We offer a supportive counselling and case management service to assist clients experiencing a variety of complex social, psychological, family and environmental factors. Our social workers can assist with:
| – mental health and general wellbeing – supporting parents, children and families – emotion regulation and behaviour concerns – social connections and building stronger relationships – grief and loss – assist with understanding and completion of referrals and documents as needed – a referral pathway * Our student-led social work clinic is fully-supervised by qualified social workers. |
What do social work actually do?
Social workers can assist when a person’s health is impacted by complex social, psychological, family and environmental factors.
Many people think of social work in terms of child protection or assistance to people in low socio-economic areas, but in reality there is a lot more to social work than you may think. Social workers can help with:
Carer issues
Carers are people who help to care for others that may have an illness, disability or medical condition that can affect their function in society and around the home. Carers face a range of issues when caring for their loved ones or friends and these can include access to education, employment, income and emotional and social wellbeing. Social workers help to identify and link clients and their families with supports and services within their local community.
Grief and loss
Social work has the ability to address the physical, emotional, social and practical challenges that are associated with any stage or context of the grief process. Grief is a common, yet individual response to loss that occurs with many life changes or events. These can result in obvious or hidden manifestations and include but are not limited to; loss of life, relationships, mobility, health, dreams, aspirations, life roles and identity. Social workers identify grief and loss issues through client engagement and assessment. By working in collaboration with the client, their families and the health care team, appropriate and effective interventions, can be provided. The different experiences of grief can be supported with the provision of a space to share their stories. Strategies to cope with emotions that highlight and build on strengths include advocacy, education, linkage to services, and navigation through systems.
Adjusting to change
Coping with a new diagnosis, disability, chronic pain and illness is a complex and turbulent time for individuals and their families that often impact on the psychosocial, economic, environmental, and legal aspects of a person’s life. Social workers are able to assist clients work through these complexities by strengthening a client’s capacity, providing skills, education, coping strategies and support for ethical decision making. This in turn enables a social worker to provide meaningful, holistic care to a client and their family.
Social isolation
Social isolation can occur due to many different reasons including moving house, barriers due to cultural or linguistic differences, mental and physical health challenges, carer responsibilities, loss of mobility, and community access barriers. Using psychological interventions, social workers work with people experiencing social isolation to identify their needs, wants and interests. Social workers can assist clients deal with interpersonal issues by facilitating peer support groups, linking with a wide range of other community groups, activities and services that can assist in accessing social supports for example referrals to services for transportation and admission to outreach clinics.
Barriers to health and recovery
There are many factors that can have a negative impact on a person’s health and wellbeing. Many people experience both personal and societal barriers to their health and recovery. Such barriers include: family relationships, mental health and coping issues, challenges in regard to compliance with health regimes; stigma and discrimination lack of appropriate care or access to services. Social workers can address these barriers through individual counselling, problem solving and goal setting, working on coping skills, providing information and referrals to services which fit an individual’s needs, and advocating on behalf of clients to access resources and services.
Mental health
Social workers work in conjunction with general practitioners and non-government organisations alongside community and peer support workers. In specialist mental health settings social workers are generally members of multi-disciplinary teams (for example: child and adolescent, adult, health care of older people or other specialist mental health services). After a full mental health assessment has been completed, the social worker, as a case-manager, is primarily responsible for developing, implementing and documenting individual client treatment plans. Social Workers use a range of psychological interventions to work with clients with depression, anxiety, and personality disorders, suicidal thoughts, relationship problems, adjustment issues, trauma and family conflicts. This includes identifying impacts of mental illness on one’s routine life, working with individuals, families, groups and communities to empower consumers and family members, working cooperatively with psychologists, psychiatrists, nurses and therapists, conforming to regulations of professional practice.
Do you care for someone with a Chronic Disease or illness?
If so, we encourage you to come along to our FREE sessions until the end of September. Sessions will focus on:
- caring for someone with a chronic illness
- coping with carer stress
- grief and loss and chronic illness
- effective communication
- self-care
- gaining access to support services
- taking a break
Bookings and find out more
Where: L4, G40 Ian O’Connor Building, Griffith University Gold Coast campus
Cost: FREE until the end of September (sessions only $10 from 1 October, concession rates available)
Contact: 1800 188 295 or [email protected]
Website – https://www.griffith.edu.au/griffith-health/clinics/social-work
