Social Work in Rural Australia: Enabling Practice - Softcover

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1742373704 ISBN 13: 9781742373706

Verlag: Allen & Unwin, 2012

Inhaltsangabe

Rural social work practice is both challenging and exciting. In order to assist communities to live well socially, ecologically and in economically sustainable ways, students and practitioners must critically engage with and be proactive in addressing the ever-changing conditions of those living in rural and remote areas. Social work practice in a country town or small remote community several hours' drive from the nearest centre is very different from practice in the city. Social Work in Rural Australia offers an introduction to the challenges and rewards of professional practice in rural and remote areas. The authors explore the practical implications for social workers in non-urban regions, including teamwork with professionals from other fields, working with various sub-groups in communities and across distance with other social work colleagues, the diversity of rural livelihoods and lifestyles, and increasingly pressing environmental issues. Social work theories and case studies demonstrate how enabling practice can promote clients' and communities' ability to deal with some of the challenges of housing, youth unemployment, child protection, ageing, mental health, disability and the obstacles faced by Indigenous, migrant and refugee populations, in specific geographical settings. Social Work in Rural Australia encourages students and practitioners towards a holistic and contextual engagement with rural communities in current and newly developing fields of social work practice. 'This accessible text integrates the theory and practice of social work in often overlooked rural and remote regions. The case studies offer students and practitioners practical insights and celebrate rural practice as both unique and enriching'. - Alana Johnson, 2010 Victorian Winner RIRDC Rural Women's Award, Family Therapist and Social Worker

Über diesen Titel

Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

JANE MAIDMENT is a senior lecturer in Social Work at Christchurch Polytechnic Institute of Technology and has taught at Australian universities. She is co-author of Mapping Knowledge for Social Work Practice and co-editor of Practice Skills in Social Work and Welfare. USCHI BAY is a senior lecturer in the Department of Social Work at Monash University.

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Social Work in Rural Australia

Enabling Practice

By Jane Maidment, Uschi Bay

Allen & Unwin

Copyright © 2012 Jane Maidment and Uschi Bay
All rights reserved.

ISBN: 978-1-74237-370-6

Contents

Contributors, 
PART I: INTRODUCTION, 
1 Understanding rurality: A conceptual framework Jane Maidment, 
Part II: Rurality, TOPOGRAPHY and POPULATIONS, 
2 Making a living in diverse rural and remote communities Uschi Bay, 
3 Collaborating within and across interprofessional teams Liz Beddoe and Mollie Burley, 
Part III: Fields of practice in rural settings, 
4 Securing affordable housing in rural and remote towns Uschi Bay with Yvonne Jenkins, 
5 Developing new approaches to mental health in farm settings Jane Maidment, 
6 Employing and supporting young people's belonging in rural towns Lesley Chenoweth, 
7 Caregiving in small rural and regional towns Wendy Bowles, 
8 Dealing with violence: Families living in rural settlements Robyn Mason, 
9 Analysing criminalisation in rural community contexts David McCallum, 
10 Integrating migrants and refugees in rural settings Linda Briskman, 
11 Governing homelands in desert Australia Uschi Bay, 
12 Engaging with sea-change and tree-change families over time Sarah Wendt, 
13 Facilitating intergenerational dialogue: Ageing in rural places Jeni Warburton and Suzanne Hodgkin, 
14 Addressing the effects of climate change on rural communities Margaret Alston, 
Part IV: Future agenda for social work practice, 
15 Rural practice: An agenda for the future Jane Maidment and Uschi Bay, 
Bibliography, 
Index, 

CHAPTER 1

UNDERSTANDING RURALITY: A CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK

JANE MAIDMENT

CHAPTER OBJECTIVES

• To outline the aims and scope of this publication.

• To explore the diverse and complex nature of rurality.

• To examine mythology and discourse related to rural Australia.

• To canvass rural practice and policy implications.

INTRODUCTION

Images of parched land and water towers and of rugged men wearing Akubra hats adorn websites dedicated to portraying rural Australia. Phrases such as the 'sunburnt country', made famous in Dorothea MacKellar's poem 'My Country', and the 'tyranny of distance', captured in Geoffrey Blainey's thesis on how distance has shaped Australian history, are some of the most abiding images of the Australian landscape presented in the written literature. Yet a closer examination of rural Australia provides evidence of a population, setting and practice context much more diverse and complex than these iconic representations suggest. In this book, we canvass the varied nature of Australian rural living and working, with particular reference to how this context shapes and informs social work practice.

The first section of this chapter briefly explains how this publication might be used by practitioners, educators and students interested in rural Australia and social work practice. This section provides an outline of the aims and scope of the publication and an overview of the organising framework used to inform the structure and pedagogy of the book. It concludes with a brief explanation of nomenclature used in the text.

The second and more substantive section of the chapter addresses the definitional complexity associated with understanding notions of regional, rural and remote Australia. It examines features of rural Australian demography, noting the nature of diversity encountered in these regions; provides an overview of the abiding mythology and discourse related to these parts of the country; illustrates the role that technology and innovation have played in changing the lived experiences and work practices of those residing in rural and remote communities; and concludes with an overview of how the contextual factors discussed above influence social work practice and policy development in rural Australia.

AIMS, PURPOSE AND LANGUAGE

The principal aim of this book is to provide a counter-story to the 'normalised' view of social work education as an urban phenomenon, taught predominantly from city campuses where urban-centric views of practice, policy and ethics prevail. In this text we are seeking to explore how social work practice in rural and remote Australia differs from that found in urban and regional spaces, with a view to equipping students to be more informed about practice issues and policy challenges encountered in rural work.

Previous literature on rural social work has identified that practitioners in this context need to find ways to sustain themselves professionally, manage high visibility and accessibility in a small community, and develop ways to establish and maintain a work — life balance (Lonne & Cheers, 2001; Green, 2003). Earlier studies report that social work practitioners experience poor levels of adjustment when they have not previously lived or worked in a rural area (Zapf, 1993; Lonne, 2003). Together, these findings strengthen the case for increased curriculum content on rural practice, policy and research within social work education, to better prepare graduates for working in this context.

A second aim of this book is to demonstrate the diversity of rural livelihood options and lifestyles found in rural and remote regions of Australia, and examine the subsequent implications for social work practice. Rural living and work options in this country have principally been shaped by features of geography, including topography, climate, and the presence of minerals and other natural resources. Each of these contexts provides different challenges to those living and working close by, and influences the ways in which practice and policy needs are expressed and the subsequent response. As such, the purpose of Part II of this book is to present the key concepts of understanding the notion of rurality, examining the construct of livelihood and engaging with interprofessional education.

Each of the chapters in Part III introduces readers to a specific type of livelihood context and field of practice. Within these chapters, particular attention is paid to making overt connections between potential practice issues encountered in the field, with macro socio- political concerns emanating from the policy and locational context (mining town, agricultural community, desert settlement). The last chapter, in Part IV, is designed to provide an agenda for future practice and policy development in rural Australian social work. This chapter is written to signal areas for potential growth, innovation, challenge and change for social work as a discipline. With this in mind, Chapter 15 is intended to create a platform for debate and engagement in Australian rural practice policy and development.

RURAL AND REMOTE AUSTRALIA: A DEFINITIONAL CONUNDRUM?

The question of defining rurality is complex. For functional purposes, the Australian Standard Geographical Classification (ASGC) system has formed the basis for Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) statistical data collection since 1984. The demarcations of measurement for this system are divided into spatial units, with one being dedicated to a calculation of remoteness in order to help inform Australian policy development (ABS, 2007a: 2). This system has recently been reviewed with an updated version renamed the Australian Statistical Geography Standard (ASGS), implemented from July 2011 (RDAA, 2010). The ASGC provides a simple measure of geography and is not designed to provide...

Details zur Ausgabe

• Verlag: Allen & Unwin
• Erscheinungsdatum: 2012
• Sprache: Englisch
• ISBN 10: 1742373704
• ISBN 13: 9781742373706
• Einband: Taschenbuch
• Anzahl der Seiten: 288
• Herausgeber: Maidment Jane
• Kontakt zum Hersteller: Nicht verfügbar
• Verantwortliche Person: gpsr@libri.de; gpsr@libri.de; ; Friedensallee 273; Hamburg; 22763; Deutschland