AASW Social Work Podcasts

Australian Association Of Social Workers
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Welcome to the AASW podcast space. In each recording, we delve into the key issues impacting social workers across Australia, from frontline practice and policy developments to workforce challenges and professional wellbeing. Whether you’re a student, practitioner, or advocate, this podcast is your space to stay informed, inspired, and connected to the broader social work community.

  1. 10/01/2025

    Looking Ahead: How Social Workers are Shaping the Future of Mental Health

    On 23 September, we brought together the local social work community for a special panel exploring the future of mental health. Our guests, including Emma Shearer from Headspace, social worker and education consultant Rachel Higginson, and Laura Fletcher from Grand Pacific Health, shared powerful insights on prevention, early intervention, and how social workers are helping to build strong, connected communities. In this episode, you’ll hear what’s working, what’s needed, and how we can support one another to shape a future where mental health care is earlier, more accessible, and built to last. Don’t miss the Q&A section, it’s packed with practical reflections and real-world wisdom.

    1h 14m

  2. 09/02/2025

    National Disability Insurance Scheme: what we are doing to support you

    In this episode, we bring you highlights from our 2 September 2025 webinar, National Disability Insurance Scheme, what we are doing to support you, featuring AASW leaders and the AASW National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) Working Group. Tune in as we explore: Recent advocacy with the NDIA and governmentEvidence on the effectiveness of social workers in disability and the NDISAASW’s campaign to raise awareness of social workers in the NDISNew resources currently in development

    1h 7m

  3. 05/14/2025

    Pushing for change: national registration

    In this episode, Matt Loads shares some information from the AASW Webinar: Pushing for Change: National Registration from 14 May 2025. Dominic Szeker, Senior Policy Officer, AASW shares an overview of how registration for social workers fits into the broader regulatory context.Jim Arneman, ACT Ambulance Service, takes us through a case study of how paramedics were able to become a nationally registered profession in 2018.

    24 min

  4. 12/05/2023

    Health through the widest lens, Part 2: Kim Hobbs and award winning teamwork

    Last month we brought you a repeat of our earlier conversation with Rosalie Pockett AM.  Just as we were planning to re-broadcast the follow up episode with her research partner, Kim Hobbs, Kim was named Allied Health professional of 2023 by Western Sydney, LHD.  When you listen to this conversation with her, you’ll understand why. Congratulations Kim! Kim’s award: https://thepulse.org.au/2023/11/23/since-1994-social-worker-kim-hobbs-has-been-dedicated-to-westmead-hospitals-gyaecological-cancer-patients-and-their-families/ Special Issue Australian Social Work Social Work and Cancer.Editorial by Rosalie Pockett and Kim Hobbs   Free Access.  https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/0312407X.2021.1988664?src= AASW Members:Australian Social Work Special Issue Social Work and Cancer Volume 75, Issue 2, 2022.https://www.tandfonline.com/toc/rasw20/current   Prof Irwin Epstein on Clinical Data Mining: https://www.routledge.com/Clinical-Data-Mining-in-Practice-Based-Research-Social-Work-in-Hospital/Epstein-Blumenfield/p/book/9780789017093 Acknowledgement of Traditional Owners The Australian Association of Social Workers respectfully acknowledges the past and present traditional owners and ongoing custodians of the lands on which this podcast is being recorded.  We pay our respects to their Elders past and present, their ancestors and their families, and to the Elders of other communities who may be listening.

    20 min

  5. 10/31/2023

    Social Workers Improving Healthcare: Part 1 Rosalie Pockett AM and Health Inequity

    This month we bring you an encore release of our conversation with Rosalie Pocket AM who has spent years overturning the inequities and injustices built into our health system.  In this conversation, Rosalie describes her abiding interests in the social and community based factors that influence people’s health.  Next month we will follow this up with her research partner, Kim Hobbs, who will describe how to broaden the partnerships that research those factors  If you want to follow up this conversation and hear about the newest practice frameworks in healthcare, learn about effective advocacy for the health sector, or build your professional networks, join us at the AASW’s Online Health Symposium  “Practice Innovations, Challenges and Leadership  Register here! Mentioned in this Episode Dr Rosalie Pockett AM University of Sydney https://fdp.edsw.usyd.edu.au/users/197 Social Work Health Inequalities Network SWHIN https://blogs.coventry.ac.uk/swhin/swhin/= Mt Sinai Hospital Social Work Department New York – Social Work Leadership Enhancement Program https://www.mountsinai.org/locations/mount-sinai/about/health-professionals/social-work-services/professional-development https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00981389.2018.1439134?journalCode=wshc20 Acknowledgement of Traditional Owners The Australian Association of Social Workers respectfully acknowledges the past and present traditional owners and ongoing custodians of the lands on which this podcast is being recorded.  We pay our respects to their Elders past and present, their ancestors and their families, and to the Elders of other communities who may be listening.

    21 min

  6. 10/03/2023

    The Social Worker in the Library

    For many people who see a social worker, it is because they are already involved in our health or community services system, and they are referred by another professional. This means they have to make contact with our formal service system, and this is something that doesn’t suit everyone. What if it was possible to walk into a public place like a library, and see a social worker? Even if you didn’t live in that local area? Who would fund a program like that? Is there a sufficient level of need for a library social worker? What difference does it make to the community? Erin McKeegan has the answers. MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE: https://news.melbourne.vic.gov.au/libraries-offer-a-safe-haven-for-melburnians-in-need/ Launch housing https://www.launchhousing.org.au/ City of Melbourne’s initiatives to prevent and end homelessness: https://www.melbourne.vic.gov.au/community/homes-melbourne/ending-homelessness/Pages/ending-homelessness.aspx Review of the trial project: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/01616846.2020.1825917 FURTHER READING An international perspective: https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2022/01/03/1063985757/why-your-local-library-might-be-hiring-a-social-worker#:~:text=Art%20%26%20Design-,When%20the%20answers%20are%20not%20in%20books%2C%20some%20libraries%20hire,finding%20mental%20health%20and%20more. For a contrast to this inclusive approach, see this example of a policing and security-based approach: In the Library with the Lead Pipe: https://apo.org.au/node/271231

    20 min

  7. 09/05/2023

    Out of the 'Too Hard Basket'

    When young people walk through Alex Wilson’s door, they are already carrying the stigma from their long involvement in our mental health system.  They know they have been called ‘Frequent Flyers’ or ‘treatment resistant’.  Alex’s aim for her work with these young people is that they will feel appreciated, validated and empowered.  Alex knows that this work involves risks.  But Alex is not cavalier about these risks.  Her rigorous approach to risk is where the conversation starts. Cognitive Behaviour Therapy: https://www.betterhealth.vic.gov.au/health/conditionsandtreatments/cognitive-behaviour-therapy Dialectical Behaviour Therapy: https://www.sane.org/information-and-resources/facts-and-guides/dialectical-behaviour-therapy-dbt Continuing Professional Development available from the AASW CBT: https://my.aasw.asn.au/s/event-information?EventID=a2Y9g0000002KEBEA2 DBT: https://my.aasw.asn.au/s/event-information?EventID=a2Y9g0000002KEaEAM Related articles from Australian Social Work: YOUNG PEOPLE DESCRIBE WHAT THEY WANT FROM THEIR WORKERS: Zuchowski I, Braidwood L, d’Emden C, Gair S, The Voices of ‘At-Risk Young People About Services They Received: A systematic literature review, Australian Social Work, vol 75 (1) 2022,  https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/0312407X.2020.1776742 ASSESSING RISK IN YOUNG PEOPLE: Lemon G, Stanford S, Sawyer AM Trust and the Dilemmas of Suicide Risk Assessment in Non-government Mental Health Services, Australian Social Work, vol 69 (2) 2016, 145-157 https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/0312407X.2015.1131843 DBT AND SOCIAL WORK Cooper B, & Parsons J. Dialectical Behaviour Therapy: A social work intervention?. Aotearoa New Zealand Social Work, 21(4), 83–93.  https://doi.org/10.11157/anzswj-vol21iss4id264 Acknowledgement of Traditional Owners The Australian Association of Social Workers respectfully acknowledges the past and present Traditional Owners and ongoing Custodians of the land on which this podcast is being recorded. We pay our respects to their Elders past and present, their ancestors and their families, and to the Elders of other communities who may be listening

    26 min

  8. 08/01/2023

    Ethical decisions at the end of life

    Jane Sullivan OAM’s career has spanned paid and unpaid work, community services and the health system, social work and psychology, church organisations and the public sector. As she looks back over her career, it is her conversations with one group of people that stay with her. These were the people who wanted to make the decision that no-one wants to have to make. Jane Sullivan’s OAM Citation https://www.gg.gov.au/sites/default/files/2023-01/20230126%20-%20Media%20notes%20-%20OAM%20%28S-Z%29.pdf Jane’s resource for parents of children with life limiting conditions: Caring decisions: A Handbook for parents facing end-of-life decisions for their child, The Royal Children’s Hospital, Melbourne https://www.rch.org.au/uploadedFiles/Main/Content/caringdecisions/130890%20Caring%20Decisions%20book_v1.pdf Articles: After an end-of-life decision: Parents’ reflections on living with an end-of-life decision for their child Jane E Sullivan Lynn H Gillam, Paul T Monagle Journal of Paediatrics and Child Health / Vol 56, Issue 7, pp 1060-1065 https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/jpc.14816 Ethics at the end of life: who should make decisions about treatment limitation for young children with life threatening or life limiting conditions? Journal of Paediatrics and Child Health / Vol 57, Issue 9, pp 594-598 https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/j.1440-1754.2011.02177.x

    28 min
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About

Welcome to the AASW podcast space. In each recording, we delve into the key issues impacting social workers across Australia, from frontline practice and policy developments to workforce challenges and professional wellbeing. Whether you’re a student, practitioner, or advocate, this podcast is your space to stay informed, inspired, and connected to the broader social work community.

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  • Creator
    Australian Association Of Social Workers
  • Episodes
    49
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    Clean
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    © Australian Association Of Social Workers
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    AASW Social Work Podcasts