Author Archives: Social Work in Health

The economics, and politics of health

Homeless health and health inequality occur in a wider economic, social and political context. Societal views of, and tolerance for poverty and inequality vary across time and between cultures. In Australia, typical of English speaking western countries, we had increased … Continue reading

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Social Justice for All: Social sciences week 9-15 September 2019

Charles Sturt University presents four speakers in this free lunchtime webinar 2 AASW CPD points. Speakers and Topics are: Rohena Duncombe – Access to health services for people living homeless Susan Mlcek – The place of social justice for indigenous … Continue reading

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Social Work and Health Inequality Network (SWHIN) our Declaration

“We, as social workers, commit ourselves to continue to struggle for social justice and compassion as essential characteristics of healthy human societies and as pre-requisites for effective health and social care services. We will work together with people who are … Continue reading

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Our health is at the federal government’s discretion

In Australia the health of the general public, at  a population level, is in the hands of the federal government. They make decisions on the level of welfare payments, minimum pay, and legislation that affects job security and conditions. These … Continue reading

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Challenging micro-aggressions against people living homeless through acts of acceptance

In my present project I began with research showing that homeless and other very disadvantaged people have poorer health and use fewer health services. I considered this in the context of the Social Determinants of Health (Marmot & Wilkinson), that … Continue reading

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Health system entry change required

I’ve been exploring system change at the local level in health service entry and delivery. For example there is an issue with the algorithms used in call centres. They use a bio-medical triage logic that puts the most acute people … Continue reading

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Disabling distrust

The earliest and most profound thing I have come to understand from the process of data collection is the profound distrust of health services and the wider society by the people who are living homeless. On reflection this should not … Continue reading

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Service access to primary health for people living with disadvantage

Single Session Therapy (initial intervention) My first piece of research into access to primary health was a Masters project on Single Session Therapy (SST) (Talmon). This taught me that having an initial session at first contact was beneficial as many … Continue reading

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The ethics of reimbursement

Social Work in Health is undertaking a project that involves two groups of participants: people who live on the streets and in the bush, and people who have management roles in local health services. When I was preparing for my … Continue reading

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The ethics of Ethics

Having just spent 8 months getting through one ethics committee (one down one to go), I am now reflecting differently on my own five years on one. My 8 months wait consisted of two months delay over December and January … Continue reading

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