Anne Coleman

Context, Context, Context: A Commentary on Responding to People Sleeping Rough: Dilemmas and Opportunities for Social Work, (Parsell, 2011)

Parsell’s (2011) article on the dilemmas for social work raised by homelessness brought to attention a social issue of great significance for the profession and for social work practitioners. That people experience homelessness at all in an apparently prosperous nation such as Australia goes to the heart of social work values such as social justice and respect for the person. Homelessness, as Parsell (2011) observed, is an issue that raises both opportunities and challenges for the profession of social work and for social work practitioners. For these reasons, ‘‘Responding to people sleeping rough: Dilemmas and opportunities for social work’’ (Parsell, 2011) is an important contribution to social work literature. Beyond the broad aim flagged in the title, the author identified three main topics: (a) consideration of what constitutes an appropriate social work response to the needs of people sleeping rough); (b) critique of ‘‘traditional’’ outreach responses to people sleeping rough; and (c) an exploration of assertive outreach as a response to rough sleeping. These issues are framed using the key elements of the Australian Association of Social Work’s (AASW) Code of Ethics (2002); for example, respect for the person, and the concepts of needs, social justice, and advocacy. Assertive outreach was concluded to be consistent with social work principles and values, and contributing to individual self-determination and to socially just outcomes. The more recent Code of Ethics (the Code) (AASW, 2010) introduced another concept that is increasingly being explored and understood as a central component of social work practice: that of human rights. The Code emphasised the importance of the United Nations’ Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948) as a guiding document underpinning social work’s commitment to working with individuals; addressing structural inequalities; and working to achieve human rights and social justice (pp. 7 8). The framework of human rights acts as a foundation for the profession’s pursuit of social justice and for its advocacy for systemic change to ensure and enhance socially just outcomes. The first named of the social work values