About

The giving and receiving of support and care is intensely personal and intimate. At the same time, support and care is formed by context and history. Its ethical, political and philosophical dimensions are highly contested.

In Australia, there is a growing demand for attention to support and care, for example in relation to future provision for older people, the contribution of unpaid carers, and the implementation of the National Disability Insurance Scheme.

Parallel developments are seen in many other countries. Support and care is rapidly emerging as an urgent research and education challenge for the coming decades.

Social Policy & Practice Research Program brings together researchers and educators within RMIT’s Social and Global Studies Centre. Its objective is to create new understandings and practices that benefit citizens and communities in situations of vulnerability and precarity.

Aims

The key aims of the Social Policy & Practice Research Program are to

• Advance social justice and promote social, economic and cultural inclusion
• Engage in collaborative research that impacts on policy, practice and services
• Create social innovation through user-centred design and place-shaping
• Foster cross-disciplinary approaches and learn from experts-by-experience
• Achieve benefit with and for the most disenfranchised and precarious populations

Research

The program engages with the complexities that give shape to the lives of people in situations of vulnerability.  Inter-disciplinary perspectives and principles of inclusive research are central.  Members of the research program are drawn from across RMIT University.  The research proceeds through strong collaboration with community service organisations and consumer groups.

The research interests of the program span support and care in relation to older people, people with disabilities, mental health, children, youth and families, unpaid carers, and Indigenous communities.  It attends to multiple identities and interdependency in our social relations.  Integrated models of policy, planning and service delivery are of special concern.

Particular areas of research focus include:

• Health, wellbeing, and critical care studies
• Geographies and technologies of support and care
• Marketisation in the support and care landscape
• Precarity, resistance, and community capacity building
• Consumer directed care and flexible funding models
• Service design and co-production
• Diversity, equity and access

Activities

The main activities of the program include

• Generating shared discourses through inclusive conversation
• ‘Meet and share’ events
• Accessible and quick communication updates
• Promotion of emergent research opportunities and recruitment of internal (RMIT) and external (academic and industry) project team members
• Linkages to aligned RMIT research networks
• Mentoring opportunities
• Connecting with international research groups and thought leaders

Recent Publications 

2018

Books

Crowhurst, M. and Emslie, M. 2018, ‘Working creatively with stories and learning experiences : engaging with queerly identifying tertiary students’, Springer Nature, Cham, Switzerland ISBN: 9783319697536.

Commissioned Reports

RMIT University & CPA Australia (2018), Mergers, Amalgamations & Acquisitions in the Australian Not-for-Profit Human Services Sector; N Subramaniam, A Lowe, Y Nama and R West, School of Business-GAL, RMIT University, Melbourne.

2017

Books

Durham, C.,Ramcharan, P. (2017). Insight into brain injury: Factors for feeling and faring better, Springer, Singapore.

Commissioned Reports

David, C.,Nipperess, S.,Maylea, C. (2017). Submission to the Joint Standing Committee Inquiry into Transitional Arrangements for the National Disability Insurance Scheme In: Refugee Council of Australia Canberra, Australia.

West, R.,Ramcharan, P. (2017). Evaluation of the Financial Consumer Rights Council – dignity and debt: financial difficulty and getting older initiative In: Financial Consumer Rights Council Melbourne, Australia.

Journal Articles

Connolly, M.,Williams, C.,Cooper, L. (2017). Strengthening the knowledge base: a research framework for social work education? In: Advances in Social Work and Welfare Education, 19, 25 – 36.

David, C. & West, R. (2017). NDIS Self-Management Approaches: Opportunities for choice and control or an Uber-style wild west? In: Australian Journal of Social Issues, 52:4, 331-346.

Egan, V.,Maidment, J.,Connolly, M. (2017). Trust, Power and Safety in the Social Work Supervisory Relationship: Results from Australian Research In: Journal of Social Work Practice, 31, 307 – 321

Emslie, M. and Watts, R. 2017, ‘On technology and the prospects for good practice in the human services: Donald Schön, Martin Heidegger, and the case for phronesis and praxis’, in Social Service Review, University of Chicago Press, United States, vol. 91, no. 2, pp. 319-356.

Emslie, M. 2017, ‘Social enterprise and the paradox of young people and risk taking: A view from Australia’, in Youth & Policy, Haymarket Publishing, United Kingdom, no. 117, 1-5.

Grant, G.,Pollard, N.,Allmark, P.,Machaczek, K.,Ramcharan, P. (2017). The social relations of a health walk group: an ethnographic study In: Qualitative Health Research, 27, 1701 – 1712.

Rollins, W.,Egan, V.,Zuchowski, I.,Duncan, M.,Chee, P.,Muncey, P.,Hill, N.,Higgins, M. (2017). Leading Through Collaboration: The National Field Education Network In: Advances in Social Work and Welfare Education, 19, 48 – 61.

West, R.,Ramcharan, P.,Basser, L. (2017). Apparently we have human rights to health? Health and human rights frameworks of people with disabilities in Victoria In: Australian Journal of Human Rights, 23, 24 – 41.

West R A and Jones M (2017) ‘Support & Care Research Program: Opportunities, barriers and strategies for cross-disciplinary collaboration’, Feb 2017; School of Global, Urban and Social Studies (GUSS); College of Design and Social Context (DSC), RMIT University, Melbourne.

2016

Book Chapters

Costello, S.,Raxworthy, J. (2016). Educating for urban social work In: Social Work and the City: Urban Themes in 21st Century Social Work, Palgrave Macmillan, London, United Kingdom.

Westhorp, G.,Stevens, K.,Rogers, P. (2016). Using realist action research for service redesignIn: Evaluation, 22, 361 – 379.

Williams, C. (2016). Beyond the soup kitchen In: Social Work and the City: Urban Themes in 21st-Century Social Work, Palgrave MacMillan, United Kingdom.

Williams, C.,Graham, M. (2016). Emergent theory for practice In: Social Work in a Diverse Society, Policy Press, Bristol, United Kingdom.

Williams, C. (2016). Making sense of the city In: Social Work and the City: Urban Themes in 21st-Century Social Work, Palgrave MacMillan, United Kingdom.

Williams, C. (2016). Reconstructing urban social work In: Social Work and the City: Urban themes in 21st Century Social Work, Palgrave Macmillan, Australia.

Williams, C. (2016). Social issues and the city: New directions in practice In: Social Work and the City: Urban Themes in 21st-Century Social Work, Palgrave MacMillan, United Kingdom.

Williams, C. (2016). Social work education and the challenge of race equality In: Routledge International Handbook of Social Work Education, Routledge, Abingdon, United Kingdom.

Williams, C. (2016). Social work and the urban age In: Social Work and the City: Urban Themes in 21st-Century Social Work, Palgrave MacMillan, United Kingdom.

Williams, C. (2016). Social work research and the city In: Social Work and the City: Urban Themes in 21st-Century Social Work, Palgrave MacMillan, United Kingdom.

Journal Articles

Egan, V.,Jane, M.,Connolly, M. (2016). Who is watching whom? Surveillance in Australian social work supervision In: British Journal of Social Work, 46, 1617 – 1635.

Egan, V.,Maidment, J.,Connolly, M. (2016). Supporting quality supervision: insights for organisational practice In: International Social Work, , 1 – 15.

Emslie, M. 2016, ‘The entanglement of the stuff and practice of human service work: A case for complexity’, in Social Work and Social Sciences Review, Whiting and Birch, United Kingdom, vol. 18, no. 2, pp. 25-42.

Emslie, M. 2016, ”One-eyed hobby horses’, practice theories and good youth work’, in Journal of Applied Youth Studies, Centre for Applied Youth Studies, Tasmania, Australia, vol. 1, no. 3, pp. 5-23.

Laragy, C.,David, C.,Moran, N. (2016). A framework for providing information in individualised funding programmes In: Qualitative Social Work, 15, 190 – 208

Laragy C, Ramcharan P, Fisher K, McCraw K, Williams R (2016) MAKING IT WORK A workforce guide for disability service providers: A Practical Design Fund project funded by the Australian Government Department of Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs, RMIT University Melbourne, Australia.