Tangled relationships: Managing boundary issues in Tronto, J. (2010). Creating caring institutions: Politics, plurality and
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10.1080/17496535.2010.484259
Reamer, F. G. (2017). Evolving ethical standards in the digital age.
Australian Social Work, 70(2), 148–59. https://doi.org/10.1080/031240 Waithe, M. E. (Ed.). (1995). Contemporary women philosophers:
7X.2016.1146314 1900–today. Kulwar Academic.

Robison, W., & Reeser, L. C. (2000). Ethical decision-making in social work. Webb, S. (2010). Virtue ethics. In M. Gray & S. Webb (Eds.), Ethics and
Allyn & Bacon. value perspectives in social work. Palgrave Macmillan.

Rothman, J. (2011). From the front lines: Student cases in social work ethics Wolfe, R. W., & Gudorf, C. (1999). Ethics and world religions: Cross-
(3rd ed.). Pearson. cultural case studies. Orbis.

Shardlow, S. (2009). Values, ethics and social work. In R. Adams, L. Zapf, M. K. (2005). The spiritual dimension of person and
Dominelli & M. Payne (Eds.), Social work: Themes, issues and critical environment: Perspectives from social work and traditional
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4
CHAPTER

Treading carefully:
professional practice and
ethical standards

Chapter 4
Treading carefully
This chapter examines Working in
professional practice and human
ethical standards services

What guides our practice?

Professional associations
International context
AASW
IASSW
ANZASW
ICSW
ARCAP
IFSW
ACWA

E-Professional context
Digital/online
Rural remote
practice

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THE ROAD TO SOCIAL WORK AND HUMAN SERVICE PRACTICE

Aims

• Discuss the positions for and against the use of ethical codes as a way of regulating the conduct
and behaviour of workers
• Explore the ways in which international and national professional associations promote the
professional identity of social work and human services
• Explore the regulation or registration of social work and human services in different countries
and cultural contexts
• Discuss emerging issues for ethical practice in the context of advances in technology and
online communications

Introduction
As social work in particular came to be defined as a profession, it also became important to determine
what is acceptable behaviour and conduct for practitioners as they interact with clients, groups and
communities. Practitioners are obligated to help people and not cause harm to them, either advertently
or inadvertently.
Ensuring quality practice is the basis of professional practice standards and codes of conduct, which
have been more formally documented as ethical codes in many countries. It is important to note that
although social work has used the professional association model as a way of promoting the ideals of
the profession, many human service workers have other qualifications and experience and therefore
do not qualify for membership of social work associations that may have specific eligibility criteria.
Community workers, counsellors and family therapists have developed their own associations and
codes of ethics to promote the values and practice standards expected of people working in these fields.
Therefore, a number of fragmented groups come under the broader banner of social work and human
services. While the ideals and values are very similar in these groups, the regulatory requirements and
mechanisms in place to impose sanctions and manage unethical conduct may differ between them.
In this chapter, we explore how different professional associations develop codes of ethics and
professional practice standards and discuss the complex and contested issues about regulating the
helping professions. The Australian situation is under continued development in terms of regulatory
frameworks. While the United States has had a system of licensing and certification for social workers
for many years, other countries such as Aotearoa New Zealand and the United Kingdom have only
more recently moved in a similar direction. This has global implications as social and human service
workers become increasingly mobile and seek international experience. How practice standards and
ethical codes, combined with knowledge of values and cultural context, can be used to make reasoned
decisions about ethically complex situations and dilemmas in practice is discussed.

Codes of ethics: care or control?

Refer to In Chapter 2 we discussed the nature of professions and the characteristics that a discipline must
Chapter 2 possess if it is to be defined as a profession. Professionals ‘profess’ to have a specialist body of
knowledge and use this knowledge to assess problems and effect solutions. Herein lies one of the
inherent contradictions in defining a profession in such a way: it implies that professionals have more
power than those with whom they work, so minimising the strengths and skills that people have to
find their own solutions to problems. As members of a profession, we need to remain mindful of this
and consider again whether we act as agents of social care or social control.
The ideal ‘attributes’ of professions generally include, among other things, a code of ethics to
regulate relationships between practitioners, clients and colleagues. The development of ethical codes,
which dates back to the Hippocratic Oath undertaken by physicians, is clearly linked to the process of
professionalisation. The conflicting views of the nature of professions can be summarised in two ways.
The functionalist view (from sociology) suggests that professions maintain the status quo and serve the

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TREADING CAREFULLY: PROFESSIONAL PRACTICE AND ETHICAL STANDARDS / CHAPTER 4

social and public interest, and that ethical codes developed by professionals ultimately protect the public.
The counterargument from the critical perspective is that professions are powerful elites that are ultimately
self-serving, with ethical codes designed primarily to protect the interests of members of the profession.
Both views are encapsulated in the summary by Reamer (2012, pp. 306–307) where he sets out the
functions of ethical codes. They must:

• articulate social work’s principal mission, values and ethical principles

• offer guidance to social workers and employers in addressing ethical issues
• protect consumers from incompetent practice and delineate standards for ethical practice
• provide a mechanism for the social work profession to govern itself
• protect social workers from ethics complaints and litigation.

Corey et al. (2019, p. 6), writing in the North American context, identified a number of problems in
applying codes of ethics to the complexity of human service practice:

• Some issues cannot be handled solely by relying on ethics codes.

• Ethics codes do not address the many situations that lie in an ethical gray zone.
Some codes lack clarity and precision, which makes assessment of an ethical dilemma unclear.
• Simply learning the ethics codes and practice guidelines will not necessarily make for ethical practice.
• Answers to ethical dilemmas are not contained in the ethics codes.
• Conflicts sometimes emerge within ethics codes as well as among various organisations’ codes.
• Ethics codes tend to be reactive rather than proactive.
• No set of rules or ethical standards can adequately guide practitioners through many of the complex
situations they may encounter.
• New situations arise frequently, and no two cases are exactly the same.
• A practitioner’s personal values may conflict with a specific professional value or standard within an ethics code.
• Codes may conflict with institutional policies and practices.
• Ethics codes need to be understood within a cultural framework; therefore, they need to be adapted to
specific cultures.
• Codes of ethics may not align with state laws or regulations regarding reporting requirements.
• Codes of ethics are often updated and require continuing education and professional development
throughout a professional’s lifelong learning journey.

Morley et al. (2019), writing from a critical perspective, have also highlighted that codes of ethics
are not necessarily consistent with critical social work; some aspects of ethical codes are vague about
defining ethical practice; ethics depends on context, which may differ depending on practice settings;
and some aspects of codes are contradictory.
Despite these problems, all of which we consider to have validity, professions have continued to
adopt, endorse and revise ethics codes. One reason for this is that practitioners feel more secure and have
a greater sense of accountability when they have guidelines to follow. It is also important that service
users and clients have information on which they can base any concerns about a practitioner’s work, and
validation that there are some behaviours that are not acceptable in a therapeutic relationship. Ethics
codes offer guidance in a general sense – they are not designed to dictate actions in every conceivable
situation. It is important that ethics codes reflect and promote the autonomy of professionals as much
as possible, while providing clear expectations about unacceptable or inappropriate conduct.

The international context

We now explore how international professional associations have adopted such codes as part of their
structures and strategies for promoting accountable practice.

The Global Agenda for Social Work and

Social Development
There are three partner organisations that together form the Global Observatory to monitor the Global
Agenda for Social Work and Social Development. These are the International Association of Schools

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86
Figure 4.1 Countries affiliated with the IFSW

BK-CLA-MCAULIFFE_7E-230050-Chp04.indd 86
Russia

Finland
Iceland Sweden
Canada
4 6
Norway

United
Kingdom Poland
THE ROAD TO SOCIAL WORK AND HUMAN SERVICE PRACTICE

Germany Ukraine Mongolia

Kazakhstan
France
31
United States 4
Spain Italy China
Turkey Japan
9 South
North Afghanistan Korea
4 Iraq Iran
Atlantic Ocean
Algeria Egypt Pakistan
Mexico 4 Saudi Arabia
India 5
Thailand
Niger Sudan
Mali
Chad
Ethiopia
7
Venezuela 5 Nigeria

12 Kenya
5
Indonesia
Peru DRC Tanzania Papua New
Brazil
Guinea
Bolivia
11
Namibia
5
South South Madagascar Indian
Pacific Ocean Chile Atlantic Ocean Botswana Ocean
6 Australia

South Africa
Argentina

New
Zealand

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the countries that have national organisations or associations represented by the IFSW.

From ‘Practicing during pandemic conditions: ethical guidance for social workers’ by International Federation of Social Workers, 2020. (https://www.ifsw.org/
practising-during-pandemic-conditions-ethical-guidance-for-social-workers).
Federation of Social Workers (IFSW). The IFSW was officially formed in Paris in 1928. The IFSW

of Africa, the Asia Pacific, Europe, Latin America, the Caribbean and North America. Figure 4.1 shows
of Social Work (IASSW), the International Council on Social Work (ICSW), and the International

currently represents over 3 million social workers from 178 member countries across the five regions

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TREADING CAREFULLY: PROFESSIONAL PRACTICE AND ETHICAL STANDARDS / CHAPTER 4

The IFSW focuses on promotion of social work to achieve social development, advocacy for social
justice globally, and facilitation of international cooperation. The IFSW has developed a range of ways to
achieve these aims, including disseminating information about international activities on their website;
publishing newsletters and media releases about social work activism and human rights issues; coordinating
regional, national and international conferences; and providing consultation to important international
bodies. Partner organisations include the United Nations (UN), the World Health Organization (WHO), the
United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), Amnesty International, the Office of the United Nations High
Commissioner for Refugees, Public Services International, and the European Union.
The IFSW has played an important role in promoting social work as a frontline profession throughout
the COVID-19 pandemic.

Key functions of social work at this time have included:

• ensuring that the most vulnerable are included in planning and response
• organizing communities to ensure that essentials such as food and clean water are available
• advocating within social services and in policy environments that services adapt, remain open and proactive
in supporting communities and vulnerable populations
• facilitating physical distancing and social solidarity.
• as a profession, advocating for the advancement and strengthening of health and social services as an essential
protection against the virus, inequality and the consequent social and economic challenges. (IFSW, n.d.)
Source: International Federation of Social Workers (n.d.). Updated information on IFSW and COVID-19.
https://www.ifsw.org/covid-19

Contributing to social policy and raising consciousness about human rights is an important role
of the IFSW. To this end, the IFSW has released a number of policy statements about issues of global
importance. These policies that date back to the mid-1990s are shown in Table 4.1.

Table 4.1 Policies of the International Federation of Social Workers

Policy Description

Displaced persons Revised 2012

Outlines the roles of social workers in dealing with displaced
populations
Globalisation and the environment Adopted 2004; revised 2012
Includes examples of positive social work experiences of
globalisation
Health Revised 2012
Outlines the knowledge base and responsibilities of social
workers involved in health care
HIV/AIDS Adopted 1990; revised 2012
Outlines the rights of people living with HIV/AIDS and their
families and partners, and strategies for prevention of the
spread of HIV/AIDS and provision of support
Human rights Adopted in 1996; revised 2012
Outlines the history of human rights activism and the social
work role
Indigenous peoples Adopted interim statement 2004; revised 2012
Supports the role of the UN in addressing Indigenous issues
Ageing and older adults Adopted in 1999
Promotes rights for older people
Refugees Adopted in 1998; revised 2012
Promotes ethically sensitive service in relation to refugees
Women Adopted in 1999; revised 2012
Outlines areas of critical concern, including poverty and the
economy; health, education and training; and violence

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THE ROAD TO SOCIAL WORK AND HUMAN SERVICE PRACTICE

Table 4.1 (Continued)

Policy Description

Cross-border reproductive technologies Adopted in 2008; revised 2012

Sets out a position that human life, human sperm, eggs
and embryos should not be subject to commodification or
commercial exchange
Genocide Adopted 2012
Recognises the impact of genocide and its threat to humanity
Effective and ethical working environments Adopted in 2012
for social work Focuses on responsibilities of employers to monitor workload
and provides ongoing professional development
Poverty eradication Adopted in 2012
Includes strategies for sustainability, self-reliance and
empowerment
People with disabilities Adopted in 2012
Focuses on poverty, education, employment and family support
Sexual orientation and gender expression Adopted in 2014
Upholds human rights and non-discrimination of LGBTQIA+
people
Guiding principles for social workers working Adopted in 2014
with others to identify and protect children Acknowledgement that children are vulnerable and often
from all forms of sexual abuse unable to signal or report sexual abuse
The universal right to social protection Adopted in 2016
Includes the role of social workers in developing competent
social protection systems
Policy for socially just, fair and sustainable Adopted in 2019
world trade agreements Advocates for corporate social responsibility, fair pricing,
international standards of labour, and capacity building
Policy and guiding principles for international Adopted in 2019
social work assessment of children Covers cross-border assessments and assessment of kinship
care options for children in a different country
Global standards for social work education Adopted in 2020
and training Provides standards on resources, curriculum, staffing, students,
service users and the profession
Social work and the United Nations Adopted in 2021
Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) Provides affirmation and support for the UN SDGs and UN
Agenda 2030
The role of social workers in advancing a new Adopted in 2022
eco-social world Promotes a Wholistic Rights Framework inclusive of individual
and social human rights, cultural rights, eco-system rights, and
the broader rights of nature

In addition to these policies, the IFSW has had a strong voice on international issues and
has made statements and highlighted the climate emergency and the need for climate justice,
the inequitable allocations of COVID-19 vaccines to many countries, the Russian invasion of
the Ukraine and subsequent war resulting in humanitarian crisis, the rise of nationalism and
populism and the resulting increase in hate crimes, continuing policies of austerity and concerns
about hyper-inflation, and the ongoing concerns about migration. Statements have also been made
about the burning of Amazon forests, human trafficking and exploitation of women and girls, and
human rights abuses at the US/Mexico border. Staying abreast of these international developments
is one way of ensuring that as an emerging practitioner you understand the global position of
the profession.

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TREADING CAREFULLY: PROFESSIONAL PRACTICE AND ETHICAL STANDARDS / CHAPTER 4

The IFSW was instrumental in developing a definition of social work (see Chapter 1) and also Refer to
Chapter 1
collaborated with the IASSW to revise the Ethics in Social Work: Statement of Principles (IFSW, 2018).
This statement, first endorsed in 2004, originally focused on the key principles of human rights and
human dignity, and social justice. In 2018, these principles were revised and titled Global Social Work
Statement of Ethical Principles, and now include the following:

1 Recognition of the inherent dignity of humanity

2 Promoting human rights
3 Promoting social justice
3.1 Challenging discrimination and institutional oppression
3.2 Respect for diversity
3.3 Access to equitable resources
3.4 Challenging unjust policies and practices
3.5 Building solidarity
4 Promoting the right to self-determination
5 Promoting the right to participation
6 Respect for confidentiality and privacy
7 Treating people as whole persons
8 Ethical use of technology and social media
9 Professional integrity (IFSW, 2018).

There are a further eight clauses under ‘Professional integrity’ that cover competence, support for
peace and non-violence, boundaries between personal and professional, giving and receiving of small
gifts, self-care and conflicting accountabilities.
This statement of ethical principles is an important document as it illustrates how the values
discussed in Chapter 3 have been constructed at the international level. It highlights the important Refer to
principles on which the social work profession is based and provides the foundation for the ethical Chapter 3

standards of different countries, taking into account cultural perspectives that may be unique to
service provision in particular contexts. The IFSW has taken over as publisher of the International
Journal of Social Work Values and Ethics as well as the journal International Social Work.

Recommended reading
Beckett, C., Maynard, A., & Jordan, P. (2017). Values and ethics in social work (3rd ed.). Sage.
Hugman, R., & Carter, J. (Eds.). (2016). Rethinking values and ethics in social work. Palgrave.
International Federation of Social Workers. (2020). Practicing during pandemic conditions: ethical
guidance for social workers. https://www.ifsw.org/practising-during-pandemic-conditions-
ethical-guidance-for-social-workers

The regional context

Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand have their own professional associations, each with their own
ethical codes to promote accountable practice.

Australian Association of Social Workers

The Australian Association of Social Workers (AASW) was founded in the early 1940s during a period
Refer to
of professionalisation, as discussed in Chapter 2. It consists of state- and territory-based branches that Chapter 2
are supported by the National Association based in Melbourne. Membership of the AASW continues
to be optional as social work in Australia still has not achieved the status of a ‘registered’ profession.
Over the past eight decades, the AASW has developed into a company limited by guarantee with
a Board of Directors responsible for governance, a Chief Executive Officer and around 52 staff. The
management structure of the AASW includes the CEO, Membership Engagement, Social Policy and

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THE ROAD TO SOCIAL WORK AND HUMAN SERVICE PRACTICE

Figure 4.2 Roles of the AASW

Runs local
events
Promotes and activities
Engages
social work
members
practice to
locally
the public

Sets standards Informs

for social members of
work education relevant issues
Roles of
the AASW

Sets and Provides

maintains networking
professional opportunities
standards

Facilitates
Represents
continuing
and advocates
professional
for the
development
profession
(CPD)

Advocacy, Professional Standards and Assessments, Education and Credentials, Continuing Professional
Development, Marketing and Communications, Finance and Corporate Support. The AASW is advised by
branch management committees, and some of the tasks it undertakes are listed in Figure 4.2.
Nationally, there are over 16 000 members of the AASW. The stated vision of the AASW (n.d.)
is ‘Wellbeing and social justice for all’. The purpose is ‘Supporting social workers and empowering
the profession to make a positive difference’. The identified pathways to achieving this purpose are
included in Figure 4.3.
As a national association, it responds to emerging needs and provides comment backed by research
and evidence from practice to advocate for policy and legislative change. In the past few decades, the
AASW has been actively involved in writing policy submissions and position statements to government
that have included: Voluntary Assisted Dying, Climate Change and the Climate Emergency, People
Seeking Asylum and Refugees, and Policy Position on Aged Care. The AASW has joined calls to
oppose the United States Supreme Court decision on Roe versus Wade, stand in solidarity with the
people of Ukraine and ban ‘Gay Conversion Therapy’. The AASW has had active involvement with
inquiries including the Royal Commissions into Violence, Abuse, Neglect and Exploitation of People
with Disability; Aged Care Quality and Safety; and the Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.
It has also written a number of position papers on child protection, gambling, health reform, mental
health, homelessness, income support, family violence and coercive control, and National Disability
Insurance Scheme (NDIS) inclusions. The AASW has developed and endorsed a Reconciliation Action
Plan and has been vocal on support for Indigenous voices in Parliament. The AASW is an important

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TREADING CAREFULLY: PROFESSIONAL PRACTICE AND ETHICAL STANDARDS / CHAPTER 4

Figure 4.3 AASW pathways to supporting social workers and empowering the profession

We will advance
a strong identity
for the social
work profession

We will be We will foster

a strong voice a well-trained
AASW
for social workers and highly
pathways
and social skilled social
justice work profession

We will deliver
operational
excellence

Australian Association of Social Workers. (n.d). About the AASW.

https://www.aasw.asn.au/about-aasw/about-aasw, © Australian Association of Social Workers.

lobby group for the profession and is highly engaged at the political level in raising awareness about
impacts of government decisions and policies. There are many benefits available to members including
access to high quality online continuing professional development, and access to a mentoring program
where experienced social workers are matched with new graduates to provide support and guidance
as they start their professional lives.

Practitioner perspective

As a social worker for over 20 years I have been committed to the AASW, striving towards
the objectives of the social work profession and have aligned my ethics and practice with the
expectations and standards set out by the AASW.
The AASW being the professional representative body of social workers in Australia, has set
the standard for social work practice by providing a framework to ensure effective, professional
and accountable social work practice and the best possible outcomes for the people that we
work with.

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The AASW is integral in promoting a collective voice for the role of social work in Australia and
in the international community, as well as increasing the community understanding of social
work and the social work profession as a whole and I would consider the AASW is vital for the
success of all social workers.
As the key representative body for social work and our voice, I feel that all social workers in
Australia should consider membership with our association. As a member-based association, I
see that we have a collective responsibility and a part to play in driving our association forward
and this is why I nominated for election as a director on the national board of the AASW. I am
committed to what the AASW stands for, what the AASW is aiming to achieve, and I wanted to be
part of the voice that promotes social work and builds a strong profession for the future.
Brooke Kooymans

The great regulation debate

The AASW remains committed to pursuing statutory regulation (registration) of social work at a
national level, but how long this process will take is unknown because of the complexity of the political
process involved. The most recent step forward was the passing of the Social Workers Registration
Bill 2021 in South Australia, which paves the way for other state jurisdictions to follow suit. AASW
CEO Cindy Smith stated in a media release on 1 December 2021:

It is going to be difficult for federal and state governments to explain how social work can be registered in
South Australia but not in the rest of the country. We have been calling for registration for decades and all
vulnerable people, particularly children, across the country require equal protection, no matter where they
live. The public should be able to expect the same standards of professional practice everywhere in Australia.
(AASW, 2021)
Australian Association of Social Workers. (2021, 1 December). South Australian social
workers the first state in Australia to be registered. https://www.aasw.asn.au/
news-media/2021/south-australian-social-workers-the-first-in-australia-to-be-registered

Social work has been excluded from the National Regulation and Accreditation Scheme (NRAS) on
the basis of lack of evidence of exposure to significant risk of danger to the public, and particularly
because social work was not registered in at least one state when the NRAS scheme was implemented.
The initial 10 professions admitted into NRAS and the four that followed were all registered somewhere
in Australia, and the government committed to introduce a national scheme to redress fragmented
approaches to registration. The Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency (AHPRA),
constituted under NRAS, includes the following professions: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander
Health Practitioners, Chinese Medicine, Chiropractic, Dental, Medical, Medical Radiation Practice,
Nursing and Midwifery, Occupational Therapy, Optometry, Osteopathy, Paramedics, Pharmacy,
Physiotherapy, Podiatry and Psychology.
The arguments for and against statutory regulation of social work have been debated in a number
of forums, but it does appear that the concept has the support of many social workers who would
like to see better protection for clients from incompetent practitioners and a strengthening of
professional identity. Currently, only social workers who are AASW members (including students)
can be investigated for alleged serious breaches of the code of ethics, but termination of membership is
the most severe penalty that can be imposed. If a social worker is deemed ‘ineligible for membership’,
it may have negative implications for employment, particularly if the social worker intends to apply
for a job that requires ‘eligibility for membership of a professional association’. Employers can contact
the AASW to find out whether a particular person is ‘ineligible for membership’. Those ineligible are
also listed on the AASW website.
One disadvantage of not having registration is that the many thousands of social workers who
are not members of the AASW by choice are not bound to comply with investigations into unethical
conduct if an allegation has been made against them by clients, colleagues or members of the public. The

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AASW has no jurisdiction over non-members. It is reasonable to assume, therefore, that a legitimate
registration board would have more clout in terms of acting on unprofessional or unethical conduct,
perhaps deregistering social workers and/or suspending them from practice.
It is, however, questionable as to whether registration would really achieve the aim of making social
workers more competent. Many would argue that mechanisms are already in place for unprofessional
practice to be addressed by employers and by the range of ‘integrity bodies’ that exist federally and
in different states (e.g. the National Health Practitioner Ombudsman and Privacy Commissioner,
Australian Human Rights Commission and Anti-Discrimination Commissions, Aged Care Complaints
Commission). It is argued that clients and service users have recourse through the legal system
and other pathways of complaint and that to add another layer to the system is cumbersome and
not entirely satisfactory. This argument has merit in the case of government departments and
large welfare organisations that have the resources to manage the performance of staff, but it is
problematic in the case of social workers in private practice or in small community-based agencies
in which avenues to pursue complaints are often non-existent. The number of social workers who
have attained Accredited Mental Health Social Worker status and can, therefore, apply to Medicare
Australia to provide services has substantially increased, leading to more private practice in the
unregulated space.
Those arguing for registration also claim that the status and identity of the profession would be
significantly increased if it were brought in line with other professional disciplines that have been
registered for many years (e.g. psychology, nursing and teaching). Social work is always at risk of
losing ground in sustaining a distinct identity in some human service sectors, so enhancing its
reputation through a political process could be useful. The counterargument is that social workers
would be in a better position to promote the ideals and vision of the profession in a self-directed and
more autonomous way if the profession were unfettered by the registration process.
The other difficulty facing the sector is the increasing diversification and fragmentation at the
broad level of the human service industry. If social workers with specific professional qualifications
are registered, what becomes of the many thousands of practitioners with other qualifications
that equally qualify them to work in human services? This is a challenge for the AASW as it has
historically had a deliberately narrow focus. AASW membership is restricted to appropriately
qualified social workers with a four-year Bachelor of Social Work degree or a two-year qualifying
Master of Social Work (following completion of a relevant degree) from a recognised and accredited
educational institution. The question remains as to whether there is a way that all human service
workers – including social workers, community workers, counsellors, youth workers, health workers
and educators – can be brought together in a more inclusive and meaningful structure, so that
expectations about standards of practice are realistic and the standards can be enforced for the
protection of vulnerable clients.
A significant move to protecting the title of ‘social worker’ has been endorsed by the AASW
who have developed a number of logos and assorted credentials to provide AASW members with
professional recognition (see Figure 4.4). Social workers who use these logos under Collective
Trademark are bound to comply with ethical and practice standards and meet CPD obligations as
stipulated in AASW policies. Employers are encouraged to look for these logos and assorted credentials
as an indicator that a social worker is committed to professional practice.

AASW Practice Standards and Code of Ethics

In the absence of statutory regulation of social work, the AASW has taken on the role of promoting
self-regulation, by developing strategies to ensure that members offer accountable practice of a high
standard. Practice Standards for Social Workers: Achieving Outcomes was endorsed in 2003 after a process
of consultation that began in 1998 with social workers, client groups and employers. These standards
set the benchmark for educational accreditation and practice and have most recently been revised to
the Practice Standards 2022.

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Figure 4.4 Logos of the AASW

© Australian Association of Social Workers Ltd, https://www.aasw.asn.au/

Activity 4.1

1 What is your position on whether the AASW should continue to pursue statutory regulation
of social work?
2 In your opinion, what are the potential advantages and disadvantages for individual social
workers if the profession becomes registered?
3 What are the pros and cons of registration for the profession as a whole?
4 Should there be one body that acts as a representative entity for all people employed in
social work and human services?

The AASW Practice Standards (2023) complement the AASW Code of Ethics (2020) and inform
AASW’s policy on CPD. There are nine standards, reading as follows under the core headings, that
also have details under each of what this means in practice for a social worker:

Standard 1: Social workers conduct themselves according to the values, principles and guidelines of the
AASW Code of Ethics 2020.
Standard 2: Social workers practice in partnership with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples to
support their priorities and aspirations.
Standard 3: Social workers advocate for policy initiatives and approaches to practice aimed at achieving fair
and equitable access for people to social, health, economic, environmental and political resources.
Standard 4: Social workers practice respectfully and inclusively with regard to culture and diversity.
Standard 5: Social workers practice within a professional knowledge framework informed by a critical
understanding of contemporary social work theory and research.
Standard 6: Social workers make professional decisions on the basis of a holistic assessment of the needs,
strengths, goals and preferences of people.
Standard 7: Social workers actively contribute to strengthening and promoting the identity and standing of
the profession.
Standard 8: Social workers build and strengthen their practice through regular structured supervision from
social work qualified supervisors.
Standard 9: Social workers monitor their skills, knowledge and expertise to maintain, improve and broaden
their professional development. (AASW, 2022)
DRAFT of the updated AASW Practice Standards (20022), © Australian Association of Social Workers Ltd,
https://www.aasw.asn.au/about-aasw/ethics-standards/practice-standards/

In addition to the general practice standards document, there are also documents that set out the
Scope of Social Work Practice in specified areas of interest and expertise. AASW members can currently
access scope of practice statements for social work in schools, homelessness, family violence, hospitals
and work with refugees. Other fields of practice are being reviewed and updated. The Australian Social
Work Education and Accreditation Standards (2020) govern educational curriculum for Schools of Social

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Work. The AASW is also the assessing authority, on behalf of Medicare, in accrediting social workers
to provide specific government-funded mental health services. The journal Australian Social Work is the
official publication of the AASW and is recognised as an extremely reputable journal with substantial
international reach and readership.
During 2006 and 2007, the AASW initiated a major review of ethics and complaint management,
resulting in a comprehensive framework incorporating the Ethics Complaint Management Process
and the Ethics Education and Policy Development Process. Staff with ethics expertise were employed
to manage a national system of dealing with complaints against social workers (as opposed to the
previous state-based system), supported by a National Ethics Panel comprised of social workers and
others trained to conduct hearings and investigations. This system was supported by by-laws on
ethics and a comprehensive complaint management process. The AASW also established an Ethics
and Practice Standards Consultation Service in 2010 where social workers who are members of the
AASW can receive advice on application of the Code of Ethics, and support to work through ethical
dilemmas in practice. Many social workers have used this service to explore complex ethical dilemmas
and move to resolutions that are in accordance with professional practice standards.
The AASW Code of Ethics was first drafted in 1957, with an official Code of Ethics adopted in 1968.
Minor revisions followed over the years until a more extensive consultation resulted in the 1999 Code
of Ethics, and then a significantly amended version in 2010. Collaboration and active involvement of
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander social workers in the 2010 review process resulted in a Code of Ethics
that had a strong commitment to cultural awareness, sensitivity and safety, and gave clear guidance on
practice with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples and communities. The front cover of the 2010
Code depicting Aboriginal artwork was designed by an Indigenous social worker Elizabeth McEntyre of
the Worimi Nation (NSW) and was titled ‘Murr-roo-ma Mur-rook Boo-larng’ (To Make Good Together).
Three of the social workers who were involved in the 2010 review of the AASW Code of Ethics (members
of the AASW Code of Ethics Review Committee) made the following statements:

As the Project Officer employed by the AASW, I felt at the time, and still feel now, that it was an enormous
privilege to work on the review of the 2010 Code of Ethics. I felt a great sense of responsibility but this was
lightened by the knowledge that we, the Code of Ethics Review Committee, had many partners in the process
thanks to a Consultation Strategy that sought the views of social workers around the country and indeed
the world.
Sharlene Nipperess

For me, a highlight/special memory of our process was the day we spent with the Aboriginal and Torres Strait
Islander National Working Group in Adelaide. I felt really honoured to have had that time. It felt that together
all of us around that table that day were a part of making something right … I also remember and cherish
how seriously we all took the privilege of reviewing our Code of Ethics. We never treated that responsibility
lightly, and in fact, I remember many days when it weighed heavily. But all in all, I would sum up that year
as encompassing some of the most rewarding, most challenging, most humbling and most exciting days of
my working life.
Kym Daly

I think it is important when you raise an issue as I have on so many occasions with regard to the Code of
Ethics to then be willing to be part of the solution and I really appreciated the opportunity to do this. I have
since heard so many positive comments by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander and non-Indigenous social
workers around the country and others such as members of the Australian Psychological Society and SNAICC
that I know the work we did was appreciated and has in a way set a standard for others to aspire to.
Dr Christine Fejo-King

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In 2018, the Code of Ethics was again reviewed, this time using an external consultant who worked
closely with an expert advisory panel and conducted a member consultation. The most important
change was to the structure of the Code that shifted to a three part document focused on setting out
in Part 1 the purpose, ethical principles, ethical decision making, and general ethical responsibilities
(aspirational); in Part 2 the standards of ethical conduct (expectations); and in Part 3 the fitness to
practice including ethics complaints and sanctions (protection of the public). The resulting Code of
Ethics (2020) has a much more corporate appearance, but has maintained a strong commitment to
Australian First Nations people.
The purpose of the AASW Code of Ethics is to:

• identify the principles that underpin ethical social work practice and the professional identities of social
workers
• provide a guide and standard for ethical social work conduct and service delivery
• provide a foundation for ethical reflection and decision making
• guide social workers when determining their reciprocal rights with employers, colleagues and the AASW
• provide clarification of social workers’ actions in the context of industrial or legal disputes
• protect practitioners and public alike from malpractice
• hold members accountable for their ethical practice and act as a basis for investigation and adjudication
of formal complaints about unethical conduct. (AASW, 2020, p. 7)
Australian Association of Social Workers Code of Ethics 2020,
https://www.aasw.asn.au/practitioner-resources/code-of-ethics, © Australian Association of Social Workers

The Code of Ethics sets out and defines three core principles of social work, as shown
in Figure 4.5.
The Code of Ethics sets out the responsibilities for ethical practice and provides guidance about
ethical issues for social workers, such as when confidentiality can be justifiably breached; intimate
and sexual relationships with current and former clients, students and supervisees; being culturally
safe, sensitive and aware, and using interpreters or translators; representing competence and
expertise honestly; sharing client records and information with others; having informed consent

Figure 4.5 AASW Code of Ethics: three core principles of social work

Every human being has a unique and inherent equal

Respect for worth and has a right to wellbeing, self-fulﬁlment and
persons self-determination, consistent with the rights and
culture of others, and a sustainable environment.

The AASW holds that social justice is a core principle

that its members are obliged to promote and
Social justice uphold for society in general and for the people with
whom they work.

Practitioners should be guided by principles of

Professional honesty, trustworthiness and good character in all
integrity aspects of professional conduct.

Code of Ethics, Australian Association of Social Workers, © Australian Association of Social

Workers 2020; Australian Association of Social Workers Code of Ethics 2020, © Australian
Association of Social Workers 2020.

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processes in working with involuntary clients; and terminating services ethically (see Figure 4.6).
Due to increased numbers of social workers who have moved into private practice, the Code of
Ethics now has a comprehensive section on working in fee-for-service settings. There are also a
range of other useful documents on the AASW website to assist private practitioners in setting up
schedules of fees, complying with Australian Government Privacy Principles, and creating listings
in search directories.
The AASW has other mechanisms of self-regulation that include a CPD policy and a system for
reviewing and accrediting bachelors program and qualifying master’s level social work programs
so that graduates are eligible for AASW membership. All social work programs are reviewed every
five years by an accreditation panel and are expected to be compliant with the Australian Social
Work Education Accreditation Standards (ASWEAS, 2020). Social workers who have obtained their
qualifications from overseas can also be assessed for membership eligibility.

Figure 4.6 Content of the AASW Code of Ethics (2020)

Content of the AASW Code Ethics and the social work

Ethical principles
of Ethics 2020 profession

Part 1: Code of ethics Who we are (s. 1.1) Respect for persons (s. 2.1)
(ss. 1, 2, 3, 4) What we do (s. 1.2) Social justice (s. 2.2)
Part 2: Standards of ethical Working alongside Australian Professional integrity (s. 2.3)
conduct (ss. 5, 6, 7, 8, 9) First Nations people (s. 1.3)
Part 3: Fitness to practice (s. 10) Structure and purpose of the
Code (s. 1.4)
Using the Code (s. 1.5)

Ethical decision making General ethical responsibilities Standards of ethical conduct

Ethical decision making (s. 3) Cultural safety and sensitivity Priority of service users’
(s. 4.1) influence (s. 5.1)
Commitment to social justice Service user self-determination
and human rights (s. 4.2) (s. 5.2)
Social work service and Informed consent (s. 5.3)
propriety (s. 4.3) Information privacy and
Professional competence (s. 4.4) confidentiality (s. 5.4)
Conflicts of interest (s. 4.5) Record management (s. 5.5)
Responsibilities to the Termination or interruption of
profession (s. 4.6) service (s. 5.6 )

Standards of ethical conduct Standards of ethical conduct Fitness to practice

Working with colleagues (s. 6) Working with service Ethics complaints and sanctions
Working in fee-for-service organisations (s. 7) (s. 10)
settings (s. 8) Service provision (s. 7.1) Fitness to practice (s. 10.1)
Working with students and Management and supervision Complaints process (s. 10.2)
social workers under roles (s. 7.2) Sanctions (s. 10.3)
supervision (s. 9)

Australian Association of Social Workers Code of Ethics 2020, https://www.aasw.asn.au/about-aasw/ethics-standards/code-of-ethics/,

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Australian and New Zealand Social Work and Welfare

Education and Research
Australian and New Zealand Social Work and Welfare Education and Research (ANZSWWER)
brings together a committed group of progressive social work and welfare educators and researchers,
practitioners and students. The activities of ANZSWWER include:

• Promoting the scholarly pursuit of teaching, learning and research in social work and social welfare
• Promoting and participating in structures and processes concerned with the accreditation of programs of
social work and welfare education
• Promoting and supporting social work and welfare education and related interests throughout the
Australian community
• Co-operating internationally with similar bodies in the pursuit of common goals and interests
• Maintaining collaborative relations with tertiary institutions, the AASW and the Australian Community
Workers Association (ACWA). (ANZSWWER , n.d.)
Source: Australian and New Zealand Social Work and Welfare Education and Research. (n.d.).
About us. https://www.anzswwer.org/about/about-us

ANZSWWER holds an annual symposium to provide a forum for discussion of issues impacting
social work and human services, and presentation of research that provides an evidence base for
practice. The journal Advances in Social Work and Welfare Education is hosted by ANZSWWER, and
the National Field Education Network (NFEN) is a sub-committee that focuses on developments
in field education. ANZSWWER operates on a model of governance by elected committee members
at the Annual AGM and is funded through institutional and individual membership. ANZSWWER
provides an important space for collaboration between Australian and New Zealand social workers,
and many research projects, publications and books have been created through these connections
and networks.

Activity 4.2

A revised and updated AASW Code of Ethics was released in 2020. There was significant
consultation on this revision and the structure of the code was substantially changed. This
reflected the aims of the code to offer a clear statement on core values of social work and the
ethical aspirations and responsibilities of the profession, as well as to set out the standards
of conduct that are expected of qualified social workers. Download and read through this
document and identify the differences between the 2010 and 2020 versions.
1 What are the differences in structure and layout between the two versions?
2 What, if any, are the differences in core values and the way these have been presented?
3 Are there ethical issues that have been incorporated in the 2020 Code of Ethics that were not
in the 2010 version?
4 Are there issues that were in the 2010 version of the code that are not in the 2020 version?
5 How would you describe the differences overall between these two codes of ethics and what
do you think the rationale might be for the changes? How does this reflect the professional
progression of social work over the past decade?

Aotearoa New Zealand Association of Social Workers

The Aotearoa New Zealand Association of Social Workers (ANZASW) was formed in 1964 to promote
the interests of social workers in Aotearoa New Zealand. The distinctive feature of this professional
association is the promotion of bicultural practice, which has been reflected in the previous codes of
ethics and standards of practice. As social work achieved mandatory registration in Aotearoa New

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Zealand in 2021, the regulatory parts of the previous code of ethics and the conduct provisions now lie
with the Social Workers Registration Board, allowing the code of ethics to focus on the aspirations of
the profession. Social workers need to be registered and must hold a valid Practising Certificate which
must be renewed each year. Educational institutions will need to sign off on graduate competence, and
there will be yearly audits of CPD logs to ensure competence and fitness to practise.
The ANZASW Code of Ethics sets out the purpose of social work in the Asia Pacific Region in a way
that demonstrates the commitment to culture, faith and environment (see Figure 4.7). The emphasis
for social work is on:

• realising the care and compassion of our Profession in ensuring that all people are provided with adequate
social protection so that their needs are met, and human rights and dignity safeguarded
• recognising the importance of faith, spirituality and/or religion in people’s lives and holding respect for
varying belief systems
• the celebration of diversity and peaceful negotiation of conflict
• affirming the region’s Indigenous and local knowledges and practices alongside critical and research-
based practice/practice-based research approaches to social work practice
• encouraging innovative, sustainable social work and the social development practices in the preservation
of our environment. (ANZASW, 2019)

Figure 4.7 ANZASW Code of Ethics poster

Source: ‘Ngā Tikanga Matatika, our Code of Ethics’, by Aotearoa New Zealand Association of Social Workers, n.d.
(https://www.anzasw.nz/code-of-ethics)..

The Code of Ethics of the ANZASW sets out a number of principles that firmly ground it in an
understanding of responsibility for a Te-Tiriti-o-Waitangi-based society. According to Beddoe (2013),
who conducted research in Aotearoa New Zealand with a number of social work practitioners:

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Registration has brought more powerful markers of the professionalization that had been missing in NZ
social work. The advent of an annual practising certificate, linked to CPE, was seen as strengthening the social
work case. A legal requirement to hold a practising certificate was perceived as much better than anything
voluntary, because it would bring social work in line with other professions and compel employers to provide
resources. (p. 173)

Australian Register of Counsellors

and Psychotherapists
The Australian Register of Counsellors and Psychotherapists (ARCAP) comprises the Australian
Counselling Association (ACA) and the Psychotherapy and Counselling Federation of Australia
(PACFA). A voluntary self-regulation model applies to counsellors and psychotherapists in Australia.
This means that a counsellor or psychotherapist may choose to practise in Australia without accredited
training and without accountability to a regulatory body. However, many practitioners prefer to be
accountable to a regulatory body and may choose to apply for membership of an array of voluntary
professional associations. Ethical guidelines and complaint provisions only apply to those practitioners
who choose to apply, and are eligible, for financial membership of these associations. In Australia, the
two largest peak bodies representing numerous member associations are the ACA and the PACFA, both
of which were established in 1998.
In July 2010, a joint agreement between the ACA and PACFA resulted in the incorporation of ARCAP.
PACFA Counsellors, Psychotherapists and Mental Health Practitioners form Division A of the ARCAP,
and ACA Counsellors and Psychotherapists form Division B of the ARCAP. These divisions are non-
hierarchical. The ACA and the member associations of PACFA each maintain responsibility for the
accreditation and ethical integrity of individual members according to ethical provisions within each
association (ARCAP, 2022).
ARCAP was formed in order to establish a single national credentialling system for practising
counsellors and psychotherapists in Australia. Not only does a single national system provide
consumers with a register of accredited practitioners, it also influences the capacity for practitioners
to meet criteria for fee subsidies from government and private health insurance bodies, if applicable.
The ACA sets ethical standards for its members through a Code of Ethics and Practice (ACA, 2019).
The ACA has more than 9000 members. The primary objectives and functions of the ACA (2022) are to:

• promote and advocate for the counselling profession

• represent its members to government and industry
• establish appropriate training standards for the profession
• accredit education courses for counsellors
• assist members with employment and practice development
• recognise appropriate professional development opportunities for members
• establish and oversee codes of ethical practice
• assist the mental health consumer access ethical and appropriate service providers.
Australian Counselling Association. (2022). About the ACA. https://www.theaca.net.au/about.php

PACFA has member organisations, affiliated organisations, and a growing number of individual
members. Member organisations include, for example, the Australian Association of Buddhist
Counsellors and Psychotherapists; Dance Therapy Association of Australia; and Christian Counsellors
Association of Australia. PACFA’s ethical guidelines establish minimum standards for psychotherapy
and counselling. As with the AASW, ANZASW and ACA ethical codes, PACFA’s Code sets out ethical
principles and responsibilities to the client; for example, avoidance of harm and setting of boundaries
for oneself as counsellor (monitoring personal functioning), for other counsellors, and for the wider
community (working within the law). PACFA’s Code also deals with exploitation (financial, sexual,
emotional), confidentiality and limits, contracts (informed consent, conflict of interest) and complaint

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procedures (PACFA, 2017). The aims and functions of PACFA and its member associations are similar
to those of the ACA listed above.
Of interest in the PACFA Code of Ethics (2017) is a set of personal qualities to which practitioners
are expected to aspire. These include:

• authenticity: the capacity to be true to ourselves and to relate to others based on who we truly are
• care: attending to and serving the needs of others and ensuring they are protected from harm
• courage: making decisions and interventions that are in the best interest of our clients, despite personal
discomfort
• curiosity: taking an active and genuine interest in, and desire to understand, the lives and experiences of
others
• diligence: using counselling and psychotherapy skills and knowledge effectively to achieve the desired
outcomes
• empathy: the ability to take the perspective of another and to connect compassionately with their
experience of the world
• honesty: a personal commitment to being truthful, consistent, straightforward and trustworthy in all
dealings with others
• humility: awareness of our own beliefs, values, strengths and limitations without needing to claim
superiority or correctness over others
• resilience: the capacity to work with the client’s concerns, whatever they are, and to grow stronger as a
result of unexpected challenges
• respect: responding to and treating others as fully and equally human for who they are, and accepting,
without judgement, all forms of human diversity
• sincerity: a personal commitment to consistency between what is professed and what is done
• wisdom: having sound judgement and insight in the practice of counselling and psychotherapy and in
related fields of work.

PACFA has also developed a set of guidelines to assist organisational functioning of PACFA member
associations and set standards for future development, as well as the PACFA Professional Conduct
Procedures (2020) to address misconduct concerns.

Australian Community Workers Association

The Australian Community Workers Association (ACWA) was founded in 1969 as a national body
to represent the interests of more than 500 000 human service workers, including community
workers, aged care workers, project officers, housing officers, program coordinators, youth workers,
group workers, disability care workers, chaplains, case managers, residential care workers, child
protection workers, parole officers and family counsellors. The ACWA accredits a broad range of courses
and recognises overseas qualifications. There has been substantial development in recent years to
ensure compliance with acceptable standards of practice across a broad-ranging community
services sector.
The ACWA exists to assist members to promote social justice with professional, cooperative and
compassionate services, particularly for disadvantaged and vulnerable individuals, families, groups
and communities.
The ACWA lists as their recent achievements:
• successfully advocating for minimum standards to be included in the Community Services
Training Package (CSTP) when it was introduced into the TAFE sector
• developing the profession’s code of ethics and practice guidelines to ensure ethical practice by
members
• working with education providers to raise the quality of community services courses
• representing the profession on government Industry Reference Committees
• developing a research agenda to promote enquiry into the community work profession
• ACWA membership included as a selection criterion by major state government departments
when recruiting for relevant roles

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• identified as Department of Home Affairs authorised assessing authority for seven occupations
• ACWA membership recognised as part of suitability assessments for NDIS service providers
.

• successfully advocating against a large fee increase for community and human services degrees
caught up in the Federal Government’s Job-ready Graduates Package.
The Code of Ethics of the ACWA (2017) is comparable in aims, principles and language to the
aforementioned codes, and the structure of the association, which is quite similar to that of the AASW,
allows for a range of membership categories and benefits. Its code highlights principles of social justice,
equity and access to services, and participation in service delivery. Responsibilities to clients include
confidentiality, accountability and respect. The code outlines responsibilities to colleagues, employers
and to the profession, and has an accompanying set of practice guidelines, created in 2021, that set
out required conduct and responsibilities. Of particular note is the ACWA self-assessment tool, one
for practitioners and one for supervisors, and an Employer Code of Practice that can be adopted by
community organisations. The Association has developed a complaint process where members of
the public can lodge a complaint that, if substantiated, may result in expulsion of the member and
withdrawal of insurance coverage.

Activity 4.3

1 What functions do you think professional associations serve? If you think ahead into your
future professional practice, what might be the benefits of joining a professional association
even if this is not compulsory?
2 If you are from a country other than Australia or New Zealand, are social work and human
services registered or self-regulated where you live? Do you think this affords clients a good
level of protection?

Harmful practice: a duty to regulate

Evidence from international and national research studies and other sources has demonstrated that,
in some cases, social work and human services have been provided in a manner that has resulted in
harm to clients and/or those close to them. In the absence of mandatory regulation in Australia, it is
not possible to access comprehensive complaint statistics specifically about social workers and human
service workers. Therefore, there is much we do not know about the prevalence and types of reported
and unreported complaints. It is often only through accounts of tragedies that end up in the media
that the public is made aware of what can happen when practitioners are involved in situations of
harm, such as child deaths from abuse or neglect. Structural factors, including under-resourcing, high
caseloads, lack of appropriate worker supports, and multiple social problems, generally accompany
investigations of extreme harm.
The AASW has laid out an important set of facts about the context of social work that provides a
good foundation for understanding the reasons why registration is important.

The interventions undertaken by social workers are complex and can involve significant risk factors, such as:
1 Social workers practise in settings which involve the establishment of long-term trust relationships with
some of Australia’s most vulnerable people. Such relationships carry the risk of professional boundary
violations. AHPRA statistics indicate that this is the area of most significant risk across the registered
professions. Power imbalances in therapeutic relationships can also mean that vulnerable clients are less
likely to complain about improper conduct. These clients deserve protection.
2 The human cost of unsafe social work practice is high. The available international and national data shows
that when social workers do cause harm, it is significant harm. For example, in matters investigated by
the AASW which involved serious sexual boundary violations, all victims reported the psychological and
emotional harm caused to them by the social workers as extreme, and all tested in the severe range for
depression, stress and anxiety on the Depression, Anxiety and Stress Scale (DASS), following the incidents

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of sexual boundary violations. Victims have reported suicidal thoughts and hospital admissions as a result
of unethical social work practices. All victims have reported that the incidents continue to affect their lives
on a daily basis.
3 Social workers most commonly provide services without another person present:
• This risk is exacerbated by the fact that social workers regularly visit vulnerable clients in their homes
without any direct supervision.
• In addition, social workers increasingly work in sole or private practices. This has the potential for
professional isolation to occur.
4 Social workers in private practice, who have not sought accreditation by the AASW, pose an even greater
risk, as in the absence of any organisational code of conduct/complaints mechanisms; there are no
guaranteed formal accountability measures.
5 Social workers provide psychological and other interventions to vulnerable people for serious mental
health and other issues with potential for harm.
6 Social workers can act as primary care providers without referral from a registered practitioner.
7 Social workers are trusted with sensitive health information regarding clients and significant others,
including clients’ medical history in many cases.
8 The nature of social work practice means that social workers may also be susceptible to vicarious trauma
and burnout, which without adequate supervision and regulation, can inadvertently lead to professional
boundary and/or fitness to practice issues.
9 The intimate nature of therapeutic relationships can also be vulnerable to issues such as:
• ‘transference’ (i.e. the redirection of a client’s feelings for a significant other onto the social worker).
How the social worker addresses issues of transference requires significant skills, supervision and
continuing professional development
• ‘countertransference’ (i.e. the redirection of the social worker’s feelings towards a client). Again, this
requires a significant level of skill, supervision and continuing professional development in order to
ensure that such issues are managed in the therapeutic context and do not inadvertently result in
professional boundary violations and/or harm to the client.
All of the above risks in the social work practice environment can be mitigated by regulatory standards
such as professional supervision, CPD and ongoing fitness to practise checks. (AASW, 2016)
Australian Association of Social Workers. (2016). Additional rationale for the regulation of social workers.
https://www.aasw.asn.au/document/item/8805, © Australian Association of Social Workers

Further evidence of harmful practices involving social workers and other related occupations
can be sourced from a series of government inquiries. The NSW Chelmsford Royal Commission
into Deep Sleep Therapy in 1990 recommended registration of all mental health workers, including
social workers, and licensing for some. The severe harm to the Stolen Generations was highlighted
in an inquiry by the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission in 1994, which led to the
‘Bringing them Home’ Report of the National Inquiry into the Separation of Aboriginal and Torres
Strait Islander Children from their Families. Other significant inquiries include the Commission
of Inquiry into Abuse of Children in Queensland Institutions 1999 (Forde Inquiry), and in 2004,
the federal Senate Community Affairs Committee delivered ‘Forgotten Australians: A report on
Australians who experienced institutional or out-of-home care as children’. Furthermore, the
Wood Royal Commission into the NSW Police Force Report (Wood, 1997) found an unregulated
social worker had been an active paedophile for 20 years and that NSW police had protected
paedophiles (Simpson, 1998; Police Integrity Commission, 2009). The 2012 Senate Inquiry into
the Commonwealth Contribution to Former Forced Adoption Policies and Practices concluded that
social workers (among others) were complicit in removing newborns from young birth mothers
without consent and under coercion.
A number of Australian cases have revealed the extreme potential for harm from individual
therapy and group programs, and also from poor practice resulting in the death of vulnerable
children in the context of child protection. In April 2010, the ABC Four Corners investigative
report ‘Over the Edge’ (Henderson, 2010) showed the harrowing impact on multiple individuals
and families of a therapist in private practice whose work led clients to believe they had committed

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or been the victim of shocking sexual crimes. In the absence of regulation, little could be done to
respond to complaints about this therapist. This case illustrated the potential for any practitioner
to use strategies, including mind control and group coercion, to foster extreme dependency on the
practitioner, alienation from existing relationships and loss of grasp of reality. Another tragic
case showing that death can occur because of harmful practice was revealed in 2009 when the
NSW Deputy State Coroner found that the death of Rebekah Anne Lawrence was caused by a fatal
psychosis triggered by activities during a self-development workshop conducted by unqualified
and unregistered counsellors (Coroners Court of NSW, 2010). Finally, the Coronial Inquiry into
the death of four-year-old Chloe Valentine in South Australia in 2012 and the inaction from novice
social workers at Families SA highlighted the need for registration and better training and support
for newly graduated child protection workers. It was this particular case and the coronial findings
that resulted in a Social Work Registration Bill being tabled in the South Australian Parliament
in 2018. The Hon. Tammy Franks (2021) stated in her Parliamentary speech:

This reform is vital to ensure adequate standards. Around the country there are thousands – literally
thousands – of social workers working outside of a regulatory framework, which means there are risks of
clients being unaware of their workers’ qualifications, skills and ethical obligations … the bill provides for a
registration board with powers to investigate complaints and enforce penalties for practitioners who breach
those competency and ethical standards.

Corey et al. (2019, p. 194) have identified the primary risk categories that can result in helping
professionals causing harm to their clients, defining harm as quite different from lack of effectiveness.
These include failure to obtain or document informed consent, refusal to counsel clients due
to value differences, client abandonment and premature termination, sexual misconduct with
a client, marked departures from established therapeutic practices, practising beyond the scope
of competency, negligent assessment and misdiagnosis, repressed or false memory, unhealthy
transference relationships, and failure to assess and manage a dangerous client. Despite clear
evidence of the potential harm from occupations providing counselling, psychotherapy and
casework services, social work and human service practitioners in Australia are still not required to be
accountable to any registration body and may choose not to be a member of a voluntary professional
association. It is for this reason that there is such a strong rationale for mandatory regulation of
all practitioners.

Client perspective

I was just a teenager when I fell into a relationship with a person who was my therapist. It
happened over time, slowly, and without anyone knowing, despite the fact that there were a lot
of other professionals around us, and it should have been obvious. This person was 18 years
older than me. I was still in high school. I didn’t see it as abuse then, and probably still don’t now.
I was vulnerable, but so were they. We stayed together for 10 years, bought a house, and carried
on with our lives. When I decided to move on we were both devastated for a time and I fell into
a very dark place. I look back on the start of that relationship now and know without doubt that
it should never have happened. But I also know that if I had told anyone, the blame would have
been on me. So I protected the secrecy and understand better than most the harmful power of
relationships that start on unequal footing and how this can damage the psyche and the trust
one places in others.
Leigh

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E-professionalism: standards in the digital era

There has been an explosion of activity in online communications and the digital world over the past
few decades, and this has undoubtedly had a major impact on social work and human service practice.
We referred to this in Chapter 2 as a period of digitisation, which has been further fuelled by the Refer to
COVID-19 pandemic and shifts of health, business and education into the online space. There are three Chapter 2

areas that need special attention, and these relate to:

1 professional conduct and clarity around appropriate online communications
2 skills in use of technology for practice
3 knowledge of the ways in which service users engage with technology in their everyday lives,
and the impacts of technology on health and wellbeing.
The concept of e-professionalism has emerged as a way of taking what is understood to be
professional conduct and behaviour in the face-to-face world and transferring it into the digital
world; it involves education about acceptable standards in online communications (McAuliffe, 2021).
There are many uses for information technology in social work and human service practice. There has
also been the growth of bots undertaking risk and eligibility assessments. Increasingly, records and
documents are stored online, appointments are arranged using email or SMS, telehealth using phone or
video has become commonplace, and networks are built using social media. Moreover, health services
rely on sharing patient information through sophisticated database systems to enhance continuity
of care and collaborative approaches to healthcare. Justice, legal, housing, income support and
employment systems are often interlinked so that services can be streamlined, duplication avoided,
and a record maintained of service provision and compliance with requirements. It is a prerequisite of
most workplaces that employees are technologically literate and able to engage well with computers
and databases. Service users also expect that more communication will happen electronically;
however, it is the responsibility of professional workers, not the users of services, to set the boundaries
around these online communications. The issues that social work and human service students and
practitioners need to pay attention to, as these relate to professional practice standards and ethical
behaviour, are discussed in the following paragraphs.

Online personal and professional disclosures

The world of social media and social networking blurs boundaries between personal and professional
in ways that can cause problems for relationships and reputations. Developing an online presence
and a cyber-profile should be a conscious exercise that is conducted with attention to issues of
preservation of privacy, and acknowledgement that personal information can be spread by others
without consent or knowledge. Judd and Johnson (2012) refer to this as ‘impression management’,
which is presentation of a professional self. There are many advantages to active engagement
with social networking sites such as LinkedIn for promotion of professional identity, connection
with employment and training opportunities, and establishment of a credible reputation in a
field of expertise. Twitter can offer a broadening of knowledge horizons and provide space for
advocacy and dissemination of information. Social networking sites that are more designed for
personal communication with friends and acquaintances, such as Facebook, and the visual sharing
sites of YouTube and Instagram, offer social contact that is of great benefit for many. In all of
these mediums, however, there is potential for risk to future professional reputation if personal
information is not safeguarded. Employers now use search functions on internet websites to
screen applicants for jobs; colleagues who ‘friend’ each other become privy to information that
is sometimes better left in the private sphere; clients ‘Google’ their counsellors, therapists and
youth workers to find out information about them and their families. What can seem innocent
banter on Twitter can be misinterpreted as sound beliefs and an inaccurate picture can be built
from out-of-context words. Good knowledge about privacy settings is very important, as is learning
how to use social media as a tool for advocacy and connection without moving across the line into
inappropriate online conduct.

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Remote service delivery

As the internet expands and is connecting more and more people from rural and remote areas, online
services will also inevitably expand. Providing services to people in ways that do not necessarily
involve face-to-face interactions is not new. Telephone counselling services, such as Lifeline and
Kids Helpline, have a long history, both of these services have now moved beyond telephone-only into
a variety of digital modes. Developments in e-therapy, e-counselling, cyber-groups and web-based
interventions are changing the ethical goalposts. Increased attention is needed to ensure security
and privacy of information and clear contracting with clients about responsibilities in the event of
technological failure, as well as guidance for appropriate practice in relation to managing sensitive
issues, such as ‘friend’ requests.
The AASW has been proactive in setting up a series of ethical responsibility guidelines that set
out best practice in online communications and clarify what the AASW Code of Ethics states on these
issues (see http://www.aasw.asn.au/whatwedo/ethics-consultation-resources). The basic rule is
set out in the Code of Ethics as follows: ‘social workers, not their service users or former service
users, are responsible for setting and maintaining clear and appropriate professional boundaries
in all forms of communication, including face-to-face contact, written communication, telephone
and online communications (including social networking, email, blogging and instant messaging)’
(AASW, 2020, s. 5.7.3).

Activity 4.4

Conduct an assessment of your online cyber-profile.

1 If an employer or a client were to search for you using ‘Google’, what would they find?
2 What images/photos appear under ‘Google images’?
3 What privacy settings do you have in place for your personal Facebook or other social
networking profiles?
4 What agreements do you have with others about what they can share about you?
5 What steps have you taken, or can you take, to protect your professional identity and your
personal information?

Practitioners are, therefore, expected to be very clear about how they engage online, what the
boundaries are around relationships that transcend the agency or office, and what the rules are around
how information is sourced, shared and stored. As Reamer (2013, p. 16) stated in his article on the
digital and electronic revolution:

social workers should generate new ethical standards reflecting this reconceptualisation of core ethics
concepts resulting from new digital and electronic forms of practice. This will entail a systematic and
microscopic review of current codes of ethics wherever social work is practiced around the world, with an
eye toward revising them to acknowledge and address emerging ethical issues.

Knowledge and skills for the digital age

Refer to In Chapter 8, we further explore the need for social workers and human service practitioners to
Chapter 8 develop a new body of knowledge about the impacts that technology might have on people’s lives and
for ‘networked lives’ to be included in assessments. With increasing use of computers in schools, for
example, there is a need to establish health guidelines for children’s use of technology and potential
impacts on their development, both positive and negative. Mood dysregulation, poor sleep, increased
risk of obesity and decreased cardiovascular fitness can be the result of excessive and unregulated
screen time. Engagement in social media can strengthen peer relationships, particularly for young
men (Best et al., 2014; Ellison et al., 2007); however, practitioners need to understand the implications

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TREADING CAREFULLY: PROFESSIONAL PRACTICE AND ETHICAL STANDARDS / CHAPTER 4

of cyber-bullying and effects on self-esteem and peer relationships for young people. Problematic
online behaviours include ‘catfishing’ (fabricating an online identity); ‘flaming’ (antagonistic
communication); ‘slamming’ (bystander participation); ‘ratting’ (remote access to another’s system);
relational aggression (deleting from friend list, cruel messages or threats); ‘sexting’ (circulating
sexually suggestive messages or images); ‘trolling’ (insulting someone to provoke a response);
‘ghosting’ (abruptly ending communications); ‘doxing’ (publishing private information) and ‘stalking’
(threats of violence). There are also the problems of young people developing unhealthy internet
addictions that have been correlated with psychological vulnerability and increased suicidal ideation
and prevalence.
Many people now seek new relationships online, using a range of dating apps, many of which have
risks, particularly where these are targeted at casual sexual encounters (e.g. Tinder, Grindr). Some
online dating/infidelity websites (e.g. the Ashley Madison site) have opened up the risk of privacy
breaches that have resulted in marital breakdowns and suicide. Online relationships can also expose
vulnerable people to fraud, financial abuse and emotional distress. Older people are particularly at
risk in this respect.
Westwood (2019, p. 131) acknowledges the range of issues that social media has raised for social
work practice, and provides a useful list of ways in which social media environments can be used for
practice, they can:
• support social workers’ professional identities
• assist CPD: enabling engagement with research and debates and in accessing information
• help create an online professional profile
• provide instant and speedy access to the latest resources about policy and practice issues
• provide support networks for social work practitioners
• create private/closed groups for training or development activities
• provide a means of selecting knowledge
• help manage time and make time for study.

Practitioner perspective

Using Twitter can be a great way to access and share information, but at the same time it is also
a way in which you can inadvertently share a range of information about yourself personally and
your life. Twitter comes with a range of privacy settings which, it would be reasonable to say, most
of us don’t make use of. Twitter has enabled me as a practitioner to learn about a wide range
of events, networks and new resources in the space I am working in. It has given me quick and
ready access to information that I might not otherwise come across. It is all there in my timeline
waiting for me to pull it out. It also lets me follow organisations and individuals I am interested
in and I don’t have to do so much sorting through to find what I want. Using Twitter I have linked
up with new like-minded international colleagues, been able to establish new partnerships and
found information to assist me and my organisation in the work we do.
Kerryn Pennell

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THE ROAD TO SOCIAL WORK AND HUMAN SERVICE PRACTICE

STUDY
TOOLS

Conclusion
This chapter has built on the information presented in Chapter 3, in which values and ethics were explored within
the framework of moral philosophy and ethical theory. In this chapter, we debated some of the contentious issues of
professionalism, including the arguments for and against state regulation of social work, and provided examples of
ways in which some professional associations have set out their value positions and practice standards in ethical
codes. Issues of harm have been discussed that illustrate clearly the responsibility that underlies questions of
protection of those who are vulnerable when accessing psychological or casework services or engaging with
organisations that provide social services. The rise of digital technologies has changed parts of the practice
landscape and set off alarm bells for emerging ethical issues. Learning to work online responsibly and engaging
proactively with social media as a powerful tool for advocacy are some of the ongoing challenges for the future.
Commitment to working in an ethical and reflective way is one of the pillars of good practice. Another pillar is
the possession of a solid knowledge base. Practice is not founded solely on doing the ‘right thing’. We need to come
from an informed position about the nature of humans and human problems, communities and societies, what it
is that we do and whether our work is effective. In Chapter 5, we explore the processes and issues encountered in
developing, sustaining and using knowledge in practice. The knowledge and theoretical base of social and human
service practice thus forms the next phase of our journey.

Questions
1 What is your understanding of the function of a code of ethics, and what are some of the reasons that reliance
on codes of ethics can be problematic?
2 What are three of the human rights policies that have been developed by the IFSW?
3 What are some examples of social policy issues that the AASW has provided statements on to government in
the last 10 years?
4 What are your views on the list of ‘personal qualities’ that have been outlined by PACFA? Are there other
qualities that you might add to this list?
5 What are some of the reasons put forth by the AASW in support of the case for registration?
6 Why is it that social work has not yet been registered in Australia at a national level?
7 What are the primary differences between the AASW code of ethics and the ANZASW code of ethics?
8 What are some of the emerging ethical issues that could present from the rise of online communications and
engagement with social media?
9 Why is it important that practitioners develop a good understanding of how technology might affect clients and
service users?

Weblinks
Australian Association of Social Workers Aotearoa New Zealand Association of Social Workers
http://www.aasw.asn.au http://www.anzasw.org.nz
International Federation of Social Workers Australian Community Workers Association
http://www.ifsw.org http://www.acwa.org.au

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TREADING CAREFULLY: PROFESSIONAL PRACTICE AND ETHICAL STANDARDS / CHAPTER 4

Psychotherapy and Counselling Federation Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency

of Australia https://www.health.gov.au/contacts/australian-health-
https://www.pacfa.org.au practitioner-regulation-agency-ahpra

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social-workers-registration-bill
Australian and New Zealand Social Work and Welfare Education and
Research. (n.d.). About us. https://www.anzswwer.org/about/about-us Henderson, S. (2010 , 5 April). Over the edge. ABC Four Corners. http://
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Australian Association of Social Workers. (n.d.). About the AASW. https://
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Australian Association of Social Workers. (2016). Additional rationale for the
regulation of social workers. https://www.aasw.asn.au/document/item/8805 International Federation of Social Workers. (2018). Global social work
statement of ethical principles. https://www.ifsw.org/global-social-
Australian Association of Social Workers. (2020). Code of ethics. AASW.
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Australian Association of Social Workers. (2021, 1 December). South
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Australian Community Workers Association. (2021). Australian McAuliffe, D. (2021). Interprofessional ethics: Collaboration in the social,
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5
CHAPTER
Finding the right maps:
the knowledge base
of practice

Chapter 5
Finding the right maps What is knowledge?

This chapter explores

the knowledge base of
practice
Deﬁning the terms

Systems and ecological perspectives

Psychodynamic practice

Humanist and existential approaches

Cognitive and behavioural approaches

Radical, structural and critical approaches

Practice
approaches Post theories
and theories

Environmental social work practice

The strengths perspective

Crisis intervention and task-centred practice

Community development

Trauma-informed practice

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FINDING THE RIGHT MAPS: THE KNOWLEDGE BASE OF PRACTICE / CHAPTER 5

Aims

• Understand the definitions of knowledge

• Identify sources of knowledge
• Investigate ways of using knowledge in practice
• Explore some of the main practice approaches and theories

Introduction
In previous chapters, we explored the philosophical and ethical foundations of social work and human
service practice and some of the systems used by various groups to set standards of practice. This
exploration focused on how values and ideologies influenced the development of social welfare and
how values and ethics underpin practice. Conducting work within an ethical framework is a critical
aspect of professional practice, yet it is only one element. Another vital characteristic of professions,
as identified in Chapter 2, is the possession of knowledge. In this chapter we will explore types and Refer to
Chapter 2
sources of knowledge, how knowledge is used in practice, and the main practice approaches and
theories informing social work practice.
It is a complex subject and we use many terms when discussing knowledge – theory, model,
framework, perspective and so on – often interchangeably. For the beginning practitioner, this can
be somewhat confusing, even bewildering. Our overall objective, therefore, is to clear the muddy
waters and provide a comprehensible picture of knowledge: where we find it, how it is created, how
we acquire it and how we use it.
The chapter is organised around four themes. First, we present a framework for understanding
knowledge – its creation, transfer and use, which includes definitions of key terms that beginning
practitioners often find confusing. Second, we outline the various kinds of knowledge we use in our
practice, what we learn from other disciplines, as well as knowledge about social work and human
services. Third, we analyse the ways in which knowledge is created and developed and the various
ways we acquire it. This analysis also includes an exploration of Indigenous knowledge. Finally, we
examine the processes by which knowledge is applied in practice, with particular reference to the
current ambitious goal of evidence-based practice. We also investigate the relationship between
knowledge, theory and practice and present a number of practice approaches, theories and models
that encompass particular ideologies and knowledge.

What is knowledge?
The nature of knowledge has been debated for centuries by philosophers, scholars and, more recently,
social scientists. Epistemology, the branch of philosophy devoted to studying knowledge, offers an
array of theories about what knowledge is, what knowledge is important and how it is developed and
used. There are many definitions of knowledge, but inherent in most definitions of knowledge are
three facets:
1 knowledge by acquaintance (knowing that)
2 knowledge through intellectual processes (knowing why)
3 knowledge of and by action (knowing how).
Knowledge can be grouped into:
• knowing that and knowing why (theoretical knowledge)
• knowing how (practical knowledge).
Both forms of knowledge are very important to practitioners as people who integrate thought and
action. The relationship between theory or knowledge and practice is crucial. Practitioners translate
or apply theoretical knowledge to practice and also develop new knowledge from critical reflection on
practice. This relationship between theory and practice is explored more fully later in this chapter, as
it is one of the hallmarks of the knowledge base of practice.
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A word about epistemologies for social work

Epistemology refers to the theory of knowledge – the methods used to attain it, its scope and how it
is different from opinion or belief. Essentially, epistemology seeks to answer the questions: what is
knowledge, and what is knowable? In social work and the human services, thinking about epistemology
is important. Practitioners use knowledge developed from scientific methods, as well as from social
constructionism whereby knowledge about a problem is developed through questioning the historic
social lenses. Jane Addams embodied a pragmatic epistemology, which values the good and what works
over what might be essentially ‘true’ (Anastas, 2014). Other epistemologies, such as critical realism,
have also been embraced in social work and human services. As you progress in your career, seeking
knowledge to inform your practice will be enhanced by exploring various epistemologies along the way.

Recommended reading
Anastas, J. (2014). The science of social work and its relationship to social work practice. Research
on Social Work Practice, 24(5), 571–580. https://doi.org/10.1177/1049731513511335
Gray, M., & Webb, S. (Eds.). (2012). Social work theories and methods (2nd ed.). Sage.

Defining the terms

Many different terms are used in discussions of knowledge, making the distinction between theories,
models, frameworks, paradigms, perspectives and knowledge a mental slippery slide, as shown in
Figure 5.1. What are theories? How do we use them? What is the difference between a model and
a framework? We need to clarify these terms. You will find many definitions of these terms in the
literature and often they are used interchangeably. The definitions we offer here combine what we
think are the best elements of the definitions found in the literature.

Paradigm
A paradigm is a pattern or template that is a general view of the nature of physical or natural
phenomena in science (Kuhn, 1970). Paradigms are theoretical approaches that encompass a number
of related theories (Poulin & Matis, 2019). For example, a medical paradigm is based on many theories
but includes those from scientific research, the processes of diagnosis and treatment, and human
biology. In human services, a psychodynamic paradigm based on Freud’s original theories would be
about the stages of child development, the importance of unconscious thought processes, and the value

Figure 5.1 Confused by terminology?

s
del
Per
spe Mo
ctiv
es
rks
ewo
Eviden Fram
ce
?
Theories
Paradigms

Theory
s –practic
ese e
Hypoth
Ideo
ac hes logie
s
A ppro
W
orl
dv
iew
s

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FINDING THE RIGHT MAPS: THE KNOWLEDGE BASE OF PRACTICE / CHAPTER 5

of taking an unstructured approach with clients. The systems paradigm is built around theories of
ecology, communication across systems, and how systems change.
Kuhn (1970) wrote the classic work on paradigms more than 40 years ago and was responsible for the
idea of the ‘paradigm shift’. He argued that shifts in paradigms occur when a sufficient number of research
findings or observations challenged the dominant paradigm to the extent that it required major change.
An example is the shift from thinking the world was flat to realising it was round, based on repeated
observations and findings. Another example of a paradigm shift was the understanding of mental illness
as having a biochemical basis rather than being solely caused by dysfunctional family relationships.

Theory
Broadly speaking, a theory is a way of making sense of the world, although you will find many
definitions in the literature. Howe (2016) discusses theory as a way of making sense of what is going
on and how ordinary objects and people and situations can be explained. Theories go beyond mere
description to offering explanations. They are used to explain the relationship between two or more
phenomena or why things happen in a certain way. Trevithick (2012) and others distinguish between
informal and formal theories. We engage in informal theorising every day to make sense of the world
or events. We might say ‘I have a theory about the mystery of why a library book is never on the shelf
where it should be according to the catalogue’. Whereas formal theories can be distinguished by their
type and level (Payne, 2020). Theories that attempt to explain large-scale phenomena, such as how
societies work or human nature, are sometimes referred to as ‘grand theories’ and include those of Karl
Marx and Sigmund Freud. Others are termed mid-range theories, which attempt to explain part of a
social phenomenon, such as exclusion or stigma. An example of mid-range theory is Goffman’s (1963)
work on stigma. He argued that when there is a gap between what people ought to be and what they
actually are in society, then they are stigmatised. People in this position often try to hide the difference
by what Goffman terms as ‘passing’ – that is, trying to appear ‘normal’. This theory explains a small,
but nevertheless interesting and important, part of human experience. Other theories focus on how
to do our practice, such as client-centred approach theories. Some theories attempt to explain client
behaviours, such as psychodynamic or behavioural theories, while others explain how people operate
in their social environments, such as systems theory or feminist theories (Payne, 2020).
Theory is useful. It enables us to better communicate what we already intuitively know. But it is
important to recognise that we need more than one theory to explain most phenomena – even concrete
aspects of the world. The complex situations found in social work and human service work increase the
need to apply multiple theories. Theories have limits because there are always exceptions to any theory’s
usefulness and applicability. Thus far, no one has developed a grand, unifying ‘theory of everything’, so the
theories available to us in human services have their limits. Many theories are tested by research and are
often refuted. As a practitioner, you need to adopt a critical stance and guard against being overly reliant on
one or two theories to inform your practice. For example, using only behavioural theories to describe human
experience does not adequately explain broader structural issues, such as poverty or class differences.

Model
A model is a descriptive way of showing the relationship between numbers of elements. Models
usually have less explanatory power than theories. They show the relationship between the elements
rather than explain it. Models are often used to outline practice approaches, such as crisis or task-
centred intervention. For example, a model of task-centred practice lays out the various tasks for
both the worker and the client, the steps to be taken and the timeframe for completing each step.
Bronfenbrenner’s construction of the individual as located within micro, meso and macro systems
is another example of a model that is based on a theory of social ecology (Goldenberg et al., 2017).

Hypothesis
A hypothesis attempts to define, explain and predict certain events to increase our understanding.
A hypothesis is tested against evidence that either confirms it or refutes it (Trevithick, 2012). An

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example of a hypothesis is: ‘Children who grow up in abusive homes are more likely than children from
stable families to end up in juvenile detention’. This hypothesis could be tested by research.

Ideology
An ideology is a system of beliefs about the nature of the world and human beings. Large groups
of people base their meanings of life on their system of beliefs. Social movements and institutions
may be based on ideology. An ideology is made up of a linked set of ideas and beliefs that uphold and
justify an existing or desired arrangement of power, authority, wealth and status in society. Most
ideologies are therefore political. For example, liberal ideology is associated with capitalism and the
rights of the individual, and views this system as the most desirable and fair social arrangement.
Socialist ideology, on the other hand, argues that society should be based on collective ownership
and economic equality.

Perspective
A perspective is a particular way of looking at the world – a conceptual lens through which a person
views human behaviour and social structures. It is a partial view of the world in that each person has
their own perspective based on their particular values. Examples include feminist perspectives, in
which the world is viewed as being organised around patriarchal domination, or anti-discriminatory
perspectives that focus on dynamics of power. We find that a useful way of distinguishing between
an ideology and a perspective is to regard ideologies as more overarching and political. Many
perspectives are derived from ideologies. For example, the anti-discriminatory practice perspective
has its foundations in socialist or neo-Marxist ideologies.

Framework
Frameworks are fundamental structures made up of various elements, concepts, values, assumptions
and practices that constitute a way of viewing and understanding a phenomenon. When referring to
frameworks, we often use terms such as ‘skeleton’ and ‘scaffold’ implying that the framework provides
the basic elements and how they relate to one another but then will be filled out and expanded with
deeper and more comprehensive explanations and insights. In social work and human service fields,
you will encounter many frameworks across the literature on human behaviour, organisations,
practice approaches, assessment tools and many other applications. In addition, in our field the term
‘framework’ has been used to inform practice and to describe one’s individual practice framework.
Refer to These are particular frameworks to guide and inform our practice and are discussed in more detail in
Chapter 10 Chapter 10.

Evidence
Evidence has multiple meanings, from common-use definitions to strict criteria in legal matters.
Generally, however, evidence refers to the available facts or circumstances that may support a
proposition or belief. It determines whether a thing is true or valid. There are standards of evidence
which vary between professions, as outlined in the examples in Table 5.1. In social work and the
human services, the drive for better evidence to inform our practice is strong. This is discussed in
more detail later in this chapter.
All these terms we have discussed fall under the broad heading of ‘knowledge’. The knowledge base
of practice refers to the aggregate of accumulated information, scientific findings, values, skills and
methodology for acquiring, using and evaluating what is known. It is derived from a practitioner’s
own research, theory-building and systematic study of relevant phenomena; from the reported
experiences of other practitioners; and from information made available by clients, other disciplines
and society as a whole. Social work and human service practitioners also use the term ‘practitioner
wisdom’, which is a form of knowledge based on the accumulation of experiences – a kind of common
sense derived from practice over time (Kwong & Fawson, 2022).

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Table 5.1 Examples of different professional standards of evidence

Profession area How evidential standards are determined

Legal Legal requirements and guidelines
Science-based – e.g. medicine and psychology The capacity to be proven by scientific research
Social sciences – e.g. social work and human services Research evidence combined with practice experience,
observation and critical reflection

The social and historical foundations of knowledge

Knowledge is not an unconditional entity. What we seek to know, how we come to understand things
and what knowledge we value are all influenced by beliefs, culture and ideology. For example, many
First Peoples have a vast knowledge of their environments and how to work with them sustainably. In
medieval times, knowledge of religion, particularly about Christian events, texts and meanings, was
highly valued. Over time, not only has the content or substance of knowledge (what is preferred, what
is required) changed, but also the ways in which knowledge has been developed and acquired. During
the Enlightenment, for example, the development of scientific methods affected many disciplines and
the knowledge gained through such methods was seen as more legitimate. Today, scientific knowledge
is again preferred as the dominant paradigm in many spheres of life, including the human services.
More recently, however, even scientific knowledge is being questioned, particularly in social media
platforms where, for example, one can find ‘post-truth’ ideas that refute or ignore established science
around issues such as climate change or the COVID-19 pandemic. These post-truths increasingly
impact on the general public and government policies, which in turn influence social programs and
those who work in them. It is important, as a practitioner, that you adopt a critical standpoint on ideas
that may seem to lack a solid evidence base. For example, working in rural contexts affected by severe
drought may mean dealing with ideas about what is causing profound periods of drought, what should
be done to manage it, and how those struggling in rural areas can best be helped.
We can trace how different knowledge influenced social work and human services during various
periods in history. This is linked to our discussion in Chapter 2 about the history of welfare and Refer to
Chapter 2
human services generally. In the 1800s, practical help and good advice were influenced by the charity
movements. There was some systematic investigation and gathering of statistics about the poor,
although there was no explicit recognition of theory or formal knowledge.
In the early years of the twentieth century, Freud’s psychoanalytic theory influenced social work
and the helping professions. During the 1930s, psychosocial casework, with an emphasis on positivism
and scientific methods, gained prominence. Social work was influenced by the medical model. After the
Second World War and through the 1960s, a growing dissatisfaction with psychodynamic casework
led to the rise of behaviourist theory and humanist theory. Social work moved into an ‘acquisition’
period, pulling together a range of theories from psychology and sociology. The rise of groupwork, ego
psychology and therapeutic communities also extended the range of knowledge of the professions.
In Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand, and in many other places, such as Canada, the United States,
and other colonised countries, social work and the human services have had their origins in traditional
Western models and frameworks. Indigenous traditions and knowledge were silenced and often lost
to First Peoples. Increasingly, social work and human services in Canada, United States, Scandinavia,
Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand are attempting to include and promote Indigenous knowledge
in their curricula (Dumbrill & Green, 2008). The dominance of Western approaches to knowledge has
overshadowed, and even suppressed, other social histories of knowledge such as African, Asian and
Islamic ways of knowing. Ragab (2016) provides insights into Islamic perspectives on social work,
the impact of Westernised knowledge and how local practitioners made various efforts to counter it.
Naomi, in the following practitioner perspective, reflects on the diversity and commonalities among
Indigenous knowledges and the importance of self-reflection in practice.

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Practitioner perspective

When I hear the term ‘Indigenous knowledge’, I immediately go to the plural, ‘Indigenous
knowledges’, because the plural term acknowledges the cultural diversity and experiential
diversity of different First Nations groups within Australia and globally. Acknowledging cultural
and experiential diversity between First Nations peoples is an essential first step in working
with, alongside or from First Nations knowledge perspectives. For example, in Australia we talk
about this continent being a multicultural continent even before colonisation and invasion. We
have diversity in First Nations knowledges that are linked to and expressed through different
languages, which in turn are linked to and a reflection of an intimacy tied to country, which is a
special term that a First Nations person uses to describe the living natural environment that we
are all in this symbiotic, or intimate, relationship with. As First Nations people, or any people in
fact, we are not separate from country. Living country is sentient, she is our mother, we care for
country and she cares for us. We do not believe that human living beings are separate to that
essential living country, that ecosystem, that we are all so fully reliant on, and therefore we do
not seek to dominate it.
There are commonalities across Indigenous knowledges but there are also distinct
differences. These differences are not only linguistic but can also be in the ways communities
are structured and governed, families are raised, and in the values people hold, among other
things. However, there are also some commonalities across different Indigenous knowledges.
This can include Indigenous connection to country or the living natural environment; the
importance of social relationships and responsibility, accountability to one another and country;
reciprocity; and responsibility. If we are outside of those communities that are producing and
reproducing Indigenous knowledge systems, sometimes those kinds of values, like relationships
and reciprocity, can become almost clichéd, and we approach them like a checklist without fully
understanding the depth of those cultural practices. That means it can be difficult as an outsider
working with specific located Indigenous cultural knowledges, whether you have First Nations
heritage from another part of the country or the world or not. But it is definitely not impossible.
Even when we are within those communities there may still be processes of self-refection,
discussion and making visible the things that are invisible to us as insider members of those
cultures and communities. To really understand the way that our Indigenous knowledges may
shape our own behaviour, attitudes, default ways of working, and also the strengths that are
inherent within those knowledges and cultures – to really be able to articulate and embody
the strengths – even as First Nations people, we are still going to be cultural outsiders in other
people’s communities. We might have certain ways of working that are familiar to us and give us
that little head start, but in other ways we are on par with any other person, in seeking permission
to enter into communities, to learn to work alongside people, and to get behind what it is that the
local knowledge bearers are wanting to do.
Creative Arts Research Institute & School of Health Sciences and Social Work, Griffith University

Recommended reading
Gregory, J. R. (2021). Social work as a product and project of whiteness, 1607–1900. Journal of
Progressive Human Services, 32(1), 17–36.
Payne. M. (2020). Modern social work theory (5th ed.). Bloomsbury.
Poulin, J., & Matis, S. (2019). Social work practice: A competency-based approach. Springer.
Ragab, I. A. (2016). The Islamic perspective on social work: A conceptual framework. International
Social Work, 59(3), 325–342. https://doi.org/10.1177/0020872815627

In the 1970s, cognitive and task-centred approaches, systems and ecological theories (attempts
at unifying theory) and radical approaches dominated. During the 1980s, empowerment theories,
critical theory, feminist theories and anti-oppressive approaches introduced new areas of knowledge
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to social work and human service practice. The rise of postmodernism, constructivist theory and
narrative therapies impacted on practice during the 1990s. Strengths-based perspectives also became
more popular during this period. In the 2000s, we have seen the rise of environmental, ecological and
green social work perspectives as well as an increased recognition of the importance of postcolonial
and critical theories. Currently, there are many influences on knowledge and theory for practice – a
framework of knowledge for practice is shown in Figure 5.2. A privileging of technical knowledge and
skills is evident, with professional roles being reduced to tasks. One of the outcomes of managerialism
on human services has been that practice has been broken down into a series of technical tasks that do
not require the professional autonomy and judgement of practitioners to be completed. Many human
services now use prescribed assessment protocols and computer-based files and client records that
limit the information practitioners can enter. The number of interviews or sessions that practitioners
are allowed with clients might also be limited. There has also been a trend towards basing practice
and programs on scientific evidence (i.e. evidence-based practice).

Figure 5.2 A framework of knowledge for practice

Paradigms

Pra
cti
ca
e l wi
nc sd
r ie om
pe
ex
al

From
on

Sources of
rs
Pe

knowledge and
how we obtain it
About For
The substance and • Personal experience Using knowledge and
content of what • Education how it is applied
we need to know • Research to our practice
• Observation
• Human development • Facilitating
• Practice wisdom
• Social processes and • Interviewing
• History and current
institutions • Groupwork

Research
events
• Interpersonal, group • Organising
• Knowledge from
and organisational • Report writing
the case
dynamics • Reﬂecting
• Theoretical and
• Social work processes • Negotiating
conceptual analyses
of engagement, • Problem solving
assessment, • Crisis intervention
intervention, review, • Advocating
closure and • Community work
evaluation • Disaster work
• Theoretical paradigms
• Methods of intervention
• Ethics and values
• Agency procedures
g ies
olo
e
Id
Va

es
lu

Theories

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Knowledge sources and content

A number of social work authors have described areas of knowledge needed for social work practice.
Most of these authors come from Australia, United Kingdom, United States or Canada and are writing
from Western perspectives, and are thus influenced by Western social, political and cultural norms,
in what can be called a form of ‘knowledge colonisation’. What this means is that knowledge from a
broad range of countries, cultures and languages is generally overlooked by social workers. It is not
to say that the dominant writing on knowledge in social work practice is not important or relevant, it
is just that it is also important to look out for and take note of works from a diverse range of countries
and contexts.
Consequently, a useful starting point in our journey towards knowledge is to determine what we
need to know. Although much depends on what we already know. You have come to this area of study
already knowing a great deal through previous study, life experience and observation, or from learning
skills. How much of this prior knowledge will be useful in your future practice?

Activity 5.1

1 Create a checklist of those areas where you think you already have some knowledge.
2 How did you know these things. From life experience? Perhaps earlier study?
3 What additional areas of knowledge do you think you will need in your future career?
How will you go about gaining this knowledge?

Thompson (2015) identifies eight major areas of knowledge needed for social work or human service
practice:
1 human development including stages of the life course and identity
2 religion and spirituality
3 social processes including social divisions, power, ideology, law and order, and social institutions
such as the family, government and so on
4 interpersonal, group and organisational dynamics including communication, power and context
5 the social work processes of assessment, intervention, review, ending and evaluation
6 theoretical paradigms such as psychodynamic, psychosocial casework, humanistic psychology,
cognitive–behavioural work, systems theory, radical social work and emancipatory practice
7 methods of intervention such as individual, family, group and community work
8 ethics and values.
Payne (2020) offers a similar list in his discussion of theories used by practitioners. He proposes that
practitioners use theory (knowledge) to understand and explain the behaviour of clients, the social
origins of clients’ behaviour and problems, the social environment of clients’ lives, the interactions
between clients and practitioners, the organisational environment of practice and the effectiveness
of practice.
Examining these ‘lists’ of required knowledge, it becomes apparent that social work and human
service practitioners use two types and sources of knowledge. First is the knowledge of social work
and human services; that is, knowledge developed about the purposes of practice, how to do it and the
values and ethics that underpin it. Second is the knowledge derived from other disciplines that inform
social work and human service practice.

Knowledge of social work and human services

Payne (2020) offers a practical framework within which the three main sources of social work and
human services knowledge – referred to as theory by Payne – can be considered. Two aspects of Payne’s
schema particularly relate to this sphere of knowledge. First is knowledge about what is social and
human service work. This includes knowledge about the purposes of social work and human services

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and the nature of welfare. Second is knowledge about the ‘how to’ of practice. This includes knowledge
of practice processes, such as assessment and intervention; theories of practice approaches, such as
groupwork; and community work or family therapy and practice theories and models, such as systems:
ecological, psychoanalytic and crisis intervention. These are discussed later in this chapter.
Another important part of knowledge of practice is the knowledge of self. This refers not only to
those we work with but also to ourselves. Our feelings, beliefs, experiences, our sense of identity
and an array of other attributes and qualities all affect our practice in myriad ways. In Chapter 1 Refer to
Chapter 1
we asked you to think about why you have chosen this particular career path. We hope that this
began to raise your awareness of your motivations and of who you are. We also use ourselves in our
practice – a concept referred to as use of self. This refers to how we behave, how we feel and what our
intention or purpose is in our work. Use of self is a central instrument of our practice and intervention.
Self-knowledge starts with self-awareness, particularly of our strengths and qualities, as well as our
shortcomings (Ferreira & Ferreira, 2019), as well knowledge regarding how we have been influenced
and shaped by culture, and social and political norms (Bell et al., 2023).

Knowledge from other disciplines

As Figure 5.3 shows, social work and human services draw knowledge and theoretical concepts from
a number of other disciplines. These are most notably psychology and the social sciences, but also
include medicine and biological sciences, economics, politics and the law.
As a practitioner, you will use much of this knowledge on a day-to-day basis. For example, knowing
how social groups operate or the processes of human development is essential in most practice contexts.
Some domains of practice require more emphasis on certain areas of knowledge. For example, working
in corrections, juvenile justice or child protection requires knowledge of the relevant law and statutes
and how legal processes work. Policy practitioners need specific knowledge about government and
political systems, policy processes and economics.

Practitioner perspective

When I first worked in community health, I had no experience of medical or health matters other
than my own personal ones as a sick person, having my first baby, taking my child to the doctor
or occasionally visiting a friend in hospital. During my social work degree I took two courses in
health and disease and mental illness. These covered lots of medical conditions and how they
were treated by doctors but little about the impact of illness on a person’s feelings and emotions,
on families or social situations. Starting out in a community health centre surrounded by nurses
and medical practitioners was a whole new world. The personal and psychological impact of
disease was profoundly expressed by the clients I worked with. I also observed the impact on
families and loved ones as they too were affected by the illness and its treatment. I found I had
to learn much about different diseases, how they were treated and the regimens of drugs and
hospital follow-up that suddenly came into clients’ lives. I suddenly needed to be aware of certain
side effects of drugs (Why am I putting on weight?), of how long the wait might be at an inpatient
clinic (What will I do with the kids if it’s over three hours?) and where to get handrails fitted for
a frail elderly person at home. None of these things were included in my courses at university! I
soon acquired a great deal more knowledge about the practice context in which I was working
from the job, from nurses on the team, from my clients and their carers and medical colleagues.
This knowledge proved to be invaluable in my day-to-day work, especially because I worked in
rural settings as well and often was out the back of Woop Woop. Once I was on my own with no
nurse to tell me how to collect a urine sample from a young man with paraplegia, who was living
on a remote property and had a suspected infection. I learnt that very quickly – the young man
taught me – and, as a young practitioner, I was ever grateful for his help.
Lesley Chenoweth

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Figure 5.3 Knowledge from other disciplines

Sociology
Social processes
Humanities, Life sciences
Groups, organisations and
education and the law Health
society
Philosophy Illness
Institutions
Religious studies Mental illness
Socialisation
History Medical treatments
Social stratiﬁcation
Law and judicial processes Pharmacology
Discrimination (e.g. racism,
Creative industries Physical development
ageism)
Media and communication Drug dependency
Gender studies
Adult learning Genetics
Role theory
Educational pedagogy Nutrition
Deviance
Ecology
Social change theory
Environmental issues
Criminology
Neuroscience
Rural sociology

Social work
and
human services

Psychology Anthropology and Economics and business

Personality cultural studies Distribution of goods and
Perception Culture services
Learning Cross-cultural sensitivity Capitalism
Human development Cultural and religious Socialism
Problem-solving diversity International ﬁnance
Memory Indigenous worldviews Globalisation and economies
Interpersonal relationships Labour and trade

Other disciplines and areas of knowledge inform much of the training in human services, but this
process continues throughout your career as you acquire further knowledge in different practice
contexts. For example, as a student of social work or human services, you probably will study such
topics as health and the individual, the social model of health or health policy. You may even take a
specific course about practice in the health sector. However, if you start working in a health setting,
you will pick up other knowledge needed for practice. Such things as the pattern of different diseases
and how they are treated, and the side effects of many prescribed drugs become part of your everyday
knowledge, as the previous ‘Practitioner perspective’ illustrates.
Social work and human services do not have a uniform knowledge base. However, it is clear that we
do need clear and explicit knowledge of our practice and knowledge from other disciplines pertinent
to the clients we serve and the contexts in which we work with them. But how do we acquire this
knowledge? How is knowledge developed and valued or rejected?

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The sources of knowledge

We come to know things in many ways. We choose, albeit sometimes unconsciously, what knowledge
or information we seek. We judge the quality of the knowledge or information we receive and we decide
that some ways of acquiring knowledge or some sources of knowledge are more reliable or valid than
others. For example, in a family law court, the views of the magistrate may be considered more expert
over the views of others; yet there is also recognition, for example, that children can have knowledge
and views on family court matters that should be elicited in age appropriate ways. Thus, all people
are bearers of knowledge and as social workers we will use various sources or methods of obtaining
knowledge (Mattaini & Holtschneider, 2016; Trevithick, 2012).
Trevithick (2012) identifies three domains of knowledge that overlap and interweave in intricate
ways. She organises these as theoretical knowledge, factual knowledge and practice knowledge,
as illustrated in Figure 5.4. While this depicts the knowledge sources as seeming to be equally
distributed, in reality there are differences across different professions. Medicine and some allied
health professions, for example, place greater emphasis on factual knowledge generated by evidence.
Social workers and human service practitioners are much more likely to find gaps in their factual
knowledge and employ other sources to inform and guide their practice.
Theoretical knowledge includes theories about:
• people and relationships (e.g. attachment theory)
• society (e.g. social stratification theories)
• events (e.g. chaos theory)
• the role and purpose of our practice (e.g. social work as care or social control)
• theories directly related to practice (e.g. cognitive–behavioural theory).
Factual knowledge covers many areas and includes knowledge about:
• social policies
• agency policies and procedures
• laws and legislation
•people and problems.
Practice/practical/personal knowledge is concerned with the process of knowledge creation and
use rather than the content and involves the processes of:
• knowledge acquisition
• knowledge use
• knowledge creation.
Mattaini and Holtschneider (2016) identify the sources of social work knowledge as practice wisdom
and biological, behavioural and sociocultural sciences. We also derive knowledge from specific cases
and relevant research. Guided by these writers, as well as by our own experiences as practitioners and
educators, we propose the following ways in which knowledge in the human services is developed:
• Personal experience: life experiences that inform who we are and how we go about our practice.
For example, the death of someone close could teach us about grief and bereavement, while being
unemployed might teach us how the government and society in general treats people who cannot
find work.
• Empirical research: knowledge we acquire through research and the systematic collection
and interpretation of data can be used to address questions and problems, explain events and
determine outcomes. For example, we might find out from research that older people who are
supported to live in their own homes live longer than those who are moved to nursing homes
against their wishes.
• Theoretical knowledge: theories that explain phenomena and guide practice, ranging from those
relating to direct practice to more macro theories that pertain to world views.
• Procedural knowledge: knowledge that we gain from organisational, legislative and policy
contexts that we generally gain through research and practice.

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Figure 5.4 Three types of knowledge

A knowledge and skills framework

integrating theory and practice in social work

The importance of critical thinking, analysis and critical reﬂection/reﬂexivity –

and locating the relationship at the heart of practice

Theoretical knowledge domain

Adapted theories Role and task Practice theories

Developed, adapted, or Theories that analyse Theories relating to
KNOWLEDGE

KNOWLEDGE
‘borrowed’ from other the role, task and direct practice:
disciplines, such as purpose of social work (i) generalist skills and
psychology, sociology e.g. social work’s care interventions
and social policy and control functions (ii) ﬁelds of practice
(iii) practice approaches
(iv) values-based
perspectives

Factual knowledge domain

Law Social policy Agency Problems People

ACQUISITION

ACQUISITION
Knowledge of Knowledge of Knowledge of Knowledge of Knowledge of
the principles relevant social relevant agency particular speciﬁc
of law and policy policy, procedures problems groups of
relevant and practice people
legislation

Practice knowledge domain

Professional use of self: use of

self-knowledge, intuition, tacit knowledge
KNOWLEDGE

KNOWLEDGE

Knowledge and Service users’ Knowledge

skills use or theoretical, factual, creation and
utilisation and practice skills
knowledge development
USE

USE

Skills and interventions

Interventions, particularly how we communicate, constitute the use of knowledge, skills and values in action, with the rapport/
relationships that we create being the medium through which effective assessment, analysis, decision-making and action flow.
The importance of critical thinking, analysis and critical reflection/reflexivity –
and locating the relationship at the heart of practice

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• Observation: knowledge obtained through observing the world, other practitioners and
ourselves. For example, we might observe that the police use a degree of force in moving homeless
people out of public spaces.
• Reflection: knowledge developed through systematic thinking about events, experiences or
our practice, which we then apply to new actions. For example, we might reflect on the way that
we handled a particular conflict and decide not to manage a similar situation in the same way
next time.
• Practitioner wisdom: knowledge we develop over time through working on a number of cases
with similar characteristics (Kwong & Fawson, 2022). Experiencing these situations informs our
analysis of our current practice situation.
• Tacit knowledge: Knowledge that one is not necessarily aware of or attending to in a given
situation and can include intuition (Sicora et al., 2021). For example, you may be tacitly aware
of the client’s non-verbal behaviour while not consciously focusing on it.
Many of these ways of knowing are interrelated. We may make observations doing empirical
research. Our practice wisdom may influence the kind of research question we pose and seek to answer.
Systematic reflection may build our practice wisdom.
A good example of this interrelationship is that of Olshansky (1962), who worked in the 1960s
with families of children with a disability. He noticed a similar pattern in many families in how they
expressed loss and grief. He called this ‘chronic sorrow’. This differed from the pattern suggested by
theories of grief and loss at that time, which described how people worked through various stages of
grief. The families he observed reported feeling sadness at various times over the life of the child;
grieving was not resolved over time, as for parents who had lost a child. Rather, the families in this
situation had periods of stability and wellbeing punctuated by periods of sadness and grieving, often
around significant times in the child’s life, such as starting school. Olshansky observed, reflected on,
and finally analysed and reported his observations in 1967. He described a new theory about loss and
grief as it related to families with a disabled child. Later, this theory formed the hypothesis of further
research and his theories were built on by others.

Recommended reading
Sicora, A., Taylor, B. J., Alfandari, R., Enosh, G., Helm, D., Killick, C., Lyons, O., Mullineux, J., Przeperski, J.,
Rölver, M., & Whittaker, A. (2021). Using intuition in social work decision making, European Journal
of Social Work, 24(5), 772–787. https://doi.org/10.1080/13691457.2021.1918066
Trevithick, P. (2012). Social work skills and knowledge: A practice handbook (3rd ed.). Open
University Press.

We have discussed many schemas to understand the types and sources of our knowledge. While
they may appear vastly different, they all describe the diversity and scope that our knowledge base
encompasses. We do not have the space within one chapter to examine all the possible ‘ways of knowing
about knowing’. However, in other chapters, we draw upon the knowledge base to provide theory, fact
and practical application. For example, in Chapter 7 we explore human service organisations in this Refer to
Chapters 7
way and in Chapter 9 we explore diversity. You may find one knowledge schema to be the most helpful and 9
and we recommend that you read further in this area to assist you on your knowledge practice journey.
This is a process that we continue to engage with throughout our practice.

The paradigms influencing knowledge development

There is a relationship between ideology and knowledge and how knowledge is developed within
a specific cultural, social and historical context (Longino, 2020). In research and scholarship, the
influence of paradigms on knowledge development is widely acknowledged (see, for example, Denzin
& Lincoln, 2017). These paradigms are based on assumptions about what can be known or what is the
nature of reality, known as ontology, and what is the nature of knowledge within the paradigm, known
as epistemology. As practitioners and, therefore, as readers of research and scholarship, it is important
for us to unpack these assumptions. An example of a research paradigm is positivism, which holds that

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there is only one ‘real’ reality and that it can be discerned, measured and assessed. In this paradigm,
the researcher is separate from and has no influence over the ‘object’ or subject of the research. This
is the dominant approach in biological sciences, medicine and psychology. Another paradigm is that
of constructivism. This holds the view that there are multiple realities and that the investigator and
the object of investigation are linked and influence each other. You may encounter other paradigms
such as post-positivism, critical theory or postmodernism, which propose other ways of understanding
knowledge and how it is produced.
When we investigate theoretical paradigms, we need to establish the assumptions on which they
are based. Canda et al. (2018) recommend that we ask questions about paradigms or ideologies such
as the ones that follow to which we have applied the systems (ecological) paradigm:
• Are people assumed to be basically good or bad? Are they born that way? Is it possible to change
from good or bad and, if so, how? (In this paradigm a person ostensibly may not have a moral position
but does have the potential to change.)
• Is behaviour believed to be based primarily on biology and genetics (nature) or on the environment
(nurture)? Is one more important than the other? (The paradigm takes both nature and nurture into
account but sees environmental factors as more important.)
• Are people seen as having free will or is their behaviour determined by internal or external forces
outside their control? (The paradigm assumes the forces acting on people are powerful influences.)
• Are people seen as ill or deviant and in need of medical, psychological or social intervention or
are they seen as healthy and adaptive? (The paradigm assumes people as being adaptive.)
• Does the paradigm portray social relations as being basically competitive or cooperative? Are
social relationships based on consensus or conflict? (The paradigm assumes both forces as operating
but seeks balance between consensus and conflict in order to achieve goals.)
• Can society and social organisation be explained through understanding individual behaviour,
or can individual behaviour be explained through an understanding of society? Which is more
important? (The paradigm is concerned with the relationships or exchanges across these two systems.
The goal is interdependence.)
• What behaviours are assumed to be inherently desirable or undesirable, normal or abnormal, sick
or healthy, functional or dysfunctional?
• Does the paradigm portray people only as material entities that are composed or governed
by biological, mechanical and environmental forces or are people understood in terms of
transcendent, holistic or even spiritual qualities? (This paradigm assumes people as systems within
other systems and that they are governed by biological and environmental forces, but it also adopts a
holistic view of people.)
These questions have particular relevance for human services as it is useful to understand the
foundations on which our knowledge is based. We also need to consider the ways in which data was
gathered to ensure that knowledge, just as practice, is founded on ethical principles. For example, in
early studies on medicines, children living in institutions were used to test drugs, often with traumatic
results. So, if a researcher were using, for example, the results of a study about children’s reactions
to being separated from their parents, that researcher would need to ensure the research had been
conducted in such a way that it did not cause children any trauma.

Recommended reading
Fejo-King, C. (2013). Let’s talk kinship: Innovating Australian social work education, theory, research
and practice through Aboriginal knowledge: Insights from social work research conducted with the
Larrakia and Warumungu Peoples of the Northern Territory. Christine Fejo-King Consulting.

Earlier, we discussed how culture influences ideologies and knowledge. Culture also influences how
we acquire knowledge. Ways of knowing are based upon customs, beliefs, behaviours and worldviews,
and consequently Western, Eastern and Indigenous ways of knowing, being and doing all differ.

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Around the world, many First Peoples value oral traditions, in which stories and knowledge are passed
down from one generation to the next.
What is important to know is determined by a worldview that may include natural and spiritual
domains, as well as values such as respect, sharing and cooperation. The value of the collective is
usually greater than that of the individual and the learner must show great respect to the teacher or
role model. The kind of knowledge and ways of knowing that are offered by formal education are often
very different from those of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.
Gender also affects the development of knowledge. Feminist epistemologies study the ways in which
gender does and ought to influence how knowledge is conceptualised and developed. Such approaches
identify how the dominant methods of knowing systematically disadvantage women and other
subordinated groups by excluding them from knowledge-development processes or by denigrating
feminine styles of learning and knowing.
A major theme of feminist epistemologies is that of the situated ‘knower’ and situated ‘knowledge’
that reflect the particular perspective of the subject (Thompson, 2015). For example, feminist-based
research with elderly people moving into residential care would take care to affirm the meanings that
the elderly people (subjects) had developed about their personal experiences, as well as those of the
researcher. The researcher would then draw together the collective understandings and shared insights
based on these personal experiences to answer broader questions about community care policies,
residential services or the changing identities of older people.

Using knowledge in practice

Knowledge for practice is developed in many ways and comes from a range of sources. There is a strong
relationship between knowledge and ideology and the paradigms that offer different ways of thinking
about what needs to be known and how we come to know it.
Several writers have shown how knowledge is applied to practice. Howe (2016) articulates several
stages of practice in which practitioners apply theory:
• observation: tells a worker what to see and what to look out for
• description: provides a conceptual framework within which observations can be arranged
• explanation: suggests links and causal connections between observations
• prediction: indicates what might happen next
• intervention: suggests what to do to bring about change.
While Howe was specifically referring to theory, we believe these stages also pertain more broadly
to the use of knowledge. Rosen (1994) stipulates three types of knowledge that practitioners use. He
argues that the knowledge needs of practice are related to its purpose and its function in practice.
The first type of knowledge, termed ‘descriptive’, guides practitioners in classifying phenomena
into meaningful categories. The second type, ‘explanatory’ knowledge, gives insight into and
understanding of phenomena: the dynamics of how they relate, the factors that influence them and
the consequences of these interactions. Finally, ‘control’ knowledge is knowledge about intervention.
It shows how to change a phenomenon or maintain it.
Social work and human service practice derives its knowledge from a number of the research
paradigms presented earlier. In addition to being influenced by positivism and classic scientific
research, social work and human services have been influenced for several decades by critical
perspectives (i.e. opposing social ideas and practices that stand in the way of social justice and human
emancipation) and interpretivism (i.e. human behaviour is seen to be the outcome of the subjective
interpretation of the environment).
Social work and human services are different in their knowledge base from other disciplines such
as psychology, physiotherapy or medicine, all of which are strongly based on scientific research and
positivist approaches. Social work, on the other hand, includes knowledge from a range of modes
of inquiry. Some scholars, such as Rosen (2003) and Gambrill (2018), argue that this has weakened
social work and human services, which should move towards a strong evidence base for practice.

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Client perspective

My daughters organised a thing called an ACAT assessment for me – it was a whole lot of
questions about what I could and couldn’t do. Something about getting more help at home here.
I live with my son, but he works. I am pretty good really and I can’t say I was overly happy about
the whole thing. But anyway this young woman came to do the ACAT thing. Well, probably in
her 30s. That’s young to me … I’m 87 you know. She was lovely. She had a little laptop computer
thing she just sat on the table. Very flash. She had all this information at her fingertips. She knew
about different services down here, how to get the best ones. She also knew about the Gold Card
– what I could get with that, which was good. Another thing she had going for her was that she
understood about families. Course I have a lovely family. I mean my kids are good to me but they
are all busy. Mind you I was a good mother to them too. They all work and I can’t do some things
any more like the vacuuming and cooking is hard. She was a social worker, I guess they go to uni
and learn a lot. But she was really nice too.
Una

What is it about social work and human services that makes them different from other professions
such as law, psychology, medicine and allied health therapies? Is practice knowledge in social work
and human services different from the knowledge from other disciplines, such as the social sciences?

Evidence-based practice
Evidence-based practice has entered the domain of social work as social workers and human service
practitioners have been challenged to be clearer about the knowledge base of their practice, what
constitutes best practice and how they know that certain interventions will achieve the proposed
outcomes. There has been a growing concern that there are many gaps in our knowledge about ‘what
works’ and what are the most effective ways of helping. Evidence-based practice is derived from the
field of medicine, where the focus is on finding the most effective treatments for medical conditions.
Evidence-based practice usually consists of five steps: (1) ask a question, (2) acquire evidence to
answer the question, (3) appraise the quality of the evidence, (4) apply the evidence in practice and
(5) assess the outcome. Traditionally, evidence-based practice has had a hierarchy of evidence, with
some types of research being valued over others, as follows (Becker et al., 2012):
1 meta-analyses
2 systematic review of randomised control trials
3 randomised control trials
4 quasi-experimental trials
5 case control and cohort studies
6 expert consensus opinion
7 individual opinion.
By contrast, in social work, there are many advocates of an approach that acknowledges the
varying strengths and weaknesses of diverse research methods and designs, arguing that evidence
falls on a continuum rather than a hierarchy. This approach would recognise that while quantitative
research methods, such as randomised controlled trials (RCTs), are important for determining cause
and effect, other qualitative research methods, such as ethnography, are important for understanding
experiences and processes, especially from the viewpoint of research participants and clients
themselves. This allows practitioners to draw from the most appropriate research method in informing
decision-making.
Gambrill (2019), a pioneer of evidence-based practice, argued that we need to understand what
knowledge, values and skills increase the likelihood of attaining outcomes valued by clients, whether
practitioners have this understanding and whether they have specialised knowledge that makes them

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more effective than empathic non-professionals. What evidence do we have that special training,
credentials or experience contribute to doing more good than harm? Finally, she asks, how do we know
the answers to this question?
According to Gambrill (2018), there are two forms of practice based on two different sources of
knowledge: evidence-based practice and authority-based practice. Evidence-based practice uses
knowledge to decrease uncertainty about how to attain a certain outcome: performance knowledge
about how and when to use content knowledge in practice, and practice knowledge of how to put
efficient procedures into practice. Finally, evidence-based practice uses knowledge of how to critically
test claims related to practice; for example, to answer questions such as ‘Is this assessment measure
valid? Does this parent training program actually increase parenting skills?’
Authority-based practice, on the other hand, is based on what Gambrill refers to as inert knowledge;
that is, content knowledge that is not accompanied by procedural knowledge of how to put it into
practice (i.e. we know what and why but we do not know how). Authority-based practice also uses false
knowledge based on unquestioned and untrue beliefs and pseudoscience. This form of practice makes
scientific claims but provides no evidence, uses weak evidence or uses only anecdotal evidence. An
example is the eugenics movement of the 1920s and 1930s, which claimed that many human and social
problems were related to genetic causes and could be eradicated by enforced sterilisation. Thousands
of people were sterilised on the basis of this ‘evidence’.
Evidence-based practice underwent a renaissance in social work and human services in the 1990s
and 2000s, particularly in the health and child-protection fields. Proponents claim that intervention
knowledge should be developed by applying positivist research methods and that practice should be
based on the best available evidence. There is concern, however, as to whether this is indeed possible
given the elusive nature of practice, the multiplicities of contexts in which it occurs and the variety
of techniques it employs (Plath, 2013). It can be argued that the push for evidence-based practice in
the practice arena where funding bodies demand evidence as to the effectiveness of interventions is
a political strategy designed to address the precarious image of social work in the managerialist state
(Plath, 2013). Social workers have identified that the demands of gold standard evidence (e.g. RCTs)
privilege certain types of evidence over others (Becker et al., 2012).
The debates around evidence-based practice and critical reflective practice continue, with some in
the field arguing that a purely evidence-based approach denies the complex and ambiguous nature of
practice (Ziegler, 2020) and the strong interrelation between theory and practice. There is agreement,
however, among scholars that a critical reflective approach to evidence-based practice seeks to value
evidence gained from all sources, including research evidence. Social work evidence must be consistent
with professional values, be methodologically sound, and do no harm.
Related to critical reflection, critical thinking seeks clarity and can be understood as the purposeful
examination and evaluation of our beliefs and actions (Gambrill, 2018). Trevithick (2012) explains here
that ‘critical’ is not about criticism but rather pursuing a questioning and evaluative stance, not only
about the end product of our knowledge, but also the process of reasoning that we embark upon to get
there. Many authors have contributed to these ideas using different terms; for example, Gray and Webb
(2013) talk about the ‘critical intellectual’. But we argue that these are very similar approaches to how
we should source and use knowledge. What is interesting is that proponents of both strict evidence-
based practice, such as Gambrill (2018), and strong critical reflection, such as Gray and Webb (2013)
and Fook (2022a), all support this critical-thinking approach. Indeed, critical thinking is fundamental
when integrating theory and practice, and we now explore this in detail.

Recommended reading
Drisko, J. W., & Grady, M. D. (2019). Evidence-based practice in clinical social work. Springer.
Fook, J. (2022). Practicing critical reflection in social care organisations. Routledge.
Gambrill, E. (2019). Critical thinking and the process of evidence-based practice. Oxford University Press.
Plath, D. (2013). Evidence-based practice. In M. Gray & S. Webb (Eds.), Social work theories and
methods (pp. 229–240). Sage.

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The relationship between theory and practice

Often, those in the field present the relationship between theory and practice as problematic.
This is because practice can change faster than theory or knowledge development, academics are
increasingly removed from practice, and practitioners are often put off by research with limited
time to integrate research in practice. Many practitioners try to have an eclectic approach to theory
but this requires understanding many complex theories and concepts, which can be impossible for
busy workers to achieve because it requires supervision, support and time (Bolton et al., 2021).
For the beginning practitioner, Barbra Teater (2019) provides a very practical guide to applying
theories to practice. She works through the how-to of broad theoretical approaches, such as social
constructionism and feminism, as well as specific practice approaches, such as strengths models and
motivational interviewing.
Yet, part of our professional responsibility is to use formal knowledge as part of a process of
maximising effectiveness, and of integrating theory and practice. Many of the codes of practice
Refer to explored in Chapter 4 require practitioners to analyse and evaluate their own and others’ experiences,
Chapter 4
to analyse and clarify concepts and issues, to apply knowledge and understanding to practice and to
use research findings in their work. In social work and human services, praxis refers to the reflexive
relationship between theories and action. Praxis is the enacting of theory and knowledge or even ideas
into transformative action. It describes a cyclical process of interactions developing new theories and
refining old ones, as well as theories directing the delivery of social work interactions. Payne (2020)
says that we need to not only implement theories in practice, but we should also reflect on the use of
theory in practice and through this process build, develop and modify the theory.
Evidence-based practice is only one way in which theory and knowledge are applied to practice; the
other important approach is reflective practice. Reflective practice unites knowledge and practice in
one framework and does not present either as superior to the other. It is usually portrayed as a circular
process whereby inductive processes are used to build theory from a series of practice experiences. Kolb
(1984) devised the learning cycle shown in Figure 5.5, which is of particular relevance. In this model of
experiential learning, Kolb explains how we move through various phases of learning as practitioners.

Figure 5.5 Kolb’s learning cycle

Experience of doing
the task

Predict what to do next Review what has happened

Conceptualise and try to

understand relationships
From Experiential learning: Experience as the source of learning and development, by D. Kolb, 1984, Prentice Hall.

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Initially, we immerse ourselves in the ‘doing’ of a task. Then we reflect or step back from the task and
review what has happened. We then interpret these events in the conceptualisation phase and try to
understand the relationships between them. Finally, we plan or make predictions about what to do
next and this then leads us to start the ‘doing’ phase again, armed with new knowledge about how
to proceed. He also believed that learning does not happen automatically and that we should take
responsibility for our own learning.
Fook (2022a) also offered a circular process for reflective practice. In her model, she proposes that
we must identify the practice experience and make an account of it. We then reflect on this account
and develop practice and theory from that exercise. Argyris and Schon (1974) pioneered the work on
reflective practice more than 40 years ago. They argued that there were differences between the theory
implicit in action, which they termed the ‘theory-in-use’, and the theoretical assumptions consciously
articulated, which they termed ‘espoused theory’. It is important, as practitioners, to engage in a
process of critical reflection to be able to apply the theories that are being used implicitly in practice
so that these can be consciously articulated and used deliberately rather than unconsciously.
We can employ a number of strategies to help develop our reflective practice capacities. The critical
incident technique (see Fook, 2022b) is used to reflect on an incident that may arouse an emotional
response or pose problems and challenges. The practitioner either writes down or relates to colleagues
or the supervisor the story or account of the incident, based solely on what happened without
explanations or theorising. The practitioner is then asked how they account for the incident, which
gives them the opportunity to critically reflect on their perceptions of what happened. Finally, they
think about which other conceptual frameworks could help them understand the incident. Workers can
perform this process as a group or one-to-one and it provides a structure to discuss the links between
theory and practice constructively.
Another strategy is mentoring. This involves meeting and engaging with a mentor, usually a more
experienced person who facilitates the practitioner’s learning. An effective mentor does not overly rely
on direct teaching. You will probably be mentored by your field supervisor during placement; however,
mentoring can continue throughout your career. Many experienced practitioners seek mentors when
they try new areas of work or advance to more complex or demanding roles. Further examples of Refer to
techniques to facilitate reflective practice will be explored in Chapter 10. Chapter 10

Practice approaches and theories

Each practice approach encompasses certain theories or bodies of knowledge on which intervention
is based, and certain approaches are used in particular practice settings. As a beginning practitioner,
it can be difficult to know how to select an approach to inform practice. Consequently, in Chapter 10 Refer to
Chapter 10
we look at how you develop what is called a practice framework, which includes (among other things),
relevant knowledge and approaches to inform what you do in your daily practice.
Theories can also be grouped; for example, Healy (2022) groups theories as follows:
• systems theories: general systems theory, ecosystems perspectives, complex systems and chaos
theories, and eco-social work.
• problem-solving approaches: task-centred models, crisis intervention and motivational
interviewing
• relationship-based, strengths and solution focused approaches
• modern critical theories: feminist, radical, anti-racist, anti-oppressive and structural social work
practice approaches
• ‘post-theories’: postmodern, poststructural, postcolonial.
Others also include psychoanalytic theories, including attachment theory and psychodynamic
theory, and behavioural theories, including cognitive behavioural theory and social learning theory
(Bolton, et al., 2021). It is beyond the scope of this book to discuss every available practice approach,
so some key ones have been presented as a starting point for further reading and learning. Further Refer to
Chapter 10
practice approaches are described in Chapter 10.

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Systems and ecological perspectives

Systems and ecological perspectives, pioneered by Uri Bronfenbrenner (1979), offer a way to
understand how people interact with the various parts of their environment. Such approaches in
social work are based on systems theory from biological sciences, which posits that all organisms are
systems made up of subsystems. In turn, these organisms are part of supersystems. Social systems
comprise individuals, groups, families, communities and societies. Systems or ecological perspectives
are based on a number of principles, including those of the closed and open system. This relates to
how much communication and exchange there is across the boundaries between parts of the system.
Systems also have inputs, throughputs, outputs and feedback loops. A systems approach would
involve identifying the informal systems in a person’s life, such as family and friends, as well as the
formal systems, such as community groups, and wider social systems, such as schools or hospitals.
Practitioners assess which elements of the system are having an impact on the client’s situation and
what is happening in the relationship between the client and their environment.
There are two main systems perspectives. The first is general systems theory and the second
is ecological systems theory, as proposed by Gitterman and Germain (2008) in their life-model
approach. In the life-model approach, people are viewed as constantly adapting in response to the
changes to their environments over their life span. Systems and ecological approaches are holistic and
interactive and can be helpful in analysing most practice situations. However, they are less helpful in
actually explaining what to do as a practitioner and are so general that they can be difficult to apply
to specific situations. Systems theory is helpful in showing the connections between the individual
and external systems but does not really explain why things happen and why the connections are
the way they are. However, ecological approaches are useful in shifting the focus of a problem from
the individual to the individual in the ecology and in working in integrative ways to look at issues
(Pardeck, 2015).
Practice examples include:
• working with families of adolescents with disability to help with the transition from attending
school to a life after school
• planning for care after discharge from hospital of an elderly woman who has had a stroke.

Psychodynamic practice
Psychodynamic perspectives derive from the psychoanalytic theory of Freud. Such perspectives were
strongly influential in the early twentieth century and are still popular, especially with those working
in counselling roles. The psychodynamic approaches also gave rise to psychosocial casework, which
was prominent for many decades.
The basic foundations of psychoanalysis are theories about human development, personality and
abnormal psychology and about how to treat people with psychological problems (Payne, 2020).
Central to this theory is the notion of the unconscious mind, whereby some of our thoughts are
hidden from us.
Psychoanalytic treatment is usually long-term, sometimes lasting for years. The focus of
psychoanalytic approaches is deeply psychological, with attention paid to environmental factors
only insofar as they affect the person’s feelings. Change must come from within the person through
counselling or therapy that works towards bringing to the surface deep unconscious feelings.
Psychoanalysis has been criticised, chief ly because of the lack of empirical evidence to
support theories about whether it works. It is also viewed as being somewhat outdated in its
views of women and its lack of cultural sensitivities. Additionally, the length of time usually
involved makes it an expensive and impractical option for most people. Despite these criticisms,
psychoanalytic approaches have made a long-standing contribution to social work and human
service practice largely in the development of psychodynamic approaches in social work and
counselling practice.

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Practice examples include:

• counselling individuals and couples
• working with individuals who have experienced past traumas
• practice supervision to understand the helping relationship; for example, the dynamics of
transference and countertransference.

Humanist and existential approaches

These practice approaches are grouped together and include person-centred practice and certain forms
of groupwork. They are derived from two philosophies: humanism and existentialism. Humanism
articulates that conscious human beings are able to reason, make choices and act freely without
being influenced by spirituality, superstition, religion or gods (Payne, 2020). Humanist perspectives
strongly resonate with social work and human service values about the inherent dignity of humans
and the commitment to equality and self-determination. The influence of these philosophies has been
more at the level of principles of practice rather than interventions and techniques.
Perhaps the most influential humanist is Carl Rogers (1951), who developed client-centred or
person-centred counselling. His work in this area has had a profound impact on many human service
practitioners. Rogers recommended that workers treat clients with unconditional positive regard, show
empathy for their clients’ situations and be genuine and honest in their interactions. He pioneered
the notion of the non-judgemental and non-directive worker, ideas that are still fundamental to social
and human service work. Others have applied humanist ideas based on democratic and human rights
principles to groupwork. For example, Gestalt therapy, particularly in groupwork, is derived from
some of these ideas.
Existentialism is focused on meaning of existence and purpose. It seeks to support people to
gain personal power in order to control their lives and change unhelpful ideas that can dictate
their lives (Payne, 2020). Based on the existentialism of philosophers such as Sartre, existential
approaches focus on just ‘being’. They explore people’s capacity to control their lives and change
their ideas about how they should live. A key principle of existentialist practice is that of freedom
and responsibility. As practitioners we can help people take responsibility for their lives, even if
they are feeling that they are in a powerless situation, and help them find meaning, wellbeing and
purpose (Nilsson, 2018).
Humanist and existentialist perspectives are most likely to benefit people who are self-motivated,
and they may be less effective with involuntary clients. However, these approaches do not advise
specifically about methods of practice and can be criticised as being vague and not easily understood.
Practice examples include:
• using Gestalt approaches with groups to facilitate personal growth
• counselling individuals who are seeking personal growth
• resolving of grief, career failure or life transitions
• working with adolescents around questions of identity or the purpose of life.

Cognitive and behavioural approaches

Cognitive and behavioural approaches are based on psychological theories of learning and behaviour
theory. Such theories form the foundation of therapeutic interventions used by psychologists, health
professionals, and social and human service workers in a range of settings. The theory behind cognitive
behavioural therapy (CBT) suggests that behaviour is affected by perception or interpretation of the
environment during the process of learning – that is, we work out how to behave in response to how
we see and interpret the world. The aim is to increase desirable behaviours or decrease the undesirable
behaviours (Payne, 2020).
These approaches use behavioural principles such as reinforcement and conditioning. The focus is
solely on specific behaviours. Once the behaviour is changed, the intervention is deemed successful.
The practitioner carefully analyses problems and defines the assessment and intervention process.

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Cognitive and behavioural approaches are outcomes-focused, with clients and practitioners planning
the agreed outcomes. Such therapies are usually time-limited and can be used for a wide range of
problems. They have enjoyed a resurgence of popularity and are mostly used in situations for which
a brief intervention is appropriate.
Another set of ideas that has origins in Buddhist thought, social learning and CBT is the approach
known as mindfulness. Examples of mindfulness-based psychotherapies include dialectical behaviour
therapy, acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) and mindfulness-based cognitive therapy.
These approaches are most useful when working with people presenting with anxiety and depression
(Payne, 2020). Critiques of these approaches are largely focused on the historical divide between
psychodynamic and behaviourist schools. The specific techniques are often described as mechanistic
and removed from the non-directive social work approach.
Practice examples include:
• counselling individuals with depression or anxiety in conjunction with antidepressant drug
therapy
• reducing social anxiety in children
• working with clients who are seeking to change behaviour, such as managing stress or controlling
compulsive behaviours.

Radical, structural and critical approaches

This range of practice approaches originated in the radical critiques of the 1970s. They are founded
on the notion that problems are determined by social and structural realities, rather than personal
problems in the individual. It is class, gender or cultural inequalities that cause human injustice. Such
approaches are variously termed radical, critical or structural. The key intervention for a radical practitioner
is that of social action, and the goal is broad social change. The system, not individual clients, is the
focus for change; although the aim of practice is to empower those less powerful. Social workers using
a critical, radical or structural approach all seek to address injustices at a local level, individually with
people, through to groups, communities, workplaces and institutionally.
According to Healy (2022) ‘critical social workers identify injustice as stemming from differences
in power and access to material resources’. She says that critical social work approaches are
(1) dedicated to acting in solidarity with people who are marginalised and oppressed, (2) recognise
power imbalances, particularly between social work practitioners and those they serve, (3) understand
how intersecting factors related to race, ability, gender and more can have compounding effects on
people’s experience of discrimination, and (4) committed to working collaboratively with those they
serve, while seeking to overturn unhelpful status quos that are oppressive. Morley et al. (2020)
describe the key theorists informing critical social work practice approaches, including Foucault,
Freire, Tronto, Marx, and many others, while advocating and providing examples of how social workers
can be agents of change
Most radical practice involves working at the systems level but Fook (1993) has brought individual
work into this domain. She conceptualised five areas of radical casework. First, a structural analysis
reveals that problems are caused by the social and economic structure of society. Second, the real
function of social work and welfare is social control. Third, the worker must engage in an ongoing
critique of the status quo and, fourth, the worker should aim to protect the individual from oppression.
Finally, the goals of practice are liberation and social change.
Practice examples include:
• working with an advocacy group of disabled people to obtain more accessible public transport
in a city
• supporting women who had lived with domestic violence to develop online resources to raise
awareness of the need for legislative reform.
Critical race theory has become influential in social work over the last 10 to 15 years. It highlights
that racism is endemic, pervasive and a permanent component of social structures, serving the
interests of white dominant groups. It highlights the multiple forms of oppression that affect many

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people; for example, some people may experience compounding oppression and disadvantage due
to being a member of many oppressed groups. Thus, this approach acknowledges the diversity of
all people within racial and ethnic categories. It argues that race is socially constructed; that is, it
is a human invented way of categorising people, rather than a biological difference. According to
Bousseau and Martell (2021), critical race theory can be used by social workers to (1) understand
social, economic and political conditions, (2) analyse government and organisational policies, and (3)
design and implement policies and programs that seek racial justice. Thus, social workers can use the
theory to appraise both covert and overt racism present in policies, structures and practices, while
identifying and implementing programs to combat racism. Critical race theory also values activism
to deconstruct and transform power relations. According to Pulliam (2017), it ‘promotes a structural
approach to address problems of diversity rather than merely attempting to expand access to existing
resources and opportunities’ (p. 416). It is, thus, closely aligned with critical, radical and structural
approaches to social work practice.
Feminist practice approaches are often, although not always, are also aligned with critical social
work practice approaches. Feminism in its simplest form is concerned with the systematic disadvantage
experienced by women and is focused on achieving equitable outcomes for all. However, it differs
widely in thinking about how this can be achieved. Radical feminists have been vocal in their criticism
of dominant patriarchal views and norms, with many notions becoming part of mainstream feminist
thinking, including for example, a resistance to patriarchal and male dominance in private and publish
spheres. Feminist practice makes links between the personal and political experiences, yet the failure
to address the personal and interpersonal domains of people’s lives is the major criticism of critical
and radical approaches.

Recommended reading
Morley, C., Macfarlane, S., & Ablett, P. (2019). Engaging with social work: a critical introduction
(2nd ed.). Cambridge.
Pease, B., Goldingay, S., Hosken, N., & Nipperess, S. (Eds.). (2016). Doing critical social work:
Transformative practices for social justice. Allen & Unwin.

Post theories
A further development of radical and critical approaches are a series of post-theories, including
postmodern, poststructural and postcolonial practices. Postmodernism involves a critique of all
‘totalising’ theories – that is, theories that set out to explain everything – on the basis that these provide
only a one-dimensional view of the world and deny the multidimensional nature of human experience
and oppressions. Pease and Fook (2016) suggest that postmodernism has several implications for
practice. They argue that practitioners should reject any theory that posits an objective view of reality
and should value uncertainty. Practitioners should not attempt to define the experiences of another
group but should question how their own cultural experience might cause them to marginalise some
aspects of reality while allowing others to dominate. Meaning is constructed through conversation
and dialogue and multiple realities are acknowledged and sought. Postmodernism challenges our
understandings of power, which is typically conceptualised as binary opposites; for example, the
powerful versus the powerless.
Poststructuralism is similar to postmodernism but it focuses on how language is used to exert
power, and how language influences knowledge. Language does not necessarily reflect reality, but
instead helps to create it. For example, how we describe the people we work with as patients, clients,
service users, community members and so on, influence how we perceive and then respond to them.
Postmodernism underpins narrative work, which is a growing area of practice in work with individuals,
families and communities. Narrative therapies were pioneered by the late Michael White in Adelaide
and are based on Foucault’s ideas and writings. Such approaches externalise the social and behavioural
difficulties people face.

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Practice examples include:

• narrative work with people who have experienced torture and trauma
• life story research with homeless people to explore how they construct their experiences of
homelessness.
Postcolonial theories critique Western imperialism and its subordination of whole peoples, races
and ethnic groups. They draws attention to the importance of First Nations knowledges and oppose
Western hegemony (Kleibl et al., 2019). It seeks to overturn and address the impacts of colonial
legacies, seeking to promote healing from European invasions, thus ‘revisiting, remembering and,
crucially, interrogating the colonial past’ (Gandhi, 2022).

Recommended reading
Dominelli, L. (2007). The postmodern ‘turn’ in social work: The challenges of identity and equality,
Social Work & Society 5(3).
Gandhi, L. (2022). Postcolonial theory [an introduction]. https://www.acharyar.com.np/2022/02/
postcolonial-theory-critical.html
Kleibl, T., Lutz, R., Noyoo, N., Bunk, B., Dittmann, A., & Seepamore, B. (Eds.). (2019). The Routledge
handbook of postcolonial social work. Routledge.

Environmental social work practice

Over the last fifteen years, research on environmental social work practice has grown exponentially.
There are a few different strands, with differing emphases, but essentially ‘environmental social
work assists humanity to create and sustain a biodiverse planetary ecosystem and does this by
adapting existing social work methods to promote societal change.’ (Ramsay & Boddy, 2017, p. 68).
Ramsay and Boddy (2017) argue that environmental social workers creatively apply a broad range
of social work skills to addressing environmental degradation, incorporate the natural environment
in their daily practice, learn from spirituality and Indigenous cultures, are focused on change and
critiquing hegemony and neoliberalism, and work in interdisciplinary ways, with both communities
and individuals. Environmental social work also draws attention to the disproportionate impacts
of climate change on marginalised and disadvantaged communities (Gray et al., 2013). According
to Panagiotaros (2022), it is both a value system and a practice. It recognises the interconnection
of environmental and social issues, values the importance of non-humans and ecology, values
Aboriginal and First Nations epistemologies, involves community and structural social work
practices, and is grounded in interdisciplinary approaches to practice. It is related to green social
work, which emphasises critical and radical social work theoretical approaches to practice, with a
focus on transforming socio-political and economic change and emancipation. It seeks to address
the disproportionate impacts of climate change, disasters, and environmental degradation on poor
and marginalised peoples, and so while the focus is on macro level change, green social workers will
work individually with people to mobilise them to advocate for change and access their needs. This
approach was pioneered by Dominelli (2012; 2013).
Environmental social work is also related to ecological social work, which encourages social work
to move away from being human-centric, where we have prioritised human needs and wants, towards
an approach that recognises the innate value of all living systems (not just the inherent worth of the
environment as it impacts humans; Boetto et al., 2020; Erickson, 2018; McKinnon & Alston, 2016),
which has been described as a posthuman approach. This approach represents a philosophical change
to the profession and challenges how we see our place, as humans, within the natural world, and
where we advocate for a move away from the Anthropocene, that is ‘the age of humans’ where human
activity has dominated and transformed the climate and the Earth’s ecology (Muir et al., 2020), and
where humans have positioned ourselves as the elite species (Bozalek & Pease, 2020). According to
Ife (2021, p. 241), ‘social work needs to explore and adopt theory/practice that is community-based,
political, anarchistic, decolonised, matriarchal, and grounded in an ecological epistemology that is
both Indigenous and post-human’.

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There are numerous practice examples of green, environmental and ecological social work practice.
For example, Magruder et al. (2022) describe how students, community members, business owners and
community leaders valued the opportunity to engage in an experiential learning initiative whereby
they went on an ‘ecological devastation bus tour’, visiting areas that had experienced environmental
degradation. Participants reported that they gained knowledge, felt motivated to act on climate change
and felt better equipped to tackle environmental injustices. As disasters increase in frequency and
severity with climate change, we can expect to see these theoretical approaches being more overtly Refer to
Chapter 6
embedded in social work daily practice. This theory is discussed further in Chapter 6 on fields
of practice.

Recommended reading
Bozalek, V., & Pease, B. (Eds.). (2020). Post-anthropocentric social work: Critical posthuman and new
materialist perspectives. Routledge.
Dominelli, L. (2012). Green social work: From environmental crises to environmental justice. Polity.
Erickson, C. L. (2018). Environmental justice as social work practice. Oxford University Press.
Gray, M., Coates, J., & Hetherington, T. (Eds.). (2013). Environmental social work (pp. 46–61).
Routledge.
McKinnon, J., & Alston, M. (Eds.). (2016). Ecological social work: Towards sustainability. Macmillan
International Higher Education.

The strengths perspective

The strengths perspective was developed by staff at the University of Kansas over a number of
years. It adopts the position that all people have strengths and capacities and that, given access
to resources and supports, they can achieve their life goals and solve problems. The strengths
approach was first adopted in the mental health field in response to the dominance of deficit
models that focused only on symptoms and problems in people with serious mental illness. It has
since been used in other fields with people with developmental disabilities, elderly people and early
childhood services.
This approach is based more on strong values and principles than any defined theory base,
although it has built considerable evidence for its effectiveness (Saleebey, 2013). Even though
it is of a general philosophical orientation, the strengths perspective offers clear direction for
assessment and inter vention. A strengths assessment in mental health, for example, uses a
framework of life domains (e.g. family, friends, work, education and housing) to determine with
the client what their current situation is and what strengths or ‘niches’ they have, and then
explores what resources are available in their environment to assist them to achieve their goals
or hopes in a particular area.
The strengths approach is now used in community development as well as in individual work. The
approach is criticised for potentially denying or missing crucial needs. The focus can be strongly
on strengths and capacities, to the point that critical needs or problems are not addressed. There is
also debate as to whether it is in fact a practice theory or a way of practising. Often, it is regarded as
a simplistic and easy approach; however, strengths work requires a much deeper engagement to be
truly effective. The approach has gained in popularity in recent years and has been adopted by some
agencies and government departments as their guiding practice framework.
Another strengths-oriented approach is solution-focused therapy. Sometimes called solution-
oriented therapy, solution-focused therapy is a brief intervention that, like strengths-based
approaches, focuses on the client’s resources for coping with problems and difficulties. Solution-
focused therapy came from family therapy but also encompasses elements of systems theory; for
example, the idea that bringing about a change in one part of a routine or system will bring about
further changes throughout the system.

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Practice examples include:

• working with people with mental health issues to develop resources and opportunities for
employment
• in disability support services, working with families of people with developmental disability to
facilitate links to people and community to promote social inclusion
• building community capacity in a drought-stricken rural community or an inner urban
neighbourhood.
An Australian example is St Luke’s Innovative Resources, a strengths-based organisation
that provides training and resources to other organisations about the approach (see http://www.
innovativeresources.org).

Crisis intervention and task-centred practice

This approach has its origins in preventive psychiatry and largely in mental health work. It has been
used widely since then and has a growing appeal today as a form of brief intervention. It is based on the
theories of psychodynamic ego psychology. Task-centred practice grew out of crisis intervention.
The main ideas underpinning crisis intervention are that every person, group and organisation has
crises set off by a series of hazardous events. Some of these events can be anticipated; for example,
certain life stages, such as adolescence, can be fraught with hazardous events. Other events are
unexpected, such as an accidental death. When hazardous events disturb people’s equilibrium, they
become vulnerable. They may try to deal with this in their usual ways but if these fail or if they have
exhausted their repertoire of solutions, stress and tension rise. When a precipitating factor, on top of
unresolved problems, adds to the tensions, the result is a state of active crisis. Crises usually reach
resolution in six to eight weeks, but people in crisis are more open to being helped and thus intervention
is more likely to succeed. The intervention runs for a fixed timeframe with distinct beginning, middle
and end phases. Social work and human service professionals are increasingly involved in the response
to natural and other disasters where crisis intervention skills are urgently needed. For example,
Australian practitioners have had key roles in responding to bushfires, floods and terrorist bombings.
In New Zealand social workers played a key role in responding to crises after earthquakes. Historically,
social work played a key role in many disasters, responding to social disruption, family disconnection
and collective stress. We are currently seeing dramatic increases in the frequency and severity of
disasters globally due to climate change and political tensions and conflicts.

Recommended reading
Healy, K. (2022). Social work theories in context: Creating frameworks for practice (3rd ed.). Palgrave
Macmillan.
Langer, C., & Lietz, C. (2014). Applying theory to generalist social work practice. Wiley & Sons.
Teater, B. (2019). An introduction to applying social work theory and methods (3rd ed.). Open
University Press.

Task-centred work is also a time-limited intervention. This method is used when people acknowledge
they have a problem and want to make changes to solve it. The problem needs to be the kind that can be
resolved by the client taking responsibility for completing tasks outside the worker–client relationship.
The worker and client usually make a contract (verbal or written) about the nature of the problem, which
aspects are given priority and what tasks are to be completed and by whom. Much of the time in interviews
is taken up with planning the course of action and setting the time limits and responsibilities.
Both crisis intervention and task-centred work are very clear and focused on what is required and
how to go about it. These approaches are also well suited to many current human service contexts in
which there are limits on how many sessions can be offered and there are pressures to demonstrate
measurable outcomes. However, not all problems are suited to either crisis intervention or task-centred
approaches; for example, they are not effective in situations of continuing crises or more complex
psychological problems. They also offer minimal response to severe social problems.

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Practice examples include:

• working with a family to organise alternative support arrangements for a family member with
chronic illness
• case management with unemployed individuals
• supporting a family facing eviction and potential homelessness to find housing
• mobilising a workforce in a disaster-affected area to reconnect people with their families.

Community development
While community work is often described as a practice method, we discuss it here as another approach
based on particular theories, knowledge and skills. Community development has a long history in
our work, from its origins in the Settlement movement through to its ascendancy in the 1970s, as
discussed in Chapter 2. A number of different approaches to community development or community Refer to
Chapter 2
practice can be identified. These include community capacity building; building of social capital; asset-
based community development; and many participatory processes that involve community members
in planning, research or program development. Community development is a hallmark of international
practice, often referred to as social development, especially in the global projects focused on economic
development, health promotion, poverty eradication or environmental sustainability. Community
development is founded on a number of principles which include:
• working with people rather than for them
• communities make their own decisions, set their own goals and act on them
• enhancing participation in the community and in decision making, especially for the most
disadvantaged
• building on the existing strengths, skills and organisational capacities of communities
• providing opportunities for relationship building within and between communities
• building relationships between people who have power and resources and those who do not,
fostering inclusiveness.

Recommended reading
Ife, J. (2016). Community Development in an Uncertain World: Vision, analysis and practice (2nd ed.).
Melbourne: Cambridge University Press.
Kenny, S., & Hand, T. (2023). Developing communities (6th ed.). Cengage.

In many rural communities, the main practice approach is community development because it is
best suited to the issues and assets of these communities. Community development provides us with
a broad social focus for working with oppressed people but has also been viewed as upholding the
existing social order rather than challenging it.

CASE STUDY
Emergency accommodation
Jackson, a 15-year-old boy, lives in an outer metropolitan suburb with his mum and three
younger sisters. Jackson has been suspended from school several times and now has been
brought to your family welfare agency by the police (juvenile division). Jackson has been arrested
for selling drugs at school and will have to attend court in the coming days. His mum, Christa, has
a part-time job and receives a social security part-payment as a supporting parent. The family
is struggling financially and there have been tension and conflict at home between Jackson and
his mum. Christa does not want him to come home, saying she is flat out coping with the other
children and is very angry with Jackson for what he has done. The police ask if some temporary
accommodation can be found for Jackson until the court hearing is held. Jackson is sullen and
uncommunicative and refusing to make eye contact. He mumbles that he can go and live with his
friends and that he doesn’t need anyone. You need to make arrangements for temporary care
for Jackson and may have to consider longer-term solutions after he has been to court.
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Activity 5.2

Problems are very different in their levels of complexity. The kind of knowledge and skills a
practitioner will need to address problems will, therefore, also differ.
1 What knowledge would help you in the situation outlined in the case study ‘Emergency
accommodation’?
2 What practice approaches might you consider and why?

Trauma-informed practice
The impact of trauma on the lives of individuals and communities has been recognised by social
workers in a range of settings. More recently, however, the use of theories about trauma, attachment
and human development has become a practice approach in its own right, linked to specific knowledge
and techniques. These have developed solidly from psychological theories but also draw on
neuroscience and more medicalised knowledge. Neuroscience is increasingly used to draw connections
between brain functions and behaviour and its importance in different stages of development provides
knowledge that can be of great assistance in clinical work.
Trauma-informed practice recognises that:
• a significant proportion of the clients of human services have experienced interpersonal trauma
and disrupted or disturbed attachments with a caregiver, often during childhood and over an
extended period
• sustained trauma has a significant and long-term effect on the emotional and cognitive
functioning of human beings, based on pervasive neurobiological changes
• interventions that address the underlying experiences and effects of trauma are most likely to
bring about change and enhance wellbeing in children and adults.
In practice, this means that facilitating consistent, nurturing relationships is the primary goal of
intervention. Work with all clients should be grounded in an understanding of the complex nature of
trauma and its impact on behaviour.
Trauma arises when someone experiences a psychologically distressing event, outside what would
be considered a usual human experience and it coincides with intense fear, terror or helplessness (Perry
& Dobson, 2009). In social work and human services settings, we often encounter trauma that has
occurred in the context of relationships. This refers to traumatic events that are repeated, prolonged
and developmentally adverse, often occurring early in life (Turner, 2017).
Trauma affects the neurobiological systems we use to assess threats, respond to danger and stay
alert. Recent developments in neuroscience have allowed us to understand the specific chemical and
biological pathways by which this occurs. For this reason, trauma-informed practice is rooted in
knowledge gained by scientific investigation in the biomedical field. However the practice aspects of
this approach have largely developed out of psychotherapy settings, trauma treatment, and residential
care environments for children who had been abused and neglected.
‘Trauma theory’ holds that continued threat can sensitise the amygdala (a region of the brain
associated with threat assessment and emotions) through a process called fear conditioning.
Effectively, this stimulates the sympathetic nervous system (stress response) and leads to a sustained
arousal state, which we see as an inability to differentiate threats combined with hypervigilance.
People in this state ‘act out’ from an internal state of sustained alarm, often leading to the ‘flight or
fight’ response and the problematic behaviours we see in many of the people who are associated with
human services. This may occur in different ways for different experiences of trauma or adversity
(e.g. sexual assault, emotional neglect, witnessing violence).
Trauma-informed practice is often referred to alongside attachment theory and you will often
hear of the importance of understanding ‘trauma and attachment’. Attachment in this context refers
to the biological and neurological systems for guiding nurturance and caregiving between adults

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and dependent children (a process sometimes referred to as ‘attunement’). The two concepts are
interrelated because trauma significantly disrupts these systems, to the extent that children who
have disrupted attachment experiences can experience life-long impacts.
Trauma-informed practice gives us a way to understand the complex and, at times, counter-intuitive
behaviour of adults and children in a range of settings. It also leads us to specific responses that
attempt to deal with the underlying trauma experience rather than the ‘surface’ presentation (which
may be for drug and alcohol addiction, homelessness, mental health treatment, child protection/
parenting intervention or problematic social behaviours). There are concerns that these approaches
have become too medicalised and regard trauma as happening only in a biological sense. It is important
to also consider the socio-political dimensions to trauma and violence, especially for women and
children (see Tseris, 2013).

Recommended reading
Child Trauma Academy website: https://www.childtrauma.org
Kezelman, C. (2014). Trauma informed practice. Mental Health Australia. https://mhaustralia.org/
general/trauma-informed-practice
Levenson, J. (2017). Trauma-informed social work practice. Social work, 62(2), 105–113. https://doi.org/
10.1093/sw/swx001
Rose, R. (Ed.). (2017). Innovative therapeutic life story work: Developing trauma-informed practice for
working with children, adolescents and young adults. Jessica Kingsley.
Tseris, E. (2013). Trauma theory without feminism? Evaluating contemporary understandings of
traumatized women. Affilia: Journal of Women and Social Work, 28(2), 153–164. https://doi.org/
10.1177/0886109913485
Turner, F. J. (Ed.). (2017). Social work treatment: Interlocking theoretical approaches. Oxford
University Press

Applying theory in practice

We provide a case study about Dorothy below that you can use to reflect on practice and the
many ways in which theory can inform your understandings and responses to service users. You
will find in practice that you will develop practitioner wisdom over time as you apply theories
to cases, learning what has been helpful and unhelpful. You will also find that you may draw on
multiple theories at any given time. However, it is also important to regularly reflect on your practice
and continue to engage and learn more about new theories and developments in existing theories.
In your daily practice, you will also draw from research and the code of ethics and your values to
inform what you do. We apply the theory of environmental and green social work to the following case
study as an example of how this can be done. However, many theories would be relevant to working
with Dorothy.

CASE STUDY
Dorothy
Dorothy is a 53 year old woman who had been living in a small rented house by herself with her
dogs in a regional town that has recently experienced severe flooding. Dorothy’s house went
completely under. One of Dorothy’s dogs is now missing and she is immensely distressed by
this. Dorothy has been residing in a community hall that has been set up for flood victims, with
about 100 others, including animals and large families. Dorothy has begun helping others in the
evacuation centre keep their dogs safe. Dorothy enjoys being with the animals and wants to
ensure that they are well cared for, so each day she sources food for them and makes sure they
have access to clean water and somewhere comfortable to rest. Being with the animals brings
Dorothy a sense of peace and hope. Dorothy has been sleeping in the hall near to a family who
have just been diagnosed with COVID-19. She is worried that she may now contract it.

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Dorothy has reported that while the mood in the hall was initially positive and she felt well
supported from the wider community, tensions are rising. Ordinarily the community is a very
supportive, inclusive and kind place. Dorothy has indicated that during the floods community
members coordinated the rescue effort. When new community members came to the
evacuation centre Dorothy would make sure she welcomed them. But people are increasingly
feeling abandoned by the government and are angry at the lack of government support and
intervention. She also said the number of people in the hall have grown, there are community
members who are withdrawing from drugs, the hall is crowded, toilets are overflowing, there
are no showers, and dogs are fighting. She said everyone was sleeping in the same area – men,
women, children, babies – and this was stressing her out. Dorothy said she finds herself crying
all the time. Police have recently been asked to supervise the hall as violence has erupted and
Dorothy has indicated that this has made her feel even more unsafe. Dorothy said she lashed out
at the family residing next to her because the parents would not stop fighting but that she did
not mean to. The flood waters have since subsided and Dorothy has returned to her home to see
what is left. All her belongings are completely covered in mud and silt. Dorothy has no insurance
because the premiums were too high following the last flood. She has no savings, and she lost
her bank cards and wallet during the flood. She has not been able to apply for any government
grants because she has no phone and she lost her glasses in the flood and cannot see properly.
Dorothy has no family or close friends in the region and does not have anywhere else to live.
She comes to meet with you and during that meeting she discloses that she has not taken her
medication for schizophrenia now for a week.

Environmental and green social work practice approaches tell us that there are disproportionate
impacts of extreme weather events, such as flooding, and that when people experience intersecting
disadvantages the effects of environmental disasters are compounded. What this means is that
those in the evacuation centre, like Dorothy, are the least likely to have access to resources, such as
finances, housing and social supports. Privilege helps people to stay protected from the devastating
consequences of extreme weather events, so it is likely that Dorothy, in our case study, is from a low
socioeconomic background and does not have access to financial resources to stay elsewhere and has
thus been forced into the evacuation centre. Consequently, from an environmental and green social
work practice approach, we would work with Dorothy to help her access financial and housing support
from government.
As a new practitioner to the region, we would seek to understand the Indigenous history of the area.
In recognition of the environmental injustice in this case study, as an environmental green practitioner
we would want to seek structural changes to address the ongoing injustice that means Dorothy
and others in the region are living in flood prone areas. This would mean that we would support
Dorothy to work collectively with others to make their voices and their dissatisfaction with the
government heard.
Further, environmental and green social work practice approaches highlight the interconnection
of Dorothy’s health and wellbeing and that of the environment in which she is. Consequently, at the
micro level we would work individually with Dorothy to help her access a safe place to live free from
disasters, pollution and potential flooding, where she can experience the healing benefits of being
connected with the natural environment.
Environmental and green social workers work in interdisciplinary ways to achieve social change.
Consequently, we would work with multiple other disciplines, both at the evacuation centre and
beyond, as well as with all community members, to advocate for the needs of all people and animals
within the evacuation centre.
Environmental and green social work practice approaches also value the importance of non-humans
and ecology, and consequently you would acknowledge the importance of Dorothy’s animals to her
and also work with them to achieve equitable outcomes that mean they are safe and well looked after.

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FINDING THE RIGHT MAPS: THE KNOWLEDGE BASE OF PRACTICE / CHAPTER 5

Activity 5.3

There are many theories you could use to understand and respond to Dorothy’s situation.
1 Identify the knowledge you have about the impact of extreme weather events on individuals
and communities. What other knowledge would you need to learn? And how would you go
about obtaining that knowledge?
2 What two theories would you think are most helpful for working with Dorothy and
understanding her situation?
3 How would you apply these two theories to the case study?

STUDY
TOOLS

Conclusion
In this chapter, we navigated the complex terrain of theory and the knowledge base of practice. We provided
definitions of key terms and outlined a framework for understanding knowledge sources, ways of knowing and
knowledge use. Social work and human services are founded on a broad knowledge base, drawing from other
disciplines, such as sociology and psychology, as well as from its own knowledge of its purposes and practice
processes. We also explored the different ways in which we acquire knowledge as practitioners. The relationship
between knowledge theory and practice, evidence-based practice and reflective practice was investigated. Finally,
several practice approaches were outlined that illustrate how values, knowledge and theory are integrated into a
coherent and systematic way of working. As future practitioners, you will use knowledge and theory to guide and
inform your practice in a range of ways, and this is an ongoing journey. The search for knowledge will continue
throughout your career.

Questions
1 List some of the theories you are already familiar with. How might these be used in practice? Give some
examples.
2 What are the key elements of a framework of knowledge for practice?
3 What are the differences between personal knowledge and professional knowledge? Provide examples.
4 Why do you think there is a gap between theory and practice in our work? How might you go about reducing
that gap?
5 What are the key elements of systems and ecological approaches? Give an example of how this approach could
be used in practice.
6 What is your understanding of trauma-informed practice? How can this approach be useful in working with
children and families where there has been a history of abuse?

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Weblinks
Campbell Collaboration Neil Thompson’s human solutions resources
https://campbellcollaboration.org http://neilthompson.info
Cochrane Collaboration Trauma informed care resources
https://www.cochrane.org https://www.blueknot.org.au
New Social Worker Online (USA)
https://www.socialworker.com

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6
CHAPTER
Travelling many paths:
practice fields and
methods

Chapter 6
Intervention
Travelling many paths
Individual
This chapter looks at Groups
practice ﬁelds and methods Families
Communities
Activism

Mental health

Child protection

Substance misuse

Working in legal settings, corrections, and youth justice

Rural, regional and remote practice

Practice Working with domestic and family violence

approaches
and theories Working with older people

The disability ﬁeld

The health sector

Income security, employment and housing services

Choosing a ﬁeld of practice
Environmental and disaster work

Levels of intervention
Activism, policy and lobbying work

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TRAVELLING MANY PATHS: PRACTICE FIELDS AND METHODS / CHAPTER 6

Aims

• Gain an overview of fields of practice

• Explore issues, interventions and skills of a range of fields of practice
• Explore approaches to practice, including levels and methods of intervention

Introduction
One of the features of practice in social work and human services is its diversity. In your future career, you
may find yourself working in many different settings and situations and with all kinds of people. In most
human service agencies, practitioners must be able to adopt a range of interventions and methods in their
practice. For example, on one fairly typical workday, you could have an initial interview with one client,
facilitate a support group for young women, visit a family at home and then attend a public meeting in
the evening. There are some jobs, however, in which you may work with one specific client group using a
specific intervention. For example, you might work as a counsellor with individual women who have been
sexually assaulted, as a therapist for families who have a member with a mental illness, or as a community
worker in a refugee settlement. Increasingly, however, practitioners need to be competent in a range of
interventions or methods and be aware of the issues in a number of fields of practice.
In practice, the term ‘fields’ has been used to describe the range of target populations of human
problems, and ‘methods’ describes the ways in which services are delivered to them. This chapter
outlines the fields most likely to be available to you as you embark on your career. We explore the
policy and service contexts of these fields, the kind of interventions and approaches that are used
and the issues and experiences for people who are supported by such services. We also present the
major methods of practice and the knowledge and skills required for each of these. Miley et al. (2017),
in their text on generalist practice, use the idea of levels of practice to articulate the different ways
practitioners operate. These distinctions across fields and methods (or levels) are somewhat artificial,
as practitioners increasingly work across multiple fields and populations and need to be competent in
at least several intervention methods. There is much to learn about the many fields and approaches
to practice. In this chapter, we have provided a very preliminary starting point to orient you in the
right direction for a range of practice contexts. It is important that you continue to explore these areas
through the suggested readings.

Fields of practice
Historically, social welfare workers provided services to people who were sick, poor or destitute. As
professional social work and social welfare emerged and developed, the kinds of problems it addressed
expanded and services became more specialised. Over the last century, most Western countries have
developed services to respond to both new and existing problems. For example, services for people with
HIV/AIDS were specifically developed in response to the AIDS crisis of the eighties and nineties. The
ever-increasing numbers of refugees and displaced people fleeing from persecution and war has created
a whole sphere of activity for international aid organisations and local support services. Social work has
claimed spaces in responding to disasters (Hazeleger et al., 2018), working with the military (Dulmus
& Sowers, 2012) and in sustainability and the environment (Dominelli, 2012). Attention is also paid
to social work with human–animal/nature connections, including animal-assisted therapy, equine
therapy (Burgon, 2011) and bush adventure/wilderness therapy (Gass et al., 2020). The COVID-19
pandemic has given rise to a whole new way of practice as human services, and social workers have
adjusted along with colleagues from all disciplines to the aftermath of a global public health crisis.
Fronek and Rotabi-Casares (2022) have set out the context of the COVID-19 emergency and explored
the ways in which social work has responded in more than 30 different countries. In their words, ‘social
workers engaged with people in need with ingenuity and a depth of persistence while collaborating
across disciplines in ways rarely seen before in the history of social work’ (p. xxvii).

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Recommended reading
Alston, M., McCurdy, S., & McKinnon, J. (Eds.). (2018). Social work: Fields of practice (3rd ed.). Oxford
University Press.
Chui, E., Wilson, J., & Ellem, K. (Eds.). (2017). Social work and human services best practice (2nd ed.).
Sydney: Federation Press.

The Australian Association of Social Workers (AASW, 2022) lists 17 specfic fields of practice, which
cover groups and settings in addition to methods, as shown in Table 6.1.

Table 6.1 Australian Association of Social Workers primary fields of practice

Primary field of practice

Academia Health
Child protection Mental health
Disability Education
Family Housing
Income support Trauma
Youth Sexual violence
Aged care Culturally and linguistically diverse
Community development Alcohol, tobacco and other drug services
Family violence Other

Source: AASW, 2019

The Aotearoa New Zealand Association of Social Workers (ANZASW, 2022) has a similar list of areas
of practice in its membership form, as shown in Table 6.2. Importantly, it includes fields of practice
that are specific to the regional context.

Table 6.2 Aotearoa New Zealand Association of Social Workers areas of practice

Care and protection Youth justice Residential care

Working with offenders Justice/courts Health and wellbeing
Mental health and addictions Disability Private practice
ACC social work Education – tertiary Social work in schools
Sexual abuse/assault Family/Whānau violence Elder abuse/care of older people
Iwi Social Service Pacific Social Service Victim support
Children and families/Whānau Youth work Refugees/migrants
Community services (budgeting, employment) Community development Foster/Whānau care
Research Housing Leadership/management
Policy Supervision Armed services
Kaupapa Māori social work LGBTQIA Sustainable social work
Poverty and economic justice

Source: ANZASW, 2012.

Similar lists appear in the application forms for social work and social welfare associations in Hong
Kong, Singapore, India and other countries in the Asia Pacific region. Take a good look at the Australian
(AASW) and Aotearoa New Zealand (ANZASW) lists and compare them to see what fields of practice
are common and which are different.

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Figure 6.1 shows how fields of practice connect with the domains of practice outlined in Chapter 1, and Refer to
Chapter 1
with population groups who are defined in some way and experience particular challenges due to social issues
that impact their health and wellbeing (Australian Institute of Health and Welfare [AIHW], 2022a). There
are many combinations, so this is not an exhaustive list and is used to provide an example of the connections.
You could work in an agency that provides groups (domain) for women (population group) experiencing
domestic and family violence (social issue). You could work in private practice doing consultancy and writing
social policies (domain) for early childhood services for children aged 0 to 8 (population group) who have
developmental delays and need specified supports (social issue). You could be a community worker (domain)
assisting older LGBTQIA+ people aged over 75 (population group) to access supportive aged care services
(social issue). Or you could be a caseworker doing individual trauma counselling (domain) with young
male refugees (population) who have come out of detention centres (social issue). Looking back to previous
information about intersectionality, it is clear that people commonly have multiple population groups to
which they belong and multiple social issues that present challenges for their lives. Areas of overlap are
common and are all part of the diversity of the social work and human services landscape.

Figure 6.1 Fields of practice by population group, domains of practice and social issues

Population groups
Children and youth
Men, women and non-binary
Prisoners
Culturally and linguistically
diverse peoples
First Nations peoples
Mothers and babies
Older people
Rural and remote peoples
Social issues
Veterans
(examples)
Health
Mental health
Disability
Homelessness
Poverty
Domestic and family
violence
Addictions
Loss and bereavement
Domains of practice Unemployment
Child abuse and neglect
Working with individuals
Detention
Work with families and
Gender dysphoria
partnerships
Groupwork
Community work
Social policy practice
Research and evaluation
Organisational practice,
management and
leadership
Education, training and
consultancy

In many contemporary human services, the fields of practice and the populations who use the
service overlap. This reflects a number of factors in services and how they are delivered. First, many
problems obviously tend to be interrelated; for example, studies in population health reveal that people
who are long-term unemployed are more likely to have higher incidences of many diseases. People with
disabilities are more likely to experience poverty because they are less likely to be employed and so
are dependent on pensions or income security. As well, having a disability can often mean additional
costs for everyday living needs, such as transport, diet or medical supplies.
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Second, there is a current trend for many human services to be ‘place-based’; that is, organised around and
delivered to a particular community or region. This particularly applies in regional and rural communities
where the only agency in town may provide family support, in-home personal care for older adults and people
with physical disabilities, and also coordinate a program for young people at risk of suicide.
Third, there is a high incidence of particular human experiences, so practitioners encounter these
in any practice context. A startling example is the incidence of mental health issues in the population,
exacerbated by the global COVID-19 pandemic. Workers in any agency should expect, in the course of
their work, to encounter people who are experiencing serious mental illness, depression or anxiety.
Similarly, most practitioners will routinely meet women who have experienced domestic violence or
sexual assault, even if this is not the main focus of their workplace. This has risen in recent years with
increased focus on the issue through national inquiries and policy.
Finally, another factor contributing to this overlap is that contemporary human services increasingly
are funded through a process of competitive tendering for the delivery of specific programs with prescribed
targets and outcomes. Services, therefore, have to respond to whatever social policy objectives the
government of the day sees as imperative. If a government declares early intervention a primary policy
and program objective and makes funding available in this area, then agencies respond accordingly. While
most practitioners find themselves working across several fields and populations, some areas of practice are
highly specialised and require specific skills. Examples include mental health and child protection. Mental
health services demand knowledge and skills in working with people who have severe mental illness and
with their families. Conditions such as schizophrenia and bipolar disorder are extremely complex and there
is an abundance of research about their aetiology and treatment. Services involve highly specialised and
evidence-based interventions. Practitioners working in this field, therefore, need additional knowledge
and skills, either from postgraduate study or through practice experience. Child protection is another area
that demands high levels of skill and a specialised knowledge base. Child protection workers are typically
employed by government departments and work within statutory frameworks. In each case, they conduct
a risk assessment and have to make decisions that are often contentious. There is also a strong evidence
base to this area of practice, which places responsibility on practitioners to work within proven approaches
and interventions.

Practitioner perspective

When I was a student first delving into the possibilities of social work, I remember reading about
the different fields of practice and not having a clue which one I wanted to work in. In fact, to be
honest, none of them jumped out as being the right fit for me. I read about working in mental
health, child protection, disability and aged care, and although they sounded interesting, I didn’t
gravitate immediately towards any of them. This bothered me as I wondered if I had chosen
the right profession after all. Luckily, during my second field placement, I had the opportunity
to explore some of the more non-traditional areas that social workers are employed in. I talked
with social workers who were making documentary films, were working in event management
and were politicians, teachers, writers and postgraduate students. I began to realise that
opportunities in social work exist beyond the obvious ones that are frequently mentioned. Not
only have I seen the possibilities for social work, but I have realised that the skills you acquire
during your degree would allow you to bring a social work ‘perspective’ to any job you choose to
work in, regardless of whether you are being employed as a social worker or not. So if you don’t
feel an immediate fit with the ‘traditional’ fields of practice, think outside of the box and cast
your net wider. I would really encourage you to keep exploring until you find the right fit for you.
There’s a world of opportunities to use the social work skill set, so look around and you’ll find
people doing really fascinating things with social work degrees!
Leia Greenslade

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Perhaps you have already decided that you want to work in a specialised field or you may be
undecided about your career path. The Practitioner Perspectives presented throughout this chapter
illustrate the opportunities that can open up once one begins to find out about the diversity of practice
possibilities.

Issues, interventions and skills in

fields of practice
This overview of the major fields of practice is really just a starting point for your future practice.
The list of fields we discuss is by no means exhaustive. Rather, we have chosen the prevailing fields
in contemporary human services, including those that have been most prominent over the past few
years because of public attention and new developments in policy.

The health sector

There is a long-standing tradition of hospital social work and the health sector still tends to employ
people with social work degrees rather than those with other related qualifications.

Practice context
Health usually accounts for a large portion of a nation’s budget, since health care is a universal human
need. Most countries are grappling with the problems of spiralling healthcare costs, ageing populations
with high healthcare needs and rapidly increasing technological advances. Health systems are also
extremely complex. In countries such as Australia, Aotearoa New Zealand and Singapore, the majority
of social workers employed in the healthcare system work in hospitals, and social workers make up the
largest proportion of the allied health professional workforce. Social workers in health are committed
to addressing the social determinants of health (SDH). These are the ‘conditions in which people
are born, grow, work, live and age. These circumstances are shaped by the distribution of money,
power and resources at global, national and local levels. The social determinants of health are mostly
responsible for health inequities: the unfair and avoidable differences in health status seen within
and between countries’ (World Health Organization, 2019). Inherently, health social work recognises
that it is social and economic conditions that actually make people unwell.
Healthcare practice now extends to other settings, such as community health centres, government
health departments, public health and the private sector. In the general health area, practitioners work
with people who have all kinds of illnesses and conditions at all life stages. In large hospitals, work is usually
organised around wards or departments so, for example, practitioners are assigned to work in paediatrics,
renal, palliative care, spinal injury, sexual health, emergency, burns or oncology. Community health workers
focus on supporting people with health concerns in their homes, such as frail elderly people, mothers with
young children or people with diabetes. Social workers can also work in health policy and with health
consumer groups supporting advocacy initiatives, like building supports for people with long COVID, or
running programs for people who have left a drug detoxification centre.
Within health contexts, social work is regarded as one of the allied health professions alongside
disciplines such as occupational therapy, physiotherapy and dietetics. Central to social work and
human service practice in health are all of the psychosocial issues associated with ill-health and
disease that affect individuals, families and communities. Health also includes the range of sub-fields,
such as primary and community health, mental health and addictions, which are addressed elsewhere
in this text. The work is performed in the context of multidisciplinary teams and environments, adding
another layer to understanding practice in this field.

Specific issues
Illness is often a traumatic and unexpected experience, so much of the work in the health sector
involves crisis work. Health workers also need specific knowledge about medical conditions and their

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social impacts, as well as the impact of social and economic factors on health generally. Increasingly,
social workers need to be aware of the impact of inequalities and inequities on the lives of individuals
and how these can be entrenched intergenerationally (Pockett & Beddoe, 2017).
Technology has had a profound impact on practice in the health sector. For example, digital health
services use information and communications technologies (ICTs) to deliver health services and
transmit health information over both long and short distances. Digital health services include My
Health Record, which allows people to view their own health history; telehealth, which facilitates
doctor consultations using phone or video; and electronic prescriptions, which allow scripts to be
sent over email or SMS (Australian Government Department of Health, 2022). Many technologies,
however, such as the screening for genetic disorders, provoke ethical dilemmas for social work and
human service professionals.
Health budgets in most Western democracies are also increasing concerns for governments as the
demands for health services rapidly grow beyond available funding. This is caused by combinations of
factors, such as impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic and an ageing population that brings more demands
on hospitals and health services. The pressure on budgets has a direct impact on all health workers,
including social workers and welfare practitioners. Shorter hospital stays, earlier discharges and long
waitlists for surgery all place stress on patients and families, with psychosocial consequences.

Practitioner perspective

I commenced my journey in the health sector more or less straight after graduating. My first
job was a two week locum in a rehabilitation program at a tertiary hospital. The locum work
kept flowing for three years before I obtained a permanent position as the social worker in the
hospital’s intensive care unit (ICU). I have remained in that job for nearly 25 years – who would
have thought?
I have seen many changes in that time, met many amazing staff and families, witnessed
the triumph of the human spirit, and managed the impact of grief and trauma on families and
practitioners. However, there has been no greater personal or professional challenge in my
career than that presented by COVID-19. I can remember sitting in a conference room with my
ICU colleagues in early 2020 being informed that this virus was coming and that we needed to
prepare. I remember for the first time feeling genuinely scared for my family and friends and my
colleagues. I knew, however, that there was no choice and that I just needed to get on with it; do
what was within my capability and skill set for my colleagues, patients and families, all the while
remaining safe in my personal protective equipment (PPE).
I have learnt many things about social work in the health sector and about the human race over
the past nearly three years of this pandemic. Most of all, I have learnt how resilient we are as social
workers and how adaptable our skills are. I developed COVID-19 response plans for my staff and
even became a contact tracer for a period of time. Within the hospital setting, however, my social
work practice was revolutionised in that I learnt how to communicate with patients’ families when
there could be no visiting – the iPad has barely left my hand since. Some of the most powerful
bonds and rapport with families came through the use of modern technology. I learnt that I could
be a leader in wellbeing for my colleagues, support them through the development of wellbeing
plans, provide debriefing and cultivate acts of kindness in response to workplace stress. The most
difficult challenges came in the form of managing the general public who did not believe the reality
of COVID-19 or understand why certain restrictions were in place. I well and truly developed sound
conflict resolution skills, communication and counselling skills. And to those who lost their lives,
I tried to ensure you had a good death and that you were not alone and that you were loved despite
the PPE. All in all, I know through good social work practice and adaptability that I have increased the
value of the social worker in the hospital setting exponentially.
Angela Tonge, Social Worker Advanced, Intensive Care Unit,
Princess Alexandra Hospital, Brisbane, Australia

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TRAVELLING MANY PATHS: PRACTICE FIELDS AND METHODS / CHAPTER 6

Recommended reading
Beddoe, L., & Maidment, J. (Eds.). (2013). Social work practice for promoting health and wellbeing:
Critical issues. Routledge.
Gehlert, S., & Browne, T. (2019). Handbook of health social work (3rd ed.). Jossey-Bass.
Petrakis, M. (Ed.). (2018). Social work practice in health: An introduction to contexts, theories and
skills. Allen & Unwin Academic.

Intervention and skills

Evidence-based practice is a dominant approach in health care and social workers and health practitioners
are under pressure to demonstrate the effectiveness of their interventions. In health, a vast array of skills
and interventions are employed (as shown in Figure 6.2), depending on the setting, the groups of people
across the life span and health conditions they are experiencing, and the length of contact.

Figure 6.2 Skills required in the health sector

Practitioners need to be skilled in

Conducting clinical research,

Using crisis and short-term
often within
interventions
multidisciplinary teams

Working with loss, grief and

Health promotion
end-of-life decision making

Biopsychosocial
Groupwork assessment

The health sector

Working in
Family conferencing multidisciplinary teams

Advocacy Discharge planning

Advanced healthcare
Case management
planning

Mental health
The provision of services to people with mental illness has a long history, progressing from early
asylums and institutions to deinstitutionalisation and to community-based services. Because of the
high rate of mental health issues in the general population and the broad definition of mental health,
all practitioners will inevitably work, at some stage, with clients who experience these issues.
The National Mental Health Survey (Australian Bureau of Statistics [ABS], 2022) conducted in
Australia for the period 2020 to 2021 reported the following:

• Over two in five Australians aged 16 to 85 years (43.7% or 8.6 million people) had experienced a mental
disorder at some time in their life.

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• One in five (21.4% or 4.2 million people) had experienced a 12-month mental disorder.
• Anxiety was the most common group of 12-month mental disorders (16.8% or 3.3 million people).
• Almost two in five people (39.6%) aged 16 to 24 years had experienced a 12-month mental disorder.
Source: Australian Bureau of Statistics (2022) National Study of Mental Health and Wellbeing,
https://www.abs.gov.au/statistics/health/mental-health/national-study-mental-health-
and-wellbeing/latest-release, ABS Website, accessed 30 January 2023

The term ‘mental illness’ mostly refers to a clinically diagnosable disorder that significantly
interferes with a person’s cognitive, emotional or social abilities. These can include schizophrenia,
bipolar disorder, depression, anxiety disorders and eating disorders. The terms ‘mental health
condition’ or ‘mental disorder’ are also used. Mental health issues or mental health challenges are
used when an individual experiences diminished cognitive, emotional or social abilities but not to
the extent that the diagnostic criteria for a mental illness are met. ‘Mental ill health’ is more used as
an umbrella term for both mental illness and mental health issues/challenges.

Practitioner perspective

In my time working as a social worker, I have worked across various areas within the mental
health setting including long- and short-term/acute mental health wards in the hospital, case
management, acute care teams and the non-governmental organisation sector for those with
severe and complex mental health. I have predominantly worked with children and adolescents,
families, and adult populations. Across all demographics and areas, social workers have
been essential in advocacy, social justice, empowering clients or consumers, and bringing a
psychosocial lens to treatment and planning.
I believe in early intervention and prevention at the core of my practice, however the mental
health system in Australia currently is more geared towards a reactive response for a multitude
of reasons, including policy, needs of systems, budgets, and the increasing mental health needs
of a community with limited resources.
I have often seen my place as a social worker within mental health to be an advocate in supporting
my clients/consumers to have their voice heard, be included in their care and treatment, and reduce
the power imbalance between clients and clinicians. Social workers advocate for individuals to seek
the support they deserve in a system that is often confusing, chaotic, overwhelming and filled with
barriers to accessing services. This includes liaising with government services, referrals to non-
government organisations, support with federal systems, such as Centrelink and National Disability
Insurance Scheme, and advocating to assist in overcoming discrimination of those with mental health
difficulties that are entrenched in social systems.
Further to this, it is my role within a multidisciplinary team to highlight the impact of
psychosocial factors, trauma, critical social work concerns and inherent biases that contribute to
the people we support coming to our service. We are often the ones to hold client experience,
cultural concerns, discrimination and oppression, systemic factors, and client rights in mind
within a multi disciplinary team.
For me, the ability to support our most vulnerable individuals has been and remains a privilege
to be involved in their life through the hardest times. It is this aspect that makes me love being
a social worker in the mental health system and the various ways that we get to support others.
Hannah Alberts

Practice context
Mental health practitioners work in a range of settings including acute and long-stay hospitals,
community mental health services and non-government agencies. Many people with mental health
issues also consult GPs and other practitioners, such as psychologists and allied health professionals,
for help. Australian social workers are now able to become accredited mental health practitioners

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and operate as private practitioners. There are also specialist mental health services for children
and adolescents and for older people. In this field, the whole range of interventions are employed,
including working with individuals and families, as well as group approaches, community development
and policy work. Many settings involve work in multidisciplinary teams with psychiatrists, nurses,
psychologists and occupational therapists.
Case management is the dominant mode of delivery in many mental health programs. Currently, the
biopsychosocial approach is the most common model of intervention because of its capacity to address
the complex interactions of biological, psychological and environmental factors in the development
of and recovery from mental illness. There is also a strong move towards strengths-based practice
(as covered in Chapter 5) as well as recovery-oriented practice, where the person works towards Refer to
Chapter 5
personal recovery with a focus on resilience rather than a clinical ‘cure’. Social work and human service
practitioners can be involved in counselling and therapy or in providing the support around broader
social welfare issues, such as housing, income security and employment. Bland et al. (2021) argue that
this kind of support is critical in recovery and, in many practice contexts, the practitioner is likely
to be involved in providing counselling and practical support. Family engagement in mental health
care is a particularly important part of the recovery process. Social workers are very well positioned
with their understanding of family and community systems to be able to work with people to connect
them with required services.

Recommended reading
Bland, R., Drake, G., & Drayton, J. (2021). Social work practice in mental health: An introduction
(3rd ed.). Allen & Unwin.
Meadows, G., Farhall, J., Fossey, E., Happell, B., & McDermott, F. (2020). Mental health and
collaborative community practice: An Australian perspective (4th ed.). Oxford.
Proctor, N., Wilson, R., Hamer, H., McGarry, D., & Loughhead, M. (2022). Mental health: A person-
centred approach (3rd ed.). Cambridge.

Specific issues
Mental health covers a broad range of disorders and symptoms across the life span. A key issue facing
policy makers and service systems is the increase in numbers of people experiencing mental health
problems over recent decades. This increase in demand for mental health services places pressure on
the system, leading to increased wait times for psychiatric and psychological treatment. It is inevitable
that the COVID-19 pandemic has contributed to increased anxiety for many people due to loss of
income, disrupted home life and education, and ongoing concerns about health problems associated
with the virus. This has been a particularly stressful time for older people and those with compromised
immunity and other health conditions.
One of the characteristics of recent mental health policy and programs has been the development
of the consumer and family self-help and advocacy movements. The involvement of consumers in the
development of policy and services has assisted services to become more relevant and appropriate.
This usually requires a real partnership between the person with the mental illness, their practitioners
and the family, all working together to achieve the best outcomes for the person.

Practitioner perspective

I am guided by the AASW Code of Ethics in my practice, and I have immense gratitude that the
guiding principles of my discipline align to what I value most as a person - succinctly - respect,
accountability and care in upholding dignity and support for others rather than personal gain.
I have appreciated the support and passion of social work veterans in my workplace, who uphold
the core values of our profession and support new graduates to be the best practitioners they
can be, while nurturing a sense of community and identity, of all that it is to be a social worker.

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I continue to work in the acute/sub-acute mental health space in a large metropolitan health
service within Queensland. I love the challenges, complexities and rewards that come with
being an Authorised Mental Health Practitioner. It is a privilege to support people on what
might be the darkest days of their lives. To know that the support and respect that I extend
to someone during such times in order to help them feel safe, hopeful and heard, makes it all
worthwhile. I encourage emerging social workers to consider the mental health field as their
speciality area, to manage multiple layers of complexities whilst working within legislation
under the Mental Health and Public Health Acts. Opportunities present to work across multiple
teams and settings including acute care/emergency departments, inpatient wards, enactment
of Emergency Examination Authorities with Queensland Police Service (QPS) and Queensland
Ambulance Service (QAS), transitional care, triage and intake hotline, and much more. Mental
health social workers become adept at crisis management, Mental State Examinations (MSE’s),
diagnostic formulations, brief intervention (including psychotherapeutic interventions), and case
management. The area provides endless opportunity to liaise with multiple stakeholders and
collaborate as part of a multi-disciplinary team, not to mention spread our social work wings.
Social workers are highly respected clinicians in the mental health field of practice.
Rose Creswell, acute care team, Metro North Mental Health, Metro North Health

The stigma associated with mental illness can be confronting, not only for the person but also for
family members and practitioners. Because mental illness is poorly understood and still provokes
fear in many people, those with serious mental illness are often socially excluded or marginalised.
This affects almost every aspect of the person’s life, including their relationships, work, housing
and even family. As a result, people are dealing not only with the effects of a serious illness but also
the additional negative effects of social exclusion. It is important to note that a large proportion of
homeless people have serious mental health problems.
Serious mental illnesses that are long-term may eventually mean that the person is living with a
psychiatric disability that will require ongoing support in many aspects of their lives. Compounding
this is the episodic nature of many mental health conditions, which means that the need for support
can fluctuate. Many services and programs are not able to respond flexibly to meet these needs, and
care can be even more challenging when mental illness is combined with other issues like substance
misuse or an intellectual disability.
Suicide and its prevention are a crucial aspect of mental health practice. Suicide has a devastating
impact on families, friends and whole communities. In Australia it is the leading cause of death of
people between 15 and 44 years and affects men two to three times more than women. The rate of
suicide among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people is almost twice the rate of non-Indigenous
Australians (Black Dog Institute, 2022). Similar patterns are reported in New Zealand, where rates had
risen in 2019 to their highest level since records began. Evidence-based prevention programs call for an
integrated systems approach operating from the population level to the individual (Black Dog Institute,
2022). Practice in suicide prevention may include careful monitoring of a person at risk in hospital,
follow-up after discharge or engaging online with someone contemplating suicide. Tension in mental
health services between the medical model and the social model can be played out in multidisciplinary
teams. Social workers and human service practitioners have been most influenced by the social model
of health. Workers may encounter situations in which it seems that psychiatrists and doctors have
the power and the social workers or human service practitioners have little authority. This appears
to be common in many cultural contexts; for example, a study of social workers in Hong Kong found
that dominance of medical practitioners was common, leading to strain and tension between doctors
and social welfare practitioners (Yip, 2004).
The interventions and skills that practitioners need to develop in this field are shown in Figure 6.3.

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TRAVELLING MANY PATHS: PRACTICE FIELDS AND METHODS / CHAPTER 6

Figure 6.3 Skills required in mental health

Practitioners need to be skilled in

Case management
Policy work in developing Providing family
mental health policies education and support

Community development
Mental health Advocacy
work to address exclusion

Counselling of individuals
Groupwork
with mental illness

Child protection
The protection of children from abuse, neglect and exploitation became an issue of concern to the
state during the Industrial Revolution, at which time children were subjected to long and hard
working hours, severe punishment, maltreatment and abandonment through ‘baby farming’, whereby
illegitimate babies were placed in the care of parents who were paid to care for them. Today, in most
countries, there are now highly professionalised systems of child protection that are regulated by
the state.
From historical beginnings in social welfare, statutory authorities now employ many social work
and human service practitioners to deal with the number of notifications and investigations (Tilbury,
2018). This area of practice is the subject of intense debate about the role of the state in family life.
Much of the debate is played out in public as reports of child deaths while in the care of parents compete
with exposés of abuse in out-of-home care or foster families. This field has a history of inquiries and
royal commissions into problems with overwhelmed systems, high rates of notification and children
in care in many countries. The outcomes of removing children from their families are often far from
positive, with many becoming victims of systems abuse.

Recommended reading
Fernandez, E., & Delfabbro, P. (2020). Child protection and the care continuum: Theoretical, empirical
and practice insights. Routledge.
Miller-Perrin, C. L., & Perrin, R. D. (2013). Child maltreatment: An introduction (3rd ed.). SAGE Publications.
Munro, E. (2019). Effective child protection (3rd ed.). Sage Publications.
Tilbury, C. (2018). Social work in child protection settings. In M. Alston, S. McCurdy & J. McKinnon
(Eds.), Social work: Fields of practice (3rd ed.), (pp.180–195). Oxford University Press.

Practice context
Much child protection work is conducted by statutory authorities. A worker’s tasks are to investigate
allegations of abuse and neglect, conduct risk assessments and sometimes remove the child from
the family in the case of serious protection issues. The most important part of the work is to ensure
children’s safety, so finding a place for children to live that provides a nurturing environment while

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they are outside of their home is critical. Workers may also supervise or provide support to young
people in community correction programs or in detention. Often, because of inherent tensions of care
versus control, child protection workers are criticised whatever the outcome of their intervention.
Child protection, like many social policy areas, often becomes politicised with arguments both for
and against removal of children from families playing out in the media.
Workers find that much of their work involves visiting parents in their own homes following a
notification, and this can be a very good opportunity to build a positive relationship to establish what a
family might need by way of essential supports. The following practitioner perspective from Alf Davis,
an experienced senior practitioner, highlights some of the challenges and progress made in this area.

Practitioner perspective

My main driver for my social work career has been social justice. I got into working in the child
protection area due to wanting to simply observe how it operated – given that this system has
played a key role in our community for well over 100 years.
The key challenge for our contemporary system is for it to focus on what it needs to – children
who are physically harmed and children at true risk of harm and neglect. Unfortunately for
our community, the child protection system focus is on the ‘risk’ of harm, which means many
children and families subject to homelessness, domestic violence and poverty are ‘funnelled’ into
this system, which then fails to adequately provide resourcing or assisting to help with issues
that many people in the broader community struggle with. Related to this is the challenge of the
over-use of foster care and residentials while neglecting and not using family members who are
willing and able to look after their relatives.
Some key progress has been the implementation of the Indigenous child placement principle
into child protection legislation. This is a very straightforward way to ensure better practice when
complied with. Further, the advocacy and growth of the Indigenous child protection services in
Queensland and the peak body Queensland Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Child Protection
Peak (QATSICPP) has been an important sign of progress and maturity.
Key advice for any beginning key practitioner is to simply develop your practice base, so that
you have skills in assessment, counselling therapy, attachment and development milestones,
and how trauma manifests but is also contained. Further, with this development, ensure that
your practice takes into account strengths and resilience and is inclusive enough to recognise the
very real issues of race and poverty facing families.
Alfred Davis

Practitioners also work in partnership with other professionals, such as the police and the legal
system. They may receive reports from police departments or even visit a family accompanied by
police officers. As workers operating in a legally mandated domain, child protection practitioners can
also find themselves giving evidence in court or making applications to courts on behalf of clients.
Child protection issues are not limited to child protection systems and present quite frequently in
other areas of practice. For example, assessment of unexplained injuries or other forms of abuse can
be a significant part of hospital social work and human service practice, especially for practitioners
working in children’s hospitals or emergency departments. Other practitioners working in generic
child and family welfare services also encounter child abuse and neglect.

Practitioner perspective

Child protection is a hidden world. It’s messy, unpredictable, sometimes disorganised, often
chaotic, and constantly posing ethical questions that require instant responses. While the
numbers of children receiving child protection continues to rise, and the proportion of
those from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures remains about eight times that of

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non-Indigenous children, at the heart of our practice is their safety and wellbeing. To achieve that
end it’s necessary to remain focussed on a child’s intrinsic human right to have the opportunity
to be nurtured, supported and educated, as well as being able to access the best possible public
health services.
I came into child protection with the intent to make a difference, and many times I am
challenged by administrative burdens and the lack of social services and resources to whom I can
refer families. One of the skills a new caseworker needs to nurture is how and when to advocate,
and how to do that within a bureaucratic system that demands a written report, rationale and
assessment. One thing you learn quickly in this work is there has to be a paper trail, and if
something is not recorded then, in the eyes of management, it never happened.
Caseworkers have to be efficient in time management as much as they need to draw on those
micro-counselling skills learnt during their academic coursework and placements. Every home
visit to speak with children we are there to protect equals computer time that often exceeds that
which is spent with the family.
As you become more adept and self-confident in your practice, you will learn how to prioritise
demands placed by the weight of the system against building trust and rapport with children and
families. You will sustain yourself with the small triumphs and the silent acknowledgement that
change does happen.
Richard Johns

Specific issues
Children are relatively powerless in relation to adults; they depend upon adults to meet their most basic
needs and have no control over where they live, what they eat, where they go and so on. Children who
experience abuse are usually very aware of the power of the perpetrator and may not believe another
adult can protect them.
Many practitioners have intense personal feelings about child abuse and neglect. Many are
themselves parents and find that such feelings can get in the way of being an effective professional.
There are also distinct cultural differences in raising children. What is considered neglectful in one
culture may be the norm in another, so practitioners need to familiarise themselves with the parenting
approaches of other cultures. Much child protection work is increasingly entrenched in bureaucratic
processes. The high volume of documentation can take time away from working directly with clients.
The work is subject to scrutiny and adheres to strict procedures and standards meaning that child
protection workers have limited autonomy. This provides necessary checks on individual practice,
which new graduates usually welcome. As well, the numbers of notifications and subsequent proven
cases of child maltreatment are increasing in most countries. Child protection work can involve
high caseloads and difficult working conditions as agencies struggle to keep pace with the number
of notifications.
Another major issue in Australia and New Zealand is the over-representation of Indigenous children
in the child protection system, both in terms of notifications and out-of-home care. In Australia
the rate for Indigenous children in out-of-home care is ten times that of non-Indigenous children.
Children removed from their family experience trauma and psychological damage from multiple foster
placements, and for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children this is compounded by a loss of their
cultural identity (Tilbury, 2018).
Finally, it is important to recognise there are limits to confidentiality in this area of practice.
Because of the mandatory obligations to report, it is impossible for a worker to give a parent or child
an assurance that what they disclose will go no further.
The interventions and skills required by practitioners in this field are shown in Figure 6.4.

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Figure 6.4 Skills required in child protection

Practitioners need to be skilled in

Taking referrals and

investigating claims Undertaking risk
Coordinating family assessments to determine
support whether a child should
be removed from the family

Securing alternative Being in the key worker

care through foster Child protection role to coordinate activities
placements or of care, legal processes
residential care and so on

Writing reports, many Acting as a witness

of which are for courts in court

Domestic and family violence

Domestic and family violence (DFV) can occur within any relationship and includes physical and
emotional violence, financial abuse, coercive control and sexual assault. It is sometimes referred to as
intimate partner violence and can affect people of any age or status in life. Violence is experienced at
significant levels by both women and men but, overwhelmingly, domestic violence is committed by
men against women (ABS, 2022). DFV has resurfaced as a crucial policy and program issue in Australia
following a number of high profile homicides involving women and their children. One in six Australian
women and one in sixteen men have experienced physical or sexual violence by a current or previous
partner since the age of 15, and 20 people on average were hospitalised every day in 2019 to 2020 for
an injury caused by partner assault. During 2015 to 2016, it was estimated that one Australian woman
was killed every nine days by an intimate partner (AIHW, 2022a). In New Zealand, the patterns are
similar, with increasing numbers of reported DFV (New Zealand Ministry of Justice, 2015).

Recommended reading
Devaney, J., Bradbury-Jones, C., Macy, R., Overlien, C., & Holt, S. (2022). The Routledge international
handbook of domestic violence and abuse. Routledge.
Meyer, S., & Frost, A. (2019). Domestic and family violence: A critical introduction to knowledge and
practice. Routledge.
Thiara, R. K., & Radfors, L. (2021). Working with domestic violence and abuse across the lifecourse:
Understanding good practice. Jessica Kingsley Publishers.
Walsh, D. (2019). Working with domestic violence: Contexts and frameworks for practice. Taylor & Francis.

Practice context
Responding appropriately to DFV requires a co-ordinated response involving police, DFV support
services, courts, health services, housing and refuges, and counselling services; so practitioners can
work in any of these jurisdictions. There are specialist DFV support programs that provide phone
help lines, crisis intervention, help with emergency and long-term housing and support with legal
processes. Addressing DFV requires long-term, coordinated efforts by all levels of government in
partnership with service providers in the non-government sector and the community.

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Specific issues
DFV occurs across all ages, locations and socioeconomic statuses. There are many myths surrounding
the issue and deeply embedded attitudes. Common beliefs include that ‘this is a private matter and
those outside the family should not get involved’, that ‘a woman must have done something wrong to
deserve it’, ‘why doesn’t she just leave’ and so on. Such beliefs have deep historical roots. It is salutary
to note that in the past it was legal for a man to beat his wife to ‘correct’ her. Until the 1970s, police
and judges regarded ‘wife beating’ as a trivial matter. It was during the feminist movement in the
1970s that violence against women became an issue for activism and advocacy. While there has been
considerable investment in responding to DFV, gendered power is still a crucial construct to consider
in understanding domestic violence.
There is often a long period of continuing to live in a violent situation before a person subject to abuse
will make a move to leave a relationship. This requires providing ongoing support and information, and
being able to respond quickly to remove the family to safety and then follow up with legal proceedings
as necessary.
Children are also affected by witnessing and being exposed to family violence. Home life can be filled
with tension, fear and anxiety. Many children experience physical and emotional abuse. This can lead to
ongoing emotional and psychological trauma, problems in school, and worrying about the future rather
than enjoying a secure childhood. Older children often feel responsible for protecting younger siblings.
Some men who grew up in violent families go on to become perpetrators themselves, although most do not.
It is important to understand that DFV does not only involve physical abuse or sexual assault. A range
of behaviours are included within definitions of domestic violence, from creating fear and intimidation,
verbal and emotional abuse through to reproductive abuse and spiritual abuse. Controlling a person’s
social contacts, access to finances, ridiculing them in social situations and stalking also point to
serious offences against the person. There are also many different types of technology-facilitated
abuse, including using tracking on mobile phones to monitor a person’s movements, phone calls and
texts, blocking access to bank accounts, sending threatening emails, stealing passwords, and posting
inappropriate photos online, known as image-based abuse. The disastrous endpoint is homicide where
women and children are murdered or killed as a result of the violence.
While DFV is overwhelmingly perpetrated against women, men can also be victims of violence.
More programs are now acknowledging this and help lines and other supports are available for men.
Importantly, there are now more effective programs available, and interventions for perpetrators who
seek help are increasingly being offered and taken up by men wishing to change their behaviours.
Working with perpetrators requires specific skills and can include a number of approaches (e.g. Duluth
model and cognitive behavioural therapy). There are also concerns as to the effectiveness of stand-
alone programs where many attendees have been required to attend by the courts (Chung, 2018).

Practitioner perspective

I work for a large health service that has multiple hospital sites; one of which is a tertiary level
facility. My background is in emergency department (ED) social work, and I am now an advanced
level social worker specialising in the area of domestic and family violence. Most domestic
violence presentations to our ED are women naming men as the perpetrator; we do work with
men who are victims of domestic violence; however, the numbers disproportionately represent
this as a gender-based violence. If a person discloses they are a perpetrator of violence, we will
try to engage positively with them around support services available.
Hospitals should be seen as a place of safety – the lights are on 24/7 and there is someone
to talk to. Presentations are on a continuum of violence from seeking information/support to
serious physical assaults and homicide and may include children who are also impacted by this
violence. There are many ways we can work with women but, importantly, listening to her story,
believing her story and responding within a framework of safety is paramount. Thinking about
unintended consequences of our actions helps inform our practice.

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What I do know is that a person’s experience and the subsequent impact of violence are
different, and our responses should be to the individual, not part of a homogenous routine.
Workplace culture impacts engagement and service provision for both victims and perpetrators
of violence and this can present many challenges to the role of social work, which demands
strong advocacy and ethical decision-making skills.
Working with women in domestic violence has taught me many things:
• She doesn’t know what I can do for her.
• Telling a stranger something intensely personal about her relationship while holding onto the
idea of what might still be … she tells me it feels like another pain that won’t go away.
• She is the expert in her life, and I am guided by her and walk beside her. She needs whatever
she needs – a quiet space, sense of safety, anonymity, food or clothing – before we can start.
• I work from a position of ‘I believe you. I’m sorry this has happened to you. What can I do
for you?’
• She can talk and I can listen. We walk together through what seems like a brutal landscape of
a relationship. We chip away at some plans and ideas; we carve a path that didn’t exist before
and hold each other with some level of trust in a relationship that was formed in minutes and
ends the same. It’s what we can do in 50 minutes, she needs to pick the kids up.
• She leaves and I don’t know the ending to the story; that’s the way it is and that’s ok.
Kym Tighe

Finally, responses have to be integrated for real success in addressing this issue. As discussed
previously, responding to DFV requires a coordinated and collaborative approach across police, courts
and support services. New models are currently being implemented in parts of Australia in response
to findings from enquiries and community campaigns. This has included making coercive control a
criminal offence under law in places that did not have this provision.
Practitioners in this field need to employ the interventions and skills shown in Figure 6.5.

Figure 6.5 Skills required for working with domestic and family violence

Practitioners need to be skilled in

Crisis intervention

Speciﬁc skills needed

Telephone counselling
for working with
and support
perpetrators

Collaboration across Domestic and family Court procedures

sectors violence and processes

Team work Advocacy

Practical support
(e.g. transport,
emergency housing)

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Disability field
The history of disability over the past 50 years has been witness to much change in most countries.
Historically, people with disabilities were placed in institutional care from a young age and hidden
away from society. In response to human rights agendas and deinstitutionalisation policies, services for
people with disabilities have shifted their focus to community living and social inclusion. Theoretical
frameworks and definitions of disability influence service delivery and practice (Chenoweth, 2017).
In the social model, disability is seen as the result of social barriers, while more traditional individual
models see disability as a characteristic of individual pathology.
The last 10 years have seen significant change in how disability is understood, with the rise of
self-advocacy and disability pride movements and the growth of new models that better represent
these perspectives. For example, the Neurodiversity paradigm seeks to reposition neurodiverse
people, such as autistic people and those with ADHD, as both a natural form of human diversity and
a disability. Likewise, the Hearing Voices network seeks to move beyond the medical model which
views schizophrenia as a disorder, to a more expansive understanding of different ways of being in the
world. Another example of recent changes in the field is the changes in language use that seek to better
represent how disabled people themselves would like to be referred to, through the growth in identity-
first language (disabled person) as opposed to the person-first language (person with disability). In this
constantly changing practice landscape, it will be of primary importance for professionals working in
the disability field to amplify the experiences of disabled people themselves.

Recommended reading
Bennie, G., & Georgeson, S. (2019). Negotiating new disability practice contexts: Opportunities and
challenges for social workers. In R. Munford & K. O’Donoghue (Eds.), New theories for social work
practice: Ethical practice for working with individuals, families and communities. Jessica Kingsley.
Berghs, M., Chataika, T., El-Lahib, Y., & Dube, K. (2019). The Routledge handbook of disability
activism. Routledge.
Smart, J. (2018). Disability definitions, diagnoses and practice implications: An introduction for
counsellors. Taylor & Francis.
Wong, A. (2020). Disability visibility: First-person stories from the twenty-first century. Random House.

Practice context
People with disabilities are found in all practice contexts; however, a number of services and programs
are provided specifically for disabled people and their families. In situations in which disability is the
result of injury or accident, rehabilitation services are given both as secondary intervention, after
acute medical treatment and, in tertiary stages, for vocational rehabilitation or long-term community
living. In countries where such services are available, families of children with a disability may
receive respite and in-home family support services throughout the person’s life. Early intervention
programs may be offered to young children with developmental disabilities and to their parents. In
many countries, government agencies provide residential services for people with an intellectual
disability. Other services focus on supporting adults with disabilities by providing in-home personal
care or supported living.
Supports for people with disability are increasingly provided through systems of direct payments or
individualised funding arrangements. Australia established the National Disability Insurance Scheme
(NDIS) whereby supports for people with a permanent and significant disability are coordinated and
delivered through a central federal agency. In these models, the person theoretically has more choice
and control over what supports they require and who will provide them. In practice, access to supports
will be reliant on the amount of services offered in a particular location, navigating long waiting lists
to see professionals and the amount of funds allocated to the individual. After an initial assessment as
to what supports the person might need to achieve their goals, funding is then allocated either directly
to the person or via agencies who broker the supports or provide them directly. There are many roles
for practitioners within the central agency under this scheme, including assessor or local coordinator
within the central agency as well as brokers and case coordinators. Social workers and human service
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practitioners are also employed within the broader disability services sector in community agencies
which provide services and supports under the NDIS.
Similar moves to self-direction and personalised budgets are being implemented in New Zealand.
The New Zealand Disability Strategy 2016–2026 outlines choice and control as a central tenet of policy
and programs, with individualisation and personalised budgets being rolled out as a way to maximise
emancipation and a better life for those involved (Bennie & Georgeson, 2019).

Specific issues
Disability is still stigmatised in many societies and people with disabilities often experience social
exclusion and marginalisation. Disability is widely regarded as a human rights issue and several United
Nations instruments address the rights of disabled people. The theoretical and ideological issues in
disability are contested, and theoretical stances determine the kind of interventions that practitioners
employ. Services that apply the social model usually work to make societal change; while, in rehabilitation
settings or in case-management services, individual and person-in-environment models are used.
Some people with disabilities, especially those with intellectual or cognitive impairments, may
be socially isolated and have few friends and relationships outside their families and paid service
personnel. Even if they are living in community settings, many people with disabilities do not
participate in their local community in a real sense. In this instance, practitioners work towards
building social networks and relationships.
People with intellectual disabilities may not communicate verbally, so establishing a relationship
requires patience and learning new ways to communicate. Some people with an intellectual disability
may not be able to make decisions without assistance or require a ‘substitute’ decision maker. This can
require legal processes or involve statutory authorities, especially in decisions about medical treatment
or financial matters. However, it is always better in the disability field to ‘assume competence’.
Some disabled people live with their families, so practitioners may work alongside families. This
can range from the point of diagnosis and supporting new parents who have been told their baby has a
disability to assisting families to plan for their adult child to move into their own home with supports.
Family members are also likely to be socially isolated because their time is taken up providing care.
Siblings of children with a disability experience a range of psychological and social impacts – both
positive and negative. For ageing parents there is a growing concern about how their child will be
cared for after they die.
People who acquire a disability often have long periods of rehabilitation and require long-term
support to re-engage with work and daily life. This can involve feelings of loss and grief as well as
major adjustment to a different lifestyle for the person and the family. For people with various physical
disabilities, the use of different aids and appliances for mobility, communication and daily activities raises
issues of living with and mastering technologies. Technology has greatly enhanced the quality of life for
many people with a disability – for example, enabling greater autonomy – but also brings its challenges.
People with a disability experience higher incidences of all forms of abuse. Non-speaking people and
disabled women are particularly vulnerable to sexual abuse and, certainly in the past, physical abuse,
which was a fairly common occurrence in residential facilities. In addition, there are few services and
supports available for victims of abuse. The NDIS also raises some concerns about protections for
vulnerable people in a market-driven system with few formal advocacy supports (Robinson, 2015).
Finally, there is considerable turbulence in current self-direction and individualised budget
systems in Australia and New Zealand. The promise of these schemes is very positive and if successful
will transform lives for people with disabilities. However, implementation is slow and difficult for
people to navigate, with waiting times for supports stretching out to unacceptable levels. As Bennie
and Georgeson (2019) note, ‘these changes can also be a double-edged sword as the language of
individualisation, self-direction, and personalised budgets is readily adopted … in an economic and
social policy context that is dominated by neoliberal narratives’ (p. 82). Practitioners working in these
environments will face dilemmas as the promise of the changes will likely fail to deliver in large,
complex systems that find change difficult (Kendrick et al., 2017).
The skills and interventions shown in Figure 6.6 are essential for practitioners in this field.
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Figure 6.6 Skills required for working with people with disabilities

Practitioners need to be skilled in

Advocating for necessary resources

and supports for a client (individual)
or for a whole group of people
with disability (systems advocacy) Supporting self-advocacy eﬀorts so
Carrying out social and political
that people with disability can
action, underpinned by social
speak for themselves, express
justice principles, to achieve
choices and participate in service
attitudinal and policy change
planning and delivery

Case management and

Using alternative communication
coordination, particularly for
modes: sign language, electronic
People with disabilities people with severe
communication devices,
disabilities with few or no
augmented communication
support systems

Family-centred practice: the whole Brokering services and supports

family as focus of intervention rather on behalf of people with disability
than the child with a disability and families

Strengths-based practice to focus

on abilities rather than deﬁcits

Practitioner perspective

My personal life experiences (I am deaf, and was educated and raised in one of the oral traditions)
combined with my lengthy professional experience in the disability sector and human service
areas have exposed me to the sweep of disability history in Australia. My early years as a social
worker coincided with a time of public sector/disability sector reforming zeal, the International
Year of the Disabled Person (1981), and the Review of the Handicapped Persons Assistance
Program (1983).
As a social worker with a state-government-run disability service followed by a stint establishing
an independent living program for a Commonwealth government rehabilitation centre, and then
as a social policy officer with a state government department, I was part of the generation who
worked towards deinstitutionalisation – that is, the demise of segregated, congregated care
facilities that advocated ‘cradle-to-grave’ services for people with a disability, to be replaced with
community-based accommodation and support services. Deinstitutionalisation was a linchpin of
the disability rights movement, which sought to advance and support the rights of people with
a disability.
One of the most significant changes in disability policy since then has possibly been the
reframing of disability as an issue requiring the support of government and society to an
outcomes-oriented economic business case. The implications of this for social work practitioners
– apart from the need to be clear about one’s personal and professional ethical values on such
complex issues – is the requirement to recognise that all contemporary debates eventually

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become historical artefacts. Or to put it another way, social workers need to be mindful of
faddism. We need not only to understand and develop but also to contest policies, practices and
service models. The skills of contesting ‘received wisdom’ are critical for social workers and other
professionals in the human service field if we are to be effective and grounded in our efforts
towards reform.
Donna McDonald

Ageing
The proportion of elderly people in the population has been steadily increasing for several decades
in most developed countries. In Australia, 16 per cent of the population are aged over 65, and this is
expected to increase to 23 per cent by 2066 (AIHW, 2022b; Foster & Beddoe, 2012). This is an issue
of concern to policy makers, as governments determine ways to provide for the health and income
needs of an ageing population, though a relatively small proportion of these older adults currently
seek formal services from community agencies. Working with older people will continue to be a
growing area of practice as practitioners come into contact with older people needing psychosocial
support for the health and disability needs that accompany ageing. Often this will be via hospital or
health services or in socio-legal contexts around issues of guardianship and impaired decision-making
capacity. For many clients, these needs are compounded by persistent forms of social disadvantage to
do with finances and housing security. End-of-life and palliative care also feature in practice with older
adults. Increasingly, older people experience isolation and social exclusion, very familiar territory for
social workers and human service workers.
Over the past 50 years, care of the frail elderly has undergone a profound shift from large residential
facilities to community-based support. In countries such as Australia and New Zealand, government-
subsidised nursing homes provide care for people needing high-level care as well as funding to
community agencies providing in-home support and care.

Recommended reading
Bernoth, M., & Winkler, D. (2017). Healthy ageing and aged care. Oxford.
Hughes, M., & Heycox, K. (2010). Older people, ageing and social work: Knowledge for practice. Allen
& Unwin.
McInnis-Dittrich, K. (2019). Social work with older adults: A biopsychosocial approach to assessment
and intervention (5th ed.). Pearson.
Meenan, H., Rees, N., & Doron, I. (2015). Towards human rights in residential care for older persons:
International perspectives. Routledge.

Practice context
Practitioners encounter elderly clients in a range of agencies and situations – the more traditional
settings include hospitals, community health centres, nursing homes and hostels, and community care
agencies. More recent developments have occurred in the private sector with the growth of retirement
villages and financial planning services.
All kinds of practice approaches are evident in the aged care field. Practitioners work with
individuals to identify and resolve their particular needs and issues, with families to plan the care
of their elderly relatives, and with groups at day centres, as well as policy and advocacy work. In the
community, practitioners can focus on developing programs to promote healthy ageing and strengthen
supportive community networks.

Specific issues
Working with elderly people follows similar processes to working with people at other stages in the
life cycle, as older people experience many of the same problems as younger people. However, older

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people often face declining physical capacity, so adjusting to this can be a constant task in their lives.
They may have to make considerable changes to accommodate this decline, such as moving to live
with their children, downsizing to smaller homes or into residential care. Many older people choose
to remain at home, which may require one partner to assume caring responsibilities for the other.
Caregiver burden or carer distress are well reported in the literature, identifying exhaustion, health
problems and social isolation as negative impacts of long-term caring (Ervin et al., 2015).
The involvement of family is usually positive, but elder abuse and neglect is recognised as a growing
problem. Most families are actively involved in providing care and additional support to their elderly loved
ones, but not all follow this pattern. Financial exploitation and abuse of older people is a significant problem
and a source of concern to elderly people (Blundell & Clare, 2019). Emotional and physical abuse have been
found to be associated with being separated or divorced, living in poverty and having some functional
impairment (Burnes et al., 2015). Advocacy by older people and others is now more systematic through
advocacy organisations and helplines and has raised awareness of this issue in the general community.
Respect as the core construct in person-centred approaches is crucial for older people because, as
the person becomes frailer, decisions may be made about their care and future without fully involving
the older person. Yeung (2019) proposes that person-centred care in residential care situations is best
achieved when combined with relationship-based care approaches; that is, a focus on communication
and partnership between residents, families and staff.
Caring for people with dementia is another area requiring specialised support. In many countries,
there are now areas within existing or separate facilities in which people with dementia can be
supervised and safety can be increased. Assisted or substitute decision making may also be required
for older people who do not have the capacity to make decisions.
Terminal illness and palliative care also occur more frequently with ageing. Palliative care can
involve psychosocial interventions as well as medical care. Social workers and human service
practitioners can play an important role supporting the person and family at home or in a hospice, and
can be important advocates for people who live in rural or remote communities where social, emotional
and spiritual support may be needed at end of life (Johns et al., 2019). Many older people report that
the loss of a partner or friends is one of the most difficult aspects of the ageing process. End-of-life
issues and the passing of loved ones puts significant pressure on older people to resolve old conflicts
and attend to unfinished business. Depression is also very common among elderly people, although
it is often unrecognised and, therefore, untreated. The range of interventions and skills required by
practitioners in this field are shown in Figure 6.7.
In recent years, the realities of abuse, neglect and inadequate care have been reported by family
members, carers and the media. This has culminated recently in Australia with a Royal Commission
into Aged Care Quality and Safety, which handed down a final report in 2021 that provided 148
recommendations. It was the finding of this Royal Commission that there is pervasive abuse and
substandard levels of care within the Australian aged care system, with the final report calling for
fundamental and systemic aged care reform.

Client perspective

I was really in a total bind over what we would do when Mum had a stroke. She had been okay
in her own place for a couple of years after Dad died but it was pretty clear she couldn’t go back
home on her own again. I had no idea about nursing homes or home help or anything. There’s
just me and my brother and he lives interstate. I couldn’t see how I could leave my job and
take care of her. She wasn’t able to make decisions for herself either. I was totally drowning in
the whole system. When we finally had an assessment with ACAT, it was the social worker who
seemed to make sense of all these complicated issues. Which nursing home, getting her finances
sorted. She helped a lot with information and who did what. It was good to talk to someone
about how bad I felt. I still worry that Mum isn’t happy and that I should be looking after her.
Irene

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Figure 6.7 Skills required for working with older adults

Practitioners need to be skilled in

Conducting assessments for

placement or community care
Brokering a range of
Organising respite care
supports and services

Working on guardianship Addressing loss and

Older adults
and legal issues grief issues

Working with families to

coordinate supports and
Working with death and dying
care arrangements, and
resolve conﬂicts

Advocating on behalf of older

people for services,
supports and rights

Rural, regional and remote practice

Rural practice as a distinct field or context has relevance in all parts of the world. Many rural areas
experience high levels of social disadvantage and have access to fewer and less specialised human services.
The health and human service needs of many rural citizens, therefore, are often poorly addressed. Many
factors contribute to this, including distance, lack of infrastructure and specialist facilities, as well as
difficulty in attracting high-quality, experienced practitioners to rural and remote positions.
Appreciation of place is key to practice in regional and rural communities and there is great diversity
across non-urban centres. Defining what is meant by a rural centre is determined through various
measures, including the Australian Statistical Geography Standard (ASGS) and the Modified Monash
Model (MMM). Both approaches take into account population size and degree of remoteness. Towns
and centres are essentially defined as either metropolitan, regional, rural, remote or very remote.
Rural practitioners operate in very different spaces from their urban counterparts and from each other.
The difference between rural and urban service delivery is obvious, but some in the field do not appreciate
the diversity between, for example, small agricultural towns, remote Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander
communities, and townships attached to mining areas. Rural practitioners quickly develop an appreciation
of how place affects both clients’ lives and their own practice. Physical isolation, distance from basic services
and environmental impacts of agricultural and mining industries can all affect rural lifestyles.

Recommended reading
Howard, A., Katrak, M., Blakemore, T., & Passas, P. (2019). Rural, Regional and remote social work:
Practice research from Australia. Routledge.
Mackie, P. F., Zammitt, K., & Alvarez, M. (2015). Practicing rural social work. OUP USA.
Maidment, J., & Bay, U. (2012). Social work in rural Australia: Enabling practice. Allen & Unwin.

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Practice context
Rural practitioners may work for government departments, local authorities or non-government
organisations. They often work alone with little contact with colleagues and have to incorporate travel
over long distances into their regular working day. Rural practitioners may see fewer clients, less often,
because of the challenges of distance. Some rural practice is conducted on a visiting outreach basis –
sometimes referred to as ‘fly in, fly out’ – although this usually occurs in very remote communities
where access can be difficult. This approach involves visiting clients once or twice each year and
maintaining contact by phone at other times. Another model of service delivery is ‘hub and spoke’,
where a service practitioner may be based in a regional centre or larger rural town (the hub) where they
deliver services to clients but also travel to outlying communities surrounding it (spokes).
Essentially, most rural practice is generalist. Often there is only one service to respond to the range
of human social needs and issues in a given community. Rural practitioners, therefore, need to be
knowledgeable and skilled in fields as diverse as mental health, DFV, child abuse and working with
young people. A worker also requires skills to view the whole community context while working
with individuals, families or groups across all stages of the life span. Rural practitioners are typically
entwined into the machinations of everyday community life, building social and political networks
that connect people. They link the community to the wider society and to structures such as
government departments and peak bodies, as well as with each other at the local level, building both
horizontal and vertical ties. The following Practitioner Perspective, told by an experienced social
worker, illustrates these points well.

Practitioner perspective

I chose to practise in a small country town in a direct service delivery role after years in a senior
policy role. The biggest shock for me was the sense of exposure. I went from being a small cog
in a big machine to being a very visible ‘public face’ of child protection. It wasn’t the change of
social issues that was significant – things like social isolation, structural racism, poverty and lack
of services are all issues in urban environments. Rather, it was the change of social context –
suddenly I was accountable for every decision and issue (some of which stretched way back in
time to when I was still in nappies!) and there was no big bureaucratic infrastructure or system
to hide behind. The great strength of this is the constant sense of community ownership – the
relationships in the human service sector are supportive, collaborative and deeply sincere.
You really feel like you are on a mission to make the community (your community) a better
place to live, and I never had this sense in urban settings. You have to wear your successes and
your failures up-front – and if you make a poor decision, you need to account for it and make it
better. You can’t trash relationships with other service providers and you can’t hide behind an
‘us-and-them’ mentality when working across systems (e.g. schools, police, health, government,
non-government). It is social work in a fishbowl. The personal qualities you need to develop,
therefore, are integrity, tenacity, openness and strength of character – you need to be a kind of
social extrovert because you never know who you will end up meeting at the checkout or the
park or the pub.
Matthew Armstrong

Specific issues
The issue of dual relationships has been well documented in literature about rural practice. The term
‘dual relationships’ describes how practitioners juggle being both a professional and a member of
a small community – a situation that creates a range of challenges and dilemmas. For example, a
practitioner’s children might be in the same class as those of their clients, they might be on the local
netball team committee with another client, or they may even have mutual friends. This can raise
ethical dilemmas about personal and professional boundaries that rural practitioners need to learn to

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navigate with sincerity and care. This community-embedded practice can also have many benefits,
with local knowledge and understanding of the history of place giving depth and meaning to the work.
Another issue arising from living and working in rural communities is the lack of ‘off duty’ time. Many
practitioners feel the demands of putting in longer hours because they are well known and visible to
community members who often seek assistance out of hours (Hodgkin, 2002). There is also the pressure
of being ‘on show’ and judged by the community even when they are not officially working. Younger
practitioners can feel that their social lives are under scrutiny and may choose to socialise out of town.
In Australia, rural areas often have significantly higher numbers of Aboriginal and Torres Strait
Islander people living in very remote areas. Rural practice, therefore, often involves working with
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander individuals and families, or even whole communities. Aboriginal
and Torres Strait Islander people in rural communities are often ‘shunned by the dominant community
and subject to stereotyping, racism and exclusion’ (Briskman, 1999, p. 9).
Finally, many rural practitioners find it difficult to access regular supervision and professional
development opportunities. Working in isolation can be daunting, especially for new graduates,
and having access to professional supervision or support can be crucial. There have been significant
developments in professional support through advances in technology that have substantially
increased connectivity for practitioners in rural areas. A summary of the skills required in rural,
regional and remote practice can be found in Figure 6.8.

Figure 6.8 Skills required for rural, regional and remote practice

Practitioners need to be skilled in

Generalist practice approaches

Collaborating with other

Being innovative and workers and community
creative in practice and members to highlight and
ﬁnding solutions advocate for issues aﬀecting
rural communities

Rural, regional and

Remote practice

Using technology such as email, Using community-development

phone, video-conferencing approaches and
and charter planes community-embedded practice

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Income security, employment and housing services

Income security and employment services represent the ‘bread and butter’ of welfare and employ large
numbers of human service practitioners. Loss of income and unemployment, often leading to housing
instability and homelessness, constitute two of the most fundamental social issues affecting members
of many marginalised groups, as well as those traditionally regarded as living below the poverty
line. People with disabilities, people from different cultural and language backgrounds, Aboriginal
and Torres Strait Islander peoples, single parents and older people form a substantial proportion of
clients of income security agencies and employment services. Driven by neoliberal policies, these
sectors underwent significant change during the 1990s in Australia, moving to the privatisation of
employment services and the creation of a single large bureaucracy to manage benefits and pensions.
Some countries do not provide unemployment or income security benefits or, at best, provide them
to a minimal level. Australia and New Zealand provide benefits for those who are unemployed or
unable to work while caring for children or dependent others. For the most part, these benefits barely
cover basic expenses like rent, food and transport. Many people rely on material support for living
or emergency relief, such as food vouchers or assistance with housing, which is usually provided by
non-government charities.

Recommended reading
Chamberlain, C., Johnson, G., & Robinson, C. (Eds.). (2014). Homelessness in Australia: An
introduction. New South Publishing.
Julkunen, I., Uggerhoj, L., Malin, P., & Nielsen, V. B. (2022). Social work, social welfare,
unemployment and vulnerability among youth. Taylor & Francis.
Marston, G., Humpage, L., Peterie, M., Mendes, P., Bielfeld, S., & Staines, Z. (2022). Compulsory
income management in Australia and New Zealand: More harm than good? Research in
comparative and global social policy. Bristol University Press.
Zufferey, C. (2019). Homelessness and social work: An intersectional approach. Routledge.

Practice context
Social welfare practitioners are employed in the bureaucracy responsible for the provision and
management of income maintenance. Practitioners in these jobs were typically involved in determining
need and eligibility for payments, but this has increasingly been devolved to other officers. Social
workers are able to provide short-term counselling and referrals to other services, and may see clients
in emergency or crisis situations. Income security represents the largest component of social welfare
spending and, consequently, the agencies that manage the associated services are often very large
and governed by many policies that can leave little room for discretionary decisions. Employment
services may be provided by the non-government sector, charities or even for-profit organisations.

Specific issues
There is tension in the income security, employment and housing services sectors between the idea that
income is a social right and the belief that awarding assistance demands obligation on the part of the
recipient. This links back to notions of the ‘deserving’ and ‘undeserving’ poor discussed in Chapter 2. Refer to
Chapter 2
There are always moves to curb welfare spending by such measures as limiting eligibility to certain
benefits, exercising stringent requirements for payments to continue (e.g. mutual obligations that
aim to ensure efforts to secure work). Some government initiatives attempt to increase employability
through compulsory training programs or working on government infrastructure projects.
Since 2016, many Australians received benefits through compulsory income management, referred
to as the ‘Cashless Debit Card’. This scheme provided the person with a debit card that could be used
for basic purposes, but not for alcohol, cigarettes or gambling. The scheme was place-based, meaning
that it operated mainly in areas with large numbers of people on benefits and with a high level of
disadvantage. Not surprisingly, income management through the Cashless Debit Card was more likely
to be found in Indigenous communities. The scheme was subjected to a number of evaluations with

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variable methodologies and findings, however, the overarching finding was that the scheme had little
positive impact (Bray, 2016; Marston et al., 2022). As a result, following their 2022 election, the Labor
government discontinued the scheme from 2023, indicating a move to a system of voluntary income
management (yet to be established at the time of writing).
The income security, employment and housing services are also characterised by an increasingly
deprofessionalised workforce. This is a result of the increase in fragmented or routine tasks, so that
many roles can be performed by less qualified personnel at lower rates of pay (Healy & Meagher, 2004).
Associated with this is the decline in the autonomy of practitioners to make decisions and engage
in creative and innovative practice. The tension here for many practitioners is having to implement
what they see as demeaning and harsh policies that negatively affect single mothers, people with
a disability and other clients (Grahame & Marston, 2012). The challenge to practitioners is how to
hold on to professional discretion and even go further to ‘influence service delivery approaches to
work more relationally, pursuing a more equal involvement of clients, and recognising the complex
interactive context of social and community life’ (Hall et al., 2012, p. 87). Practice in the complex field
of homelessness, which has direct correlations with income insecurity, mental illness, substance
misuse and, increasingly, DFV for women, provides a good example of many innovative community-
based approaches that do rely on sound relational skills. Housing affordability, or lack thereof, is a
major social issue, and definitions of homelessness have expanded over time beyond only being defined
as ‘rough sleepers’ or ‘couch surfers’ to include those who do not have a secure and affordable place to
call their own. Youth homelessness is a particularly difficult issue, often related to family difficulties,
DFV and substance misuse. Workers in the field of homelessness can make a significant difference by
connecting people to services and resources, supporting them to find stable accommodation that meets
their needs, and providing ongoing points of contact over time.
The array of skills required by practitioners who work in this field is shown in Figure 6.9.

Figure 6.9 Skills required for working with income security, employment and housing services

Practitioners need to be skilled in

Assessing claims for beneﬁts

and pensions and determining
eligibility for income support
and housing

Using technology in service

delivery; for example, working in
Policy work, developing and
call centres to provide information
analysing policies; contributing
and running internet websites
to policy critique and advocacy
for job ads and computerised
information booths
Income security,
employment and housing
services

Outreach work to assist people

Case management, which is the
who are homeless or at risk
main activity in employment and
of homelessness to access
homelessness services
supports and services

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Practitioner perspective

I was initially attracted to social work due to its broad nature. I gained experience across many
sectors, including mental health, youth support, family support, employment support and
disability until I ended up in homelessness. My first day on the job, I did a breakfast shift in
a day centre facility where someone thanked me for looking them in the eye and smiling at
them because I was the only person who had looked them in the eye for the last two weeks.
Experiencing homelessness can often be a singular, lonely and isolating experience for people.
And not one pathway into homelessness is the same. Some days, people would come and
generously share their stories with you, and this is where I started to see patterns, points of
prevention or intervention that could and should have occurred before this person (or family)
ended up experiencing homelessness. This is also where I began to see homelessness broadly,
as a failure of other systems. Homelessness services seemed to be the final net people would
land in.
Jessica Dobrovic

CASE STUDY
Robodebt
Australia witnessed the rise of the Robodebt scheme in 2015, whereby data sharing across
government departments enabled the use of algorithms to calculate the alleged overpayment
debt individual recipients of government benefits owed to the Australian Government. The
Government has always devoted resources to identifying overpayments, but what changed
with Robodebt is that the previous Liberal–National Coalition Government essentially removed
the human oversight and implemented a poorly designed computer algorithm, effectively
outsourcing the verification to the recipient. This resulted in more debts being created per week
than were created by previous governments each year (Henriques-Gomes, 2020).
This issue prompted a Senate inquiry, a class action against the government and much media
attention. Most recently, the incoming Labor government commenced a Royal Commission
into the Robodebt policy because of the number of deaths associated with it from suicide. It
found that more than $750 million was unlawfully recovered from 381 000 people. It was argued
that poor and vulnerable people were unfairly treated under the scheme while the previous
government argued that funds needed to be recovered as it was taxpayers’ money. The income
security program has historically been a safety net for those living in poverty, but this was put
at risk due to a digital technological process overriding a human one. The outcome from legal
proceedings just completed was that the scheme was unlawful and the government is now
required to repay the funds to all recipients (Royal Commission into the Robodebt Scheme, n.d.).

Activity 6.1

After reading the Case Study about Robodebt, answer the following questions:
1 What do you think about the use of such technologies to recover overpayments?
2 Does this issue raise any thoughts about the place of the poor in our society? You might like
to revisit the discussion on the deserving and undeserving poor in Chapter 2. Refer to
Chapter 2
3 What are your thoughts about the effectiveness of a Royal Commission to address issues of
unlawful recovery of debt and the bringing to light of a flawed system?

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Substance misuse
Substance misuse refers to the harmful use of drugs, alcohol and other substances for non-medical
purposes. This is usually understood in the context of illegal drugs, but legal substances (e.g. prescribed
medicines, nicotine, solvents, glues or petrol) can also be misused. Problems caused by the misuse
of drugs and other substances are likely to be encountered in many service contexts, but especially
health care, mental health and child protection. Substance misuse has profound effects at personal
and social levels. Addiction is a strong psychological or physiological dependence on a substance or a
particular behaviour. People who suffer from addictions crave the substance or keep performing the
behaviour even when it causes serious harm to them. People may be addicted to both legal and illegal
drugs, including alcohol and tobacco, or to behaviours such as gambling. It is important to note that
criminalisation of drug use precipitates further issues of stigmatisation, social isolation and exclusion.
While the causes of addiction are still unknown, research shows that there are many risk factors for
addiction, such as whether a person has a genetic predisposition to become addicted. Environmental
factors may also contribute to substance misuse and addiction. Stress, for example, can provoke people
to start smoking or consume alcohol in excess, or resume smoking or drinking after having given up.
Recovering from addiction can be a long and challenging process and relapses are common.

Recommended reading
Begun, A. L., & Murray, M. M. (2020). The Routledge handbook of social work and addictive
behaviours. Routledge.
Goodman, A. (2013). Social work with drug, alcohol and substance misusers. Sage publications.
Stevens, P., & Smith, R. (2013). Substance abuse counselling: Theory and practice. Prentice Hall.

Practice context
Despite the prevalence of drug and alcohol misuse in many societies, relatively few social workers or
human service practitioners actually specialise in this field (Morales et al., 2012). Substance misuse is
often associated with other social problems, which means that most practitioners usually encounter
these issues in their work across different settings. For example, people with serious mental illness
may resort to drugs or alcohol to deal with psychotic symptoms, children in the child protection system
may have been removed from home because of their parents’ serious drug addiction, or young people
attending youth services may have problems of substance misuse.
Services in this field include specialist inpatient facilities or therapeutic communities that provide
detoxification or rehabilitation, community-based methadone maintenance programs, counselling and
therapy, and self-help programs such as Alcoholics Anonymous or Narcotics Anonymous. Drug education
and prevention are also the focus for other programs that target at-risk populations, such as adolescents.
Many different professionals work in this field, including medical practitioners, psychologists,
nurses, social workers and human service practitioners. The field also employs highly experienced but
often unqualified staff to work as drug counsellors or group leaders. So, like many areas of practice,
practitioners may find themselves working in a multidisciplinary team or with people with a range of
perspectives on the problem and its treatment.

Specific issues
The efficacy of the treatments for substance misuse is widely debated. This field offers a range of
treatments from the highly medicalised options, such as methadone maintenance or detoxification, to
behavioural therapies provided by qualified professionals, to self-help programs offered by volunteers.
There are significant gaps in research knowledge about what works and why. Harm minimisation is
one approach based on the understanding that a multi-faceted strategy of demand reduction, supply
reduction and harm reduction will assist people to move towards more self-efficacy in a non-coercive
and non-judgemental environment. Total abstinence is the other end of the continuum that many find
achievable with supports and strong therapeutic alliances.

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Addiction is a complex phenomenon that includes physiological or psychological processes, or a

combination of both. Actively drinking or drug-taking clients can experience extreme denial, lack
self-awareness and insight, and demonstrate capacity to rationalise their behaviour. Addiction also
severely affects others in the person’s life, such as family members. This is most profound in the
case of pregnant women with addictions, whereby the unborn child can be affected by foetal alcohol
spectrum disorder (FASD) or symptoms of withdrawal at birth. Social workers can play an important
role in identifying supports for children and families where FASD is an issue (Gibbs et al., 2018).
There are other serious problems associated with addiction, including the possibility of contracting
HIV/AIDS, engaging in criminal activity to support a drug habit, or being placed in a position of risk
and vulnerability that can lead to harm and trauma. The significant increase of methamphetamine
(‘ice’) use in recent years has seen escalating violence, which affects emergency services and hospital
staff as well as families. The seriousness of the social impacts of this particular drug resulted in a
costly government National Ice Taskforce in 2015, which made 38 recommendations to address the
problem. A pivotal strategy was to support trained frontline workers to manage coordinated responses
to assist ice-addicted individuals, their families and communities. A number of the recommended
strategies have been rolled out nationally, largely through Primary Health Networks providing more
than 500 alcohol and drug treatment services.
Finally, substance misuse generates powerful community attitudes and attracts a great deal of
attention from the media. For example, politicians, parents and the general public may have grave
concerns about campaigns to offer needle exchange programs, safe injecting rooms or pill-testing
at festivals, in the belief that these strategies will encourage drug use. Even interventions based on
strong evidence may be rejected because they breach community attitudes and beliefs. For example,
there is a widely held view that only tough penalties will put an end to the drug problem and, therefore,
that governments should adopt zero tolerance policies. In this context, practitioners can find that there
are significant organisational and societal barriers to effective practice.
The skills that practitioners will require for working in this field are shown in Figure 6.10.

Figure 6.10 Skills required for working with substance misuse

Practitioners need to be skilled in

Working in detoxiﬁcation
programs (intensive,
Drug education work in short-term, residential
Working in rehabilitation
schools or running or inpatient)
programs
community campaigns

Running family support programs,

Individual counselling
such as Al-Anon and Alateen Substance misuse
and therapy
(for children of alcoholics)

Being a part of self-help groups,

Brief therapy or
such as Alcoholics Anonymous
interventions
and Gamblers Anonymous
Harm minimisation
strategies
and interventions

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Legal settings, corrections and youth justice

There are many reasons why people come into contact with legal systems. These range from offending
behaviour; to problems with neighbours, tenants or landlords; or disputes over property and children
that end up in the Family Court. Many of the issues previously mentioned, such as DFV, substance
misuse, mental illness, child protection and homelessness, can result in intersections between social
services and legal services. This is why social workers and human service practitioners need to have
good knowledge of how legal systems work and what matters belong under which legal jurisdiction.
It is also important to understand what legislation might dictate obligations that you have as a
practitioner and employee of an organisation that has statutory authority. For example, mandatory
reporting obligations differ across states; detaining people in a mental health facility requires certain
legal processes; and the rights of young people need to be observed when working within the youth
justice system. Documentation becomes very important when working in legal settings and is often
required as evidence in court proceedings.

Practice context
As a broad group, social workers and human service workers will come into contact with young people
in a range of human service practice contexts. These include young people in care, young people in
youth justice systems, teenage parents, young refugees, young people with disabilities and young
people escaping family violence. Many young people seeking assistance require help with crisis
accommodation, finances, gender or sexuality questions, family issues, drugs or employment and
education options. Youth work is a specific field that employs a range of human service practitioners
including social workers. One of the primary aims of youth work is to ensure that young people are
able to find a constructive pathway towards a stable future so that they do not engage in behaviours
that may lead them into difficulties with the law and possible incarceration. There are many programs
that take a preventative focus, assisting young people to develop independence and resilience so that
the choices they make in life are based on respect for others and good self-awareness. Bush Adventure
Therapy is one example of a way of working with young people in outdoor settings with the intention
to achieve therapeutic outcomes. This approach is being used with good outcomes for young people
with mental health or drug misuse issues, disengaged young people and those involved in the youth
justice system (Gass et al., 2020).
For people who do engage in offending behaviours that result in some form of sentence through a
court, social workers may become involved in advocating for them to ensure that the court is aware
of all circumstances that have impacted the person’s life, and provide some assessment of what led
to the offence, and what insights the person has about what they have done. They might prepare a
pre-sentence report, or a report for a parole application if a person is being released from prison. Social
workers might also assist victims of crime to prepare impact statements for the court or provide a
Family Report that sets out observations of children, parents and extended family to assist decisions
about where children should live and what contact arrangements will be in their best interests. This
specialised work requires excellent skills in assessment and observation of family dynamics.

Specific issues
Work in legal settings, community corrections and prisons, and youth justice facilities require
social work and human service practitioners to have sound understandings of how legal colleagues
and police work in accordance with their obligations. The concept of interprofessional practice
has been discussed previously, and this is a good example of one field that highlights the benefits
of close collaborative relationships. The Community Legal Centres network, which began in the
1980s in Australia, provides legal advice at low or no initial cost to people who lack financial resources to

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access private legal services. These community legal services may be either generic or more specialised,
which may include providing services to a single sector of people, such as women, prisoner’s, youth,
or refugees and immigrants. After consultation, people may be assisted to apply for legal aid so that
they can be represented in court. Legal aid is available to disadvantaged people to ensure access to
justice. Social workers and human service workers could at any time be working with a person, family
or community that needs legal information, and can ensure that appropriate referrals are made for
legal advice.
Social work and human service practitioners may work with people who commit offences that result
in a prison sentence, a period of probation or a community service order. There is substantial stigma
associated with imprisonment and detention, and those leaving custody may find it very difficult to
re-engage with work and their families. There is a very high percentage of Indigenous Australians
in both youth detention and adult prisons, which is a source of much concern for those working in the
justice system and advocating for human rights and humane treatment. Older people in prisons may
not be afforded the same quality of health care, and end-of-life can be a time lacking compassion,
particularly for serious offenders. Social workers and human service practitioners also have an
increasing role in working with refugees and asylum seekers who may be in detention or have been
moved out of detention into the community. Anti-oppressive approaches, a human rights framework,
and critical analysis of legal systems and impacts of incarceration on young people, women, Indigenous
peoples, and those with mental illness are essential for this work.
The skills and interventions required by practitioners working in this field are shown in Figure 6.11.

Figure 6.11 Skills required for working in legal settings, corrections and youth justice

Practitioners need to be skilled in

Managing and administering Working with families of

youth projects people in prison

Additional specialist skills Assessing the needs of young

for youth justice work people and people in prison

Identifying and pursuing Planning and delivering programs

sources of funding for related to, for example, health,
projects to improve smoking, drugs,
services and/or resources relationships and violence
for young people (including in online environments)
Legal, corrections and
youth justice
Running all sorts of activities, such as
Acting as advocates for young arts, sports, environmental projects,
people and people in prison residential activities, outdoor
education and sporting activities

Liaising and networking with

Engaging and supporting
police, schools and
individuals in various settings
social services

Mentoring and supporting

Counselling individuals individuals to encourage
social inclusion

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Recommended reading
Cunneen, C., White, R., & Richards, K. (2015). Juvenile justice: Youth and crime in Australia (5th ed.).
Oxford University Press.
Gass, M., Gillis, H., & Russell, K. (2020). Adventure therapy: Theory, research, and practice. (2nd ed.).
Routledge.
Maylea, C. (2019). Social work and the law: A guide for ethical practice. Bloomsbury.
Rice, S., Day, A., & Briskman, L. (2018). Social work in the shadow of the law (5th ed.). The
Federation Press.
Willison, J., & O’Brien, P. (2022). Anti-oppressive social work practice and the carceral state. Oxford
University Press.

Environmental and disaster work

Environmental issues have attracted worldwide attention for several decades, though more recently
concerns about issues such as climate change, natural disasters, food security and land degradation
have increased. Over the last ten to fifteen years, research on environmental and disaster social
work practice has grown exponentially. Social workers are now recognising people not only within
their social environments but also the natural environment, acknowledging that humans are part of
ecosystems and that a healthy biodiverse planet is critical for the survival of all living things.
There is little doubt that the incidence of disasters has increased in our region. Disasters include
natural events such as bushfires, floods, cyclones, earthquakes and tsunamis that hit communities
with catastrophic results and often little warning. Other disasters arise from human events, such as
large-scale road and rail accidents and, in recent decades, acts of terrorism or crime with devastating
impacts, such as the Christchurch shootings and Bali bombings. The COVID-19 pandemic continues
across the world with virus mutations, and has presented a whole new set of challenges for public
health. The role of social workers and human service practitioners in response efforts to all kinds of
disasters has become a more specialised and prominent field of practice.

Practitioner perspective

Social workers have a long history of supporting both domestic and international communities
impacted by disasters through preparedness, response and recovery. The COVID-19 pandemic, global
conflicts and increasing frequency and severity of climate change disasters has accelerated demand
for social work services at my agency and called on me to review my practice framework. Eco-social
work is now the foundation of my practice approach and I frequently participate in environmental
activism in my local community. Sustainable, ethical and effective interventions and the continuing
ability to thrive in my much-loved profession have become dependent on my knowledge and skills in
promoting health and wellbeing as a core competency for social work practice.
Climate change means disasters can and will happen everywhere. As I sit down to write this,
heavy rain is falling and flooding is inundating the eastern states of Australia. Knowledge about
the weather and keeping a keen eye on forecasts has become a key component of my daily work,
knowing I could be deployed to respond to a disaster situation anywhere at any time.
In my role as a social worker, I have responded to droughts, bushfires and flood emergencies.
Collaborating alongside key local, state and national stakeholders in evacuation and recovery
to support people’s immediate needs for safety, stabilisation and resources. While challenging
and rewarding, this work is a curious mix of chaos, confusion, grief, grit, pain, and remarkable
connection. Meeting the immediate needs of my fellow human beings and supporting safety and
stabilisation in the midst of chaos and unimaginable suffering has required high level advocacy
and networking skills. Daily debriefings and supervision informed by critical reflection, coupled
with my wellbeing lens, has helped me to improve support services and ensured the voices of
people with lived experience of disaster are heard.

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Building and maintaining active hope is a challenging component of disaster practice but
remains critical for future preparedness, rebuilding and empowerment. After experiencing one
of the worst flood disasters on record in my home, I remain actively involved in community
development initiatives to recover, rebuild and prepare for the future. It has been months since
the flood inundated my town, but liaising with local artists to initiate art for hope projects has
created opportunities to repurpose abandoned flood damaged buildings, and for belonging
and connection. Holding and embodying hope has become an ethical imperative in my disaster
practice toolkit.
Gina

Practice context
Specific contexts for environmental practice are less apparent than more traditional fields of practice.
Dominelli (2012, 2018) argues that green social work calls for engagement in issues such as pollution,
climate change challenges and conflicts over scarce resources such as water and food. This often
means joining the struggles of ordinary citizens. Environmental social work can include some aspects
of rural practice, community mobilisation or in-disaster response. In rural contexts, practitioners
might work for a local Landcare group or in environmental management teams. Some practitioners
become involved in community mobilisation around specific environmental issues, such as lobbying
against developments that incur environmental damage. As the planet continues to warm, there will
be climate migrants that relocate to new areas to escape rising sea levels and temperatures around the
equator that may become unsustainable for life. The connections between environmentalism, racism
and privilege are inescapable (Thomas, 2022).
The practice context for disaster work is highly varied and can include local sites and agencies as
well as international locations. For some workers, disaster response may be a central feature of their
work; for example, people working for major global agencies such as Red Cross or World Vision. For
others, disaster work may be incorporated into other fields when disasters strike. For example, hospital
social workers now often have specific training in emergency responses to an influx of admissions or
dealing with the psychosocial impacts following disaster events. In Australia, Department of Human
Services social workers constitute a key Australian Government social work response to disaster,
both domestically and internationally. These workers may fly to the disaster area within 24 hours
and remain working for long periods. Other practitioners working in state or territory government
community and health departments are similarly deployed.

Specific issues
Environmental social work, also known as eco-social work or green social work, is an emerging area
of practice. Certainly there are very few paid roles for environmental social workers. Social workers
are more likely to use their social work skills, knowledge and practice frameworks in collective action,
political lobbying, advocacy and community mobilisation. In environmental issues, we are more likely
to see the blurring of personal and social work values, and the personal does become political in this
field of work.
Disaster work is certainly not time-bound and rarely equates to ‘office hours’. When working on-site
immediately post-event, disaster zones can be chaotic and have very limited facilities. Shifts can
be long and exhausting and working alongside traumatised people requires sound preparation and
training. It is worth noting too that some disasters unfold more slowly; for example, a drought may
last many years. Here, interventions are often aligned with rural practice and need to address the
emerging and ongoing issues such as financial hardship, family breakdown, mental health issues and
social isolation (Alston, 2007).
Allison Rowlands (2006; 2013) argues that skills in crisis intervention, counselling in grief
and loss, along with community development and social policy development and strengths-based
approaches are important for disaster work. Systems perspectives provide the most encompassing

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and effective frameworks for working in the complexity of disasters. Interventions are coordinated
across individuals, families and whole communities, so knowledge and skills across all these areas
are essential.
While relief work forms a large part of the response, the mid- and long-term impacts are where
social workers and human service practitioners have much to offer. After the immediate provision
of shelter, medical attention and the establishment of security, people and whole communities are
often left dealing with intense post-trauma reactions, loss and grief issues, and the challenge of
community rebuilding.
The skills and interventions required by practitioners working in this field are shown in Figure 6.12.

Figure 6.12 Skills required for environmental and disaster work

Practitioners need to be skilled in

Crisis intervention

Coordination of Providing immediate

volunteers material relief

Community development
Environmental
Service planning and community capacity
and disaster work
building

Counselling in grief
Advocacy and lobbying
and loss

Recommended reading
Dominelli, L. (2020). The Routledge handbook of green social work. Routledge.
Hazeleger, T., Alston, M., & Hargreaves, D. (2018). Social work in post-natural disaster sites. In
M. Alston, S. McCurdy & J. McKinnon (Eds.), Social work: Fields of practice (3rd ed.). Oxford
University Press.
van Heugten, K. (2014). Human service organisations in the disaster context. Palgrave Macmillan.

Choosing a field of practice

We have presented the most common fields of practice, acknowledging, of course, that there are other
important areas. For example, we have not covered working in school social work or specific programs
that work with refugees or indeed the field of international social work. Some services have developed
in response to an increased demand for support; for example, in the refugee community or with people
who have suffered torture and trauma.
Others have developed in response to serious needs and issues that perhaps were previously
unrecognised and through identifying ways in which these needs and issues might be addressed.
An example is the abuse of people with disabilities or the exposure of harm in aged care, previously
unacknowledged in a true public sense but becoming the focus of specialist support and prevention
programs as Royal Commissions and other inquiries do their work.
Some people have needs or problems that cross two or more fields. Often these people slip through
the gaps of services and programs, either receiving no service or one that is compromised. A good
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example is how people with intellectual disabilities and serious mental illness are often excluded
from general mental health services and so do not receive urgently needed mental health treatment.
Similarly, they may also be excluded from disability support services that feel the needs of these ‘dual’
clients are too challenging for regular support staff. Other examples include people from different
cultural or language backgrounds accessing a public health system or women in refugee communities
trying to access training programs run by employment services.

Activity 6.2

1 Is there a particular field or population group with which you would really like to work?
2 What has influenced this choice? Do you have personal experience of this area and how
might this help you in the future?
3 Are there any particular attributes that would assist you in working in this area? What might
make it difficult?
4 Is there a field in which you definitely do not want to work? What has influenced you in this
decision? What would you need to know or do to enable you to work in this area?

Whatever paths your practice takes, you will constantly acquire new knowledge about people,
policies and programs. If you are interested in a particular field, we suggest you read the recommended
books or enrol in particular electives in your course or program that provide the necessary grounding
for work in this field. Field placements also offer compelling opportunities to test out different fields
and areas of practice.

Approaches to practice
The history of social welfare work, as discussed in Chapter 2, reveals two distinct starting points for Refer to
Chapter 2
intervention: the first developed as social casework and involved work with individuals and families,
and the second arose from the Settlement movement and involved working with communities, helping
them to solve social problems. From these two points – social work and human service practice – evolved
the array of interventions that are now available to practitioners. Some of these are quite specialised
and usually involve postgraduate training. Family therapy, for example, is usually practised by people
who have undergone postgraduate training and have had considerable experience. This is not a job
you are likely to start out in. However, for the most part, services require multiskilled or generalist
practitioners. They require people who are flexible and can assess a situation and adapt their practice.
You are likely to need to be competent in both macro- and micro-interventions. Working with
individuals might be the backbone of almost every kind of practice situation, but you need to be able
to perform this with a solid analysis of the broader policy context, how your organisation influences
your practice and how community concerns affect individual situations. The practice domains, as
presented in Chapter 1, are working with individuals, families, groups and communities; policy Refer to
Chapter 1
development and analysis; organisational practice, management and leadership; research practice;
and teaching, education and consultancy. Intervention occurs on different levels and different methods
are integrated in practice on the ground.

Levels of intervention
Practice has been constructed in terms of operating at different levels or systems. In simpler schemas,
these are presented as the micro and macro levels of practice. Some authors add a mid-level or ‘meso’
layer. Micro-practice refers to work with individuals, families or small groups, with the focus being
to bring about change at a personal or relationship level. This is referred to as clinical practice and
includes interventions such as counselling, family therapy, crisis intervention and small groupwork.
Macro-practice is targeted at the level of communities or larger social groups to bring about change.
This includes community work and development work for global aid organisations. Mid-level or meso-
practice methods are at the level of organisations or smaller groups.
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Miley et al. (2017) suggest that intervention takes place at a number of levels, ranging from the
individual to the broader society, and that the practitioner views people against the backdrop of all
these systems as if through a wide-angle lens. This is shown in Figure 6.13.

Figure 6.13 Levels of intervention in generalist practice

World
Policy
Society
Community
Generalist
Neighbourhood
social work
Organisation
Group
Family
Individual

The focus might be on one part – perhaps the individual – but the practitioner takes in all of these
levels, assessing the person in terms of their family, society, local community and so on. The problem is
then viewed in its entire context and interventions are used that fit different aspects of the situation.
Together, the worker and client will employ a range of interventions and skills to achieve positive
change at these different levels. The following case study provides an example.

CASE STUDY
Josh
Josh is a man in his mid-30s. He has an intellectual disability and lives with his parents in the
family home. Josh has two sisters, Jenny and Kelly, both married with children, who live in other
cities. His dad, Mark, is still working, though approaching retirement and mum, Beverly, is at
home. Jenny and Kelly and their families visit a couple of times a year for Christmas and another
short stay. They ring Josh every week or two to catch up. Josh has limited speech, he is mobile,
and likes music and football.
Josh has support workers who take him out three days a week for a few hours. He used to
attend a sheltered workshop but difficulties and conflicts with workmates led to his parents
removing him from the program two years ago and keeping him at home. Josh is very bored and
get frustrated with his mother doing things for him. Mark and Bev are concerned about Josh’s
future and feel that Josh should be moving into a home of his own where he can get the support
he needs and make more friends. Josh seems to like this idea too as he is getting increasingly
angry and upset at home. Recently he threw a chair at a wall. His parents are fearful of the future
as they get older.
Mark and Bev contact the agency that provides Josh’s support workers to seek help. They are
very unsure of how to go about finding Josh his own place. The agency is preparing for a new
disability support scheme based around self-direction and principles of choice and control.

Imagine that you are the practitioner called upon to work out arrangements for Josh to move into a
home of his own. What interventions would you consider? There are several levels to consider. First
is Josh, the individual, who has an intellectual disability but certainly is expressing what he wants
and doesn’t want. Second is the family, who obviously love and care for Josh but are worried that they
may not be in a position to continue to care for Josh. Third is the local community where Josh has lived
all of his life and, finally, there is the agency – an organisation that is dealing with massive changes
in the disability sector and how funding and programming will work. Figure 6.14 shows how these
levels of intervention are applied to Josh’s situation.

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TRAVELLING MANY PATHS: PRACTICE FIELDS AND METHODS / CHAPTER 6

Figure 6.14 Applying levels of intervention

World – community development and education (about attitudes

towards people with disability, United Nations covenants)

Society – community development and education (about the roles

and status of people with disability)

Policy – analysis of disability policies and how they aﬀect Josh's

situation; what changes in policy will mean for him

Community – mapping the availability of in-home supports and

social networks

Josh Neighbourhood – as Josh has lived within the family home all his life,
determining local places and groups Josh might visit and connect with
Possible levels
of intervention Organisation – the disability support service: checking what support
Josh can receive and identifying other practitioners and agencies that
might need to be involved; e.g. community housing

Group – organising for Josh to join a local group interested in music

or a local football club

Family – organising a family meeting to plan for Josh's future; building

strength of family support; educating the whole family about choice,
control and self-determination

Individual – respecting Josh's wish to be independent; assisting him

to make choices

We can see in this example that the versatile practitioner needs to appreciate the many levels in
Josh’s situation. While initial contact is with Josh himself in the home setting, there are a number of
potential focal points for intervention. It is this capacity for social work and human service workers to
have oversight of the whole of a person’s life situation, from micro to macro levels, that differentiate
this discipline from others in the allied health workforce.

Private practice
Opportunities for private practice have existed for social workers and other practitioners for many
years. This has been largely in counselling, psychotherapy, family therapy and project consultancy
work. However, this area has experienced huge growth as more sectors of human service shift to
individualised services and direct payments to consumers in disability, aged care and other health
insurance schemes (e.g. Medicare-funded mental health counselling). These initiatives allow
consumers to seek out their own service providers in the market. Private practice brings interesting
opportunities but also certain requirements. As a business, a private practice requires knowledge of
both the field of practice and running a business. Some of the areas to be considered include:
• marketing yourself
• planning and setting up a business
• finding referrals
• tendering for work
• meeting legal and registration requirements
• managing risks both professionally and financially.
Private practice also usually requires an advanced level of qualifications or becoming accredited
in a specific area of practice. The Australian Association of Social Workers and the Aotearoa New

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Zealand Association of Social Workers provide training and support for those wishing to enter private
practice. There are also practice support groups, as working in the private sphere is often isolating and
finding peer support can be difficult. Professional supervision is highly recommended for practitioners
in private practice.

Activism, policy and lobbying work

While most practitioners will find themselves in roles that work across micro, meso and macro levels
of intervention, increasingly some will operate exclusively at the policy and activism level, working
to achieve structural change. Peak bodies across the human service sector employ people with social
work and human service backgrounds. This may involve working for a peak lobbying/advocacy
organisation, such as a national mental health advocacy agency or a program driving for change in
violence against women, or in organisations such as the Australian Council of Social Service (ACOSS)
or National Disability Services (NDS). This work may involve designing media campaigns, writing
submissions, consulting constituents, conducting research on the relevant issues or supporting class
actions in the courts. These contexts do not involve working directly with clients but rather across
pressing social issues at a political or policy level.

Practitioner perspective

As social workers we are incredibly privileged to work with people and hear their stories, their
hopes and dreams and their challenges. This privilege comes with a responsibility that when
we see and hear the challenges, issues and stressors being experienced, we look at how we
address these beyond the individual level; that is, how do we advocate and challenge systems
and processes that perpetuate these and other inequalities? A powerful way for me has been
getting involved in social policy advocacy through my local AASW branch. Working with others,
we have developed important submissions into the introduction of a Human Rights Bill and
decriminalising abortion in Queensland, to name just two. Drawing on real-life experiences of
colleagues and the evidence from research, we developed two strong submissions and were then
invited to present to the parliamentary committees. Sitting in front of members of Parliament,
we had the privilege to give voice to the people we work with and alongside, bringing our unique
human rights and social justice framework, and respectfully challenging assumptions. Did our
submissions make a difference in the legislation? Yes, I firmly believe so because we were part
of a collective movement fighting for change. As social workers we have an amazing suite of
resources and skills available to us, and we need to honour these by using them to advocate
against injustice. More recently, I was involved in a submission about child protection legislative
changes. The bulk of the content came from incredible social workers in the field who were able
to share their experiences, in doing so providing the perspective of the people they work with,
which was so powerful. We are inherently wired as social workers to advocate and challenge, it is
about finding our way to do so. My examples are just one way; social workers do this every day
and so do students, with many wonderful examples of students in aged care who have advocated
for the rights of older people to access timely care in terms of toileting. We need to honour the
privilege we hold as social workers and always find ways, no matter how small they may be, to
advocate for the rights of others. Speaking up and asking questions can be as powerful in the life
of one person as is writing formal submissions.
Fotina Hardy

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TRAVELLING MANY PATHS: PRACTICE FIELDS AND METHODS / CHAPTER 6

STUDY
TOOLS

Conclusion
Working in social work and the human services offers many possibilities. Perhaps more than any other profession or
discipline, human service practice spans many sectors, issues and perspectives, and involves people of all ages and
situations in life. In this chapter, we have mapped out the features of a number of social work and human service
fields. We have also provided an overview of the range of methods and levels of intervention that you may use as
a future practitioner.
Professional experiences and field placements are great opportunities to develop your knowledge base and skills
in particular fields. An important component of this knowledge base is the theoretical foundation of practice and
attention to the ethical and value base.

Questions
1 What key knowledge and skills might you need in order to work in the area of domestic and family violence?
Would you need to undertake specialist training?
2 What are some of the issues that can contribute to people becoming homeless?
3 What is your understanding of dual relationships in the context of rural and remote practice?
4 What are some of the opportunities in environmental social work?
5 What are the main levels of intervention in generalist practice?
6 What is an area of activism or lobbying that you could find yourself working in? What might you find yourself
doing in this role?

Weblinks
Aged Care Australia Mental Health Australia
http://www.myagedcare.gov.au http://www.mhaustralia.org
Australian Association for Bush Adventure Therapy Mental Health Foundation of New Zealand
http://www.aabat.org.au https://www.mentalhealth.org.nz
Australian Association of Social Workers National Association for Prevention of Child Abuse and
https://www.aasw.asn.au Neglect (Australia)
Australian Institute of Health and Welfare http://www.napcan.org.au
http://www.aihw.gov.au National Disability Insurance Scheme
1800RESPECT http://www.ndis.gov.au
https://www.1800respect.org.au National Disability Services
http://www.nds.org.au

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7
CHAPTER
Negotiating the maze:
the organisational
context of practice

Chapter 7
Negotiating the maze
This chapter looks at human
service organisations and What are
how they work human service
organisations?

We need to
understand
some
organisational
theories

Organisations Relational Systems and Discourses of

as machines organisations ecological human services

The chapter also The chapter looks into what

explores leadership it is like to work in human
and how it might service organisations. What
be diﬀerent in are some of the tensions
human services and dilemmas?

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Negotiating the maze: the organisational context of practice / CHAPTER 7

Aims

• Outline the characteristics of human service organisations

• Describe the various types of human service organisations: structure, models and processes
• Explore the ways in which organisational context influences practice
• Critically analyse the dilemmas and tensions of working in organisations
• Introduce skills needed to work collaboratively in an interprofessional context
across organisations

Introduction
The vast majority of social work and human service practitioners are employed in human service
organisations. There are many kinds of human service agencies, and the human services constitute
an ever-growing organisational sector in most jurisdictions. A growing number of practitioners are
engaged in private practice in Australia, New Zealand and other countries. Human services include
government agencies, especially those responsible for social issues, health and welfare, non-profit
community agencies, faith-based services, for-profit companies and collectives. Human service
organisations can be extremely large systems offering multiple programs across several locations;
they can also be smaller agencies that employ fewer than five staff and are located in small community
centres. Increasingly, the for-profit human service sector is a global enterprise, with larger corporations
becoming involved in delivering social programs.
There are long-standing debates about whether human service organisations are different from
other kinds of organisations and, if so, what makes them different. Is working for a faith-based human
service organisation different from working for a large retail firm or a bank? How have human service
organisations changed from the large charities of the nineteenth century? How are human service
organisations constructed? Do they place a greater emphasis on values than businesses that are not
primarily concerned with human need?
As a student in social work or human services, you may already be curious about such questions.
Perhaps you have worked or undertaken a professional experience or field placement in a human service
agency. You may well have observed that the organisational context exerts considerable influence
on how social workers and other human service workers actually practise. When organisational and
professional goals are starkly opposed, many practitioners experience tension and face dilemmas. It
is essential, therefore, that as an emerging social work or human service practitioner, you gain a solid
appreciation of the human service organisation as a crucial context of practice.
In this chapter we explore the nature and characteristics of human service organisations and the
implications of this organisational context for practice. We examine the characteristics, purposes,
history and types of human service organisations. The chapter provides a critical analysis of some
of the tensions and dilemmas of working in human service organisations and how, as an emerging
practitioner, you might begin to address these. We will also explore the importance of building
relationships and teamwork in human service organisations and the growing interprofessional context
in social, health and human services.

Human service organisations

Before examining the human service organisation, it is important to understand the general
characteristics of organisations. Of course, you will have had experience with lots of organisations:
schools, government departments, universities, large companies such as banks, sporting clubs or
community associations – all are very different yet readily recognised as organisations with some
common features.

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THE ROAD TO SOCIAL WORK AND HUMAN SERVICE PRACTICE

An organisation consists of individuals and groups of people who come together to pursue particular
goals and objectives. An organisation can be distinguished from other organisations by its particular
goals and objectives and by the formal and informal rules that govern its members’ behaviour. It has
some organised arrangement of power, with some members allocated more power than others, and it
has some organised distribution of roles. It has identifiable boundaries; that is, you can distinguish it
from its environment and from other organisations it relates to. The organisation has stability in the
sense that it is in existence over a period of time, and it maintains relationships with and responds to
individuals, groups and other organisations in its environment.
It is worth drawing attention to the concept of organisational culture. Every organisation
communicates powerful messages about its values, its activities and its people. When you walk into
a large bank you get a ‘feel’ for what the bank values and what it does: slick, businesslike, technological
and efficient. But the foyer of a smaller regional building society might give you a totally different
feeling: people-oriented, friendly, local and community-minded.
One way to understand an organisation is by gaining a perspective on its culture. Organisational
culture is defined as ‘a system of shared meaning held by members that distinguishes the organisation
from other organisations’ (Robbins et al., 2019, p. 390). An organisation’s culture is a reflection of a
number of aspects, such as how it treats its people, how much it values innovation, whether it takes
risks, how relentlessly it pursues outcomes, how important teamwork is considered to be, and how
much it values tradition. Culture usually reflects an organisation’s values, and therefore it is important
for social worker and human service practitioners to recognise and understand that perspective.

Characteristics of human service organisations

Human service organisations possess all the characteristics of other organisations plus particular
features that make them different from other organisations. The debates about how human services
are different, and indeed whether they are different at all, have been going on in social work and human
services literature for many decades. Gardner (2016, p. 36) sets out a list of characteristics that define
human service organisations, including the following points:

• providing services for people and/or their communities

• having a focus on services for people, with relationships between clients and workers central to the work
of the organisation
• having clear governance to ensure accountability
• making a profit or generating income is not usually a primary aim
• being at least partly publicly funded, with implications for being affected by political decision making
• employing people trained in working with people more often; that is, professional workers
• having a significant value base to their work
• doing work that is diverse, complex and flexible.
Source: Gardner, F. (2016). Working with human service organisations:
Creating connections for practice (2nd ed.). Oxford University Press. p. 36

The following Practitioner Perspective shows the importance of organisations, in this case in the
field of homelessness, needing to be responsive to the external environment, and the structures that
can prohibit timely access to services. In this situation, professionals need to remain mindful of the
values that organisations should hold around accessibility and the rights that people have to safe,
secure and affordable housing.

Practitioner perspective

A key challenge being a social worker working in homelessness, is that people may present having
been historically mistreated by services, or ‘passed around the system’, so to speak. Often, a
person (or family) experiencing homelessness will speak to being exposed to many wrong doors,
or not being ‘unwell enough’ to access supports. They have repeated their story many times,

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Negotiating the maze: the organisational context of practice / CHAPTER 7

and this can result in a general mistrust of services broadly. There are also supports that people
can’t access while experiencing homelessness; for example, you can’t claim Centrelink benefits
without an address, you can’t use an NDIS plan without an address, you might not be able to
access an allied health service because you can’t determine a geographic boundary that you
fit into and your last address was in a different area to where you currently live. Social workers
need to understand the system, and support a person experiencing homelessness to navigate
that system, one step at a time. It is also important to understand perspectives such as ‘housing
first’. This perspective recognises that housing is a universal right, and that people experiencing
homelessness shouldn’t have to do things like ‘prove their ability to engage’ or ‘maintain sobriety’
in order to have access to housing.
Jessica Dobrovic

Purpose
A fundamental feature of any organisation is why it exists. What purpose does it serve? We can gain
a sense of the purpose of human service organisations through an exploration of their various mission
or vision statements. Figure 7.1 offers a few examples that can be easily found on an organisation’s
website.

Figure 7.1 Mission statement examples

Black Dog Institute Lifeline DV Connect

Black Dog Institute has a clearly We are a national charity providing all Our Vision
articulated vision for a mentally Australians experiencing emotional Our aim is for all relationships to be free
healthier world. This vision guides our distress with access to 24 hour crisis from domestic, family and sexual
2022–2026 strategy to deliver research support and suicide prevention violence.
with real world impact to treat, services. We are committed to Our Purpose
manage and prevent common mental empowering Australians to be Creating pathways for a life free from
health conditions and suicide in suicide-safe through connection, violence and fear.
workplaces, schools, health settings compassion and hope. Our Values
and the wider community. Integrity, Compassion, Accountability,
https://www.lifeline.org.au Respect, Empowerment.
https://www.blackdoginstitute.org.au
https://www.dvconnect.org

Ministry of Social Development Relationships Australia National Disability Insurance

New Zealand Scheme
Our Values
Our Purpose At Relationships Australia we believe The NDIS takes a lifetime approach,
Manaaki tangata, manaaki whānau. that healthy relationships are essential investing early in people with disability
We help New Zealanders to be safe, for the wellbeing of children, families, and children with developmental delay
strong and independent. individuals and communities. to improve their outcomes later in life.

The outcomes we want to achieve We are committed to social justice and

https://www.ndis.gov.au
New Zealanders get the support they inclusion, and respect the rights of all
require. people, in all their diversity, to live with
New Zealanders are resilient and live dignity and safety and to enjoy healthy
in inclusive and supportive relationships.
communities. These principles underpin our work.
New Zealanders participate positively
in society and reach their potential. https://www.relationships.org.au
https://www.msd.govt.nz

Settlement Services International Lives Lived Well Mission Australia

• Social Justice Our purpose is to inspire people to live Mission Australia exists to meet human
• Equity and access to all their life well. Our unwavering belief is need and to spread the knowledge of
• Diversity that with the right support people can the love of God.
• Respecting diversity change – it is because we believe this,
and being non- that every day we support people to https://www.missionaustralia.com.au
discriminatory change their lives.
• Compassion
• Caring, empathy and https://www.liveslivedwell.org.au
respect for the dignity
of others
• Respect
• Cooperation and
Copyright 2024 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. WCN 02-300
189
mutual respect
• Quality
• Dynamic, ﬂexible and
responsive service
• Professional practices
and
BK-CLA-MCAULIFFE_7E-230050-Chp07.inddaccountability
189 23/06/23 5:53 PM
• Innovation
Our Purpose At Relationships Australia we believe The NDIS takes a lifetime approach,
Manaaki tangata, manaaki whānau. that healthy relationships are essential investing early in people with disability
We help New Zealanders to be safe, for the wellbeing of children, families, and children with developmental delay
strong and independent. individuals and communities. to improve their outcomes later in life.

The outcomes we want to achieve We are committed to social justice and

https://www.ndis.gov.au
New Zealanders get the support they inclusion, and respect the rights of all
require. people, in all their diversity, to live with
New Zealanders are resilient and live dignity and safety and to enjoy healthy
THE ROAD TO SOCIAL
in inclusiveWORK AND HUMAN
and supportive relationships.
SERVICE PRACTICE
communities. These principles underpin our work.
New Zealanders participate positively
in society and reach their potential. https://www.relationships.org.au
https://www.msd.govt.nz
Figure 7.1 (Continued)

Settlement Services International Lives Lived Well Mission Australia

https://www.blackdoginstitute.org.au/about/who-we-are; DVC Connect. (n.d.). About us. https://www.dvconnect.org/about-us;

Lifeline. (n.d.). Who we are. https://www.lifeline.org.au/about/who-we-are; Lives Lived Well. (n.d.). Our purpose and values.
https://www.liveslivedwell.org.au/about-us/our-purpose-and-values; Ministry of Social Development New Zealand. (n.d.). Our purpose
and the outcomes we want to achieve. https://www.msd.govt.nz/about-msd-and-our-work/about-msd/our-purpose.html;
National Disability Insurance Scheme. (n.d.) Understanding the NDIS. https://www.ndis.gov.au/understanding;
Relationships Australia. (n.d.). Our values. https://relationships.org.au/about; Settlement Services International. (n.d.).
About Us. https://www.ssi.org.au/about-us

What we observe in Figure 7.1 is that most human services are focused on meeting the needs and
improving the wellbeing of their clients or consumers. Some statements include specific reference
to the organisation’s values. In others, underlying values are suggested although not necessarily
stated. What is also revealed here is the complexity of purpose. Human services have been identified
as the symbols of a caring society (Hasenfeld, 2010, p. 10) as well as agents of social control (Gardner,
2016). In this book, we propose that human services organisations are ‘socially constructed’. Just as
social problems are constructed through images of people and the conditions around them, so too
are the responses to these problems – in other words, human service organisations. For example,
where children might be seen as helpless victims, the human service response might be a caring home;
whereas a homeless person addicted to drugs might be seen as a weak individual and offered only the
most basic and temporary shelter. As practitioners working in such environments, we experience the
tensions of multiple purposes, some in direct opposition to each other, as the Practitioner Perspective
that follows will illustrate.

Practitioner perspective

As a social worker, I work in a government organisation that provides a mental health service to
children and young people who have been removed from their family of origin due to trauma,
abuse and/or neglect. I am fortunate to be part of an allied health team made up of a range of
professionals such as psychologists, occupational therapists, speech therapists and other social
workers as well as psychiatrists. Even though our professional backgrounds differ, we support
each other and value-add to each other’s work. This enables us to provide a tailored response to
the child or young person.
Most of the tensions we encounter as an organisation are ongoing, due to the nature of the
sector currently in Australia. This has meant fewer foster carers are available to provide care to

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Negotiating the maze: the organisational context of practice / CHAPTER 7

children and young people with complex mental health needs. Budget constraints have meant
limited alternative placement options for these children and young people.
Particularly, the organisation faces difficulties in:
• supporting the mental health needs of children and young people when their placement
settings do not meet their therapeutic needs
• placement changes that occur due to budget constraints. For example, a specialist residential
placement may have developed a significant relationship with the child or young person.
Consequently, this has decreased their level of risk and improved their mental health, but the
specialist placement is then ceased in favour of a less expensive placement
• how to provide holistic ‘therapeutic’ support to the child or young person when their key
caregiver continues to change, given the lack of placement permanency
• providing best practice in service delivery, which requires lots of face-to-face contact with
the child or young person and all the significant stakeholders in their lives. At the same time,
there is an increased expectation of clinical documentation and data entry to meet the key
performance indicators of our organisation.
Katherine Reid

The nature of the work

One of the distinguishing features of human service organisations is the nature of the work
undertaken; that is, human service work is done with people rather than with objects. This affects
how things are done, how the organisation achieves its goals, what processes are used and by whom.
The work will also be impacted by the range of professionals who might work together in a team, the
funding and budget constraints, and the external and internal factors that shape what professionals
are expected to do. The following Practitioner Perspective illustrates some of these points.
A number of difficulties and tensions are inevitable in human service practice because of the
nature of the work. There are often competing agendas and ensuring that resources are available
in the most needed areas is a constant battle for managers. Human service organisations are very
susceptible to decisions made on political grounds, and funding is often determined by what social
issue is taken up by the media. There are many examples of this, including funding commitments to
increase services for domestic and family violence following a high profile homicide, or commitments
to increase the child protection workforce numbers following a publicised coronial inquest into a child
death. Human services operate in diverse ways and employ many different processes. Goals may be
unclear or muddied, outcomes are often uncertain, and the need to evaluate effectiveness creates an
ongoing tension. Many outcomes are extremely hard to measure, and evaluations may focus on more
simplistic and routine operations rather than on what really works. Human services are also very much
influenced by cultural norms about what approaches and interventions are appropriate, and these
norms may conflict with professional values. For example, a practitioner with strong cultural values
around the importance of the extended family, working in a mental health service that adopts a strong
privacy policy, may find it difficult to withhold information about a client from the client’s family.

Auspice
An organisation’s auspice refers to how it is mandated and often underpins the kind of funding it
attracts. Human services have always been regarded as having a public auspice; that is, they are
supported, fully or partially, by government funding, which comes from taxpayers. The earlier
discussion of purpose found that human services exist in order to promote the public good, so the
public mandate for human services is very strong. In recent years, human services have been delivered
by an increasing number of private for-profit agencies, but most are still funded and contracted by
governments.

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Different types of human service organisations have different auspices or authority bases.
Government agencies usually get their authority to operate from law or statutes. Disability services
in Australia, for example, are all based on state and federal disability service acts. Child protection
departments all operate within child protection or child welfare laws. Government agencies are funded
solely by government funding. Not-for-profit agencies are under the auspices of an incorporated body
with legal jurisdiction in the country or state in which the agency operates. Not-for-profit agencies
have a board or management committee that governs the organisation and are funded through a range
of sources, often government sources. Private or for-profit agencies are based on a business, company,
partnership or corporation. Private agencies are legal entities with proper charters or partnership
agreements and are funded through a range of sources, including government funding and client fees.
Most human service organisations, therefore, operate under some form of public auspice, which
means that they are subject to a range of accountabilities. Some examples are shown in Figure 7.2.
Such accountabilities apply to all human services, whether they are government or non-government
organisations (NGOs). The practice of competitive tendering for providing human services from
government to the non-government sector is now well established as the preferred method of
delivering human service programs. Even when agencies are at arm’s length from government, this
process ensures that non-government agencies are still, in theory, publicly accountable.

Figure 7.2 Aspects of accountability for service organisations

Financial Has the organisation used the funds wisely and for the agreed purpose? Have all funds been
accountability properly accounted for?

Legal
Has the organisation operated within the laws, statutes and rules governing it?
accountability

Has the organisation adhered to administrative rules and processes? Has it provided an annual
Administrative
report? Has it adopted prescribed assessment tools? Has it adhered to the requirements
accountability
set out in its funding agreement?

Has the organisation demonstrated it has attained set standards or practice guidelines for
Quality service delivery, such as the standards for residential aged care or the disability service
accountability standards or best practice guidelines for dementia care? Has the service evaluated its
eﬀectiveness in processes and delivering outcomes?

Types of human service organisations

Refer to When we examined the history of welfare and social work in Chapter 2, we learnt that the earliest
Chapter 2 organised form of welfare was through charities and local parishes. These could be described as the
first formal human service organisations. From our discussion about auspice, it is apparent that
there are many forms of human services with different structures, governance and processes, as
shown in Table 7.1. A useful framework for considering these organisations differentiates between

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Negotiating the maze: the organisational context of practice / CHAPTER 7

the government sector, the business sector and a third sector: community and not-for-profit. The
government sector includes government departments, the police, the armed forces, government
schools, government hospitals, public transport services and the judiciary. The business sector,
sometimes referred to as the private for-profit sector, includes large corporations, small businesses and
solo private practitioners, all of which operate on the basis of generating profit. The third sector is made
up of all those organisations that are not-for-profit and non-government, together with the activities
of volunteering and giving which sustain them. While there are dissimilarities among third-sector
organisations, as a group they can be distinguished from for-profit businesses and from government
departments and authorities.

Table 7.1 Types of human service organisations

Type of organisation Auspice/authority Examples

Government or public Authorised, established and operated • Dept of Child Welfare
agency through statute or law. May be a whole • Dept of Health
department or subunit of department • Disability Services Commission
• NZ Ministry of Social Development
• Dept of Social Services
• Local government
Third sector • Incorporated in the state where it • Community organisations
organisations (also operates. Has mission, goals, and own • Church or faith-based organisations:
known as ‘for-purpose’ constitution e.g. UnitingCare, Auckland City
organisations) • Has own governing body, such as Mission, World Vision, Muslim Care
board or management committee or Australia
is organised as an organisation of a • Charities: e.g. The Smith Family, The
religious body or another legal entity Benevolent Society, The Red Cross,
• May be funded by public money and Barnardos NZ
be accountable to government in
relation to the use of that funding
Private for-profit • Legal entity such as a corporation, • Global welfare corporations such as
organisations partnership, sole business or Maximus
association. Has some form of legal • Divisions or large corporations such
charter or partnership agreement or as:
articles of association ∘ private counselling services
• Charges fees for service, or ∘ private clinics
government funding to deliver ∘ training organisations
services

Third-sector organisations vary greatly in size and in their activities. They:

• exist primarily for a social purpose rather than a profit-making objective, are independent of the state
because they are governed by an independent group of people, not part of any government agency or
authority, and largely democratically organised
• reinvest their financial surpluses in the service they offer or the organisation itself. (Hudson & Rogan,
2009, p. 11)

The third sector includes neighbourhood groups, sporting clubs, community associations,
chambers of commerce, churches, religious orders, credit unions, political parties, trade unions, trade
and professional associations, private schools, charitable trusts and foundations, some hospitals,
and of course many welfare organisations such as human services. Contemporary human service
organisations can be found in all three sectors – government, for-profit and community.

Faith-based organisations
Within the third sector are agencies auspiced and/or governed by religious or faith-based entities. These
are increasingly referred to as faith-based organisations. This term is well established in the US, but not as
common in Australasia. Here we tend to view human services that are part of a religious institution as part

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of all charities. Churches have been the cornerstone of welfare and charity for centuries, a presence that
continues today. In Australia, church- or faith-based organisations such as Red Cross, Salvation Army,
World Vision and Compassion Australia constitute the top fundraisers and provide a range of services both
nationally and internationally. Religious values and principles underpin these human services, although
this may not be readily apparent. Melville and McDonald (2006) note that faith-based organisations may
not be distinguishable from other human services, especially if they are government-funded and are larger
and increasingly more influential than the sponsoring church or religious body.
Many people are attracted to social work and human service work through a religious or spiritual
conviction. Working in a faith-based organisation may provide an environment where their personal
values are more in accord with those of the organisation. Equally, others may find that a faith-based
organisation will espouse and act on certain values that they may not share. In the area of addictions
treatment, it has been noted that while an organisation like the Salvation Army takes an abstinence
approach to drug use, another Christian charity was at the forefront of providing safe injecting rooms
for IV drug users (Crisp, 2017).

Activity 7.1

Choose a human service organisation that you are familiar with, access the organisation’s
website and answer the following questions.
1 What kind of organisation is it and does it have a clearly stated mission, purpose or value
statement?
2 What is the target group of this organisation, and what eligibility criteria are there for people
to access the services provided?
3 What characteristics does this organisation have and how is it funded and structured?
4 Does the organisation have different or additional features? What are they?
5 What image do you think this human service organisation projects to the public? Is
information clearly accessible and set out in a way that promotes ease of access and
understanding of what the organisation offers?

Collectives
Collectives are a form of human service organisation that are based on a cooperative or non-
hierarchical structure. In collectives, the organisational structure is flat, with decision making shared
equally and all members sharing equally in power, status, tasks and responsibilities (Kenny & Connors,
2016). In a collective, there is no line of authority: responsibility lies with the group. Decisions are made
by consensus and therefore require regular meetings to determine actions and ensure all members
are informed and fully participate.
Collectives are most likely to be found in human services that are based on feminist or socialist
principles. For example, some women’s health services and shelters are operated by collectives. Some
collectives are faith-based and provide community outreach services to homeless people or to young
people at risk.
Working in collectives requires a high level of trust and a capacity to declare and resolve conflicts
respectfully and honestly. Criticisms of collectives include their tendency to become closed and unable
to address power imbalances that inevitably exist in human groups. Collectives can also be ineffective
in achieving their goals because of the time it takes to negotiate and make decisions. The most effective
collectives are usually small groups or those formed to achieve a short-term goal, such as a campaign
to lobby or protest for change. Some collectives, recognising the need for leadership, work on the basis
of rotating the leadership roles, such as that of spokesperson or treasurer. With the trend towards
greater accountability of human service organisations to government funders, many collectives, in
order to maintain legitimacy, have had to change their governance structures to traditional boards
of management.

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New models
Some human problems, such as entrenched and intergenerational poverty, seem to remain intractable.
Newer models for organising programs, funding and the workforce are increasingly emerging.
Collective impact is one such approach, which offers a framework to tackle deeply entrenched and
complex social problems.
Collective impact is an innovative and structured approach to collaborating across government,
business, philanthropy, not-for-profit organisations and citizens to achieve significant and lasting
social change. Collective impact is based on the assumption that no single agency, organisation or
department can overcome a complex social issue alone and provides a framework for a diverse group
of stakeholders to work together. There are a number of models of collective impact but essentially it
rests on five key conditions for its success: a common agenda, common progress measures, mutually
reinforcing activities, communications and a backbone organisation (Cabaj & Weaver, 2016; Kania
& Kramer, 2011). An important feature of collective impact is the use of big data and data analytics
to drill down to what is happening at a neighbourhood level and to track population-level changes.
Collective impact projects that have been working in this way include the Harlem Children’s Zone,
Strive Partnership in Cincinnati and the Tamarack Institute in Ontario. In Australia, collective impact
is growing, including the projects Burnie Works in Tasmania and Logan Together in Queensland.

Practitioner perspective

Logan Together is a collective impact project aiming to improve the health, social and academic
outcomes of around 45 000 children aged zero to eight in a local government area characterised
by disadvantage, poverty, and poor health and education outcomes. It involves around 130
partners in one local area from all tiers of government, the community and private sector, which
jointly fund the work and collaborate around what are the desired outcomes, what works, what
measures are used. Described as an intergenerational community uplift project focused on child
development from pre-conception through pregnancy, birth and early childhood to age eight,
Logan Together is bringing together health services, education and community programs along
with sports groups, churches and the whole community to work together to ‘help kids grow
up well’. The project is also working out how large data sets can be shared and analysed to
determine where programs are most needed and where to focus interventions.
‘We know if we can get kids to age eight in good shape then those kids go on to be successful
teenagers and successful adults who can work and look after their own kids and contribute to
the community.’
Matthew Cox, (past) executive director of Logan Together. Logan Together is a community-based child
development and anti-poverty project based at Griffith University.

Organisational theories
In Chapter 5 we explored the knowledge base as one of the key foundations for social work and human Refer to
services. The relationship between theory and practice is central to our work. This also holds true for Chapter 5

the organisational context of our practice. You may be familiar with many theories that are relevant to
understanding organisations and working within them. Theories of organisational purpose, processes,
leadership and management, theories of change as well as theories of power, systems and the market
are all relevant to the human service organisation. Here we explore just a few theoretical perspectives,
but it is essential that you undertake further reading and study in this area – most programs in social
work and human services include a whole course on this topic.
Gardner (2016) suggests a number of theoretical perspectives that assist the practitioner in
organisational analysis of current human service organisations. Hughes and Wearing (2017) also
use organisational metaphors to assist the practitioner to understand the organisational context and
identify where things are working and where they are not.

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Recommended reading
Crisp, B. (2014). Social work and faith-based organisations. Routledge.
Gardner, F. (2016). Working with human service organisations: Creating connections for practice
(2nd ed.). Oxford University Press.
Hughes, M., & Wearing, M. (2017). Organisations and management in social work: Everyday action
for change (3rd ed.). Sage.

Organisations as machines: bureaucracy and

scientific management
The idea of organisations as machines includes several theories that largely see organisations
as comprised of a number of complex parts that work mechanically to optimise efficiency and
productivity (Hughes & Wearing, 2017). Here we will discuss two key theories: bureaucracy and
scientific management (this group also includes technocratic and managerialist theories about how
organisations work). The eminent sociologist Max Weber first theorised the nature of bureaucracies
in the nineteenth century. He proposed that bureaucracies were the prevailing form of organisation
in human society and were based on power, domination and authority. Weber suggested that there
were three kinds of authority: traditional authority that is afforded over time, charismatic authority
based on a particular person or leader with outstanding characteristics that inspire others to follow,
and legal–rational authority that is legitimised through rules and procedures that people accept and
obey. Bureaucracies are based on legal–rational authority and exhibit a number of characteristics:
they are large, impersonal, hierarchical, rule-oriented and rigid (Furman & Gibelman, 2013, p. 24).
They can also be highly technical and efficient in achieving desired outcomes. An understanding of
bureaucracies is helpful for many practitioners working in large human service organisations and
is especially useful in analysing the conflicts between professionals and organisations. The theory
of bureaucracy suggests that employees will be unconditionally loyal to their organisations, but
professionals are trained to exercise a high degree of autonomy and specialised skills and are socialised
to regard their profession as their point of reference rather than the organisation.
Scientific management emerged in the early twentieth century in response to the needs of managers
in industry to increase workers’ productivity. It was developed by Frederick Taylor, a mechanical
engineer, who regarded organisations as machines that could be made more efficient through
scientific observation and experiment. This organisational theory is also termed Taylorism, after
its originator. Scientific management regards managers as very separate from workers, who can be
made more productive by applying scientific study to improve their behaviours and industry processes.
Taylorism was the forerunner of many classical management theories that we now term formal theories
of administration, many of which are still widely applied today. This is especially true in the public
sector, where there is an increasing focus on performance enhancement, program budgeting, quality
and standards, audits, evaluation, efficiency and effectiveness. These attributes have been collectively
understood as new scientific management or managerialism. This concept of managerialism, discussed
Refer to in Chapter 2, has assumed a dominant role in many human service organisations over the past 20 to 25
Chapter 2 years, initially in the public sector but also now in NGOs funded to deliver human services.

The relational organisation

Human relations approaches emerged out of dissatisfaction with Taylorism and its predominant
focus on productivity through scientific management, and turned to the idea that the key to higher
productivity was to increase employee satisfaction (Robbins et al., 2019).
The initial impetus for the human relations approach came from the famous Hawthorne studies
in the 1920s at Western Electric Company in Hawthorne, Illinois. Originally, these were aimed at
determining the effects of different light levels on workers’ productivity – a very scientific management
approach! Using a control group and an experimental group, the researchers found that productivity
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increased in both groups and continued to increase in the experimental group even when the lighting
levels were reduced. It was the fact that they were being studied that increased their productivity,
rather than the lighting. This led to the finding that social factors have an impact on productivity, not
merely physical ones. The idea of social relations being important in organisations is commonplace
now but was a novel idea in the 1920s and 1930s, and further theories around human relations and
organisations were developed after these findings.
One important contribution to this theoretical domain was the work of Douglas McGregor, who
formulated Theory X and Theory Y: the now-famous concepts about human leadership styles. Theory
X rests on the assumption that people dislike work, are unmotivated, will avoid responsibility and
therefore need to be closely monitored and directed in their work. Theory Y, on the other hand,
essentially views people as liking to work, willing to accept responsibility and self-directed (Robbins
et al., 2019). McGregor argued that Theory Y was more accurate and therefore the best management
approach in organisations.
Human relations perspectives now dominate many organisational practices and have certainly
brought the needs of workers into focus. Hasenfeld (2015) observes that human service organisations
can better achieve their social rights goals when they are more relational rather than hierarchical; that
is, when power is distributed through interconnected interrelationships rather than held by those at the
top. It is important to recognise that the primary motivation in most human service organisations is still
productivity and control. Many strategies used in this approach (e.g. consultation and participation of
workers in decision making) are often criticised as being tokenistic and are really about management’s
ultimate control and power. Hasenfeld (2015) further argues that practices that arise through New
Public Management (NPM) are likely to undermine more relational practices by increasing requirements
for detailed performance accountability. NPM is a series of reforms initiated during the 1980s that
were aimed at improving the performance and efficiency of government services, largely by adopting a
private sector or business-like model that focused on treating customers as consumers and cutting costs.

Systems and ecological perspectives

A well-known practice approach in social work and human services is oriented to an understanding
of systems and ecological perspectives. We discussed this practice perspective in Chapter 5 and Refer to
include it here again as a useful theory in analysing organisations. Systems theory addresses the Chapter 5

importance of relationships and interconnections and can elucidate our thinking about how people and
organisations influence each other and are interconnected (Gardner, 2016). A systems or ecological–
theoretical analysis views the organisation as a living organism. It can highlight the whole rather
than only the parts and provide insights into the complexity of organisations. It is also useful for
understanding organisational change and organisational boundaries (is the organisation closed, open
or permeable?), as well as for recognising the formal and informal systems within the organisation.
Systems theories are sometimes criticised as being value-neutral and likely to condone unacceptable
behaviours, however inadvertently. But systems approaches can be combined with other theoretical
approaches to address these kinds of organisational issues.

Ife’s discourses of human services

In his book Rethinking Social Work, Jim Ife (1997) developed another framework for understanding
human service organisations. While this work is now quite dated, it does provide a very useful
way identifying four competing discourses in human service organisations. These are depicted in
Figure 7.3. Ife conceptualises these discourses as sitting along two axes, the first relating to power
dimensions and the second relating to knowledge dimensions. He sees power as ranging from the
hierarchic or top-down, to the anarchic or bottom-up. Ife argues that organisations based on
hierarchical notions of power assume that all the wisdom sits at the top, that policy should be made
at senior levels and that the workers’ job is to implement policy. Anarchic power is the opposite: wisdom
and action comes from below rather than above. In an anarchic power organisation, frontline workers
are seen as knowing more about the organisation than management and having more to contribute.

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Figure 7.3 Ife’s competing discourses of human services

HIERARCHIC
(Top-down)

MANAGERIAL PROFESSIONAL
• Welfare as product • Welfare as service
for the consumer for the client
• Worker as case manager • Worker as professional
• Accountable to • Accountable to client
management and profession

POSITIVIST HUMANIST
MARKET COMMUNITY
• Welfare as commodity • Welfare as participation
for the customer for the citizen
• Worker as broker or • Worker as community
entrepreneur enabler
• Accountable through • Accountable through
customer choice democratic decision making

ANARCHIC
(Bottom-up)
Adapted from Rethinking social work: Towards critical practice, J. Ife, 1997. Longman.

The knowledge dimension encompasses positivist and humanist poles. Positivism regards the social
world as being made up of objectively measured facts that can be studied and tested through scientific
methods. The humanist position, in contrast, emphasises that understanding comes from a range of
sources and that measurement is not central. The humanist position argues that the human condition,
human life and experiences are more important than objective fact. Values are a key feature to be
considered in the humanist approach, which places importance on uncertainty and difference.
In the four quadrants created by these axes, Ife situates the four discourses:
• Managerial discourse (hierarchic/positivist): emphasises ‘measurable outcomes, effectiveness,
the efficient use of resources, rational planning’ (Ife, 1997, p. 48). The human service client is a
‘consumer’ and the worker a ‘case manager’.
• Market discourse (anarchic/positivist): also based on measured outcomes and rationality but
relies on the human service ‘market’ where the client is a customer of services that are brokered
by the worker. Ife regarded both these discourses as reflecting a business rather than a service
based on people’s needs.
• Professional discourse (hierarchic/humanist): reflects perhaps the most traditional human
service. Here, the service focus is the needs of the client, which are then addressed by the
professional worker (e.g. social worker, psychologist or therapist). While professionals operate
within a value framework, Ife expresses concerns that power and control are still retained
by the professional worker. Ife suggests that the fourth discourse, community discourse, is a
preferable approach.
• Community discourse (anarchic/humanist): emphasises human services as ‘social activity, or
participation in a community context’ (Ife, 1997, p. 50). Here the client is a citizen or participant
and the worker a community enabler with an overall emphasis on process rather than outcome.
Ife’s discourses are useful in identifying some of the conflicts and tensions that human service
workers face. We are all too often caught in competing discourses – our employers want us to be more

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businesslike and efficient, our professional training indicates our practice should be empathetic to
clients’ needs and situations, while the issue at hand demands a community participation approach.
Gardner (2016) argues that our professional training should also include awareness of and skills in
the fourth community discourse.
We have explored a number of theories relevant to developing our understanding and analysis of the
human service organisation. As future practitioners, it is important that you understand organisations
and how they work. Armed with this perspective, we can more confidently negotiate the organisational
maze of human service practice.

Working in the human service organisation

We have defined and discussed the features of human service organisations, investigated some
organisational theories and outlined the kinds of organisations that deliver human services. We now
consider what it means to work in these organisations. As we have described, almost all social work
and human service practitioners are organisationally based. Much of our work is organisational in
nature; that is, it requires organisational knowledge and skills. Whether we are frontline workers or
managers, our practice requires organisational competency.
In Table 7.2 we introduce five aspects of practice in organisations: engagement, assessment,
intervention, closure and review. We will revisit these in more detail in Chapter 8, where we discuss Refer to
the helping process in relation to direct practice. It is important to point out that these aspects are Chapter 8

not meant to be understood as operating linearly but are organised to reflect the range of activities a
practitioner may undertake within an organisation.

Table 7.2 Examples of practice within human service organisations

Engagement • Learning about your agency, its structure and culture

• Learning about how the agency is situated with community
• Recruiting staff, volunteers
• Engaging with agency stakeholders
Assessment • Assessing agency structure
• Analysing agency policy
• Analysing agency needs
• Determining client population needs analysis
• Exploring strength of relationships with external entities
Intervention • Developing the human service organisation
• Changing the human service organisation
• Strategic planning
• Program planning
• Working with boards and management committees
• Conducting effective staff meetings
• Building teams
• Establishing interagency collaborations
• Writing submissions and grant applications
• Fundraising
• Preparing budgets
• Influencing policy and legislation
• Running a media campaign
Closure • Conducting exit interviews with staff
• Closing programs
• Terminating contracts
• Reporting to funders
Review • Program evaluation
• Professional supervision
• Conducting professional education and training

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Working in human service organisations does raise many issues for the new practitioner. Conflicts
between personal and professional needs, ethical questions, dealing with complex problems, securing
funding for programs, are all part of contemporary human service practice. In this section we will
explore issues that are especially relevant to the organisational context of practice. This is by no means
an exhaustive list, only examples of the kinds of tensions typical of work in a human service agency.

Key roles in the human service organisation

In your career you may occupy several different roles in various organisations. Often, we are not
appointed as a ‘social worker’ or ‘welfare worker’ although that may be how we identify ourselves.
Hughes and Wearing (2017) provide a useful overview of the various roles and stakeholders in human
service organisations. These are:
• The professional: has specialised knowledge, considerable autonomy and authority, committed to
professional behaviour, altruistic values and often guided by a code of ethics.
• The manager: has organisational skills, involved in managing resources, staff, coordinating
systems to ensure the organisation functions to meet its goals.
• The support staff: covers all kinds of roles, as administration, office workers, IT staff, providers
of direct care.
• The leader: usually seen as highly competent and possessing a high level of authority, and is
focused on future growth and development. Leaders who are not the most senior executive
can also emerge as practice leaders who possess advanced professional expertise that is highly
valued.
• The volunteer: this group forms a key and often large part of the workforce in human service
organisations covering many activities, from providing care and in-home support, to office work
or to being on the board or management committee of the organisation.
• The service user: the most important group; seen as client, customer, consumer, patient or resident
and key to the organisation’s existence. Service users are often seen as lacking organisational
competence despite their own expertise from their own lived experience. Increasing client
involvement in decision making has been promoted for several years, though this can be criticised
as rhetoric and tokenistic in some cases. In some sectors, such as services for people with a
disability, this has progressed to a deeper level with co-design of programs and policy.

The quest for funding

The issue of funding always has an impact on practice. In government agencies, there is an expectation
that programs will operate within a budget that is politically determined. The majority of non-
government agencies obtain funding from a range of sources. The most recent data indicates that in
Australia, 88 per cent of funding in community service organisations comes from government, with
the remainder generated from client fees and the agency’s own funding sources, such as donations,
private benefactors and fundraising. The welfare spend in Australia in 2019 to 2020 was $195 billion
targeted to 39 per cent older people; 26 per cent people with a disability; 20 per cent families and
children; 9.5 per cent people who were unemployed. The remaining 6.5% targeted Indigenous people
and homelessness (Australian Institute of Health and Welfare [AIHW], 2022)
Funding issues impact on practice in a number of ways. If you are a practitioner employed in an NGO
(see below), you may be involved in writing submissions, preparing tenders and expressions of interest
for various funding programs, or making speeches at service club dinners to attract sponsorship,
all of which require a range of specialised skills. As well as applying for funds, there are increasing
requirements for reporting on and accounting for spending. These activities, termed ‘burdensome
compliance’ by one service manager, also take up valuable time – time which many practitioners feel
would be better spent working with clients.

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Practitioner perspective

I have worked in both government and not-for-profit organisations in my career. I have also
served on boards of not-for-profits and was chair for one of these. In my government roles
there was initially an adequate budget to deliver good services, but later there were cuts and
a requirement to drive efficiencies and have a surplus at the end of the year. This was then
returned to consolidated revenue and the budget was reduced by that amount for the following
year. I later came to understand this as New Public Management but at the time, I thought
it was a form of craziness. Later I worked in a small not-for-profit which relied on recurrent
government grants to sustain it. This was quite secure for a number of years but then the whole
sector changed as competitive tendering became the norm. The staff became more involved
in delivering services to some of our constituents on a fee-paying basis and contracting for
projects that could bring in some revenue to support the work. It’s interesting now to see what
is happening in terms of individualised funding where these organisations now have to market
what they do to win over customers.
Lesley Chenoweth

With the advent of competitive tendering and later commissioning of services and programs,
government funding is now much more targeted and specific in its allocation to particular services
or programs. This means that service delivery has become more fragmented and narrowly confined
to ‘silos’. For practitioners this can mean having to ‘fit’ clients into particular categories of need in
order to qualify for the service provided. Another related trend is that funding is more likely to be
directed to a very specific problem to be addressed within a shorter timeframe. This translates into
fewer services able to consider the whole family or community or able to help with the complexities
of families with many needs across several areas. More policies and programs have moved to direct
payments or self-directed funding models. In these systems, payments can be made directly to clients
to purchase their services from established human services providers or private agencies. The National
Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) in Australia, now organised through the National Disability
Insurance Agency (NDIA), is such a model. After an assessment of need and determination of supports,
funding can be paid directly to the person with a disability or their family or assigned to an agency to
manage the funding under the direction of the service user. These models are well established in the
United Kingdom in disability, aged care and health sectors and are said to put more choice and control
in the hands of the client. A potential longer-term outcome of these models is that more individual
practitioners are operating as private businesses rather than in human service organisations.
Marketing and promoting one’s skills and expertise to client groups requires skills in marketing and
self-promotion. The notion of the ‘solopreneur’, someone who is creating their own brand and niche in
these new marketplaces, is very new to social work and human services. Solopreneurs are not out to
build empires or new organisations or hire other people but rather create their own niche of expertise
that clients are seeking.
A final issue is that funding also tends to be provided in response to existing problems rather than
looking at prevention, early intervention or more developmental interventions. This can mean that a
practice may seem to be applying what are often called ‘Band-Aid solutions’ rather than working on the
source of the client’s problem or need, or exploring factors that may predispose people to later problems.

Professionals
Human service organisations employ a range of people with different levels and types of qualifications
and training, although the professional workforce profile appears to have changed over the past decade.
According to data from AIHW, 588 000 people were employed in the Australian welfare sector in
2020. This was an increase of 53 per cent over the period 2010 to 2020. When the health workforce is
added to this, there were over a million people employed in services that assist others in some way

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(AIHW, 2022). The welfare workforce is typically characterised by part-time workers (50%) and is
predominantly female (87%), which necessitates flexibility in organisational structures.
One of the arguments about the impacts of managerialism and neoliberal policies is that
professionals have lost much of their autonomy. Decisions have become subject to stringent
accountability requirements that serve the organisation’s goals of efficiency and measurable outcomes.
There have been claims that ‘content-free managers’, for example people with degrees in management
and business, dictate what human service professionals do with clients and these directives do not
always align with the values of professions that are person-centred and relational. Furthermore, many
professionals have been replaced by less qualified staff for economic rationalist reasons, particularly
in the community services sector.
Refer to In Chapter 4, we explored the regulatory frameworks that govern the professions that fall under
Chapter 4 the jurisdiction of Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency (AHPRA), and made the case that
those self-regulated professions also have obligations to ensure ethical professional practice. Human
service organisations need to be cognisant of the range of professions that fall under their employment
and ensure that there is a synergy between the professional requirements and expectations and those
of the organisation. For example, the Australian Association of Social Workers (AASW, 2020, p.24)
Code of Ethics (Section 7.1.7 ) states explicitly in relation to social workers that ‘Social workers will
uphold the ethical principles and responsibilities of this Code, even though employers’ policies or
official orders may not be compatible with its provisions. Attempts to resolve conflicts between ethical
principles and organisational policies and practices will remain consistent with the principles and
responsibilities outlined in this Code’. What this means is that social workers are firstly obligated by
their professional code of ethics, and where there might be conflict with an organisation’s policies or
values, need to take steps to address this in a constructive way.

Context and place

We tend to think of human service organisations as having clear structures with defined governance
arrangements and specified locations. However, many practitioners work in organisations not bound by
these parameters. Increasingly, human service organisations may be located in rural centres or may use
outreach models of service delivery where practitioners travel to remote locations intermittently. More
services and transactions are occurring via mobile phone, internet interfaces and online platforms.
International work may involve working for large global NGOs in remote and/or difficult circumstances
with few infrastructure supports.
Michael Zapf (2009) outlines some important ways to consider people and place in our work. While
Zapf is concerned chiefly with the environment and sustainability, the ideas in his book spark some
interesting questions about the nature of organisations in different environments. Considering
the person-in-environment framework for ecological social work, a sense of place and the natural
geography of one’s work context, as well as one’s attachment to that place, are perhaps best developed
in rural and remote practice. We argue here that place can also be an important parameter of the human
service organisation. As Sophie outlines in her perspective below, where one works – the spaces and
places where practice is performed – take on new meanings in remote areas.

Practitioner perspective

My work area is pretty unique. I live in a remote Aboriginal community in Western Australia,
and my line manager lives 700 kilometres away on gravel roads. Most weeks, I would clock up
400 kilometres in travel between communities to see people. My colleagues and I often comment
that we cannot separate work and life in our job. Even going down to the local shop on Saturday
morning creates opportunities to see clients in an informal way. Our work is particularly visible
too – everyone notices when the child protection mob are talking to a family. There are no
genuinely private places to do work, especially when we are in communities that do not have

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a child protection office. Even if we do have an office, though, everyone notices where we go
and with whom. We have to do the best we can to protect people’s privacy, but also be realistic
about the nature of small community life. The main way to approach work is to encourage lots
of informal contact with different families – relationships are always the key! If you have the
relationships built, then doing work if something comes up is much easier. People often say to
me that they could never do what I do. Like a lot of things, however, the reality is never the same
as what we imagine, especially when the media feeds negative images of remote Aboriginal
communities. In fact, the communities I live and work in are ‘dry’, which means that there is no
alcohol sold. We still have challenges, but that is the case for lots of disadvantaged communities.
Living and working remote is not for everyone. I like the quiet life. I certainly enjoy the autonomy
and responsibility that comes by necessity of my location. While there are always bureaucratic
hurdles (which seem to be amplified when the system is set up to respond to staff predominantly
in urban areas), the opportunity to be a frontline worker in such a challenging environment
makes it worthwhile.
Sophie Staughton

Management and leadership

Leadership is fundamental to any efforts made to improve the services and supports offered through
human service organisations. It is one of the eight domains of practice discussed in Chapter 1. Refer to
Under managerialism, organisations have expended much energy to improve management, but we Chapter 1

suggest that there is a crucial need for leadership in the human services. Management is largely
about technical and scientific approaches to achieving order and administration. However, we need
leadership to communicate guiding visions, values and beliefs, and to support individuals making the
journeys to their desired outcome. Rofuth and Piepenbring (2020) explain that leaders need to focus on
understanding organisational culture, exude transparent communication and be in a perpetual state
of reflection. They need to actively engage with staff and demonstrate emotional regulation when
dealing with disappointment or frustration.
As previously mentioned, under the influence of public management approaches, many human
service organisations have experienced ‘content-free management’, whereby they have been headed
by people with general management expertise but no real knowledge of human services or the people
who use those services. This has created tensions between frontline workers and practitioners, who
feel their knowledge and expertise is undervalued, and the managers who want to increase efficiencies
and outcomes.
We suggest that more social work and human service practitioners need to become involved in
leadership at a number of levels in organisations. This can happen in several ways. First, leadership
is needed at the frontline of human services – what could be termed ‘practice leadership’. Practice
leadership involves fostering and supporting new practitioners, mentoring others and sustaining
strong values in direct service work in order to sustain and develop good practice within complex
human service organisations (Wills & Chenoweth, 2005). Second, we need to foster and support
leadership development of service recipients and communities to enable their participation in service
planning and delivery. Finally, frontline practitioners should consider themselves suitable candidates
for assuming leadership positions in the organisation. This may require additional training and
education as well as a willingness to take on more management roles.

Collaboration and working in teams

As employees of human service agencies, you will have to work with others both inside and outside
your organisation. Collaboration is, therefore, a constant and crucial aspect of organisational practice.
Collaboration is a process whereby two or more people work together to achieve a common goal or serve
shared interests. For example, within our agencies we may collaborate with other professionals in

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interdisciplinary teams working with clients, whereas outside our organisations we may collaborate
with staff from other agencies to coordinate better service delivery or avoid duplicating services. In
this section we discuss two aspects of collaboration: working in teams within an organisation and
collaborating across agencies.

Working in teams within an organisation

Working in teams can be a very positive aspect of human service work (Gardner, 2016). Teams can
be productive, achieve great outcomes for clients and be a real learning experience for individual
members. However, when teams are dysfunctional, this can be one of the most difficult aspects of
practice. This may result in stress, conflict, plummets in morale and lower productivity because
everyone’s energy is directed to managing the conf licts rather than getting the job done and
maintaining focus on clients.
There are many models of teamwork. Some may be led by a manager or team leader while others
are self-managed with a set of required objectives and a directive to report back to management.
There are two main concepts of team approaches. The first is multidisciplinary, whereby individual
professionals contribute their own skills and knowledge and are co-located. The second approach is
interdisciplinary, involving a more active integration of skills and experience in client-centred care,
with the aim of shared understandings and ways of working towards common ground rather than
difference (Pockett, 2010).
Teams may be made up of many kinds of professionals; for example, in a hospital rehabilitation
setting, social workers, therapists, psychologists, doctors and nurses might all work with a group
of patients. Highly productive teams usually have a shared vision, democratic decision making,
encourage open communication and operate in a spirit of trust and respect. It is also important
for teams to respect the individual skills and contributions of each member, and members of high-
performing teams usually are prepared to move outside their own professional sphere to achieve the
team’s goals (Brody & Nair, 2014).
Increasingly, teams are adopting models of interprofessional education and interprofessional
practice. Interprofessional practice is the industry term for ‘two or more professions working
together as a team with a common purpose, commitment and mutual respect’ (Freeth et al., 2005,
cited in Dunston et al., 2009, p. 6). In your courses you may have had opportunities to learn alongside
students from other professional groups, such as nurses, occupational therapists or lawyers. This
trend to interprofessional learning has gained momentum over the past decade. There is also great
value in learning about the value and ethical positions of people from different disciplines, so that
complex ethical dilemmas can be worked through collaboratively for the best interests of clients
(McAuliffe, 2021).
These developments have largely been within the health sector, both in higher education and in
healthcare delivery. Bringing students from various health disciplines to work together on problems,
projects and assignments is thought to facilitate better team collaboration after they graduate and to
foster interprofessional practice. Here, the objective is that shared understandings and knowledge and
crossing traditional professional boundaries will lead to better practice approaches (Pockett, 2010).
Many organisations are committed to teamwork approaches and may devote time and resources
to team building and fostering better team processes. Team members may be requested to participate
in team-building exercises aimed at encouraging team harmony, learning how to deal with conflict
productively and fostering a positive team culture. Teamwork can be difficult and time consuming
but also one of the most rewarding aspects of practice.
Drinka and Clark (2016) have developed a useful table that sets out the components and variables
of an interprofessional healthcare team shown below in Table 7.3. There are personal and professional
issues that directly influence practice, issues within the team that include team structure and process,
internal and external organisational issues, and actions that are necessary for a team to maintain
good communication and functioning over time. Paying attention to these factors will help to keep a
team working well together.

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Negotiating the maze: the organisational context of practice / CHAPTER 7

Table 7.3 The interprofessional healthcare team: components and variables

1 Issues that directly influence practice
Personal Professional
• Appreciate age/gender/culture • Become expert in your specialty
• Acquire communication skills • Clarify professional values
• Exhibit energy for teamwork • Respect professional differences
• Understand your styles of relating • Broadly know health care
• Be willing to risk/be flexible • Willingly share clients
• Know your leadership styles • Attain professional maturity
• Remain open to new knowledge • Know roles of others
• Know and understand yourself • Know systems
• Respect yourself • Know how different professionals problem-solve
• Monitor your personal conflict styles • Allow time to work with a team
• Know when and how to work as a team
2 Intra-team issues
Team structure Team process
• Establish formal leadership • Negotiate informal leadership
• Recognise norms • Set goals
• Determine team composition • Appreciate different values
• Communicate formal professional roles • Negotiate team roles
• Recognise team culture • Build trust
• Recognise professional status • Communicate
• Establish equal status for problem solving • Collectively define complex problems
• Structure for efficient interaction • Continually problem-solve/influence
• Structure for innovation • Recognise and manage conflict as it arises
3 Organisational issues
Internal organisation External organisation
• Monitor and support team’s philosophy • Promote national policy that helps teamwork
• Allocate resources to support the team • Monitor and encourage funding sources
• Establish and support flexible rules • Exhibit supportive philosophy
• Simplify structure • Understand interprofessional principles
4 Actions necessary for team maintenance over time
Team Organisation
• Establish time to create structure and work on process • Communicate organisation’s mission to the team
• Members use power for decision making • Protect the team from outside negative forces
• All commit to freedom of dissent • Respond in a problem-solving manner to the team’s requests
• Team evaluates and manages itself for help
• Members promptly address and resolve conflict • Communicate organisation’s mission to the team
• Ongoing members teach leadership to new members • Use team feedback to revise team mission
• Allow the team to manage itself
• Give constructive feedback to the team
• Assign sufficient time to work with a team
• Collect long-term data

Source: Healthcare teamwork: Interprofessional practice and education (2nd ed.)

by T. Drinka & P. Clark, 2016, pp. 73–74. Praeger.

Collaborating across agencies

Collaboration across agencies occurs when two or more organisations perceive that their goals
can be achieved most effectively with the assistance and resources of others (Brody & Nair, 2014,
p. 227). Alliances across organisations can involve pooling resources, sharing expertise or setting
out agreements about mutual understandings and activities. In recent years as human services have
tended towards the ‘silos’ discussed previously in relation to funding, the need for collaboration has
increased. Prescribed organisational boundaries and tighter categories of service eligibility have led

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to clients slipping through the gaps of service responsibilities. For example, an agency may not be
funded to provide services to a particular group (e.g. those living outside their geographical area or
having higher-level health needs) but may be concerned that these people are being excluded from
much-needed services.
Collaboration across agencies is certainly not an easy task. Organisations usually want to preserve
their identity and retain power over their own resources and decisions. Competition also acts as a
barrier to collaboration in many situations. However, complex problems such as homelessness,
inadequate housing, serious mental illness and addictions simply cannot be addressed without
extensive collaboration across many sectors. At the most serious end of the spectrum, for example,
there have been coronial investigations of tragic child deaths where it has been claimed that the
failure to communicate across child welfare, police and mental health agencies has contributed to the
child’s death. Such claims, although perhaps sensationalised at times in the media, do highlight the
increasing need for agencies to collaborate on many serious issues.
Issues of boundaries and discipline ‘territory’ and consequent power imbalances across different
professions still exist. You may also find yourself having to counter assumptions and stereotypes
of clients held by other team members or advocating a broader perspective on a client’s problems.
Nevertheless, as Doel and Shardlow (2017) argue, social workers and human service practitioners are
well placed to work collaboratively with other professionals; that is, we go beyond the mere technical
in order to understand broader systems and perspectives.
As a practitioner you may also become involved in various interorganisational collaborations. These
include working on an interagency committee in a rural area to coordinate scarce services, being on
a government taskforce to develop solutions to homelessness, working with another organisation
to develop a joint training program, or developing a partnership with a university to create a joint
research project to develop an evidence base for practice.

Recommended reading
Anning, A., Cottrell, D., Frost, N., Green, J., & Robinson, M. (2010). Developing multi-professional
teamwork for integrated children’s services. Open University Press.
Brody, R., & Nair, M. (2014). Effectively managing and leading human service organizations (4th ed.).
Sage.
Fishel, D. (2014) The book of the Board: Effective governance for non-profit organisations. Federation
Press.
Pockett, R. (2010). Interprofessional education for practice: Some implications for Australian
social work. Australian Social Work, 63(2), 207–222. https://doi.org/10.1080/03124070903060059

Activity 7.2

1 Give a three-sentence description of the role of the following professionals who all
might work alongside social work and human service workers: occupational therapist,
rehabilitation counsellor, environmental planner, human resource manager, psychologist,
speech pathologist, chaplain, teacher and accountant.
2 In what organisational context might you work with one of these people?

The importance of relationships

Relationships form the core of all social work and human service practice and we address their role and
function for practice many times in this book. Working in organisations is yet another context where
relationship-based practice is key (Ruch, 2005). This requires us to develop and sustain professional
relationships with those within the organisation (e.g. colleagues, managers, supervisors, board
members and consumer representatives) as well as clients and those external to the organisation

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(e.g. other agencies, government officers, other private professionals, funders, the community).
The notion of relationship-based practice, while initially applied in direct practice contexts in
child protection, is now explored more deeply vis-à-vis the difficulties created by the need to meet
organisational demands, thus leaving insufficient time for direct practice (Harris & White, 2018).

Human services: a risky business?

Risk and its management are now integral to working in the human services. Human service
organisations are required to assess the risks associated with all their activities and minimise adverse
outcomes.

Individuals and organisations charged with getting risk right are required to defend these decisions, often
from litigation, and formalised assessment methods are used to replace the vagaries of professional
judgement. (Kemshall, 2002, p. 9)

The study of ‘risk’ for social work and human services involves grappling with the ‘complex
interplay between human behaviour, emotion, evidence of fact, professional values and organisational
systems’ (Whittaker & Taylor, 2017, p. 375).
For practitioners this may mean carrying out risk assessments for all activities, including direct
contact with clients and, in the event of an adverse incident, facing the prospect of individual blame.
Kemshall (2002) calls this the ‘forensic functions’ of risk, where every sickness, accident or adverse
event has to be someone’s fault. Sarah Banks (2009) also describes this as a tension between being
accountable and being responsive, and cites the case of a social worker who, hearing of a client’s
suicide, had the immediate, panicked reaction of worrying whether the file was up to date. Practitioners
in such situations therefore become afraid of reprimand, dismissal or even litigation, so they retreat
to safer but restrictive options for the people they serve.
Sonya Stanford (2010, p. 1065) has further explored the concept of ‘risk identities’ in her research
and concluded that social workers generally ‘fear for our physical and mental wellbeing; we fear that
we will be blamed when things go wrong; and we fear the loss of integrity of our profession’. The strong
message from this research is that those working in areas of social work and human services need to
understand the concept of risk-taking as an integral part of practice, and organisations need to support
workers to take risks on behalf of clients. Stanford (2010, p. 1078) encourages human service managers
to ‘exert their influence in creating organisational systems, management practices and team climates
that enable staff to take risks in the service of their clients’.
As a practitioner working in a human service organisation, you will inevitably encounter dilemmas
around risk. There is heightened complexity in needing to consider the organisational system activities,
such as the assessment and management of risk, alongside the professional tasks of actually working
with clients. Increasingly, organisations have become more ‘risk averse’ within a wider societal culture
of blame, creating challenges that we must work with every day (Whittaker & Havard, 2016).

Practitioner perspective

When considering ethics and its relationship to social work practice today, we need to consider
the changing context of practice. The past decade has seen an accelerating change beyond the
traditional social work settings of government and non-government. Social workers now work
in direct service delivery, policy and management roles in a wider array of settings including
traditional government settings (e.g. schools, hospitals and social security), not-for-profit
corporates (e.g. Lifeline, Anglicare, Relationships Australia etc), for-profit corporates (e.g. aged
care providers), community run organisations (e.g. neighbourhood houses and environmental
advocacy organisations), and private practice (i.e. single owner/operators and practice networks
where individual contractor practitioners operate with shared administrative support and
facilities). Each of these contexts carries its own machinery of governance in the form of codes of

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conduct, covenants and Standards, and legal requirements that sit beside and interplay with the
AASW Code of Ethics. This interplay can throw up new challenges, for instance a social worker
who works part-time in a health service and who runs a small private practice as an accredited
mental health social worker may receive counselling referrals from GPs for clients that are or
have been on their caseloads at the hospital … this may constitute a breach of ethics particularly
if the GP has related to the social worker in both roles and uses the referral as a continuity of
care process.
Similarly, social workers setting up their own private practice need to comply with the business
and marketing regulations that govern their financial and management practices including how
they price, promote and manage their practice – this includes the perception of the client about
what service(s) they are purchasing from the provider.
The reconceptualisation of the ‘client’ into a ‘customer’ or ‘consumer’ is part of the culture
that is driving some human service organisations in an increasingly competitive ‘market driven’
environment. This is accompanied by a better-informed community that has access to resources
such as ‘Dr Google’, which allow them to present to services with pre-conceived ideas of the
‘product’ or outcome that they want from that service. In some ways social workers with their
overriding commitment to ‘social justice’ and the ‘service ethos’ that underpins the profession
are unprepared to operate in this environment.
When a complaint is lodged against a social worker in relation to a possible breach of ethics it
is always challenging for them, sometimes devastating. They are often confronted by a client or
an organisation reporting a completely different understanding of the events and experiences
that they have shared, and questioning their competence and professionalism. Unpicking the
narratives that lead to these differences points to the need to have a better understanding of
the context in which they are practising, including focusing on changing and extended roles in
competitive market places, business management and profit-making ventures.
Elizabeth Little

Setting up a human service organisation

At some point in your career in the human services you may find yourself involved in the establishment
of a new organisation. This may be in response to an emerging unmet need in the community or arise
from a group of stakeholders committed to establishing an organisation in line with shared values
and goals. However, setting up a new organisation should be the last resort in addressing unmet
needs. Before embarking on this process you should do a community scan. Are there already agencies
providing these services? Should you join with them to increase capacity rather than setting up a
new entity?
If the decision is to establish a not-for-profit organisation, there are a number of issues to be
considered. First, a formal organisation requires legal status. There are several ways to achieve this.
In Australia, associations can be incorporated under the relevant Associations Incorporation Acts in
each state or territory, or the Aboriginal Councils and Associations Act 1976 (Cth). Because incorporation
law is state and territory based, an association may be limited to operating in only one jurisdiction.
Alternatively, the group can become a company limited by guarantee. This will enable it to conduct
its business all over Australia and protects members (e.g. shareholders, board members and directors)
from being held responsible for any debts incurred. More information is available from the Our
Community Group website at: https://www.ourcommunity.com.au.
In Aotearoa New Zealand, not-for-profits can be incorporated societies or charitable trusts. An
incorporated society is a group or organisation that has been registered under the Incorporated Societies
Act 1908 (NZ) and, when incorporated, is authorised by law to run its affairs as though it were an
individual person. As in Australia, the members are not personally liable for the society’s debts,
contracts or other obligations, and members do not have any personal interest in any property or
assets owned by the society. Charitable trusts are established by an individual or group who want
208 Copyright 2024 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. WCN 02-300

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Negotiating the maze: the organisational context of practice / CHAPTER 7

to leave a lasting legacy in aid of a charitable cause. This might be through leaving funds in a will or
entering a deed of trust. More information is available from the Incorporated Societies Register at:
https://is-register.companiesoffice.govt.nz.
We can provide only an overview of this topic here. There are many legal and governance matters
that require thorough consideration. If you wish to pursue setting up an organisation, it is essential
that you consult people with the relevant knowledge and expertise.

Activity 7.3

Imagine you have a new job and will soon start work in a large, community-based human
service organisation.
1 How might you prepare yourself and what information do you need prior to your start date?
2 How will you go about finding out about the structure of this organisation?
3 What is the best way of getting to know who is who when you start work?
4 What knowledge and theories might assist you in this? How will you negotiate the maze?

STUDY
TOOLS

Conclusion
In this chapter we have explored the nature and characteristics of human service organisations and offered some
of the theoretical frameworks for analysing and understanding them. We have also outlined some of the tensions
and dilemmas that organisations pose for our practice. One of the most outstanding features of human service
organisations and working in them is the level of complexity. Complexities are generated by the nature of the
issues, the number and range of systems involved both within and outside the organisation, the difficulties of
communication, and competing agendas. Unravelling these complexities requires considerable time and skill but
will help us move forward in achieving our goals and give us an astute understanding of our organisation and skills
– essential foundations for our human service journey. Having a solid organisational analysis and an understanding
of the environment of risk is like having a map and feeling confident about finding the way out of the maze and
being able to move forward.

Questions
1 What are the characteristics of the human service organisation?
2 What are faith-based organisations and how are these different from other non-government organisations?
3 What is scientific management and how have these ideas carried through to contemporary human service
organisations?
4 What are the five key components for the success of collective impact? What do you understand this term to
mean?
5 What is your understanding of the term ‘interprofessional practice’ and what are some of the advantages and
challenges of working in teams?
6 What do you understand about the concept of risk as it relates to work in the human services?

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Weblinks
Australian Centre for Philanthropy and Nonprofit Teamwork links: Selected reviews of teamwork
Studies websites
https://research.qut.edu.au/australian-centre-for- http://reviewing.co.uk/toolkit/teams-and-teamwork.
philanthropy-and-nonprofit-studies htm

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8
CHAPTER
Plunging in: engagement,
assessment, intervention,
closure and review

Chapter 8
Plunging in
This chapter explores the
diﬀerent models of helping We also look at
and outlines the steps of
the helping process

The impact of The importance of

digital technologies documentation

The models of helping process

Problem Ongoing
Planned Integrated
solving and work with
change framework
digital literacy people

We lay out the steps of the process using the following framework

Engagement Assessment Intervention Closure Review

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Aims

• Understand different models that explain the helping process

• Explore the five steps of the helping process: engagement, assessment, intervention,
closure and review
• Understand the requirements of documentation and the need for digital literacy and
technology in the human services

Introduction
So far, we have covered significant ground laying out the contextual landscape of social work and
human services. We have identified the domains and history, discussed the value and ethical base of
practice, explored the knowledge and theory that guides and informs what we do, described the fields
and methods of practice, and explored organisational structures. We have also discussed how many
concepts in human services are contested; how there are different views about human behaviour,
which values are most important, how professions should be regulated, and which skills are most
relevant. We now turn our focus on the skills that you will need to enable you to confidently begin
working with people.
There is little argument that human services and social work inevitably involves processes that
have a preparatory phase leading to a beginning, a middle stage where the work is essentially done,
and an end when the work is completed (Bogo, 2006). These processes may be applied differently,
depending on the organisational context of the work or the particular group or community that is
the focal point of service but, essentially, interactions with other people need to be purposeful and
intentional.
This purpose is to make connections and build relationships with clients and others in a meaningful
and purposive way (engagement) with the intention of gathering all necessary information to find
out what is going on (assessment) and then taking some form of action (or inaction) as a result
(intervention). When you and the client or community reach a conclusion and, as a result, take
action, the process with the individual, group or community can be finalised (closure) and you can
think about and reflect on what you did and what you could have done differently or perhaps better
(evaluation or review).
A range of different terms are applied to different parts of this process. The task of this chapter is to
identify the stages of the process of working with others and explore the many issues that you need to
consider. How you portray yourself as a human services or social worker depends on your personality,
values, knowledge and skills, including ‘use of self’ as previously discussed.
Having insight into your ‘use of self’ is an important starting point. Think back to some of the
Refer to questions raised in Chapter 1 about your motivations for pursuing this type of work, your personal
Chapter 1
background and early experiences, your cultural affiliations and your attitudes towards people who
seek help. What you bring to this work is the launching pad for relationships that may be different
from those you have experienced before with family, friends or co-workers. Developing sound skills
in different phases of the helping process will hold you steady.

Exploring the helping process

Many books have been written on the processes that make up a helping relationship and the skills
Refer to needed to ensure that human service work is purposive and meaningful. In Chapter 5, we discussed
Chapter 5
how theoretical perspectives are applied and how the way we see the world can strongly influence
our practice. The range of available ‘helping models’ demonstrates the application of theory. We look
at some examples of ways that such helping models are constructed.

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Models of helping
The first model we will discuss was developed by Compton et al. (2005). Although this is an older text,
it does show how diagrammatic representation of the helping process has remained solid over time.
It sets out in diagrammatic form what the authors term ‘the phases of the problem-solving process’.
Although the authors state that their model is ‘not based on any particular theoretical orientation’
(p. 78), it is clear that the strengths and systems perspectives are the foundation of the model and
influence each stage of the process. There are four defined phases of problem-solving, as set out in
detail in Figure 8.1. The engagement phase involves making contact, exploring needs and setting
preliminary goals. The assessment phase involves collecting information, prioritising issues and
agreeing on action. The intervention phase involves implementing and modifying strategies to achieve
goals. The evaluation phase involves reviewing what has happened, celebrating progress and either
concluding the work or negotiating a continued relationship. Each of these phases relies on an ‘active
worker–client collaborative partnership’ in which clients are defined as either ‘applicants’ (those
seeking services voluntarily), ‘prospects’ (those to whom services may be offered) or ‘respondents’
(those who are referred to services).
One of the three authors of the initial text went on to write a different text that explores social
work skills in a more explicit way. In this text, Cournoyer (2017) provides a slightly different
illustration to show how the original four phases of engagement, assessment, intervention
and evaluation are supported by the seven identified skills of preparing, beginning, exploring,
assessing, contracting, working, evaluating and ending. Figure 8.2 shows the connections between
the phases and process.
The second model is the planned change process developed by Sheafor and Horejsi (2015). While
the steps in the process resemble those outlined in Figure 8.1, a significant difference is that the
emphasis is on the change process itself, defined as ‘a planned series or sequence of actions directed
towards the achievement of a specific end’ (Sheafor & Horejsi, 2015, p. 104). The phases of the
planned change process, as shown in Figure 8.3, include intake and engagement, data collection
and assessment, planning and contracting, intervention and monitoring, and finally evaluation
and closure.
It is interesting to note that these authors, as well as the authors of the previous model, refer to
their processes as being a spiral. Sheafor and Horejsi (2015, p. 108) suggest that ‘In reality, change
rarely proceeds in an orderly fashion, rather, it is more of a spiral, with frequent returns to prior
phases for clarification or a reworking of various tasks and activities’. Compton et al. (2005, p. 79)
comment that ‘the problem-solving process involves several phases that often emerge in spiral-
like fashion’.
The third model, developed by Levine (2013), is illustrated in Figure 8.4, and has been included
because it shows how some of the assessment and intervention steps can be further broken down
to include goal-setting and contracting as specific parts of the process.
In Figure 8.4, practitioner activities are placed along a continuum, from engagement to
disengagement in a spiral. The structure has nine steps:

1 engagement
2 assessing and defining the problem
3 setting goals
4 selecting alternative methods and an initial mode of intervention
5 establishing a contract
6 action leading towards the desired goal
7 evaluating and continuing working plan
8 abandoning unsuccessful intervention and selecting a different approach
9 termination (Levine, 2013, pp. 121–122).

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Figure 8.1 Phases of the problem-solving process

Engagement

Preparing for engagement

Applicants
Inviting and encouraging
Prospects Contact
Making contact participation
Respondents
Clarifying purpose and expectations

Inviting applicants’ participation

and encouraging development of
collaborative partnerships

Exploring and seeking to understand

applicants’ views of presenting
problems and situations
Evaluation Assessment
Exploring and seeking to understand
applicants’ wants and frames
Reviewing the process and the Collecting and exploring data
of reference
implementation of action plans related to the problem, situation
Reaching agreement about and possible solutions
Evaluating progress towards preliminary goals
mutually agreed-on goals and Discovering strengths
objectives Agreeing to work together through a
collaborative problem-solving Organising, analysing and
Celebrating progress and process synthesising data
recognising areas for further work
Partialising and prioritising
Deciding whether to
problems and goals
• conclude services through
termination, transfer or referral Considering various action
(disengagement) strategies

• renegotiate service agreement Making decisions collaboratively

and continue to work together
(re-engagement) Collaboratively developing a service
agreement that outlines the
Saying goodbye or re-engaging
• problem for work
Intervention
• goals and objectives to pursue
Introducing optimistic energy; • respective roles and
enhancing hope and motivation responsibilities
• action plan
Anticipating obstacles and
envisioning successful resolutions

Implementing agreed-on action

plans that typically involve both
worker tasks and client tasks

Reviewing action steps and

considering their eﬀects

Monitoring progress towards goal

Client–worker achievement
collaborative Active client–worker
partnership Modifying action plans and action collaborative partnership
continues steps as needed

Source: Social work processes by B. R. Compton, B. Galaway & B. Cournoyer, 2005, Brooks/Cole Publishing.

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PLUNGING IN: ENGAGEMENT, ASSESSMENT, INTERVENTION, CLOSURE AND REVIEW / CHAPTER 8

Figure 8.2 Phases of the problem-solving process and processes of practice

Assess Evaluate
• Preparing
• Beginning • Assessing • Working &
evaluating • Ending
• Exploring • Contracting
Engage Intervene

Source: The Social Work Skills Workbook by Barry R. Cournoyer, Cengage Learning (US), 2016

Figure 8.3 Phases of the planned change process

Intake and Data collection Planning and Intervention and Final evaluation
engagement and assessment contracting monitoring and termination

Begin relationship Gather information Formulate objectives Carry out plan Evaluate overall
and ‘study’ problem progress
Identify and deﬁne or situation Evaluate possible Monitor progress
client’s concern or strategies Bring relationship
problem Decide what needs Revise plan if it is to an end
to change, what Agree on an not achieving
Determine eligibility can be changed intervention plan results Give feedback
for service and how it can be to agency about
changed Determine who shall how services and
do what and when it programs might
shall be done be improved

Beginning

Ending

Source: Techniques and guidelines for social work practice (10th ed.) by B. W. Sheafor & C. R. Horejsi, 2015, Pearson.

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THE ROAD TO SOCIAL WORK AND HUMAN SERVICE PRACTICE

Figure 8.4 The ongoing process of working with people

intervention ntion
e of terve
Engagement d of in Disengagement
mo ive
s
tio
n
od
e
of at
n Ac m

of
tio

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ec

alt
sel

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cti
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sele

lect
nd

Ass
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nition of problem a

ion o
Setti
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essmen of problem
Considera

Evaluation
ng of goals

f mode of inte
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ition
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ﬁ

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g lis of
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e nt
Reassessment
Sett in Establishm

Source: Working with people: The helping process (9th ed.) by J. Levine, 2013, Pearson/Allyn & Bacon.

This model emphasises client involvement at all stages of the process and incorporates elements of
systems theory and an understanding of human development through the life cycle.
The final model, developed by the Australian authors Maidment and Egan (2016), presents a three-
dimensional integrated framework built on the basis of anti-oppressive practice, that weaves together
theoretical perspectives, skills and phases of helping, and the organisational context. While the
phases of the helping process (engagement, assessment, intervention, evaluation and closure) are
very similar to those of the previous models, this process has a very different ideological basis, one
that is strongly founded on the understanding of structural oppression and cultural dominance.
Anti-oppressive ideas, which are translated into practice by using empowerment approaches and the
strengths perspective, focus on workers challenging structural, cultural and personal oppression in
daily work with individuals, groups and families. The integrated framework is shown in Figure 8.5.

Figure 8.5 The integrated framework

P H AS S O H P I G
E F L N
P H A S O HE P I

H P G
ES F EL

ES F EL N

O HE PIN G
P H AS O H

ES OF EL IN
S F
PH ASE S O

F L G
E
PH A S

PI G
EL N
PH

TH
H PI

G
N

THEO S
E R I LLS
TH O IES K LL
AS

THEORIES S K I L S
THEORIES S K I L L S
THEORIES S K I L L S
THEORIES S K I L L S
EORIE S I L S
An RI S S K L L
ti-o
pp
ES
S KI ssiv
e
res r e
siv opp
e Anti-

Copyright ©2020 From Practice Skills in Social Work and Welfare More Than Just Common Sense,
edited By Jane Maidment, Ronnie Egan, Raewyn Tudor, Sharlene Nipperess.
Reproduced by permission of Taylor and Francis Group, LLC, a division of Informa plc.

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These four examples, dating back across two decades in social work literature, show how there are
various constructions of the helping process, which can be illustrated in different ways. Change is seen
as dynamic and fluid, with the worker paying attention to a range of interpersonal, environmental
and structural factors that affect how assessments are conducted, and then planning interventions
accordingly.

The steps of the process

There are five steps in the helping process that will be explored in detail in the following section:
engagement, assessment, intervention, closure and review. While this might appear to be a linear
process, it is important to understand that each step is interlinked with ones before and after. The
steps should be considered as an integrated process, requiring knowledge and skills that you will
develop over time in practice.

Engagement: making connections and

building relationships
I keep six honest servants
(They taught me all I knew)
Their names are What and Why and When
And How and Where and Who.
Rudyard Kipling, ‘The Elephant’s Child’ (1902)

Making initial contact with people with the intention of engaging them in a relationship requires
particular skills. The way in which you use these skills is going to be influenced by a number of other
external factors, some of which may be out of your control. In thinking about engagement, we need
to be conscious of who we are connecting with, what we are connecting with them about, where we
are making the contact, when this contact takes place, why we are making the contact and how the
contact is initiated. Considering these questions makes your practice purposeful and intentional.

Who are the people who come to your service?

First, think about who it is that you are engaging with and consider the many ways that people come
into contact with social work and human services. Every day, you are likely to engage with people
of different ages, genders, ethnic backgrounds and social status, either as individuals, families or
as members of a group or a community. You will also encounter diversity of religious, spiritual and
political views, so you need to develop good communication skills to be able to accommodate this
range of possible connections.
Some people may come to your service because they heard about it in the media, looked it up on the
internet, read a brochure, or they have had a friend or family member who has been to your agency
before. These people are referred to as ‘client self-referrals’ (Egan, 2016, p. 110) or as ‘applicants’
(Compton et al., 2005, p. 77). Examples of people who might voluntarily decide that they want or
need a particular service include someone who telephones a domestic violence service for assistance
to leave a violent partner, a young person who walks into a drug and alcohol agency looking for a
detoxification program, a family who contacts a relationship counselling service for assistance with
financial problems, or a community group that wants assistance to apply for government funding
for a youth centre. At the point of referral, they might not have any real sense of what is offered but
make initial contact in the hope that some assistance might be available. This hope is the first building
block of the relationship and it is on this block that the first valuable connection can be made. If hope
is shattered by the initial encounter, it is much more difficult – or perhaps impossible, in some cases –
to build a relationship and move into the next phase of the helping process. It is common for people
who have experienced a hostile reception when seeking help to feel betrayed and untrusting, and this
decreases the likelihood of them reaching out for help again.

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The second group are people referred to your agency by someone else. They may be referred from
another service, but it is still up to them whether or not they actually attend the agency and there
are no implications if they do not. Alternatively, they could be mandated to attend your service by
a court under a legal obligation. These pathways into service are termed ‘referred’ or involuntary
attendance (Egan, 2016, p. 110) and these people are described as ‘respondents’ or ‘a person, group
or organisation that is required to interact with us’ (Compton et al., 2005, p. 77). Examples include a
man suffering from schizophrenia who is confined to a psychiatric unit for treatment under mental
health legislation or an elderly woman who is found to be incapable of caring for herself at home and
is transferred from hospital to a nursing home against her wishes. It could also include parents who
have to engage with specialists or risk their children being removed from their care, or men who are
mandated to attend a men’s behaviour change program for perpetrators of violence.
The third category of people is referred to as ‘prospects’ or those ‘persons, groups or organisations
to which we reach out’ (Compton et al., 2005, p. 77). Examples include homeless people who use
street outreach, or local residents who work with community workers to identify the problems in a
neighbourhood. Where you work influences who you are likely to engage with most often. In a youth
shelter, you might engage primarily with teenagers with drug and alcohol problems who have been
referred to your agency by someone else, such as a local doctor, the police or a school. In a hospital,
you will work with people who, most likely, would prefer not to have to see you but are probably
grateful for any assistance you can offer while they are unwell. In a child protection unit, you might
work with angry parents who just want their children returned home or with others who recognise
that they need help caring for their children. Considering who people are and why they are making
contact with your service is important when thinking about initial engagement and the willingness
or reluctance of people to respond.

What do people need to know?

The second question relates to ascertaining what information people need when they first make contact
with a service. This also relates to the important issues that should be discussed in your first contact.
Again, this depends on the agency context, the reason for contact and the expectations of all parties that
need to be shared before moving into the next phase of assessment. When people first make contact, it
is important that they are made aware of their rights as a user of your service and also the reciprocal
obligations they have as a service user. What can be kept confidential and what cannot, depending on
duty-of-care obligations and legal requirements, must be clarified. This is a difficult issue that workers
sometimes avoid discussing because they are afraid it will prevent people from opening up and disclosing
sensitive information or that it will deter them from coming back. However, an important part of
engagement is making sure that people know the limitations of confidentiality, what records or case notes
are kept about them and who can access these records. This includes records that are kept in electronic
form and might be shared with other service providers where data is integrated and cross-referenced.
They also must be made aware of who they can complain to if they are unhappy with the service; how
much services cost, if applicable; and any conditions under which they might not be allowed to continue
receiving service (e.g. if they consistently fail to attend appointments without giving notice, if they are
aggressive or violent, or if they come to the agency under the influence of alcohol or drugs).
As well as going into detail about these requirements in the initial contact, you might give a client
or family written material to read later and encourage them to contact you with questions. You need
to make sure that information is accessible to people with disabilities or for people who do not have
English as a first language. If a client is mandated by a court or statutory authority to attend a group or
engage in counselling, you must make clear the implications of non-attendance, as it could have serious
consequences outside your control. You also should consider what information you should share with
clients about yourself. The issue of self-disclosure is debated; however, in some situations it may be
appropriate to disclose some information about yourself so that clients learn about your experience and
qualifications and your role and place in the agency. It may not be advisable or appropriate to share more
personal information and decisions about this should be guided by what is in the interests of the client(s).

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Activity 8.1

Practise answering the following questions. It is likely you will be asked them at some point and
you need responses that are appropriate.
1 What personal details would you consider appropriate to disclose about yourself in an initial
meeting with a client, family, group or community?
2 What information about yourself would it be inappropriate to disclose in an initial
encounter?
3 How do you respond if a client asks you if you have children, have ever been depressed,
where you live or where you grew up, whether you have religious beliefs, or whether you
have ever taken drugs?
4 If you are working in a field where you have had your own experiences, perhaps of violence,
loss or other trauma, where do you draw your own lines on personal disclosure?

Where do you meet?

Since COVID-19 emerged, the environment has significantly changed the places and ways in which
initial contact takes place. Initial contact can happen in a range of places and social situations and
the location of the first contact, particularly if it is online, can affect the quality of the engagement.
If a client comes to an agency in person for the first time, they are likely, from the moment they walk
through the door, to be conscious of the atmosphere, the physical setting and how comfortable staff
or volunteers make them feel. The physical environment can have a major impact on clients’ sense of
safety and feelings of being treated with dignity and respect. People are more likely to be put at ease
by a friendly welcome and an offer of a cold drink than by a sterile waiting room with uncomfortable
chairs and a glass barrier shielding the receptionist. Many large human service organisations have
tried to create more welcoming physical environments. Weeks (2004) outlines the following framework
for achieving user-friendly human services:
• accessibility: considering the geographic location, physical access (for people with disabilities)
and psychological access (absence of features that might stimulate stigma or fear)
• a ‘neutral’ doorway: an entry that is not stigmatising or the physical way in which a service is
located within the community
• a welcoming entry: physically arranging the reception or waiting area to be welcoming
• information: offering educational materials, brochures, booklets about related services
• cultural diversity: being aware of issues that make a service more culturally acceptable
• available outdoor space: gardens, outdoor areas for children
• safety: private and confidential rooms, security systems that are not obtrusive, secure records
• community and group workspace: community space creates community ownership
• co-location of services: sharing the location with other services; for example, financial, legal,
housing, health.
Of course, not all initial contacts happen in offices or agencies. Connections can also be made with
people in their homes, as they lie in a hospital bed, as they wait outside a courtroom, in a prison, on
the street, in a car, in a coffee shop, over the telephone or online (Cleak & Egan, 2016). The significant
increase in online engagement as a result of COVID-19 lockdowns since 2020 and ongoing social
distancing and public health precautions have meant that initial contact is often over the telephone
or by using platforms like Zoom, Teams or Skype. This places the onus on the service provider to ensure
that service users are not placed at a disadvantage, which can be difficult when technical glitches
occur. In many rural and remote areas, internet services are not reliable or stable, and this can prove
problematic when trying to establish rapport.

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It is important that you assess any factors in the physical or online environment that could
negatively affect your ability to establish rapport. If you are in a very noisy location or there are many
distractions, it could be difficult to hear or concentrate on what someone is saying; it would be better
to stop and find somewhere else. If you are initiating contact over the telephone, you lack non-verbal
cues, so you must make sure that the client clearly understands what you are saying. If you are visiting
a person’s home, you must think about your own safety and take precautions, such as ensuring your
location is known to others and, ideally, having another person accompany you. In rural and remote
communities, you may meet in many different places; for example, at an intersection of two dirt roads
between two remote properties; in a farmhouse kitchen or on the banks of a river that runs through
an Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander community. One of the skills of social and human service work
is learning to adapt to these varied practice environments.

Activity 8.2

Think of the last time you went to an agency or organisation as a student, client, consumer or
patient. Describe the physical environment of the organisation in as much detail as you can.
1 What aspects of the physical environment made you feel welcome and valued?
2 What features of the environment made you feel uncomfortable or frustrated?
3 Describe the ideal design features of a welcoming and safe human services agency for the
following people:
• young mums with babies
• socially isolated older men
• people who need sexual health checks
• newly arrived refugees from a Middle Eastern country.
4 Now think about whether you have had the experience of receiving a service that required
online engagement? How would an online service work for the same groups of people listed
above? What would the challenges be for these people?

When do you meet?

It is important to think about the timing of engagement to ensure that you respond appropriately and
in a timely fashion to clients’ needs. As demands for services increase, so do waiting times. This can
be a cause of great frustration for people in crisis. It is a good idea for clients to be given information
about other services if there is a problem with wait times, because it is often difficult for clients to make
initial contact and they can be easily put off. Even more frustrating for clients is if they have waited
four weeks to see you, then you are an hour late for the appointment. Punctuality is critical and is
appreciated as respectful good practice. If you are on time, it gives a person the message that they are
important to you and it increases his or her willingness to engage. If you are late and, for example, a
mother has to leave the session to collect her children from school before you have established a good
connection, it may not bode well for the future of the relationship.
Another issue to consider in relation to the timing of initial contact is whether you can be flexible
and make a time that is suitable for the other person rather than for you. This might not always be
possible but it can help to get a relationship off to a good start. People in the workforce often have
difficulty accessing services because their time is limited to lunch hours, after work or weekends.
Most human service agencies are only open during working hours, so this is an issue for many
people. The growth of online services provides more flexibility and also increases accessibility for
people in rural and remote areas. Another issue to consider in timing is whether a person is in the
right mood or mental state to be able to engage constructively. If a person has just attempted suicide
and is seriously depressed and sedated, your initial contact might be very brief, nothing more than
an introduction and an assurance that you will return when they are up to talking. If a person is
very angry and aggressive because the police have just taken their children into care, it is not the

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best time to start talking about plans for future work together. Sensitivity and appropriate timing
is important for good engagement.

Why do people contact services?

Sometimes people are not clear about why they have contacted a service – they have a vague idea that
something is not right and perhaps someone else can shed light on the problem. Clients who self-refer
to an agency may need assistance in defining what they want, so it is important to make them feel at
ease so they can do so. If someone has been referred to you by another worker or service, you might
already have a good idea about the problem, particularly if the worker or service has already discussed
the referral. Sometimes the presenting problem may not be the real issue and this is only uncovered in
the next phase of assessment. The key to engagement is being prepared to start wherever the client,
group or community is to connect with them in a way that lets them know you are prepared to explore
the issues. It is important not to judge a person in the initial contact and not to assume that you know
what the issues are before you have a chance to get to know them.
Asking why you are engaging with a person, family, group or community establishes the purpose
of the relationship. The purpose is related to your role and the context in which you work. You might,
for example, meet with someone with the purpose of giving them information or assisting them to
access another service. You might be preparing to engage in either a short- or long-term therapeutic
counselling relationship. You might be preparing an assessment report for a court, assessing someone
for eligibility for a service or facilitating a number of group meetings. You might be working with a
community on an identified problem or interviewing a research participant about a particular issue.
Your contact, then, may be deliberately brief and crisis-oriented or it may be focused on setting up
further contact. The engagement phase is about reaching a common understanding of purpose with
a view to forming a collaborative partnership to meet mutually defined needs.

How do you build the relationship?

How you engage with others is critical to the success of a meaningful collaborative relationship,
whether it is time-limited or ongoing. As Levine (2013, p. 123) points out, ‘Beginnings are important.
While it is always possible to go back and start over, the initial fresh impetus is gone forever.’ Many
skills promote engagement and build rapport, predominantly communication skills that you learn as
a student and develop over time with practice and experience. It is important, in this early phase, to
demonstrate respect, empathy and authenticity, which require good listening and communication
skills and the use of appropriate verbal and non-verbal responses. In the days before the need for
caution and social distancing pre-pandemic, shaking a person’s hand may have been appropriate as
a sign of welcome. Since the advent of COVID-19, the world is more complex and different ways of
greeting people need to be considered, taking into account the need for personal space and safety.
Connections can be made by offering a smile and a nod, leaning forward to acknowledge the presence
of the other, or perhaps a ‘heart hello’ (briefly placing your hand on your heart). The ‘elbow bump’
gained popularity for a time, as did the ‘fist-bump’. Exchanges of business cards as a form of greeting
are also common in many cultures. In any event, Briggs (2016, p. 186) advised when working with
clients from different cultures, that ‘hand-shaking is not always appropriate in greeting someone, as
it involves touching: instead try to learn some very simple greetings in the client’s own language’.
Use of interpreters may also be needed, but it is advisable not to use untrained interpreters or family
members except in case of emergency.
In the early stages of establishing a relationship, pay attention to non-verbal communication,
including tone of voice, facial expressions, use of silence, gestures and movements, physical
appearance, sounds, demeanour and physical touch. Murphy and Dillon (2015) also highlight that
workers must use appropriate styles of address and ensure that they correctly pronounce clients’
names. This is crucial when working with people from other cultures. It is acceptable to check
with someone that you have pronounced their name correctly, and this can also be another way to
form connection.

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The tasks of the engagement phase should be:

• to involve themselves in the situation

• establish communication with everyone concerned
• to define the parameters within which the worker and client(s) will work
• create an initial working structure. (Levine, 2013, p. 123)

Once the engagement phase is complete, the worker and client can begin the phase of assessment.

Assessment: making sense of a situation

Assessment is a critically important part of the helping process and starts from the moment you begin
to engage in a working relationship. Assessment is ‘an appraisal of a situation and the people involved
in it … it leads to a definition of the problem, and it begins to indicate resources for dealing with the
problem’ (Levine, 2013, p. 125). Coulshed and Orme (2012) suggest that:

Assessment is not a single event; it is an ongoing process in which the service user participates, in order
to assist the social worker understanding people in relation to their environment. Assessment is also a
basis for planning what needs to be done to maintain, improve or bring about change in the person, their
environment or both. (p. 22)

If you try to plunge into intervention without first making a good attempt at finding out what is
happening, you might end up taking action that is inappropriate, or miss the key issues. Holding back
and taking time to assess the situation as thoroughly as possible is good practice. For example, if you
are taking some children into care and, in the hurry to place them with a foster family, fail to explore
the relationships within the extended family, you could be denying the children the security of staying
in the family or within an important kinship system.

CASE STUDY
Rita
Rita is an 86-year-old woman living alone in a regional city. She has a menagerie of dogs and cats
she has taken in. Rita loves her animals as she has little or no other human social contact. The
animals are becoming a nuisance to the neighbourhood. The dogs bark and the cats attack and
kill local wildlife. This has attracted the attention of the local council officer, who has tried to visit
her but has been refused entry because Rita will not answer the door. The council will deliver
an order for the animals to be removed unless Rita can control them. The social worker from
the local community health centre has been asked to make contact and visit Rita. The worker is
parked outside the house when Rita returns from the shop. She hurries into the house and shuts
the door. How would you initiate a conversation with Rita?

CASE STUDY
Jeriah
Jeriah is 17 years old and has a mild intellectual disability. He has come to the agency where you
work to find out about moving out of home. You invite him to join you in an interview room to
try to find out what is happening for him and why he wants to leave home. Jeriah does not want
to sit down but starts talking loudly about how he wants to go to the football to see his team the
Broncos on Saturday and his father won’t let him. He talks incessantly, asking questions about
what team you go for, do you like the Broncos, and do you own your own house and how much
did it cost. How would you engage with Jeriah and get him to focus on what you want to talk to
him about?

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Activity 8.3

Based what you read in the case studies of Rita and Jeriah, respond to the following questions.
1 How would you initiate a conversation with Rita?
2 How would you respond to Jeriah?

Who assesses the situation?

It is worth considering how assessments should be undertaken, who should do the assessing and who
is subject to assessment. Trevithick (2012) outlines four ways that assessment can be conducted and
who should be involved. First, assessments can be conducted by one person alone. An example of this
is an individual social worker assessing a client to establish whether they are suitable for a particular
program or accommodation or are eligible for income support. Second, assessments can be conducted by
two people in a joint assessment. An example of this is two child protection workers going to a home to
assess whether children are at risk of abuse or neglect. Third, assessments can be conducted by a group
or a team of people with similar backgrounds in which a number of people contribute information. An
example of this is volunteers, youth workers and parents coming together to assess how the police are
dealing with young people in the local area. Finally, multidisciplinary assessment can be conducted
by a number of workers from different disciplines. An example of this is a mental health team comprising
a psychiatrist, a nurse, an occupational therapist, a psychologist, a dietitian and a social worker, each
offering their expertise to form a comprehensive picture of the needs of clients and their families.
Regardless of who is involved in the assessment process, there will generally be one person who takes
a primary role in the assessment and someone who has authority to make decisions regarding what
should happen. This may or may not be the same person, and decisions might also be made by a team.

What do you assess?

A number of factors need to be considered when conducting an assessment. The term ‘psychosocial
assessment’ is often used in clinical practice to highlight the combination of psychological and social
factors, and the term ‘biopsychosocial assessment’ is also used in health care to draw in the physical. What
are you trying to find out about: the behaviour of a person, the functioning of a family, the dynamics of
a group, the needs or assets of a community or the consequences of a social policy? What questions you
ask and the observations you make depend on the purpose of the assessment. Sheafor and Horejsi (2015),
for example, outline some broad areas to find out more about a client’s life history and current situation:

• volitional: the personal choices and decisions that people make about their lives, and the impact on self
and others
• intellectual: the ability to interpret and give conceptual order to one’s experiences
• spiritual and religious: deepest beliefs concerning the meaning and purpose of life; one’s religious identity,
traditions and practices
• moral and ethical: one’s standards of right and wrong; the criteria used to make moral decisions
• emotional: one’s feelings and moods; the inclination to be drawn towards or retreat from certain situations
and persons
• physical: one’s level of energy; capacity for movement; health and nutritional status
• sexuality: one’s sexual identity and orientation; libido; meaning assigned to being male or female; capacity
for and desire for reproduction
• communication: the ability to express oneself in order to make known needs, interests or opinions
• familial: one’s relationship with parents, siblings, spouse, partner, children and relatives
• social: interactions with friends and peers; one’s social support network; leisure and recreational activities
• community: one’s sense of belonging to a group beyond family and friends, one’s status or place in the
community and use of formal and informal resources
• cultural: one’s beliefs, values, traditions and customs and creativity as related to one’s ethnicity, cultural
background and language
• work and occupation: the nature of one’s work and job skills; source of income; identity with and relationship
to employer and occupation
• economic: one’s financial resources; capacity to manage and budget money
• legal: one’s rights, responsibilities, protections and entitlements; desire and commitment to adhere to
laws. (pp. 200–201)

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In addition to these areas, and depending on the purpose of the assessment, you may need to know
about a client’s educational standard and achievements, cultural background and affiliations, housing
situation, mental health issues, substance use or criminal activity and plans for the future. You might
also want to find out if there is a history of contact with welfare services and what the experiences have
been. In an era where technology and online connections have become so integral to life, a person’s
‘networked life’ cannot be ignored. Assessment needs to include consideration of what online groups
people might belong to, whether they have online relationships with people they have – or perhaps have
not – met, and how their engagement with social media impacts on their general health and wellbeing. If
a person is not engaged in online communications or avoids technology by choice, how does this impact
on their capacity to function in a world that is moving many customer services online?
A very good example of what should be assessed has been provided by a team of health-based
social workers in Queensland, who have been working on development of a Psychosocial Assessment
Template for inclusion in the medical records, illustrates the importance of promoting the client
voice and perspective through the assessment process. This project was started quite some time ago
following exploration of social work documentation in the same health service following a social work
ethics audit (Cumming et al., 2007; McAuliffe, 2005; Reamer, 2001). Building on this work, the social
work team developed a set of nine domains formulated into a template (see Figure 8.6) that could be
used either in full or part to explore a client’s presenting issues at point of contact.
Of importance, each of the domains is purposefully connected to a relevant body of theory or
policy that informs social work practice, inclusive of trauma-informed care, systems theory, person-
centred care, social determinants of health, social model of disability, recovery model, grief and loss
theory, strengths perspective, human rights, attachment theory, developmental milestones, choice
and control, power and control cycle, empowerment theory, Guardianship and Capacity guidelines,
National Disability Strategy, and Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs. The template allows for assessment
of conflict, dynamics, values, safety, coping, co-morbidities, insight, resilience, attachments and
potential harm. As stated earlier, the template also includes assessment of a person’s online social
world, which now needs to be incorporated into assessment processes given advances in technology.
The following Practitioner Perspective illustrates the importance of social work having a unique voice
in the documentation system within health services and the way in which a collaborative social work
team came together to carry out a project after identifying a practice need.

Practitioner perspective

Queensland, Australia Health social workers did not have an endorsed benchmark for what
constitutes best practice or a consistent format for the documentation of social work psychosocial
assessments in the health record. This led to significant variability and inconsistent practice
across the state, with little or no preference to patient voice.
We are a team of health social workers who came together to trial a standardised psychosocial
assessment template for social work that would promote the patient voice in the health record
and highlight the unique contribution of social work. Using Kotter’s eight-step model of change
management, an education strategy was developed and commenced by the Statewide Social
Work and Welfare Clinical Education Program.
Starting with a scoping review, including grey material, workforce consultation and mapping across
clinical areas in health, nine ‘domains’ of practice were inserted into a draft psychosocial assessment
template, that was piloted by frontline social workers in rural and metropolitan sites, across adult and
paediatrics, including hospital and community settings. The clinical areas included mental health and
addictions (inpatient and outpatient), child, youth and family, maternity and women, acute (trauma,
orthopaedics and surgical), rehabilitation and chronic disease (cancer, renal etc).
Following a three month pilot period with monthly consultation workshops, the nine domains
and template structure was finalised through the development of a written guide and endorsed

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by the statewide directors of social work in health care. The guide and accompanying suite of
resources were released with a series of education seminars, offered statewide and by local
clinical educators over a period of six months with ongoing professional development measures
put in place.
Kim Sutherland, Sue Cumming, Kellie Young, Gisele Rossini, Katherine Allen,
Annette Hodgkinson, Chezz Viner-Pallier, Laurelie Wishart and Simon Finnigan

Figure 8.6 Nine domains to explore a client’s presenting issues at point of contact

Person, family and relationships: family structure, functioning and history, relationships,
1 culture, spirituality, religion, gender identiﬁcation, parent and child relationships

Environment: accommodation, living arrangements, transport, social networks, social

2
media/networked life, education, childcare

3 Financial resources: employment, income source, resources, savings and debt

Health, function and adjustment: physical health, function and history, impact and adjustment,
4
injury/diagnosis, cognition, and health literacy

Legal: advance care planning, including informal arrangements, guardianship arrangements, residency
5
status, visas

Mental health and wellbeing: psychological history, substance misuse, mental capacity, aﬀect,
6
interaction and appearance. Lifestyle factors and psychosocial stressors

Development history: signiﬁcant life events, learning disability, migration history, labour and delivery,
7
milestones, motor, cognitive, social and behavioural development, educational history (of relevance)

Care needs and choice: the person’s goals/wishes/plans and leisure interests. Formal/informal support
8 systems, future planning and end of life preferences. The person’s and their family’s understanding of
treatment plan and diagnosis, and their family functioning or health

9 Risk and protective factors: child safety, DFV, suicidality or self-harm, elder abuse, homelessness

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If you were working with a community, you would look for different types of information; for
example, the history and geographic features of the area; the development of housing or industry;
or the traditional connections of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples to the land. You might
seek out demographic data (e.g. from the Australian Bureau of Statistics) to find out the ages of people,
household types, ethnic and cultural groups, occupations and the patterns of home ownership in the
area. You would observe the community to establish what services exist, where the gaps in services
are, what public transport is available and what features of the community impact on people’s lives.
You need to find out about community dynamics, who holds local power in a political sense and what
groups are active in addressing local needs. You are essentially drawing a social map of the community,
based on information from both formal and informal sources. This involves talking to many people and
it is not a process that can be done quickly. Also, assessing community needs and assets should be done
in collaboration with the community. This is known as using a ‘bottom-up’ or ‘grass roots’ approach,
rather than a ‘top-down’ approach.
When assessing personal histories, family dynamics, group processes, community functioning
or organisational tensions, you should ask what tools are available to help you gather information
and make sense of relationships. Some of the best tools are the graphic visualisation techniques that
involve drawing images or diagrams of a situation. Depending on the work that is being done, you
could choose tools to aid assessment such as ecomaps (individual and organisational), genograms
and family maps that show the intergenerational connections between family members, social
support network maps and grids, powergrams, timelines and lifelines, life history grids, flow charts,
sociograms, context diagrams, force-field analysis and contingency maps. These tools, which
include symbols to represent different genders (more recently including non-binary) and strength
of attachments or degrees of conflict, can be used as another way of building the relationship as part
of the engagement process and can be empowering for clients because it gives them the opportunity
to construct their life story in ways that are personally meaningful. Figure 8.7 is an example of a
family genogram that includes same-sex relationships, transgender symbols, donor conception and
foster relationships. Figure 8.8 is a blank ecomap, which a practitioner can fill in to show strength
of relationships or other contextual factors.
Another important tool, as developed by Congress (2005; Congress & Gonzalez, 2020), is the
culturagram, designed to map a range of cultural factors to assess the impact of culture on the lives
of individuals and families. Figure 8.9 lists the factors that practitioners could consider when drawing
up a culturagram.

Figure 8.7 Family genogram

Donor
conceived
Same sex
relations Foster relationship
Divorce

Transgender Transgender
(male to female) (female to male)

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Figure 8.8 Ecomap template

Extended
family
Work Culture
Online
connections

Recreation Family
Housing
and leisure Friends

Self
Health
Neighbours

Legal Education
Spirituality
or religion

Figure 8.9 The culturagram

Time in community

Reasons for immigration Legal status

Contact with cultural Age of family members

institutions at time of immigration

Immigrant family
(list individual members)
Family, education Language spoken at home
and work values and in the community

Impact of crisis events Health beliefs

Holidays and special events

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Activity 8.4

1 Draw a genogram of your family of origin and map out the relationships through at least
three generations. Indicate the strength of relationships within your family on the genogram.
2 Then draw a focused genogram (or ecomap), using the template in Figure 8.8. Identify
the important networks in your current family, social and work circles. Create your own
code to show the strength of relationships and the important of these different spheres in
your life.
3 Construct your own culturagram. You may need to adapt the culturagram to suit your
family’s cultural and migration history. Find someone who is from a different culture and
practise constructing a culturagram that shows their experiences and life situation.
4 What have you learned about yourself from doing these three exercises?

Where and when to do assessment

In the section about engagement, we identified the many places that initial contact can take place and
the need for care in relation to timing and place. Assessing what is happening to clients and observing
how they interact with others is an ongoing process, either informal or formal. The practitioner
gathers information from a range of sources and assessments and organises this information into
a meaningful whole. Assessments can take place at any time or any place, but formal assessments
should be conducted in an appropriate place at an agreed-upon time. The nature of the assessment may
require that it takes place in a particular setting and, in some cases, the dynamics of relationships
are an important focus for recommendations for action. A court could, for example, request that a
social worker assess the relationship between parents and their children following separation, with
the purpose of ascertaining ongoing residential arrangements. It is appropriate in this case for the
social worker to observe the family in each parent’s home so that an assessment can be made of how
comfortable the children are in each environment and how their needs are being met. In terms of
timing, it might be important that the assessment be conducted out of school hours if the children or
parents are anxious about them missing school.

Why conduct assessment?

Trevithick (2012, p. 130) distinguishes between ‘needs-led’ assessments and ‘resource-led’
assessments. Human service and social workers are often used by organisations as ‘gatekeepers’
of resources, placing them in the invidious position of determining whether someone is eligible for
a service, based on certain criteria (e.g. eligibility for public housing on the grounds of disability)
or whether they are suitable to undertake a particular role (e.g. suitability to work with children).
These eligibility and suitability assessments have a specific purpose and the required information
is focused on only one part of a person’s life. Third-party and investigative assessments are also
designed to find out information for a stated purpose but may involve the collection of data from a much
broader range of sources. For example, the preparation of a pre-sentence report for a court about an
elderly woman who has been found guilty of defrauding the income support system might also involve
interviewing family members to ascertain their views on the possible implications of a custodial
sentence. A risk assessment conducted to weigh up child protection concerns could involve interviews
with grandparents, teachers and family friends. A mental health assessment of a young Aboriginal
woman with suicidal thoughts could involve gathering information from extended family and kinship
networks, previous counsellors or other service providers – with the permission, of course, of the
client. The following practitioner perspective illustrates the importance of purposeful assessment.

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Practitioner perspective

Social work practitioners are increasingly working not only with larger caseloads but also with
cases that have multiple layers of complexity. Consumers are likely to have more than one
disease or disability and be dependent upon others for daily activities. Consumers may have
fluctuating impaired capacity for some decisions. Illness may be attributable to or compounded
by social isolation, histories of abuse or acute or chronic trauma. At the same time, organisational
performance indicators demand that practitioners provide targeted assessments quickly and
safely to benefit not only consumer but also organisational outcomes.
To work successfully in this context, social workers must be aware of the range of assessment
tools available but also understand the core theories and knowledge that inform the assessment.
They must be able to differentiate the purpose of each and reason why they chose a particular
assessment tool. Importantly, they need to know how and when to apply them safely. Social
workers should also consider how the Australian Association of Social Workers (AASW) practice
standards as well as the code of ethics can be incorporated into their assessments to the benefit
of their consumers.
Anne-Louise McCawley

When working in community, there has been a historical tendency to focus on conducting needs
assessments with the focus on what is missing, what the problems are, and what services or resources
might address the defined needs. Delgado and Humm-Delgado (2013) provide a useful alternative to
this deficit-focused approach in defining community asset assessments as empowering processes
that engage the community in identifying capacities, abilities and resources. The goal is to identify
community capital and competencies so that proactive responses and collaborative partnerships are
built and sustained.

How to carry out assessments

Ideally, workers will draw on as many sources of information as possible to make a comprehensive
assessment that takes account of social, environmental and personal factors. You can obtain
information in many ways and it is important to develop good skills in listening, questioning or
interviewing, and observing. Sheafor and Horejsi (2015, pp. 201–202) suggest the following ways of
gathering information during assessment:
1 Direct verbal questioning: sets up a situation in which you make a client feel comfortable so that you
can ask more focused questions to uncover new details or check on information given previously.
2 Written questionnaires or checklists: provide useful information; for example, a client completes a
test in which a particular factor is ranked on a specified scale. Depression inventories and self-
esteem scales are good examples.
3 Indirect or projective verbal or written questioning: involves asking the person being assessed to
complete sentences or provide an ending to a story. To find out more about clients in their social
context, you can observe them in their natural environment or observe how they respond to
a roleplay or simulated situation. Clients can keep a journal or some other form of written
recording, so that they can self-monitor and talk with you about their observations later.
4 Existing documents: are the final way to gain information, as they allow you to see other
assessments and perhaps gain a historical perspective from other agencies’ records or medical
or legal reports. It is common for organisations to have existing assessment tools that assist
this process. A domestic violence agency, for example, might have a safety- and risk-assessment
inventory with questions such as ‘Has your partner’s violence escalated?’, ‘Has your partner
ever threatened to kill you?’ and ‘Do you think your partner would hurt your children?’ A mental
health agency would have an assessment template with questions about sleep, concentration,
appetite, family psychiatric history, alcohol and drug history, affect and mood, and risk of self-
harm. A housing agency would have an assessment form with questions about the number of
dependants, income, pets and past rental history.
Copyright 2024 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. WCN 02-300
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In reality, most workers use a combination of methods, depending on whether the assessment is
time-limited or ongoing. As more information comes to light, more pieces of the puzzle fall into place,
until you reach the point at which you can confidently answer the questions, ‘Do I have a good sense of
what is happening here? Have I shared my assessment with the other person and what do they think
of the sense I have made of their story? Can we now work together to plan action that is congruent
with the assessment we have made?’
Sometimes information may be obtained from, or divulged by, third parties or other sources that
can shed additional light on a situation, which can change an original assessment. It is important
that you make every effort to verify facts and exercise caution in gathering information about people
without their knowledge or consent. Searching for information about a client using the internet, for
example, may yield interesting information, but if this information is to be used to inform assessment,
the client needs to be aware. Relationships can be damaged by actions that could be construed as a
breach of privacy, even when information might be available publicly online.

Client perspective

There is nothing more annoying than going for an interview and having to answer the same
questions over and over again. Every time you see a new person, you have to tell the story from
the beginning. In this age of technology you would think it would all just be on the computer, or
in the file, and that someone would have taken the time to read up beforehand so I don’t have
to waste my time and theirs going through it all over again. I feel like shouting ‘Hello – haven’t
you done your homework!’ when they start with the 50 questions all over again. So infuriating!
Pamela

Intervention: moving forward and taking action

Assessment is the critical foundation of intervention and should result in making a plan or contract to
implement a form of action or inaction. The plan may involve the decision to take no action, so inaction
is also a form of intervention. The Oxford English Dictionary (n.d.) defines intervention as ‘action taken
to improve or help a situation’. This is a good reminder about the potential use of power and the care
practitioners must take so that what they plan to do is in the best interests of clients – preferably
with the consent and active participation of the clients and legitimately involved significant others.

Who is involved?
The first step in planning intervention is to map out who is going to be responsible for taking on
particular roles and tasks. This depends on your assessment of the key players in the situation and
whether you, or your agency, are going to continue to be involved. You might, for example, conduct
part of a mental health assessment with a suicidal young woman and conclude that she should be
referred to the community mental health team for ongoing support. The intervention in this case is the
referral, but this might have to be done by the treating doctor in accordance with agency protocol. In
the community context, you might be working with volunteers, parents and youth workers to assess
police responses to local young offenders. Conclusions based on your assessment might be that police
need better training in conflict resolution. Your intervention might be to assist one of the parents to
write a letter to the relevant minister on behalf of the group, bringing this need to their attention. In
a family situation, you might have an initial session with a couple about problems in their relationship
and conclude that it will be useful for the teenage daughter and son to attend the next session.

What is your role?

Once you have decided that you will continue to be involved, you should consider what role you will
be playing as the relationship continues to develop and what strategies are congruent with this role.
Compton et al. (2005, pp. 231–233) outline five intervention roles:

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1 Social broker: requires the worker to provide information about services and resources and
referral to other agencies. It requires a good knowledge of available community services and good
networking skills to expand knowledge about who provides quality service in more specialist
fields. The suicidal woman in the previous example could be given information about a support
group for people suffering depression, in addition to the referral to the community mental
health team. Again, this intervention is based on the assessment that such a group would be of
assistance to the particular client.
2 Facilitator: requires the worker to bring others together for a common purpose or bring a situation
to a logical conclusion. The community worker in the previous example about the police could
act as a facilitator by supporting the parents’ group to take continued action.
3 Teacher: requires the worker to model a particular skill or technique or pass on information that
may result in changed client behaviour. The social worker preparing to engage in therapy with
the family previously mentioned might spend some time teaching the parents different ways of
responding to their teenage children when arguments erupt at home. The worker might model
some responses and get the parents to roleplay their responses. This intervention is based on the
assessment that communication difficulties are at the heart of the problem and that the parents
find it difficult to support each other to be consistent in parenting in the face of conflict.
4 Mediator: a common intervention role in situations of dispute or conflict between people or within
groups or organisations. The worker attempts to resolve the problem by providing opportunities
for open discussion. Going back to the example of the community, the community worker could
agree to mediate a session between parent representatives and the police in an attempt to reach a
resolution about how police should deal with young people if they are apprehended for problematic
behaviour. The intervention is the joint meeting, based on the assessment that open dialogue
and communication about the issues would result in a more equitable resolution.
5 Advocate: workers use their professional knowledge to argue a case on behalf of a client or group to
secure a right or entitlement. Having assessed a client’s eligibility for public housing, for example, a
worker might then advocate for the client to be given priority housing based on the initial assessment
of need. The intervention might be a report in which priority housing is strongly recommended
because of the client’s physical disability and their need for wheelchair-accessible accommodation.
Case-management approaches are commonly used in services where assessment identifies multiple
needs that require coordinating external and environmental resources. Case managers need to have a
good understanding of the range of services in order to assist clients to engage with others who might
have expertise in particular areas (Bogo, 2006).

Where and when should an intervention take place?

Deciding where an intervention should take place is dictated by the individual situation and is informed
by the assessment of practical issues. It is inappropriate, for instance, to refer the suicidal woman to a
depression support group on the other side of the city when she does not have a car. It is not appropriate
for the community mediation session between parents and police to take place at the police station; in
this case neutral territory is advisable. It is important to consider such issues as accessibility, location
and physical environment when making plans for continued contact.
The question of timing is also important. If a situation requires crisis intervention, then the process
of engagement, assessment and intervention may be significantly fast-tracked, occurring almost
simultaneously. However, it is generally better that assessment be done properly before moving to
the intervention phase and that when a plan has been made for a course of action, it should be carried
out promptly in consultation with all involved.

Why should you intervene?

Intervention is purposive action undertaken in a way that is meaningful for those involved. In asking
the question ‘Why are we interested in suggesting strategies to meet assessed needs?’, we return to the
very reasons for working in human services and social work in the first place. Purposive interventions
are planned because there is:

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• a problematic situation that needs to be changed

• a problem at a structural level that contributes to or causes oppression or disadvantage for certain
groups of people
• practice knowledge that, if drawn upon, can change a situation for the better.
Intervention involves setting goals, which express the desired outcomes of the working relationship
and can be either short-term or long-term. Goals need to be concrete and specific so that the plan
and the outcomes are clear, and they should be mutually constructed and include all stakeholders.
Contracts require informed consent, need to be flexible and realistic, and should be able to be changed
if they prove unworkable (Murphy & Dillon, 2015).

How should you intervene?

It is not possible within the scope of this book to outline all possible interventions in human services and
social work. Every situation is different and requires a tailored response, depending on circumstances
and context. It has often been argued that such work is both an art and a science (Sheafor & Horejsi,
2015), meaning that workers need to be able to think intuitively, laterally and creatively, as well as
logistically and pragmatically. How do interventions and action actually happen? Once goals have
been established and an agreement about plans has been negotiated, the worker and client may be in
a position to ‘partialise’ and prioritise these goals. ‘Partialising’ involves breaking a goal down into
achievable objectives. Prioritising is working out which of those objectives should be worked on first.
The worker and client may then ‘contract’ a formal or informal agreement about what will happen,
who will be responsible for which tasks, how outcomes will be measured and evaluated and what the
consequences will be if anyone fails to follow through with what has been agreed (Murphy & Dillon,
2015). The following case study outlines this process.

CASE STUDY
Support group
A new housing development was established on the periphery of a large metropolitan city.
Unfortunately, with no public transport, health centre or police station in the area, problems
began to emerge in the community, with family conflict and isolation becoming more prevalent.
When the new primary school opened, a community worker was appointed through the school
community hub. The community worker started a support group for mums and young children
in response to the social isolation these women felt due to the lack of community infrastructure.
The goals of the group were to provide a point where the women could connect with each
other, to provide and share information about services and opportunities available, and to find
out what the women need. These goals were based on assessment formulated by gathering
information from school personnel and other local stakeholders, and by observation over several
weeks in and around the community.
The group meets formally twice a week after school, and the worker facilitates the discussion
and keeps a record of decisions and ideas. Recently, the mothers have begun to touch base every
morning and are starting to talk about ideas for the next meeting.

Finally, all interventions should be conducted ethically, ensuring that goals are transparent and
the principles of respect and informed consent are upheld. Interventions should not be coercive
or designed to punish or degrade. They should seek to bring about constructive and sustainable
change. At all stages through the phase of intervention, ongoing assessment should be conducted,
and interventions should be reviewed and potentially abandoned if they are not meeting the agreed
purpose.

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CASE STUDY
The cyclone emergency intervention plan
You are part of a work team that responds to disaster and emergency situations on an ‘as
needed’ basis. You have been flown into a reasonably remote coastal community that has been
ravaged by a severe cyclone. Forty-six families are sleeping in the evacuation centre, and people
don’t know what has happened to their homes or livestock as they have not yet been able to
access their properties due to flood waters. People are highly anxious, fearful and worried about
what they will find when they are able to return to their properties. Two well-known young men
who were out assisting others have been reported missing, and their wives and children are in
the evacuation centre and are very distressed. The town has been largely demolished and is in
chaos, and your team has been flown in to direct an emergency intervention plan.

Activity 8.5

After reading the case study ‘The cyclone emergency intervention plan’, complete the following
questions and tasks. You need to decide what intervention is appropriate in this situation. You
are unsure about the resources available in the community.
1 What would be the first thing you would do when entering this community? How do you
begin to engage with the community and the people in the evacuation centre?
2 How would you make an assessment of the situation and what would you focus on initially?
3 Describe your intervention plan after considering how different perspectives, approaches
and models influence your plan.

Closure: tying up loose ends and

reaching a conclusion
Every story has an end and, similarly, the relationships that form out of therapeutic necessity
ultimately reach a point of closure. The word ‘termination’ is often used to describe this final phase
and is defined by Sheafor and Horejsi (2015, p. 382) as ‘that important final phase in helping clients
when the worker guides concluding activities in a manner that is sensitive to issues surrounding
the ending of a relationship’. However, the term ‘closure’ is more frequently used in practice today.
Learning to ‘end well’ is important for two reasons. First, clients need to be able to move on from the
engagement in a process that has helped them to build new strengths. Second, as a worker, you need
to be able to move on when the aims of the intervention have been achieved.

CASE STUDY
The eviction
Your team is working with a family in a social housing estate where there have been ongoing
and escalating conflicts with neighbours. There are seven children under 15 in the family, and
extended family members often come to stay for lengthy periods. Neighbours allege that there
is a lot of noise late at night and the visitors exceed the number of people allowed in the dwelling
under the social housing policies. An eviction notice has been served on the family, who have
nowhere else to go. They have been homeless before and the children were split up. Staff at the
housing authority say that they are just following the rules and are responding to complaints
from neighbours. They state that if they don’t follow through with the eviction, they are neglecting
their responsibilities to others in the community.

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Activity 8.6

After reading the case study ‘The eviction’, complete the following:
1 How do you engage with this family and with the housing authority?
2 How would you assess what is going on, who would you talk to and what would be the focus
of your assessment?
3 Describe your intervention plan after considering how different perspectives, approaches
and models influence your plan.

Who ends the relationship?

Relationships can reach a point of closure in one of three ways. First, a client can take active steps to
conclude a relationship with a worker either verbally or in writing, or they can simply fail to turn up to
a scheduled session or group. In this situation, the client assumes control over the process by making
the decision that they no longer want or need continued service. Second, the worker can prepare
for the ending of a working relationship after deciding that intervention has achieved the desired
goals or that different expertise is required and referring the client to another practitioner or agency.
Alternatively, the worker may accept another job or take leave. In this scenario, the worker assumes
responsibility and must ensure that relationships are concluded with minimal distress. Third, an
agency can force closure by cutting funding to a program, instituting a policy to curtail the number
of allowed sessions or dictating that an employee terminates the intervention with particular service
users. In this situation, both workers and clients may be powerless, and such a forced ending can be
difficult for all. Ideally, reaching closure should be a mutually agreed and planned process so that these
power dynamics are minimised.

CASE STUDY
The family
Your team has been asked to assist a colleague to plan an intervention for a family who have
been repeatedly coming to the community centre in crisis. The family consists of Robyn, a single
mum with three children – Nathan 15, Ethan 12 and Charlene 9. Robyn’s mum, Dulcie (aged 57)
also lives with them. Robyn works part-time at the local supermarket, and Dulcie is unemployed
and receives the JobSeeker Payment. There are always difficulties in paying bills each month,
especially with increasing energy costs and school needs. The last two occasions that the family
presented at the community centre in crisis involved violent outbursts from Nathan, and Robyn
has found out that he is using ice and has tried to confront him. She has missed a couple of shifts
at work because of ongoing problems with Nathan at home and is worried she will lose her job if
this keeps up. Robyn confesses she cannot manage Nathan and wants to go to the police. Dulcie
is now afraid of Nathan (as are Ethan and Charlene) and wants him to be placed in care.

Activity 8.7

Read the case study ‘The family’, then complete the following:
1 How can you best engage with the family?
2 How would you make an assessment of the situation? Plan an intervention that meets the
needs of the family.
3 Describe your intervention plan after considering how different perspectives, approaches
and models influence your plan.

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What do you need to do?

You need to consider a number of factors to achieve good closure and appropriate termination. Mooney
and Dale (2016, pp. 303–311) suggest that, from a strengths perspective, termination should involve
the following steps:
1 Review goals together and highlight any achievements or unmet expectations.
2 Review compliance issues and complete documentation.
3 Facilitate transfer or referral to another worker or service.
4 Attend to discharge planning requirements, including development of ‘maintenance plans’ or
‘safety plans’ for future possibilities.
5 Facilitate closure rituals where appropriate.
6 Acknowledge and validate emotional responses to the closure process.
7 Establish boundaries for any ongoing or future relationships.
It is important to reassure clients that if they need assistance in the future, they can reinitiate
contact and you can conduct a further assessment to see what help can be offered.

Where and when should the relationship end?

Closure should be a planned process and, if possible, should not happen abruptly. Just as people
need time to develop trust in a worker, they also need time to resolve feelings about reaching
the end of a relationship. Give people as much notice as possible if you are planning to leave the
agency, and reassure them that you will arrange for them to see another worker or refer them to
another agency.
If you are able to plan the closure, you will be able to decide on an appropriate place and time for
the final session and ensure that it is handled with sensitivity. Saying goodbye in a noisy, crowded
shopping centre may not be appropriate. Reaching closure with people who you have been working with
for a long time is obviously much more difficult – for them and perhaps for you – than completing work
with people who you have only seen for a few sessions. Long-term psychotherapeutic relationships,
for example, demand special care in this phase. Never underestimate the intensity of the relationship
and make sure to discuss your own feelings about reaching the end of therapeutic relationships with
your supervisor.
The particular model of practice that you have used to frame your assessment and intervention also
influences closure. A crisis intervention or task-centred approach more than likely will have included
closure as part of the initial contract, so that clients are clearly informed how many sessions they can
expect to attend. An agency operating from a feminist perspective, however, may not set time limits,
leaving work open-ended with closure to happen at the client’s pace.

Client perspective

I had a caseworker for many years when I was going through a really rough patch. I always knew she
would be there for me, even when I disappeared for months on end. I’d suddenly come back and
she would still be working in that same place, in that same office, and it was like a piece of complete
comfort. I never had the feeling that I had to stop coming back. The door was always open for me.
Sometimes I needed more from her and sometimes I didn’t. Sometimes I would just drop in to say
hello and let her know I was still alive. If anyone had ever said to me that I shouldn’t drop in I would
have been upset. I wanted her to know I was grateful that she didn’t shut me out completely.
Linda (age 54)

Why end the relationship?

It is important to consider under what circumstances closure happens and why paying careful attention
to this ending phase is so critical to good practice.

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According to Lindon and Lindon (2000, p. 170), clients take control of the termination process
when they:
• feel their needs have been met and the problem has been resolved.
• feel in control of the situation and no longer want your support to continue dealing with the
problem.
• choose to stop, whether or not progress has been made.
From the worker’s perspective, closure should happen if you feel unable to offer further assistance
or if you decide that specialist input is needed.
Regardless of the reasons for deciding to end the therapeutic relationship, it is important you reach
an appropriate closure with clients so they can move on without feeling that there is ‘unfinished
business’. If the relationship has not gone well and you have been unable to meet the set goals, it is
important to acknowledge this openly so that the client is not left with a sense that there is little
hope in trying to seek assistance in the future. If the relationship has been constructive and mutually
beneficial, it should be celebrated so that all can leave with a sense of achievement.
Relationships can reach closure in a number of ways. Ritual is often a part of closure and may
involve the sharing of small tokens of appreciation, the sharing of a meal together or, in the case of
work with groups, a special ceremony or celebration. The following practitioner perspective gives an
example of use of ritual as a way of reaching closure of a group.

Practitioner perspective

Harder than childbirth but no one can ever take what I just did away from me.
Participant reflection after completing 5-day sea kayak expedition to Fraser Island

As a bush adventure therapist the use of ritual to open and close therapeutic group processes is
interwoven throughout the individual and group program experience. Bush adventure therapy
(BAT) incorporates the use of three key elements: the bush and the natural landscapes; adventure
mediums that explore potential; and therapeutic group processes that support movement
towards recovery and wellbeing goals.
For most people, engagement with any of these three elements can be meaningful and
transformative – remember how they have assisted in chapters of your life? Combining these
three elements allows the BAT practitioner to invite participants into a novel, experiential,
sequenced, intentional, substance-free and safe space in which ritual and celebration is both
explicitly and implicitly experienced.
While working with a group of women who had experienced numerous life traumas in a
homeless adult persons’ residential service, a five-day sea kayaking expedition to Fraser Island
was designed. Such an experience required preparation and connecting deeply to our emotional,
physical and mental resources. Rituals were integrated throughout to highlight the individual and
group successes. These included sunset reflections, women’s talking circles, creating and eating
food together, and creation of song and nuances known only to the group. As this was a remote
wilderness experience, we had organised to close this program by taking all the women to one
of the finest restaurants to fully celebrate and honour their individual and group achievements.
This ritualistic meal is still clearly remembered by us all today!
Amanda Smith

Ethical dilemmas often arise at this stage of the helping process, particularly if roles need to be
renegotiated. In rural communities, for example, it is important to acknowledge that, although the
therapeutic relationship is ending, there may still be ongoing contact in social settings. You might be
ending counselling sessions with a client who has been focused on problematic family issues, but you
know that, in the future, you might be on a school committee with the former client. It is wise to pre-
empt such situations by reaching an agreement about how social contact in the future will be managed.

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Activity 8.8

You have been working with Cathy and Bernie, a young married couple with two small children,
for the past six months. Parts of the process have been very difficult. You have just moved
house and your two children are going to be attending the same school as Cathy and Bernie’s
children – in fact, your daughter will be in the same class as their son.
1 What are some of the issues that are likely to come up for both families and the children?
2 How can you negotiate the boundaries?
3 What should you discuss about future contact as this is going to be inevitable?

The giving of gifts and the developing of friendships or other intimate relationships after closure of
the therapeutic relationship are ethically fraught and care needs to be taken in assessment of boundary
issues. Your agency might already have policies and procedures about how these issues should be
handled, and you need to be aware of these. A professional code of ethics can also give you guidance
about expectations in relation to contact with former clients. Compton et al. (2005, p. 323) caution against
initiating contact with your former clients because it is rarely helpful to them, and instead encourage
workers to acknowledge the feelings that might tempt them to reinstate contact with a client on a social
basis. Again, technology needs to be factored into this final stage. There are ethical considerations around
whether a worker should accept a ‘friend request’ on Facebook from a client (generally considered very
unwise), or whether email or text/SMS connections should cease and how this should be negotiated.

CASE STUDY
Mai
You have been working in a community centre for four years and have decided to leave your job
for a social policy position in a large government office. One of the volunteers at your centre,
an elderly Chinese woman named Mai, takes you aside one day to present you with a gift in
appreciation of the work you have done with local young people, including her daughter. It is a
piece of jewellery, a family heirloom. You tell her that you can’t possibly accept this gift but she
becomes most upset. What issues need to be considered here?

CASE STUDY
Savannah
You have been working with Savannah for the last 12 months and the relationship with this
young woman has been intense. Savannah has done very well with counselling, and it is time
for her to move on from therapy to more independence. You had talked about the ending of
the relationship for some months leading up to this. Two weeks after the final counselling
session, you receive a ‘friend request’ from Savannah on Facebook. While you are thinking
about how to respond to this, you also receive an invite for her to add you on Snapchat and
then on Instagram. You hadn’t considered the online environment in your discussions. What
do you do?

Review: the critical phase of reflective practice

The final phase of the helping process is to review and evaluate what has happened, whether outcomes
and goals have been achieved and whether you have learned new skills or knowledge that enhances
your practice. Critical reflection should be a part of each phase of the helping process – as you engage
and connect with others, develop assessments, make plans for action, implement these plans and
work towards closure, you should continually reflect on what is happening both for yourself and for
the other person. A review at the end of the process is a more formal way of reflecting on practice.

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Who should review the process?

A range of people can be involved in reviewing and evaluating casework, family work, groupwork,
community work, research, management, training and education, and social policy. The review process
typically involves you as the practitioner, your clients and perhaps co-workers or colleagues. These people
are likely to have been part of the process and can see outcomes from the perspective of an ‘insider’. While
this is valuable, it is also likely that their opinions will be biased, for better or for worse. It is a good idea
to open up the review process to people with an outsider’s perspective and who can give more critical,
constructive feedback. This may be your supervisor or a group of your peers. The important point is that,
if you intend to share information about your practice with others who have not been an active part of the
process, you must ensure that clients are aware of this and give their consent. This should be negotiated
in the engagement phase. It is also the case that any records you have kept may be accessed by others,
perhaps from different professional disciplines. If you work in a hospital, your case notes are written into
the medical records and, therefore, are open to review by doctors, nurses and other allied health workers.
Agencies can also come under scrutiny and review from external authorities if a client makes a complaint
about services. While such reviews usually focus on a particular case (or number of cases), implications
for the broader functioning of the agency generally result from such inquiries.

What should you review?

Three sets of outcomes should be subject to review and evaluation:
1 Client outcomes: questions about whether clients’ needs have been met, how you know this and
whether parts of the process could have been handled differently.
2 Self-outcomes: an honest evaluation of your skills, vulnerabilities and achievements, as well as
what you have learned and your emotional responses.
3 Program outcomes: questions about whether the work or the role you adopted is consistent with the
aims of your agency and whether new programs or ways of working might better meet identified
needs.
Your work might have highlighted a lack of staff in your agency who are skilled in working with
children, or a lack of knowledge about Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander ways of working, resulting
in culturally insensitive practice. As a result of reviewing the process, you might recommend that staff
receive specific training in working with children or with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander families.

Where and when should the review take place?

Reviews, as mentioned, can be formal or informal and can be conducted by insiders or outsiders.
Some agencies have formal reviews of practice that are part of the organisational mandate. Statutory
authorities, for example, regularly review child protection cases or cases in which clients are involved
in community corrections activities. Hospitals review cases in multidisciplinary meetings or ‘ward
rounds’ and such reviews usually take place every week. These more formal reviews are conducted
for accountability purposes.
Informal reviews could be conducted, for example, at the final meeting of a group, whereby group
members could be given the opportunity to talk about their experiences of the group process in an open
forum. Alternatively, group members may be given an evaluation form with questions on it about their
experiences of the group, which they are asked to take home, fill in and return later, perhaps anonymously.
Some agencies also conduct random reviews of clients who have used services over a period of time,
sending them a questionnaire or engaging an outside person to make contact with clients to ask them
questions about the quality of service they received from an agency. These quality-control methods are
adopted by organisations to ensure that they stay in touch with the experiences of service users.

Why conduct a review?

Review and evaluation are essentially about accountability. According to Levine (2013, p. 131), ‘A
continuous and honest review of what has occurred, an analysis of success and failure that attempts to

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understand the factors involved and the results, should point to continuation, termination, or redesign
of the working plan’. It is a way of making sure that you provide a quality service to individuals and
communities and that you conduct your work in an ethical way. The public have a right to know that
services funded by taxpayers’ dollars are being used appropriately. Users of services have a right to
expect that the best treatment is available and that programs and therapeutic interventions are based
on knowledge of what works most effectively. Engaging in review and opening up processes to scrutiny
is one way of ensuring that work is transparent and practitioners are acting with honesty and integrity.
It is also important to identify structural factors that may have negative impacts on service delivery
so that these can be brought to the attention of managers. Inadequate funding, high caseloads, and
lack of appropriate supervision for staff are all issues that can be explored through a review process.
Another reason why review is important is that practitioners have an ethical responsibility to pass
on new knowledge. If you have learned that a technique did not work well in particular circumstances,
then it is responsible to pass on this information to others who are doing similar work. If you have
developed a new model of practice, based on work that you have done over time, then reviewing it
and passing it on is a way of increasing expertise and knowledge within the profession – it enhances
evidence-based practice.

How do you conduct a review?

The answer to this question has partly been discussed. Every organisation has different ways of
ensuring that review is built into practice, either formally or informally. It is common for funded
projects to have to prepare final evaluation reports for the funding body to show outcomes and
effectiveness. At the individual or peer group level, professional supervision is an important way
of systematically reflecting on practice. Supervision is an ethical responsibility in many codes of
ethics. The AASW Code of Ethics (2020), for example, specifically states that social workers will:
‘utilise available supervision as well as other specialist consultation, such as mentoring, coaching
and supervision’ and ‘take active steps to ensure that they receive appropriate supervision as a means
of maintaining and extending practice competence’. Similarly, the Social Workers Registration Board
in New Zealand requires social workers to ‘actively participate in supervision’.
Supervision can be internal (provided within the agency) or external (provided by contract with
someone outside the agency), or be done in groups with workers from the same or different agencies
with either internal or external supervisors. Supervision is one of the best ways to ensure that practice
review and evaluation is done regularly.

Documentation and digital literacy

Human service practitioners work in a climate that is increasingly risk averse and often litigious.
Clients have the right to complain about services that have not met their needs and should be
encouraged to do so if there is evidence of poor or unethical practice. Workers are sometimes advised
not to keep case notes because ‘if there are no records, they can’t be disputed’. This is not responsible
advice. Keeping good records is an indication of accountable practice. Again, most organisations have
expectations about the way client information is documented, sometimes dictated by legislation. You
should always make sure that you know what this legislation requires, how long records need to be kept
and what you should do with records in the event of something happening to you or to a person with
whom you have been working. In the era of increased use of electronic technology, it is important to
be aware of ways to secure and protect records on computer systems, and ways to archive or dispose of
them while preserving confidentiality. The Social Work Ethics Audit (Reamer, 2001) offers good advice
about what to look for in developing policy and procedures around documentation and client records.
As an area of potential ethical risk, good record-keeping should be an be considered as fundamental to
clinical practice and not just another administrative task (Cumming et al., 2007). When undertaking
writing, you should always assume that your files and records could be seen by others, including the
people you are writing about. This also applies to emails and electronic communications, and anything
written on other forms of social media.

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Record-keeping is an important part of each of the phases of the helping process. In the engagement
phase, you collect important details about clients: who they are, where they are from and what is
the presenting problem. You tell them about confidentiality and privacy issues, mutual obligations,
grievance procedures and options for alternative services, all important information to record. In the
assessment phase, you collect a lot of information and make sense of it with the view to establishing
an intervention plan. Your assessment is crucial and must be documented. This may also include
information that comes from third parties, in some cases with a stipulation of anonymity. Many
agencies have templates for assessments that can be useful to ensure all relevant information is
collated. In the intervention phase, you monitor progress, and you should keep notes about what has
been happening and document any agreements, critical incidents, conflicts, involvement of other
people or other important information that adds to your initial assessment. In reaching closure, you pay
attention to unanticipated outcomes, unexpected reasons for termination and the final processes that
result in closure. All these case notes and documents – the ‘life story’ of your involvement – can then
be used during your process of review. Miles and Day (2018, pp. 445) offer principles for documenting
practice that include:
• paying attention to use of language so that writing is clear, unambiguous and impartial
• clearly differentiating opinion from fact
• ensuring logic, credibility and coherence
• writing for multiple audiences and for specific contexts (e.g. legal).
It is for these reasons that you should carefully consider how to write up information about clients,
group processes or community interventions. They also highlight why you should familiarise yourself
with relevant privacy laws or agency policies that govern release and secure storage of such records.
Use of language is also very important. In their article about ethical professional writing for social
work, McDonald et al. (2015) made the following point:

In writing, the values of acceptance and respect for both the reader and the subject of the writing can be
demonstrated by the language used. All language is embedded within the particular social systems and most
language is infused by ideology. Accepting and respectful language would be non-gender specific, culturally
inclusive, and would not be judgemental. The tone of the writing would be open, not condescending or
controlling. (p. 367)

Healy and Mulholland (2019) have set out a number of practical pointers about writing that includes
writing affidavits, case notes, email, texts, funding applications, policy proposals, media reports,
journal articles and conference presentations. The authors make the point that writing is an activity
that cements thoughts and ideas into a place in time; therefore, care is needed because the written word
may be consulted by others for years to come.

Information technology: out with the old and

in with the new
As we have seen in earlier chapters, human services have become increasingly complex technological
environments. The general consensus is that there is no stopping the juggernaut of ‘hypertechnology’
in human services. It is important that ‘digital literacy’ is seen as a skill for practice, and this will assist
practitioners in all stages of the helping process. Watling and Rogers (2012) have provided a useful list
of five areas that require attention within the broader scope of digital literacies:
1 computer literacies: the ability to use technology
2 information literacies: how to find and evaluate content
3 media literacies: audio and visual skills
4 communication literacies: the effective management of networks
5 digital scholarship: understanding licensing and copyright issues.

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Activity 8.9

Look at Watling and Rogers’ list, then answer the following questions, and rate your own
competency on a scale of 1 to 7, where 1 is totally incompetent and 7 is highly competent.
1 Rate your computer literacies competence (using technology and computers). Can you
troubleshoot technological problems, and are you familiar with using a range of devices,
programs and applications?
2 Rate your computer information literacies competence. Are you able to search the internet
easily to find information, and do you know how to evaluate reliability of content? Can you
evaluate the differences between evidence-based information and commentary?
3 Rate your media literacies competence. Can you listen to podcasts, make a video, or find your way
around YouTube? Can you engage with others online using platforms like Zoom, Teams or Skype?
4 Rate your communication literacies competence. Do you understand social networks, privacy
settings and the interchanges between networks? Do you know how to post comments, find
information and follow others who might be active in your field?
5 Rate your digital scholarship competence. How well do you understand legal obligations of
engaging with technology? Are you familiar with law and policies that guide social media use
and appropriate conduct when using technology either for personal or professional use?

Recommended reading
Goldkind, L., Wolf, L., & Freddolino, P. (2018). Digital social work: Tools for practice with individuals,
organisations and communities. Oxford University Press.
Watling, S., & Rogers, J. (2012). Social work in a digital society. Sage.
Westwood, J. (2019). Social media and social work practice. Sage.

New technologies have provided opportunities for flexible working arrangements in some sectors,
such as home-based work and non-office-based enterprises. This has had economic significance since the
beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, where work and education were shifted to the home. Technology
has allowed people to continue with their working lives while isolating as a public health measure,
with the exception of those frontline workers who continued to engage in provision of essential public
services, and those in hospitality. What the pandemic has taught us is that where there is little need
for face-to-face contact, you can adapt your working hours and practice locations.
Workers use a range of basic technologies, including mobile phones, so that they can be in contact at
all times. Most agencies also use email for communication and the internet as a source of information.
Almost all organisations now have electronic client records and files, including large health systems
that integrate and share information across multiple services within the larger system. Developments
in practice have also expanded on the use of new technologies, such as practitioners investigating online
counselling and other formats for intervention. There are ethical considerations in the use of many
of these technologies. Reamer (2017) explores some of these issues, highlighting the need for care in
clarifying boundaries in the online space, developing confidentiality and privacy protocols, and paying
attention to documentation and record-keeping. The rapidly expanding literature in this area supports
embracing social media as a way of engaging in social advocacy and activism (Fronek & Chester, 2016).
It also recognises the challenges and opportunities of what is known as ‘big data’; that is, the capacity
to mine data from multiple databases to inform policy and practice (Gillingham & Graham, 2016). The
extension of e-technology into work in social and community development at a macro level is also posited
as a way to enhance communication and community participation (Shevellar, 2017).
The field of research has seen advantages of developments in technology as well. McAuliffe (2003)
developed a method of engaging in qualitative research using email known as Email-Facilitated
Reflective Dialogue, which was then extended into research in the disability field (Egan et al., 2006),
and in exploring covert activism in social work (Greenslade et al., 2014). Accessing information via
the internet and databases has contributed to the distribution of new ideas and the results of research.

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Internet-mediated research methods can now include online focus groups, virtual environments, chat
software, document analysis and web-based surveys (Hewson et al., 2016). These methods can be
invaluable ways of planning, monitoring, reviewing and evaluating services.
Many counselling services have explored the use of online counselling for remote clients. Other
services that focus on sensitive issues, such as sexual abuse and domestic violence, find that some
clients initially prefer the anonymity of email dialogue over coming to an agency where they will be
visible. Practitioners have an ethical responsibility to ensure that they maintain antivirus and firewall
programs, regularly back up computer files, ensure password protection, and discuss limitations of
remote service and online delivery. They are also responsible for ensuring appropriate professional
boundaries in communication that could include use of social networking websites, blogging and
instant messaging. In the following Practitioner Perspective, Sera considers some of the implications
of new technologies.

Practitioner perspective

I was once asked to be on a panel of practitioners talking about the role of technology in
working with young people. As the lone social worker, I thought I was there to talk about how
technology is a tool and a space for connection with clients. There were leading experts on
technology on this panel, representing various disciplines. We met together before the event
for a casual briefing and morning tea. After I enthusiastically introduced myself, I was asked by
one of the experts, ‘Why do you social workers hate technology?’ I was dumbfounded. Do we
hate technology? Certainly, as social workers, we are asked to reconcile many contradictions
concerning technology. Technology is contested in our literature, with face-to-face models of
practice still dominating understandings. Many of the agencies where we are employed foster
problematic access and expectations regarding technology. And while technology is deeply
embedded in our everyday personal lives, our professional contexts of practice present complex
and challenging experiences with technology. But does this translate into ‘hate’ of technology?
My practitioner research suggests something very different. When I asked social workers about
technology in their practice, I found that social workers’ use of technology is deeply driven by client
expectations. This means that if clients request to use a new platform to stay connected with the
agency (remembering that technology rapidly changes), we forge new practice methodologies
as part of our commitment to being client centred. We do so critically, because we often find
ourselves utilising technology without clear boundaries, policies, professional access, knowledge
or adequate training. We also witness innovation and investment into technology that monitors
our performance but don’t always see the same investment put into technology that supports
direct practice. We get blamed for ‘hating’ technology, when perhaps we are mediating many
structural complexities as we navigate towards change.
I see technology as a context for practice, where we can, and do, operationalise complex
understandings. We use technology as a tool for agency administration, record keeping, and
outcomes and performance measurement. We use it as a space for client engagement, advocacy
and interaction. We also use it for and against our own self-care. We are critically purposeful and
challenge technology-only led approaches. But we don’t do these things in a vacuum. Human
service agencies also have responsibility for embedding technology in organisational practice.
This means that the onus of responsibility for ‘loving’ or ‘hating’ technology, or something in
between, is not left to us as individual workers.
Sera Harris

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PLUNGING IN: ENGAGEMENT, ASSESSMENT, INTERVENTION, CLOSURE AND REVIEW / CHAPTER 8

STUDY
TOOLS

Conclusion
In this chapter, we have shown how the different phases of the helping process are integrated, and how knowledge
and skills are informed by theory and understandings of social and organisational context. Each stage of the process
of working with others should be strongly founded on ethical and accountable practice that is continuously reflective
and purposeful. We have illustrated how lack of attention to any part of the process has implications for other parts
of practice.
While the process as outlined here is generalist, applying across most contexts and domains of practice, some
issues in dealing with diversity require closer attention. Those issues are discussed in the next chapter.

Questions
1 How do you go about building rapport with clients who are involuntary or mandated?
2 What areas of consideration should be included in a psychosocial assessment of a client who has multiple
complex needs?
3 What are some of the areas of assessment you would include if you were drawing a culturagram?
4 What are the five roles that a practitioner could adopt in an intervention?
5 What are some of the important issues to consider in the closure process?
6 What are the differences between formal and informal service reviews?
7 What sorts of writing might practitioners have to do in their work in the human services?
8 How does technology impact on the helping process and what are some of the challenges for workers in regard
to engaging with technology and social media?
9 What do you understand by the term ‘digital literacy’ and why is this an important skill for practice?

Weblinks
ANU Centre for Mental Health Research Gendered Violence Research Network
https://nceph.anu.edu.au/research/centres- https://www.unsw.edu.au/arts-design-architecture/
departments/centre-mental-health-research our-research/research-centres-institutes/research-
Australian Indigenous HealthInfo Net networks-clusters-labs/gendered-violence-research-
https://healthinfonet.ecu.edu.au network
Australian Institute of Community Practice and Multicultural health
Governance https://www.health.qld.gov.au/multicultural/health_
https://www.ourcommunity.com.au/management/ workers/checklist
management_article.jsp?articleId=2210

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THE ROAD TO SOCIAL WORK AND HUMAN SERVICE PRACTICE

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9
CHAPTER

Traversing landscapes:
working with oppression
and privilege

Chapter 9
Traversing landscapes It defines a range of terms used
to explain difference
This chapter explores the
issues encountered when
working with difference Prejudice Oppression
and diversity

Culture Discrimination Intersectionality

Inﬂuences
Disability and
on Culture
mental health
diversity

Sexual
Immigration orientation
status and gender
identity

The chapter then explores some

useful practice approaches

Cultural
Indigenous
Anti-oppressive Critical and competence, Using your lived
relationality
practice radical practice humility experience
and worldviews
and safety

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THE ROAD TO SOCIAL WORK AND HUMAN SERVICE PRACTICE

Aims

• Explore definitions and meanings of relevant terms about oppression, privilege and
intersectionality
• Outline experiences and issues for people from various groups
• Consider practice approaches commonly used in working with oppression and marginalisation

Introduction
In this chapter, we discuss a wide range of issues involved in addressing inequality and injustice. As
a practitioner, you will encounter oppression and privilege in a range of situations. Social work and
human service practice seeks to address injustices. These might relate to racism, discrimination or
stigma, and will be experienced by diverse groups. No matter where you work, whether in a hospital,
refugee support service, community centre or elsewhere, you are likely to encounter people who have
been marginalised and oppressed in some way. It is our job, as social workers, to find ways to address
such injustices, uphold human rights principles, and support people to have choice and opportunities
to achieve their goals and potential.
Addressing injustices and inequalities requires us to consider our own identities: who are we,
and how are we different from or similar to dominant groups? Perhaps you are a member of a group
considered a minority in the wider society or perhaps you are part of that normative wider culture.
Being part of a group will shape and influence your identity and everyday life, as well as informing
your identity as a practitioner and shaping the ways in which you approach practice.
This chapter defines terms such as privilege, discrimination, prejudice, oppression and intersectionality,
and explores some of the ways in which we are all diverse. It also examines practice approaches to
challenge oppression and exclusion. We will review experiences associated with diversity, discuss the
implications for practice, and present practice approaches that have diversity as a central theme. Finally,
we offer some practical skills for practitioners working with different cultures and languages.

Exploring power, inequality, and oppression

When we notice inequalities, as practitioners we must address them. Characteristics related to culture,
race, ethnicity, religion, gender, sexual identity, age and disability have all come to signify the ways in
which we differ. Hodgson and Watts (2017) argue that such social divisions, and how people are placed
in relation to the majority–minority cultures, mean that people experience discrimination. Positioning
within these social divisions is complex, multi-faceted and bound up in historical, cultural and social
arrangements. For example, Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand are seen as having a ‘settler majority
culture’ (Hosken & Goldingay, 2016), as both were colonised through British imperialism. The legacy
of that colonisation has resulted in a dominant culture of whiteness.
Refer to In Chapter 2, we explored the various processes by which power is used and resisted in the context
Chapter 2
of human service practice. The dynamics of power work against the interests and rights of many
people viewed as ‘other’ because they are seen as different. Who is viewed as being different is largely
determined by the prevailing attitudes of the dominant society.
Stephen Webb (2009) strongly makes the case that notions of difference are dangerous to social
work’s mission of addressing inequality and injustice. Drawing on the work of several others, he argues
that the celebration of diversity merely focuses on the celebration of different identities in a superficial
way while failing to grapple with the real issue of inequality.

The ethical problem for social work should not be with difference but with inequality and injustice. For the
real question, as we shall see, and it is an extraordinarily difficult one, is much more that of recognising the
same and of restoring principles of equality and social justice. (Webb, 2009, p. 300)
Source: Robyn Munford, Wheturangi Walsh-Tapiata, Community development: working in the bicultural context
of Aotearoa New Zealand, Community Development Journal, Volume 41, Issue 4, October 2006,
Pages 426–442, https://doi.org/10.1093/cdj/bsl025
246 Copyright 2024 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. WCN 02-300

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TRAVERSING LANDSCAPES: WORKING WITH OPPRESSION AND PRIVILEGE / CHAPTER 9

Defining the terms

To address inequality and oppression, we must examine how power is exercised through prejudice,
stigma, discrimination and oppression, while also understanding and exploring concepts related to
culture, identity, intersectionality, ideology, privilege, and superdiversity.

Prejudice
Prejudice is a generalised and negative belief or set of beliefs that prejudge a person or group. These
beliefs are usually unchanged by evidence and are held to be true in any circumstance. Thus, they
are an opinion ungrounded in reason or evidence. For example, members of one social group may
believe that members of other groups are intellectually inferior. Prejudice itself as a belief (or set of
beliefs), affects others when it is overtly acted upon, causing discriminatory or oppressive behaviours.
However, it can also cause harm in less obvious ways. For example, people who hold sexist views
about women may be less likely to vote for women candidates in elections and more likely to rate
them negatively.

Stigma
Stigma refers to negative and often unfair social attitudes towards a person or group, which often
entails blaming a person for a perceived deficiency. Such stigma is common and can often be reinforced
by dominant cultural norms or expectations. Link and Phelan have written extensively on stigma
and its impacts. They identify, for example, that people’s expectations about the reactions of others,
called symbolic interaction stigma, is common and it adds to the burden of mental illness stigma being
significantly associated with withdrawal, self-esteem and isolation from relatives (Link et al., 2015).
Stigma and discrimination are commonly experienced together, with stigma related to perception and
discrimination relating to behaviour. Stigma can alienate others, adversely affecting their health and
wellbeing. For example, stigma can be experienced by people with lived experience of mental illness
or disability when they have been blamed for their condition, affecting their sense of hope while
inducing a sense of shame.

Discrimination
Discrimination involves patterns of behaviour that systematically deny to some people the access
to opportunities or privileges that are offered to others. Discrimination can occur at the individual
level (e.g. refusing to employ a person of a particular ethnic group even if they are qualified for the
position), at the institutional level or be ingrained in the very fabric of a society (Sheafor & Horejsi,
2015). An example of institutional discrimination in most Western democracies is the ‘glass ceiling’
that affects many women who aspire to higher management positions. People might discriminate
against someone out of ignorance and, although it is still discrimination, it may not be accompanied
by prejudice. Discrimination can be both negative, as described above, or positive, whereby a person
or group is favoured. An example of positive discrimination is preferential treatment that is afforded
to members of a minority group, such as access to educational opportunities.

Oppression
Oppression is usually associated with a serious abuse of power and can involve harm, mistreatment
or violence. Young (1990) identifies the five faces of oppression as exploitation, marginalisation,
powerlessness, cultural imperialism and violence. She argues that a person or group may experience
several or all of these factors, but only one is needed to signal serious oppression. The way in which
these factors operate is complex, but they can affect, for example, cultural and ethnic minority groups,
people with disabilities, women, and people with different sexual orientations and identities.
Oppression works on several levels. Being a member of an oppressed group can involve living
in a state of constant fear, which can cause significant psychological problems, such as depression
and anxiety, and social problems. The daily experience of oppression can be all-consuming.

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As practitioners, we work between the worlds of our clients and the wider machinery of the state
and social systems. We are, therefore, in a position to witness not only the impact of oppression at
an individual level but also the myriad ways in which people are oppressed and marginalised by
society and its systems. A stark example of extreme oppression by the system is the incarceration of
asylum seekers in detention centres. Much of our work involves advocating on behalf of people who
are oppressed, mediating between people and the system, between citizens and the state. Sometimes
we are part of the oppressed group. Yet we also often work in agencies and systems that are part of the
oppression. Thompson (2020) argues that the position of agencies and systems is a double-edged one,
involving care and control, empowerment and oppression. We either add to oppression through our
work or we work in some way to ease or break the oppression. This is one of the most difficult tensions
that you may confront in this work.

Privilege
Privilege entails unearned benefits, advantages and rights to people due to their association with
particular social groups or identities. The concept acknowledges that there are people and groups that
benefit from oppression and that members of dominant groups receive certain privileges purely for
being part of that group. What this means is that members of privileged groups may be reluctant to let
go of their privilege and may not recognise it (Mullaly & West, 2017). One of the most common types
of privilege described in the literature is that pertaining to white privilege. This refers to societal
privileges, both obvious and hidden, afforded to white people, and that are perpetuated by racism. This
might include, for example, ease of access to housing and education. While the term has become widely
used, it is not without its critics who argue that it potentially reinforces stereotypes, particularly around
wealth and conceptualisations of race, while alienating potential allies (Davids et al., 2021). Regardless,
as social workers, it is important that we reflect critically about our own positioning, identifying where
we might be privileged, while looking at ways to address oppression that is a by-product of privilege.

Intersectionality
Intersectionality was coined by Kimberlé Williams Crenshaw, a black feminist, in 1989. This theory
has its roots in feminist sociology that explains the ways in which different privileges intersect and
result in compounded oppression. Originally developed to explain oppression related to gender and
race, this concept has been expanded to include a number of other interlocking socially oppressive
institutions. According to Noble (in Pease et al., 2016, p. 43), ‘critical social work theory challenges
and names the more complex interaction (intersectionality) of class, gender, ethnicity, race, caste,
sexuality, and physical and mental health norms. These operate on multiple, and often simultaneous
levels, and reinforce systemic inequality and oppression.’ As an example, a woman may experience
sexual harassment in a workplace and may also be from an ethnic minority group. If this woman is
also from a poor neighbourhood and has a physical disability, the intersections of sexism, racism,
classism and ableism will compound the oppression she may experience. It is, therefore, important that
practitioners are aware of the ways in which people’s experiences can combine to produce heightened
vulnerability, disadvantages, and oppression.

Ideologies
Refer to As described in Chapter 5, an ideology is a system of beliefs about the nature of the world and human
Chapter 5
beings. Ideologies can be political or epistemological, that is they can either focus on social change
or knowledge generation. However, both types of ideologies incorporate sets of ideas that uphold and
justify an existing or desired arrangement of power, authority, wealth and status in society. What this
means is that ideologies can often perpetuate prejudice, discrimination and oppression. For example,
people ascribing to an extremist ideology may believe that the group they belong to are superior to
others and that people outside the group are a threat, resulting in hostility and violence towards
people outside the group.

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TRAVERSING LANDSCAPES: WORKING WITH OPPRESSION AND PRIVILEGE / CHAPTER 9

Culture
Most of us have a broad understanding of culture. We refer to culture when we talk about cultural
diversity, art and culture, multiculturalism, pop culture or cultural heritage. However, precise
definitions of culture are somewhat more difficult to achieve. Ow (2019) summarises the various
definitions, arguing that culture is difficult to define but there are some common characteristics
across many definitions: physical artefacts, values and underlying assumptions about worldviews
in relation to the world, time, and to how humans interact and relate. Culture also usually refers to
shared ancestry and language as well as shared meanings and behaviours. Culture is not static but
changes over time. It can also be ascribed to small groups of individuals as well as to whole societies,
or entire organisations, which we discussed in Chapter 7. In fact, most people experience and are Refer to
Chapter 7
part of many cultures.

Superdiversity
The term superdiversity has gained prominence this century following Vertovec’s (2007) paper where
he described how the increasing rates of migration have meant there are unprecedented varieties of
cultures, identities, languages, faiths and so on. Diversity cannot be understood in simplistic ways,
such as along gender, ethnic or other group lines, but societies are made of complex mixtures and
diverse overlapping group characteristics, such as those related to race, gender, class, ability, religion
and more. The concept of superdiversity alludes to the complexities of people’s cultures, acknowledging
that all people are part of multiple groups and cultures.

Influences on diversity
In discussing the specific characteristics and experiences of some groups of people in society, as well
as the many ways in which societies are diverse, we are separating and describing groups of people.
This is an artificial separation for the purposes of unpacking common experiences. We acknowledge
that this division is antithetical to human service practice, which should be holistic and inclusive.
We also acknowledge that, by describing groups according to specific characteristics (e.g. culture,
disability, sexual orientation and so on), we risk ‘othering’ people. Othering occurs when one group
of people defines another group as different, and at times inferior, based on specific characteristics.
It can often occur consciously or unconsciously, often occurring as a result of living in a society
that is structured to privilege some groups over others. In this section, we are seeking to provide an
introduction to the many ways in which people are diverse; it is not intended to other any groups.
At times, differences and diversity are used to perpetuate oppression and marginalisation. As social
workers, we must be attuned to noticing both oppression and privilege.
There are many ways in which people are diverse, but particularly as it relates to gender, age,
culture, race, sexuality, health and abilities. We acknowledge that this section does not do justice to
the diversity of society. However, we have endeavoured to comment on some common ways in which
people are diverse within Australasia.

Newly arrived migrant minorities

Many societies are culturally diverse or multicultural. The impact of immigration on nations has
produced societies such as those of Australia, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, the United States and
Singapore that are home to more than one cultural group. Migration has also increased exponentially
and is now a worldwide phenomenon. For individuals and families to leave their homeland and move
to a new country is extremely difficult. The loss of support systems and sources of income and the
need to create new ones in an unfamiliar culture and speaking a new language is distressing for many
people. People can experience tensions in adapting to a new environment while preserving important
elements of their culture. Practitioners in this field can be involved in assisting new arrivals to make
connections, establish housing and employment and adjust to their new home.

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This process is even more traumatic for refugees. War, famine, persecution and the restructuring
of many countries have contributed to an ever-growing population of refugees seeking asylum. In
addition to the adjustments experienced by new immigrants, refugees are likely to have endured
severe trauma, torture and loss of family members and friends, as well as difficult journeys. Many have
lived in refugee camps in other countries or in detention centres, often for months or years. For many
refugees, their experiences may create further mental health issues and physical health problems.
The relentless political and media attention to asylum seeker issues does little to promote a humane
response to such suffering.
Most cultures tend towards ethnocentrism – the view that their own culture is superior and is the
benchmark for judging the cultures of others. Consequently, as social workers, we must examine and
acknowledge our own biases and prejudices. If we are from the dominant cultural group, we usually
hold more power over others from more marginalised groups, and this becomes even more important.
Practitioners must constantly guard against falling into the ‘ethnocentric trap’ (Sheafor & Horejsi,
2015) in which we assume that our culture has the only valid perspective. The ongoing development
of self-awareness is crucial so that practitioners check their judgements and assessments for potential
bias or stereotyping.
Some techniques and interventions may not be appropriate for certain cultural groups or may need
to be adapted. In some cultures, disclosing problems can be shameful and is therefore unlikely to
occur. In other cultures, as part of the exchange of information and rapport building, clients may
expect practitioners to disclose such personal details as their marital status, number of children or
religious affiliation. If you are unfamiliar with the beliefs and values of a person you are working with,
it is prudent to acknowledge this early in the engagement phase. Most people are prepared to explain
cultural practices, and there are many useful resources that workers can use. For example, training
in cross-cultural communication is routinely offered to human service practitioners to prepare them
for working with people from different cultural backgrounds.
Newly arrived migrants are sometimes referred to by their culturally and linguistically diverse
(CALD) background. However, it should be noted that this phrase, while commonly used, is contested.
Nipperess and Williams (2019), reflecting on the work of Sawrikar and Katz, argue that the term CALD
carries negative connotations, grouping people together who are not only extremely diverse but are
also grouped based on experiences of disadvantage. The term reinforces the idea that the majority
are white service providers working with ethnic minority groups. They also ask questions, such as:
Who are people who are labelled CALD, culturally and linguistically diverse from? When are you no
longer considered CALD? Is it as a second, third or fourth generation Australian? And at what point
are people considered settlers as opposed to CALD? It is important to consider how language can be
used to further marginalise people, even if inadvertently.
In many practice contexts, you are very likely to work with people who have experienced significant
trauma in their home country and on the journey to a safer place. The following Practitioner Perspective is
Amanda Collins’ account of her work with refugee families. It highlights some of the ways she approaches
her practice in culturally appropriate ways. Amanda describes how she uses an anti-oppressive and
decolonising approach to practice. These approaches are described later in the chapter.

Practitioner perspective

As a practitioner working with people from a refugee background, your perceptions of humanity
are challenged. You are faced with the absolute best and worst of what humanity can be. This
includes the ways people seeking asylum are dehumanised, humiliated and criminalised when
fleeing war, genocide or persecution. Sometimes this can be shocking and overwhelming as a
practitioner. You also witness the incredible capacity of humans to love, feel compassion and joy
in the face of adversity. To do meaningful work, often I have embarked on experiences of shared
learning with clients to understand each other, our cultures, beliefs and worldviews.

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When working with people from a refugee background, I utilise an anti-oppressive and
decolonising approach. Through this, and critical self-reflection and awareness, I intentionally
redistribute power to my clients, which has been taken from them when being displaced and
seeking asylum. By enhancing their opportunities for choice and control, I demonstrate the value
of their knowledge systems, and empower their ways of being. An example of this is exploring
a client’s perspective of health and healing without imposing western models. Often, I have
worked with clients to relieve chronic pain they believe caused by possession, witchcraft or
curses. Through exploring the client’s cultural approaches to healing they are able to identify
ways to heal themselves. In these instances, pathologising client’s experiences and telling them
their beliefs are wrong would only inflict greater harm on them.
A relationship that supports clients to rebuild a sense of safety and trust can be developed by
approaching the practitioner/client relationship with self-awareness, humility, respect and genuine
curiosity. It is ok to ask questions and make mistakes. Sometimes mistakes can open possibilities
for laughter and greater connection. It is also important as a practitioner when working with people
from a refugee background that you think of your practice in terms of sustainability. To understand
how the work is affecting me I engage in continuous reflective processes and have developed ways
of integrating these experiences. I have also learnt that caring for myself isn’t something that I can
do alone. The support of my organisation and others around me is paramount for me to feel a
sense of connection and belonging in a community of collective care. This maintains my wellbeing
for me to keep doing this rewarding and challenging work.
Amanda Collins

First Peoples
First Peoples, sometimes referred to as First Nations, are peoples who are indigenous to place –
the original inhabitants of the land. Those expressions refer to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander
people in Australia, Māori in Aotearoa New Zealand, First Nations and Inuit in North America, and
Sami in Scandinavia, among many others. First Peoples are often at the very margins of the dominant
colonising society.
There is remarkable congruity in the experiences of oppression and exclusion of First Peoples across
the world; for example, First Peoples in Australia, New Zealand and North America were all colonised
by the British. Such experiences include the suppression of language and culture by the dominant
culture and a history of loss and displacement of land. In recognition of this, in Australia it is important
that any public event include an acknowledgement of the traditional owners of the land. In Aotearoa
New Zealand, there are many protocols to acknowledge and respect Māori. For example, official events
include a Māori welcome, called a powhiri, and most government publications are available in the
Māori language, which was acknowledged as an official language in 1987.
The historical legacy of colonisation for many First Peoples is poverty, low employment, poor health,
high morbidity due to preventable diseases, higher incidence of chronic diseases, lower life expectancy,
violence, overrepresentation in prison systems, and alcohol and drug misuse. In Australia, the
children of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples were often forcibly removed by government
authorities, sometimes for what was thought to be the best option, but often with violence and tragic
long-term consequences. This has been a key focus of the Australian Government, in such actions as
the intervention in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities by the Howard government
in 2007 and the apology to the Stolen Generations delivered by then Prime Minister Kevin Rudd in
February 2008.
The following sections offer introductory discussion around Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander
people and Māori. It is crucial that you read further on these topics, engage in conversations, and seek
as much learning as possible. These issues are not straightforward and require ongoing self-reflection.

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Recommended reading
Munford, R., & Walsh-Tapiata, W. (2006). Community development: Working in the bicultural
context of Aotearoa New Zealand. Community Development Journal, 41(4), 426–42. https://
doi.org/10.1093/cdj/bsl025
Nipperess, S., & Williams, C. (Eds.). (2019). Critical multicultural practice in social work:
New perspectives and practices. Routledge.
Tascón, S., & Ife, J. (Eds.). (2020). Disrupting whiteness in social work. Routledge.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples

It is beyond the scope of this book to adequately address all aspects of the experience of Australian
First Peoples and we, the authors, as white Anglo women, cannot speak with authority about their
experiences. However, the perspectives of First Peoples are often omitted from human services
literature and we believe that understanding such perspectives is crucial for all practitioners.
Therefore, we provide the following perspectives and principles learnt from Aboriginal and Torres
Strait Islander people as examples of the considerations you should take into account as a practitioner.
In working with these communities, the respect of Elders is fundamental, and practitioners must
acknowledge the importance of relationships and community.
Land and place are central to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, as is respect for
the spiritual aspects of life and customary laws and protocols. Such protocols relate to who can
communicate across the generations and with family members, and what is men’s and women’s
business. These protocols can impact on your work in these communities. It is important to show
humility and respect. These are key values of practice with all people.
Social workers were involved in the forcible removal of children from their families and
communities throughout the twentieth century as part of a policy of assimilation. This policy was
premised on the idea that First Nations people would ‘die out’ through a process of natural elimination
and that for those children who survived their lives would be improved if they were assimilated into
white society. The generations of children removed over that time have become known as the Stolen
Generations. In some families, multiple successive generations were removed, breaking cultural,
spiritual and family connections and having lasting intergenerational traumatic impacts on First
Nations people and communities. In its submission to the National Inquiry into the Separation of
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children from Their Families, the Australian Association
of Social Workers expressed ‘regret that social workers … were actively involved in the removal
of Aboriginal children from their families even up to relatively recent times’ (Human Rights and
Equal Opportunities Commission, 1997, p. 253). However, a review of the main social work journal
in Australia from 1948 to 1970 found that of the 331 articles only one article critiqued the forcible
removal of children, while another mentioned the care of Indigenous children outside their biological
family and community (Yu, 2019). Given the history of the European colonisation of Australia and
ongoing colonialist structures and institutions, many Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people
are wary of official institutions and social welfare. This is of particular concern for child protection
and youth justice services.
It is helpful to find out more about the historical events that have shaped the lives of Aboriginal and
Torres Strait Islander peoples over the tens of thousands of years before European invasions of the late
eighteenth century and up to the present. This history provides an understanding of the social, political
and economic issues that impact on these peoples, such as dispossession, the Stolen Generations, land
rights, sovereignty, self-determination, deaths in custody, racism and intergenerational grief.
It is especially important to value local knowledge, culture and resources, processes and protocols,
and the pace of development in the communities. Self-determination is a crucial theme underpinning
all work with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities (Ewalt & Mokuau, 1995). However,
it is essential that we do not assume all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people are the same. For
example, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people living in remote communities have different

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experiences from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people living in cities. It is important to seek
guidance from an Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander practitioner or Elder before visiting a particular
community.
Within current social welfare practices, Aboriginal people’s experiences are problematised as being
inherent to Aboriginal people and communities. This is now strongly challenged by the argument
that the problem is firmly entrenched in colonialist policies and practices. As a white social worker,
Susan Young (2011) has argued strongly that the social work profession has yet to really engage and
critically self-reflect on the ‘Whiteness of social work as a practice’ (p. 104). Central to understanding
the experiences of Aboriginal people is to confront the fact that the source of the problem lies not with
Aboriginal people; but rather, ‘the problem is colonialism, a condition that permeates every part of
Australian society and that includes our profession and the manner in which we exist and operate’
(Green & Bennett, 2018, p. 262).
A number of issues arise for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander practitioners. Bennett and
Zubrzycki (2003), in a study of Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander social workers,
found that these practitioners face a complex range of challenges both culturally and professionally.
Negotiating their identity in their communities and in their social work practice, working with people
with whom they had kinship ties and obtaining good professional supervision were all dilemmas
faced by the practitioners. Social work is essentially based on Western ideas and practices, and social
workers have been part of the oppression of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples in Australia.
The practitioners in this study reported that they felt restricted by their agencies in the ways that
they could carry out practice in their communities. Workers in our field have much to learn from the
experiences of these practitioners, and there are implications for how we support the development of
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander practice approaches.

Activity 9.1

1 What factors do you need to consider when working with Aboriginal and Torres Strait
Islander or other First Nations communities?
2 If you are a non-Indigenous worker, how might you go about finding out about appropriate
cultural protocols?
3 What are some current impacts of colonisation?
4 If you are an Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander worker, what considerations might you
make if you are working within your own community?

Recommended reading
Briskman, L. (2014). Social work with Indigenous communities (2nd ed.). Federation Press.
Dodson, M. (1997). Land rights and social justice. In G. Yunupingu (Ed.), Our Land is our life: Land
rights – past, present and future (pp. 39–51). University of Queensland Press.
Young, S. (2011). Social work theory and practice: The invisibility of whiteness. In A. Moreton-
Robinson (Ed.), Whitening race: Essays in social and cultural criticism (pp. 104–118). Aboriginal
Studies Press.
Yu, N. (2019). Interrogating social work: Australian Social Work and the Stolen Generations,
Journal of Social Work, 19(6) 736–750. https://doi.org/10.1177/1468017318794230

Māori
You will find some parallels between the experiences of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples
and Māori; however, in Aotearoa New Zealand, bicultural approaches to all aspects of life have been
embedded since the Treaty of Waitangi was signed in 1840. This is also reflected in approaches
to social work and human service practice where there is a focus on two groups: Māori and Pākehā

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(non-Māori New Zealanders). Mana-enhancing practice is embraced as a way of promoting respectful

cultural relationships (Ruwhiu, 2019). (In this respect, mana refers to direct relationship between
humans and the environment.) At the most fundamental level, Māori seek ‘respect, dignity, peace and
prosperity for all Māori, within a context where Māori may choose to be Māori in whatever way they
want to be Māori’ (Himona, 2001). Ruwhiu (2019) outlines and expands on three recognition points
helpful to practice with Māori: the significance of history, narratives as promoters of identity and
Refer to Māori concepts of wellbeing (these were mentioned in Chapter 2). Munford and Walsh-Tapiata (2006,
Chapter 2
pp. 428–429) offer several principles for undertaking community development practice in Aotearoa
New Zealand, as shown in Figure 9.1.

Figure 9.1 Principles for undertaking community development in Aotearoa New Zealand

Vision for the future

and what
can be achieved

Understand local
Action and reﬂection
contexts

Positive social change Community

Locate oneself within
for all communities in development principles
community
Aotearoa New Zealand Aotearoa NZ

Work with power

Work collectively
relations

Achieve
self-determination

Source: Robyn Munford, Wheturangi Walsh-Tapiata, Community development: working in the bicultural
context of Aotearoa New Zealand, Community Development Journal, Volume 41, Issue 4, October 2006,
Pages 426–442, https://doi.org/10.1093/cdj/bsl025

While these principles specifically address community development, they are also relevant and
important for all practice. You will see similarities between Māori and Aboriginal and Torres Strait
Islander Peoples emerge; for example, the fundamental principle of self-determination. There is
also a strong emphasis on community, and for Māori it is crucial to know one’s tribe or iwi and tribal
connections, where you are from, as well as one’s place in a family, and in a collective rather than as
an individual. Reflection is also highlighted as important in developing practitioners’ understanding
and practice. Sharing stories and thinking about their own historical, cultural, social and economic
experiences and origins will help practitioners make sense of the world and have a better understanding
of others. Social workers and community workers can help clients build strength and resilience through
the suggestions listed in Figure 9.2.

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Figure 9.2 Principles for working with whānau families

Principles for working with whānau families

Engage with clients through listening, understanding and respecting

cultural diﬀerence and uniqueness

Value the contribution of Māori concepts and cultural narratives to

restorative healing processes through the generations

Reaﬃrm the ability and capacities of whānau to engage in

self-determination and providing support to do so

Recognise that the cultural wisdom embedded in Māori ideological

and philosophical beliefs can generate theory, solutions, practice or
resolutions to Māori welfare concerns
Source: Ruwhiu P (2019) Te whakapakari ake i te mahi: Mana-enhancing practice: Engagement with social work
students and practitioners. In: Munford R, O’Donoghue K (eds) New Theories for Social Work Practice: Ethical Practice
for Working with Individuals, Families and Communities. London: Jessica Kingsley Publishers, pp.195–211.

Recommended reading
Ruwhiu, P. (2019). Te whakapakari ake I te Mahi: Mana-enhancing practice: Engagement with social
work students and practitioners. In R. Munford & K. O’Donoghue (Eds.), New theories for social work
practice: Ethical practice for working with individuals, families and communities. Jessica Kingsley.

Pasifika peoples
This refers to a diverse group of people from island nations in the Pacific, including Polynesia,
Melanesia and Micronesia, many of whom now live in a diaspora across Australasia and the United
States. As many of these people have moved to Aotearoa New Zealand and Australia, social workers
and human service practitioners increasingly engage with them and their cultures. ‘Pasifika’ is a term
used in Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand to refer to this group of people and their cultures. As such,
they are not regarded as Indigenous in either country but nevertheless share a history of colonisation.
Many countries in the Pacific are facing major challenges due to climate change, natural disasters and
high levels of unemployment as well as high rates of disease (Ravulo et al., 2019) prompting many to
migrate to Aotearoa New Zealand and Australia. Large Pasifika communities can be found, for example,
in Auckland, Western Sydney, and Logan City and Caboolture in Queensland.
Pasifika people encounter marginalisation and discrimination in Australia. For example, many
families struggle financially with limited access to well-paying jobs and are ineligible for any social
security or assistance in accessing post-secondary education. Education outcomes are lower, which
further disadvantages young people seeking further education or a job (Chenoweth, 2014). Social
work and human service practitioners may therefore encounter Pasifika people through emergency
relief, health services, schools and the youth justice system. There has been little research about
Auckland, communities in Australia. Most attention has been focused on youth crime, seasonal work
and achievements in sport, particularly rugby league and rugby union (Ravulo, 2015).
In the past decade, social work with Pasifika communities has contributed to the development
of non-Western perspectives for practice. Mafile’o (2019) outlines three key Auckland, social work
principles – love, relationship and humility – as being crucial for working with Pasifika peoples.
Pasifika place high value on families, which tend to be large and include extended family members;
though sometimes they are separated through migration.

Recommended reading
Ravulo, J., Mafile’o, T., & Yeates, D. (Eds.). (2019). Pacific social work: Navigating practice, policy and
research. Routledge.

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Whiteness
In recent years, there has been a growing discussion of whiteness and white privilege, the latter being a
social phenomenon that acknowledges that some groups of people experience socioeconomic privileges,
power and wealth, at the expense of other groups. Thus, it is a term used to describe the institutionalised
benefits experienced by people who are deemed white. It can manifest in various forms, including
access to better education and employment opportunities, cultural affirmations of one’s own worth;
greater social status; and freedom from racism and discrimination with the ability to move, purchase
things, be in paid employment and to speak freely without fear of retribution. Tascón (2020) points out
that European colonisation of Australia, Aotearoa New Zealand and elsewhere – where settlers often
killed Indigenous inhabitants or required them to assimilate with the settler culture – has resulted in
a privileging of white people, worldviews and knowledge systems.

The colonialist project, from the 18th century onwards, has resulted in the colonial privileging of white people,
and the subjugation and exploitation of people of colour. And with this privileging of white people goes the
privileging of white world views and white knowledge systems. This colonial imbalance is perpetuated in
the 21st century through a range of dominant institutions and discourses, and is at the heart of many of the
wars, conflicts and terrorist attacks of the present day. (Tascón, pp 1–2)
Source: Tascón, S. (2020). Disrupting white epistemologies: De-binarising social work.
In S. Tascón & J. Ife (Eds.), Disrupting whiteness in social work (pp. 8–25). Routledge.

Tascón (2020) describes how we are all racialised but we benefit differently from it. She also
highlights that colonisation has influenced social work, privileging Western ways of seeing the world.
Green and Bennett (2018) state:

The problem is colonialism, a condition that permeates every part of Australian society and that includes our
profession and the manner in which we exist and operate. What we call Australian social work today has its
foundations in colonisation and is still embedded in colonialism. (Tascón, pp 1–2)

While colonialism has been examined, whiteness is grossly undertheorised in literature. This is
partly because, as the dominant settler majority in many countries, the identity of whiteness is taken
for granted. It is not threatened in any way, resulting in many white people being ignorant of their
own history, cultures and privileges.

Sexual orientation and gender identity

Gender identification and sexual orientation are other dimensions of diversity that practitioners
encounter in human services. While sexual orientation may not be the presenting issue, many people
who are gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender or intersex have historically experienced rejection,
discrimination, oppression and inequality under the law. The common acronym used to refer to
people who are not heterosexual, or are gender diverse, is LGBTQIA+. This captures the complexity of
lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex, gender diverse and queer communities. It is important
to understand the difference between gender identities and sexual orientation. The term gender binary
refers to the male or female classifications of gender based on biological sex determined at birth.
Gender identity refers to ‘an inner sense of oneself as man, woman, masculine, feminine, neither,
both, or moving around freely between or outside the gender binary’ (Australian Institute of Family
Studies, 2019). Transgender/trans/gender diverse people have a mismatch between their assigned
gender at birth and their internal gender identity, whereas for cisgender people their assigned gender
at birth corresponds to their internal gender identity. A person who may not be sure about their gender
identity may be referred to as ‘gender questioning’. Intersex refers to people who have anatomical
or chromosomal differences that give them neither male nor female identity or a combination of both.
In many other parts of the world it is not uncommon to have many more than two genders. There are

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culturally accepted gender diversities such as the Fa’afafine in Samoa and Fakaleiti in Tonga, who are
biologically male but raised as female within a family to take on caring responsibilities and social roles.

WATCH YOUR LANGUAGE

LGBTQIA+
Terminology and acronyms change over time. Decades ago, the acronym LGBT was commonly used
to refer to people within the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community. As issues around
intersex people came to the fore, and the queer community gained political prominence, the acronym
changed to LGBTQIA. The + has more recently been added to recognise other gender identities and
sexual orientations such as pansexual and asexual. There are also some variations to LGBTQIA+; for
example, some variations include Sistergirl and Brotherboy for First Nations peoples.

Sexual orientation is not to be confused with gender identity. Lesbians are women who are sexually
attracted to other women. Gay is the term used for men who have sex with other men but is also a
term that is more widely used to refer to both same-sex attracted men and women. Bisexual people
experience sexual attraction towards both men and women. Pansexual people can be attracted to
any person regardless of their gender identity, and asexual people have no sexual attraction but can
still form intimate relationships with others. The term queer refers to any sexual or gender identity
or orientation that does not conform to heteronormativity.
The dominant sexual orientation of most societies is heterosexual, and this is reflected in many
institutions, such as the law, workplaces and the family. Heteronormativity is defined by Irwin (in Pease
et al., 2016, p. 255) as ‘a contemporary theory to refer to the many ways in which heterosexuality is
produced as a natural, unproblematic, everyday occurrence’.
Homophobia (the extreme fear of homosexuality) is prevalent, although often unconscious.
Homophobia gives rise to discrimination, rejection and even violence. Hate crimes are often directed
at gay men, who are vulnerable to violence and attack. Dealing with a homophobic world can have
severe effects on same-sex attracted people, causing emotional distress and isolation.
Heterosexism as a belief system values heterosexuality as normative and non-heterosexuality
as deviant and, therefore, intrinsically less desirable. It is important to appreciate that people with
different sexual orientations have also been socialised in a heterosexual world and, as a consequence,
have often internalised homophobic messages. This is referred to as ‘internalised homophobia’ for gay,
lesbian and bisexual people or ‘transphobia’ for transgender people (Morrow, 2004). If such phobias
are not addressed, gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender people can develop a negative self-image and
are often at risk of depression, substance abuse and suicide.

Recommended reading
Appleby, G., & Anastas, J. (2012). Social work practice with lesbian, gay and bisexual people.
In A. Morales, B. Sheafor & M. Scott (Eds.), Social work: A profession with many faces (12th ed.),
(pp. 255–281). Allyn & Bacon.
Dentato, M. P. (2022). Social work practice with the LGBTQ+ Community: The intersection of history,
health, mental health and policy factors. Oxford.
Jones, T. (2019). Improving services for transgender and gender variant youth: Research, policy and
practice for health and social care professionals. Springer Publishing.
Morrow, D. S., & Messinger, L. (2006). Sexual orientation and gender expression in social work
practice: Working with gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people. Columbia University Press.

‘Coming out’ refers to the process of disclosing to others a same-sex attraction. This can be
extremely difficult, especially for adolescents. Morrow (2004) notes that the average age for awareness
of sexual orientation is 10 years of age, whereas the average age of coming out to a friend is 16, and
to family it is 17. This suggests that the process of coming out can be lengthy and often difficult,
especially for young people from conservative or traditional families.

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It is common for LGBTQIA+ people to experience times in which they are confused and uncertain
about their gender identity and sexual orientation. They may deny their sexual attractions or become
sexually active with members of the opposite sex in an attempt to ward off discrimination. People who
are gay or lesbian, particularly older people, may not be comfortable being open about their sexual
orientation. Previous hurts from prejudice and discrimination may cause people to be fearful and
cautious about seeking help from a human service agency.
Many gay men have felt the impact of HIV/AIDS; some may be living with HIV while many others
may have lost friends or lovers. For gay couples, caring for a partner who is affected is a source of
physical and emotional distress for the carer. Health and community services specialising in the
needs of LGBTQIA+ communities are now much more common, and there is much greater acceptance
of the need for a particular set of skills and knowledge to manage the complexities of issues that
create challenges for this group. Riggs et al. (2018) outline the continued difficulties that lesbian,
gay and/or transgender people face in relation to relationship and gender recognition, immigration,
superannuation, the Family Court, assisted reproductive technologies, adoption, foster care, surrogacy,
intimate partner and domestic violence, and criminal proceedings. All of these are issues that social
workers and human service workers may encounter in any services that operate in these areas.
Many gender diverse and same-sex-attracted people experience issues with their families. They may
have been rejected by their family of origin and may experience sadness and grief at the loss of these
relationships. Family support is crucial for a young person coming out, but it may not be forthcoming
if the family has not accepted the gender identity or sexual orientation of the young person. Families
can be both a source of support and a source of tension and conflict. Many gay men and lesbians report
that their ‘chosen’ family – that is, their partner and friends – has become the emotional buffer between
them and a hostile society (Appleby & Anastas, 2012).
Many gender diverse and same-sex attracted couples are also parents and experience the same
difficulties and concerns as other families. Being a parent can be especially difficult in a society that
assumes all parents are heterosexual and that gender diverse and same-sex attracted people are not
interested in family life or children. Children of same-sex parents may face issues at school or with
friends because of social stigma, although as societal attitudes and laws change and non-traditional
families are more common, the stigma may lessen. International research shows that these children do
not experience any more problems with adjustment, self-esteem, quality of friendships or psychological
development than children from heterosexual families, and problems are more likely to be related to
family processes (e.g. conflict) than family structure (McNair et al., 2002; Millbank, 2003).
Results from a major Australian study on the health of children from same-sex families show that
children are actually healthier and more resilient, and families closer than other families, despite
continued discrimination and stigma, which is ongoing cause for concern (Crouch et al., 2014). Different
constructions of family and relationships, which may include sperm and egg donors and surrogates,
challenge the societal ‘norms’ and present interesting social and legal debates about the rights of
children, donors and parents. At the other end of the scale, as gender diverse and same-sex attracted
people age, the notable absence of residential care catering for these relationships, and inequities of
access to financial and legal entitlements, highlights the heterosexism of human services yet again.
Concerns about discrimination and lack of understanding of same-sex relationships at the end of life
cause significant stress for older gay men and lesbians (Hughes, 2009).
Social workers need to recognise and respect a person’s decision not to ‘come out’ after they have
carefully considered the pros and cons. Coming out can be a painful process that can trigger a crisis in
housing, rejection by family or loss of a job. It should not be done by someone else without that person’s
consent because this may cause extensive angst and distress. A person needs intensive support to
make such a decision and resources to meet any emergency needs.
There have been significant changes in policy and legislation for gender diverse and same-sex
couples in Australia. Reforms based on antidiscrimination have brought equality in taxation,
superannuation, medical benefits, social security payments, child support and immigration. The last
frontier for these reforms was marriage equality which, despite widespread public support, was still

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opposed in Australia until 2017. In Aotearoa New Zealand, and in many other parts of the world, same-
sex couples were given similar legal rights to heterosexual couples and were permitted to marry. In
Australia, a drawn-out political process finally resulted in a plebiscite and national survey in which
61.6 per cent voted ‘Yes’ for same-sex marriage, resulting in a law that defined marriage as ‘the union
of two people to the exclusion of all others, voluntarily entered into for life’. Australia then became
the 26th country to achieve marriage equality.
As a beginning practitioner, you need to seriously examine your beliefs about sexual orientation
and gender identity before working with LGBTQIA+ individuals, families and communities. You should
not be afraid to acknowledge a lack of knowledge in this area – there is widespread ignorance about
homosexuality and transgender issues in the community and among other professionals in health and
human services. In many countries, homosexuality remains illegal, although this has been shifting
over time. What is most critical is the understanding that discrimination on the basis of sexuality is
not in line with social work and human service values and against the law in many jurisdictions. The
International Federation of Social Workers (IFSW) has made an important statement in a policy paper
that grounds a firm commitment to a human rights approach:

The rights of LGBTQIA+ people are human rights. Therefore, the social work profession’s core commitment
to human rights must involve a commitment to protecting and preserving their rights. LGBTQIA+ people of all
genders and at all stages of the life cycle deserve protection from discrimination in all forms, including legal
and state-based policies and practices. (IFSW, 2014)

Client perspective

My partner and I have been in a committed same-sex relationship for 22 years. We have two
children and an extended donor family that we share close relationships with. We have been
lucky that discrimination has not touched us as much as many others we know. There have been
sources of annoyance and frustration over the years. When we had a commitment ceremony
before the children were born, some family members refused to come. I could not have
my name on my daughter’s birth certificate until that law was changed. I have been asked many
times at hospitals, dentists, sports clubs, who is the ‘real mother’? The school enrolment forms
only had lines for ‘mother’ and ‘father’. We have seen many things change over time, and our
children are healthy and secure. They do not feel discrimination and are proud to be who they
are, and who we all are as a family. We rallied together for marriage equality and celebrated
together when the Yes vote came through. We will grow old and our children will grow up to be
who they will be. The generations to come will be better for the struggles that we all endured to
make a more just world for diverse families. For that we are grateful.
Dora

Disability and mental health

People with disabilities and mental ill health can experience extreme marginalisation, discrimination,
rejection, oppression and stigma based on negative societal attitudes, beliefs and behaviours.
Disability, impairment and mental illness are not new phenomena; they have always been part of the
human experience. However, until the early 1970s, most people with disabilities or mental illness lived
in institutions. For people with disabilities, this was often from early childhood, and such children
had little contact with community agencies.
Disability and mental illness have often been understood and treated as a medical condition. The
‘problem’ of disability or mental illness has been assumed to be within the individual, requiring
rehabilitation or medical treatment. Consequently, the term mental illness has been critiqued for its
medicalisation of mental distress (see for example, McCusker & Jackson, 2016); however, it has also
commonly become known to describe experiences that significantly interfere with a person’s cognitive,
emotional or social abilities and that could be deemed clinically diagnosable. Terms like ‘mental health

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issues’ or ‘mental health challenges’ are used to describe when an individual experiences diminished
cognitive, emotional or social abilities, but not to the extent that the diagnostic criteria for a mental
illness are met, while mental ill health has become an umbrella term for both mental illness and
mental health issues and challenges. Life in Mind has produced a National Communications Charter
(Everymind, 2018) that practitioners may find useful in navigating terminology.
Over the past 30 years, the environmental and social aspects of disability and mental health have
been more clearly recognised. The focus for practice in the disability sector moved to changing a
person’s environment rather than the person, while the focus in mental health has been on supporting
resilience and recovery. Therefore, practice with people with disabilities or mental illness involves
working not only at the level of individuals, families and communities but also for change at the
political level.
There are three theoretical approaches to disability and mental health: medical, social and political
(Munford & Bennie, 2016). Individual approaches regard disability and mental illness as being caused
by a characteristic of the individual. Disability and mental illness are seen as personal tragedies,
attributed to a misfortune, an act of God or a moral payback for past sins. Personal tragedy theory
regards the impairment as residing in the individual. Related to this is the medical model, in which
disability and mental illness are regarded as the result of a defect or deficiency in the body. The
disability or illness requires medical or therapeutic treatments to be eradicated, cured or reduced to a
level at which the individual can adapt to the impairment. More recent genetic advances have extended
the notion of the medical deficiency to genetic defect, requiring detection through prenatal testing
and screening. The hope for science is that genetic conditions will be treatable in utero.
The social model of disability regards disability and mental illness as being the result of social
barriers (Oliver, 1990). Munford and Bennie (2016, p. 196) argue that this model sees disability as
socially constructed. They warn that ‘the consequences of adopting the social model of disability tend
to be contradictory in that, while there is an acknowledgement of people’s differences, interventions
are likely to seek to minimise diversity (or deviance) and assimilate disabled people into the dominant
culture. These actions may unintentionally devalue a disabled identity.’
The third model, the political model, defines disability and mental illness as a lived experience
that is compounded by an individualistic society that focuses on dominant values, thus increasing
the opportunities for collective strategies to raise consciousness to combat oppression. Strategies in
line with this approach include political action, creating physically accessible environments, and
antidiscrimination legislation and policies. In line with this model, ‘disability is therefore understood
as a political problem, not as a medical or social problem’ (Munford & Bennie, 2016, p. 196).
Discrimination against people with disabilities is now illegal in various jurisdictions; however, the
proportion of people with disabilities finishing school, obtaining valued employment and having a
variety of social relationships is less than that of the general population in most countries. Further,
people with mental illness can often experience stigma, making it difficult for people to access services,
leading to social isolation and poor wellbeing.
Over the last fifty years, a number of social movements have emerged to advocate for the rights
of people with disability and mental illness. In the mental health field, such social movements have
sought to change public perceptions regarding mental illness and advocate for the rights of people with
mental illness. A well-known movement is the Movement for Global Mental Health (https://www.
globalmentalhealth.org), which was launched in 2008 focusing on effective treatments and human
rights for people with mental illness with a particular focus on low and middle income countries.
The worldwide movement for disability rights has largely been led by groups of people with physical
and sensory impairments. Many people with disabilities identify as a cultural group. For example, deaf
people see themselves as part of a particular subculture with their own language and culture. Many
people with disabilities are actively involved in disability pride movements and political action for
Refer to change. Examples include the People First movement, People with Disabilities Australia, and Nothing
Chapter 6
About Us, Without Us. Chapter 6 offers more information about practice issues.

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CASE STUDY
Finding my feet
Anna is a woman who is shy in groups. Anna has interests which included country music and line
dancing. Anna has a mild intellectual disability and was in care for much of her childhood. She is
supported to live in the community, receives help with managing her house and finances and to
engage in the community, making friends.
The agency that supports Anna was able to explore the area in which Anna lived and identify
a number of line dancing groups. The practitioner contacted the people running these different
groups and talked a bit about the level of difficulty of dancing the groups do and the groups’
capacity to welcome a new person. From this, one group was identified. The worker informed
the person running the group and the people attending the group that Anna would be attending
in the following week.
For the first six months the worker would pick up Anna and take her to line dancing, dance
with her at line dancing, encourage her to speak to others in the group and encourage group
members to talk to Anna. Then the worker would transport Anna home.
When Anna moved into a new house, the worker supported her to invite some people from
line dancing to a housewarming. People from the group came to Anna’s house and brought gifts.
Over the following six months Anna walked to line dancing. The worker would meet her there
and encourage her to engage with others in the group.
In the final six months of the worker’s support, Anna walked to line dancing, the worker
met her in the break and encouraged her to engage with others in the group. The group
were very welcoming of Anna, always saying ‘Hello’ to her. They gave her Christmas cards at
Christmas and some of the people in the group have given her presents to take when she sees
her daughter.
Anna has continued to attend the line dancing group for the past two years.
This could be seen as a good news story. How might Anna’s past experiences affect her capacity
to be part of the community? What would the worker have to take into account in working with
Anna to become part of the line dancing group? What safeguards are needed to ensure Anna
continues to flourish? What might happen if the worker moves on to another job?

Summary
We have provided here an overview of several broad groups of people who are variously constructed
as ‘other’ in the dominant culture. As flagged earlier, this is a partial introduction to the lived
experiences and practice responses to a wide spectrum of the human experience. The common threads
of marginalisation, discrimination and oppression are expressed in many ways. Being ‘other’ in a
society means one misses out on crucial opportunities to be included and treated with respect. There
are often fundamental gaps in basic supports, with cumulative effects on wellbeing and economic
participation. It is not surprising that many people in marginalised groups also experience poverty,
unemployment and insecure lives. Poverty is not just about a lack of material resources; it includes
feelings of shame and social isolation (Gupta, 2015).
It is also important for us to note here that diverse groups are not homogeneous, despite sharing
common histories and experiences. Through a postmodern lens, diversity is viewed as individually
and socially constructed and constantly changing and evolving (Azzopardi & McNeill, 2016).
In your future practice it is important to unpack these multiple and compounding impacts and to
seek powerful interventions to address not merely the presenting problem or issue, but the structural
and persistent barriers faced by successive generations. There are looming social policy challenges
as governments seek to reduce welfare spending in the face of increasing social problems. We discuss
some practice approaches you may follow up in the following section.

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Practice contexts and approaches

We begin with a practitioner’s account of her work in remote Aboriginal communities with a cultural
background different from her own. Several issues are highlighted by Sophie in this work. She refers
to the need to focus on what connects people rather than what makes us different, and her acute sense
of needing to understand how her own cultural values shape expectations. Practice approaches that
specifically inform work with people from culturally diverse backgrounds include anti-discriminatory,
anti-racist and anti-oppressive perspectives, which have common theoretical and ideological roots. In
these approaches, practitioners take account of structural disadvantage and seek to combat oppression
and discrimination on the grounds of race, gender, ethnicity or sexual orientation.

Practitioner perspective

I live and work in a remote Aboriginal community in Western Australia, approximately

1000 kilometres from the nearest regional town. Despite all the challenges of living remote, the
greatest challenge is tackling the ‘distance’ of cross-cultural relationships. My approach is that
it is always best to focus on what connects us, instead of our differences. It’s a simple idea,
but it seems to work. Focus on making genuine connections at a human level with community
members. Have a joke, share a laugh, talk about your worries or fears. As with any cross-cultural
work, things will happen on a daily basis that do not make sense. When that happens, a lot of the
time, I see people retreat to the safety of ‘us and them’ thinking. Instead, I try to think first about
what my cultural values were that shaped my expectations. It makes it easier to understand that
my response was as much shaped by my culture as the other person’s. Despite this, it is also very
important to stay attuned to the uniqueness of each community. Every place, even communities
sharing the same language and bonded by family ties, has its own history and relationships.
You need to take time to understand the community, the land, the people, and the history as
much as possible while you work on building your own relationships. Everyone wants to ‘make a
difference’ but if your burning ambition to do good becomes more important than the needs or
desires of the community you’re working in, then you will end up doing more harm than good.
Be patient. Change takes time, and unfortunately remote Aboriginal communities see a lot of
people come and go in short spaces of time. The longer you can stay, the more you will develop
trust and acceptance, and the better you will be able to help people achieve their goals.
Sophie Staughton

Anti-discriminatory work was influenced by theories of racism, feminism, and the gay, lesbian and
disability rights movements. Anti-racist practice was largely a result of the push for curriculum changes
in social work education in both the United States and the United Kingdom in the 1990s. However, this
process is regarded as a failure by some (see, for example, Dominelli, 1997) because it is reductionist
and combines differences such as race and ethnicity in a single category – for example, ‘black’. In this
instance, anti-racist practice is criticised for generating oversimplified responses to complex sets of
conditions and viewing all black experience as a reaction to white domination. What was required
was a perspective that could account for multiple differences. A later evolution of anti-discriminatory
approaches was anti-oppressive practice.

Anti-oppressive practice
Anti-oppressive practice approaches have been developed by many authors (see, for example, Baines,
2022; Dalrymple & Burke, 2006; Dominelli, 2002; Mullaly & West, 2017; Thompson, 2020). Anti-oppressive
approaches focus on the level of the individual’s private troubles and the wider social systems that cause
these troubles through oppression. It is necessary to grapple with the ways in which systemic issues
impact negatively on individuals. Practitioners, therefore, try to provide services and support to people
seeking help and also help clients, communities and themselves to understand how they are oppressed
and how problems are linked to social inequality (Baines, 2022).
262 Copyright 2024 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. WCN 02-300

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Dalrymple and Burke (2006) focus on how the legal and professional responsibilities of practitioners
can be met in an anti-oppressive way. The statutory context of work with offenders in which they
have developed their approach is especially difficult given the embedded power and authority of the
worker in legally mandated situations. It is a particularly helpful model to explore, since working in
an empowering way in a traditionally disempowering situation requires a robust practice model.
Dalrymple and Burke argue that the practitioner needs a firm understanding of the theoretical basis
for anti-oppressive practice, with power as a critical starting point. Three key principles that underpin
their approach are presented in Figure 9.3.

Figure 9.3 Principles underpinning anti-oppressive practice

Empowerment The practitioner focuses on helping clients to gain more control over their lives.

Seeking agreement about the concerns that are to be the focus of the work and acting only
when there is a clear shared understanding about any actions to be taken. The practitioner
Working in only works on actions clients have agreed to or have been legally directed by a court to
partnerships undertake. This requires clear and honest communication at all times, so
with clients assumptions are explicitly expressed and are addressed. It is recommended that these
assumptions and agreements are in written form and as many choices as possible are
oﬀered, even within strict legal requirements.

Relates to the ﬁrst two principles. The practitioner is aware of their own power in the
Minimal relationship. It is easy to slip into doing ‘for’ clients rather than assisting them to do for
intervention themselves. Practitioners can unwittingly oppress clients through their actions, especially
when mandated by agency or legal obligations

Source: Anti-oppressive practice: Social care and the law (2nd ed.) by J. Dalrymple & B. Burke, 2006, Open University Press.

Dalrymple and Burke’s approach operates at three levels: feelings, ideas and actions. Exploring
feelings allows an understanding of how a person has come to be oppressed so the practitioner
and client can work towards alleviating these feelings. Ideas allow a concentration on clients’
feelings of self-worth and their abilities. Building on their strengths and capacities allows people
to see themselves as being more empowered and capable. Nipperess and Clark (in Pease et al., 2016,
p. 200) provide an excellent example of anti-oppressive practice in work with people seeking asylum,
highlighting the need to acknowledge that ‘refugees and asylum seekers demonstrate resilience,
strength, and rich and diverse histories and cultures’. Finally, action is directed to changes in the
agency, community or wider systems that negatively affect clients. This may involve changing your
agency’s procedures or lobbying government for far-reaching changes to legislation or social policy.

Indigenous relationality and worldviews

Relationality, dialogue and deep listening are important ways of working across diversity. Indigenous
relationality is a way of understanding, interacting and engaging with the world that emphasises the
importance of relationships between people, other living beings, and the environment. It recognises
the interconnected nature of human health and wellbeing and that of the ecosystems that people
are part of. Thus, it is grounded in a deep respect for all forms of life and is based on the belief that
everything is connected. As social workers, embodying Indigenous relationality means acknowledging
that we all have a responsibility to care for each other and Earth. However, it goes further than this.

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According to Tynan (2021), relationality is learnt through stories and observing storytelling, and it
is a responsibility tied to connection to kin and Country. It means listening deeply to others, in ways
that are characterised by being attentive, open to dialogue, and non-judgemental.
Indigenous relationality is grounded in Indigenous ways of knowing, being and doing. Indigenous
worldviews are holistic, recognising that people, including their physical, emotional, spiritual and
intellectual selves, are interconnected to land and to one’s ancestors, and includes a deep respect for
all forms of life, a focus on living in harmony with others and with the natural world, and a belief
that everything is connected. It acknowledges that we all have a responsibility to care for the earth
and all its inhabitants. Kirkness and Barnhardt (1991) provided a framework for tertiary institutions
to use to support Indigenous students, that while targeted at tertiary institutions can also be used
by social workers in practice. It includes four key ideas that are important for Indigenous people to be
successful: respecting Indigenous knowledge, responsible relationships, reciprocity, and relevance.
The following Practitioner Perspective written by an Indigenous researcher illustrates the importance
of these principles.

Practitioner perspective

Time is important. In our research project, one of our mantras is ‘slow and steady’. We follow
instructions. Guides are written out by First Nations people in principles, frameworks and protocols.
If you use these things as guidelines for practice or for planning research projects, or community
development projects, you can go a long way to getting a good foundation for building relationships
and working together. Another motto is, ‘you can’t hurry love’ – we are doing music projects, so we
like these types of things. What I have learnt from the perspective of culturally informed trauma
integrated practice, is around the importance of slowness, but also presence; the practice of ‘dadirri’
– the deep inner listening. The deep presence and connection and groundedness to country that we
take with us in every single interaction in every single context. So, slowing down and listening, sits
really well with things like humility and being an effective ally.
Deep inner listening, the grounded connection to country, is drawn from cultural knowledges
and cultural ways of being as Indigenous peoples in Australia. That is on offer for any practitioner,
Indigenous or non-Indigenous. You can go to training on that, you can read about it, you can
watch YouTube clips, but I think the opportunity to sit with oneself and sit with others in that
very patient humble space and let yourself be led by cultural leaders and advisors in your work,
can be transformative, enabling us to embody and actualise cultural knowledge and cultural
practices. All of these things, while not always easy, contribute to professional self-care as well.
If you are getting grounded and connected to country that is an immediate resource for you as a
practitioner. When we get too flighty, heady, confused and overwhelmed, often a go-to practice
is to come back to culture, groundedness and connection to country.
Naomi Sunderland, Creative Arts Research Institute & School of Health Sciences
and Social Work, Griffith University

Refer to
Critical and radical practice
Chapter 5 As discussed in Chapter 5, the central purpose of critical and radical approaches to practice is to
achieve broader social change through social action. These approaches have been effective in working
with minority groups, often through group members and practitioners collaborating on specific issues
and concerns. Sometimes this can be on the scale of a social movement; for example, in the worldwide
efforts to achieve social inclusion and better lives for people with disabilities. It was through these
efforts that people with disabilities, their families and allies, alongside social workers and disability
practitioners, agitated for changes in policy, legislation and the upholding of fundamental human
rights. Thousands of people moved from institutions to community living and were afforded rights
through disability anti-discrimination legislation. Even when working with smaller local efforts,
practitioners can use critical approaches. For example, a small town might work together with

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community workers to campaign for the rights of a family to be awarded refugee status. A local parish
might employ a youth worker to work with members of the congregation, young people and local
businesses to agitate for a skate park as a way of reducing youth crime and recidivism in the youth
justice system.
An essential starting point is to gain as much knowledge as possible about specific groups and
cultures you are working with. This includes gaining historical knowledge about the devastating
impact that colonialism may have had at a personal level for people but originating at the societal
level (Azzopardi & McNeill, 2016). There are other theories that inform critical practice with
diverse marginalised populations, such as critical race theory (see, for example, Daftary, 2018) and
decolonisation (see Gray et al., 2016). Fundamental to critical practice is the ongoing process of critical
reflection, which is discussed elsewhere in this text.

Cultural competence, humility and safety

Cultural competence originated in social work some 40 years ago, initially as a response to working in
increasingly multicultural contexts. At the time it brought more awareness of diversity and difference
to social work and was defined as:

a process by which individuals and systems respond respectfully and effectively to people of all cultures,
languages, classes, races, ethnic backgrounds, religions, spiritual traditions, immigration status and other
diversity factors in a manner that recognizes, affirms, values, and preserves their dignity. (Danso, 2018,
pp. 412–413)

For decades, cultural competence has attracted a great deal of attention through research, scholarship
and critique. You will find references in the literature to cultural awareness, cultural sensitivity, cultural
appropriateness, cultural safety, cultural consciousness and cultural humility. Over recent decades,
debates have continued as to the usefulness of cultural competence as a construct and as a practice
approach. Danso (2018) suggests there are two main schools of thought in this regard, one arguing the
virtues of cultural competence and the other questioning its effectiveness for working across different
cultures. Cultural competence certainly has practical appeal as a set of skills that can be mastered,
taught and measured. However, it has been widely criticised as having no real theoretical foundation;
as being a myth because it is impossible to become competent in another culture; or for its focus on
promoting effective practice that fails to pay attention and interrogate the very ‘othering’ processes
that exist in the wider society and indeed in the profession (Danso, 2018; Fisher-Borne et al., 2015).
In response to these critiques, other scholars have extended the discussions around cultural competence
to embrace cultural consciousness (see Azzopardi & McNeill, 2016), cultural humility (see Danso, 2018)
and cultural safety (Ramsden, 2002). Cultural humility focuses on building genuine and mutual trust
between people that is grounded in respectful relationships, while cultural consciousness is focused on
developing critical self-awareness about the impact of one’s own culture, socio-political class, ideologies,
values, biases and preconceived norms. It is aligned with cultural humility in its focus on the importance
of self-reflection regarding how power is exercised, and shapes our perceptions of clients, problems and
solutions. Cultural humility too, is shaped by a commitment to lifelong learning and self-reflection, but
is also focused on addressing oppressive power imbalances and promoting institutional accountability.
Cultural humility and cultural consciousness are also required for cultural safety.
Cultural safety in its simplest form is about creating spaces that are not only physically safe for
people but are also spiritually, socially and emotionally safe. Originating in the work of Māori nursing
scholar Irihapeti Merenia, the concept of cultural safety acknowledges the historical and ongoing
impacts of colonisation. It requires social workers to examine dominant mainstream institutions,
systems and structures, within which we are immersed and within which power is exercised. Social
workers must be self-reflexive, identifying the ways in which their own cultures, life experiences, and
so on are shaped by the dominant mainstream culture and power relations and how this influences
their practice (Ramsden, 2002). Cultural safety is not about learning the culture of others, and it moves
beyond the practice of cultural competence. According to Curtis et al. (2019), culturally safe practices

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examine power, while culturally competent practices do not. Consequently, when working from a
culturally safe practice approach, social workers must recognise that power differences between social
workers and clients can adversely affect the outcomes for clients. They must also reflect on their own
biases, attitudes, assumptions, stereotypes, privilege and prejudices. Examining power imbalances
that create culturally unsafe spaces for people means that they can be disrupted, negotiated and
changed through genuine partnerships where power is negotiated and shared.

Practitioner perspective

Approaches that have really worked for me, in working with First Nations communities, are
approaches like cultural humility, which is quite different to a cultural competence approach. In
a cultural humility approach, we are still trying to learn elements or protocols about the culture
that local people want us to know, and we try to follow those, but we also realistically assume we
will never, ever, ever know the full depth of that culture and we never assume the right to know.
I have had feedback from collaborators, particularly in central Australia, that a humble approach
and deep respectful approach where I assume little, has been really valued.
The other approach that has really worked well for me is being an effective ally. One of the key
qualities of being an effective ally is humility, but it is also about understanding the nature of the
oppression, historically and currently that people have experienced. It is important to not make
decisions as an isolated individual, which a lot of us who experience privilege are really used to
being able to make decisions in the way we want to do it. Collectively and collective governance,
shared decision making, and shared responsibility, alongside recognition and appreciation of
cultural eldership and seniority, are critically important.
When you are operating from that humble ally position, you are really getting behind
community groups, and using your privilege, skills and strengths to support what culture bearers
and knowledge holders are wanting to do for themselves. Allyship can also be protective in terms
of professional self-care. You realise that you are just one brick in the road to social change and
social justice when working with First Nations communities. You can protect yourself and others
from that outside saviour mentality and thinking that it is really up to you to save a situation, a
community or a family, and also simultaneously bring in a human rights framework, promoting
self-determination and rights that have historically pervasively been evacuated from First Nations
communities, families and individuals.
When we are talking about working with Indigenous knowledges, if we get these frameworks
in place we can then be in a situation where we might start to have some incredible, profound
experiences where we are exposed to First Nations knowledges and stories that are deeper into
that cultural iceberg – not just the tip of the iceberg. We might be then trusted with stories and
songs and honest feedback from people about their cultural ways of seeing, being and doing that
we would not otherwise ever be exposed to if we didn’t have those respectful, humble, rights-based
ways of working with people. If we can get culturally humble frameworks and ways of being in place
as practitioners, it goes a long way in practices across any work context.
Naomi Sunderland, Creative Arts Research Institute & School of Health Sciences
and Social Work, Griffith University

Using your lived experience

Often, as social workers, we will draw on our lived experiences in practice. While that can mean that
social workers share their personal stories with clients, this should be done with in a considered way,
ensuring that such sharing is for the benefit of the client. Social workers may also use their lived
experience to empathise and understand what a client may be feeling or to help clients find resources
and support. Using your own lived experiences can be particularly powerful in advocacy groups where
social workers and community members come together to advocate for change to overcome injustices
and oppression. For example, social workers who have survived natural disasters may also be the first

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TRAVERSING LANDSCAPES: WORKING WITH OPPRESSION AND PRIVILEGE / CHAPTER 9

responders to an extreme weather event as both a practitioner and survivor. At other times, social
workers may be employed as peer support workers with lived experience of mental illness. In these
situation, such social workers will use their lived experience for the benefit of others.

Recommended reading
Azzopardi, C., & McNeill, T. (2016). From cultural competence to cultural consciousness, transitioning
to a critical approach to working across differences in social work. Journal of Ethnic & Cultural
Diversity in Social Work, 25(4), 282–299. https://doi.org/10.1080/15313204.2016.1206494
Fisher-Borne, M., Cain, J. M., & Martin, S. (2015). From mastery to accountability: Cultural humility
as an alternative to cultural competence, Social Work Education, 34(2), 165–181.
Green, S., & Bennett, B. (2018). Wayanha: A decolonised social work, Australian Social Work, 71(3),
261–264. https://doi.org/10.1080/0312407X.2018.1469654

Practitioner perspective

First and foremost all my interactions incorporated the basic social work values, in particular:
respect. One thing I realised as a practitioner working with diversity was that it was not possible
to understand all cultures extensively. In addition, different individuals within a particular cultural
background settle differently in a new environment and each person makes decisions about
which cultural values, beliefs, behaviours and attitudes from their culture-of-origin to keep and
which to let go.
Knowing that culture was flexible and constantly changing helped me as a practitioner not to
make assumptions and ensured interaction with clients was open and genuine. Another important
aspect of my practice was to develop a strong self-awareness of my own Western perceptions. It was
imperative for me to remember that I was interpreting their stories through my own experiences
and cultural norms to ensure this did not influence my approach in working with individuals.
Although I now understand that I do not need to be an expert in all cultures, it is important to be
aware of some cultural differences when conducting assessments, such as discomfort:
• with expectations of self-disclosure
• with expressing disagreement
• in use of first names
• with informality
• related to gender.
Some tips that helped me to work cross-culturally were to:
• accept that there may be a variety of ways of looking at the same thing
• accept that there may be many solutions to the same problem
• be comfortable with ambiguity and uncertainty
• understand my own cultural style.
Some practical ways to work cross-culturally, particularly where English is an additional
language, include:
• do not use slang; for example, ‘hang on a minute’
• speak clearly and slowly, but not in a patronising way
• use short sentences
• use simple sentence structure
• paraphrase if you think you are not being understood
• demonstrate when giving explanations
• give instructions in the order they are to be carried out
• use alternative questioning techniques; for example, instead of ‘do you understand’ ask them
if they know what they have to do next.
The most important advice I can give is to work with respect and be prepared to hear their
story in their own personal way.
Jo Cochran

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THE ROAD TO SOCIAL WORK AND HUMAN SERVICE PRACTICE

STUDY
TOOLS

Conclusion
In this chapter we explored the notion of difference and diversity and its implications for practice. Understanding
difference requires you to appreciate the personal experiences of people who are identified as ‘different’, as well
as analysing the ways in which systemic and institutional oppression occurs. Addressing difference requires you
to examine your attitudes and beliefs and to commit to developing skills and knowledge that equip you to address
oppression and discrimination. For a human service organisation to develop a culture that is anti-oppressive and
culturally competent, you need to take action on many levels. The agencies we work in must value diversity,
develop consciousness about cultures and differences, and develop policies and programs that take into account
difference and diversity. Working with difference will feature in your future practice. The question is to what
degree you will embrace it, reflect on your own value position, and work towards acquiring important knowledge
and skills.

Questions
1 What are the key features of prejudice, discrimination and oppression?
2 How do you understand the concept of intersectionality? What are some examples of this?
3 What examples can you think of about the ways in which First Peoples have been discriminated against
throughout history, and what have been the implications for social, health and educational outcomes?
4 What is the definition of heteronormativity?
5 What are the differences between the concepts of homophobia and heterosexism?
6 What are the differences between medical, social and political models of disability?
7 What are the three principles underpinning anti-oppressive practice?
8 What is your understanding of cultural competence and cultural humility in practice?

Weblinks
Common Ground National LGBTIQ+ Health Alliance
https://www.commonground.org.au https://www.lgbtiqhealth.org.au
Journal of Social Inclusion People With Disability Australia
https://josi.org.au http://www.pwd.org.au
Mental Health Australia
https://mhaustralia.org

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10
CHAPTER
New journeys

Chapter 10
New journeys
Continuing
This chapter embarks on
to learn
the development of your
own practice framework,
integrating knowledge,
values and skills

Field and
Professional
professional Self care
development
supervision

Recurring themes of

Critical reﬂective
Use of self
practice

Looking to the future

The implications Global focus

New frontiers
of COVID-19

Implications for
The aftermath of Service user voice
education and
managerialism and participation
ongoing learning

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THE ROAD TO SOCIAL WORK AND HUMAN SERVICE PRACTICE

Aims

• Explore the purpose and elements of a professional framework for practice

• Outline the importance of professional development and ongoing learning
• Understand the importance of self-care and discuss strategies for looking after yourself
• Explore future challenges and issues in human services and social work, and the impact they
may have on practice

Introduction
We are at the end of our journey, although we consider it to be the beginning of another. In this chapter,
we draw together the information covered in previous chapters to form a framework for practice that
is ethical, rigorous and based on solid knowledge. We explore what the term ‘practice framework’
means and offer you ways to build your own. We also address issues you will face as a practitioner
well after you have finished your degree, such as how to continue your professional education, find
good supervision, and take care of yourself once you are in the busy and increasingly complex world
of human services. Finally, we identify some of the current and future challenges for social work and
the human services.
Previously, we have discussed the values that underpin practice as well as ethics and ethical
decision-making models. The various fields and methods of practice have been outlined, as has the
organisational context, and we have considered how we acquire and use the knowledge that is needed
to work in human services. How these elements combine to form the basis of purposeful and reflective
practice is the focus of this final chapter.

Developing a practice framework

A ‘practice framework’ is based on a combination of knowledge, values and skills that provide a
foundation for practice. Why do you need to develop such a framework? Frameworks guide your
practice, make it purposeful, and help you to make judgements and decisions about how you will act
in various circumstances. You should be able to apply your framework in different settings, although,
of course, you may need to adapt it depending on the skills and knowledge required.
Another feature of a practice framework is that it evolves from your knowledge, values and skills.
It should transcend the expectations of the organisation for which you work but hold you steady
in your practice. Although all practitioners have to work within organisational constraints, a well-
developed and clearly understood framework is essential, even in an organisation that strictly limits
what a practitioner can do. Sometimes your values are challenged and you may adapt your framework
as a result. You should be able to articulate your framework; it needs to be discussed, communicated
to others, reflected on and refined. Many employers will ask you to discuss your practice framework
during your interview, so it is important that you can confidently respond.
How do we go about developing a framework? A useful starting point is to think of the four
important planks of practice: knowledge, values, skills and ‘self’ as the instrument of practice. We
can conceptualise these planks as questions: What do I know? What do I believe or value? What can
I do? How congruent are my knowledge, skills and values with the way that I am in the world and in
my practice? Figure 10.1 shows how they link together.
What else do you need to take into account in developing your framework? You should have a good
understanding of the purpose of social work and human service practice. Your framework should
also take into account the way in which you use theory – or theories – to guide your practice. In your

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NEW JOURNEYS / CHAPTER 10

Figure 10 .1 A practice framework schema

Values

What do I value?

Self

Knowledge? Skills

What do I know? What skills do I have?

analysis of practice, you should consider your personal and professional values, the issue of power as
discussed in Chapter 2, and the knowledge and skills you use in your work. A framework for practice Refer to
Chapter 2
also articulates how knowledge, values and skills inform assessment or planning and intervention
or action. It should also take account of how an organisation’s policies, culture and procedures might
have an impact on your practice, in both positive and negative ways.
According to Sheafor and Horejsi (2015, p. 69) a practice framework should:
• be consistent with the purpose, values and ethics of the profession
• have clearly described and defined key concepts, principles and terminology
• provide practical guidance and direction to the change process
• rest on an empirical foundation (i.e. based on facts and observations)
• help the worker analyse and understand complex situations.
There is no right or wrong framework for practice. Everyone has a different approach; however,
some elements are the same. All frameworks are based on an understanding of purpose, and
they articulate knowledge, skills and values, demonstrating how these elements work together
through the purposeful use of self. Your framework will certainly undergo a considerable amount
of change once you engage in practice by going on placement and first begin work after graduation.
You will adapt it as circumstances change for you, so you should not be too concerned if you feel
that your framework is still at a beginning stage. Some people find it helpful to use a metaphor –
building a house, baking a cake or making a patchwork quilt – to describe the process of making
their framework. The different elements – for example, the foundations, walls and roof; the flour,
sugar, eggs and butter; or the scraps of different fabric – represent the different elements of
knowledge, values and skills. These are then joined together to form a coherent and strong ‘whole’ or
framework. It is important to understand that practice frameworks can also be developed at a much
broader organisational level, not just individually. While Sheafor and Horejsi refer to ‘selecting’
a practice framework, we would prefer to focus more on a practice framework being intentionally
and purposefully developed over time. The following accounts illustrate how a graduating social
work student constructed her practice framework using a literary metaphor to link the important
dimensions, and how a more experienced practitioner has continued to develop her framework
over time.

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Practitioner perspective

The sunflower always leaves me with an inner smile and symbolises happiness and hope. I chose the sunflower
as a metaphor for my practice framework for these reasons and its ability to self-pollinate in each growth
cycle. As a deep reflector, this process of self-pollination is an important symbolism of my practice approach in
how I combine reflective insights and feedback into a cycle of continuous growth. The sunflower follows the sun
and needs rain to thrive, which represents for me the importance of considering how environmental factors
influence my growth. The soil in which a sunflower grows represents my values, which I have summarised into
three broad areas of altruism, authenticity and justice. These values provide the nutrients for how I practice and
live my life. The leaves of the sunflower convey a message on the health of the flower, and these represent my
personal attributes. These personal attributes include attitudes and beliefs; personal knowledge; strengths and
development areas. The head of the sunflower represents what is more visible in my social work practice, the
theories, models, skills and professional knowledge. Through supervision and reflective practice I am constantly
checking-in on the health of the flower. No two growth cycles are the same, and each growth cycle will see an
evolution of my practice framework.

Shutterstock.com/Kazakova Maryia

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NEW JOURNEYS / CHAPTER 10

Julie Jackson

Practitioner perspective

While the structure of my practice framework has not altered greatly over the years, the content and my approach
to practice has changed significantly. My focus is now not on me needing to find answers or ‘fix’ problems, it is
on the experience of creating shared meaning with clients and their unique circumstances, from which change
emerges. There are three primary elements of my framework, although both conceptually and realistically each
overlap considerably. Foundationally, I am aware of my values, worldview, goals, motivations, experiences,
challenges and passion for social work. The stronger these are, the more inspired I am to practise.
Theoretically, I draw upon several theories including grief and loss, attachment, bio-psychosocial, general
systems, solution-focused brief therapy, narrative, and a feminist model of ethical decision making. I use empirical
knowledge to understand issues such as child abuse and the impact of long-term or frequent hospital admissions
on clients. Practice wisdom includes learning when and how to best intervene, including skill in counselling,
liaising, mediating, advocating, determining professional limits and referring. Personal knowledge involves an
awareness of use of self, and practice issues that may trigger emotion. Organisational knowledge allows me to
define the boundaries of my role in this context, to know processes and policies, codes of practice and systems.
As I learn and apply more knowledge, and therefore grow professionally, my foundational values and passions
are challenged and strengthened, which further fuels my desire to practise and learn. Simultaneously, I apply the
third aspect of my framework, which centres on critical reflection and essential self-care strategies; both of which
reduce burnout and vicarious trauma, and promote the best outcomes for clients.
Michelle Kemp

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Practitioner perspective

The metaphor I chose to describe my practice framework was an acoustic guitar. As a singer/
songwriter my guitar has always been my foundation. Whether it be for expressing my emotions
(self-care) or promoting social justice. The wooden body of the guitar represents theories that
underpin my practice, the foundation for my social work practice. The neck of the guitar where
I grip onto is my values. Having a good understanding of values helps to strengthen my hand, to
allow me to play more challenging chords or work with people as they go through difficult times.
The sound hole represents a person-centred approach, where the work you do with someone
comes together to make meaning and a sound. The strings are my skills that make the guitar sing,
they get better with practice and reflection. The tuning pegs are the specialised knowledge and
experience that fine tune my practice and, depending on what role I am in, I might use different
tunings just like I draw on different experiences and knowledges. The string pegs are my values
and beliefs that secure the strings and keep everything in place. Finally, the music that comes out
of the guitar reflects the courage of people to tell their stories. As my framework evolves, the songs
I play may change but the foundations of the guitar will guide my framework always.
Kristy Apps

Critical reflective practice

A recurring theme in this book has been the notion of reflection – thinking about what we are doing
and why we are doing it, in a conscious and purposeful way. This is closely linked to developing skills
Refer to in critical thinking. We have already explored the concept of transformational learning in Chapter 1
Chapters 1
and 5 and looked at the relationship between generating knowledge and reflective practice in Chapter 5.
The concept of critical reflective practice and related terms such as ‘reflexivity’, ‘critical thinking’ and
‘reflectivity’ have become dominant in the social work literature over the past decade, as the need for
more explicit connections between knowledge, theory and skills has become apparent in social work
and human service education (Watts, 2019). The concept of praxis is useful here, defined as ‘the process
of ideologically strengthening our practice through critical reflection and reflexivity, challenging
our values, ideology and beliefs, and a creative rethinking of issues with a view to facilitating macro
change’ (Connolly et al., 2017, p. 8). A useful definition of critical thinking, which underlies critical
reflective practice, is ‘the art of thinking about your thinking while you are thinking in order to make
your thinking better: more clear, more accurate or more defensible’ (Paul, 1993, as cited in Cournoyer,
2017, p. 51). Critical thinking is about asking questions, reasoning out appropriate responses, and acting
in accordance with what is found. It is important to understand that the term ‘critical’ does not mean
‘negative’ – instead what it means is the application of ‘criteria’ or what is reasonable in assessing
situations and solving problems. A critical thinker will not take information at face value but will
question the source of the information, ascertain credibility, interrogate other possible interpretations,
and look for bias or inconsistencies in evidence. This is very important for social and human service
workers, who are often given a lot of information to sift through, verify and then use to plan appropriate
intervention. The concept of ‘critical reflective practice’ builds on critical thinking skills and dates
back to the work of John Dewey, who defined reflection as ‘the continual re-evaluation of personal
beliefs, assumptions and ideas in the light of experience and data and the generation of alternative
interpretations of those experiences and data’ (Knott & Scragg, 2016, p. 12). Donald Schon (1983)
differentiated between ‘reflection-on-action’ (retrospectively thinking about something that has
happened and learning from it) and ‘reflection-in-action’ (thinking about what is happening while
engaged in it).
An important distinction has been drawn by Jan Fook (2022) where she defines the key difference
between ‘reflective practice’ and ‘critical reflective practice’. This distinction lies in the emphasis

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within critical reflection on how power is understood and how dominant structures are developed and
maintained. Fook argues that adopting an entirely reflective stance means the outcome is unpredictable
and existing unhelpful power imbalances may remain, yet a critically reflective approach provides
opportunities for emancipatory practices that disrupt oppressive structures.
As we have stated a number of times, the complexity of practice is increasing and you are not going
to get everything right all of the time. Sicora (2017) offers practical suggestions on ways in which
social workers can learn from mistakes and engage critical reflection in ways that allow development
of skills and stimulation of learning through constructive support from ‘critical friends’.

Recommended reading
Fook, J. (2022). Social work: A critical approach to practice (4th ed.). Sage Publications.
Mantell, A., & Scragg, T. (2019). Reflective practice in social work (5th ed.). Sage Publications.
Sicora, A. (2017). Reflective practice and learning from mistakes in social work. Policy Press.
Watts, L. (2019). Reflective practice, reflexivity, and critical reflection in social work education in
Australia. Australian Social Work, 72(1), 8–20. https://doi.org/10.1080/0312407X.2018.1521856

Practitioner perspective

As reflective social worker practitioners, it is critical to write down and periodically revise our
practice frameworks in order to remind ourselves that we are making sense of situations, and
working with service users on solutions in only one of the many possible ways available to us.
It also helps to alert us to the many assumptions embedded in our practice. For example, when
I re-read my practice framework now I am reminded that when I was a new graduate I had a
strong critical perspective at the heart of my way of practising, and now I gravitate to making
sense of and intervening with a much stronger therapeutic emphasis. Being reminded of this
helps to keep me sensitive to the range of more systemic or structural options available to me
when sitting with a client, and also helps me to remember to be sensitive to issues of power that
are always present when working as a white, male practitioner.
Remembering that I am looking and listening through the filter of my practice framework
also helps alert me to the possibility that my natural interest in some topics or themes in a
client’s story is inevitably a reflection to some degree of my own experiences of and interest in
intra-personal growth and development. In other words, it’s a helpful reminder to carefully listen
and to check what’s important to the service user. Reading and revising my practice framework
helps remind me that my way of making sense of and working with my client is not value or
assumption free.
Peter Young

There are many techniques available for enhancing critical reflective practice, including developing
reflective questions and prompts, creating pictorial representations of how knowledge is organised,
‘thinking aloud’ in supervision, and mapping our knowledge (Rankine, 2019). Other examples of
reflective processes can include personal development plans and self-evaluation, learning logs or
journals, and computer blogs that can combine audio, video and photos. Knott and Scragg (2016)
discuss ‘blogging reflections’ as having particular advantages because they can be customised to
meet the individual’s requirements. They point out that ‘the advantage of writing reflectively online
means that students can access their online logs or journals from any computer that has internet
access. If permissions are set up, students may choose to publish their reflective blogs to tutors, peers
or to a worldwide audience’ (p. 32). Critical reflective practice, then, is an important dimension of a
practice framework and should form part of ongoing professional development.

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Activity 10.1

1 Using the schema in Figure 10.1, think about your future work in human services and write
down under each heading what you know, what you value and what you can do.
2 What have you learnt from personal experience? What have you learnt through your
studies? What have you learnt from other work experience?
3 What are your main values? What values have you gained from your studies, your life in
general and your work experience?
4 What are the main theories that resonate for you? How might these apply in different fields
of practice?
5 What skills have you acquired through your studies? What skills have you learnt from life in
general? What skills have you learnt from your previous work experience? When you have
completed the schema, reflect on what you have written.
6 What is your main field or method of interest at this stage?
7 What skills, knowledge and values are your starting points for practice at this stage?
8 What would you like to develop further and how can you best incorporate critical reflection
into your practice?

Use of self
Unlike physiotherapists who use a range of equipment, or doctors who use medications or other
kinds of treatments and interventions, social work and human service practitioners use themselves
as the main instrument of practice. They engage in practice through the relationships they form
with their clients, peers and others in their organisation. The term ‘use of self’ is somewhat vague
and many students have difficulty grasping it. Trevithick (2018) has outlined the many theories of
human behaviour that explore the development of ‘self’ from infancy, and how this is then shaped and
defined by socialised and gendered influences. Use of self is said to include our verbal and non-verbal
communications – the gestures and voice tone that we use; facial expressions and eye contact; touch;
and presentation to others via dress, language and appearance. Use of self is also highly dependent on
self-awareness – if ‘self’ is our mechanism for practice, then it follows that we must have a high level
of awareness about who we are and how we behave. As Trevithick (2018, p. 1853) states: ‘the concept
of use of self highlights the importance of self-awareness. This describes the ability to recognize and
name the emotions and feelings that make up who we are, which in turn enable us to be aware of – and
to “read” – the emotional state of others’. Identity is an important feature of self and is therefore a
way of understanding ourselves. Pawar and Anscombe (2015) prefer to focus on the concept of ‘being’,
which they say incorporates the physical/organic, social/relational, spiritual/existential, and mental/
emotional. In this way, ‘being’ can be integrated with ‘thinking and doing’, and the character of the
social worker and the moral values that they hold can also be integrated.
Refer to In Chapter 1, we asked you to consider why you chose to study social work or human services. Your
Chapter 1
choice would have been motivated by who you are, the kind of life experiences you have had, how old
you are, your gender and your cultural background. These all make up our identity. Furthermore, good
self-understanding is critical to reducing the risk of harm to others. As Cournoyer (2017) points out:

To be effective, service requires that you recognize how you think about things, how you react to stress or
conflict, how you deal with ambiguity, how you address problems and obstacles, how you present yourself,
how you appear to others, and what mannerisms you commonly exhibit. Acknowledge your ideological
and cultural preferences and recognize which issues cause you anxiety or uneasiness; which topics trigger
emotional reactivity; what kinds of people, problems, or events elicit fear or anger; and which patterns of
personal interaction you prefer or dislike. (p. 22)

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While it is important for us to develop awareness of how we behave and how our behaviour affects
others, it is possible to gain a sense of who we are even if we are not physically present. Use of self relates
not only to our face-to-face contact with people but also to how we speak on the phone, how we write
letters or emails and how we might communicate through social networking – all the ways in which we
communicate something about ourselves. Use of self is important, particularly when we think about
how we build relationships and how relationships are used in practice. It is through communicating that
practice happens. Use of self is an important component to consider when developing your framework
for practice. You need to draw on your understanding of human development and behaviour to consider
who you are and why you are the way you are, and how this affects your practice.

Continuing to learn
We have used the metaphor of a journey as a way of describing the process you will undergo – acquiring
new knowledge, trying new skills, thinking about your values and developing good self-awareness – but
the journey certainly does not finish once you graduate. Practitioners should be committed to ongoing
learning and continue to reflect on what they do and how it can be improved. There are several ways
in which this happens, and we have focused on just two of these, recognising that you will also find
other means of improving practice from sources such as your field supervisor, employer or mentor.
One characteristic of a profession is the commitment to ongoing professional development and the
acquisition of new knowledge. Social work and human services are also committed to this process.

Professional development
Many codes of ethics require practitioners to subscribe to a set program of continuing professional
development (CPD) so that you can remain open to new knowledge and ensure that you work within
your scope of practice. There are various ways in which this can happen; however, the underlying
purpose is the same. Similarly, membership of the professional association may require you undertake
CPD to secure ongoing accreditation or membership and may ask you to submit documentation of
training or workshop attendance. Many CPDs can now be accessed online, which is a great advantage
for workers in rural and remote areas. Universities and other institutions are also increasingly offering
digital badges and micro-credentials.
Practitioners commit to constantly improving their practice and maintaining their skills and
knowledge base over time. Useful methods are attending workshops or seminars, undertaking training
in specific practice techniques or approaches, reading professional journals and research publications,
and engaging in systematic and planned reflective practice. It can also be useful to volunteer in another
organisation by joining a committee of management, or to supervise students on field placement. After
working in the field for some time, practitioners may choose to undertake postgraduate education in
social work or another related field to sharpen and improve their knowledge and skills. For example,
they may become interested and involved in working with families. Postgraduate training in family
therapy offers them opportunities to further their skills and expertise. Other practitioners pursue
courses in human service management, social policy, or social and community development.
We have discussed earlier in this book the developments in digital technology that have provided a
host of new ways of working and learning. Below is an account of how podcasts can be used to assist
ongoing critical reflection and professional development, through listening to the stories of others.

Practitioner perspective

Digital technology in social work practice, education and research encompasses the use of any
digital medium in either: the engagement in, or interaction of, social work practice; the teaching
and learning or scholarship of digital technologies, in the classroom or field placement setting;
and the application of digital media, or the investigation of their use or practices, within social

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work research. The engagement of digital technologies in social work has seen a rapid rise in the
last ten years and has only recently been recognised and embraced. Concerns surrounding the
ethics of digital technologies in social work practice, education and research, and the ownership
of social work engagement with vulnerable people are pertinent issues and the subject of crucial
debate within the global profession.
In recent years podcasts have gained popularity, with social work students globally accessing
social work content podcasts that focus on practice issues, skill development, sites of knowledge
and master classes. For social work students to develop professional identity and socialise to
a profession that promotes a global perspective on social justice, the capacity for podcasts to
create international virtual community is as yet unrealised. So too is the potential for podcasts as
an avenue for critical reflection and reflexive practice. Regardless, social work students around
the world are accessing podcasts regularly, and social work programs across the globe are
including podcasts on their subject reading lists. The Social Work Stories podcast is one such
podcast that works to engage social work students and practitioners in life-long learning within
a virtual community space.
The Social Work Stories podcast launched in September 2018. It is hosted by myself, Dr Mim
Fox, a social work academic from the University of Wollongong, and Lis Murphy, a social work
practitioner and educator of 30 years. It is produced by Dr Ben Joseph, a social work academic
at Western Sydney University, and a social work practitioner, Justin Stech. The aim of the Social
Work Stories podcast is to provide a forum for social workers to share their practice wisdom and
expertise in an in-depth manner that is supported by analysis and debriefing by the hosts. The
structure includes a regular segment whereby an anonymous social worker describes a social
work story, a case they may have been involved with in practice, with a focus on their practice
interventions and their experience of the case, as well as the ethical and personal dilemmas that
arise during their social work interventions. As hosts, we engage listeners in an analysis of pivotal
moments, themes and concepts that have emerged from the story, highlighting practice issues
and dilemmas for the social workers practising in the field described.
The Social Work Stories podcast is listened to primarily by social work students and practitioners;
however, listeners include other helping disciplines, such as nursing and teaching, as well as
interested members of the public. The podcast has been downloaded 500 000+ times, rates number
two internationally for social work content podcasts, and is listened to in 96 countries. We make the
Social Work Stories podcast episodes freely available across common podcast platforms such as iTunes
and Spotify, and episodes can be accessed through the website https://socialworkstories.com.
Dr Mim Fox, Social Work Stories Podcast

Activity 10.2

Think about your own learning style and how you might best engage in professional
development in your future practice, and answer the following questions:
1 How might you engage with digital technology to access podcasts, online resources, CPD,
MOOCs, micro-credentials or journals?
2 How might you access workshops, conferences or seminars internal to your work or
externally?
3 How might you develop critical friends, peer supports or other professional development
networks?
4 What would you want from professional supervision? Would you be prepared to pay for this
if not provided by your agency?

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Field and professional supervision

Receiving professional supervision is another way that practitioners improve their practice. This is a
long-standing tradition in social work and human service practice and many codes of ethics require
members to receive professional supervision in a systematic way as an ethical responsibility.
Your first encounter with supervision will probably be during field placement. You will meet with an
experienced practitioner to discuss your work and reflect on your practice as a way to learn. Supervision
with your field educator is a crucial part of your education for practice and is usually mandated in social
work education around the world.
Many people continue this process of supervision once they graduate. Professional supervision
is different from line management. It is less about what you do every day or how you plan your
workload and carry out tasks your organisation requires. Instead, it is an opportunity to discuss and
reflect in-depth on your practice with a more experienced practitioner or mentor. It is also different
from debriefing, which is an organisational responsibility to an employee who has been engaged
in a traumatic incident. Many organisations value and support professional supervision; however,
resource constraints and increased workloads often mean that it is not prioritised as it should be. Some
practitioners see a private professional supervisor and their organisation gives them paid leave or time
off to attend the meetings. Some organisations subsidise this cost. In rural or remote areas, where
they may be the only practitioner, social workers need to find ways to engage this very important
form of professional support. Many experienced private practice workers provide online supervision,
as advances in technology make this much more feasible.
In professional supervision sessions, a range of techniques are used to facilitate reflection on
practice. You may discuss particular cases or situations and you may use some of the techniques
for learning outlined in Chapter 5, such as the critical incident technique or process recordings. Refer to
Chapter 5
The frequency of meetings varies but usually it is advisable to meet monthly. You might meet more
frequently if you are dealing with complex and demanding situations or are having difficulties.
Particular practice approaches – for example, counselling based on psychosocial models or some types
of family therapy – rely heavily on professional supervision to develop more specialised practice skills.
As a beginning practitioner, access to professional supervision in the first year or two after
graduation is a useful way to consolidate your learning and further develop your skills and confidence.
Even if you are employed in an organisation or agency in which this is not provided, we encourage you
to secure private supervision so that you continue to meet your professional ethical responsibilities.

Recommended reading
Beddoe, L., & Maidment, J. (2015). Supervision in social work: Contemporary issues. Routledge.
Nickson, A. M., Carter, M. A., & Francis, A. P. (2021). Supervision and professional development in
social work practice. Sage Publications.
Noble, C., Gray, M., & Johnston, L. (2017). Critical supervision for the human services: A social model
to promote learning and values-based practice. Jessica Kingsley.
O‘Donoghue, K., & Engelbrecht, L. (2021). The Routledge international handbook of social work
supervision. Routledge.

The importance of self-care

Human service work is often highly stressful and demanding. The most important resource for
agencies is the people who do the work, so supporting practitioners should be a fundamental activity
of any agency; however, the extent to which an agency can or is prepared to look after their resources
varies. Often it is left to the practitioner to be alert to how they are going, what supports they need
and to decide how to obtain them. The professional development strategies mentioned above are one
way to address any concerns.
The impact of working with people who have endured considerable trauma and suffering, such as
vulnerable children, refugees who have been tortured, or people who have been victims of a natural

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disaster, can be severe on practitioners. Often it is those who do this work well who are the most
vulnerable to what is known as ‘secondary traumatic stress’, ‘vicarious trauma’ or ‘compassion
fatigue’ (Singer et al., 2020).
The concept of vicarious traumatisation came out of the study of the effects of trauma on people
who survive tragic life events. Researchers noted that trauma has an impact not only on the lives of
direct victims, but also on their families, communities and others. They began to measure the effect
of trauma on people who worked with trauma survivors and noted similar changes in behaviour and
attitudes over time. These changes became known as ‘compassion fatigue’, ‘emotional contagion’,
‘secondary traumatic stress’ or ‘vicarious trauma’. These terms all refer to the stressful behaviours and
emotions that arise from a desire to help in response to knowing about traumatic events experienced by
others. Vicarious trauma impacts on different people in different ways and is a cumulative response to
traumatic material that can be triggered by a one-off exposure to a significant issue (often referred to
as post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD) or by repeated exposure to a range of issues and incidents.
It is not about professional failing, personal weakness or an inability to self-manage.
There are also situations in which a worker will be part of a traumatic event themselves that also
affects the people with whom they might then work. Examples might include a worker who lives in
an area that has been impacted by a natural disaster like a flood, bushfire, cyclone or earthquake. The
effects of climate change that are leading to severe drought in many areas, and the impacts of rising
sea levels that are putting at risk low-lying island communities, as well as increased acts of terrorism
and instability resulting in war, make this ‘shared traumatic reality’ important to acknowledge and
understand. Therapists, community workers and counsellors can find themselves sharing the same
ground and experiences as the survivors with whom they work.
Over the past decade, writers in this area have also been identifying the benefits of being positively
transformed by human services and community practice, where practitioners experience a sense of
satisfaction and fulfilment in their work. Hernandez-Wolfe (2018) states that vicarious resilience
occurs when practitioners respond in a unique and positive manner to the resilience displayed by
clients. Hernandez-Wolfe found that therapists’ attitudes, emotions and behaviours changed by
reflecting on people’s capacity to heal, have hope, and to come together collectively with others,
prompting practitioners to reflect on their own problems in constructive ways.
As a social worker or human services practitioner, you will inevitably take on the suffering and
the joyful experiences of the people you engage with. As you ‘travel alongside’ your clients, you will
be changed by the experience. Whether this is a positive transformation or an experience of loss will
depend on how you make sense of your practice, the meaning you draw from your work, and the way
that you come to process and understand its emotional effects. We encourage you to think about this
early in your journey, and to take the time to nurture and develop the spiritual and emotional parts
of yourself.

Practitioner perspective

I have been doing this work in child protection for more than 25 years now and some days I feel
like I am back at day one. I can attest to the joys and the pain. I still cry fairly often but now I feel
less like I am bereft and more like my tears are an expression of dignity for the things I hear. One
thing I can say for certain is that there is no ‘cost neutral’ way to be a social worker. It takes a toll,
and you need to be sure that you are willing to pay the price. I can say with certainty that I love
what I do and it has been worth it.
When I was a ‘fresher’, I thought self-care was all about stress management and relaxation
… walks on the beach, candles and baths, mindfulness and snuggling Labradors. This is a little
bit true (I have two Labradors, which are my unofficial therapy dogs), but I now see things
differently. Self-care gets you through the day and the next day and maybe a few more. If you
want a sustainable, energising, effective career in social work, then you need to have a very clear
idea of why you do what you do – the value it adds to the world, the costs and the rewards. And

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you need to see – truly cherish – the rewards, knowing you have contributed to a stronger, fairer,
kinder world. You can’t immerse yourself in the pain of others without holding that pain with
them. It rubs off every time. Sometimes it burns you. But when you acknowledge the troubling
and debilitating aspects of your work you also learn to see the strength in others, the hope for
change and growth. Celebrate your individual successes and take comfort in the fact that they
really are nothing more than the reflected resilience of the people we serve.
However, if you want survival tips … I can share these:
• manage stress through problem-solving approaches, relaxation, fun, exercise – or whatever
else works for you
• develop and maintain hope and spirituality
• acknowledge the challenging aspects of your work and also acknowledge your individual
successes, achievements and the vital role that you play in our society
• accept that feelings of anger and sorrow are all aspects of a healthy psyche
• engage with your community – find a space to participate in ‘healthy’ humanity
• maintain clear boundaries between your work and private life
• keep a life outside work – protect it, nurture it
• develop and use supportive workplace relationships
• be assertive in expressing your emotional needs at work
• use line-management supervision to process your emotional responses to work and to
articulate your care needs
• become politically active on issues that are important to you in both your personal and
professional life
• access external professional supervision
• establish or join peer-supervision and support networks
• write a self-care plan that outlines your strengths and vulnerabilities, maps your resources
and supports and makes clear commitments about what you can do and why.
Matthew Armstrong (2004)

Practitioner perspective

In my fourth-year social work placement, I had the opportunity to work at a children’s hospital
in the intensive care unit. In this placement I learnt that intensive care is certainly ‘intense’. By
week three my supervisors were giving me cases to work on independently. Although at times
I felt way out of my depth, I am so grateful for these opportunities. Working in the area of
crisis and trauma has taught me invaluable lessons about thinking on my feet, how to make
quick assessments and how to address immediate needs to ensure the physical and emotional
safety of my clients. During this placement I was moved by both the fragility and the incredible
resilience and strength of the parents and families. Sadly, this experience came at a cost. During
my placement I saw six precious children pass away. I will never be the same because of these
children. I will never be the same having had the opportunity to work with their families. They
have left a mark on my heart that can never be erased.
Amy Larsen

At the times when you might feel overwhelmed by this work and sense that you need to take action,
do not feel afraid to seek counselling, support or therapeutic intervention. There are great benefits in
taking the time to care for yourself in this way. Practitioners who have not paid sufficient attention
to the impact of their work on themselves are not likely to seek outside assistance and can become
complacent and dissatisfied with their work. Looking after yourself and maintaining a work–life
balance should be a feature of any career. As people who will work with human suffering and problems,

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violence and trauma, you need to be aware of the potential impact on your wellbeing. To develop
this awareness, seek advice and support from other experienced practitioners and supervisors. Many
organisations will have an employee assistance program that staff can access to ensure maintenance
of good mental health.

Practitioner perspective

Social work and human services is emotional work with many factors that can influence our
wellbeing at work and at home. During my studies and as a practitioner I realised that many
people within these professions had their own experiences of adversity and sometimes even
service use. Many of us have experiences of child abuse, caring for family members, mental and
physical illness, disability and oppression, which had led us into these fields. However, it can be
confusing to know how to integrate these experiences into our professional lives and how they
might be viewed by others.
Personal experiences of adversity can trigger both negative and positive emotions for us as
practitioners. There is risk we could over-identity with our clients or even experience vicarious
trauma in hearing stories of hardship. However, our own experiences might also mean we
are quickly able to empathise with our clients or even bring knowledge of navigating and
using services. Importantly, we might also carry resilience from these experiences that can be
transferred into our practice. Our recognition of resilience in our colleagues and clients also
allows us to grow collectively and respond to social injustice.
Whilst our own experiences can cause deep emotional responses, so can difficult or even
toxic workplaces. High caseloads, unforgiving amounts of paperwork and unhealthy workplace
cultures can detrimentally impact on our emotional wellbeing. Working with colleagues to
reflect and find solutions can be an important component of practice. In understanding how our
personal experiences might relate to broader political and social issues, we can acknowledge the
resilience of not only ourselves but our colleagues and clients. Resisting social injustice through
activism or collective consciousness raising can also allow us to build upon our own and our
collective resilience.
Michelle Newcomb

Looking to the future

As you embark on the next phase of your journey, a provident approach to what lies ahead will be an
advantage. In this final section, we explore some of the current and future trends in human services
and social work that will most likely influence your practice. While these proposals are tentative, they
are based on our experiences, observations and a review of literature from the past few years. We focus
on the aftermath of managerialism, the emergence of private and for-profit human services and the
international scene in terms of issues, practice and education. Finally, we explore the development of a
strong consumer focus in human services: policy development, program design, practice interventions
and more participatory approaches to our research. We highlight these issues here and suggest you
read further to gain a deeper sense of what lies ahead.

The aftermath of managerialism

Contemporary human services are vastly different from their 1980s counterparts. As Nipperess
(2016, p. 76) points out, ‘neoliberalism emphasises individualisation, corporatisation, marketisation,
competition, managerialism and privatisation, and the focus on economic policy over social policy,
and as such, many social workers find themselves working in an environment that is antithetical
to their values’. We have witnessed enormous and far-reaching changes over the past 20 years. In
Western countries, this has been underpinned by broader ideological and political shifts towards
managerialism and the devolution of responsibility for providing human services from government

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to private and not-for-profit providers and individuals (Hughes & Wearing, 2016). The human service
field continues to be characterised by cultures of competition and tendering to provide services and
programs and the contracting out by governments to non-government and private providers. Many
non-government agencies, however, still rely on government funding for a good proportion of their
resources. There are increasing numbers of for-profit private sector organisations and ‘user pays’
services in some sectors. With the shift to direct payments and consumer choice, the solopreneur
identified in Chapter 7 presents another context and space for human service delivery and practice. Refer to
Chapter 7
One of the emerging changes has been the tendency of governments to favour large consultancies
and agencies to deliver more human service programs. For example, large global firms, such as Serco,
provide detention facilities and services, and call centres for income security transactions. Maximus
is an international company that provides job placements and employment services. McKinsey
consultants have undertaken numerous contracts for the National Disability Insurance Scheme
(NDIS). These changes mean that we now have a human service sector that is very different from the
welfare state model of the post-war years. Working in this environment poses challenges.
The first challenge is that, under policies of managerialism, the work of professionals, as described
in Chapter 2, has been fragmented and routinised. Practice has been reduced to technical components, Refer to
Chapter 2
by which the means and ends of human services have been separated. This means that one worker
might perform the task of receiving referrals following a strict intake protocol while another works
directly with the client. This has seriously affected the effectiveness and quality of human services
in several ways. Workers have lost much of their autonomy and discretionary decision-making power
and feel constrained in making even mildly contentious choices on behalf of clients; hence, they tend
to choose more conservative options. This has resulted in a decline of creativity and innovation in
service. Also, professionals have retreated from some service sectors, such as the disability field,
and are now underemployed in positions that do not require qualifications. We are witnessing yet
another shift as sole practitioners find creative ways to practise in niche markets within fields such
as disability and aged care.
Another challenge is the casualisation and mobility of the human service workforce. An example
is the disability sector in Australia and in Aotearoa New Zealand, in which there is high turnover,
especially of frontline staff. A survey on employee retention in community services conducted by
Insync Consulting (2014) reported that 29 per cent of organisations experienced high to very high
turnover and a further 33 per cent medium turnover. In 2017, the Australian Disability Workforce Report
(National Disability Services, 2017) noted that 41 per cent of the sector’s workforce were casual.
This high staff turnover, with the resultant breakdown of informal and formal relationships, is a
major concern. In this environment, the skills of practitioners and professionals are likely to be less
valued. On one hand are the managers who require output targets to be met and, on the other, are the
practitioners who want to spend time with their clients. Another challenge in the practice environment
is the continuation of a culture of safety and risk management that has permeated social policy and
human services. Human services have entrenched requirements to properly assess the risks associated
with all their activities and to minimise adverse outcomes.
One long-term outcome from these policies has been a rise in the number of for-profit human
service organisations. As discussed in Chapter 7, the privatisation of health, aged care, corrective Refer to
Chapter 7
services and social care has expanded over the past decade and these practice contexts bring their own
challenges and opportunities. The long-term consequences are yet to be fully realised. Funding models,
such as direct payments to people with disabilities, have heralded whole new enterprises offering
private personal care services and the role of practitioners in these organisations has changed. There
are growing numbers of practitioners in private practice offering counselling, mental health support
and other services. This has been spurred on by healthcare rebates being awarded to clients through
insurance systems and by a growing trend towards regulation of practitioners. The career options for
new graduates are, therefore, expanding into uncharted spheres. As future practitioners, you need
to be prepared for these working environments and be prepared to develop new and innovative ways
of working.

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Recommended reading
Marston, G., McDonald, C., & Bryson, L. (2014). The Australian welfare state: Who benefits now?
Palgrave Macmillan.
Morley, C., & O’Bree, C. (2021). Critical reflection: an imperative skill for social work practice in
neoliberal organisations? Social sciences, 10(3), 97. https://doi.org/10.3390/socsci10030097
Pease, B., Goldingay, S., Hosken, N., & Nipperess, S. (2016). Doing critical social work:
Transformative practices for social justice. Allen & Unwin.

The implications of COVID-19

COVID-19 has significantly impacted all people across the globe, with widespread disruption to health,
social and educational systems, and the world economy. According to the World Heath Organization
(2023), globally, as of 6 January 2023, 657 977 736 confirmed cases of COVID-19, including 6 681 433
deaths had been reported. As of 21 December 2022, a total of 13 073 712 554 vaccine doses had been
administered. These numbers continue to grow.
We argue that social workers and human service professionals have the values, skills and knowledge
to work constructively in a post-COVID-19 future. It is timely to reflect on the challenges as well
as the attributes and capabilities that will be needed to meet them. The COVID-19 pandemic has
unfortunately brought out many examples of racism and discrimination with the targeting of Chinese
people due to the origin of the virus. Our profession knows too well the impact of racism, individual
and institutional, and the devastation that can be caused to mental health and wellbeing as a result.
Working alongside and with ethnic communities to rebuild trust and resilience, and to promote cultural
safety and respect within a framework of human rights, will be crucial once the dangers presented
by the virus are past.
The virus and its complications have resulted in many deaths, and its highly contagious nature has
meant that loved ones have been unable to be with COVID-19 sufferers when they passed away, often in
intensive care units in hospitals. Restrictions on social gatherings, funerals and weddings (in Australia,
Aotearoa New Zealand and elsewhere), while largely no longer in place, may have long-lasting impacts on
people who endured lengthy lockdowns. Evidence about complicated grief suggests that people who are
denied rituals and grieving processes following death are likely to have poorer psychological outcomes.
Social workers and human service personnel have skills and experience in assisting people to cope with
loss and bereavement, and this will be extremely important in the years ahead.
Enforced social isolation inevitably has implications for mental health, anxiety and general social
wellbeing. Our governments have rightly poured significant funding into mental health services,
albeit online, in efforts to address negative impacts such as loss of employment, ill-health and the
responsibility of caring for others. It is yet to be determined what the future statistics will be on
suicide, problem gambling, severe depression, alcohol and drug misuse, as well as the implications
for people who have been infected with the virus and unknowingly spread it to others, who may then
have become very ill or died. As a profession, we are experienced in working with mental health and
will need to be ready to deal with increased mental health issues in a post-COVID-19 world.
There has also been much concern about domestic and family violence, and the potential safety
implications for women and children who were unable to escape from an abuser in the home due to
lockdown. As with mental health, substantial resources have been committed to services in this area,
and social workers are at the frontline of service delivery. The same applies to child protection and
elder abuse.
Another thing that COVID-19 has highlighted is the digital divide, in a way never seen before.
With the world thrust into heavy reliance on technology, those who did not have access to this vital
resource were at risk of being totally disconnected. Health care is dependent on telehealth, children’s
education is dependent on access to home internet and digital devices, and employment is dependent
on connectivity. Social and human service workers understand the ‘networked life’ better than any
other profession and can work to mitigate the social exclusion caused by a lack of access to technology.

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Social workers are well placed to harness and promote the value of intergenerational relationships
in a post-COVID-19 world. During the lockdown phase, older people were viewed as particularly
vulnerable to the virus, meaning that children were distanced and separated from older members of
their families. There were many examples of children making videos to send to grandparents, as well
as letter writing, Skype catchups, creative projects, and many tears due to distancing and isolation.
An economic consequence was also highlighted as a whole army of volunteer grandparents and older
family members were cut off from their roles as caregivers to grandchildren while the parents were at
work. Suddenly, the loss of an often-invisible workforce became starkly apparent. Practitioners in the
post-COVID-19 world will recognise and support the value of volunteer time provided by older people
and the stability that is afforded to those who have children and rely on familial care.
Finally, social work and human service practice as an international endeavour crosses borders
and traverses many boundaries. COVID-19 has been a global pandemic and the effects of this virus
on the world will be felt for generations to come. Social workers will need to work in solidarity with
international colleagues to find ways to rebuild the social systems that have been decimated, in ways
that will uphold values of social justice. We pride ourselves on working with challenge. Never has the
time been more pressing.

A global focus
The internationalisation of human services and of social work is an increasingly prevalent theme
in terms of where we work and the nature of what we do. While international social work has been
around for many decades and, arguably, is not a new concept, the proliferation of connections across
nations, regions and geography has propelled social work and human services squarely into the
global arena in many ways. The permeability of national borders, the impact of global-scale natural
disasters and mass migrations of millions of displaced peoples and refugees across the world all demand
global perspectives and responses. As social work and human service practitioners, you will need
to include these perspectives in your practice, even if your work is local and within a specific field.
However, you may choose to work in international spheres, either in a paid or voluntary capacity, in
an increasing number of roles at non-government organisations or the United Nations, where keeping
across international issues and developments is key. The nexus between local and global could not be
more important in today’s practice.
The global focus is not confined to issues and clients. You may work with practitioners who have
trained in other countries, who bring a range of skills, knowledge and perspectives to their practice.
Certainly the growth of social work education across the world has been exponential, especially in
countries such as China, Vietnam and those in Eastern Europe. Social work, in particular, is viewed as
a necessity, as rapid social changes bring corresponding social problems and issues in those countries.
One example is in China, where the government set a target of thousands of social workers to be
trained by 2020. These developments raise many dilemmas around indigenisation, universalism
and imperialism (Gray & Coates, 2016; Meng et al., 2021). Should social work be a universal project
with shared definitions, purpose and ethics? Is the imposition of Western social work yet another
hallmark of imperialism assuming that ‘West is best’? Or should local, culturally-based definitions and
practices be the central and defining core for social work? These debates are current and ongoing, and
as future global practitioners, you will need to engage with them. Within our own regional context,
these debates are perhaps even more urgent. How do culturally relevant frames for practice become a
reality for Aboriginal, Torres Strait Islander, Māori and Pasifika practitioners?

Climate change
Social workers are increasingly being called on to respond to climate change induced disasters. The
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) was established in 1988 as an intergovernmental
body of the United Nations to provide periodic scientific assessments on climate change, its impacts
and potential future risks, while also providing advice on adaptation and mitigation strategies.
According to the IPCC (2022), climate change refers to any change over time in the climate, either

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human induced or cause by natural variations. Although climate change does and will affect everyone,
those who are marginalised and disadvantaged will be most severely impacted. Climate change has
meant that in recent years we have seen an increase in frequency and severity of disasters across
the globe. As it continues, it will be a significant threat to all people, ecosystems and animals and
consequently social workers must play a part in helping to mitigate and adapt to it.
Both the Australian Association of Social Workers (AASW) and the International Federation of Social
Workers (IFSW) have released statements concerning climate change. The AASW declared a climate
emergency in 2019 where they stated ‘Climate change is the greatest challenge that we face and as social
workers we are united in our call for immediate action from governments in Australia, and across the world.
The changes confronting our environment because of global warming are already profound and extensive,
making climate policy an urgent responsibility for governments’. They subsequently released a Climate
Action Statement in 2021 highlighting that climate change is a social justice issue, that social workers must
act, and that we must prioritise Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander knowledges and wisdom. Similarly,
the IFSW adopted a policy in 2022 on the role of social workers in advancing a new eco-social world.
In that policy they said that ‘The world is facing unparalleled levels of social and environmental crises;
climate change, pandemics, persistent inequality, lack of consensus internationally at the geo-political
level, and increased conflict’. They argue that we must promote and adopt a holistic rights framework,
incorporating individual, social and cultural human rights along with ecosystem rights, recognising that
environmental issues and human health are inextricably linked. They also argued that, as social workers,
we must recognise the importance of diversity, sustainability and self-determination, and that we are all
responsible for co-building a new eco-social world.
According to Anderson (2021), social workers can contribute on macro, meso and micro levels to
address climate change:

Social workers have a duty to contribute to efforts to both adapt to and mitigate climate change as well as
undertake other forms of ‘environmental social work’ as climate change is a social justice and human rights
issue. By extending the concept of person-in-environment to include physical environment social workers
can approach the issue in a way which is in line with existing social work theories and approaches and
incorporate a responsibility for the environment into their practice. (p. 1)
Source: Anderson, R. (2021). Why is climate change a pertinent issue for social work and how can social
workers contribute to efforts to address it? Social Work & Policy Studies: Social Justice, Practice and Theory, 4(1).
https://openjournals.library.sydney.edu.au/index.php/SWPS/article/view/15004

Social workers must also help with the transition away from fossil fuels, using an ecosocial approach
(Mason et al., 2022). Mason (2022) argues that social workers can undertake advocacy, local organising
and program development, and can use their skills in these areas to take a multipronged approach to
addressing climate change.

Recommended reading
Cox, D., & Pawar, M. (2013). International social work: Issues, strategies and programs (2nd ed.).
Sage.
International Federation of Social Workers. (2022). The role of social workers in advancing a new
eco-social world. IFSW. https://www.ifsw.org/the-role-of-social-workers-in-advancing-a-new-
eco-social-world

Valuing lived experience: service user

voice and participation
Designing interventions to meet people’s needs requires a clear understanding not only of the nature
of their needs and issues but, more importantly, the capacity to engage with service users, to actively
listen and then act accordingly. Over the past decade there has been a move towards development of a
‘peer workforce’ or ‘experts by experience’: people who are employed in organisations on the basis of
their lived experience, with designated roles to use their lived experience in their work with others. The
mental health, disability, suicide prevention, alcohol and other drugs fields have led the way in these
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developments. People who have had their own personal experiences, including family and carers, can
provide valuable support to others. The Peer Work Hub developed in New South Wales is an example of an
organisation that provides information and training for the peer workforce (http://peerworkhub.com.au).
Terms such as ‘consumer participation’, ‘client voice’ and, more recently, ‘co-design’, have become
embedded in the discourses of social policy and program development. Several frontiers of service user
power are now highly visible. First, there are strong consumer advocacy and lobby groups in several
fields. Perhaps the most visible and effective of these are carers, people with disabilities, people who
experience mental health issues, older people and members of the LGBTQIA+ communities. The slogan
‘Nothing about us, without us’ captures the spirit and mission of these groups. Members are keenly
involved in influencing policy, lobbying for change and funding, and raising awareness of their lived
experiences.
Advances in literature seek to position the voices of lived experience in a way that brings these
experiences to life. Morris (2017) has published a book on the lived experience in mental health that
is a collaborative project with service users and carers. Examples of service user accounts of what it
is like to experience depression or psychosis include:

• ‘I would describe it like walking in a sea of treacle. You don’t want to get out of bed in the morning,
everything is hard work … you don’t want to move, you don’t want to face the world, you don’t want to
speak to anybody, you just want to be isolated. It’s awful’ (p. 64).
• ‘My brain won’t slow down. When depressed, I lose my appetite. I find it hard to sleep. I lose my motivation.
I don’t really enjoy doing things. I don’t like seeing a lot of people and hide away. I just felt so miserable
that I just wanted to go to sleep and stay asleep’ (p. 103).
• ‘Things would take on a lot of significance so you could see something fairly normal like a bird flying or a
message on someone’s T-shirt and it would be directly speaking to you’ (p. 134).
Source: Morris, G. (2017). The lived experience in mental health. CRC Press.

A second set of consumer-based, participatory activities can be observed through various consultation
processes in program development, service design and standards for practice (Müller & Pihl-Thingvad,
2020). Here, service users are invited to be involved in the design of new services and policies and give input
from their perspective on what standards should be and what is important for them. There are concerns that
much of this is mere tokenism and that without adequate support, preparation and resourcing, meaningful
participation cannot occur. However, recent developments in health consumer organisations in Australia,
supported by government, indicate that this is and should be an increasing phenomenon. One example is
the Consumers Health Forum of Australia, a national peak body representing all healthcare consumers.
Another is Beyond Blue, a powerful lobby group for mental health services, where ambassadors with lived
experience of depression, anxiety and recovery share these experiences in public forums. There are also
lots of resources available to help with any co-design process (see, for example, the Victorian Government
website page on co-design at https://www.vic.gov.au/co-design and the Principles of Co-Design published
by the NSW Council of Social Services at https://www.ncoss.org.au).
Finally, more advances have occurred in participatory research, where service users are actively
involved in designing and conducting research that is about them, their experiences and the kind of
services that they need. This is well developed in disability research, where disabled people set the
research agenda and actively contribute to the development of knowledge. There is a growing need
and urgency to expand these activities to include children, prisoners and other marginalised and
disempowered people.

Recommended reading
Beresford, P. (2012). Service user involvement. In M. Gray, J. Midgley & S. Webb (Eds.), The Sage
handbook of social work (pp. 693–706). Sage.
Morris, G. (2017). The lived experience in mental health. CRC Press.
Pelta, R., & López Peláez, A. (2021). What can co-design contribute to social work with groups?
Groupwork, 29(3), 5–23.

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New frontiers
In earlier chapters, we discussed developing fields of environmental and eco-social work, disaster
responses and the impact of digital technologies on practice. We have also referred to the emergence of
social care entrepreneurs and solo practitioners. These aspects of practice were relatively unknown a
generation ago. Social workers have led the way in disaster response and international human service
practitioners are at the forefront of working with the social and environmental impacts of climate
change. It is important that social workers are not only prepared for what the future brings, but also
engage in co-creating our future. According to Nissen (2020), we must have a ‘foresight lens’, so that
we can see beyond the current issues to what these might mean for our future practice in a way that
is agile and reflects a ‘constructive, empowering and robust evolution of our thinking, scholarship
and … our practice’ (p. 310). To do this, we must use a foresight perspective; that is, an approach that
uses quantitative data to spot trends and inform decisions, as well as qualitative methods to imagine
possible futures, and bring together our collective intelligence and imagination to collectively plan
goals that equip us for what the future may bring, so that we are ‘collectively effective’. We must also
engage in ‘anticipatory social work’. This emerging social work practice approach is focused on shaping
present lives and creating better futures. Grounded in a foresight perspective, this approach uses
anti-oppressive, anti-carceral (i.e. focused on legal reform and a rejection of the colonialist criminal
justice system) practice approaches that liberate people and create health futures to ensure all people
flourish and thrive. Such an approach is both critical and participatory (Nissen, 2022).
For today’s practitioners, the digital age or what Ley (2012) terms the ‘electronic turn’ in the
profession, is the context in which practice is enacted. For many of you, working with such technologies
will be the norm. If you work in a hospital or health service, you will record your case notes in electronic
systems linked to many other systems that can be accessed widely. Security of such systems and
privacy of patient information is an ongoing concern. We have already canvassed some of the
ethical issues arising from these technologies and others have highlighted concerns about the loss of
professional autonomy and discretion within coded systems that do not allow ‘grey area’ explorations.
Increasingly, we predict that community service sectors will require new innovations in policy
and programs – new ways of addressing complex problems. Social innovation, alongside digital
and technological disruption, will likely drive future models and new methods and ultimately new
approaches to our practice. There have been some exciting developments in this field; for example,
Moyle and colleagues have undertaken extensive research examining how companion robots can
assist with emotional expression in older adults with dementia (see for example, Moyle, et al. 2019).
However, the introduction of new technologies can also be contentious.
Hodgson et al. (2022) draw our attention to the rise of artificial intelligence, automation, and
machine learning, in what is termed the fourth industrial revolution. They describe how social work
higher education will be fundamentally transformed and disrupted. No doubt, this transformation will
extend to social work practice. Keddell (2019) describes how predictive tools are already being used to
assist in child protection decision making. However, she draws attention to a number of issues with
this. She highlights that while such tools are used to promote fairness, that:

the data that predictive tools draw on do not represent child abuse incidence across the population and child
abuse itself is difficult to define, making key decisions that become data variable and subjective. Algorithms
using these data have distorted feedback loops and can contain inequalities and biases. The challenge to
justice concepts is that individual and group rights to non-discrimination become threatened as the algorithm
itself becomes skewed, leading to inaccurate risk predictions drawing on spurious correlations. The right to
be treated as an individual is threatened when statistical risk is based on a group categorisation, and the
rights of families to understand and participate in the decisions made about them is difficult when they have
not consented to data linkage, and the function of the algorithm is obscured by its complexity. (p. 281)
Source: Keddell, E. (2019). Algorithmic justice in child protection: Statistical fairness, social justice and
the implications for practice. Social Sciences, 8(10), 281. https://doi.org/10.3390/socsci8100281

Consequently, social work practitioners will need to be proficient in technological advancements

and be able to identify how they intersect with the ethical and relational side of social work practice,
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ensuring that we use technologies that use artificial intelligence and machine learning in ways that
enhance rather than detract from human health and wellbeing and that we advocate for the best
interests of people who are disadvantaged. While it is unlikely that the number of jobs in the caring
professions will be negatively affected by increased technological automation of the workforce, the
ways in which social workers practice may radically shift as they not only work relationally with
others, but also use technology to enhance their practice and the wellbeing of others. It is beyond the
scope of this book to outline all potential frontiers of human services. We cannot accurately predict
what the next generation of human service innovations or problems might be. Rather, we encourage Refer to
Chapter 2
you to adopt a critical view as you explore new issues and interventions. As we learnt in Chapter 2,
social work and human service work has always been a product of its time and place; that is, context
drives practice, and future contexts will also do the same.

Implications for education and ongoing learning

The futures canvassed in this book reveal some ongoing implications for social work and human service
education, both in terms of how we are prepared for practice as new graduates, as well as how we
continue to learn and develop. We propose that to be future-ready practitioners, the following elements
need to be kept firmly within our gaze.
The foundations of knowledge outlined in Chapter 5 form the basis for the development of our Refer to
Chapter 5
extensive practice skills and values. The integration of learning and doing (our theory–practice praxis)
is central to our ongoing preparedness for the future. From our early learning in field placement, through
to our ongoing supervision and critical reflection, safeguarding the reflective space is so important.
We also need to develop and maintain what we might call our global literacy. Practitioners of the
future can be prepared for this through their education via international field placements, study visits
or being exposed to a truly internationalised curriculum. For graduates, these kinds of experiences
can be further enhanced through professional exchanges, such as those offered through the Council
of International Fellowship (https://cifinternational.com). We must be culturally sensitive and have
an awareness about our own cultures that we are embedded within.
As discussed in Chapter 4, it is important to consider that ‘e-professionalism’ is a necessary Refer to
Chapter 4
inclusion in the social work and human service curriculum. We all need to be technologically and
digitally literate in an age where online communications are becoming dominant. How you present
yourself in the virtual world is now as important as how you are when you sit face-to-face with a client.
Good knowledge of what is appropriate and ethical conduct is critical to safeguard against risk to your
reputation and your relationships with others (McAuliffe, 2021).
Finally, you need to be prepared for the challenges of the changing landscapes of future practice,
and to do so in ways that will maintain your capacity to be agile and responsive to these changes. All
of the areas discussed in this book have witnessed a growing demand for employment of well-equipped
practitioners. Watts et al. (2018), in a study of human service managers, found that skills are needed
in areas of finance and business management. These skills are often neglected, and the challenges of
private practice or self-employment require them to be included in our education programs. Part of
this journey is about being open to change and receptive to the challenges change brings.

Activity 10.3

Imagine that you are practising in social work or human services in the year 2040, and answer
the following questions:
1 What do you think the human services industry will look like in the future?
2 What sort of roles and jobs might you be engaged in?
3 What individual and social problems will people be facing in the future and what responses
are likely to be required?

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STUDY
TOOLS

Conclusion
At the end of this journey, we look back over the terrain and see that we have explored many facets of social work
and human service practice. We leave you to think about the complexities and diversity of practice. The defining
elements are, of course, values, knowledge and skills; however, it is important to return to the purpose of practice,
as stated in the first chapter.
This purpose is to position human welfare and human rights as a primary social responsibility, acknowledging
that humanity exists in balance with the environment, and to celebrate and nurture the diversity of humanity.
Social workers and human service practitioners are charged with bringing to public notice the values, attitudes,
behaviours, social structures, and economic and political imperatives that cause or contribute to the oppression of
human welfare and rights. They are further charged with the duty to respond with passion, hope and care to human
needs wherever and however they manifest, and to work towards attaining social justice for individuals, groups
and communities in a local and global context.
Since writing the first edition of this text in 2005, we have witnessed many changes, not only at the human
service and practice level but on a broader societal and global scale. For example, social policy has regressed to more
punitive measures in income maintenance where welfare recipients are portrayed as unwilling to work, fraudsters
and undeserving. We have seen moves to drug test welfare recipients in Australia, which is an example of these
punitive measures. The rise of New Right ideologies in many parts of the world has contributed to deep division
within communities and has stymied efforts to promote positive social change. Never has the time been riper for
critique and collective action. Activist responses will be needed to ensure that social justice and human rights
are protected.
Changes to our social policies, changes as a result of globalisation and changes from rural to urban living in many
countries have all contributed to the struggles that people experience. As we have recently witnessed, a global
pandemic can upend whole social and economic systems in a few short weeks. Your decision to become a social
worker or a human service practitioner was most likely an important one for you. We hope that you will continue
to learn and to improve on what you do, to work towards the broader goals of social justice and a civil society and
for the preservation and attainment of human rights for all people of this small and fragile planet.

Questions
1 What is your understanding of what is meant by a framework for practice?
2 What is your understanding of the difference between reflective practice and critical reflective practice?
Give some examples of methods of reflection.
3 What is your understanding of the concept of ‘use of self’ and why is this important?
4 What are some of the benefits of professional supervision?
5 What are some of the suggestions made to ensure that self-care is well managed?
6 How has neoliberalism affected the human service workforce, and what is meant by the concept of
managerialism?
7 What are some of the challenges of a universalist approach to practice in the context of the development of
local responses to identified needs?
8 What are the benefits of including people with lived experience in employment in human services, and what
areas have moved towards a ‘peer workforce’?

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Weblinks
Carers Australia The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals
http://www.carersaustralia.com.au https://sdgs.un.org/goals
Consumers Health Forum of Australia The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
https://www.chf.org.au https://www.ipcc.ch

References
Anderson, R. (2021). Why is climate change a pertinent issue for social Mason, L. R., Melton, C. C., Gray, D., & Swallow, A. L. (2022). Climate
work and how can social workers contribute to efforts to address change, social work, and the transition away from fossil fuels: A
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Glossary
action research Sometimes called ‘participatory action autonomy The ability to function independently without
research’, it involves participants in the whole research coercion, duress or undue influence.
process, from developing the research questions and behaviourist theory This theory emerged in the
planning the approach, to gathering and analysing the 1920s and proposed a scientific foundation rooted in
data to making decisions for future programs or research. behavioural principles for human disorders.
activised Moves to engage in reforms at a societal and bureaucratised Dominance of administrative procedures.
political level to promote social justice. case management A practice method that involves a
addictions An intense urge to engage in certain behaviours, coordinated approach to determining needs and planning
such as alcohol and/or drug use or gambling, that supports on behalf of a client. It involves locating,
negatively impact wellbeing. brokering and monitoring services and supports, and
advocacy The practice of directly representing or reviewing outcomes.
defending people’s interests and ensuring that their catalysed Acceleration of an active response to an
rights and entitlements are upheld. Social work advocacy impending threat or situation of high risk.
can be at the individual, group or community level. child protection The field of work that is dedicated to
aetiology The study of the causes of anything. ensuring that children and young people remain safe
almoners The first welfare workers who were employed from abuse, exploitation and neglect, including physical,
by hospitals in 1929. sexual, emotional and psychological harm.
anti-discriminatory practice A term used widely in civil society The human activity that is between the
social work, probation work and in social work training activities of government and the market. It includes
to describe how workers take account of structural social movements, non-government organisations,
disadvantage and seek to reduce individual and associations and so on.
institutional discrimination, particularly on grounds of client-centred or person-centred counselling The style
race, gender, disability, social class and sexual orientation. of counselling originated by Carl Rogers (1959) that
anti-oppressive practice Anti-oppressive approaches that emphasised the importance of trust, acceptance, empathy
target oppression at the level of the individual and the and congruence in the therapeutic relationship.
wider social systems. clients The recipients of social work services – individuals,
anti-racist practice See anti-discriminatory practice. groups, families or communities. Clients may be
applicants Individuals who voluntarily seek human voluntary (requesting or agreeing to services) or
services. involuntary (unwilling and receiving services under
assessment The process of appraising a situation and duress or as mandated).
the people involved in it with the purpose of defining the climate change Long-term shifts in weather and
problem and identifying resources. temperature patterns caused by nature but also
auspice The authority base of an organisation that predominantly by human activities.
determines its mandate, funding and operations. closure The phase of concluding a helping relationship
Australian Association of Social Workers (AASW) The with an individual, family, group or community; also
national body that promotes the profession of social work known as termination.
and provides a focus for the development of a professional code of ethics A list of ethical principles that guides and
identity. The AASW also monitors and improves practice informs practitioners; usually set out by professional
standards, contributes to the development of social work associations, whose members are required to abide by them.
knowledge and research, advocates on behalf of clients cognitive and behavioural approaches These draw upon
and actively supports social structures and policies broader theories of learning, social learning theory and
pursuant to the promotion of social justice. See their cognitive theory. They are dynamic interventions that
website at: https://www.aasw.asn.au aims to help the client change.
authority-based practice Practice that is based on collectives Agencies that operate within a
authority and false knowledge (or ‘inert’ knowledge, non-hierarchical structure, with decision making by
which is unable to be applied to practice) rather than consensus. The focus is on participation and equal
evidence. sharing of power and responsibility.

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GLOSSARY

community-embedded practice A term that explains disabilities Disability is a complex and changing
the way in which rural practice involves both living and phenomenon and as such, is difficult to define. Generally,
working within a community. disability refers to differences in how our bodies and
community work Practice approaches and methods minds work, making our interactions with the world
used by practitioners to work within and alongside around us significantly more complex than those who are
communities to achieve their goals and solve community not disabled.
problems. disaster work Any interventions that are required as
confidentiality Practitioners are bound by an ethical a result of a natural or human-caused event that has
commitment to keep clients’ confidences and disclose caused damage and loss to life and property.
them only with the clients’ permission, recognising that discourse A way of thinking and formal communication
there may be a legal or ethical imperative to disclose in that can disallow other ways of thinking, so preserving a
some circumstances. Confidentiality policies and practices particular distribution of power: for example, discourses
restrict access to personal information to only authorised about disability.
persons at authorised times in an authorised manner. discrimination Negative discrimination is the prejudging
consequentialist and non-consequentialist theories and unfavourable treatment of people on the basis of
Ethical theories that either do or do not take perceived difference. Positive discrimination refers to
consequences into account when making ethical policies, programs or actions that favour disadvantaged
decisions. For example, deontology is a persons or groups.
non-consequentialist ethical theory; teleology domestic and family violence (DFV) Any behaviour that
(utilitarianism) is a consequentialist theory. is violent, controlling or threatening, including physical,
constructivist theory Individuals are responsible for sexual, psychological or financial abuse.
making their own realities by the way they construct and dual relationships Relationships (professional,
reconstruct life events and how they understand their interpersonal, familial, social, sexual, financial or
experiences. business) with clients that are additional to the primary
contested Subject to argument or question about validity professional relationship.
crisis intervention A practice model that aims to help duty of care The obligation to take reasonable care
clients in crisis by facilitating effective coping and, to avoid acts of omission, which a practitioner can
thereby, leading to positive growth and change. reasonably foresee would be likely to injure another.
critical incident technique A technique of reflective ecological perspectives Practice approaches based on the
practice that involves reflecting on a particular incident relationships between people and their environments;
in order to develop new concepts and future action. related to systems theory.
critical social work Exploration of oppression and ecomap A visual schema of social relationships.
injustice through focus on issues of power, structural egalitarianism Asserting the equality of all people.
factors and social change. Also see radical social work. empirical research Knowledge acquired through
critical thinking A process of rigorous, skilful and active conducting research; the systematic collection
analysis, evaluation and interpretation of information and interpretation of data for addressing questions
based on evidence, observation, reflection and and problems, explaining events and determining
communication. outcomes.
culturagram A diagrammatic representation of a person’s empowerment The process of helping individuals,
cultural context and identity. families, groups and communities to increase their
culture The social meanings and transmitted knowledge, personal, interpersonal, socioeconomic and political
values, beliefs and customs in a society. strength and power to improve their circumstances.
deinstitutionalisation Government policy that involved engagement The early connection and rapport-building
the movement of people with disabilities and mental with clients, groups and communities.
illness from larger institutions to community settings. e-professionalism The development of an online
deontology An approach to ethics in which a sense of persona that is congruent with the values and ethics of
duty or principle prescribes the ethical decision. the profession and portrays use of self in a way that is
digitised Conversion of human processes into respectful and demonstrates professional integrity.
technological form with aid of computers and artificial epistemology Branch of philosophy devoted to the study
intelligence. of knowledge.
296 Copyright 2024 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. WCN 02-300

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GLOSSARY

ethical standards Conduct and policies that will uphold human service organisations Organisations that have a
moral expectations of promotion of social justice and primary focus on the wellbeing of people and the services
human rights. that are required to promote and maintain optimal levels
ethics A system or set of beliefs, moral principles and of care.
perceptions about right and wrong. humanist perspective A practice approach based on
evaluation The process of determining the effectiveness gaining an understanding of the person’s subjective
and outcomes of human service programs and practice experience. Essentially an optimistic approach, it assumes
interventions by research. unconditional positive regard and the inherent possibilities
evidence-based practice An approach to decision making for growth and development of every individual.
that is transparent, accountable and based on the best human relations approach A theory of organisations that
evidence about the effects of particular interventions on focuses on worker satisfaction as a key to productivity.
the welfare of individuals, groups and communities. hypothesis A proposition (or set of propositions) that
existentialism Accepts and emphasises the individual’s attempts to explain the occurrence of a specified group of
autonomy and freedom of choice. It includes the phenomena. It is either asserted as provisional conjecture
acceptance of a sense of meaning in suffering, the or to guide investigation or it is accepted as highly
need for dialogue and a strong commitment to client probable in light of established facts.
self-determination. ideology A system of belief about the nature of the world
faith-based services Agencies governed by religious and human beings that acts to uphold and justify an
values and principles. existing or desired arrangement of power, authority and
family therapy Specialised intervention approach that status in a society.
works with the family as a system. individualised A focus on the individual as opposed to the
feminist ethic of care An ethical theory that focuses collective.
on relationship, collaboration and connection, asking internationalisation A broad understanding of human
‘what does a caring response require?’ service issues, programs and practice across different
feminist perspectives Practice perspectives that integrate countries and cultures. Global issues are addressed
knowledge, skills and values within broader feminist through international organisations, such as the
theories. International Federation of Social Workers, and global
fields of practice The different settings in which non-government organisations, such as the Red Cross.
practitioners operate – for example, child and family Practice addresses such issues as human rights, disasters
work, mental health etc. – and the special competencies and global poverty. The links between local and global
needed to do this. issues are important.
generalist practice A practice approach that uses a interpretivism A paradigm to explain the different
broad range of knowledge and skills, drawing on several meanings people attach to actions and the social rules
practice theories and models to best address clients’ they use to guide behaviour and interaction.
problems and needs. interprofessional ethics The exploration of ethics and
genogram A diagrammatic representation of family values that takes place when two or more disciplines
structures and relationships. come together to learn and engage in ethical dialogue
Gestalt therapy An existential approach that assumes about, from and with each other, with the aim of
that people must accept personal responsibility through deepening understanding in the interests of professional
developing awareness of their experience and actions; practice.
this approach is widely used in groupwork. interprofessional practice ‘Two or more professions
globalisation The economic, political, technological and working together as a team with a common purpose,
cultural processes through which social relations are commitment and mutual respect’ (Freeth et al. 2005, cited
intensifying across space and time and, as a consequence in Dunston et al., 2009, p. 6).
of which, social arrangements become organised at both intersectionality The ways in which different privileges
local and global levels. intersect and result in compounded oppression. Originally
groupwork Method of intervention that involves working developed to explain oppression related to gender and
with groups with a focus on group communication and race, the concept has been expanded to include a number
dynamics. of other socially oppressive institutions.

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GLOSSARY

intervention Processes of working with individuals, networked life The ways in which people use social
groups and communities towards identified goals. media and technology to make connections and maintain
involuntary attendance A person mandated by a court to communications with others online.
attend a court service under a legal obligation. neuroscience The ways in which biology explains the
involuntary clients Clients who are referred to a program connections between the brain, nervous system and
or practitioner without their consent; they are required by human behaviour, including emotions, perceptions,
law or statutory powers to attend. motivations and decisions.
libertarianism A belief that focuses on liberty and observation Knowledge we obtain through our perception
individual freedom. and examination of the world, other practitioners and
life-model approach Views people as constantly adapting ourselves.
and changing in response to their changing environments oppression Usually associated with a serious abuse
over the lifespan. of power, it can involve abuse, harm, mistreatment or
lived experience The knowledge that a person gains violence.
through their unique subjective experience organisational theory Provide explanations for the ways
managerialism A set of ideas based on management in which organisations are structured and operate to
principles such as efficiency and effectiveness, which has achieve specified goals.
been applied to human services in the belief that human paradigm A general way of seeing the world: how we
services are the same as other organisations and that come to know and understand the world and what kinds
managing them does not require specialist knowledge of theories explain our observations.
about human and social problems. partialised Development of divisions resulting in
marketised Creating competition within a sector with the competition and specialisation of services.
aim of increasing efficiency and innovation. personal experience Life experiences that inform who we
mediation A process of dispute resolution. are and how we go about our practice.
mental health practice The field of work that focuses on person-in-environment An analysis and assessment of an
emotional, psychological and social well-being, including individual as they are situated within their full social and
prevention of mental health problems, and interventions environmental context, taking account of all factors that
for promotion of mental health. impact on life and well-being.
mentoring A more experienced peer or supervisor perspective A particular way of looking at the world;
providing support and guidance. a ‘conceptual lens’ through which to view human
metaethics Concerned with understanding broad behaviour and social structures.
philosophical concepts (for example, self-determination, politicised Shifting into the space of politics resulting in
social justice, paternalism, honesty) and whether or not contestation of issues.
these phenomena truly exist. positivism An approach to knowledge in which reality is
methods Different types of intervention – individual, the sum of sense impressions. It employs deductive logic
family work, groupwork, community work, policy, and quantitative research methods, and assumes that life
research, management in human services. is regulated through natural laws.
mobilised Prepared for action in areas of developing need. postmodernism Suggests that there is no single reality
model A descriptive classification of part of the world. but that different realities are constantly being defined
multidisciplinary assessment An assessment conducted and redefined. Power is discussed in terms of discourse
by a team of professionals who contribute specialist rather than structure. Deconstruction is a major form
knowledge and skill from their respective disciplines. of inquiry when seeking to understand the meaning of
narrative therapies Derived from post-structural and phenomena within a particular context.
postmodern theories that emphasise the need for practice framework A set of beliefs, assumptions and
individuals and families to create new and more positive knowledge about how and under what conditions people
stories about themselves. change and what a practitioner can do to facilitate
neoliberalism A political economic theory/agenda desirable change (see also practice model).
that focuses on minimal government intervention, practice standards An expected level of quality in the
privatisation and free trade. application of skills and methods.

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GLOSSARY

practice model A set of concepts and principles that referral The process of sending a client to another agency
guides interventions but is not tied to a particular or service; the practitioner may directly contact the
explanation of behaviour; examples include crisis agency or merely provide information about the agency
intervention and task-centred approaches. to the client.
practitioner wisdom Describes the accumulation of reflection Knowledge developed through systematic
information, judgements and ideas that have been useful thinking about events, experiences or our practice, which
in practice; it may be understood simply as ‘common we then apply to new actions.
sense’ and may or may not be empirically validated. reflective practice Integrates theory, knowledge and
praxis Application of theory to practice through reflection practice to build new knowledge and improve practice.
with an aim to bring about change. review See evaluation.
prejudice A generalised and negative set of beliefs in risk assessment Assessment of any situation, event or
which a person or group is prejudged; evidence to the decision to identify risks and determine their likelihood of
contrary does not sway the prejudice. occurring, as well as their level of potential harm.
principles Moral, political or other rules, tenets or roleplay A simulated situation for the purpose
convictions that guide conduct or action. of learning.
procedural knowledge The organisational, legislative and rural practice Geographic areas located outside cities or
policy context within which practice takes place. towns with low population density meaning services are
profession A system of values, knowledge, skills, spread across larger areas and distance.
techniques and beliefs that a group of people hold in scientific management A theory of bureaucracy that
common. Professions are often formally and legally explains relations between managers and workers in the
recognised and are afforded legitimacy. Professions also are context of scientific observations.
committed to ongoing knowledge and skills development to scrutinised To examine in detail and inspect critically to
maintain standards of professional activity. ascertain worth and effectiveness.
professional associations Constituted bodies that provide self-determination The principle of self- determination
guidance, support, benefits and standards for members. recognises the rights of clients to be free to make their
professionalised A process of occupational recognition own choices and decisions without interference.
based on training, integrity and competence. self-disclosure A practitioner discloses information of a
professional knowledge Theories, research and personal nature to a client.
experience that guide practice. social model of disability This model views disability
psychodynamic approaches Practice approaches and as the result of social barriers rather than individually
models based on psychodynamic theories of Freud and determined causes.
later ego psychologists; these were the foundation of sociogram A diagrammatic representation of social
social work from the 1940s to the 1960s (for example, relationships.
social casework, psychosocial assessment). splintered Separation into units of common interest
psychosocial assessment A comprehensive evaluation based on disagreement with competing interests.
of a person’s psychological, physical, social, and spiritual strengths perspective A model of case-management
state to assist with planning appropriate intervention. practice that shifts the focus from deficits to strengths of
qualitative research Methodological approaches that the client; it was first developed in work with people with
employ methods of data collection and analysis that are mental illness.
non-quantitative and aim to explore social relations structural oppression Oppression that is the result of
quantitative research Research design that employs the impact of systems and structures of society rather
quantitative measurement and statistical analysis. than individual behaviours – it is usually related to class,
radical social work Problems are defined as being at the gender or race.
social and structural level rather than the individual level. systems theory Argues that all organisms are systems
It is derived from Marxist and radical philosophies and made up of subsystems and, in turn, are part of
focuses on broad political change and political action. supersystems; it is applied to social systems made up of
recovery-oriented practice An approach to mental health individuals, groups, families, communities and societies.
care that emphasises and promotes a person’s potential tacit knowledge Knowledge that one is not necessarily
to take responsibility for their own recovery to fulfil their aware of or attending to in a given situation and can
goals and aspirations. include intuition.

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GLOSSARY

task-centred practice A time-limited and usually use of self The self is seen as a key component in
brief intervention that uses contracts between the the development of relationships through which
worker and the client and the assignment of tasks and practice occurs.
responsibilities to achieve agreed goals. utilitarianism An ethical theory that is based on the
teleology Ethical approach that suggests that the end premise of ‘the greatest good for the greatest number’.
justifies the means, taking account of circumstances values Relative ethical beliefs or standards considered
and consequences. desirable by a culture, group or an individual; principles
theoretical knowledge The understanding of theories and attitudes that provide direction for everyday living
that explain phenomena. and guide and direct the work of the practitioner.
theory A group of related hypotheses, concepts and vicarious trauma A stress experience resulting from the
constructs based on facts and observations that attempts cumulative impact over time of exposure to the trauma
to explain a particular phenomenon. stories of others.
theory of bureaucracy A theory developed by Max virtue ethics Based on the question ‘What action will
Weber to describe the way in which organisations exert make me a better person both now and in the future?’
domination, power and authority over social relations. A decision is justified in terms of whether it is done in
third-sector organisations Community and accordance with virtue.
non-government agencies that operate on a not-for-profit youth justice A system of courts, tribunals, community
basis and include volunteers. and detention interventions that deal with young people
trauma-informed practice Policy and practice based on under the age of 18 who have offended or are at risk
evidence and research about the impacts and prevalence of offending.
of trauma and how this affects people.

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Index
AASW Code of Ethics (2020), 94 adverse outcomes, 207, 285 assumptions, 3, 32, 45–6, 114, authority-based practice, 127
ethical responsibility advocacy, 9, 87, 105, 132, 149, 159 123–124, 129, 206, 249, 266, 276 autonomy, 6, 37, 55, 63, 65, 73,
guidelines, 106 advocate, 231 re-evaluation, 276 85, 117, 157, 162, 170, 196,
purpose, 96 aetiology, 148 asylum seekers, 9, 36, 175, 248, 200, 202, 285, 290
abandonment, 24, 155 age, 246, 258 263
ability, 35, 54–56, 66, 78, 132 humane responses, 36 baby farming, 155
of ‘coming out’, 257
able-bodied poor, 32 asylums, 45 Bali bombings, 176
ageing populations, 37, 149
ableism, 248 attachment theory, 129 Band-Aid solutions, 201
see also older people
Aboriginal and Torres Strait attack, 257 behaviour, 3, 45, 55
agencies, 205–6
Islander peoples, 252–3 attention, 67 acceptable, 69
protocol, 230
formal education attitudes, 2, 9, 55, 58, 159, 173, counter-intuitive, 139
aggression, 107
offerings, 125 212, 246, 266, 282 undesirable, 131
agreement, 232, 236
perspectives, 252–3 attunement, 139 behavioural theories, 129
alcohol, 31
Aboriginal and Torres Strait audits, 99, 196 behaviourist theory, 115
Alcoholics Anonymous, 172
Islander social workers, 253 auspice, 191–2 ‘being’, 278
allied health professionals, 152
Aboriginal Councils and Australian and New Zealand beliefs, 2, 12, 24, 54, 173, 203,
almoners, 34
Associations Act 1976 (Cth), 208 Social Work and Welfare 248, 250, 259, 276
Amazon forests, 88
absolutism, 68 Education and Research pre-existing, 24–5
Amnesty International, 87 (ANZSWWER), 98
abuse, 20, 24, 37, 43, 61, 102, 155 re-evaluation, 276
analyses, 131 Australian Association of Social
allegations, 155 Benevolent Society, 33
ancestry, 249 Workers (AASW), 39, 89–97,
financial, 107 Bentham, Jeremy, 45
animals (for research), 55 288
of rights, 88 bereavement, 121
anonymity, 66, 71, 240, 242 Practice Standards and Code
abuse of power, 46, 49 best practice, 106, 126
anti-discriminatory practices, 35 of Ethics, 93–97
academic-merit requirements, 13 Beyond Blue, 289
anti-oppressive approaches, regulation debate, 92–3
academics, 4 bias, 250, 276
116–17 review–ethics and complaint
acceptance, 65, 240 bicultural practice, 98
anti-oppressive ideas, 216 management, 95
acceptance and commitment Biestek, Felix, 16, 62
anti-oppressive practice, 44, trademark, 93
therapy (ACT), 132 big data, 36, 195, 241
262–3 Australian Bureau of Statistics
access, 19 bio-psychosocial approach, 275
anti-racist practice, 44 (ABS), 151
accountability, 35, 66, 75–78, bioethics, 63
anxiety, 75, 132, 148, 152, 159, Australian Community Workers
85, 100, 102, 188, 194, 197,
247, 286, 289 Association (ACWA), 101–2 bipolar disorder, 148
202, 238, 265
Aotearoa New Zealand, 31 Australian Counselling blame, 207
accreditation, 93, 97, 100, 279
Aotearoa New Zealand Association (ACA), 100 of the victim, 62
see also training
Association of Social Workers Australian Disability Workforce blogs, 277
action research, 46 Report, 285
(ANZASW), 98–100, 146 Bringing them Home Report, 103
actions, 263 Australian Health Practitioner
Code of Ethics, 93–7 bullying, 45
agreements regarding, 240 Regulation Agency (AHPRA),
applicants, 213, 217 burdensome compliance, 200
collective, 39, 46, 92 92, 202
applied ethics, 58, 61 bureaucracy, 196
do unto others, 59 Australian Institute of Health
art, 30 bureaucratisation, 34
planned change, 213 and Welfare (AIHW), 147, 200
artefacts, 249 bush medicines, 30
purposive interventions, Australian Register
Asia Pacific Region, 99 business sector, 193
231–2 of Counsellors and
assessment, 212, 222–30 by-laws, 95
social, 264 Psychotherapists (ARCAP),
bottom-up and top-down 100–101
active discrimination, 66
approaches, 226 capital punishment, 55
activism, 182 Australian Social Work
conducting, 228–9 Education Accreditation care, 272
covert, 241
multidisciplinary, 223 Standards (ASWEAS), 97 ethic of, 59
activity, 173
needs-led versus resource- Australian Social Work inadequate, 165
Addams, Jane, 34, 112 led, 228 Education and Accreditation versus control, 156
addictions, 149, 173 psychosocial, 223 Standards (2019), 94–5 Case Con manifesto, 35
adjustment, 16 resources, 20 Australian Statistical Geography case management, 18
administration, 196 associations Standard (ASGS), 166 approaches, 231
adolescents, services for, 172 incorporation, 208 authority, 45

BK-CLA-MCAULIFFE_7E-230050-Index.indd 301 03/08/23 3:12 PM

INDEX

case studies churches, 193–4 collectives, 187, 194 conflict resolution, 230
cyclone emergency cisgender people, 256 colonialism, 256 congruence, 54
intervention plan, 233 citizens/citizenship, 34, 39 colonisation, 256 connectedness, 24, 56
disability, 222 civil society, 43 by dominant society, 246 connections, 3, 17, 60, 98,
emergency accommodation, clarity, 75, 77 legacy, 246 147, 177
137 class, 24, 56, 265 coming out, 257–8 making, 217–22
engagement, 213 ‘underclass’, 32 Commission of Inquiry to practice, 4
ethical considerations, 237 classism, 248 into Abuse of Children in consciousness, 87, 265
ethical decision making, 72–3 client needs, 23, 230 Queensland Institutions 1999 consequentialism, 59
eviction, 233 (Forde Inquiry), 103 consequentialist ethical
client outcomes, 238
Finding My Feet, 261 common good, 42, 60 theories, 59
client perspectives
robodebt, 171 common sense, 114 constructivist theory, 117
ACAT assessment, 126
support groups, 182 communalism, 56 consultancy, 22
harm, 104
the family, 234 communication literacies, 240 consultation, 72–3, 78, 87, 93, 95
older people, 165
casework, 104 communication skills, 19 consumer choice, 285
relationship termination, 104
Casework Relationship, The, 62 communitarianism, 60 consumer participation, 289
religion-based values, 13
Cashless Debit Card, 169 community development, 137 consumers, 197
social worker loss, 11
caste, 248 community discourse, 198 Consumers Health Forum of
client self-referrals, 217
casualisation, 285 community outreach, 194 Australia, 289
client voice, 224
catfishing, 107 community participation, 199 contact, 213, 217
client-centred approach, 113
change community partnerships, 60 face-to-face, 241
client-centred counselling, 131
dynamic and fluid, 217 community practice, 282 contemporary human
clients, 5
gradual, 49 Community Services Training services, 284
best interests, 204
sustainable, 232 Package (CSTP), 101 content-free management, 203
‘dual’, 179
valuing positive change, 65 community work, 20, 137 contestability, 35
initial contact–place and
change process community worker, 71 context, driving practice, 291
timing, 219
emphasis, 213 community-based services, 151 continuing professional
life history, 223
community-embedded development (CPD), 2, 279
spiral nature, 213 power imbalance with
practice, 168 contractarianism, 59
character traits, 59 practitioners, 50
commutative justice, 42 contracting, 106, 173, 213, 285
characteristics, 246, 249 wellbeing, 291
compassion, 175 contractualism, 34
charismatic authority, 196 climate change, 90, 287–8
Compassion Australia, 194 control, 17, 24
charitable trusts, 208–9 Climate Emergency, 90
compassion fatigue, 282 control knowledge, 125
charities, 33, 41, 169, 187, 192 climate justice, 88
competence, 46 cooperation, 125
Charity Organization Society clinical practice, 18
movement (COS movement), 33 cultural, 265–6 international, 87
closure, 212, 233
checklists, 229 organisational, 200 core values, 64–8
codes of conduct, 66, 84
child abuse, 157, 167 competing discourses, 45 cost-effectiveness, 35
codes of ethics, 84–5
child protection, 148, 155 competition, 34–5, 206, 284–5 counselling, 3, 9, 19, 61, 72,
AASW, 89–97
competitive tendering, 148, 100, 104
practice context, 155–157 breach, 63
192, 201 counsellors, 101, 104
specific issues, 157 care or control, 84–5
competitiveness, 73 country, 30
child sexual abuse, 56 international context, 85–9
complaints, 93 COVID-19
child support, 258 regional context, 89–104
avenues, 93 implications, 286–7
childhood experiences, 10 coercion, 45
unreported, 102 pandemic, 176
children cognitive and behavioural
compliance, 105, 200 crisis intervention, 136–7
health of, 258 approaches, 131–2
computer literacies, 240 crisis work, 149
over-representation, 157 cognitive behavioural
theory, 129 conduct, 54 critical analysis, 35, 77–80
sexual abuse, 37
cognitive behavioural therapy unacceptable, 85 critical evaluation, 77–80
choice
(CBT), 131 unethical, 84 critical incident technique, 129
equality and, 48
collaboration across conferences, 87 critical perspectives, 125
valuing, 65
agencies, 205–6 confidence, 281 critical practice, 264–5
Christchurch shootings, 176
collaborative partnerships, confidentiality, 36, 58, 61, 66 critical race theory, 132–3
Christian charity, 194
23, 229 absolute, 66 critical reflection, 2, 76, 111
Christianity, 56
collective action, 36–7 conflict, 29, 71, 75 critical reflective practice,
chronic sorrow, 123
collective impact, 36, 195 ethical, 56 237–9, 276–7

BK-CLA-MCAULIFFE_7E-230050-Index.indd 302 03/08/23 3:12 PM

INDEX

critical social theory, 36 Department of Human Services, specific issues, 159–60 English Poor Laws, 32
critical social work theory, 248 177 working with, 158–60 entrepreneurs, 290
critical social workers, 132 dependency, 104 domestic violence, 77 environment
critical theory, 116–17 depression, 11, 132, 148, 152, 165 range of behaviours within slippery, 42
critical thinking, 3, 127, 276 Depression, Anxiety and Stress definition, 159 valuing, 67–8
cross-cultural relationships, 262 Scale (DASS), 102 domination, 196 environmental justice, 42, 67
culturagram, 226 description, 125 dual relationships, 61, 167 environmental social work, 177
cultural backgrounds, 34 deserving poor, 32 duty, 58 practice, 134–5
cultural competence, 265–6 detention centres, 147, 248 to regulate harmful practice, environmental work, 176–8
cultural competency, 56 detoxification, 172 102–4 epistemology, 111, 123
cultural consciousness, 265 dialectical behaviour therapy, 132 duty of care, 58 espoused theory, 129
cultural context, 30 diaspora, 255 ethical challenges, 70–2
dietetics, 149 e-professionalism, 36, 105–7
cultural diversity, 219 ethical decision making, 58
difference, 246 Eastern cultures, 56
cultural dominance, 216 ethical decision making models,
digital divide, 286 eco-social work see
cultural factors, 226 72–80
environmental social work
cultural groups, 226 digital era, 58 ethical dilemma, 74–5
ecological justice, 42
cultural humility, 265–6 knowledge and skills, 105–7 ethical issues, 68–70
ecological perspectives, 130, 197
cultural identity, 30, 157 standards in, 105–7 ethical literacy, 54
ecomaps, 226
cultural imperialism, 247 digital literacy, 239–40 ethical standards, 89
education, 22, 48
cultural practices, 250 digital scholarship, 240 ethical theory application, 58–62
implications for, 291
cultural relativism, 63 digitisation, 36 ethics, 22
educational experience
cultural safety, 56, 265–6 dignity, 43, 89, 131 history, 60–2
optimising, 3–6
cultural sensitivities, 3, 130 direct practice, 199 Ethics Complaint Management
educational policies, 13
culturally and linguistically direct social action, 35 Process, 95
educators, 4
diverse (CALD), 250 direct verbal questioning, 229 Ethics Education and Policy
effectiveness, 135 Development Process, 95
culture, 226, 249 disabilities, 147, 161, 259–60
efficiency, 35, 196 ethnocentric trap, 250
characteristics related practice context, 161–2
egalitarianism, 42 ethnocentrism, 250
to, 246 services in Australia, 192
ego psychology, 115 ethnography, 126
Eastern, 56 specific issues, 162–4
elder abuse, 165 European Union, 87
suppression, 251 disability rights, 260
elders, 31, 75 evaluation, 23, 212
customary laws and protocols, disadvantage, 30, 63,
252 71, 92 electronic turn, 290 evidence, 114
customs, 124 social structures Email-Facilitated Reflective evidence-based practice, 111,
contributing, 63 Dialogue, 241 126–127
cyber-bullying, 21, 107
disaster, 177 emergency intervention plan, 233 existential approaches, 131
cycle of reflection, 73
disaster work, 176–8 emergency situations, 233 existentialism, 131
dance, 30 disciplinary power, 45 emotional contagion, 282 existing documents, 229
data, 33, 36, 121 disclosure, 45, 69 emotional distress, 257 explanation, 125
see also big data discrimination, 5, 247 emotional resources, 24 external networks, 5
data analytics, 195 exercise of power, 46 emotions, 38, 138
data collection, 213 disease, 149, 255 empathy, 24 facilitator, 231
dating apps, 107 disengagement, 213 empirical knowledge, 275 factual knowledge, 121
death, 69, 103 disorders, 150, 152 empirical research, 121 faith-based organisations, 193–4
deaths in custody, 252 displacement, 251 employability/career faith-based services, 187
debriefing, 281 opportunities, 7–8 family therapy, 19
dispossession, 252
decision making, 37 employee satisfaction, 196 feeling–intuitive process, 73
distributive justice, 42
Deep Sleep Therapy, 103 employees, 196 feelings, 263
diversity
deficit-focused approach, 229 employment, 169–71 feminist ethic of care, 59
influences on, 249–61
deinstitutionalisation, 151 loss of, 286 feminist model of ethical
valuing, 66–7
demeanour, 221 empowerment, 46–50 decision making, 73
documentation, 239–40
dementia, 290 dilemmas, 48–9 feminist perspectives, 61
‘doing’, 129
democracy, 43 underlying assumption, 48 feminist practice
‘dole bludging’, 32
empowerment theories, 116–17 approaches, 133
demonic possession, 30 domestic and family violence
end-of-life issues, 165 feminist theories, 116–17
demonstrations, 35 (DFV), 158
engagement, 212, 217–22 field supervision, 281
deontology, 59 practice context, 158

BK-CLA-MCAULIFFE_7E-230050-Index.indd 303 03/08/23 3:12 PM

INDEX

fields of practice, 8, 145–9 human rights, 42–4 critical analysis and integrity, 59, 64, 66, 69
choosing, 178–9 human service evaluation, 77–80 interdisciplinary teams, 204
issues, interventions and organisations, 187 essential dimensions, 73–80 Intergovernmental Panel
skills in, 149–79 characteristics, 188–92 inclusivity on Climate Change
First Nations see First Peoples collaboration and teamwork, valuing, 66–7 (IPCC), 287
First Peoples, 251 203–6 income, 169, 229, 249 internalised homophobia, 257
‘fly in, fly out’ practice, 167 context and place, 202 income security, 169–71 International Association
foetal alcohol spectrum disorder key roles in, 200 Incorporated Societies Act 1908 of Schools of Social Work
(FASD), 173 management and (NZ), 208 (IASSW), 85–86
‘forensic functions’ of risk, 207 leadership, 203 indigenous healing and helping, International Council on Social
nature of work in, 191 30–1 Work (ICSW), 86
foresight lens, 290
new models, 195 indigenous people, 30, 67, 175, International Federation of
formal reviews, 238
200, 264 Social Workers (IFSW), 16, 63,
formal theories, 113 purpose, 189–90
86–88, 259, 288
fourth industrial revolution, 290 setting, 208–9 indigenous relationality, 263–4
internationalisation, 36
framework, 114 types, 192–5 indigenous traditions, 115
interpretivism, 125
friendly visitors, 33 working in, 199–209 indigenous worldviews, 263–4
interprofessional ethics, 54
funding, 200–1 human services, 207–8 indirect questioning, 229
interprofessional practice, 2,
knowledge of, 118–19 individual responsibility, 35, 41
5, 204
gay, 257 methods, 5 individual rights, 61
intersectionality, 2, 248
gender binary, 256 motivations for working in, individual therapy, 103
intersex, 256
gender identification, 256 7–15 individualisation, 61, 162, 284
intervention, 125, 151, 212,
gender identity, 256–9 networks, 4–5 individualism, 61, 73
230–3
gender questioning, 256 humanist approaches, 131 individuals
issues, interventions and
generalist practice, 145 humanist perspectives, 131 work with, 18–19 skills in, 149–79
genograms, 226 humanist theory, 115 Industrial Revolution, 155, 290 levels, 179–82
Gestalt therapy, 131 humanity inequality, 246–9 involuntary attendance, 218
gig economy, 37 valuing, 65 infectious diseases, 31 involuntary clients, 97
Global Agenda for Social Work hypertechnology, 240 informal reviews, 238 iwi connections, 254
and Social Development, 85–9 hypothesis, 113–14 informal theories, 113
globalisation, 36 information, 5 job security, 6
government agencies, 192 ideas, 263 at face value, 276 journals, 277, 279
grand theories, 113 identity, 3 sensitive, 218 Judaeo-Christian charity
green social work see cultural, 30, 157 types of, 226 traditions, 31
environmental social work gender, 25, 256–9 information and judgement, 12, 54, 117
groupwork, 20 online, 107 communications technologies justice, 8
ideology, 114, 248 (ICTs), 150 climate, 88
harmful practice, duty to ‘new right’, 61 information gathering, 76 meaning of, 55
regulate, 102–4 Ife, Jim, 197 information literacies, 240 social, 16–17
hate crimes, 257 discourses, 197–9 information sharing, 76
healing human services discourses, information technology, 240–2 Kant, Immanuel, 59
indigenous, 30–1 197–9 informed consent, 61, 96, 100 Kantian ethics, 59
health sector Rethinking Social Work, 197 initial contact, 219 Kids Helpline, 106
practice context, 149 illness, 149 injustice, 10 kinship, 56
specific issues, 149–50 images, 107 addressing, 246 knowledge, 111–120
helping of people, 190 innovation, 36, 285 digital age, 106–7
histories, 29–41 immigration, 258 inquiring mind, 3 from other disciplines,
indigenous, 30–1 impact of, 249 inquiry, 103 119–20
professionalisation, 40–1 impairment, 259 insecurity, 170 paradigms influencing
helping process, 212–17 imperialism, 287 Instagram, 3, 105 knowledge development,
steps, 217–39 implementation, 156, 162 institutions, 32, 252, 257 123–5
heteronormativity, 257 impression management, 105 socially oppressive, 248 in practice, 125–9
homelessness, 170 inaction, 104, 230 intake, 213 pre-existing, 24–5
homophobia, 257 inclusive model, 73–80 integrated framework, 216 professional, 63
housing services, 169–71 alternative approaches and integration social and historical
human relations approaches, 196 action, 77 of learning, 291 foundations, 115–17

BK-CLA-MCAULIFFE_7E-230050-Index.indd 304 03/08/23 3:12 PM

INDEX

of social work and human morality, 60 paradigm, 112–13 model, 263

services, 118–19 multidisciplinary influencing knowledge new frontiers, 290–1
sources, 121–5 assessment, 223 development, 123–5 principles of, 29
sources and content, 118–20 teams, 204 shift, 113 purpose, 15–17
partialising, 232 standards, 84
leader, the, 200 Narcotics Anonymous, 172 Pasifika peoples, 255 theory in, 139–40
learning narrative therapies, 117 peer support, 4 practitioners, 5
implications for, 291 National Disability Insurance Peer Work Hub, 289 wisdom, 123
legal justice, 42 Agency (NDIA), 201 people, 217–18 praxis, 128
legal settings, corrections and National Disability Insurance contact services, 221 prediction, 125
youth justice, working in, 174–5 Scheme (NDIS), 8, 161,
People Seeking Asylum and prejudice, 66, 247
legitimacy mapping, 75–6 201, 285
Refugees, 90 prioritising, 232
lesbians, 257 National Field Education
person-centred counselling, 131 privacy
libertarianism, 42 Network (NFEN), 98
person-in-environment, 17, 67 valuing, 66
licensing, 41 National Mental Health Survey,
personal experience, 10–12, 121 private agencies, 192
151
Life in Mind, 260 personal support networks, 5
National Regulation and private practice, 181–2
life-long learning, 2 perspective, 114
Accreditation Scheme privilege, 248
life-model approach, 130 perspectives
(NRAS), 92 problem-solving approaches,
Lifeline, 106 ecological, 197
neoliberalism, 35, 284 213, 129
lived experience, 5, 266–7 systems, 197
networked life, 224 procedural knowledge, 121
valuing, 288–9 persuasion, 45
neuroscience, 138 process models, 72
lobbying work, 182 philosophy
New Public Management profession, 34
(NPM), 197 ‘philosophers’, 57–8 professional, the, 200
management
New York School of physiotherapy, 149 professional associations, 84
organisational, 21–2
Philanthropy, 33 planned change process, 213 professional development, 279
responsibilities, 21
newly arrived migrant policy, 182 professional discourse, 198
manager, the, 200 minorities, 249–50 Policy Position on Aged Care, 90 professional knowledge, 63
managerial discourse, 198 non-consequentialist ethical political action, 36–7 professional supervision, 281
managerialism, 35 theories, 59 political model (of disability), 260 professionalisation, 40–1
aftermath, 284–5 non-government organisations politicisation, 35 professionalised practice, 34
Māori, 31, 253–4 (NGOs), 192
popular media, 9 professionals, 201–2
market discourse, 198 not-for-profit agencies, 192
positive rights, 43 program outcomes, 238
marketisation, 37
positivism, 115, 198 projective verbal questioning, 229
Marx, Karl, 113 observation, 123, 125
post theories, 133–4 psychoanalytic theories, 129
McGregor, Douglas, 197 occupational therapy, 149
post-traumatic stress disorder psychodynamic approaches, 130
media literacies, 240 Office of the United Nations
(PTSD), 282 psychodynamic practice, 130–1
mediation, 231 High Commissioner for
Refugees, 87 postcolonial theories, 134 psychodynamic theory, 129
mediator, 231
older people postmodernism, 117, 133 psychosocial assessment, 223
medical model (of disability),
practice context, 164 poststructuralism, 133 Psychotherapy and Counselling
260
specific issues, 164–5 power, 246–9 Federation of Australia
mental health, 151, 259–60
working with, 164–5 and empowerment, 46–50 (PACFA), 100
practice context, 152–3
online personal and professional types, 45–6 Public Services International, 87
specific issues, 153–4
disclosures, 105 use of, 44–50
mental illness, 152, 259
ontology, 123 with versus over, 49–50 qualitative research methods,
mentoring, 129 126
oppression, 30, 246–9 practice, 128–9
metaethics, 58 quantitative research methods,
organisational leadership, 21–2 approaches and theories,
methods, 5 126
organisational practice, 21–2 129–40
mid-range theory, 113
organisational theories, 195–9 approaches to, 179–82
mindfulness-based cognitive radical, structural and critical
organisations contexts and approaches,
therapy, 132 approaches, 132–3
262–7
model, 113 auspice, 191–2 radical practice, 264–5
development, 272–9
Modified Monash Model as machines, 196 radical social work, 35
domains, 17–23
(MMM), 166 working in teams within, radical values, 63
204 framework, 2
moral philosophy randomised controlled trials
outdoor relief, 32 knowledge, 121
influence in practice, 55–8 (RCTs), 126
leadership, 203

BK-CLA-MCAULIFFE_7E-230050-Index.indd 305 03/08/23 3:12 PM

INDEX

rational–evaluative process, 73 second-generation rights, 43 ‘slamming’, 107 social workers, 39, 44, 60, 176,
Reamer, Frederic, 61, 106 ‘secondary traumatic stress’, 282 social action, 132 252
record-keeping, 240 security, 178 social analysis, 18 socialisation, 55, 65
recovery-oriented practice, 153 Seebohm Report, 34 social barriers, 161, 260 socialism, 35
Red Cross, 194 self development, 104 social broker, 231 socialist principles, 194
referral, 5 self-awareness, 119, 250 social care, 44–5 societal attitudes, 258
referred, 218 self-care, importance of, 281–4 social casework, 16 society, 17, 56
reflection, 123 self-determination, 43, 65 social change Charity Organization
reflective practice, 128 self-direction, 162 conflict model, 35 Society, 32
reflectivity, 276 self-disclosure, 218 social construction, 112, 128 needs of, 71
registration, 41 self-esteem, 107, 247 social context, 60, 65 smaller regional building
society, 188
relational organisation, 196–7 self-evaluation, 277 social control, 44–5
socioeconomic backgrounds, 140
relationship, 221–2 self-healing, 11 social democracy, 43
sociograms, 226
importance, 206–7 self-help, 20, 172 social determinants of health
(SDH), 149 sociology, 141
religion, 12 self-image, 257
social development, 85–9 solopreneur, 201
remote service delivery, 106 self-interest, 73
Social Diagnosis, 33 solution-focused therapy, 135
research, 23 self-knowledge, 119
social distancing, 219, 221 sounds, 221
evidence-based, 23 self-outcomes, 238
social environments, 113 sovereign power, 45
researchers, 4 self-reflection, 64, 115
social exclusion, 17 sovereignty, 252
Rethinking Social Work, 197 self-regulation, 93, 97
social factors, 197 specialisation, 35
review, 212 Seminars, 279
social inclusion, 161, 264 specialist mental health, 153
right, 60 Senate Inquiry into
Commonwealth Contribution social isolation, 165, 177 spirit, 31
individual, 61
to Former Forced Adoption social issues, 5, 134, 147 spiritual practices, 30
land rights, 252
Policies and Practices, 103 social justice, 8, 16, 29, 39–40, 42 spirituality, 12, 56
legal, 259
sensitive information, 218 social learning theory, 129 ‘spiritually sensitive practice’, 12
risk assessment, 35
sensitive issues, 106 social media, 36, 105–6 splintered communities, 36–7
risk factors, 172
sensitivity, 95 social model of disability, 260 sport, 255
risk identities, 207
Serco, 285 social movements, 37, 114 St Luke’s Innovative Resources,
risk management, 61
serfs, 32 136
risk-taking, 207 social needs, 6
service user, the, 200 staff turnover, 285
ritual, 236 social networks, 46
service(s), 5 stakeholders, 23, 195, 208
role models, 8–9 social order, 59
for children, 147 stalking, 107
role play, 229 social policy, 71
delivery, 36, 102 standards
Royal Commission into Aged social policy practice, 21
juvenile justice, 119 of behaviour, 60
Care Quality and Safety, 165 social problems, 29, 172
valuing quality service, 66 ethical, 34
Royal Commission into Deep social reform, 56
Sleep Therapy, 103 settings, 272 of practice, 93
social relations, 17, 197
rural, regional and remote settlement houses, 34 of practice collectively, 55
social rights, 43, 197
practice, 166–168 Settlement movement, 34 statements, 39, 63
social security, 255
rural and remote communities, sexism, 248 of ethical principles, 89
social status, 217
220 ‘sexting’, 107 policy statements, 87
social stigma, 258
sexual abuse, 37, 56 status, 44, 89
social systems, 21, 44
sadness, 123 sexual identity, 246 status quo, 44
social theory, 32
Salvation Army, 194 sexual orientation, 256–9 statutory regulation, 92–3
social welfare, 2, 17, 22
same-sex-attracted people, 258 sexuality, 249 stereotyping, 168
social work, 6–23, 253
sameness, 67 ‘shared traumatic reality’, 282 stigma, 247
epistemologies for, 112
scarce resources, 177 shareholders, 208 Stolen Generations, 103, 251–1
global focus, 287
schizophrenia, 148 sickness, 32 storytelling, 264
key philosophies, 42–4
scientific claims, 127 situations, 19, 46, 50, 161, 281 strategy
knowledge of, 118–19
scientific knowledge, 115 of ethical risk, 61 for support, 4–5
motivations for working in,
scientific management, 196 social situations, 159 strengths approach, 135
7–15
scientific methods, 33 skills strengths perspective, 135–6
networks, 4–5
screening, 150 digital age, 106–7 strengths-based practice, 153
profession, 34
scrutiny, 35 pre-existing, 24–5 stress response, 138
Social Work Ethics Audit, 239
Second World War, 34, 115 structural oppression, 3

BK-CLA-MCAULIFFE_7E-230050-Index.indd 306 03/08/23 3:12 PM

INDEX

student perspectives, 13 termination, 233, 236 truth, 55–6, 58 welfare policies, 21

students, 4 terminology, 257–60 tuberculosis, 31 welfare practitioner, 150
substance abuse, 257 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Twitter, 3, 105 emergence, 33–4
substance misuse, 172–3 Islander peoples, 30, 66 welfare reform, 35
suffering, 8, 11, 218 terrorism, 15, 40, 176 uncertainty, 36 welfare state
suicide, 30, 44, 154 ‘Thatcherism’, 34 understandings development, 34
suicide prevention, 154, 288 theoretical knowledge, 121 of human wellbeing, 67 welfare systems, 21, 30
superannuation, 258 theory, 113, 128–9 of professionalism, 71 wellbeing, 31, 254
superdiversity, 249 of bureaucracy, 196 undeserving poor, 32 Western medicine, 31
supervision, 239, 281 ethical, 58–62 unemployment, 7, 169 Western perspectives, 118
field and professional, 281 formal, 196 union movement, 35 Western worldviews, 30
support groups, 10, 36 organisational, 195–9 United Nations (UN), 39, 87 whiteness, 256
support staff, the, 200 in practice, 139–40 United Nations Children’s Fund wife beating, 159
support strategies theory by Payne, 118 (UNICEF), 87 wisdom, 197
developing, 4–5 theory X, 197 Universal Declaration of Human witchcraft, 30
theory Y, 197 Rights, 43
support systems women
‘theory-in-use’, 129 universal reciprocity, 59
constructive, 18 glass ceiling, 247
therapeutic communities, 115, universalism, 63
peer support, 4 ways of knowing, 124
172 use of self, 18, 278–9
surrogacy, 258 women’s business, 252
therapeutic interventions, 11, ‘user pays’ services, 285
sustainability, 43, 137, 145, 202, work
288 131 user-friendly human services,
with families and
therapeutic relationship, 10, 219
Sustainable Development Goals partnerships, 19
(SDGs), 39 66, 235 utilitarianism, 42
flexible working
system perspectives, 197 therapy, 11, 19, 130 arrangements, 241
thinking, 25, 77 validity, 85
systems, 44 with individuals,
third parties, 230 value-based challenges, 70 18–19
and ecological perspectives,
130, 197 third-generation rights, 43 values, 2 worker–client relationship,
family, 30 third-sector organisations, 193 core, 64–8 63, 136
health systems, 149 threat, 7, 15, 45 foundational, 61 workers
micro, meso and macro, 113 time-limited intervention, 136 history, 60–2 from other disciplines, 5
paradigm, 113 tolerance, 59, 66 pre-existing, 24–5 professional entry via other
service, 22 torture, 30, 43 value base of practice, 62–70 doors, 13–15
social, 21, 57 ‘totalising’ theories, 133 values period, 61 workhouses, 32
youth justice, 174 touch, 221 ‘veil of ignorance’ scenario, 59–60 working with young people, 167
systems paradigm, 113 traditional authority, 196 verbal communication, 278 work–life balance, 283
systems theory, 129, 130 traditional healing, 30 vicarious resilience, 282 workshops, 279
traditional values, 63 ‘vicarious trauma’, 282 World Health Organization
tacit knowledge, 123 trafficking, 55, 88 violence, 3, 11, 20, 90 (WHO), 87
task-centred practice, 136–7 training, 22, 48 virtue ethics, 59 World Vision, 194
taxation, 285 transformational learning, 24–5 virtues, 45, 55, 59 worldviews, 30
Taylorism, 196 transformational learning, place vision, 93 worthy poor, 32
Te-Tiriti-o-Waitangi-based of, 24–5 visualisation, 226 wounded healers, 10
society, 99 transparency, 39, 66 voice tone, 278 written questioning, 229
teacher, 231 transphobia, 257 Voluntary Assisted Dying, 90 written questionnaires, 229
team-building, 204 trauma, 5, 9, 138 volunteer, the, 200
technological advances, 149 trauma-informed practice, volunteering, 33, 193 young people, 3, 37,
138–9 49, 174
technology, 281, 286 vulnerability, 10, 173, 248
Treaty of Waitangi, 253 youth justice, 174–5
teleology, 59
tribal connections, 254 war, 15, 55, 282 youth work, 44, 49, 58
telephone counselling services,
106 tribe connections, 254 welfare, 15, 30 YouTube, 105
tendering, 285 ‘trolling’, 107 histories, 29–41
zero tolerance policies, 173
tension, 44, 190 trust, 24, 39 social, 17

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THE ROAD TO

DONNA McAULIFFE | JENNIFER BODDY | LESLEY CHENOWETH

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For Ash, Frankie and Billie (Jenny)

In this International Decade of Indigenous

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BK-CLA-MCAULIFFE_7E-230050-Chp00_Prelims.indd 3 02/08/23 5:11 PM

National Library of Australia Cataloguing-in-Publication Data

Cengage Learning Australia

For learning solutions, visit cengage.com.au

Printed in China by 1010 Printing International Limited.

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Chapter 1: Starting the journey: an introduction to

Chapter 2: Surveying the landscape: historical and

Chapter 3: Locating the lighthouse: values and ethics

Chapter 4: Treading carefully: professional practice

Chapter 5: Finding the right maps: the knowledge

Chapter 6: Travelling many paths: practice fields

Chapter 7: Negotiating the maze: the organisational

Chapter 8: Plunging in: engagement, assessment,

Chapter 9: Traversing landscapes: working with

Chapter 10: New journeys 271

BK-CLA-MCAULIFFE_7E-230050-Chp00_Prelims.indd 5 02/08/23 5:11 PM

Chapter 1: Starting the journey: an introduction to

Chapter 2: Surveying the landscape: historical and

BK-CLA-MCAULIFFE_7E-230050-Chp00_Prelims.indd 6 02/08/23 5:11 PM

Chapter 3: Locating the lighthouse: values and

Chapter 4: Treading carefully: professional

BK-CLA-MCAULIFFE_7E-230050-Chp00_Prelims.indd 7 02/08/23 5:11 PM

Chapter 5: Finding the right maps: the knowledge

Chapter 6: Travelling many paths: practice fields

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Domestic and family violence 158

Chapter 7: Negotiating the maze: the

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Chapter 8: Plunging in: engagement, assessment,

Chapter 9: Traversing landscapes: working with

BK-CLA-MCAULIFFE_7E-230050-Chp00_Prelims.indd 10 02/08/23 5:11 PM

Chapter 10: New journeys 271

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Chapter roadmap diagrams provide

How can I make

The various domains

• Explore the relevance of these elements in contemporary practice

FEATURES WITHIN CHAPTERS

Watch your language boxes give

you quick reminders of appropriate

language use. Islander

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The case study matrix

for you to identify doctors or nurses about their conversation.

perspective boxes from a range of

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GUIDE TO THE TEXT

Extend your critical thinking with client

perspective boxes and consider issues from

the service consumer’s point of view.

Find out what other students are thinking

THE ROAD TO SOCIAL WORK AND HUMAN SERVICE PRACTICE

the complexities of practice by completing The

questions in the activity boxes. inspiring

Margin links guide you to more in-depth A powerful motive

coverage of challenging and complex difficult time

concepts covered elsewhere in the text.

Extend your understanding through the

recommended reading relevant to each

concepts and their

end-of-chapter this model?

BK-CLA-MCAULIFFE_7E-230050-Chp03.indd 80 23/06/23 2:51 PM

Start your online 80

using the short list of https://www.tandfonline.com/loi/resw20

useful weblinks and http://ethicsupdates.net The Ethics Centre

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