Australian social work graduates face an increasingly complex work environment where the role of the social worker is often overlooked or misunderstood. In order to examine the anticipated and concrete practice reality for social workers, this qualitative study examined the expectations of social work students preparing to enter the workforce (n=29) and the experiences of new social work graduates in the workplace (n=9). Findings suggest that undergraduates have a realistic understanding of the challenges they would encounter in practice, including anticipated value and ethical conflicts, and allied professions' conceptions of the social work role. They did not anticipate the busyness of the workplace or the level of supervision offered.

Student to Practitioner: A Study of Preparedness for Social Work Practice

Purpose:Performance-based measures of gross motor skills are required for children with developmental coordination disorder to quantify motor ability and objectify change. Information related to psychometrics, clinical utility, feasibility, and client appropriateness and acceptability is needed so t

The clinimetric properties of performance-based gross motor tests used for children with developmental coordination disorder: a systematic review.

INTRODUCTION: As older people age and become frail, their decline in independence and concomitant changing care needs may force them to move from retirement village to a residential aged care (RAC) facility. The purpose of this study was to identify factors that contribute to subjective wellbeing among older people living in retirement villages in Aotearoa New Zealand and to compare results with the data from the residents of the care home facilities co-located with the retirement villages. METHOD: This study is mainly quantitative in nature to examine what factors contributed to subjective wellbeing among older people living in retirement villages. Descriptive and regression analyses were used with data collected in 2016 from residents of two retirement villages ( N = 163) from one aged residential care provider in Aotearoa New Zealand and they were then compared with already-published data on RAC residents. In addition, four village residents participated in semi-structured interviews.  RESULTS: Results showed that retirement village residents reported being generally satisfied with their living environment and their overall wellbeing is positively influenced by their social and psychological milieu. CONCLUSIONS: This research provides insights on what matters most to retirement village residents’ subjective wellbeing, which includes a dignified environment enhancing positive mental health, relationship building and reducing loneliness and isolation. Results were also compared with feedback from care home residents co-located in the same estate to provide an indicative picture for comparison against other studies to inform and expand choices for older people to consider when relocating in late-life.

/pdf/what-matters-most-to-people-in-retirement-villages-and-their-2b46h5m36h.pdf

What matters most to people in retirement villages and their transition to residential aged care

Social workers form a critical component of the Australian health workforce. While their roles as practitioners are very strategic within the health system, less clear is their contribution to health research. This paper reviews the published record of social work research in Australian health from 1990–2009 in order to discern the patterns of the social work contribution to new knowledge in health. The results of this review indicate a tendency to focus on discursive commentary rather than empirical research as well as a less-than-expected focus on client studies. Given the rise of evidence-based practice, there are potentially serious implications for social work in terms of how it positions itself as a contributor to new knowledge within the health field.

Review of Australian Health Related Social Work Research 1990–2009

Safeguarding children in the UK generates few reports of success. Poor or tragic outcomes
continue to be associated with collaborative failures despite recurring attempts by
Government to improve joint working. These initiatives are often justified on the basis of
improving outcomes but the basis for such claims remains unclear. Better knowledge is
needed of what success means in safeguarding children and the part played by collaborative
practice.
This study contributes to this knowledge by exploring the perspectives of different
participants on success and collaboration and their inter-relationship. It adopts an interpretive
stance and uses a multiple embedded case study design to gain an in-depth portrait of success
and collaboration in one children’s trust area. This portrait is built from an analysis of
interview, observation and documentary data drawn from three different collaborative
domains within the children’s trust: the Local Safeguarding Children Board; the workplace of
two safeguarding teams; and accounts of safeguarding work with individual children and
parents.
In a context where there is an overriding concern to avoid failure, success can be found,
but in multiple, coexisting forms that vary for different participants. These successes relate to
organisational improvements, personal gains and resiliencies, symbolic achievements, as well
as perceived benefits for children and parents. For organisations and to some extent for
practitioners, the imperatives of organisational improvement and regulatory compliance
encourage collaborative practices that are self-serving and focused on surveillance and risk
management. For parents, austerity and marginalization limit opportunities to engage
services. Despite these unpromising circumstances, this study finds evidence of collaborative
practice by parents and by practitioners that contributes to participant satisfaction and
meaningful change in children’s and parents’ lives. Such forms of success are likely to be
further cultivated by respectful services that family members can engage with, relational
practices between practitioners and family members, and acknowledging and learning from
their successes. These developments require multi-organisational arrangements that have the
power and capacity to develop safeguarding systemically, workplaces that contain the open
climate necessary for sharing achievements as well as uncertainties, and leaders with the
ability to inspire confidence in practitioners and courage to bring about change.

Against the odds: success and collaboration in safeguarding children

In response to the new ‘outcomes movement’ in health care settings internationally, social workers are increasingly expected to communicate their practice using the language of outcomes. Yet, little research has focused on the language that social workers use to describe their practice and how they identify appropriate interventions and link them to clearly defined evaluative outcomes. This paper is part of a large programme of research exploring and identifying issues associated with social work practice in the Australian health context. Specifically, the paper draws on qualitative data from the first stage of the project that explores issues associated with customary social work practice. Findings from the paper suggest clear evidence of tensions and difficulties experienced by social workers in attempting to communicate the critical expertise behind their practice and that practitioners have only rudimentary understanding of the concepts of outcomes and evaluation. A key challenge for social work research concerns how to encourage the profession actively to engage with the outcomes movement whilst maintaining the core principles and values of social work.

The Outcomes Research Project: An Exploration of Customary Practice in Australian Health Settings

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The Outcomes Research Project: An Exploration of Customary Practice in Australian Health Settings