National e-Bulletin

April 2010

Dear [FirstName],

I hope you enjoyed activities for World Social Work Day last month, and that you've had a peaceful and relaxing Easter.  

ABC TV 4 Corners and Registration of social work 

On Monday night ABC TV's 4 Corners covered the issue of unregistered psychotherapists and counsellors. I know that many of you watched it, distressed at the harm being caused to a vulnerable client by someone who lacked qualifications and practice skills. If you missed the edition you can watch it online, or read the transcript on the ABC website.

The AASW responded to the program by issuing a media release, calling for registration for all practitioners seeing clients in private practice. I will be writing to the Federal and State / Territory Ministers about this matter urgently as well. You may also want to know that Nicola Roxon, the Federal Minister for Health and Ageing, responded to the issues raised in the program by pledging that all Health ministers would consider the problem at their forthcoming meetings. You can read her full response here.

Support in high places

Professor Patrick McGorry, Australian of the Year, was on ABC TV's Lateline recently and the interview transcript and clip is available from their site.  

I found this quote particularly interesting: ”it shows that the system is lopsided and the lack of upstream investment in community based services - community beds, mobile outreach teams, housing services, vocational recovery programs, all the community elements of care - have been disinvested in, really.”

Expression of Interest: A seeding grant to undertake practitioner research

The AASW is inviting Expressions of Interest for a seeding grant of $5,000 for an AASW member/s to undertake a practice research project in an area of social work practice.

The seeding grant is an initiative of the Australian Association of Social Workers and will be administered by the AASW National Research Committee. You can read more here.

National Standards for Out Of Home Care (OOHC)

As part of the National Framework for Protecting Australia’s children, Federal, State and Territory Governments are developing national standards for children in OOHC. The AASW recently made two submissions to this process, one on national standards themselves, and one specifically on health checks.

I am pleased that Governments are working across portfolios on this issue. Social workers know only too well that children in OOHC are more likely than others to have poor outcomes across a range of indicators of disadvantage; more likely to be out of work, to have children at a young age, to have drug and alcohol problems, to be in trouble with the police for example.

The submission on National Standards focussed on the needs of the range of people affected, children and young people themselves, their birth families, foster and kinship carers, and the transitional issues young people face when leaving OOHC.

You can find both of our submissions on our website, and I’ll keep you informed of developments on this matter.

Healthcare Indentifiers

I recently made a short submission to the Senate Committee Inquiry into the Healthcare Identifiers Bill 2010 on your behalf. Later this year, all patients and providers of healthcare services will be issued with an identifying number, which will be used for electronic records management under a new system. While acknowledging concerns about privacy and rights to withhold information, I have also been asking for all social workers to be included in the system.

If we are excluded, as was originally proposed, members working in health organisations, such as hospitals and community health centres, would be unable to access information that their non-social work colleagues would see. And those in private practice would be significantly disadvantaged. You can find out more about the proposals here.

New Social Work Research project - Social work Activism: Resistance from the Frontier

Do you, or have you in the past, been employed by a statutory welfare organisation in the field of Child Protection, Corrections, Mental Health, Hospital or Income Support (Centrelink)?

While in your role, have you experienced conflict between the professional requirements of the AASW Code of Ethics and the policies and procedures of your employing organisation?

If so, you might be interested in participating in a new social work research project, conducted by Griffith University PhD student, Lyndal Greenslade and supervised by Associate Professor Donna McAuliffe and Professor Lesley Chenoweth.

To express interest in participating, or to obtain further information about the study, please click here or email Lyndal Greenslade.

33rd AACBT National Conference - 16th-20th April 2010, Grand Hyatt, Melbourne

********PAID ADVERTISEMENT********
The Australian Association for Cognitive and Behaviour Therapy (AACBT) National Conference 'Rising to the Challenge: CBT and Complexity' will showcase some of the most cutting edge developments in CBT from around the world.

Keynotes and Invited Speakers include: Emeritus Prof Arthur Freeman – CBT for Personality Disorders in Children/Adolescents; A/Prof Alan E. Fruzzetti – Dialectics of Acceptance and Change in DBT and DBT with Couples; Dr Jacqueline B. Persons – Case Formulation-Driven CBT and Progress Monitoring; Dr Robyn D. Walser – ACT with Anxiety Disorders and PTSD; A/Prof Michael Nicholas – Psychological Management of Pain; Dr Carol Hulbert – Psychological Treatment of BPD; A/Prof Amanda Richdale – Behavioural Treatment of Developmental Disorders; Prof Michael Kyrios – CBT for OCD; Dr Meaghan O’Donnell – CBT for PTSD

Pre-conference Workshops and Scientific Program Registration still available!
For detailed conference workshops and scientific program information click here. 

Kind regards
Kandie

Kandie Allen-Kelly
BSocWk MPhil MAASW (Acc)

Chief Executive Officer
Australian Association of Social Workers
P.O. Box 4956
Kingston ACT 2604
Tel: +61 2 6270 7203
Membership: 1800 630 124
ceo@aasw.asn.au
www.aasw.asn.au