Health care for an immigrant nation: Policy and practice in Australia

Australia is one of the most multicultural nations on earth. Over 100 different languages are spoken by Australians in the normal course of their lives. 20% of its population was born in another country and 24% of Australians have one or both parents born overseas. It is within this socio‐demographic context that Australia has developed its social and institutional policies of multicultur‐alism provided the intellectual capital and impetus for the creation of a Migrant Health Policy. The latter, in turn, is responsible for the operational policies about language, culture, information marketing and agency operations, which govern the nature and extent of health care services to the community. This paper provides a historical view of the role of immigration in Australia's development, explains the policy creation process, its antecedents and its service outcomes, and concludes with a summary of the major challenges which confront the health care system in its quest to provide equitable, relevant and responsive services to a multilingual and multicultural community.     

Preventing child sexual abuse (CSA) in ethnic minority communities: A literature review and suggestions for practice in Australia

A systematic literature review was conducted to address the immense national gap in knowledge on child sexual abuse (CSA) and ethnic minority communities in Australia, which necessarily borrowed from overseas. One theme explored within the review was that of prevention, and it was found that school-based programs are the most common type of prevention effort. The literature also calls for ‘culturally tailored’ programs to avoid homogenising victims' needs, however in Western multicultural countries like Australia there is a risk that such school-based programs heighten racism for ethnic minority children. Thus, program elements that are culturally sensitive could be incorporated into universal programs instead. Universal programs are also beneficial because they help reach many children regardless of their cultural background, help send the message that all children are equally valued and protected, help create unity and support among diverse victims, and can be further justified by three relatively stable cross-cultural findings: (i) that the prevalence of CSA is high worldwide, (ii) all children require protection irrespective of gender, and (iii) perpetrators are usually known to the victim. To help mobilise their role, service providers could co-deliver school-based programs especially to address institutional CSA within schools. They could also provide training to other health professionals to improve their identification of CSA and confidence to probe; a form of early intervention and therefore ‘secondary prevention’. Overall, this review argues that the importance of family reputation in collectivist cultures needs to be taken into account when designing and evaluating prevention programs so that delays in disclosure and help-seeking due to cultural pressure are not mistaken as evidence for their ineffectiveness. The findings are significant because they help progress the ‘prevention’ field in Australia where literature is essentially absent, particularly in the school and service system arenas.     

Preventing substance abuse and relationship violence: Proof-of-concept evaluation of a social,multi-user,tablet-based game

Increasing evidence suggests that using technology and Internet-based methods in prevention programming can be an efficacious delivery practice. This literature implies that applying digital technologies to prevention may provide a unique opportunity to carry out interventions with reliability and in a manner that is more appealing and suitable to youth. This exploratory study reports on a proof-of-concept evaluation of Choices & Consequences, a substance abuse and relationship violence prevention program that integrates digital technologies and devices with game-based behavior change techniques. Six focus groups (N = 44) were conducted with youth living in a Southwestern city. Results suggest that youth preferred various aspects of this prevention game to traditional methods. They especially liked that the game was engaging and that they were able to learn in both formal and informal environments, that is interacting with each other and a facilitator or playing the game on their own. Results also found that youth learned many lessons while playing the game and they believe the game may help prevent substance abuse and relationship violence among the target population of early adolescents. Thus, this research suggests that prevention programs for youth that combine interactive methods, mobile technology, social networking, and competitive gaming could be a strong alternative to traditional delivery methods.     

Domestic violence: a priority in child protection in New South Wales,Australia?

Over the last several years there has been increasing awareness of the connection between domestic violence and child abuse, yet only minimal attention has been paid to the implications of this for child protection practice. This article begins to address this gap. Drawing on research undertaken in New South Wales (NSW), Australia, it examines child protection practice in relation to children and young people who have been exposed to domestic violence. The research involved analysis of the responses of the statutory child protection authority in NSW (the Department of Community Services or DoCS) to abuse allegations involving domestic violence. The data are drawn from observation and analysis of the initial responses to referrals to DoCS and the ‘tracking’ of a sample of these referrals over an 18 month period. From the data obtained, it is evident that domestic violence referrals are treated less seriously than other referrals, with more being confirmed as abuse but fewer resulting in follow up or intervention. The implications of this for child protection practice are teased out. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Child abuse in the context of domestic violence: prevalence, explanations, and practice implications

This article addresses the following questions: (a) How common is child abuse among domestically violent families? (b) Are there specific patterns of child abuse among domestically violent families? (c) What may explain occurrences of child abuse in domestically violent families? (d) How might domestic violence affect treatment for child abuse? We review research on child abuse in the context of domestic violence. We discuss implications of this research for service-delivery programs for domestically violent families.     

Development practice and violence against women

Development research and practice reflect three main approaches to violence against women (VAW). The efficiency approach emphasizes the deleterious impact of VAW on medical costs, women's labor force participation, and the need for police involvement. A second approach focuses on VAW as an obstacle to their full participation in development programs. A third perspective conceptualizes VAW as a contradiction to human development, whether in terms of human rights, bodily integrity, or the need to enlarge personal choices and control. Education, networking, and employment are of central relevance to the resolution of domestic violence. Awareness of the possibility that women are experiencing violence should be central to all development interventions, regardless of their focus or target group. There is a danger, however, of viewing VAW as merely a correlate of underdevelopment or poverty. The dominant risk factor is not poverty; it is being female. Policy approaches must recognize the endemic nature of VAW, support research into prevalence, and address the unequal gender power relations that create such violence.     

Babies, Budgets, and Birthrates: Work/Family Policy in Australia 1996-2006

Work/family reconciliation policies can be harnessed to diversepolitical agendas, ranging from feminist-inspired equality strategiesto coercive, neo-liberal programs. In Australia, such policieshave served a range of ends under different governments. Thisarticle focuses on developments since 1996 when the conservativecoalition parties led by John Howard were elected to government.It explores three policy domains that are central to Australia'swork/family agenda: family payments, maternity/parental leave,and child care. Changes in these areas are situated in the contextof the government's broader strategies concerning labor marketflexibility, tax reform, and declining fertility. The articleargues that there has been a substantial retreat from the "femocrat"strategies adopted under Labor in the 1980s and early 1990s.The general thrust of the Howard government has been to discouragelabor force participation of mothers of young children, withthe important exception of sole parents. In a number of areaspolicies are inconsistent, reflecting the government's ambivalenceabout whether to support women as home-based carers, wage earners,or both.     

Preventing violence in disadvantaged communities: Strategies for building collective efficacy and improving community health

ABSTRACT

Violence is a critical health issue that compromises the strength of communities and permanently damages the lives of individuals and families. The impact of violence on health and well-being is particularly devastating in disadvantaged and minority communities, leading to negative health outcomes, including premature death. However, research suggests that communities can prevent violence and negative health outcomes by developing collective efficacy, which happens when neighbors share norms and values, trust one another, and are willing to intervene to address problems. Despite the importance of collective efficacy in preventing violence and improving health, almost no research has investigated actionable strategies to build collective efficacy in disadvantaged neighborhoods. This article describes a theoretical and conceptual model that illustrates how collective efficacy impacts community violence and related health outcomes. We begin by reviewing other approaches to community violence prevention, including criminal justice and developmental approaches. We then discuss how collective efficacy works and why it matters, including theoretical and empirical research explaining collective efficacy and its impact on community violence and health. We then discuss a research-based intervention that social workers can use to facilitate collective efficacy, including our conceptual model and the key components of the intervention. Finally, we discuss implications for social workers who are working with communities to address violence and related health issues.     

Policy,citizenship and governance: the case of disability and employment policy in Australia

Current discussions regarding the relationship between welfare governance systems and employment promotion in disability policy appeal to a rejuvenated neo-liberal and paternalistic understanding of welfare governance. At the core of this rationality is the argument that people with disabilities not only have rights, but also duties, in relation to the State. In the Australia welfare system, policy tools are deployed to produce a form of self-discipline, whereby the State emphasises personal responsibility via assessment tools, ‘mutual obligation’ policy, and motivational strategies. Drawing on a two-year semi-longitudinal study with 80 people with a disability accessing welfare benefits, we examine how welfare governance subject recipients to strategies to produce productive citizens who are able to contribute to the national goal of maintaining competitiveness in the global economy. Participants’ interviews reveal the intended and unintended effects of this activation policy, including some acceptance of the logic of welfare-to-work and counter-hegemonic resistance to de-valued social identities.     

Logics of violence: Religion and the practice of philosophy

Abstract

By considering the way in which the mechanism of the scapegoat in René Girard's work is predicated on a phenomenal and anthropic understanding of violence, the following shows how Girard's anthropological conception of religion determines and limits from the beginning relations between the violent and the nonviolent and the phenomenal and the nonphenornenal. This conception is then inscribed within a larger economy of violence that opens up Girard's account of victimization and sacrifice to wider determinations. Important distinctions are made along the way between the human sciences, religion, ethics and philosophy. If the work of Jacques Derrida in particular and deconstruction in general permit this widening in this article, I then argue however that such concepts as originary violence also short‐circuit the differentiations, with which we are concerned, to address, with and beyond Girard, a radical ethics of the lesser violence.     

Third Sector Social Policy Research in Australia: New Actors,New Politics

Human service NGOs have become central actors in contemporary welfare states. The broadening of the role of NGOs in Australia as both providers of the human services that are an integral part of the welfare state and as lobbyists or advocates and agents of social change has been widely acknowledged; however, this paper focuses on a recent deepening of the role of human service NGOs in the Australian welfare state by exploring an additional dimension of their growth. Based on a recent study, it is evident that there has been increasing involvement by human service NGOs in the production of social policy knowledge through ‘policy research’ activities. The research mapped policy research activities, policy research infrastructure and policy research resources in human service NGOs, and also captured NGO policy researchers’ perceptions of the rationales and motivations driving NGOs in this direction. It was clear that this shift is based on strong beliefs that researchers located within human service agencies are best placed to produce the kind of knowledge that should form the basis of social policies responding to human need. Other drivers identified by policy researchers suggest, however, that the inclusion of third sector organizations in policy processes cannot simply be understood as the ‘opening up’ or ‘democratization’ of social policy processes to include Third Sector participants. The motivations for human service NGOs moving into social policy knowledge production in Australia are thus complex and diverse. Drawing on the findings of our study, Researching the Researchers, this paper reflects on the implications of this reconfiguration of welfare state politics. Who produces the knowledge that influences, moulds, and even determines the allocation of resources for the delivery of human services, and how this knowledge is produced have been ongoing concerns in social policy scholarship. We suggest, that in the case of human service NGOs in Australia, entry into the field of social policy research can be understood as a reconfiguring of the democratic system of policy determination. It may also be one in which the NGOs become ‘experts’ on citizens’ needs through research practices that are fundamentally less, rather than more inclusive, of the subjects of social policy. The implications of a possible shift in power to influence and in some cases determine who gets what in the welfare state is of deep concern in relation to future models of social protection and ultimately the redistributive and democratic processes of nation states. This paper seeks to question the often-unquestioned ascendancy of the third sector in welfare and asks whether this shift is in keeping with the democratic process and whether it is the best way to determine and satisfy human need.     

Navigating Globalization: Immigration Policy in Canada and Australia, 1945–20071

Scholarship on immigration and globalization has failed to adequately analyze the nation‐state’s regulatory capacities, insisting instead that contemporary patterns of migration jeopardize national sovereignty and territoriality. While recognized that states possess the legitimate authority to control their territorial and membership boundaries, recent transformations of these capacities remain largely unanalyzed. This article’s historical analysis of Australia and Canada’s postwar immigration policies demonstrates that the contours of state regulation are intimately connected to the exigencies of state administration and nation building and—in contrast to the expectations of dominant theories—have intensified and expanded within the globalization context. The literature’s inattention to the fundamentally political nature of immigration has obscured the critical effects of national policies within both the migratory and globalization process. Australia’s and Canada’s contemporary policies constitute a unique model of migration control and reflect attempts by both countries to strategically position their societies within the global system and resolve a number of economic, political, cultural, and demographic transitions associated with globalization.     

Domestic violence research: Theoretical and practice implications for social work

Identified in the late eighties as the number one public health risk to adult women by the Surgeon General of the United States, domestic violence remains the leading cause of injuries to women, ages 15 to 44, more common than muggings, auto accidents and cancer deaths combined (U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee, 1992). Academics and practitioners have assessed the problem and its potential solutions using both quantitative and qualitative research methods. Yet, how far have we come and how much do we really know? This paper will attempt to answer these questions by critiquing the “current state of affairs” of domestic violence research. Common theories of causation and their applications to social work theory and practice will be delineated and an ecologically based intervention for domestic violence will be proposed.     

Independent Living: gender, violence and the threat of violence

In what ways is independent living for young adults with disabilities compromised by violence and its threat? A qualitative study of 42 young adults with severe physical disabilities explored their perceptions and concerns about independent living, access to services and the meeting of needs. Young women especially experienced difficulties about leaving home, because of their own and their parents' fears about vulnerability; some who did leave home experienced highly restricted social lives because of anxiety about neighbourhood violence. Few had established partnerships, but violence and sexual abuse from partners emerged as an issue for which there is little policy. Control and abuse within caring relationships are serious issues for those who need personal care. Violence and lack of protection may undermine independent living, especially for women.     

Immigration Policy in Australia,Canada, New Zealand,and the United States: An Overview of Recent Trends

Immigration policies in most host nations of the west have undergone significant changes in recent years. Based on the four country‐specific papers that appear in this section of the journal, and also on our own research, we present an overview of these changes and their context. In all countries, economic considerations play a central role in shaping immigration policy and greater importance is given to scientific research. Several common policy changes are noted in Australia, Canada and New Zealand which include: a shift away from a human capital focus toward more targeted selection based on labor market demand for specific skills, increased emphasis on temporary foreign worker programs, attraction of international students, an overhauling of the refugee system, and regionalization of immigration. In the U.S., while adoption of some of these changes has often surfaced in public policy and academic discussions, legalization of unauthorized migrants remains an important policy debate, with recent arguments focusing on the economic benefits of legalization.     

Title lending as a predatory practice: Subprime populations and financial violence

The passage of the Dodd‐Frank Act in 2010 ushered in the most ambitious financial reforms since the Banking Act of 1933. The core of the Act centered on ensuring more consumer protections from predatory financial practices through the creation of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), which provided federal oversight of fringe lenders that profited off of high‐interest loans such as payday and automobile title loans. Yet the current deregulatory environment being promoted by the Trump administration is once again loosening the reins on fringe lenders that provide quick access to cash at triple digit interest rates. In this article, I provide an overview of the alternative finance service industry with a specific focus on one such instrument: auto title loans. Drawing upon governmental reports and the literature, I provide a comprehensive overview of the how the industry functions and who it targets. By focusing on the profit model that undergirds the title loan industry, I show how the profitability of the industry is directly tied to the extended vulnerability of its customer base. I conclude by offering suggestions for researchers to rethink predatory lending practices as a form of financial violence in order to reframe the discourse surrounding predatory lending.     

Policy interventions designed to combat sexual violence: community notification and civil commitment

Much attention has been given to the problem of sexual predators and the struggles of the legal-justice system to contain them. In response to public outcry over high-profile sex crimes, federal and state legislators have responded in the past decade with innovative but controversial public policy initiatives, called "sexually violent predator statutes." In 1996 President Clinton signed "Megan's Law," mandating all 50 states to develop requirements for convicted sex offenders to register with local law enforcement agencies and to notify communities when a sex offender lives in close proximity. Less publicized have been the civil commitment statutes introduced by 16 states which allow convicted sex offenders to be evaluated for involuntary and indefinite confinement in a psychiatric hospital following their release from prison. This article will review the literature regarding community notification and civil commitment as interventions designed to combat sexual violence. The history and context of each policy will be discussed, as will a review of available research evaluating the impact of each policy. Implications for future research and social policy will be examined.