Social Work - Theses
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ItemThe pursuit of aboriginal control of child welfare( 1989)This is essentially a study of Aboriginal child welfare in Victoria today. However, from necessity it is more than this for the study cannot be undertaken without reference to the events and policies of the last 200 years. Nor can it be isolated from the range of issues confronting Aboriginal communities today including the realms of health and education as well as the broader community services arena. The theme of this study is Aboriginal community control, a call by Aboriginal people for an abandonment of past and present approaches by governments, and for the opportunity for Aboriginal people to determine their destinies in ways they wish. This call is particularly strong in the child welfare field where there has been a failure of governments, at both state and national levels, to address Aboriginal child welfare issues. Government rhetoric, both Commonwealth and Victorian, is about "self-determination". Aboriginal demands are for "community control". This study will be looking at the gap between government policies and practices, with the emphasis on the child welfare field, and between government policies and practices and Aboriginal demands. (From Introduction)
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ItemThe application of the Queensland Adoption Act 1964-1988 to the traditional adoption practice of Torres Strait Islanders( 1989)The intention of this study is to examine the relevance of applying the Queensland Adoption Act 1964-1988 to the traditional adoption practice of Torres Strait Islanders. The concept of adoption as defined by the Queensland adoption legislation reflects the cultural context of “white Australia” and the intention of the Adoption Act 1964-1988 is to legalise a specific concept of adoption. This study will show that the Queensland Government, through the Department of Family Services, the Department which has the responsibility for implementing adoption legislation, does not make any allowance for differing views of adoption. The accepted definition of adoption is biased toward the dominant white culture in Queensland and the legislation was intended to service the needs of the dominant white culture.
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ItemSingle mothers who keep their children: an exploratory study to investigate how the needs of keeping single mothers were met in Victoria between 1969 to 1975, with special reference to the Council of the Single Mother and Her Child( 1976)This study investigates some of the problems encountered by single or ex-nuptial mothers and their children.
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ItemReflecting on decision-making in child protection practice( 1988)The aim of the study was primarily to inform the protective services field by examining the nature of decision-making in protective intervention work, its unique features, its successes and failures. I shall argue that child protection services cannot be seen in isolation from the wider community services field of which they are a part. In addition, the discussion to follow will highlight the significant influence brought to bear on the child protection worker by those other workers in the child welfare field with whom there is constant interaction. On that basis, questions will be raised about the way in which we locate responsibility for the protection of children with one group in the community, namely the child protection services' workers.
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ItemA case study in the practice of social intervention: government intervention in Aboriginal affairs (Victoria) 1834-1972( 1975)The study is of the social intervention programmes undertaken by government in the State of Victoria with respect to the original inhabitants of that territory, the Aborigines. The study describes selectively and briefly some early programmes from 1834 to 1957 noting the existence of value conflicts, the resulting dilemmas and the compromises which ultimately produced these programmes. It is argued that these programmes were at best only partially successful in resolving some of the dilemmas, and in so doing created new ones for the future. It is also argued that they were programmes not aimed at resolving the problems in social functioning which existed for the Aborigines but were designed to effect social control, the goal sought being the conversion of the Aborigines from their way to the European one. In 1957 the fragmentary residual administration could no longer cope with the problem and pressure groups forced a government enquiry subsequently referred to as the McLean report. As a result the Aborigines Welfare Board was established. The study examines in considerable detail the policy and programmes of this administration through selective use of a wide range of qualitative and quantitative processes, and it is argued that for such a study the data must relate to the problem. Some of the categories of data include the historical record, government files, public comment in the press, parliamentary debate, economic, statistical and demographic records. It is noted that the focus of this administration shifts to the individual Aboriginal person and family and expresses primary concern in resolving their problems of social functioning. For the first time professional social workers are employed. As an effective broad aim intervention programme the Aborigines Welfare Board programme suffered from a number of significant flaws, however, it recognised its inability to come to grips with the dimensions of the task as it had come to perceive them and took steps which led to new legislation in 1967. The study then makes an analysis, comparing and contrasting the Aborigines Welfare Board and the Ministry of Aboriginal Affairs administrations and draws a limited number of conclusions in the form of hypotheses about broad-spectrum social intervention programmes. The total thus forms a case study in the practice of social intervention with more intensive study of the period 1957-72.