Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Service User Involvement In Social Work Education: Enhancing Student Learning About Intimate Partner Violence, Rebecca Jury

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

Men who use intimate partner violence (IPV) are often excluded from service user involvement approaches, including those provided in social work education. This article outlines Australian research in which men who use IPV developed a learning resource, the resource was shown to social work students and student feedback sought through pre- and post-test questionnaires and group discussion. Students reported increased knowledge regarding interpersonal violence, greater awareness of the skills required to engage service users who use IPV and willingness to work alongside service users who are involuntary and/or have multiple issues in future social work placements and practice. The findings …

Making Meaning Of Being Bereaved By Suicide: An Everyday Experience, Colleen Carlon

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

This autoethnography explores the experience of societal meanings of suicide from the perspective of people bereaved by suicide. The research focuses on three autoethnographic stories of everyday experiences in which personal meaning making and societal meanings of suicide intersect in contemporary Australian settings. Personal perspectives are positioned alongside broader discussions of suicide taboo to consider the implications for agency and meaning making. Key differences between conventional notions of stigma and structural stigma, and ways in which suicide taboo influences meaning making for people bereaved by suicide are explored. The paper proposes a recasting of action previously framed as internalised stigma …

Participative Approach To Professional Development, Peer Learning And Evaluation In Youth Work: Summary Report, Trudi Cooper, Miriam Rose Brooker, Orietta Simons

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

Youth work evaluation is frequently driven by funders’ requirements, which usually focus on quantitative data about outputs that are easy to measure (Jeffs & Smith, 2005). This approach to evaluation is incomplete and excludes information that would permit a more rounded assessment of the impact of youth work (Cooper, 2014). Missing from funder-driven evaluations are young people’s perspectives on what they have gained from youth work, and youth workers evaluations of how youth work processes have operated to achieve the results presented...

Working With The Enemy? Social Work Education And Men Who Use Intimate Partner Violence, Rebecca Jury, Kathy Boxall

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

This article examines service user involvement in social work education. It discusses the challenges and ethical considerations of involving populations who may previously have been excluded from user involvement initiatives, raising questions about the benefits and challenges of their involvement. The article then provides discussion of an approach to service user involvement in social work education with one of these populations, men who use violence in their intimate relationships, and concludes by considering the implications of their involvement for the social work academy.

Models Of Youth Work: A Framework For Positive Sceptical Reflection, Trudi Cooper

Research outputs 2012

In the post-welfare state, youth workers need models to articulate the purpose and value of their work to politicians and the public, and to explain foundational assumptions about society, young people, values, and mechanisms for personal and social change. Robust on-going discussion about models clarifies the relationship between theory and practice and enables youth work to make use of advances in knowledge in other disciplines, and to innovate constructively when faced with social and political change. Theorisation of models of youth work flourished briefly in the final quarter of the twentieth century. Renewed models of youth work are urgently needed. …

Maternal Humanitarian Entrants “Me Time”: The Ways Social Support Works In A Facilitated Playgroup, Annmarie La Rosa

School of Psychology and Social Science Presentations

This study explored how maternal humanitarian entrants (MHE) ascribe meanings to the ways social support works in a facilitated playgroup context. The secondary research question addressed the extent to which accounts of playgroup support could be explained by Bronfenbrenner’s Ecological Systems Theory (BEST). A focus group followed by case study and follow-up interviews provided the women, staff and stakeholders the opportunity to share their narratives. Rich descriptions of their "lived" experience were central to the research purpose. Interpretative phenomenological analysis was employed to validate the ascribed meanings of ways social support manifested in the playgroup. The role of BEST contributed …

Research Into Integrated Crime Prevention Strategies For Rail Station Environs: Final Report, Trudi Cooper, Terence Love, Erin Donovan

Research outputs pre 2011

The initial impetus for this project arose from concerns about responses to ‘anti-social behaviour’, especially by young people, in and around rail stations. The primary goal of the research was to develop a collaborative approach that provided a more constructive and integrated response that would produce benefit for local communities, for the Public Transport Authority, and for the young people themselves. In practical terms, this involved:

• Development of interagency collaboration processes to support agencies with diverse goals to participate constructively without loss of autonomy;

• Identification at a local level of the common issues of concern, their causes, and …

Human Resource Management Manual For Children's Services, Vicki Banham, Les Evans, Lynda Pragnell

Research outputs pre 2011

A Children's Services Human. Resource Management is based on the policies and procedures that define the staffing requirements for the effective operation of the children's service. The total process of staffing, from advertisement to employment, is based upon the specific criteria that is determined for the particular position required. Thus, the entire process is designed to provide the children's service with the best information necessary to select the most appropriate person for each staff position in the team.

Consequently, well defined inclusive personnel policies and procedures enable each member of staff to understand the duties, skills, knowledge and responsibilities of …

Human Services: Australian Explorations, David Wiles

Research outputs pre 2011

Human services is an emergent field of study and work in Australia. Its definition is difficult, needing ongoing theoretical and empirical clarification. Despite the contemporary decline of the Australian welfare state; human services has emerged in cultural congruence with historic Australian notions of a 'fair go', of social equity, and of social egalitarianism. Human services constitutes a nascent profession, which - in the main - helps people with problems including mostly members of the social 'underclass'. Human services draws upon a variety of models, but the generic 'problem-solving' methodology applies across all of its fields of service. Thus human service …

Youth Work Today: A Profile, Rob White, Suzanna Omelczuk, Rod Underwood

Research outputs pre 2011

The youth affairs field has undergone a significant transition, in terms of the types of issues central to the field and the characteristics of people working in the field, in recent years. The purpose of this study is to identify the attributes of youth workers currently engaged in the field, the activities undertaken by those workers, and the social backgrounds of young people with whom they work. More than one hundred youth workers throughout Western Australia participated in the survey. The results of the investigation describe the educational background and occupational experience of youth workers, and the characteristics of the …

Normalisation Training Project: An Evaluation Study, Rod Underwood

Research outputs pre 2011

The Normalisation Training Project was funded by the Commonwealth Department of Community Services and Health for a period of twelve months during 1987. Under the auspices of the Centre for the Development of Human Resources of the Western Australian College of Advanced Education the Project provided eight training workshops for human service workers on the principles of Normalisation.

There were two types of workshops. A two-day programme was offered on "An Introduction to Normalisation (Social Role Valorisation)". These workshops were introductory and designed for people who had only limited exposure to the principles of Normalisation. Participants examined many of the …