Involving fathers in family work particularly in child protection can be challenging for practitioners. Joseph Fleming explores practitioners’ experiences of engaging fathers drawing from his qualitative research.

Evidence-based practice (EBP) has been part of social work practice for at least a decade. Debates and controversies about EBP and its role in social work practice features in the academic literature. Debbie Plath defines EBP, discusses its relevance and outlines the process in this podcast.

The increased intensity of disasters and their impact on individuals and communities are frequent in today’s world. Little is known about violence after disasters in the Australian context, despite considerable academic research on this phenomenon in developing countries. Deb Parkinson and colleagues seek to fill that gap. In this podcast, Deb talks to us about family violence following disasters such as the Black Saturday bushfires that devastated parts of Australia and how recognising family violence may be a blind spot for the helping professions in developed countries.

What do we mean when we talk about community development? Practitioners often mean different things when they talk about it. Ann Ingamells talks about her practice in community development and the accumulative and wide-ranging benefits for individuals and their communities in such work.

So what are health inequalities? How do government policies influence whether we improve a nation’s health or make it worse? These and other questions are tackled by Dennis Raphael in this Podsocs episode.

[Transcript of this podcast is found in the tab below]

[Transcript for this podcast is available in the Tab below]

In this podcast, Di Macleod talks about sexual violence on women, the 6 principles of universal safe practice and trauma informed care. She addresses some of the contemporary challenges – the relationship between sexual violence and mental health; substance misuse; homelessness; drink spiking; and the major role social media plays in sexual violence.

South African education is plagued by inequality in what is essentially a two-tiered system. HIV, AIDSs and gender inequality are some of the issues experienced by those people living in disadvantaged communities. Lesley’s research focuses on schools as the central institution in many communities. Participatory and inclusive research methodologies are useful in developing meaningful interventions that support children and their communities to find their own solutions.

[Transcript found in tab below]