In a lengthy career Deanne has worked as a frontline clinician, team leader, senior manager, consultant and educator in a range of NSW government and non-government organisations that respond to inter-personal violence, including child protection, sexual assault, domestic violence and workplace abuse.

Over the past 20 years Deanne has increasingly focussed on providing clinical supervision to social workers and other allied health professionals working in inter-personal violence services.

She now runs an independent practice ‘Social Work Wise’ www.socialworkwise.com offering clinical supervision to frontline workers as well as management coaching, training, policy consultancy and leadership mentoring. While Deanne has worked within current evidence based theoretical frameworks she is most interested in approaches that stay close to the foundational ethics of social work, including social justice ‘doing’, and respect for the inherent integrity and worth of each person. Deanne also does some teaching in Social Work Bachelors and Masters qualifying courses at a range of universities in NSW- as well as supervising students in field education.

Deanne’s approach to supervision, mentoring and coaching is based on developing a safe space in which to critically reflect on practice challenges and struggles. While she offers encouragement and support to assist workers to develop preferred professional identities, she does not shy away from candid, challenging and thought-provoking conversations. She is aware that each relationship is unique- and so tailors her style to her client’s needs, preferences, hopes and intentions.

Our conversation touches on Deanne’s social work career and her preferred approaches to supervision. We discuss her commitment to response based practice and the inspiration she find in the work of Vikki Reynolds. We also talk about the importance of separating clinical supervision from operational management and- importantly- how this relates to the discourse about burnout. Too often the talk around burnout involves the social worker being blamed for not looking after themselves -or for allowing a client’s distress to overwhelm them.

Deanne’s preferred approach is one of worker solidarity with a collective ethic of social justice. We need to connect with our communities for spiritual sustenance and our shared hopes for a fairer world.

Deanne provided the following links which will be of interest to listeners.

Response based practice:

https://www.responsebasedpractice.com/ (Allan Wade, Linda Coates, Cathy Richardson)

https://vikkireynolds.ca/  (Vikki Reynolds)

https://www.insightexchange.net/  (Domestic Violence Service management)

Narrative Therapy

https://dulwichcentre.com.au/

and Johnella Bird

https://www.johnellabird.nz/

I am a politically motivated – and progressive – gay man. There is little that Gavin and I would have agreed on. But his death gives us reason to pause. How do we create a civil society in which different opinions can co-exist? This is a question for the LGBT community as much as it is for broader society.

Perhaps the simple answer is the embrace of diversity. That includes gay people who happen to be conservative. If Gavin’s critics perceived him as intolerant, they should have confronted that with reason, not further intolerance, not fire with fire. The alienating and shaming of anyone isn’t helpful. 

Jack’s book recommendations are Matthew Todd’s Straight Jacket: How to Be Gay and Happy, Alan Downs’, The Velvet Rage: Overcoming the Pain of Growing Up Gay in a Straight Man’s World, and Rutger Bregman’s, Utopia for Realists: And How We Can Get There.

If you would like to make a donation to the Gay and Lesbian Rights Lobby (GLRL) or contact Jack, you can find the details on the GLRL website.

According to the blurb,

“The book presents a bold new account of the human significance of work and the human costs of contemporary forms of work organization. A collaboration among experts in philosophy, social theory, and clinical psychology, it brings together empirical research with incisive analysis of the political stakes of contemporary work. The Return of Work in Critical Theory begins by looking in detail at the ways in which work today fails to meet our expectations. It is a lucid diagnosis of the malaise and pathologies of contemporary work and proposes powerful remedies.”

Nick was previously the Director of Macquarie University’s Centre for Research in Social Inclusion from 2003 to 2007 and was Head of the Department of Philosophy from 2008 to 2012.
Nick’s main interest lies in debates in social philosophy concerned with the diagnosis of modern social pathologies. These investigations have also led him to an area of enquiry that could be called the hermeneutics of work: that is -the interpretation of work as a meaningful, self-formative activity.
Sound a bit dry?
Not in the least. Nick and I had a lively conversation that explored some vital questions.
Why is work more stressful, and increasingly robbed of meaning beyond an economic transaction. Why does there seem to be more bureaucracy and more bullying? Why is casualisation on the rise?
Will increasing automation be a blessing or a disaster?
Is a universal basic income a potentially good policy or another symptom of the malaise.

And of course we speculate on what work in a utopian world might look like.

This forms part of the context  for my conversation with Niels Buus,  the Professor of Mental Health Nursing at the Sydney Nursing School based at St. Vincent’s Hospital  in Sydney, where he is the leader of The Centre for Family-Based Mental Health Care.

Niels has a broad research profile within mental health research, which includes suicide prevention, treatment adherence to antidepressants, clinical supervision of mental health nurses, as well as continuity of care and recovery-oriented health care delivery models.

He is a specialist in ethnographic research methods which can produce nuanced insights into healthcare practices and personal perspectives on health, illness and treatment.

Such approaches are particularly powerful in studies of user-participation in mental health research. As a Scandinavian registered nurse, he is professionally socialized into a strong humanist tradition, emphasizing compassion, openness and equality in healthcare.

In line with this, Niels is engaged in research in the “open dialogue” model of care, and how it could be implemented in Australian healthcare settings.

Niels and I  had an extensive  conversation covering his early training as a nurse, and the clash between custodial and psychotherapeutic models of care.

He also talked about the birth of open dialogue in a small town in Finland and what it looks like in practice.

We discussed how open dialogue sits alongside ‘Big Pharma’, the usual hierarchies of power and knowledge, and the traditional organisation of state services.

You can listen here or subscribe on iTunes or Sticher.

But the focus of our interview was on social work field education.

For some years Shirley has been a university field education co-ordinator. In this role, she was heavily involved in training, curriculum development, supervision liaison, and placement breakdown.

She became deeply interested in academic claims that field education ought to be the “signature pedagogy” of social work. This then has become the work of her PhD in progress.

Lee Shulman, the academic who popularised the term “signature pedagogy”, held that in professional training it comprises the central form of instruction that prepares students for future professional practice.

Consequently, Shirley’s research questions are,

1. How does the current model of field education connect with the three dimensions (surface, implicit and deep structure) of signature pedagogy?
2. How does the current model of field education connect with the temporal patterns of signature pedagogy (initial pedagogy, capstone apprenticeships and the sequenced and balanced portfolio)?
3. How and where are social work programs incorporating the pedagogies of formation, engagement and uncertainty into curriculum design?

This led to a fascinating discussion on a range of issues, including the lack of evidence for the efficacy of current fieldwork practices, questions about the sustainability of current arrangements, and questions about the social justice implications of mandating 1000 hours of unpaid placement, plunging students into poverty and hardship.

And so we dreamt about how necessary changes might be achieved.

Her road to social work was a long one- coming via nursing and psychology. She has also been a counsellor at Alzheimers Australia, as well as working in rehabilitation and in social inclusion services for the elderly. Having lived in Geelong most of her adult life, Suzanne has deep roots in the town.

In a wide ranging interview Suzanne discusses the pleasures, challenges and dilemmas of setting up a practice and a business including; marketing, promotion, networking, setting fees, and handling social media. We discuss the anti business culture that exists in some sections of the social work profession, and how that is now changing.

This is a very personal conversation to which TL brings a lot of humour and grace.

To escape persecution, TL’s family fled South Vietnam when she was 8 years old. TL speaks frankly about her refugee experiences, adapting to Australian culture,  and navigating the process of coming out as a bisexual woman in a traditional asian family.

We traverse her social work career  and  explore the values, knowledge and skills that she brings to her current work in LGBTIQ communities, with particular emphasis on narrative therapy.

Research tells us  that LGBTIQ people are at increased risk of a range of mental health issues including depression, anxiety disorders, self-harm, suicidality and suicide, much of which has been attributed to experiences or fears of discrimination and abuse.

We explore the devastating impact that this  has on mental health in this community, and how TL approaches the challenge of confronting discrimination in her awareness raising sessions.

TL  provides us with a good map on how we can help people move from tolerance to true inclusivesness.

Tony came to social work later in life. It gave him a sense of purpose that had previously been missing. After volunteering at Lifeline, he began studying social work and developed a passion for  therapeutic work. Studying social work changed his values profoundly. He got a job counselling gamblers and began to understand the the interplay of social forces that created the preconditions for addiction, depression, anxiety, child abuse and domestic violence.

As he developed his knowledge and skills he began to work more creatively and wholistically with a range of NGO’s, including confronting men around violence and abusive behaviour.

In the course of his practice he became very concerned about punitive practices in child protection which he felt did not uphold human dignity, or work for the best interests of children. This led him to systemic advocacy work in an effort to correct these abuses.

Our conversation explores the causes of child abuse and the effectiveness of prevention policies. We tease out some important questions. How much power or influence does the state have in preventing child abuse? When things go wrong, what is the balance between blaming individual workers versus cultures and systems? How much responsibility do we have to call out unethical practices in institutions? Given the truckloads of investigations, reports, and commissions that point to remedies to improve child protection, why do we see so little change?

For more information on the Child Protection Party- check out their website.

My conversation with Bobbi explores the role of hospital social work, particularly in the light of her experiences last year as a social work scholar at Mt Sinai Hospital in New York.

This  6 week scholarship is coordinated and managed by the Department of Social Work at the Mount Sinai Medical Centre in New York City, and is offered to a handful of overseas social workers each year.

It is designed to enhance leadership, strengthen research skills, and build global social work relationships.

Mount Sinai is a mega hospital based in the Upper East Side of Manhattan between some of the wealthiest and poorest neighborhoods in the city.

The Social Work Department, established in 1906,  is one of the oldest in the United States. It takes pride in encouraging innovation and research. Currently 30 of its social workers are on the faculty of the Department of Preventive Medicine of the Mount Sinai School of Medicine.

Bobbi along with other scholars was required to develop a research program to bring back to Australia. We touch on her research and ponder the future of social work in health care.

To obtain a obtain more information about the scholarship, please drop me a line and I will send you contact details.

Felicity combines a private practice of counselling, training and consulting as well as being a sessional lecturer and tutor at the University of Adelaide, in their Graduate Program of Counselling and Psychotherapy.

The focus of our interview is her landmark book on counselling and psychotherapy with older people in care. You can find all the details on her website.

The book is a great primer, equally valuable for a beginner or seasoned therapist. It is packed with helpful clinical vignettes, as well as practical tools for assessment and critical reflection.

Felicity provides a map that helps navigate the complex terrain between families, clients, aged care homes and the cultures in which they are anchored.

Just as important the book confronts the medicalisation of ageing, acknowledges psychotherapy as both an art and a technology, and privileges the voices of older people in how they would like to be engaged with and related to.

It was a pleasure to interview Felicity. We discussed how she got into working with older people, and the connections she draws between politics, policy, psychology and social work.

She is also engaged in ongoing aged care advocacy work with the SA Branch of the AASW.

We pondered the position of older people in our culture, our changing priorities as we grow older and we dreamt a little about the kind of aged care home we would like to live in.

As Felicity said –she is constantly looking for the “earthy” connection.