Social Work Practice in Health: An Introduction to Contexts, Theories and Skills

225 Pages·2022·8.236 MB·English

by  Melissa Petrakis

Social Work Practice in Health

Health services practice or working with clients facing health issues requires diverse
approaches and wide-ranging knowledge. In this fully revised and expanded second
edition, Melissa Petrakis draws on the experience and expertise of leading researchers
and practitioners to provide a guide to the disparate settings in which social workers
are engaged and the conceptual frameworks and skills needed for effective practice.
Including new chapters on compassion in healthcare, neoliberalism and health, social
justice, suicidal distress, and health social work in regional, rural and remote settings, the
book begins by examining the nature of health social work and considers its core values
and principles. Part I also provides an overview of the social determinants of health. Part
II explores key areas of practice including trauma-informed practice, mental health, aged
care, dual diagnosis and working with people living with disability. Part III looks at
politicised issues, reform agendas in the field including indigenous approaches to health,
refugee health, and concludes by considering how a focus on well-being informed by
Maori approaches could provide new insights into better practice.
Underpinning the book throughout is a clear guide to assessment procedures, case
management, strengths-based practices and developing effective partnerships and
collaboration. All this makes Social Work Practice in Health a key reference tool for
social work students and practitioners.
Melissa Petrakis is an associate professor in social work at Monash University in Melbourne,
Australia, and director of SWITCH Research Group. She is a senior research fellow with St
Vincent’s Hospital Melbourne’s Mental Health Service, and has over 30 years’ experience in
public health and mental health service provision, management and research.

Social Work Practice in Health
An Introduction to Contexts, Theories and Skills
Second Edition
Edited by
Melissa Petrakis
Cover image: © Getty Images
Second edition published 2023
by Routledge
4 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
and by Routledge
605 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10158
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2023 selection and editorial matter, Melissa Petrakis; individual chapters, the
contributors
The right of Melissa Petrakis to be identified as the author of the editorial material, and of
the authors for their individual chapters, has been asserted in accordance with sections 77
and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any
form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented,
including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system,
without permission in writing from the publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered
trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to
infringe.
First edition published by Routledge, 2018
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Petrakis, Melissa, editor.

Title: Social work practice in health : an introduction to contexts, theories and skills /

edited by Melissa Petrakis.

Description: 2nd edition. | Abingdon, Oxon ; New York, NY : Routledge, 2023. |

Includes bibliographical references and index. |

Identifiers: LCCN 2022025991 (print) | LCCN 2022025992 (ebook) |

ISBN 9781032202709 (hbk) | ISBN 9781032362083 (pbk) | ISBN 9781003330745 (ebk)

Subjects: LCSH: Social service--Australia. | Public health--Australia. |

Medical social work--Australia.

Classification: LCC HV473 .S633 2023 (print) | LCC HV473 (ebook) |

DDC 361.994--dc23/eng/20220902

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2022025991

LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2022025992

ISBN: 978-1-032-20270-9 (hbk)

ISBN: 978-1-032-36208-3 (pbk)

ISBN: 978-1-003-33074-5 (ebk)

DOI: 10.4324/9781003330745

Typeset in Sabon

by Taylor & Francis Books
Contents

List of Illustrations vii
List of Contributors ix
Preface xiii
MELISSA PETRAKIS
PART I
What Is Health Social Work? Role, Values and Principles for Practice 1
1 An Introduction to Health and Health Services Practice, and the Social
Determinants of Health 3
MELISSA PETRAKIS AND CARRIE LETHBORG
2 A Social Justice Perspective on the Bio-Psycho-Social-Spiritual Dimensions
of Health 14
LYNELLE WATTS AND DAVID HODGSON
3 Neoliberal Capitalism and its Impact on Individual and Community Health:
Implications for Critical Social Workers 25
NIKI EDWARDS AND JULIE KING
4 Compassion in Healthcare 37
DEBBIE LING
PART II
Health Practice and Practice Contexts 47
5 Trauma-Informed Practices in Health Social Work 49
MARGARET COWGILL AND ROSE KNOL
6 Mental Health Social Work: Recovery-Oriented Practice Engagement and
Collaboration 63
JACINTA CHAVULAK, KATE DAY AND MELISSA PETRAKIS
7 Social Work Advanced Practice Skills in Mental Health 76
CARMEL ALAKUS, JACINTA CHAVULAK AND MELISSA PETRAKIS
vi Contents
8 Aged Care: Health, Assessments, In-Home Care and Residential Care 88
LISA BRADDY, MARA ERHARDT-RUMPE AND PENNY LORDING
9 Engaging with Mental Health and Substance Use Recovery: Dual Diagnosis
Practice Principles and Tools 104
SIMON KROES AND KEVAN MYERS
10 Social Work Practice and People Living with Disability 118
NIKI EDWARDS AND JULIE KING
PART III
Reform Agendas 133
11 Responding to Suicidal Distress in Social Work Practice: Challenges and
Opportunities 135
EMMA TSERIS AND CHARLOTTE FINLAYSON
12 Social Work with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander People in Health: A
Shared Learning, Trauma Informed, Cultural Safety Approach 146
MELINDA COLLINS, PRUE SHANAHAN, NICOLE WATT AND CARRIE LETHBORG
-
13 Bringing Whanau Ora to Health Social Work 159
AMOHIA BOULTON, LYNLEY CVITANOVIC AND TRACEY CROPP
14 Social Work in Health: Considerations for Refugee Health 175
KIM ROBINSON
15 Health Social Work in Regional, Rural and Remote Settings: Responding to
the Intersection of Location, Disadvantaged Populations and Communities 188
ROS DARRACOTT, NIKI EDWARDS AND JULIE KING
Index 202
Illustrations

Figures
1.1 Sylvia Duckworth’s wheel of power/privilege 9
4.1 Cognitive empathy and affective empathy 38
4.2 Responses to the suffering of another 39
5.1 The biopsychosocial model of health 52
6.1 The stress vulnerability model 71
6.2 Phases of recovery model 71
8.1 Genogram: Mrs Caklais 98
9.1 Johan 113
13.1 Rawiri’s Wha-nau 165
13.2 Hinemoa’s Wha-nau 167
Tables
1.1 Ways that social exclusion impacts on individuals’ lives 8
3.1 Key dimensions of the social lens of health 31
-
13.1 Comparing Whanau ora and mainstream social work in New Zealand 169
Boxes
Reflection: Sharon’s Story 22
Reflection: Dan’s Story 42
Reflection: Jane’s Story 52
Reflection: Bill’s Story 57
Reflection: Sam’s Story 73
Historical Reflection: Clinical Mental Health Services since
Deinstitutionalisation 76
Reflection: Miriam’s Story 83
Reflection: Andrea’s Story 83
Reflection: Mrs Caklais’s Story 97
Sample VCAT Letter 99
Reflection: George’s Story 111
Critical Self-Reflection about Disability 121
Reflection: Rhiannon’s Story 141
Reflection: Terry’s Story 151
viii List of Illustrations
Aboriginal Social & Emotional Wellbeing Formulation Plan 152
Reflection: Rawiri’s Story 165
Reflection: Hinemoa’s Story 166
Reflection: Settlement of New Arrivals 180
Reflection: Mr Johnson’s Story 193
Reflection: Practice in the Rural Locale 195
Contributors

Carmel Alakus teaches social work at Monash University, having been employed as a social
worker for over 40 years. She was a senior social work clinician in adult mental health in
an acute inpatient unit, before that at the Academic Unit of North Eastern Metropolitan
Psychiatric Service, and in child welfare, health, disability and migrant services.
Amohia Boulton is director of Whakauae Research Services, the only tribally owned health
research centre in Aotearoa, and adjunct professor at both Faculty of Health and
Environmental Sciences, Auckland University of Technology (AUT) and Health Services
-
Research Centre, Victoria University of Wellington. She is a Maori health researcher
- - -
from the iwi (tribes) of Ngati Ranginui, Ngai Te Rangi, Ngati Pukenga, Ngati Mutunga
and Te Āti Awa o te Waka a Ma-ui.
Lisa Braddy is chief social worker at St Vincent’s Hospital Melbourne, Australia, overseeing
a team of 30 social workers providing services to acute, sub-acute and palliative care
inpatients. She has 25 years’ clinical and management experience in health, aged care,
disability, community programs and workforce education and training.
Jacinta Chavulak is a senior mental health clinician at The Alfred, and a teaching
associate and research assistant at Monash University in Melbourne, Australia. Her
direct practice expertise includes emergency psychiatry, suicide prevention, clinical
case management, support work and community work.
Melinda Collins is research, quality and data lead within social work at St Vincent’s
Hospital Melbourne. She has over 20 years’ experience as a health social worker, and
her primary research interest lies in understanding the lived experience of patients and
ensuring their ‘voice’ and needs of are heard and addressed in all health service
responses.
Margaret (Margi) Cowgill is a senior social worker in the mental health service at Peninsula
Health, Melbourne. She worked in the United Kingdom in community support teams and
hospital-based roles in emergency, orthopaedic/trauma, general medicine, neurology, aged
and complex care rehabilitation, and has over 15 years’ experience.
-
Tracey Cropp is a social worker and the kaitakitaki (manager) of the Whanau Support
-
Team at Whanganui Hospice. In her current Whanau Ora practice supervisor position
with Hospice, she works with kaimahi to enhance their practice, emotional wellness,
and development so that they can in turn effectively support wha-nau to achieve mauri
ora. Tracey is of Te Āti Awa (Taranaki), Nga-ti Ru-anui (Taranaki), Australian and
British descent.