A Landscape of Intersecting Discourses: Navigating Professional Identity as a Newly Qualified Social Worker

This paper discusses the social contexts that influence lived experience of professional identity for newly qualified social workers during the first twelve months post-qualification. It is argued that the human services sector is impacted by competing discourses that influence ideas about the nature of problems and social service delivery, which do not always sit comfortably with social work values such as social justice and human rights that are reflected in professional identity. There is little understanding of how newly qualified social workers construct and navigate professional identity within these social contexts. An in-depth study underpinned by hermeneutic phenomenology and critical social work theory was undertaken with 17 newly qualified social workers in Australia. From a series of interviews, the participants’ descriptions revealed several intersecting discourses that influenced perceptions of social work, as well as tensions between the participants’ job-role and professional identity. Participants identified strategies to consciously navigate and resist aspects of these discourses to strengthen and make a social work identity more visible in the workplace. Implications for social work educators, supervisors, and professional associations concerned about professional identity are outlined to emphasize preparing and supporting practitioners for identity challenges

Broadening the ‘Environment’ in Social Work: Impacts of a Study Abroad Program

Adopting a critical social work frame of reference, this paper explores the impacts and challenges of a two-week study abroad program to India on Australian social work students’ understanding of the environment in practice. Using a mixed methods approach, a small study was undertaken in 2011 involving pre and post-program surveys, as well as a facilitated reflective workshop to explore environmental social work.  Results are discussed and indicate the program had a positive impact on expanding students’ conventional socio-cultural understanding of the environment and global dimensions of environmental degradation.  Whilst this is positive and suggests some justification for the international study abroad program, other questions and challenges are raised relating to complex cultural issues and neo-colonial aspects of study abroad programs

The representation of people living with dementia in Australian voluntary assisted dying research: A scoping review protocol

Voluntary assisted dying (VAD) is an emerging end-of-life care option available to eligible Australians. One group of Australians who may be considering choosing VAD as part of their end-of-life care planning are people living with dementia. Dementia is currently the second-leading cause of death in Australia, and the number of people living with dementia is projected to double by 2058 (Australian Institute of Health and Welfare [AIHW], 2023). Choice in access to VAD by people living with dementia is supported by peak body Dementia Australia (2023), however due to stringent eligibility criteria, most people living with dementia who are considering VAD as an end-of-life care option are ineligible to receive VAD medications (White et al., 2022). Therefore, a scoping review of VAD stakeholder representation in Australian research will be conducted to elicit how research is conducted with stakeholders, and the visibility of people living with dementia in this space. The scoping review will adopt the Five-Stage Methodological Framework for Scoping Reviews described by Arksey and O’Malley (2005), and results will be reported in line with the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-analyses Extension for Scoping Reviews (PRISMA-ScR). Searches of CINAHL, SocINDEX, Informit, ProQuest and PubMed will be conducted to identify Australian VAD original research published between 2017 and 2023. This date range is selected to capture research conducted since the first contemporary Australian VAD laws passed in Victoria in 2017. International research, and research in languages other than English, will be excluded. The studies will be screened in two stages, and extracted data will be tabulated, with the synthesis guided by reflexive thematic analysis (Braun & Clarke, 2019). The results will be disseminated through publication in peer-reviewed journals, and at conference presentations. It is expected that this research will act as a platform for engaging people living with dementia in future Australian VAD primary research