Welcome to Social WorkStories, a podcast exploring social work practice through stories and criticalreflection.
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But fornow, on with theepisode.
Welcome everyone to the Social HistoriesPodcast.
It's good to be here with youall.
I'm Mim Fox and I'm here with my wonderful co-host and gorgeous friend LizMurphy.
HiLiz. HelloMim. Helloeveryone.
Welcome to our Aprilepisode.
Aprilepisode, the sun isshining, but it's got that nice cool tinge that Ilike.
Liz, I loveautumn. I was pondering this year the day like why do we call spring and autumn offseasons?
Forme, they're my ownseasons.
No, they're the onseasons.
Don't youreckon?Absolutely.
And now thatlike, it's been getting so much hotter in thesummer, this summer I just felt like Sydney was exploding in someway.
AndI, forme, autumn just hasthat, I love bringingit, the feeling that cool breeze come through andjust, youknow, you're back in yourjeans.
Life feels normalagain.
You're not walking around like this kind of like exploded grapethat's, youknow, filled with moisture andheat.
And now we can just have the chill of the evening or actually where Ilive, the big debateis, do we start lighting thefire?
Oh, that is such a gooddebate.
I'm so jealous ofthat. I'm just loving that we're sitting here with actual cups of tea and I'm not feeling too hot to drink a cup oftea.
That isnice. That'snice.
That'snice. So we can kind of huddle togethernow,Mim.
Yeah. We've got our kappa and we can encourage our listeners to grab akappa, settlein.
Because we'vegot, we'vegot,well, I want tosay, for the first time in a longtime, you don't have a healthstory.
There is abias. I'm not sure our listeners have picked that up that given thatI, both ofus, are retired healthworkers.
Well, thisepisode, we are actually moving out of health and into the non-governmentorganisation.
So the NGOspace.Yeah. And this particular NGO works in the NDISspace,Mim.
So that is the national disability insurance scheme for those of our listeners who don't know aboutthat.
But this particular socialworker, and we'll explain that in a littlebit, but this particular social worker approached us about wanting to talk about what this works like and to promote how valuable it is to use social work values and skills in working with people who are accepted into the natural disabilityscheme.
Yeah. And so this is the NDIS that came in a number of years agonow.
And it's been a bit of a rough ride forit, I wouldsay.
Like, it'snot, this was a huge policy shift and funding shift across thecountry.
And really came from a groundswell of both lived experience and services and saying that we just cannot support people properly in the systems that we hadprior,right?
So this was about trying to level the playing field in someway.
But there have been a lot of teething issues as we've gonealong.
And socialwork, Ithink, is one of the professions that has found itself really trying to find its way over theyears.
Andlook, I wanted to say a couple of things that I heard yousay.
And thatis, this is a revolution in terms of disability care that's being providedright.
And what I wanted to say to the listenersis, when you hear about the complex needs of this particularclient,unbelievable, the amountof, Iguess, health issues that this particular personhas.
Now I knowpre-NDIS, there is no way known that this particular person could have been supported to live at home with theirfamily.
Yeah, that'sright.So,like, in thatway, the fact that this insurance scheme can actually tailor services and support for someone with such high complex disability needs as this particularclient,wonderful.
So, I want to say about the social work in thisspace, you're absolutelyright,me.
There's a whole bunch of people that have been working in therewith, youknow, areal, Iguess, a real spectrum of skillsaid, some probably not trained in this area atall.
Yeah,absolutely. That would be thecase.
Andso, when we talk about multi-disciplineroutines, we're moving beyond just our lighthealth.
In the NDISspace, you will have people with teachingbackgrounds, with physical educationbackgrounds, with a range of different degrees and life experience and work experience that they're bringing to thesejobs.
And all of them will be called case manager or supportoff, support worker or there's a range of different titles that don't actually speak to the professions that the people comefrom,right?
Andso, what I love about this story is that this is a very grounded social work story set in what is really a very interdisciplinary non-governmentsetting.
And for those of you who arethinking, but I thought you said it wasn't going to be a healthstory, what we meant was it's not actually employed within the healthsystem.
It is a non-government organisation working with people with complex health issues and disabilityissues.
I think this is a really good story and looking forward to chatting after we hearit.
I'm a social worker who's been practising in the disability space for 10years, primarily in pediatrics until the rollout of the National Disability Insurancescheme, or commonly referred to as the NDIS orNDIA.
NDIS funds individuals living with a disability from birth to65.
I work for a non-for-profit organisation based in a communitysetting.
I work as part of a multi-disciplary team withOTs,physios, speech pathologists andmore.
The nature of social work in disability is incrediblydiverse.
I sometimes feel as though you're a jack of all trades and a master ofnone.
I once had a therapist described to me that social work is like the glue within the multi-disciplaryteam.
The part that holds everything together and keeps thingsmoving.
You need to know a little bit abouteverything.
A variety ofdisabilities, the impact across the humanlifespan, the way that loss ingrief, impacts on ourfamilies, the barriers in systems and access tocommunity, you need to understand the NDIS and thelegislation, but also mainstream services such as health andeducation.
I often feel like adetective, always trying to uncover barriers and understand myclients, needs and goals and really interpret what a quality life looks like forthem.
In the case I want to discuss with youtoday, I will talk about my client and theirfamily.
Often in the disabilitysector, we work from a family-centeredpractice.
This means we take into consideration the needs of ourclients, but also the needs of their caregivers and the familysystem.
In theNDIS, you'll often hear the word participant used to describe the individual who accesses thescheme.
However, in thisstory, I prefer to use the wordclient.
Therefore, in thisstory, I will refer to my client'sparent, primarily her mother who was her primarycaregiver.
To protect the identification of myclient, we will call themAlice.
Alice is a teenagegirl.
She has a significant intellectual and physicaldisability.
Alice is non-verbal and has extremely limited functionalmobility.
Alice is also knilled bymouth, meaning that all her nutritional needs are met through apeg.
A percutaneous and ascopic,gastrostomy, quite amouthful, which basically is a little feeding tube that is inserted into the stomach via a surgical incision in theabdomen.
Alice also has compromisedairways, which means she requires a track-ostomy to help herbreathe.
This is a small valve that's inserted into the trackia or windpipe from outside of theneck.
Due to the build-up of secretion that she has in hertrackia, she requires monitoring andsuctioning.
Succeeding involves the insertion of a catheter into the neck to remove thebuild-up.
Again, I'm a social worker and I don't have a medicalbackground, but as I mentionedearlier, being a jack of alltrades, we often need to understand the disability and health-related needs of ourclients.
Alice, because of her lack of physicalmobility, requires a hoist and sling fortransfers.
She has a power wheelchair to move about when the community and the home are high low bed and a showerchair.
In herhome, she requires wide doors and large accessible spaces to be able to move aroundfreely.
Alice also requires a disability accessible van fortransport.
The current situation Idescribe, it was a Friday afternoon when I received an urgent referral to speak with Alice's mother who we'll callRobin.
The referral came from herphysiotherapist.
Her physio mentioned that she had growing concerns for Robin and the familysituation, but during thatday, Robin had expressed that she was experiencing some domestic violence at home and the physio wanted to know if I could speak with her and complete a risk assessment to determine if they were safe to leave thatday.
I met with Robin and Alice onsite, as it was a last minute appointment we took the only roomavailable.
Robin wasgentle-natured, she was softly spoken and often avoided eye contact during ourconversation.
Together we sat on small blue plastic children'schairs, crouched over a knee hightable, the walls covered with velcro words and pictures of animals and is brightlypainted.
Alice was not in the room withus, she remained in a separate room with thephysio, the physio keeping her happy while playing bubbles and listening tomusic.
While Alice could have been in theroom, it was unclear how much Alice would have understood the conversation or if seeing her mum upset would have caused herdistress.
Robin described to me a long history of domestic violence between her and Alice'sfather.
Robin attempted to leave the home two yearsago.
However because of Alice's specific equipment needs and Robin's lack of financial resources and informalsupport, she had not beensuccessful.
The biggest barrier was really around thehousing.
Robin was feeling further isolated as Alice's disability accessible van was currentlyunroadworthy.
It needed new tires and aservice.
Robin shared that her husband had never hurt the children but described the family as being on edge and constantly on higher alert when he washome.
She advised that he was unemployed and often drank throughout theday.
He was easily agitated when the children all arrived home in theafternoon.
She was reluctant to call the police due to her previousexperiences.
She felt that when she called them they hadn't taken herseriously.
She felt that a reason because of this was that she was an Indigenous woman and she felt that this impacted her relationship with thepolice.
She was also concerned about when she called the police the impact that this was having on thechildren.
It was important that they becameheightened, appeared more frightened andscared.
Robin felt that when she did call she was often so distressed at that point that the police had made her feel as though she was being the unreasonableone.
Robin shared that she resided in a housing trustproperty.
She felt that she had no tendencyrights.
She advised that her husband frequently taunted her with that fact that he had ownership of the property and reminded her that she could leave at anytime.
Robin felt that he knew that she would not leave without Alice and that this was a powermove.
Robin told me that she'd call domestic violence services in the past and they'd offered her counselling but felt what she needed was practicalsupport.
I could sense how hard it was for Robin to share her story and I thanked her for being brave and acknowledgedthis.
I was limited by what I could offer her at this time as we are not a crisisservice.
I provided her with domestic violence contact numbers and encouraged her to call thepolice.
I suggested that she pack a bag with emergencydocuments, medications and essentials and have a place that it was easily accessible to grab in the case that they needed to leavequickly.
Together we also agreed that I would make a report to the child abuse line regarding the risk to Alice and her siblings due to their father's violence in thehome.
We made an appointment to meet again on Monday morning to work together around what community supports we could engage her with and that would be appropriate and accessible forAlice.
We also agreed that we could explore funding options to service Alice's disability accessiblevehicle.
When I returned onMonday, Robin did not arrive for her appointment asscheduled.
I anxiously called her and she answered on the firstring.
Robin reported that she had called the police over the weekend but shared nothing had come of it and the police had told her that she was wasting theirtime.
Robin shared on Sunday evening she noticed that Alice's peg had become infected and decided to take Alice to the emergency department along with hersiblings.
At that time I asked if Robin had spoken to a social worker while she was inhospital.
She advised that she hadn't and I told Robin to urgently request to speak to a social worker on theward.
A social worker was immediately allocated and they completed a safety assessment which determined that Robin and Alice were a highrisk.
After that the hospital social worker calledme.
She commented that Robin was a poor historian finding it difficult to piece together herstory.
The result of the domestic violent assessment ultimately led to a socialadmission.
A social admission is when a patient is medically well enough for discharge but remains in hospital because they are not safe or that there is risk to discharging at thispoint.
This can be a challenging space as hospitals are often sure on beds and want to discharge as quickly aspossible.
Particularly as Alice's infected peg had been treated quickly and would have been considered medically safe for discharge by the end of theday.
I knew at this point it was important to try and get some traction and explore options for Alice and her family to be discharged somewhere where they would be safe and we could work on exploring longer termoptions.
I spoke with the social worker at the hospital who advised me that they were liaising with the domestic violence services and trying to seek alternateaccommodation.
I knew that this potentially would not be an easy fix due to Alice's complex disability and equipmentneeds.
I suggested to Robin that we call housing trust servicestogether.
When we called they confirmed that Robin was listed as a tenant and that if she was able to obtain an intervention order that she would be able to return safely and that her husband would be requested to leave thepremise.
I wasn't able to attend with Robin due to other competing demands regarding my client caseload.
So that afternoon Robin attended by herself to her local policestation.
At that point she advised that the police had told her that there was not sufficient evidence to put an intervention order inplace.
Robin was understandably disappointed withthis.
I want to mention at this time that it was also distressing for Robin to leave Alice unattended athospital.
Robin reported that the times that she had required to leave the hospital she often returned to find that Alice was in a soiled nappy or another time left in her continence aid when nursing staff reported that she had soiled her clean clothes and were unable to find her change bag with additional clothes to place herin.
Robin felt that Alice was unsafe without herthere.
This is something that comes up for lots of our parents with disabledchildren, particularly those with limited communication means because they're unable to communicate or call for help or express when they're indiscomfort.
They often feel that nursing staff aren't able to appropriately attend to theirneeds.
When I met with Robinagain, I helped her to call women's legal service where she scheduled a phone appointment with asolicitor.
Despite pushing for an urgentappointment, the earliest that we were able to arrange was three weeksaway.
After 10 days inhospital, I received a call from the hospital socialworker.
She advised that the hospital was going to fund seven days in a disability accessible hotel in thecity.
The family moved into the hotel not knowing what was going to happen in seven daystime.
Within that week domestic violence services were able to locate a disability accessible accommodation that the family could move into withAlice.
However the accommodation was over an hour's driveaway.
As Alice's vehicle was still notroadworthy, Robin did not want to take the children out ofschool, not knowing how long it would be until they would be able to return home or if they could return home atall.
After the week hadpassed, Robin made the difficult decision to move into a friend'shouse.
It was not disabilityaccessible, therefore there was no means of showering Alice as they were unable to obtain a shower chair and the bathroom was notaccessible.
Robin provided bed baths to Alice during this time and the hospital kindly delivered a hoist and sling to allow Alice to be moved from her chair to abed.
I checked in on Robin frequently during thistime.
She always remained focused on thechildren, their mental well health and well-being and schoolattendance.
Robin was always thankful when I called and I wondered if it was because she had told her story and finally felt as though she had beenhurt.
Almost two months passed before an interim intervention order wasfinalised.
We provided it to housing trust who respondedimmediately.
Locks were changed and the family were able to movehome.
By thistime, Robin was tired and emotional but thankful to be home with thechildren.
She assured me that the locks had been changed and despite Alice's father knowing where theywere, she felt safe enough in thehome.
I could tell it had been a difficult time for Robin to share her story withme, particularly after her previous experiences feelingtrapped, disempowered and believed the telling her story would not change the futureoutcomes.
I often wonder if I'd attended the police station with Robin if the outcome would have beendifferent.
I understand that police can action an intervention order within a fewdays, whereas accessing one through the solicitor to complete a private intervention order tookmonths.
I also think about this situation and I think about how Robin was brave and kept telling her story despite a history of feeling unheard or notbelieved.
I also think back to the word poor historian and I consider the use of this and what it really means when we use thisword.
I think of the immense pressure and stress that Robin must have been under and considering the basics of neuroscience and the lack of ability to connect with our higher analytical thinking when really we're just in survival mode and how difficult it must have been for her to clearly and logistically piece together how she'd come to be in the situation she was and how leaving any domestically violent relationship is hard but how Robin's situation understandably had made it feel truly impossible because of Alice's high care needs and how much more vulnerable our individuals living with a disability in the communityare.
I think it's a hard balance in our line of work particularly in our conversations I was mindful to never promise a result or outcome to Robin not knowing if the systems that we challenged would be able to accommodate their needs but I think of the importance of making sure that Robin did not feel like she was alone during this time and that I would be walking beside her in her journey to try and create a better outcome for her life and for Alice's and herchildren's.
I think of all the systems that we had to navigate together and try to imagine how overwhelming and stressful that this must have been forRobin.
I think about my clients like Alice who depend on their caregivers to lovethem, to be their voice forthem, to advocate for them and the fear that the caregivers experience around what life might be like for their loved one if they aren't there to be theirvoice.
Liz, this socialworker, she blows meaway, hertenacity, the way she can't come and back to thiscase,right?
That she could have handed iton.
She could have just said okay there's someone there's a social worker now in a different service or in a differentsituation.
I'm going to hand it to someone else from anotherdiscipline.
I'm going to let this onesit.
Shedoesn't, she keeps comingback.
Yeah, actually thank you for pointing that out because youwrite.
There was a tenacity that was absolutelyrequired,right?
And he was a social worker that just stuck with it and listened to what Robin the mother was saying sherequired.
So I think that was like the forefront of my mind was she's right there with that mum who's actually saying I actually need practicalassistance.
I don't actually need the domestic and family violence counseling at thisstage.
I actually need a home for my child has got complex healthneeds.
Yeah. And there are some my kids because my partner's actually saying you can't stayhere, the tenancy's under myname.
So he's a social worker who's one tenacious but also has a beautiful breadth of skills who's able to have expertise in understanding the needs of a person with high complex disabilityneeds,right?
But she's also looking at this with a trauma informedlens.
She knows a dynamics of domestic and familyviolence.
Absolutely. She's a lurper trader who's absolutely using a form of control over this family by saying you're not on the tenancy and then find the social worker find out later on that actually she was the wholetime.
I mean it's a perfect example of coercivecontrol,right?
Unbelievable. I mean the other thing I really liked about this social worker's approach was the tenacious advocacy that must have been goingon.
I mean I think she kind of summarised it but you and I kind of behind the scenes know that there would have been a whole lot of advocacy going on between the various systems who were essentially not supporting this woman in what sheneeded.
How frustrating was the police responseLiz?
I mean justbreathe. It wasupsetting.
Like I just thought so this woman keeps being told that there's nothing that can be done that her experience and her story is beingdownplayed,right?
I mean honestly this social worker is the person believing her and is the person standing by and validating the severity of what's happening in herworld.
I just thought that I found that really distressingactually.
Yeah and I guess I appreciated her reflection toward a latter part of the story where she wondered whether had she done the right thing in persisting with the going down the legal services path or would it have been better to have actually gone directly to the police and got theADVO?
Great reflective I guess thinking aroundit.
But anyway it is what itis.
Yeah. So there's a police system that she had to kind of navigate withRobin.
Then there was a hospital situationtoo.
Yes.Yes. So I thought that was an interestingthing.
I guess description of her role because as you know like there's another social worker that's and health workers that have come into play in looking afterAlice, the young person with thedisabilities.
Yeah. What stood out for me was I guess the reflection that she came back to around the social workers comment about that Robin was not agreat...
It was a poorhistorian.
And Ithought, I haven't heard that expression from a social workerbefore.
I've never heardthat.No, I don'tknow.
I've never heard that with psychologists anddoctors.
But I've never heard a social worker usethat.
My heart fell at that point because I thought please don't tell me that it was a social worker who wrotethat.
Because if there's one thing we know in social workpractice, it's the power that is in the words that we choose to include indocumentation.
And you know I speak with students about making sure that your documentation is grounded in yourvalues, grounded in our code ofethics.
So your documentation actually is grounded in social justice in respect forpersons, in dignity andworth, inself-determination,right?
A statement like that undermines everything that this woman is goingthrough.
Instead of actually validating her experience and the chaos that she has been living within and the difficult complex priorities that she is constantly having tojuggle, she's being undermined and demeaned by thephrase, a poorhistorian.
Yeah. And I think the social worker was very trauma-informed in her thinking that monththrough.
Like yousay, you're living in traumaticcircumstances.
Of course it's going to be a little tricky to kind of get that date mine or that timelineaccurate.
Absolutely. When you've got a sick kid in hospital with high needs and worrying about whether the hospital are going to be looking afterthem, at the same time you're worried about am I going to have a roof over my head when she's discharged and it sounds like there'sself-informed.
And the otherchildren.
Yeah.Yeah.Yeah. And also knowing that actually the care that the child was experiencing in the hospital was not the equivalent care to what she would have received athome.
Knowing that actually the care she provides is optimumcare.
But she just wants a safe place to provide thatin.
And youknow, Imean, I think this is a value of having a case manager like this socialworker,right?
So she can hover above all thesesystems.
So youknow, in health that ED social worker's got a little potted little view of what Robin and Alice alike and goingthrough.
Very, verylimited. And then you've got the police probably only get calledwhen, youknow, there is violence or it's out of control orwhatever.
Another little potted view of what's going on in thathousehold.
Whereas this social worker flies aboveit,right?
Yes. And she's able to see that if someone is in here helping Robin to kind of coordinating thesesystems, what the heck is going tohappen?
Iknow. Iknow. What busy mother at the best of times is going to be able to take on some of those systems let alone someone who's got a daughter with a peg tubefeeding,track-yostomy, has hoists and slings andpouches.
By theway, when I hear allthis, I think I do celebrate NDIS because there is no way this particular person Alice would have been able to stay athome.
No,no,no, well that'sright.
Imean, actually in the providing of all that equipment and all thoseservices, Imean, that'sphenomenal.
Ijust, and the ensuring of there being a case manager that oversees itall, Imean, this is the essence of casemanagement,right?
Is that someone is actually being that umbrella person like you beautifully described and being able to network the different elements intogether.
And do youthink, Imean, we are completelybiased.
That's agood, this is an incredibly biaseddiscussion, but that'sfine.
So with that inmind, that is why social work is such a marvellous profession to be working in thisfield,right?
Oh,absolutely. And the other thing that you and I talked about before we got on mic wasthe, this is a perfect example ofintersectionality.
Yeah. So talk to me a little bit more about that concept and what you saw in terms of this particular personstory.
Well, I think the conversation we had actually came from a discussionabout, youknow, often students think why would I work in disabilityservices?
It's not a sexyfield,right?
It's not full of crises and the energy that you might seein, youknow, some sort of hospital TV showor, youknow, I don'tknow, chasing the ambulancesor, youknow, it doesn't feel thatway,right?
Butactually, it is intersectionality that brings about the point and the reason why social work is important in theseroles.
So if you take thiscase, forexample, here is a woman who is not only caring for threechildren, one of whom has profounddisabilities.
She also is an Aboriginal woman who is experiencing systemic racism at different points in her life and you can see that very clearly with the police and with other systems that she's interactedwith.
But youknow, we know Liz that that would be a historical experience forher.
That would be her entirelife,right?
On top ofthat, she is experiencing domestic violence which means that she is isolated in her social networks and in her supportsystem.
Probably also then means that she has a financial impact aroundthat.
We know how far coercive control canwork,right?
So here is a woman whoactually, if you think about all the issues on theirown, each one of them is a difficult experience to have in yourlife,right?
Each one of them produces profound impacts on your capacity to accessservices, supports resources in this world that then improve our quality oflife,right?
Butintersectionality, as atheory, speaks to us about how when you combine those thingstogether, that unbelievably exacerbates the disadvantage to someoneexperiences.
So when that is thecase, what you really do need is someone to do thatumbrella, have that umbrella perspective to be able tosay,well, it's not just because one of one element oranother, it's because this woman is experiencing a range of differentimpacts.
And I can't help Liz as well with intersectionality to be thinking here about the feminist outlook that this social worker isembodying, that the centre of this story is the woman's livedexperience.
Andactually, we are looking at the woman as acarer, as aprovider, as apartner, as a support in and ofherself,right?
And bringing that focus backto,well, what is the woman's lived experience in thecentre?
AndI, forme, feminism and intersectionality in thisstory, as theoretical groundings actually playtogether, I don't think you can separate them in thisstory.
I think you'reright. And Ithink, like there was a little moment there that for me said alot, in listening to what you've justsaid, said a lot about this particular social worker'sapproach.
This social worker had set up an appointment withRobin,right?
And youremember, Robin doesn't turnup.
Now, there'd be a whole bunch of people that just go foul toattend, get back onto my emailsor, youknow, go for a walk atlunch.
This particular social worker was able to think through all of those points youidentified.
Yeah.Go,no, I'm ringing her because I need to check that she's okay because there's so much going on in alife.
Thank goodness shedid.
Yeah. And if you discoverthat, youknow, there's domestic violence playing outhere, the child's unwell and inhospital.
That'sright. And was able toengage.
And I just think those small acts mean a lot in termsof, youknow, supportingsomeone.
And I think we're getting back to her point about this is why she approached us about telling astory.
What social work values do we bring to thisspace?
And I think that one was a deep respect and an understanding that sat underneath it of all of those intersectional points that youraise.
You're not going to get that at the localGP.
No, you'renot. I also think there's an ethics of care lens here on thiscase.
And on the sit you on the example you just gaveLiz.
Ithink, youknow, when we think about our ethical basis socialworkers, we often think about the variousprinciples, ethicalprinciples.
So we often think about social justice and dignity and worth and selfdetermination.
And they can become labeling just labels that actually don't meananything.
Youknow, you could just say a tickbox.
Yes, this social worker demonstratedA, B andC.
But if you apply an ethics of carelens, then actually what's underpinning the practice the whole time is care for that person in thecenter.
And so that example you've just given is absolutely an enactment ofcare,right?
She's not just ringingher, not just having the appointment because it's the next thing todo.
She's having the appointment because there is an agenda ofcare.
And so when that appointment doesn'thappen, she doesn't drop theagenda,right?
She followsthrough. She makes the phonecall.
She followsup. And I think in theRussian, the busyness that happens in agencies and I mean this non-government organization where NDIS is happening from would absolutely be in exactly the samesituation,right?
Massive caseloads, very busyenvironment.
If you come out it from an ethics ofcare, carelens, then there's not even achoice.
Of course you're going to make that follow-upcall.
Of course you're going to followthrough,right?
I mean my final point will be I think this is worth considering in terms of a career choice for socialworkers.
You know like how often we will hear that students have a particular career trajectory that they want to actually engagein.
Often you know it can behealth, often it could be in childprotection.
I get a lot of students that used to come and do placements with us at the hospital that are working in theNDIS.
And they go back to it because one they enjoy thework, buttwo, I'm going to be brutallyhonest, non-government agencies now in New South Wales are paying social workersmore.
There are career trajectories that weren't there a whileback.
And I think in supporting this social worker I think that we actually bring a lot to that working in the disabilityspace.
And I would be encouraging of students getting out there on theirplacements, giving it acrack, but also considering this is a careerpath.
I hope this is inspiring peopleactually.
It's really easy to kind of see the bright shiny areas of practice and think that they're the ones you want tochase.
But actually this story just shows how gritty it canget.
Right? It doesindeed.Yeah.
Yeah. Hopefully if this has inspiredyou,listen, let usknow.
Yes, let usknow. And if you want to do what this beautiful social workerdid, just contact us and say I'd like to actually talk about why social work is a fantastic profession to be working in this particular area ofpractice.
So, and if you're wanting a bit of one on one time withLiz, she has actually been doing a roadshow, doing some quite in-depth story work with lots of social workers out there to bring amazing stories to thisseries.
So, youknow, if you're wanting to have an in-depth conversation with LizMurphy, get intouch.
It's thetime. The time isright.
Thanks,Mim. And thank you for your conversationpeople.
So, that'sright. That'sright.
OurLiz, that was a goodstory, a gooddiscussion.
I feel like I went down a bit of a theoretical rabbithole, but youknow, some of the stories bring itout.
So, that'sgood. Allright, we hope you all takecare.
Have a goodmonth. Speak with yousoon.
Bye.Bye. Thanks for listening to the social work storiespodcast.
All of the stories we share are de-identified to respect and protect the peopleinvolved.
We create this podcast because we're passionate about building the global social work community and strengthening ourpractice, no matter thecontext.
If you want to help us grow the podcast tribe and continue the work wedo, we would love it if you can subscribe or follow the podcast in your favorite podcastapp.
That way you'll be sure to get every episode as soon as it'sreleased.
While you're in your podcastapp, if you can leave us a five-star rating and write areview, it would mean so much tous.
You can connect with us onInstagram,Twitter,Facebook, andLinkedIn, where you can share our posts with your friends to help spread theword.
And you can always find us at our home on theweb,socialworkstories.com.
The social work stories podcast is made by LizMurphy,Dr.
MimFox, JustinStesh,Dr.
BenJoseph, and MaddieStratton.
