Social Work - Theses

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    A comprehensive planning & evaluation framework for dual disability service systems: co-existing intellectual disability & mental illness
    O'Neal, Paul Douglas ( 2005)
    This thesis focuses upon those people who are disadvantaged through the coexistence of intellectual disability and mental illness. This group is among the most vulnerable in contemporary Australian society. The overall purpose of this research is to develop a comprehensive planning and evaluation framework for dual disability service systems. This framework will address the complex needs of people living with co-existing intellectual disability and mental illness through the development of a plausible service system model. The framework will identify the parameters, principles, boundaries, structures, components, and processes of an effective and quality DD service system. It is anticipated that the development of a service system model will provide the foundation for addressing consumer and carer needs in a comprehensive, coordinated, and systematic way.
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    Professional aspirations and consumer expectations: nurses, midwives, and women's health
    GREHAN, MADONNA MAY ( 2009)
    This thesis undertakes a history of midwifery's present in the arena of Victoria, Australia. It asks: what lies behind midwifery's aspiration to differentiate itself as a profession, separate and distinct from nursing? The thesis applies contemporary and historical inquiry in two parts. In Part I, the contemporary arm, a review of discourses and policies was combined with individual (n=22) and group interviews (n=4) to discover the perspectives of nurses, midwives, consumers, and others, on midwifery's separation from nursing via its professionalising process. In the larger arm, Part II, midwifery's and nursing's historical and professional trajectories in Victoria were mapped from European settlement in the 1840s through to the present. This was achieved by detailed examination of a range of primary sources, including records of the Melbourne Women's Hospital, the Victorian parliament and its delegated authorities, and professional associations. The Foucauldian concept of government frames this interpretation of women's health care history. Government encompasses the themes of regulation and expertise, both of which are key elements in claiming status as a profession, and are argued here to be central in nursing's and midwifery's history. Because tensions over the status of pregnancy and birth as health states or potential illness states are longstanding, the concepts of health and illness also inform this inquiry. Midwifery's history is shown to be a contingent and complex history, intricately intertwined with that of nursing since the earliest days of settler society. Throughout 170 years of history following European settlement in Victoria, two themes dominate the provision of care to women, and the roles of midwives and nurses in that care. The primary theme is the safety of women. An interconnected theme is the politics of women's health, that is, the politics of delivering safety. Stemming from concerns about women's safety and how to achieve it, the arena of women's health care and the roles of midwives and nurses within it is characterised by a perennial cycle of seemingly intractable issues. These issues include: questions about who should practice midwifery/maternity care, under what conditions, what education and training is required for the role, perceived disparities between city and rural services, consumer choice, autonomy, and the cost of services. While the context in which these perennial problems are played out has changed considerably over time, and while the meaning of safety has shifted over time, the issues, themselves, have remained consistent. These intractable issues are a permanent feature of the women's health care arena. Over the 170 years of history examined here, they have not been resolved by the formation or reframing of professional identities, by the reconfiguration of education pathways, or by new models of care. Thus, the promise of a reformed maternity care service for the betterment of all women may not be achieved by midwifery's separation from nursing. In the Victorian setting, midwifery has had, and continues to have, much in common with nursing. A grasp of these historically-enduring commonalities confirms that there may be a lot to lose by midwifery's separation from nursing.
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    Gendered 'gerrymanders': a study of women candidates in the 1997 Victorian local government elections
    Cumberland, Rhonda ( 2000)
    Women’s political citizenship, particularly the right to represent locally is under a cloud since the Victorian council amalgamations of 1997. No longer is local government ‘the home’ of women’s representation. A reputation it earned when more women were elected to local government than State or Federal parliaments. Women’s local representation in percentage terms has failed to show increases like those recorded at State and Federal levels. This study describes the demographic characteristics of the 1997 local government women candidates and their policy issues. The candidates were identified as family women as most were married with children. Family and friends were also the main sources of candidate support. Two thirds of candidates worked either part-time or were not in the paid workforce at all, although most were highly educated. This could be explained by the age of the candidates which was late forties to early fifties. Only 9 per cent of candidates were of non-English speaking backgrounds. The candidates had strong backgrounds in community organisations, but organisations of all kinds including political parties were not supportive of women candidates. Most candidates supported the goals of the women’s movement, and wanted to be elected to local government in order to ‘bring back local democracy’ and to improve services. The experience of women candidates in the 1997 local government elections illustrates the need to develop a gendered theory of women’s participation in the so called ‘public sphere’. These women were in general disconnected from publicly defined power, such as high income networks. It might be useful to describe them as ‘privately empowered’. Women maximised the power of their private identities and relationships to transpose the barrier of public powerlessness. While ‘privately empowered’ election campaigns are not likely to reward women with equal political representation, they do illustrate the inextinguishable intentions of women to pursue legitimacy in the public sphere. Neat borders do not surround the public and private spheres. This finding needs to be considered in future analyses of public/private theory. Just like the pioneering women earlier this century, women enter local elections as independent candidates. The goal of equal and diverse representation appears more remote since collapsing 210 councils into 78 giving political gatekeepers permission to recreate so called ‘local democracy’ only in their image.