Author: swdiscoveries

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Episode 30 – A conversation with Rahim Thawer, author of ‘The Mental Health Guide for Cis and Trans Queer Guys’

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Welcome back to the Social Work Discoveries Podcast.

In Episode 30, I have the pleasure of introducing to you the wonderful social worker and writer Rahim Thawer. Rahim is a psychotherapist, clinical supervisor, facilitator, and public speaker. He works as a lecturer, writer, and community organiser. Rahim loves all things mental health and is particularly interested in examining innovation in queer relationships. Whether in a classroom or therapy consulting room, Rahim strives to operate from a harm-reduction, sex-positive, anti-oppressive, and trauma-informed approach.  

Rahim’s latest work is a self-help guidebook, coming out in June 2025, called The Mental Health Guide for Cis and Trans Queer Guys, to be published by New Harbinger Press. This book explores the social determinants of mental health outcomes for our communities. Each chapter represents a social determinant or driver of well-being. He uses a combination of cognitive-behavioral therapy and psychodynamic inquiry in each chapter to support his readers in processing their own experiences and stuck points. 

Enjoy the episode!

Ben.

The Mental Health Guide for Cis and Trans Queer Guys is published through New Harbinger Publications: https://www.newharbinger.com/9781648485039/the-mental-health-guide-for-cis-and-trans-queer-guys/

Make sure you follow Rahim on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rahim-thawer/

You can also find more of Rahim’s interesting work on Medium: https://medium.com/@rahimthawer

Rahim is currently working and studying at the University of Alabama: https://socialwork.ua.edu/2024/08/02/rahimthawer/

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Episode 29 – From social work placement to clinical practice to realist research: A conversation with Associate Professor Jacqui Cameron

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Hi Listeners,

Welcome back to the Social Work Discoveries podcast. In this episode, I’m joined by none other than Associate Professor Dr Jacqui Cameron from the University of Wollongong. 

Jacqui is a social worker with over twenty years of experience in practice, research, evaluation, and training in a variety of settings including alcohol and drug, mental health, and domestic violence. She is Co-Editor for Advances in Dual Diagnosis (ADD), an international journal that promotes submissions on co-occurring mental health and substance use disorders from academics, practitioners, and educationalists, as well as from lived experience of dual diagnosis. 

Jacqui is a realist mixed-method researcher with extensive experience in qualitative data methods, and she ties this in with her passion for transforming research into practice. Her ability lies in engaging with practitioners with enthusiasm and credibility. Using a social work lens, she engages services and service users to use evidence to inform practice and manage complex issues including alcohol and drugs, mental health, and domestic violence. 

You’ll hear from her all about her story from starting on a social work field placement, then moving into clinical practice, and now undertaking high-impact research as a leading scholar in her field.

It’s a pleasure to release this episode. I’m sure you’ll enjoy!

Ben.

Here’s a link to Jacqui’s contact info and recent work:

https://scholars.uow.edu.au/jacqui-cameron

https://www.linkedin.com/in/jacqui-cameron-92114a41/

https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1253-1282

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Episode 27 – Bring them home, keep them home: A community-led approach to child restoration for Aboriginal families, with Dr B.J. Newton.

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Welcome back to the Social Work Discoveries podcast.

Today’s guest researcher is Dr B.J. Newton. B.J. is a proud Wiradjuri woman and a Scientia Senior Research Fellow based at the Social Policy Research Centre within the University of NSW, Sydney. Dr Newton specialises in Indigenous research methods and child protection research and policy. Her research focuses on working in partnership with Aboriginal organisations to build evidence and support Aboriginal families interfacing with child protection systems.

B.J.’s current research, ‘Bring them home, keep them home’ investigates the rates, outcomes, and experiences of successful and sustainable restoration for Aboriginal children in out-of-home care. She has extensive experience working on a range of child protection and domestic and family violence commissioned research, and multiple projects for the Royal Commission into Institutional Child Sexual Abuse.

In this conversation, you’ll hear B.J. talking all about child restoration practices in Australia, Aboriginal Community-led approaches to research and social change, Indigenous research methods, and so much more.

I hope you get as much from this conversation, as I did. It was an absolute pleasure!

Ben.

To reach out to B.J. or to follow her work, please use the following link to her UNSW research profile:

https://www.unsw.edu.au/staff/bj-newton

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Episode 26 – ‘Default Depression: How we now interpret human distress as mental illness’ with Anthony Smith.

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Hello Listeners,

Welcome to the Social Work Discoveries podcast. I’m your host Ben Joseph and I’m so happy to have you with me today.

The rise of the biomedical approach to treatment of depression and anxiety among other mental health issues for Australians has been swift, expansive, and for many, completely all-consuming. It is the dominant lens through which we as a society believe mental illness can be administered and recovery be found, but is it the only answer? In today’s Social Work Discoveries episode, I speak with a man on a mission to expand the conversation, by asking questions about the status quo of the biomedical approach in mental health treatment and offering perspective on additional, if not alternative, approaches towards a life of recovery from mental illness.

My guest today is Anthony Smith, author of the recently released book ‘Default Depression: How we now interpret human distress as mental illness’, published through Wakefield Press (the link for more information is below). Anthony is a former board member of Suicide Prevention Australia. He is co-author of papers and reports promoting the ‘Situational Approach’, a concept that offers a fresh way of considering mental health by taking situational factors (such as economic and social disadvantage, and workplace stress) into account when diagnosing and treating depression and anxiety disorders. For more than two decades Anthony has worked across Australia with networks such as primary health, the life insurance industry, men’s sheds and human resources, and at the community level in suicide prevention and research.

If you live in Australia and this conversation has led to any adverse thoughts or feelings and you think you might benefit from a discussion with someone about it, please contact Lifeline on 131114. If you live overseas, please seek support from a health or counselling professional, you deserve it for yourself and your family to reach out.

We hope you enjoy the conversation.

Ben.

https://www.wakefieldpress.com.au/product.php?productid=1871&cat=0&page=&featured=Y
(Link to Wakefield Press – Default Depression)
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Episode 25 – Decolonising and re-imagining the boundaries of social work research with Dr Sharlotte Tusasiirwe

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Hello Social Work Discoveries Listeners,

I’m so pleased to be able to introduce Dr Sharlotte Tusasiirwe, author of Decolonising & Re-imagining Social Work in Africa: Alternative Epistemologies and Practice Models available for purchase through Routledge, and co-author of Re-imagining Social Work: Towards Creative Practice, with Professor Jim Ife and Dr Rimple Mehta. Their book is now available through Cambridge University Press. 

Dr Tusasiirwe is a lecturer in social work in the School of Social Sciences, Western Sydney University. After completing a bachelor’s degree in social work at Makerere University in Uganda and a master’s degree in social work and human rights at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden. Sharlotte is very interested in researching social work education, and her PhD through Western Sydney University was focused on how to decolonise social work education and practice to create a culturally appropriate and contextually relevant profession. She has researched areas of decolonisation and indigenisation; African knowledges and obuntu/ubuntu philosophies; culturally appropriate practice; ageing and age-old wisdom; and community-led initiatives, mental health and parenthood of migrant parents in diaspora. She is also a co-editor for the forthcoming book Ubuntu Philosophy and Decolonising Social Work Fields of Practice in Africa (Routledge, 2024). 

We hope you enjoy the conversation!

Ben.

You can find Dr Tusasiirwe’s books and other publications using the following link:

https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=ANtUJngAAAAJ&hl=en

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Episode 24 – A political history of child protection: A conversation with Lis Murphy and Dr Ian Hyslop

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Hi Listeners,

I’m very happy to introduce today’s episode, which is a conversation recorded between my friend and colleague Lis Murphy whom you might have heard of from the Social Work Stories Podcast, and the renowned and well-respected Dr Ian Hyslop from the University of Auckland.  

I was lucky enough to be a fly on the wall for this conversation, with my recording gear in hand, which happened during the Australian & New Zealand Social Work, Welfare, Education, and Research Symposium which happened in late 2022.  

Throughout this conversation Lis & Ian explore some of the context, insights and implications of Ian’s latest book, called ‘A political history of child protection: Lessons for reform from Aotearoa New Zealand’.  

And for anyone interested in the histories of child protection flowing on from the Victorian era, the forces of neoliberalism on child protection and welfare services, and what reform in this sector looks like and could be, then this will be a fantastic episode for you. Ian & Lis are social work champions, and so I’m sure you will thoroughly enjoy their social work focused conversation together. I certainly did.  

Cheers & Enjoy. 

Ben.

Here’s Dr Ian Hyslop’s Profile Link:

https://profiles.auckland.ac.nz/i-hyslop/publications

Here’s Dr Ian Hyslop’s Book Link:

https://books.google.com.au/books/about/A_Political_History_of_Child_Protection.html?id=-potzgEACAAJ&redir_esc=y

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Episode 23 – Researching the importance of refuges for women and children escaping domestic and family violence, with Professor Angelika Henschel.

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Hello and welcome back.

This episode I am joined by Professor Angelika Henschel from Leuphana University of Lueneburg in Germany. Angelika is the Head of the institute of Social Work and Social Pedagogy at Leuphana, with her research and teaching focused on gender studies, inclusion and youth welfare. With a long history in social activism and feminist political work, Angelika is a well-known and admired agent of change in the work of Women’s Health, both throughout Germany and around the world. Angelika’s social work practice led to co-founding the first women’s refuge in her hometown of Luebeck, as well as a rape crisis collective and an organisation to bring together young women supporting each other through mutual aid and active support. I am so grateful to have met Angelika and spent some time getting to know her and learning all about her social work research and practice in this field.

We hope you enjoy the conversation.

Ben.

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Episode 22 – The ‘Name Narrate Navigate Pathways Program’ (NNN), a trauma-informed and culturally-responsive action research project with Associate Professor Tamara Blakemore.

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We are back again for another awesome conversation with a social worker using action research to make a big difference in the world. Introducing to you all… Associate Professor Tamara Blakemore from the University of Newcastle!

Tamara is a social worker and researcher who is (along with her research team) rapidly changing the face of family and domestic violence intervention for young people and their families in New South Wales and beyond, with action research project called Name. Narrate. Navigate pathways program (NNN).

Here’s what the UoN University News (2021) has to say about it:

“Taking a unique approach, Name. Narrate. Navigate acknowledges young people who use violence have often been victims/survivors of violence themselves. It uses trauma-informed practice to provide sensitive and culturally safe education, skill development and support to young people who have used or are at risk of using violence. NNN provides psychoeducation, skill development and support to young people and their caseworkers assisting them to a point-of-readiness for targeted recidivist focused interventions. With the support of Westpac, in 2022 the Name.Narrate.Navigate (NNN) Pathways Program will see scale-up of the program through specialist trauma-informed and culturally-safe training, mentoring and support for practitioners across regional, rural and remote Australia to delivery NNN in their own sites and settings. The program for young people will continue with targeted delivery for young women, young Aboriginal people and young people who display sexually harmful behaviours.”

(University of Newcastle, University News 2021)

Tamara and I have a great conversation together in this episode, and we’re so glad you get to hear it! Keep an ear out for the description of action research, along with how she (and her team) work towards creating a research project and intervention program that is trauma-informed and culturally-responsive.

Please, if you can, don’t forget share this episode among your networks, and definitely let Tamara and I know your thoughts on the episode by reaching out to us on twitter using the handle @swdiscoveries

I hope you enjoy the conversation and it spurs you on to do some cool things of your own. Cheers!

Ben.

Tamara’s contact information:

Tamara Blakemore

Associate Professor in the discipline of Social Work, School of Humanities, Creative Industries and Social Science, Univeristy of Newcastle

Chief Investigator & Project Lead at Name. Narrate. Navigate Pathways Project (namenarratenavigate.com)

Email: tamara.blakemore@newcastle.edu.au

Website: http://www.newcastle.edu.au/profile/tamara-blakemore & namenarratenavigate.com

Other people who Tamara recommends to check out and see what they’re up to:

Professor Fiona Arney – Arney Chong Consulting

Professor Darryl Higgins – https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Daryl-Higgins

Professor Leah Bromfield – Leah Bromfield Home Page, University of South Australia (unisa.edu.au)

Dr Susan Rayment-McHugh – Dr Susan Rayment-McHugh | UniSC | University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland, Australia (usc.edu.au)

Dr Wendy Fitzgibbon – Dr Wendy Fitzgibbon : WestminsterResearch

Louise Rak’s work can be accessed via the NNN website (Name.Narrate.Navigate – NNN (namenarratenavigate.com)

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Episode 21 – Co-designed and collaborative research involving missing persons, suicide prevention, social media and podcasting with Dr Sarah Wayland.

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Hello friends!

As you may be aware, it’s been pretty quiet of late on the podcast, sorry about that. It’s not because I haven’t been interviewing people, because I promise I have, and that there’s lots of interesting social work research conversations coming your way throughout the year, but more excitingly its been because quite a lot of time has been spent with my friends and podcast collaborators at our sister podcast, the Social Work Stories podcast. There are some really exciting things coming out this year on the Social Work Stories podcast, as well as some amazing new series’ soon to be launched by us. So, keep your ears tuned for more info soon! If you want to find out more about the Social Work Stories podcast, be sure to follow us on twitter @SOWKStoriesPod or check out our website socialworkstories.com. 

As for Social Work Discoveries, the social work research conversations are getting super interesting! In late 2022, myself, and the team from our sister podcast Social Work Stories, travelled to Melbourne, located on the lands of the Kulin Nation, and attended the Australian & New Zealand Social Work, Welfare Education, and Research Symposium, otherwise called ANZSWWER. At this Symposium, our team managed to sit down and record a number of research conversations for Social Work Discoveries, as well as perform our first live Social Work Stories show, which we’re super excited to release for all our listeners, very soon. 

Today’s conversation was recorded at the ANZSWWER Symposium, and my guest was Dr Sarah Wayland from the University of New England (Australia). Sarah is a Senior Lecturer Social Work in the School of Health at UNE in Armidale, New South Wales, Australia. For more than 20 years, Sarah’s frontline work and research has focused on trauma and loss, with a particular emphasis on understanding the needs of missing people and their families, as well as suicide bereavement and prevention. Dr Wayland is involved in several projects examining workforce responses to suicide attempting, trauma exposure and the needs of carers. Her current focus remains on authentically including the voices of those with lived experience to better inform suicide policy, research and practice developments. She is a regular speaker, to mainstream media, about the impacts of being left behind when a person is missing. 

Cheers, Ben.

Things to check out:

https://www.une.edu.au/staff-profiles/health/sarah-wayland

https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Sarah-Wayland

Welcome to Australian & New Zealand Social Work & Welfare Education & Research (ANZSWWER)

https://socialworkstories.com/

Sarah’s Contact Information:

Sarah Wayland, PhD BSW (she/her)

Associate Professor | Discipline Lead – Social Work | HDR Co-ordinator (Health) | Mid Career Researcher – Manna Institute

University of New England

Email: swaylan2@une.edu.au | Twitter: @sarahlwayland