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The article discusses a content analysis of papers on social work in Australia published between 2002 and 2005. Balance is seen in papers reporting original research or evaluation which comprise 43% of the 112 papers published within the period. Twelve percent focused on describing new or innovative service developments. Sixty-six percent discussed the nature of social work, social work skills, community programmes and knowledge about the characteristics of particular client groups. Calls for papers are also made.

Neighbourhood Houses in Australia are community place-based organisations that provide education, support services, and develop responses to local issues with local communities. The practices within Neighbourhood Houses are informed by community development. Yet knowledge, understanding and practices of community development vary across the workforce. In 2019, Neighbourhood Houses Victoria commenced a programme of professional learning for the workforce. This paper draws on data from an impact evaluation and examines the benefits and barriers to embedding a professional learning programme in community development within its workforce. Using practice theory to examine the tensions and contradictions inherent in delivering professional learning in neoliberal times of managerialism and accountability in not-for-profit organisations. The contradictions of practice will resonate with organisations seeking to implement a professional learning across a broad range of human service organisations such as settlement houses, human services and community education settings. We claim most not-for-profit workforces are impacted by the discursive practices of neoliberalism such as contractual arrangements and the adoption of business practices to comply with funding requirements. These compliance requirements contrast with the philosophy and practices of community development and have the potential to impact on professional learning and the practices within these workplaces. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores the findings of a qualitative study comparing social work and human service practice with people who have sought asylum in Germany and Australia. Globally social workers are concerned with the record high of people forcibly displaced worldwide and the Global North host-nations' increasingly hostile, discriminatory and restrictive policies towards people seeking asylum. This policy context is antithetical to the professional values of social workers and human services practitioners. The findings of this study reveal how the policy directly impacts social work and human service practice, creates unique ethical challenges and dilemmas and, subsequently, diverse practice responses. The paper also suggests that the country of practice influences how practitioners perceive and respond to ethical challenges and dilemmas. Through doing so, the findings challenge traditional understandings of critical practice theories that suggest that practice focused solely on the individual level is inadequate for work with people seeking asylum. Due to the diversity of contexts and their influences, we encourage social work and human services to view practice on a personal-political continuum when working with people seeking asylum. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over two-thirds of Australians are owner-occupiers and a majority of the population holds most of their wealth in housing. Australian taxation privileges homeowners and retirement income policy is built around the assumption that state pensions can be kept low because an overwhelming majority of older Australians are outright homeowners and therefore have a considerable asset base and low housing costs post-retirement, a situation often referred to as ‘wealthfare’. However, ageing of the population and falling housing affordability mean that the number of asset-poor older Australians unable to rely on ‘wealthfare’ – lifetime renters or those who drop out of homeownership – is likely to grow in the future. In this paper we look at housing career pathways into precarious housing in older age, its impact on older Australians’ ontological security and coping strategies as they grapple with the housing circumstances that typically accompany asset poverty. Based on 30 interviews conducted with older Australians, the paper reports qualitative findings from a mixed methods research project conducted in Melbourne in 2009–2010. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper seeks to examine current policy reforms that situate education as a means of addressing social inclusion. Borrowing from the work of Popkewitz and Lindblad, the paper takes the form of a cross-disciplinary literature review that informs understanding of the relationship between educational governance and social inclusion/exclusion in policy research in Australia. To do so, the author examines the assumptions, omissions and contradictions in policy direction via two problematics - the engagement problematic and the early intervention and prevention problematic - to emphasise how policy discourse produces ways of thinking about inclusion/exclusion. The author argues that discourses of engagement and intervention and prevention reinscribe each other, acting as a palimpsest which produces notions of the 'proper' family and 'proper' participation. These notions of propriety ironically exclude particular types of individuals and families by situating them outside of possibilities for 'success' in social and systemic participation. Therefore, the author seeks to examine the 'systems of reason' that enable these discursively produced notions of propriety to become normalised. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite an aged-care system that provides a wide range of residential and community-based aged care services to elderly men and women that are appropriately monitored and audited, homeless people in Australia have historically found it difficult or impossible to access those services. It remains an appalling blight on the aged care industry in general, and the social work profession in particular, that this apparent selective exclusion of the most vulnerable of elderly people should continue with little or no comment, criticism, or action. The present article is a policy commentary rather than an academic research paper that aims to alert readers to the plight of elderly homeless people. The paper provides some insight into the life of an elderly homeless person; describes the interaction between elderly homeless people and the aged care system; discusses services provided by Wintringham, a welfare company specialising in providing aged care and housing services to aged homeless people; and explores some of the policy responses suggested by Wintringham. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Just as several authors have written about the limitlessness of globalisation, so too does the practice of paucity management reach across all boundaries of society. Its practice relates particularly to the way that rural community welfare managers operate within an environment of resource poverty. Increasingly, the private sector creep of financialisation across the human services profession has had an impact on the roles of people within those organisations whereby their services are being scrutinised continually to show value for-money in a market-driven environment. Managers are constantly trying to balance and 'trade off actions and activities, in order to manage ethically and professionally. Paucity management is management in complex situations, which at its best addresses ways to deal with potentially limiting situations such as rigorous accountability regimes that could debilitate service delivery. It involves a series of innovative and creative practices such as subtle partnership arrangements to counter the effects of operating within resource-poor situations. In this paper I discuss my PhD research conducted with community welfare managers from the Central West Region. of New South Wales (NSW), Australia. Drawing upon an eclectic theoretical foundation, the paper will discuss aspects of the phenomenographic research process and minimal findings that relate to several limit-situations of human services delivery, as well as implications of paucity management to address those situations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper provides a brief history of Catholic social services in Australia. The underlying theological base has beenCatholic Social Teachings. The paper outlinesCatholic Social Teachingsand its impact on the development of distinctive Catholic social services. Catholic social services is an umbrella term, which includes the diocesan based services– Centacares, religious orders and lay associations such as St Vincent de Paul Society. A condensed history is presented, which highlights the various stages of the development of Catholic social services. These stages have been identified as the early years of the colony– charity for those in need, Industrialisation and‘Rerum Novarum’– the right of all people to live in dignity, Catholic Welfare Bureau– improving coordination, training and expertise, Conservatism/Innovation and Advocacy– 1949–1986 and Restructuring of human services– the recent period. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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With the rise of evidence-based practice, there have been calls in social work for practice research that examines the efficacy of its interventions. For the present paper, the authors conducted a content analysis of all articles published in Australian Social Work in the period from 1998 to 2007 to examine the nature of published research and evaluation. Of the 313 articles, 138 (45%) reported on research findings. Of these, only six articles involved practice evaluation or testing of an instrument, but there were positive signs of a developing empirical research culture primarily utilising a qualitative approach or mixed methods studies. The authors suggest that there is a need for more research on social work interventions, a more conscious decision by the profession about its attitude to evidence-based practice (EBP), specific directions for research education, and greater rigour in reporting all types of research studies, but particularly qualitative studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Australia, systematic and widespread provision of family-support services is just 30 years old. The present paper traces some of the developments, recurrent tensions, and themes in family-support services, principally in Victoria, over those decades, drawing attention to challenges for social workers' continuing participation in the development of family services. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present paper reviews some of the major governmental policy directions that are shaping Australian universities in terms of funding, teaching and learning, research and community engagement, and international development, and draws out the implications of these for social work education and its relationship to the social work profession and the wider human services field. The paper is designed to provide an Australian context for the discussion of higher education policy. However, it recognizes that, given the pace of change in Australian government policy in higher education, such analyses are merely a snapshot at a point in time and that social work educators need to be constantly monitoring the higher education policy environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To date, people with intersex variations have been mainly studied via small-scale clinical research, with only a small amount of reflective commentary contributed by sociocultural scholars. This paper reports on findings from a 2015 online Australian survey of 272 people with intersex variations, which aimed to redress the gap in research on this groups’ experiences and perspectives concerning education. Participants ranged in age from 16 to 87 years, and represented all Australian states and territories. Most had experienced two medical treatment interventions related to their intersex variation: commonly reported interventions included hormonal treatment and genital surgery delivered to participants when they were aged under 18 years of age. Participants reported various physical and psychological impacts from these treatments. Well-being risks were high; most of the group had engaged in suicidal ideation, particularly when individuals first found out about their variation. This impacted on their schooling – almost one-fifth of survey respondents had received no high school certification due to their early dropout and the overwhelming majority did not attend schools with inclusive puberty/sex education provision or counselling. Most survey participants had not disclosed their intersex variation to staff, although more than half had done so to their classmates. Many had experienced bullying. Only one-quarter of participants rated their overall education experiences positively. Participants suggested improvements to schools’ information provision and support features. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper explores some of the theoretical and practice issues in relation to feminist oral history. The central theoretical premise is that transcripts from interviews are to be understood as constructed texts rather than as windows into the past. It draws on the author's conduct of a research project that documented the history of the Victorian domestic violence services movement from 1974 to 2005. The author's position is analysed in relation to the production of historical evidence—which was done by conducting oral interviews and producing transcripts—and in writing feminist history. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores how organizational policy capacity can be developed, drawing on a study conducted in a large human services agency in Australia. Building policy capacity within government agencies is widely acknowledged as important for successfully responding to complex policy problems. The existing literature suggests a range of strategies for building organizational capacity. Findings from interviews with policy workers support the principles for building policy capacity identified in the literature but uncovered a surprising degree of scepticism pointing to significant barriers to their realization. These barriers are identified as emerging out of the tensions between policy capacity and two other domains of governing capacity: administrative capacity and state capacity. These tensions however are highly contingent and dynamic; managing them requires a degree of discretion and judgement, in brief, policy leadership. A focus on developing policy leadership at the level of policy units and teams may present a strategic approach to building organizational capacity for policy work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An Indigenous social work guided by Indigenous Australians' participation and experience that has, at its heart, human rights and social justice is in its infancy in Australia. The present paper continues a discussion on Indigenous Australian social work theory and practice developments being generated by those working in this field. Aspects of this “praxis” include recognition of the effects of invasion, colonialism, and paternalistic social policies upon social work practice with Indigenous communities; recognition of the importance of self-determination; contemporary Indigenous and non-Indigenous colleagues working in partnership; the impact of contemporary racist and neocolonialist values; and rethinking contemporary social work values and practices. There is discussion of appropriation and reinterpretation of social work concepts, incorporation of international and local Indigenous theory, and the framing of social work by Indigenous Australians' views and values. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Education policy intervention for schools in high poverty neighbourhoods has focused on the capacity of local schools to make a difference and on the kinds of co-ordinated human services provision that might support individual families with “high needs”. In this paper I suggest that a more detailed analysis of “the problem” represented in such schools might yield a richer and more integrated policy approach. I use the notion of “scale”, arbitrary and imperfect approximations of spheres of activity, and apply it to a specific context in Adelaide, South Australia, to demonstrate the connections between the local school and factors which impinge on its capacities to make a positive difference. I suggest that the implication of the analysis is a more holistic approach to policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores contemporary issues in Australian social work education. It examines formative influences on the structures and content of education, specifically the ways over time in which demographic, political, economic and social forces have influenced the composition, demand and domain of social work education and practice. It describes the current political context of social work and social work education and the response of the authors’ own institution to change and uncertainty. It concludes by proposing that for change and diversity to be addressed, three moves would be productive. The first is to establish structures for closer dialogue amongst schools of social work, the professional association and employers. The second is to extend experimentation and innovation in social work curricula. The third is for educators to establish a collective voice and promote the values which should desirably underpin tertiary education in Australia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

‘Quality of life’ experiences for people with disabilities who are highly dependent on services that are delivered in home-based environments are strongly influenced by the nature of their interactions with service workers. Service workers may not be aware of the felt attachments of people living in services because their own lives are relationally enriched. Role descriptions of service workers, which focus on task-orientated service, rather than relational serving, distances them from the people they serve. It is more difficult for people living in services to expand their social world and relationships with service workers may be the only validating relationships in their lives. Human service delivery involves relationships between people, which necessarily address ethical questions. This paper discusses findings of a study involving 14 agencies in Western Australia, which provide living environment services for young people with disabilities and older adults, to gain insight into service users’ daily experiences and their perceptions of quality in receiving services. Immersion in different models of services over a 2-year period, and inductive analysis of interview data, has found that relationships between service users and workers lie on a continuum, with mutually supportive relationships between service users and workers at one end, and physical and psychological abuse at the other. Experiences were variable in single service contexts, highlighting the problems of using currently employed extant measures to evaluate quality in living services. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Human Centred Design (HCD) is emerging in Australia as a participatory approach to service design in social work and human services organisations. In this article, we reflect upon our incorporation of HCD into a core unit offered to final-year students in a Bachelor of Social Work (Honours) degree, as part of a collaboration between design and social work academics. We highlight successes and challenges, and identify adaptations that can provide HCD with a stronger strength-based, critical approach that better aligns with critical social work education. We provide suggestions for social work practitioners and educators around implementing HCD, in ways that inspire critical and reflexive thinking, promote social justice and focus on designing for progressive, structural and social change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Dowry-related abuse and intimate-partner violence among Indian immigrants in Australia have received considerable attention in the national media in recent years. Media reportage and commentary on these issues have highlighted the testimonies and experiences of migrants who have faced dowry-related abuse and intimate-partner violence, untangling the complex context-specific issues (around culture and matrimony, and migration pathways, among others) that such testimonies raise. Demands for state intervention in response to emerging concerns about dowry-related abuse among Indian migrants in Australia have dominated public discourse on the issue. This article comments on the emergence of discourses prioritizing state intervention in this domain, highlighting the views of community and government representatives, and discussing the authors' perspectives on the implications of these emergent discussions for practitioners in health and human services. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article examines the shift to workfare in Australia and its impacts on and implications for social work. Workfare Oz-style is the Australian model of social protection and exceptionalism. Social work has retained a central role in public welfare, promoted the Australian version of citizenship rights and had developed in statutory child welfare, health and disability and corrections.

Findings are presented from an Australian study on the implementation and evaluation of a Social Work Ethics Audit Risk Management Tool. The aim of the research is to determine the extent to which ethics audits are useful and applicable to Australian human service organisations. Over the period of the study, social workers and other human services staff and volunteers used the ethics audit to achieve outcomes that included provision of legitimate space for discussion of ethics in the workplace, and identification of gaps in knowledge and skills about ethical practice, and the policies and procedures that support and enhance such practice. The paper provides an analysis of how practitioners and managers grapple with the concept of ethical risk management, and outlines strategies that were developed in an effort to move towards greater accountability and ethical reflection in practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines employment trends in social welfare occupations and challenges to the industrial and cultural recognition of professional social work in the new human services market place. Following examination of the threats posed by market reform and the crisis in public confidence in some domains of human services work, I focus on three key concerns. First, through analysis of Census data from 1996 to 2001, I compare trends in the employment of social workers, welfare workers and community workers. Second, drawing on the work of Nancy ), I argue that the challenges facing social workers can be understood as problems of ‘recognition’. Using this framework, I examine the external contests to the valuing of professional social work and also the internal challenges, that is, threats from within the social work profession to the industrial and cultural recognition of social work. Finally, I will consider how social workers, particularly new graduates, can respond to the challenges facing them in the new human services marketplace. I propose that social workers should claim a position as practice leaders and I outline practical strategies for achieving this goal. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A list of the 215 full-time academic staff employed within Australian university social work departments was compiled from university websites and the Department of Education Training and Youth Affairs (DETYA) approved publications generated by these staff over the period 1998–2000 were searched using three major databases: AUSTROM, PsycINFO and Sociological Abstracts. From these sources, a list of Australia's most published authors was created. Next, a citation analysis using Social Sciences Citation Index was conducted on all Australian authors who had published a DETYA approved publication during the target period. The results of this study should help to identify the influential social work scholars in Australia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

What are the main trends in Australian social work research, and where should it be heading? This article discusses these questions and their implications for social work education in Australia. The current Australian context presents both challenges and opportunities to the undertaking of social work research. Although jobs are threatened by de-professionalisation, with less room for research, there remains a strong discourse about the needs and value of research, which is underpinned by the requirements of the professional accrediting body. There is also clear support for a range of methods and approaches which allow for more integration of research and practice. In addition, current research undertaken by Australian social workers demonstrates a mixture of methods. It is concluded that the Australian situation holds the potential to provide leadership in developing more inclusive methods and approaches to foster the development of more complex forms of practice research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores theoretical responses to the living structures of dominance and subordination within modern postcolonial societies, highlighting racialised international students' experiences within Australian universities. Drawing on coloniality of power and border thinking, it seeks to address ethical responsibilities for social work and human service educators from the author's positioning as a non-Western immigrant 'Other', and experience of belonging as an educator of future social work and human service practitioners in Australia. Utilising autoethnographic and qualitative study, the article offers great insight into the systemic nature of discrimination in Australian tertiary education institutions. It suggests a need for critical, self-reflexive awareness about the legacies of colonialism and hegemonic whiteness to permeate social work and human service profession and education. This article, thus, enables decolonising minds, securing informed understanding, and initiating a shift in the way non-white (and non-Western) racialised international social work students are seen, constructed, and understood in contemporary Australian (Western) societies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Resilience is a desirable attribute for social work and human services (SWHS) graduates. A history of childhood adversity may have led students to develop resilience, which is transferable to SWHS practice. Limited research has been conducted with students as to how resilience is formed and conceptualised. This survey of 265 SWHS students is the first Australian research to survey students about their conceptualisation of resilience and childhood adversity. Within the study, students resoundingly viewed resilience as a process that occurred often due to childhood adversity but also from the protective factors of family. Students' experience of childhood adversity allowed them to develop independence and determination, which led to the development of resilience giving them greater ability to cope with the stresses of SWHS courses. Exploration of students' conceptualisation of resilience and its formation provides an insider voice as to how we can assist emerging practitioners in their development of resilience for future practice. The development of resilience is important for social work practice and is a protective factor that can assist social work students to manage stress and promote wellbeing. Resilience developed from childhood adversity can be an important, sometimes overlooked, factor in the professional formation of SWHS practitioners. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Much of the discourse regarding social care practice focuses on the differences between the various professions, practice fields, geographical, and organizational contexts involved in the provision of social care. This study surveyed Australian social care practitioners' (N = 438) perceptions of influence on their practice and what similarities and differences existed in these perceptions. Eighteen influential factors were identified with minimal differences across the participants' profession, practice field, organizational sector, or geographical context. These findings suggest that a common ground of experience exists that can be used as a basis for critical discussions and interdisciplinary practice and, thereby, provide a foundation for more consistent and integrated service delivery and outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Australia, e-government is continuously re-defining service boundaries. While this may be good in the case of transactional interactions, for example the online submission of tax returns, it is less clear that interpersonal services, such as working closely with the long-term unemployed, are best delivered digitally. We consider the impact of social services digitisation on vulnerable communities drawing on an analysis of remote Aboriginal communities. Digital uptake affords great opportunities, but it also carries risks. Some communities have no digital infrastructure and in certain cases traditional face-to-face services have been curtailed, leaving those not online with reduced assistance. We find that concerns about the ‘digital divide’ are well founded. Problems generated by e-government flow across boundaries and appear left to the third sector to resolve with the state playing an even more diminished role in the lives of disadvantaged citizens. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse has provided a depth of knowledge about sexual assault within institutions, highlighting the multiple ways that adults failed to protect victims. This article will show that this elision of responsibility towards children also occurred outside of institutions. It argues that many key players - including doctors and other professionals - did not step up to protect victims, and that the Australian community continued to ignore, overlook or discount evidence of abuse. Outside of institutions, it was easier to look away than to deal with the horrors of sexual violence against children. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article gives voice to trans experiences of disasters, investigating their specific vulnerabilities and resilient capacities. We draw on findings from a project on lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans (LGBT) experiences of recent Australian and New Zealand disasters. We present and analyse trans voices from a survey conducted across multiple case study sites and insights from interview data with a trans person who experienced the 2011 Brisbane floods. Conceptually, to provide a robust understanding of trans experiences of disasters, we bring socially sensitive disaster studies into conversation with trans geographies. Disaster studies have begun to examine LGBT experiences, with some suggestion that trans people are most vulnerable. We advance this work by focusing on trans lives. Trans geographies, in turn, underline the importance of space, place and the body in understanding trans lives, and the need to examine the lived reality of trans people’s everyday geographies rather than embodiment as an abstract concept. Applying these insights to the trans voices in our project, we examine four themes that highlight impediments to and possibilities for trans-inclusive disaster planning: apprehension with emergency services and support; concerns about home and displacement; anxiety about compromising the trans body; and the potential of trans and queer interpersonal networks for capacity building. We offer suggestions for trans-inclusive disaster planning and preparedness, and indicate how the insights from trans experience can enrich disaster planning and preparedness for wider social groups. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The high incidence of sexual abuse of Indigenous children in remote Australia prompted the Australian Government to implement an emergency response of health and welfare measures (the Intervention) in 2007 to protect children and communities from harm. In this article we seek to assess the measures employed in the Intervention against the body of evidence of strategies likely to be effective in reducing Indigenous health disadvantage. Our view is that the emergency response may not have long-term benefit because of the dearth of basic primary health services in remote Aboriginal communities to continue the effort that the Intervention has begun. We conclude that Intervention measures are not sufficiently well aligned with evidence-based health improvement strategies to bring about long-term health gain in Indigenous communities. Governments must reassess the benefit of externally-imposed approaches to reducing health disparity and move to actively build capacity in Aboriginal communities to deliver culturally-relevant health and social services that meet community need. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article contrasts two understandings of intoxication. The first, found in public health discourse, constructs intoxication as a harm produced by risky alcohol consumption and highlights its many negative consequences for individual and social well-being. The model of intoxication as a harm dominates the new Australian National Alcohol Strategy, which includes the reduction of intoxication as one of four priority areas. The second understanding, based on the everyday experiences of drinkers as well as popular discourse, approaches intoxication as a positive and enhanced state: a form of bodily pleasure. The article argues that while the understanding of intoxication as a harm is epidemiologically incontrovertible, the gap between the public health and everyday understandings of intoxication is a problem for campaigns that aim to alter drinking practices. This is particularly the case when, as recent research suggests, young people's drinking is part of a wide-ranging culture of hedonistic consumption. A clearer picture of the varied uses of alcohol and cultures of drinking, including controlled intoxication among young people, would enhance public health understandings of alcohol consumption and its risks and pleasures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article reports on exploratory research into social workers' perceptions and actions regarding "forewarning" clients of their child abuse reporting obligations as a limitation of confidentiality at relationship onset. Ethical principles and previous research on forewarning are discussed prior to stating the research methods and presenting findings. Data obtained from South Australian social workers engaged in human service work with adult family members articulate a strong desire to practise in accordance with professional codes of ethics. However, the findings suggest that proactive forewarning is extremely infrequent, with minimized forewarning accomplished only in response to client-initiated inquiry and where prior suspicions of child abuse may exist. Generally, discomfort with forewarning was found to result in its avoidance due to concerns about client retention, working in tense relationships and personal uncertainties about client's reactions towards participants. Through the avoidance of forewarning, participants are potentially supporting their own personal feelings and viewpoints more actively than the rights of others. This may correlate with having a private model of professionalism in opposition to a public model, in which relationship parameters are presented honestly and openly to clients when establishing the practice context - a problematic issue for ethical social work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This exploratory study uses a post-modern framework to investigate and map aspects of the (re)emerging occupational area of forensic social work, broadly defined as practice, which in any manner may be related to legal issues and litigation, both criminal and civil. The study is the result of each author asking questions about the nature of our professional experience in the field and then testing our thoughts against those of other social workers in the field. Our aim was to initiate discussion about the nature of forensic social work and to question whether our work called upon skills and knowledge that differed from those of social workers in other (specialised) fields. We used a cooperative inquiry method and significant themes and issues were raised with agreement for much of the discussion. The most lively dialogue centred upon the benefit or disadvantage of specialisation, with tensions evident around the perceived elitism some participants attached to the specialist title. The initial investigation raised several issues for further investigation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Australia has legislation that states that 'people with disabilities have the same rights as other members of society to services', yet nearly one-third of all people with spinal injuries have their need for community services unmet. If all people have the same rights, why are some people's needs unmet? How equitable is the distribution of services? This study challenges service providers' beliefs that decisions about the provision and distribution of services are made objectively and equitably. To obtain needed services, people had to demonstrate their worthiness by conforming to providers' stereotype-based expectations of the disabled, based in entrenched philosophies. Service structures reinforce these disabling ideologies Service provision must thus undergo fundamental philosophical and structural change in order to meet community service needs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Consumer outcomes and recurrent (non-capital) service costs were compared for matched groups of Australian adults with intellectual disability living in group homes or semi-independently. Outcomes examined included quality of life, safety, aloneness, social dissatisfaction, personal care, domestic management, health care, money management, social network, use of mainstream community services, community participation, domestic participation, stability of place of residence, living companion turnover, and natural support. Most outcomes did not differ significantly by group. Where significant differences were evident, participants living semi-inde pendently experienced better outcomes: significantly less social dissatisfaction, more frequent and independent use of community facilities, more participation in domestic tasks, and greater empowerment. There were no outcomes with significantly better results for group home participants. The lower level of staffing provided to semi-independent participants w as not associated with poorer outcomes. Per-person expenditure was substantially higher for group home participants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Microeconomic reform has put the relationship between government and the third sector in Australia on a course of inevitable change. This article examines the key government reports that have been influential in shaping the microeconomic reform agenda in Australia. The objectives driving this agenda are greater accountability, increased effectiveness, improved efficiency and preventing the capture of programme funding by sectional interests In the process, a new relationship between government and the third sector based on mechanisms to separate funding and service provision is becoming apparent. it is characterized by an increasingly contractual nature, frequent review, contestability, performance management requirements and an emphasis on competition rather than collaboration. As a consequence, there has been a shift in strategic control from third sector agencies to the funding agencies within government. A case study of the Department of Human Services in Victoria illustrates the implications of this shift for third sector agencies and reveals the future directions of government - third sector relations in Australia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The welfare provision for migrants is bounded by two central concerns of the state in Australia, that the general conditions necessary for the reproduction of capitalism over time are sustained and that the unpaid work of women at home and in the community is available to keep the costs of reproducing labor at a minimum. Even where women are increasingly drawn into paid work, the development of welfare and community services depends on the assumption that many of the services will be in fact provided by women in their traditional role as domestic careers. The provision of human services and social security to cultural minorities in Australia has always been the outcome of other processes of conflict and struggle. Most recently the sustained implosion of fiscal constraint has been carried out behind ideological presentations of pluralistic policy. Initially the policies carried the label of multiculturalism, then mainstreaming and most recently, by a public commitment to access and equity.