SOCIAL WORKERS ACT

Celebrating

Social Work Day

2011

2

From the President’s desk

Social Workers ACT

AUTUMN

2011 Bulletin for Social Workers in the

There have been a few changes that have

taken place over the past few weeks. Of

note was the very successful Social Work

Dinner held at the Canberra Press Club in

March. We had an attendance of sixty-

four, the ambience was great, the food

was tasty, the lecture was both illuminat-

ing and thought provoking, the dancing

was hilarious and a great time and

fun was had by all who attended.

At the start of April our Branch Manager,

Penny Leemhuis, resigned. She has been

greatly missed and we thank her for valu-

able contribution to the running of our

ACT Branch. Her absence has impacted

our ability to communicate regularly with

members. We wish her all the best for the

future. The position has been advertised

and we hope to fill the vacancy at the end

of May, beginning of June.

Our Vice President, Satnam, also

resigned in April. He has returned

to the UK and hopes to be away for

a year. His contribution and sup-

port will be greatly missed. But we

wish him well as he re-acquaints

himself with life back in the

‘mother country’.

We have an interesting Rose Gar-

den Seminar program for the year.

I encourage you to peruse this and

continue to support the program

with your attendance. We also

have bio-data on some new Branch

Management Committee members

in this bulletin.

I take this opportunity on behalf of

the branch, to thank Kandie Allen-

Kelly for her contribution to the

AASW, particularly in the mental

health area.

Until next time...

Chandalala

Social Workers ACT is wanting to hear from you about your ideas and interests.

We would like to feature articles, research and practice papers.

You may also like to advertise in this Bulletin.

We are interested in hearing from any social workers and students that would like to

present at a Rose Garden Seminar.

President’s message 2

Your publication 2

Editorial

Tribute to

Kandie Allen-Kelly

3

Branch Committee

Newcomers

4

Events

Social Work Dinner

Justice Unity Dow

5

Future Rose Garden

Seminars

7

In the field

Workshop

8

Special interest

Social Work

Regulation update

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Inside this issue:

This is your Publication

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Welcome

It’s a privilege to have edited this first Bulletin for 2011.

We are trying some new things so this Bulletin will be more interesting

for you. This publication is about social workers in the ACT sharing

their knowledge, skills and experience. We want the Bulletin to be a

two-way flow of information, facts and topics.

We are keen to include articles, papers and items of interest. A letters

to the editors section will be introduced, so please write to us. There

are some exciting practice developments occurring in the ACT, so let’s

hear about them. Our contact details are below.

Noonee Doronila and Trish Mackey

Contact: EditorSWACT@bigpond.com

Editorial

Tribute to Kandie Allen-Kelly

It was with deep sadness that the ACT Branch Committee members heard of Kandie Allen-Kelly resigna-

tion from the position as Chief Executive Officer of the AASW.

Three and a half years ago, Kandie took on the challenge of placing our association on the political radar

and along with the National Board of Management, set about developing the association. Kandie took on

these tasks with enthusiasm, drive and energy.

Her achievements include providing high quality strategic and operational leadership, representing the

AASW before Government delegations from China and Vietnam, overseeing numerous submissions to the

Commonwealth, states and territories governments around social policy, reviewing the Code of Ethics,

upgrading the AASW website and the recognition of the social work role as therapists and counsellors un-

der the Better Access Program.

During her time as CEO, she was the public face of the AASW and improved the association public pro-

file. She tried to keep members informed of the association’s work by introducing the e-communication

to members.

The ACT Branch Committee would like to thank Kandie for all her hard work and wish her well for the

future.

Social Workers ACT

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The Branch Management Committee

Chandalala Manbwe, President

Noonee Doronila: Treasurer and

Editor

Sue Nesham: National Board

Representative

Ruth Carter: Membership

Helen Hopper: General Member

Tricia Johnson: General Member

Tessa Kain: General Member

Trish Mackey: CPE and Editor

Fiona Nitschke: General Member

Maurie O’Connor: General Mem-

ber and Mental Health

Representative

Anita Phillips: General Member

and Registration Representative

Cassandra Garvie: Student

Representative

Trish Mackey– CPE and Editorial Team

It’s terrific to be a new member of the ACT Branch of the AASW. I have spent most of my career in child protection and out of home care in NSW working at the front-line, also holding management and leader-ship roles. Since mid 2007, I have been Principal Advocate with the Public Advocate of the ACT, with responsibilities for monitoring of services for the protection of children and young people, the oversight of mental health services and advocacy provision in the disability area.

I obtained my Social Work (Hon) degree through Charles Sturt University. Initially I qualified as an Oc-cupational Therapist and then obtained my Masters in Social Science (Welfare and Social Policy). For the AASW branch I will be working with the ACU on the CPE program and form part of the Editorial Team for the Branch. I look forward to hearing from members about your ideas for ongoing professional devel-opment.

Newcomers to the Branch Committee

Each edition of the Bulletin we will profile some of the new members to the Branch Management Committee. Cassandra Garvie – Student Representative What can I say about myself? I’ am in my final year of a dual degree in Theology and Social Work at the Australian Catholic University (ACU). As well as being the Student Representative on the AASW Board ACT Branch, I am also on the ACU School of Social Work Board. Being on both boards, studying fulltime and being both a wife and foster parent keeps me busy. Before returning to fulltime study, I completed a

traineeship with Disability ACT and continued to work for Disability for a number of years.

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Professor Margaret Alston from

Monash University spoke at the

International Social Work dinner

about her research on the social

impacts of climate change.

Her recent research projects have

taken her to the Murray-Darling

Basin, the Pacific Islands, India and

Bangladesh. She outlined the way

women and men are differentially

impacted by climate events. In par-

ticular she raised the issue of cli-

mate change and post-disaster re-

covery work as an emerging issue

for social workers. She urged social

workers to understand and respond

to the devastating social implica-

tions of climate events and to take

a leading role on policy in this area.

EVENTS

Social worker, gender and climate change; an international perspective

International Social Work Day at the National Press Club

Professor Margaret Alston

At the National Press Club

International Social Day Dinner

Rose Garden Seminar with Justice Unity Dow

In March we had the privilege of hosting Justice Dow as our presenter at the Rose Garden Seminar. Unity

Dow is a human rights activist, lawyer and writer from Botswana.

In 1998, she was the first female justice appointed to the High Court of Botswana after a distinguished

legal career in which she advocated for the rights of women and indigenous groups. Most noteworthy was

her advocacy in High Court case, The Attorney General v Unity Dow (“The Citizenship Case”). She suc-

cessfully challenged the constitutionality of the Citizenship Act that refused to recognise her children as

Botswana citizens because her husband was a foreigner.

The effect of this landmark case was to extend constitutional protections against discrimination to wom-

en, and enable land rights and property to pass down through the maternal line. Justice Dow’s advocacy

was also responsible for Botswana court’s recognising the defense of battered women syndrome in crimi-

nal cases concerning domestic violence victims, and requiring fathers to uphold child support for non-

marital children.

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Justice Unity Dow (cont.)

In addition to this eminent legal career, Unity Dow is a renowned novelist having au-thored five books. Her books deal with problems endemic in Africa including aids, pov-erty, women’s rights and the tension between Western and traditional values. Her service to minority groups was recognised by French President, Nicolas Sarkozy, when she was awarded the French Medal of the Legion d’Honneur de France in July 2010.

She was in Australia as the Keynote Speaker for the International Women's Day Centenary celebrations sponsored by UN Women Australia . Justice Dow stated that she got into advocacy work and activism because of being a "nosey person". She said that she has never been afraid to ask questions about anything. Sharing part of her journey into ad-vocacy and activism, Justice Dow says she uses novel writing as a way of finding her own voice, which she could not do as a high court judge. She also pointed out that "asking questions" was how she discovered issues that needed to be addressed. She challenged us to look at different ways of using our skills and experience in supporting those that are less fortunate than we are. It was refreshing to listen to Justice Unity Dow and she struck a chord with the audience.

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A joint initiative of the ACU School of Social Work and ACT AASW

Branch

Venue: Australian Catholic

University, 223 Antill St, Watson

ACT

Chris Redmond is the Director of Woden Community Service (WCS), a not for profit organisation provid-

ing life cycle services to people on the southside of Canberra. The services provided by WCS include child

care, youth programs, disability services, family support, mental health programs, community develop-

ment, refugee settlement, volunteer coordination, The Big Issue Street Magazine and Home and Commu-

nity Care Services for older people. Chris, a Social Work graduate from the University of NSW, has been

the Director of Woden Community Service since 2004. Prior to that time he worked in Centrelink at both

the national and area office levels, and has worked in direct service delivery with the Department of Social

Security, as a Rehabilitation Counsellor with CRS Australia and in a HREOC youth homelessness project in

Tasmania.

Future Rose Garden

Seminars and Workshops

Rose Garden Seminars occur the second Monday of each month

(except if public holiday) from 5-6 PM at the ACU.

The seminars are a collaboration between the Social Work School

at the Australian Catholic University and the ACT Branch of the

AASW.

Upcoming presentations

11 July 5-6 PM

Topic:

Community organisations, professionals and

social work

Chris Redmond Director

Woden Community Service Inc

Future Rose garden Seminars topics include mental health, child protection, pub-

lic advocacy and public guardianship.

The Branch and ACU are keen to hear from social workers and students seeking to

present at Rose Garden Seminars. Presentations on research conducted, innovative

fields of practice, policy issues and implications for social work practice, ethics and

human rights would be welcomed.

Please contact Trish Mackey email: EditorSWACT@bigpond.com with title of

presentation, biographical note (bio), synopsis of presentation and your contact

details.

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Special Interest

Brief Background on Social Work Regulation

For many years, social workers have expressed a keenness to pursue regulation to ensure pro-tection of the public for persons who access services delivered by anyone purporting to be a So-cial Worker. Nearly all other professions are regulated by legislation, but Social Work has maintained a self–regulatory system. There is strong opinion that this is insufficient and that statutory regulation should be pursued.

While some agencies require Social Workers to be eligible for membership of the AASW prior to employment, this only guarantees that the social worker’s qualifications are from an accred-ited university course, and therefore they are a “qualified social worker”. It does not provide any regulation of their professional practice. If the social worker is actually a member of the AASW, then their professional conduct is subject to the code of conduct and ethical standards, and they can be subjected to a peer review monitoring process if a complaint is brought against them by a member of the public. However this self regulation process only applies to the 6,000 members and cannot be enforced for about 13,000 social workers nationally who choose not to be members. This means that there is no regulation of unqualified or unprofessional persons practising as social workers.

In July 2010, the National Registration and Accreditation Scheme (NRAS) commenced which provided for national registration standards for 14 health professions such as doctors, midwives and chiropractors, (ten were included at the time with four who had to meet certain criteria before joining the group). Social Work was not included in this scheme because it was not reg-istered in any state/territory, compared with Psychology which was registered by legislation.

In response, the AASW formed a National Registration Committee with representatives from all state/territories, including Trish Johnson from the ACT, to investigate where Social Work might go with this issue. In November last year, I was nominated by the ACT Branch to be their representative. When I joined the NRC they were developing a national registration scheme for the human services professions, of which Social Work would be one. My recommendation was that we should first try to have Social Work statutorily regulated in each state/territory first, and Chandalala as President of the branch and I met with the ACT Minister for Community Services on 16 March. While the minister was positive, we have not heard back and have taken no further action at this stage.

However recently, the AASW was lead to believe that there may be a third round for “health” professions to join the other fourteen and so they are now concentrating all energy and activity, putting in a submission to see if SW can be accepted this time.

Anita Phillips

ACT Branch Committee

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A great night of celebration.

Thanks to the National Press Club of Australia

for assistance in sponsoring the night.

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Disclaimer

The views expressed in this publication are not necessarily those of the

AASW. Acceptance of any advertising does not necessarily include an en-

dorsement of advertised products

CONTACT DETAILS

Branch Coordinator

E: aaswact@aasw.asn.au

P.O Box 4956

Kingston ACT 2604

If you would like to advertise

in

this Bulletin

Please contact the Branch Coordinator