Suicide is complex, but helping to prevent suicide doesn’t have to be. Everyone has a role to play and there are some seemingly small changes, that we can all make, that have a big impact. Thinking about the language that we use can do just that. While our language can convey compassion, provide hope, empowerment and optimism, we can also unwittingly express messages that divide and stigmatise. This blog post by Emma Neilsen discusses how even everyday expressions may carry connotations we have not considered and speak to ideas we don’t condone.
Read MoreCollaboration remains the ‘go to’ or ‘gold-star’ strategy as governments, business and community look to connect people, break down silos, cross boundaries, build partnerships and generate collective impact. All of which leads to collaborative advantage. It is likely that this preference will continue well into the future. The allure of collaboration is seen as self-evident: by leveraging the synergies formed from working together, innovation is possible, new knowledge is built, and complex, intractable social and economic problems can be resolved. In addition to these social benefits are the expected cost savings to be had from working in more connected or integrated ways. Robyn Keast*, Michael Charles* and Piotr Modzelewski** discuss the cost of collaboration.
Read MoreThe Brotherhood of St Laurence recently released a report their 'Financial Wellbeing in times of Insecurity' working paper. The paper provides a basis for a broader understanding of the factors that shape financial wellbeing and the capacity of individuals to experience economic security. In this post Dr Dina Bowman and Dr Marcus Banks from the Research and Policy Centre explore the paper's key findings.
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*Content warning: This post contains references to sexual violence.*
A recent Victorian court decision to release a teenager charged with sexual assault on strict bail conditions has prompted an outcry from Victoria Police and the state opposition. Today's post from an anonymous Australian lawyer challenges us to consider a more progressive legal and moral standpoint- from an anti-carceral feminist perspective, imprisonment for the sake of harsh punishment will not lead to the teenager's reform and rehabilitation.
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If you watch the news or read the papers, chances are you have heard about income inequality. The issue is complex and polarizing. But what does income inequality really mean? And what are the consequences? In this post, Uma Rani Amara, Senior Economist, and Marianne Furrer, Research Officer in the ILO’s Research Department unpack income inequality, how it affects people’s lives, and what can be done to reduce it. The original articles form a two-part series on the ILO's 'Work in Progress' blog.
Read MoreA recent professional symposium held in Melbourne presented research findings on the often hidden toll experienced by women whose partners perpetrate online child sexual abuse. Here Zoë Goodall, a graduate of the University of Melbourne and Media Coordinator for PartnerSPEAK, urges for a policy rethink in the area of family violence and victims of crime.
Read MorePersistent long-term growth in the world’s population has brought with it significant public health concerns. The global demographic is ageing, chronic disease is on the rise and these concerns for health and welfare systems require action in a time of economic uncertainty. Over 46 million people worldwide are currently living with dementia and this figure is set to treble in the next 35 years (Prince et al., 2015). In the post below, Dr Jennifer Lynch looks at if Assistive Technology is a human rights issue for people living with dementia.
Read MoreWith the recent vote by Melbourne City Council to ban rough sleeping, homelessness has been in the public eye. In honour of this week’s Youth Homelessness Matters day, today’s blog provides a practitioner view of youth homelessness in Victoria. Megan Kennedy and Ebony Canavan, with the Youth Homelessness Service at Good Shepherd Australia New Zealand, explain how recent policy changes are impacting on their clients.
Read MoreNext week at UNSW Canberra, a range of international and domestic experts are coming together for a workshop entitled 'Public management and policy implementation for public health policy – new directions for research and practice'. But what is the history of collaboration between these respective academic disciplines? Are they, as the cliche goes, a match made in heaven? Gemma Carey discusses below in advance of the workshop next week.
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Women, work, and raising children is an oft-visited topic. But what about the men? In today’s post, Amanda Cooklin from LaTrobe University’s Transition to Contemporary Parenthood Program, shares recent research into how policy can better help fathers manage work-family conflict.
Read MoreWhen our politicians frame the discussion around welfare users by using such language as "dole bludgers" it is a deliberate tactic to validate punishing them - as we have seen with the Centrelink debt debacle and the accusations by staff that a faulty system was deliberately implemented. In today's post, Paul Michael Garrett explains how language use frames public opinion in the U.K. in unhelpful ways. Have ideologically underpinned debates, portraying those on welfare as being lazy and having an easy life, become part of collective public perceptions? With 2016 marking the 40th anniversary of the publication of Raymond Williams’ Keywords, an interrogation of the taken-for-grantedness of specific words used to support a neoliberal agenda is timely. Here, he looks at ‘welfare dependency’. This blog originally appeared on the London School of Economics' British Politics and Policy blog; the original can be viewed here.
Read MoreToday's post by Jim Simpson, Senior Advocate for the NSW Council for Intellectual Disability, examines hurdles the NDIS faces in NSW in offering people with disabilities - particularly those "on the fringe" who are vulnerable and marginalised - choice and control over the services and support they need. This piece was originally published on the NSW CID blog.
Read MoreAssociate Professor JaneMaree Maher marks the 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence which falls each year between 25 November, the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women and 10 December, Human Rights Day. The Monash Centre for Women's Studies and Gender Research will hold a forum on Friday December 9 exploring the shift from toleration to rejection.
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Homelessness is a rising problem in Melbourne, and escaping family violence is the single biggest reason that women and children experience homelessness. For many homeless children and young people, though, the problem is masked by high rates of couch surfing. In today’s blog post, Shorna Moore of WEstjustice and Kathy Landvogt of Good Shepherd Australia New Zealand share preliminary findings from a couch surfing report due to be released by WEstjustice in 2017. This blog is based on an article that recently ran in Parity.
Read MoreKirsty Nowlan, Executive Director, Social Policy and Advocacy at the Benevolent Society examines the major reforms being proposed for the NSW child protection system.
Read MoreIn this blog Simon Duffy explores the question of how to narrow the gap between public services (the official welfare state) and the community. He asks whether it is possible for use to develop a pro-community welfare state, one which works in harmony with its citizens, not against them.
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The exploitation of migrant workers in Australia is widespread, with current systems failing to stop the abuse. The WEstjustice Community Legal Centre Employment Law Project seeks to address this by consulting with newly arrived and refugee community members, leaders and organisations, and collaborating with community partners to improve employment outcomes. Project Lead Catherine Hemingway (@cathemingway) shares this summary of the Project's key findings and recommendations, to be released in an upcoming report: Not just work: ending the exploitation of refugee and migrant workers.
Read MoreCayte Hoppner, Director of Mental Health for Latrobe Regional Hospital (LRH) in south-eastern Victoria and a member of the Inner Gippsland Child and Youth Area Partnership steering group, has led a trial on how a whole agency can change practice to be trauma informed.
The training was rolled to nearly 300 staff members of the LRH's mental health services, across 13 sites and multiple disciplines and roles – from clinicians to cleaners – and is seen to have had a profound impact on the way that teams and individuals think and wor
Read MoreLast week Good Shepherd’s (@GoodAdvocacy) Financial Security Specialist, Tanya Corrie (@TanyaCorrie), attended a major gathering of anti-poverty advocates and services in Boston. Run by Empath (@DisruptPoverty), an organisation that has developed a unique approach to services, research, and advocacy, the conference explored new frontiers in disrupting inter-generational disadvantage, and of which Good Shepherd is a member. Here, Tanya highlights how services can use the latest brain science on stress and trauma in both delivering services and influencing systemic change.
Read MoreNSW Council for Intellectual Disability has been having lots of conversations and engaging with many people about the NDIS Information Linkages & Capacity Building Framework which is currently in consultation. Submissions on the framework can be made until 22 April. This post, originally published on the CID website, explores some of their initial thoughts on the framework and shares some of the ideas and themes that they are developing.
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