Social Work & Policy Studies: Social Justice, Practice and Theory

‘Not a crisis of chemical imbalance, a crisis of power imbalance’

2023-11-27T13:41:26+11:00

This paper offers a critical insight into the dominant discourses of involuntary mental health treatment, and the current Australian political context, from a critical social work and post-structural lens. In doing so, it aims to explore the tensions, complexities, and challenges in practice, demonstrating the unique role of social work, and the opportunities for applying the professional values to progress transformative change in mental health policy and practice. As social work is a discipline that is innately bounding to working within structures and systems, there must be critical engagement with the role of social work as ‘helpers and controllers’ (International Federation of Social Workers & International Association of Schools of Social Work, 2004). Through exploring initiatives around the globe where progress is being made with successful outcomes, this paper reinforces the salient role the profession plays in engaging a transformative shift to a world without involuntary treatment.

Tension between clinical and social justice social work

2023-11-24T17:00:06+11:00

This essay explores the tensions between social work as a clinical and evidence-based profession or a political and emancipatory practice. It utilises personal reflection and a review of relevant literature to explore how our social work identities can be built through individual professionalism and power, or through a collective, emancipatory lens. It argues that we must see difference as strength and embed social justice into our practice at all levels.

No One is Disposable

2023-07-10T09:52:55+10:00

This paper explores the ways in which critical reflection, a model for critical incident debrief within social work, is an act of abolition pedagogy and social work which confounds settler colonialism and carceral logics which pervade this profession as well as educational/learning environments. Theoretically grounded in reproductive justice and the abolition thinking of Angela Davis and Mariane Kaba, this paper argues that opportunities to unpack binaries and hidden assumptions through collective learning are opportunities to unpack the ways in which Foucault’s Panopticon Effect is unwittingly internalized and reproduced within ‘helping’ professions and at the micro level. In addition, an intersectional, critical autoethnographic exploration of a personal experience in a critical reflection group is interwoven throughout. I contend that the integration of these ‘selves’ serves as a reminder that use of self in its most authentic form has the potential to challenge and confound the constructed separation between personal and professional that attempts to depoliticize all realms of our lives and relegate our primary duties to that of working and consuming. As a site of potential transformation and liberation, critical reflection’s alignment with abolition stands in direct contrast to neoliberal educational structures often focused on individualism, credentials, surface learning, and brevity. Finally, critical reflection of practice, as a model of critical incident debrief, provides a site for abolition social work and pedagogy to take root in its capacity to foster an unrestrained imagination.

“I Didn’t Feel Valid as a Human Being”

2023-12-15T11:26:41+11:00

Involuntary mental health treatment is when a person undergoes an unwanted intervention in a hospital or in the community due to an authorised medical officer deeming the person to be ‘mentally ill’ or ‘mentally disordered’ (NSW Government, 2021). The Mental Health Act NSW (2007) frames involuntary mental health treatment as a ‘necessary’ and ‘effective’ approach to supporting people experiencing mental distress. This study critically engages with women’s experiences of involuntary mental health treatment, exploring the potential implications of a biomedical and carceral response to women’s distress. Six women with experience of involuntary mental health treatment in NSW were involved in my Honours project. In alignment with both feminist and critical mental health frameworks, semi-structured, in-depth interviews were chosen as they provide a loose structure and allow for flexibility to discover new areas of significance identified by women (Dcruz & Jones, 2013). The project was approved by the University of Sydney Human Ethics Committee.

All women involved in this study described involuntary mental health treatment as a profoundly harmful experience which produced ongoing implications. Women described the ways in which psychiatric and gender oppressions intersected to perpetuate the silencing of women. Collectively and individually, all women displayed acts of resistance towards psychiatric and patriarchal hegemony. Three major themes were identified in the analytical process: The Censorship of Knowledge; The Censorship of Emotions; and The Censorship of Acts of Resistance.

The discursive construction of ‘good parenting’ in Australia’s statutory child protection system

2023-11-27T13:55:51+11:00

Indigenous children’s overrepresentation within Australia’s child protection system indicates the need for a critical and structurally-based understanding of the factors which contribute to disproportionate rates of child removal for First Nations families. A systematic literature review suggests Attachment Theory, the international human rights framework and neoliberal ‘risk’ management as contributing to the discursive reproduction of racist and colonial norms which have the impact of devaluing Indigenous childrearing practices and overlooking structural disadvantage. Subsequently, the article applies a discourse analysis to problematise how Australia’s child protection system exists as a symbolic panopticon reinforcing settler-colonial pedagogy, regulation, surveillance and legitimation over Indigenous peoples through Western discourses of ‘good parenting’. In turn, the supporting and funding of Aboriginal Community Controlled Organisations, the reconstructing of child protection assessment and care plans, as well as decolonising individual practice are posited as potential strategies to disrupt racist and colonial discourses in favour of Indigenous parenting knowledges.

The Hidden Experiences of Intimate Partner Violence (IPV) in Older Women

2023-11-07T09:24:35+11:00

How older women experience intimate partner violence (IPV) differs from their younger counterparts, given possible increased vulnerability, health difficulties, and cultural and social contexts. There is extensive research into the impact of IPV on younger women and women of reproductive age. However, for older women there are significant gaps in research into older survivors’ exposure to IPV, into screening and assessment tools, and into effective social work interventions that support the unique needs of this demographic. The term of ‘older women’ refers to women who are 50 years and older due to their distinct experiences with violence and abuse (Meyer et al., 2020). This paper aims to explore the current literature about older women who are IPV survivors and the barriers they face with service utilisation. The specific implications for social work practice regarding the gaps in research and provision of services is explored further. The discussion of social work practice and research implications related to older women IPV survivors is specific to the Canadian context. Lastly, the author provides personal commentary from both their practice experiences within the social work field in conjunction with relevant research to promote awareness of this critical issue with the hopes of instigating social justice and change.

“It’s a community thing!”: Decolonizing Struggles of Taiwan’s Indigenous Elderly Care

2024-02-19T15:59:47+11:00

Drawing on qualitative interviews, this article explores decolonising struggles and emancipatory knowledge within Taiwan’s Indigenous elderly care services within the context of neoliberal policy restructuring. Informed by anti-oppressive practices, the article captures how increasingly marketised and commodified care policy reinforces the individualisation and isolation of care workers and elders within contested and politicised time and space domains. Workers sought to challenge the individualised trend by integrating the community into the care provision process and viewing care as a collaborative practice, including community engagement and collective political action. This article contributes to the decolonising debate and anti-oppressive practices by analysing empirical experiences in Taiwan and further examining the intersection of aging and ethnicity.