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Australian Social Work (ASW) is an international peer-reviewed journal reflecting current thinking and trends in social work. Authors intending to submit to the Journal should prepare their manuscripts with both a social work audience and an international audience in mind. It is strongly recommended that authors familiarise themselves with articles previously published in the Journal. In this article recommendations are made and Guidelines suggested for the future direction for ASW and other journals in the explicit, respectful acknowledgement of the contribution of Aboriginal and Torres Strait knowledges to published work. Terminology: In these Guidelines, Indigenous refers to all First Nations peoples of the World. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander refers to the unceded sovereign First Peoples of Australia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents Midgley's theory on social development to an Australian social work audience. It explores the concept and theory of social development, examines the relationship between social work and social development, and discusses the relevance of social development to social work in Australia. The paper suggests that although social work and social development may share similar broad goals, their strategic approaches differ, with the former cast within a professional model concerned with welfare broadly conceived and the latter directly concerned with the alleviation of poverty in the less-developed parts of the world. The paper concludes with thoughts on the Australian face of social development and suggests changes that would need to be made if social work were to embrace social development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present paper outlines and analyzes Australia’s welfare reform policies as they have been implemented over the past decade. While there have been numerous social policy initiatives over this period, welfare reform provides an interesting site for analysis and review. This suite of policies and programs is of particular importance from several standpoints. First, its target groups – those needing income security assistance, including the unemployed, people with disabilities, and single parents – are historically and traditionally of concern to social work and social welfare. Second, welfare reform policies have had significant impact on social welfare agencies, and the social workers and welfare workers employed in them. Finally, welfare reform has had a wider impact on inequality in Australia and our attitudes to those in need. This paper first provides a brief overview of the context of Australian social policy and welfare, its origins and current situation. It then outlines the key operational elements of welfare reform and how it has been implemented. The third section of the paper offers a critical analysis of these policies and programs and finally poses some questions and issues requiring further discussion and research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Debate continues about what constitutes evidence for outcomes of psychological interventions. There are challenges to operationalise research for post-modernist views of knowledge being multiple and relative rather than singular, fixed, and absolute. This has led to limited empirical evaluation of practices such as narrative therapy. This paper describes the therapy process for eighty women and outcomes for twenty-three women who had experienced domestic violence and were engaged in narrative therapy, utilising the Partners for Change Outcome Management System (PCOMS). PCOMS consists of integrating two outcome rating scales into each counselling session - the Outcome Rating Scale (ORS) and the Session Rating Scale (SRS). The design of the research was clinical data mining. This paper briefly discusses difficulties and limitations of the concept of evidence-based practice when applied to narrative therapy. The study identifies and defines several different patterns of therapy outcomes. PCOMS was used to demonstrate that clients who were treated for at least six, one-hour sessions of narrative therapy for complex trauma (domestic violence), showed positive outcomes equivalent to other studies using different treatments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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This paper presents an innovative approach to the teaching of policy skills across the two years of an Australian Social Work degree programme. It argues that placing policy back into practice and teaching the skills involved provides social work practitioners with a better capacity to effect change. Australian Catholic University, School of Social Work is located in Australia's capital city. The policy units have a clear framework within which to understand policy development and provide students with real hands-on policy experience combining an experiential based learning approach with traditional teaching methods. The second year subject is structured around a number of policy workshops. Each workshop deals with a current policy problem and examines a different stage of policy development. It has as a consultant to the process a social worker who works as a policy practitioner providing a role model of practice in a policy area. Feedback from students has been extremely positive reporting increased confidence in policy skills and a recognition of the importance of these skills in social work. This teaching experience reinforces the need to focus on the educational considerations in teaching a subject where conceptual, theoretical and skill components are equally important if policy practice is to effect change. [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]

Companion animals play an important role in many human's lives, including many Australian social workers and clients. Yet Australian social work has been slow to address the burgeoning area of human-animal studies. In this embryonic research, we focus on women's close relationships with companion animals and some of the broad implications this has for social work practice. We analyze some of the themes expressed by women who participated in three focus groups we conducted: two on a university campus and another in a community welfare agency setting. We also examine how the women interacted with each other as they spoke of "their pets," as these dynamics point to a potentially important source of inspiration and energy that social workers may wish to harness in their day-to-day work with women. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]