Journal article
Repositioning Social Work in Mental Health: Challenges and Opportunities for Critical Practice
Critical Social Work, Vol.11(2), pp.46-59
2010
Abstract
This paper emerges in response to the recent initiative by the Australian Association of Social Workers (AASW) to mandate the inclusion of specific, clinically based mental health curriculum into qualifying social work programs across Australia. Whilst the authors affirm the importance of an emphasis of mental health in social work education, we further suggest that the professional repositioning of social work in mental health must be informed by critical/postmodern theoretical approaches. If social work is to engender and maintain its unique and vital role in problematising simplistic, depoliticised and individualising constructions of mental health and illness, we need to promote more contextualised and holistic understandings of people's experiences. The paper concludes by offering an example of critical mental health curriculum.
Details
- Title
- Repositioning Social Work in Mental Health: Challenges and Opportunities for Critical Practice
- Authors
- Christine Morley (Author) - University of the Sunshine Coast - Faculty of Arts and Social SciencesSelma Macfarlane (Author) - Deakin University
- Publication details
- Critical Social Work, Vol.11(2), pp.46-59
- Publisher
- University of Windsor, School of Social Work
- Date published
- 2010
- ISSN
- 1543-9372
- Organisation Unit
- School of Social Sciences - Legacy; University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland
- Language
- English
- Record Identifier
- 99449881902621
- Output Type
- Journal article
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