Category Archives: Vulnerable populations

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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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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Forget your professional ethics – just do it

I have a  woman in her 90s in hospital who I am expected to do a guardianship application for. She is very intelligent and cognitively above average, can actually do that counting backward by 7s thing! She lives in a … Continue reading

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‘System participants’ inform local action on hard to reach services

Equity of access to health services is a key goal for primary health care internationally and in Australia (WHO, 1978). The systems used to gain entry to health services can impede or facilitate access, engagement and health outcomes. Equity of … Continue reading

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Inadvertently locking out the most needy from health services

In 1971 Tudor Hart believed that the people who most needed health services were the least likely to receive them, and that turns out to be true. His ‘Inverse Care Law’ is valid today. Since then Marmot and Wilkinson have … Continue reading

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Homelessness as a lifestyle choice

Interesting conversation with a Housing Department Officer yesterday. I  asked two questions: Is the department aware that many homeless people cannot complete their application forms? (The forms are intimidating , many people who live homeless are not fully literate and … Continue reading

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Homeless health

A third of our small hospital’s patients are homeless and thus can’t be discharged. It is costing $700 per day to keep them on the ward. One has been here over 6 months, that’s  over $100,000. It would be so … Continue reading

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Inclusivity and the ethics committee

How is your ethics committee dealing with inclusive research? Social work is a social justice project and in our teaching we alert our students to structural factors in our cultures and societies when they have limiting implications for the opportunities … Continue reading

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Practising Social Inclusion

A Book Review Ann Taket, Beth R. Crisp, Melissa Graham, Lisa Hanna, Sophie Goldingay, Linda Wilson Routledge, New York, 2014 311 pp., ISBN 978-0-415-53107 $48.75 (paperback) This is where the left right divide often pivots. Should we bother with the wellbeing of … Continue reading

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