Honours - Social Work

During the last three decades welfare provision has become increasingly residualised supported by principles of mutual obligation and individual responsibility. Welfare recipients have been, and continue to be, constructed as behaviourally and morally deficient. By laying the blame with welfare recipients themselves, governments effectively obviate the need to do anything other than intensify an agenda of further welfare retraction. Recent findings from the Royal Commission into the Robodebt Scheme (2023) are revealing of how punitive and damaging Australian welfare arrangements can be. Guided by critical inquiry and the work of Tyler (2018, 2020) on the machinery of welfare stigma, this project examines the accounts of individuals directly impacted by the Robodebt Scheme, as evidenced in submissions to the Royal Commission. Personal accounts will be drawn together to examine how the Scheme may be understood as a form of classificatory violence from above. The project will add to a growing body of literature that recognises stigma as a purposefully crafted strategy of government that counters the depoliticisation of social suffering.

Project supervisor(s) including affiliations: Dr Sonia Martin (ACU), Dr Steve Roche (ACU)

There are over forty-five thousand children in out-of-home care (OOHC) across Australia. Research consistently highlights the poor outcomes associated with children and young people with a care experience, underscoring the importance of providing quality care. The OOHC sector, like all fields of practice, employs specific terminology to refer to common behaviours and situations. Young people with a care experience have criticised some of this terminology as pathologising, oversimplifying and blaming. Language can either challenge or reinforce unhelpful discourses which shape practitioner understandings of complex situations and motivations. Exploratory research also suggests that such language and discourses can shape the way children and young people in care make sense of their own experiences and behaviours. There is a need for further research which critically reviews terminology used in the sector and works towards an evidence base for language that is constructive, and avoids reinforcing harmful discourses. Drawing on perspectives of young people with a care experience and an analysis of out-of-home care policy and legislation, this project aims to identify problematic language used in the sector and equip practitioners and policy makers with guidance on developing and implementing more constructive terminology.

Project supervisor(s) including affiliations: Rhys Thorpe (ACU), Associate Professor Jessica Russ-Smith (ACU)

Social workers are often involved with people who die by suicide as members of treatment teams or as providers of other community services. In Australia coroners investigate the manner and cause of death of persons who die or who are suspected to have died in care, in custody, or in unknown circumstances, often by suicide. Depending on the jurisdiction, coroners may direct that written findings are published. These written findings include: who the deceased person is, how the person died, when the person died, where the person died, comments or recommendations made by the coroner relating to public health and safety, the administration of justice or ways to prevent similar deaths. That is, coroner reports document details on the circumstances surrounding suicides and offer suggestions for enhancing mental health services to prevent similar incidents from happening again. The detailed analysis of these documents is a vehicle for social workers to critically reflect on how they work with people at risk of suicide. The student on this project will be undertaking document analysis to develop recommendations for practice.

Project supervisor(s) including affiliations: Dr Eliana Sarmiento (ACU), Michelle Parker ACU

Systemic racism in Australia, rooted in settler-colonialism, has long marginalised Indigenous rights, particularly in health policies. Whiteness continues to shape healthcare frameworks, fostering mistrust among Indigenous communities and contributing to health disparities. This study critically examines whether Queensland’s Voluntary Assisted Dying (VAD) Handbook is culturally responsive to Queensland’s sovereign Indigenous peoples’ diverse social and emotional well-being. Using Bacchi’s “What is the Problem Represented to Be?” approach, alongside theoretical understandings of Social Constructionism and Critical Whiteness Theory, this qualitative analysis reveals how Queensland’s Voluntary Assisted Dying Handbook (the Handbook) is not culturally responsive for Indigenous peoples. The Handbook perpetuates colonial legacies through the promotion of White-centric health values, requiring Indigenous peoples to navigate a healthcare system that is violent and misaligned with their sovereignty. This study highlights a critical need for policymakers to adopt culturally affirming and responsive approaches that honour Indigenous sovereignty by integrating social and emotional well-being (SEWB) into policies like VAD. Involving Indigenous communities at all levels of policy development is essential to transforming healthcare systems. By confronting and dismantling colonial structures in health policies and honouring Indigenous sovereignty, health justice can start to be realised.

Project supervisor(s) including affiliations: Associate Professor Jessica Russ-Smith and Dr Aniqa Farwa

Article 12 of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (1989) mandates that children and young people be provided opportunities to express their views in all matters which affect them, and have those views considered with due weight. Despite this, research from Australia and around the world demonstrates that children and young people engaging with services frequently experience a lack of agency and feel excluded from decision making processes. This has been shown to undermine trust, impact mental health and prompt young people to engage in problematic behaviours to reclaim agency. Further research is needed to better understand how to translate the principles of participation into effective practice which ensures children and young people feel empowered and retain a sense of agency throughout decision making processes. In this project the honours student is conducting interviews with key stakeholders to understand in what ways children's participation is, or could be evaluated, to improve participatory practice.

Project supervisor(s) including affiliations: Rhys Thorpe (ACU), Dr Eliana Sarmiento (ACU)

Children or young people (CYP) in Out of Home Care (OOHC) often display behaviours that practitioners find concerning. Restrictive practices (RPs) are commonly used to react to Behaviours of concern (BOC). This study seeks to explore how welfare workers in Australia understand and approach BOC with CYP in OOHC. The study utilised a qualitative approach to collect data through six semi-structured in-depth interviews with welfare workers. Thematic analysis using NVivo was used to interpret the data with anti-oppressive practice as the theoretical underpinning. The findings highlight three major themes a) understanding and approaches to Behaviours that concern (BTC) b) interventions to manage BTC and c) long-term change in BTC. Findings from this study suggest that practitioner approach BTC with empathy and curiosity and perceive BTC as a form of communication about CYP’s unmet needs. Despite conceptualising approaches to BTC in this way, practitioners’ interventions tended to be restrictive and reactive, as a result of systematic barriers including staff burnout and limited resources. This study highlights that to reduce and eliminate the use of RPs, systemic barriers need to be addressed, so practitioners have the time and emotional resources to respond to BTC rather than react. Implication statement: This study emphasise the importance of addressing systemic barriers such as excessive caseloads and staff burnout to address BTC and reduce RPs in OOHC.

Project supervisor(s) including affiliations: Dr Aniqa Farwa (ACU), Rhys Thorpe (ACU)