From clinicians to cleaners: leading trauma informed practice to trial whole-of-agency training in the Inner Gippsland

Cayte 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

IssuesPower to Persuade20 October 2016

An AntiPoverty Week Open Letter to Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull

n an open letter to Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull during Anti-Poverty Week, the Australian Council of Social Service (ACOSS) and the Campaign for Australian Aid, along with 36 signatories, have called on the Australian Government to take meaningful action to fight domestic and global poverty.

AdvocacyPower to Persuade20 October 2016social welfare

Challenges to the sector: Do you have a majority of people with disabilities on your board, staff, membership?

The Strengthening Disability Advocacy Conference hosted recently in Melbourne by the Disability Advocacy Resource Unit (DARU) included a session on applying a human rights based approach to person-centred service delivery. It asked:

What role can or should disability advocacy play in a landscape of person-centred service delivery?
How do we make sure that mainstream services are accessible to people with disability?
What will best practice look like?

Advocacy for Inclusion CEO Christina Ryan was a panelist at the session and delivered this address to open her contribution, which included a big challenge to all community service organisations in the room.

AdvocacyPower to Persuade19 October 2016disability

Are women and care professions leading a new type of union politics?

Recent effective election campaigns by nurses and teachers may point the way to new industrial campaigning on issues that is led by women and will shift beyond the traditional union-Labor party dynamic, writes Ben Spies-Butcher in the post below.

It was originally published at the POP Politics Blog and is republished here with permission.

Womens Policy Action TankPower to Persuade17 October 2016data and evidence for advocacy

Networking for Change: the role of the National Women’s Alliances in the women’s movement

Today we present the final blog post from Putting Women at the Centre: A Policy Forum. Hannah Gissane (@hannahgissane) from the Equality Rights Alliance (@ERAAustralia) discusses the role of feminist networks in advocacy. She covers a brief history – or herstory – of women’s networks in Australia, including the ERA. She then discusses networks as influencers, capacity builders, and movements, concluding that networks help women reach out to each other for support, exchange of knowledge, growth, and to generate the energy needed to do the difficult but essential work of advancing equality.

Womens Policy Action Tank, AdvocacyPower to Persuade14 October 2016social inequalities

Women's Policy Action Tank: Asbestos, mesothelioma, and the predictive model 'gender gap'

A/Prof Alison Reid of Curtin University knows more than most about predictive models for the asbestos-related cancer mesothelioma. In today's Women's Policy Action Tank she draws on her ANZSOG-funded research in the latest issue of Evidence Base journal to explain why these models are important to get right - and why we need to pay attention to women as well as men!

One is the loneliest number: mitigating the effects of social isolation

Today’s blog post by Policy Whisperer Susan Maury (@SusanMaury) examines the intersection between social isolation and flourishing, particularly for young people. Australians report feeling increasingly lonely, which has alarming cognitive, social and health consequences across the lifespan. It is time to incorporate a proactive, universal approach to ensuring young people know how to create and sustain positive social relationships.

Social Policy WhispererDr Susan Maury11 October 2016education, evidence-based policy, exclusion, susan maury

Economic mobility, brain science, and systems of support

Last 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.

Intersectionality: tackling privilege, colonisation, oppression, and the elimination of violence against all women.

At this year’s Prevalent and Preventable Conference organised by the Australian Women Against Violence Alliance (AWAVA) and Our Watch, there was a dedicated stream to exploring intersectionality within the Australian context, in relation to responding to, and preventing violence against women, specifically those who have been ‘minoritised’ by the dominant social groups. Intersectional theory is by no means new, however its more centralised inclusion in the violence against women discourse is. Many feminist and critical race theorists have long suggested and warned that ‘culture talk’ in relation to violence against women is a double-edged sword – whilst it may obscure gender-based domination within communities, it also highlights the importance of cultural considerations for contextualising oppressed groups claim for justice, for improving their access to services, and for requiring dominant groups to examine the invisible cultural advantages they enjoy.

This blog piece provides a reflection of the intersectionality stream and is posted as a Storify by the Women's Policy Action Tank.

AdvocacyPower to Persuade6 October 2016social justice, violence against women, human rights

Forced Marriage: More than a crime

As an egregious abuse of human rights and an often hidden form of violence against women and children, forced marriage needs very specific policy responses. Currently, the major response is a legal one, requiring police intervention. Good Shepherd Australia New Zealand has been a key driver in increasing awareness of its prevalence in Australia, through conducting research (The Right to Refuse) and helping to establish the Victorian Forced Marriage Network. Good Shepherd’s Kathy Landvogt explains why a criminal response, while important, is not adequate.

Quarter Time at the Productivity Commission inquiry into social services: who’s winning?

The Productivity Commission’s inquiry into Human Services has released its interim report, and Policy Whisperer Paul Smyth identifies the social services sector as leading the match – but is there scope to carry this important conversation to completion? Together with Eleanor Malbon and Gemma Carey, Paul led a coordinated response to the Inquiry in the form of the report Social Service Futures and the Productivity Commission.

Women at risk during disasters due to poor understanding of gendered differences

Today’s policy analysis examines how the government response to disasters puts women at greater risk due to a lack of gender analysis. Stereotyped role assumptions underpin women’s increased vulnerability; they are more likely to experience violence and financial hardship immediately following a disaster, and are are less likely to have received disaster preparedness training. What is known about gendered differences to disasters needs to be incorporated into an effective strategy to keep women and children safer.

What does the Trudeau era mean for the social inequalities that spawn health inequalities? With appreciation to the insights of The Who

One year into the election win by Justin Trudeau and the Liberals in Canada, Prof Dennis Raphael of York University Canada (@DennisRaphael01) assesses progress on the social issues that underpin health. With promises to act on climate change, income inequality, and the inequities experienced by indigenous Canadians, is this government a harbinger of change or a party that "campaigns from the left yet governs from the right"?

Welfare investment approach ‘revolutionary’ — or is it?

Social Services Minister Christian Porter hails his new welfare investment approach as “close to revolutionary”. But how much is it a shift from the hardline approach? This piece, by David Donaldson, was originally published on The Mandarin.

Policy and governance, InnovationPower to Persuade1 October 2016social welfare, social inequalities

Why commissioning is like a unicorn

Today's post from Dr Helen Dickenson is on how the existence of high-quality commissioning is a bit like a unicorn, elusive and prone to unintended stabbiness. It first appeared on her website.

Policy and governancePower to Persuade26 September 2016cross-sector relationships

Reform and the (not so) new role of stewardship

Australian reform discussions have of late focused around some seemingly new language and ideas concerned with stewardship and commissioning. This is being touted as a fundamental change in what government does, but what does this actually mean and will it really lead to significant reform? Helen Dickinson asks these questions and more in our latest post.

Ideas about Info, Linkages, Capacity Building and the NDIS

NSW 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.

IssuesPower to Persuade21 September 2016disability

Complexity and Method: Bridging the Divide

In May this year, Power to Persuade Moderator Luke Craven participated in the Little Heresies in Public Policy seminar series at Newcastle University. Drawing on his experience researching 'wicked' policy problems, his talk explored how systems mapping can be combined with focus group techniques to analyse the strengths of different patterns of relationships within complex systems. Doing so can help us more effectively understand the relationships between complexity and evidence-based policymaking.

Creating using evidencePower to Persuade20 September 2016evidence-based policy

Machinery of Government changes: could there be a better way?

Structural changes to government have become a common occurrence in Australia. But, in what circumstances are these so-called 'Machinery of Government' changes worth their while? Dr Gemma Carey reports on a comparison between Canadian and Australian contexts.

Policy and governancePower to Persuade19 September 2016government, policy making

Productivity commission findings on education - just the tip of the iceberg?

r Raymond Young UNSW Canberra

‘Lifting the bonnet on Australia’s schools” is the provocative title of a recent Productivity Commission draft report1. It seems that spending per student has increased by 14% over the past 10 years but performance has not improved. However, it would have been far better if the report “lifted the bonnet on policy in general” because there is evidence that suggests little to none of our spending delivers the desired outcomes.

IssuesPower to Persuade15 September 2016education

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