Lesley Cooper

The Predictors of Unsuccessful Transition to Foster Care

The placement movements of 235 children entering foster care over a 12-month period were followed up 4 months after referral into care. Baseline and follow-up measures of the 170 children who were still in care at follow-up were also compared. Results indicated that adolescents with mental health or behavioural problems were the least likely to achieve placement stability or to display improved psychological adjustment in care. In fact, unsatisfactory transition to foster care was found to be so prevalent among these children that conventional foster family care should be considered unsuitable for them. The paper concludes that there is an urgent need for a wider range of alternative care options for the adolescent population.

Work Integrated Learning: A Guide to Effective Practice

Acknowledgements The Authors Introduction 1. The New Higher Education Enterprise 2. A Conceptual Framework For Work Integrated Learning 3. Working To Learn, Learning To Work 4. Teaching In Work Integrated Learning 5. Assessing Work Integrated Learning 6. Supervision 7. Managing Difficult Situations 8. The Work Integrated Learning Process Appendix 1: Workplace Literacies - Knowledge, Skills And Attributes Appendix 2: Specific Risks And Difficulties Encountered In The Workplace Glossary References

Placement disruption and dislocation in South Australian substitute care

The purpose of this study was to examine the degree of disruption experienced by 235 children aged 4–17 years placed into substitute care in South Australia during 1998–1999. Key measures of disruption included: the frequency of placement changes, the number of children forced to change school, the geographical distance from birth families, and the amount of planned contact between children and families during the placement. Parental contact was reduced when children were victims of abuse, but more likely when children were placed because of parental incapacity. Changes in school were more likely when children were older or were placed a long way from their families. Geographical dislocation was, as expected, more likely to be a feature of rural placements, although there were no rural-metropolitan differences in the nature and frequency of family contact. The implications of these findings for future research are discussed.

The Role of Parental Contact in Substitute Care

Abstract This paper examines the association between parental contact and the well-being and placement status of children in substitute care. Consistent with previous research (e.g., Fanshel, 1975), the frequency of at least one form of parental contact (telephone) was positively associated with reunification and negatively with the amount of time in care. However, there were no significant changes in the frequency of contact, or improvements in the quality of family relationships between children during the 8 months of the study. Although the majority of case-workers were favorably disposed towards family contact, approximately 15-20% believed that it was not beneficial and that relationships between children and their parents were significantly deteriorating while contact arrangements were in place. Children from rural areas, of Aboriginal background, and who scored higher on a measure of hyperactivity were less likely to be visited. The significance of these findings in the context of previous family contact research is discussed.

Backing Australia's Future: Teaching and Learning in Social Work

Abstract It is universally expected that universities will strive for quality in teaching and learning. Over the past 25 years, massive changes to higher education have impacted on these institutions. We now have a mass higher education system, a knowledge-based economy, increased technology, and the internationalization of education accompanied by increased student enrolments and political expectations of enhanced graduate outcome measures. These changes pose challenges to developing, updating, and improving the quality of teaching and learning. This new policy environment confronts social work educators as they determine how best to deliver quality professional education. The present paper discusses the concepts underpinning the Australian governments paper Our Universities: Backing Australias Future as a background to exploring the tensions arising in current professional expectations and criteria for social work programs as they make the transition from old to new paradigms in classroom teaching and field education.

Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal children in out-of-home care

A full year’s intake of 38 Aboriginal children and 198 non-Aboriginal children referred for a new out-of-home placement in South Australia were studied as part of the first phase of a 3-year longitudinal study into the outcomes of alternative care. The baseline profile of this cohort revealed a number of significant racial and geographical differences between the children. Among the most important of these was an interaction between race and geographical location on length of time in care which indicated that Aboriginal children from metropolitan areas and non-Aboriginal children from rural areas had the longest histories of alternative care. In addition, Aboriginal children in metropolitan areas were the least likely to be referred into care for reasons of emotional abuse or neglect, no doubt because so many of them were already in alternative care at the time of the referral. Metropolitan Aboriginal children were also the unhealthiest and, together with rural non-Aborigines, the most likely to be under a court order at the time of placement. Overall, results are consistent with the proposition that metropolitan Aboriginal children and rural non-Aboriginal children are the most reliant on the formal alternative care system.

Can social workers and police be partners when dealing with bikie-gang related domestic violence and sexual assault?

Welfare and criminal justice systems manifest different goals, cultures, values and working methods. In Australia, the welfare sector has a culture of empowerment and concern for victims’ rights, within which social workers focus on social justice and social change. In contrast, the criminal justice sector (police) is patriarchal and para-military in structure, focusing on enforcing and maintaining community order and safety. These differences can create tension when social workers and police need to work as partners in response to violence against women, in particular violence against women from bikie gangs. This article addresses the issue of partnerships between social workers and police when working with abused bikie-gang women. It presents the findings of recent research into social work practice with such women in South Australia, in conjunction with a brief exploration of the international literature on social work and police cultures, and partnerships. It concludes that whilst there is a great need for genuine collaboration and partnership between social workers and police in the complex context of domestic violence with links to organised crime, the cultures and mandates of these different professions make this difficult.

Field Educator Turnover: A Challenge to the Quality of Field Education

Field education is the core of social work education, yet the quality of this programme is threatened by a high turnover of field educators. This retrospective study examines the turnover rate in one Australian social work programme, the characteristics of its supervisors and agencies and establishes a bench-mark for national and international comparative studies. High turnover rates suggest the need to re-examine some of the traditions arid assumptions of field education for social work.

Contested Concepts in Violence Against Women: ‘Intimate’, ‘Domestic’ or ‘Torture’?

Abstract Ritualistic, overwhelmingly violent bikie gang or cult-inflicted abuse of women, entrenched by co-opting third party cult or gang members, has been referred to as ‘domestic violence’, ‘intimate violence’ or ‘intimate partner violence’. The present article questions the aptitude of these terms to convey the realities of this violence, in light of the experiences of women attending a South Australian domestic violence service, all of whom were escaping violent partners who were members or associates of bikie gangs and cults. The paper asks, ‘is torture an appropriate term for such violence?’ and discusses the impact of social, legal, organisational and human rights parallel states that collaborate to make it almost impossible for these women to escape this violence and make it difficult for social workers to work effectively with them. The paper concludes that the State needs to adopt a human rights rather than legal focus when addressing the issue of violence against women.

Working with Women Associated with Bikie Gangs: Practice Dilemmas

Abstract Much has been written about bikie gangs, but there is little about the women and children who are part of gang life. The present paper describes domestic violence agency social workers’ ethical practice dilemmas when assisting women who have left bikie gangs to search for a new, safer lifestyle away from the gang culture of drug use and violence, in particular sexual violence. The paper concludes with a discussion of the ethical processes and issues in resolving such practice dilemmas.