Social Work Spotlight - Episode 104: Victoria

Episode Date: March 1, 2024

In this episode I speak with Victoria, a Social Worker and Peer Worker living and working on Stolen Kaurna Land in Adelaide, South Australia). As a recent Master’s of Social Work graduate she has been active in the Youth Mental Health sector, with a passion for working collaboratively with Multicultural, LGBTQIA+ people, and those with intersectional identities.Links to resources mentioned in this week’s episode:Youth Peer Work training - https://www.orygen.org.au/Training/Resources/General-resources/Toolkits/Youth-peer-workLELAN (SA Lived Experience Leadership & Advocacy Network) - https://www.lelan.org.au/ledge-intro-leadership-modules-home/So you want to talk about race? (book by Ijeoma Oluo)Pease, B. (2010). Undoing Privilege: Unearned Advantage in a Divided World. Zed Books.Bennett, B., & Green, S. (2019). Our voices: Aboriginal social work (Second edition)Building service capacity to work with LGBTIQ+ forcibly displaced people - https://fdpn.org.au/lgbtiq-settlement-training/LGBTIQA+ Multilingual Terminology, co-designed by multilingual LGBTQ+ people and linguists and translators - https://www.rainbowterminology.org/Stories untold podcast - https://open.spotify.com/show/790pdThflCpxh2aF9TQl9O?si=FPGhmyttQtuRaHMklTHMeQYou Can’t Ask That (ABC TV documentary) - https://iview.abc.net.au/collection/979Race Matters - values and complexities of race, culture and identity - https://fbiradio.com/podcast/racematters/Elliot Page’s Gaycation TV documentary series - https://www.sbs.com.au/ondemand/tv-series/gaycation/season-1This episode's transcript can be viewed here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1suElT4_FFinSGkGCflyoRSVxuF2indQ_2kaKCtLlN24/edit?usp=sharingThanks to Kevin Macleod of incompetech.com for our theme music.

I begin today by acknowledging the Gadigal people of the Eura Nation, traditional custodians of the land on which I record this podcast, and pay my respects to their elders past and present. I extend that respect to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people listening today. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples have an intrinsic connection to this land and have cared for country for over 60,000 years, with their way of life having been devastated by colonisation. Hi and welcome to Social Work Spotlight where I showcase different areas of the profession each episode.

I'm your host, Jasmine Lupus, and today's guest is Victoria, a social worker and peer worker living and working on stolen counterland in Adelaide, South Australia. As a recent Masters of Social Work graduate, she has been active in the youth mental health sector with a passion for working collaboratively with multicultural LGBTQIA-plus people and those with intersectional identities. Thank you, Victoria, for coming on to the podcast with me today and having to chat about your experience so far. Yeah, thanks so much for having me. I'm wanting to ask firstly what it was that interested you in the social work profession. Yeah, I think probably back in 20, probably around 2020, 2021 was when I started really getting into, I guess learning more about the mental health system in Australia and I was personally like navigating through that. So the main thing was that like I noticed this gap of not really finding a lot of practitioners

who were also people of color. And it took me a really, really long time to find like a right fit. So with that, as well as doing trainings outside of my work, which were kind of related to mental health I slowly learned about the social work profession and really wanting to make a change. So I knew that I was going to do social work at some point in my life, but didn't really make the decision and then COVID hit. So that kind of pushed me to decide what am I going to do for like my next steps. So then I applied to a master's of social work at Flinders University.

So that's in Adelaide, South Australia. And I got in. So that's kind of how it all started and how I got into the social work profession, I guess. Yeah. Yeah. And originally you were in Sydney, is that right? And then you moved down. Yes.

What prompted all that? Yes. Yes. So I was in Sydney working as a, I guess, translator slash marketing person. That was probably for three-ish years and then COVID hit. So it meant that at the time that marketing role kind of come to like a point where I felt like it's time to make a change. So that was like, okay, you have to decide, do you want to stay in Australia or do you want

to leave? And at that time, I did want to continue to stay in Australia and speaking to like migration agents and things like that, moving to South Australia was kind of a good option at the time. And it aligned with what I wanted to do long term. So I was like, maybe this is the time. Like it kind of worked out well for me, I think, that I get to study something that I really enjoy. So I guess that both of them kind of fit with my long-term goals. So I applied to a university in Sydney as well as Flinders University in South Australia.

And Flinders just happened to be more established. Okay. So you moved around the same time that you started studying from the sounds of things. Yes. And pandemic and potential shutdowns. How on earth did you? navigate all that. Oh, I was lucky that the time that I moved was when everything opened. So that was in 2022. That was like when Australia like opened and that was I think right after

Perth opened as well. Yeah. So at the time I was almost going to be affected but I happened to miss that time where everywhere was locked. So I was able to move. But it was quite scary because I was like, oh, what if I fly out and then I'm like stuck and then I'm unable to come back? So I kind of have to make a decision on like maybe it's best if I just pack everything and just move all in one go as opposed to going and then checking and like the back and forth. So it was a very stressful time, but I had really good friends supporting me through that. Yeah. And do you have any family in Australia or are they all overseas and were you getting pressure from them to kind of move back? Well, so half of my family lives in China and my other half family lives in the US. So I guess they were supportive of me making the change. But at the same

time they were also saying like you do have the option to like move back to the US or move back to China. But I think inside I knew that I really wanted to do this. So they couldn't really stop me. But yes, I knew that staying in Australia long term was a goal of mine. And at that point, I've already been in Australia for like seven, eight years. So it really felt like, I guess, home to me. Yeah. Yeah, I think I just knew that this was something that I wanted to do and luckily that they did support me. Yeah. Yeah.

So did you grow up mostly in the US or China or you kind of bounced around a bit? Kind of bounced around. I also lived in Hong Kong throughout my childhood and went to international schools. But I was born in the US, but I would say most of my childhood was spent between Hong Kong and China. but all went to international schools. So all of the other students around me were expat families. So we kind of had like the similar experience growing up. Yeah, that's so interesting because I know that Hong Kong and the US and Australia

all have very different social systems and supports and different interpretations of what social work can be. So do you feel like as you were living in those countries, you were conscious of what was going on? I think I was too young to kind of understand the systems when I was there. So most of my knowledge around the social work profession is more around Australia's social work as opposed to Americas or China's or Hong Kong's. I now know a little bit about America's social work profession but I realized that it's very different to Australians as well so but I'm always like open to like learning different systems so yeah yeah yeah and I spoke with rosanna very very early on

in the podcast I think it might have been episode seven or something and she grew up in Hong Kong and has bounced back and forward and she was talking about that activism that's really prevalent for social workers in Hong Kong. There's a big, big push for social justice and for social workers to be really active in driving change. And I thought that was fantastic because we do a lot of talking, I guess, in Australia, but I don't feel as though there's as much of that focus or responsibility on coalface policy and the interaction between the two. Yeah, I've definitely seen, I think especially in Hong Kong and Taiwan, the profession is like more prominent and recognized, comparing to mainland China. But that's really the extent that I know about what social work is like in other

countries than Australia. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. So in the time since you've been studying and even before you decided to become a social worker, what skills and experience have you already developed? What have you been up to? So even prior to starting my master's in social work, I was doing quite a few trainings. So for example, like mental health first aid, some lifeline training. And that was like a really big passion of mine is to increase like my knowledge around mental health, social justice. So those trainings kind of were like an intro for me to the industry. But once I started my master of social work, I actually started out as a peer volunteer. So mostly in NGOs, one was working in like disability and lived experience space. And then the other one was supporting

LGBTQ plus international students and migrants in Australia who are mostly Mandarin speaking. So that was probably my first relevant role within the industry. which I found really helpful for me to kind of not only gain the knowledge but use it in practice. Because I'm a very hands-on person, so I felt that those roles really fit well in preparing me to go into placement or getting into the industry. Yeah. And I would imagine some of those issues would affect someone very differently from that background. Mandarin plus LGBTIQI plus and I don't know just just sort of the the different stigmas related and expectations and yeah I think you're probably well

positioned to be providing support to people given that you understand a little bit more about the cultural context oh yeah the cultural thing is is huge especially working with I guess culturally diverse communities I don't like to use that word but I'll just use that for ease at this stage. But yeah, especially with LGBTQ plus people, coming from, say, an Asian background, there's a lot of cultural expectations. And I'm sure this also translates across other cultures as well, not just Asian cultures, family expectations. So there's a lot of complexities with that comparing to, say, if you come from a white Australian back background, but both of those peer volunteer jobs, I really got a lot out of them.

And for me, it was kind of, I wanted to be able to provide that, I guess, support because I never really had that. So I was just hoping that in any tiny way that I can support others, yeah, I would feel really just happy to just be there for them. Yeah. Yeah, and tell me about your placement while you were studying. Yeah, so my first placement, I was very lucky to get placed in a hospital, which I really enjoyed. It was in an acute hospital, in ICU and surgical specialties.

So very multi-d setting, and I had really supportive supervisors who really cared about my growth, making sure that I get all aspects of social work within my placement. So I think with that first placement, it was a really solid foundation for me to just get those case management skills, some basic counseling skills, and like some psychosocial assessments. So I felt that it was a really rich placement experience for me. And it made me think I was like, oh, you know what, even though this is my first placement, I see myself doing this long term.

Like, that's how much I liked it. Yeah. And such a steep learning curve as well from a medical side of things, because you have to very quickly pick up all the different conditions, the different surgical procedures, even just how, because the intensive care unit is a very different beast. It's a different environment to the rest of the hospital. It operates differently.

There's a lot more pressure. People are very distressed. There's a lot of uncertainty. So, I mean, it's a fantastic place for social work and especially for your learning, I can imagine. Yes. I think, especially with ICU, I just find it, I'm someone who just loves learning stuff. So it suits my interest in learning new things because you can get any type of client coming in and dealing a lot. with families as well. Yeah, there'd be a lot of family conferences, I can imagine. Lots of family conference stuff and very fast-paced, but also you can't be too fast in ICU. It's a very interesting balance, but I think I like a bit of like crisis management as well. So it's also interesting because the patient is not really, the patient is your primary person,

but you're probably never talking to them. No, very rarely. Because they're so unwell, oftentimes the client who we're actually dealing with is the family. Yeah. So that was interesting. That was something that I didn't really expect. I just kind of thought, oh, of course you're working directly with a patient. Yeah.

So, yeah. Yeah, I had a very similar experience. My first placement was in the hospital and I just thought, yeah, 100%, I don't care what I do for my second placement. I want to work in a hospital and then I fell in love with what I did for my second placement but eventually came back around to working in a hospital. So every single piece of experience that you get while you're doing your placements, whether it's first or second, you will use it in what you end up doing. It's wonderful that way.

That is true. Yeah. And what was your second placement? Yeah. So my second placement was in a youth mental placement. health NGO and how I got that placement was because after I finished my first placement I applied in this NGO to be a multicultural peer practitioner and I also think that I was quite lucky that they recognized even though I wasn't like

formally trained as a peer worker they recognized my experience as a peer worker so I was able to get my first paid peer role and to work with young people between 12 and 25 years old. And I worked in that role for about seven-ish months. And I expressed to them, I said, hey, I'm really interested in doing a placement here as well. But can I be placed in a different team to do my placement? So I ended up doing my second placement in psychosis, working with young people and their families as well. And working with people experiencing psychosis was inspired by a friend who did her first placement in psychosis. And I just thought it's so fascinating.

And I really wanted to work in a multi-D that was specifically psych-related. So not a hospital multi-D, but a psych-related multi-related. So that was kind of how I got my second placement. That was also super interesting, lots of learning, especially around like medication, different diagnoses. I got to work with people one-on-one, so providing counseling sessions, but also through groups, which I got to co-design and co-facilitate. So I feel like I got like quite a wide range of learning experiences and learning opportunities through the second placement as well.

Yeah. And you said you came into that role with very little experience. You were kind of surprised that they took you on in a paid position. Did they provide a lot of training or mentorship or even group facilitation? There's a lot of training around that. Yes, so when I got into my first paid peer role, I would say that I was very well positioned in a way that I had, I think, at least four or five other peer workers around me. So they were really the people who kind of taught me how to use the systems, how do you usually case note as a person. peer worker because my previous experience was very clinical coming from a hospital space.

So I kind of some of the skills that I brought in were very social working and I had like in a peer role you're meant to kind of use a non-clinical lens, right? So I did get a lot of guidance from the peer workers in very early stages. In terms of group facilitation, I didn't really get training and group facilitation in the workplace. I got it more through university. In Master's Social Work, there's a subject on group facilitation and community development. So that's kind of where I got my skills. But also there's other like peer online trainings through origin. There's another organization called Leland. It's a South Australian like lived experience organizations and they also provide some like online trainings so a bit of a combination

through online trainings and informal trainings with other peer workers that's kind of how I got started I also had a peer supervisor so aside from the main operational supervisor and the clinical supervisor I had a peer supervisor who provided like the peer equivalent of social work like supervision, which was also like really helpful to me for my growth as a peer worker. And it's kind of a space where you can like reflect on certain cases or questions that I might have had. So I think a combination with all of those, I felt really well supported in my role. No, it sounds like a wonderful opportunity. I'm really curious that you had a separate subject on group supervision though and wondering based on that because I don't remember anything like that

in my undergrad but based on the additional training that you've done where you feel social work fits within group facilitation so what is the benefit of bringing a social work lens do you think as opposed to any other profession running a group I've never thought about this I think the benefits with a social social worker facilitating a group, I think you can probably think about it from different levels. So from a higher level with groups, oftentimes you might have to put in a proposal for a grant. So learning the skills how to put together a grant proposal. I think social workers do very well with communicating purpose of a group and understanding the research and literature behind that backs.

the benefits of running a group. But at the same time, I think social workers are good at balancing. So understanding the group dynamics and how to ensure that everyone gets roughly an equal amount of airtime is also a very important skill, I think, for social workers. And bringing a bit of theory into practice is, I think, what we do well. But yeah, I've never actually thought about. how social workers are different to a non-social worker profession running a group. So it was really good to reflect on that, yeah.

Yeah, because, yeah, I mean, I think you've laid it out really well. You've got the planning, development, advocacy side of it, and then you've got the facilitation side of it, and then you've probably also got the reflection feedback, that sort of side of it, which would be informed by social work understandings or interpretations. Yeah, it is, yeah. What's next for you? What direction would you like to head in now that you've just finished your degree,

you've got the world ahead of you? What are you interested in? Well, I'm still kind of in this mid-transition phase, and I'm still, so I'm back in my previous peer worker role. And I don't know, actually. I love being a peer worker, but at the same time, I also want to do social work. And I do, you know, because my second placement was in mental health, I really see myself working mental health long term. So regardless of if I do social work or like a more clinical role as a social worker or continue to do peer work, I think I'd be happy with both.

So I don't know if it's possible to be able to, if there is a possibility that I could do both, that would be great. But yeah, they're just very different. For me, it's like a power thing. As a peer worker, the power difference is much smaller with a client that you work with comparing to when you're a social worker. I mean, as social workers, we can try to minimize the power as much as we can, but it still exists. So I don't know. I like both. Yeah. So I don't really know yet. I think it'll depend on what role comes up and whether or not I feel like it really resonates well. But at the moment I'm quite happy with doing peer work. Yeah.

It's tough because you haven't really had a break. So all the uni breaks we probably spent doing the peer work and the volunteering and now you're volunteering and now you've gone straight from your last placement to working again. And then you'll probably go straight into when you do find that social work role that is perfect for you right now, you'll probably go straight into that as well, which, you know, I did as well. I'm preaching to the converted here. But yeah, sometimes you just got to take those opportunities when they come. I think so. And I just love, like I do love it though.

Like I love my job as much as it's like kind of cheesy to say. Like my role is kind of like a combination. So currently I'm doing both one-on-one sessions with clients as a peer worker, but also I'm focusing on some community development stuff. So working with other multicultural programs and organizations to do that cross-referral but also information sharing, which for me is really important. to kind of develop in that area as an organization. So I don't know, I really like that kind of stuff. Yeah, and maybe you can get some funding to run bilingual groups even. I think that's so important.

Yeah, yeah. Or information sessions as well that are delivered in both. Yeah, so yeah, and I've also been putting together these resources that are multilingual. because we do get quite a few multicultural clients into our service. So just being able to tailor to their needs really, really important. Yeah. Do you think you'd ever want to work overseas as well, given that you've got family there,

you've got different languages that you can access? Potentially. Yeah, I mean, I haven't really, because I feel like I'm not, I've only just graduate. I feel like I want to at least get a few years of experience. with social work experience under my belt, then consider like, oh, could I do social work in other countries? But I'll never say no to that. I would be open to it in the future, for sure. Yeah. Yeah. It's just a matter of then getting recognition of your learning. And I looked at

the options for the US as well, because I'm also a dual citizen. So there's always work. And that's one of the wonderful things is that wherever you go in the world, social work is, most of the places social work is recognized and respected and there's work it might not be called social work but there's always work for us which is wonderful do you think you would ever do like travel social work you know they do they have travel nurses would you ever do travel social work i mean that's glamorous maybe yeah similar to you wouldn't say no to anything if the opportunity came up and i thought it could work probably but again my parents are 70 and you know want to be around to support them if anything happens but at the

same time you don't want to live your life kind of waiting for something to go wrong so probably just take the bull by the horns and go for it if something hit me yeah yeah you've also got all the experience in the corporate setting you've got the marketing and the project management and media and content i wonder if there's capacity for you to build some of that into the social work that you do as well. Well, I've seen roles come up, which are more of the community engagement type roles, which kind of combine my marketing and project management experience with social work really well. So, like, liaising with stakeholders and delivering trainings to people. See, that's another, like, education is also an area that I'm interested in.

So, you know, say if the non-clinical role like that presents itself, I'm also open to that. Like I think at the moment I'm just like open to any type of role. But I feel like I'm lucky that I have that background actually. And I never thought that like marketing and project management or events and this kind of stuff would be this beneficial to the social work role. But it really has come in handy a lot of times. Absolutely. We're really poor at marketing ourselves. We're rubbish at it. We just sit in the background like wallflowers and just we get busy. We do things, but we don't,

we don't talk about the things that we do and we don't toot our own horns. So having, yes, having capacity to market ourselves, I think is really important. Yes, for sure. And I think that also coming from like a marketing point of view in combination with social work, it also helps you understand how to target your audience as well as understanding how funding works. It's just, yeah, I think once I got into social work, that's when I realized, oh, this is actually transferable across industries. Yeah. So, yeah, I feel like marketing has helped me in, like, organization and things like that.

Yeah, absolutely. What would you say you've enjoyed most about the experience you've had with social work so far? Probably a few things. I would say one of the things for me is working in a very supportive and collaborative team. Because you hang out with them like probably more time than you spend with your family or friends. So having a really good team matters a lot to me and that you feel that you can communicate on. honestly with them and support each other. That's one of my favorite things.

Another one for me is seeing the growth in a client and also recognizing that there are some times that they might become unwell, but just kind of standing beside them and walking alongside them through that process and understanding that recovery is never linear, always remembering that but I think yeah just being able to work with someone and hearing their stories to me is like a huge privilege so yeah these are probably like my favorite things about working social work yeah what have you found most challenging though what's really hard probably say funding because working in a non-government organization there is always the challenges of funding not continuing.

So personally, I find that quite challenging, but I'm also accepting of that because that's just how it works. Like so for me, as long as I have context to how things work, I'm usually okay, as much as it is a little annoying, I can deal with it. Especially working in NGOs, you kind of, you're constantly on the back, foot and having to justify what you do.

Yes, but I think that's kind of where it's helpful for me that I have that knowledge coming from a social work background that I know how funding works. So I'm less frustrated by it, like, because you know, okay, like, for example, with funding, you do have to make sure you get the data and collect all the surveys to be able to report back. because having that, you would have a higher chance of getting funding again. So that's why I continue to push on making sure that we always get the surveys and things like that through to them. Yeah. Yeah.

It's so good that while you were studying and doing your second placement, you had two supervisors. What other support do you feel you need or have needed to kind of get through those? difficult periods. Yeah, I did have two supervisors for my second placement, which I thought was really useful because one supervisor was an on-site and one supervisor was kind of floating, so she wasn't always on-site. So it was almost like an external supervisor. But some other supports really, for me, the biggest support was my other friends in the cohort. Because it was really, really challenging managing the uni workload on top of a four-day placement. Yeah.

So we were doing two other subjects plus placement, which is not, it wasn't by choice. It was just how it was designed. That's too much, really. No, no. A four-day placement is enough. I know, I know. So, yeah, having friends that we could just, support each other, we would catch up every Friday because we still had to go to uni classes on the Friday. So we would catch up over lunch and just basically it was almost like our own peer group supervision. Yeah. I kind of talk about

uni work, talk about placement, just have a good connection. I think sometimes being on placement can be a bit isolating. Like even though you're surrounded by people, you don't really get that connection you have with your friends. So I think, yeah, friends for me was the biggest thing that's helped me that has helped me through the four months of placement. Yeah. Yeah. I think there's a tendency when, especially when you've been in the placement for a little while and other people in the agency have gotten to know you and are familiar with you. I think there's a tendency for you to be treated like an employee and that's a problem when the expectation of you is so great. for you to be able to feel like you can step back and go,

hey, I'm learning. If I'm not learning, there's something wrong here. So that's something that perhaps that group supervision or the peer group can help you kind of tease out of. Am I doing too much, or is too much expected of me right now? Does this sound okay? Yes.

And I think especially for someone who was already working in the organization, but then switching back to a student role, I think that can be potential risk. I was lucky in the sense that there weren't like unrealistic expectations of me. Like they really said, remember, you are a student. We're not wanting you to be at the level of someone who's graduated five years ago. Yeah. You're here to learn.

So I always had that in the back of my mind and remembering, you know, I am a student and I'm here to learn. But yes, we definitely spent time. Actually, the organization also had group supervision for us. So all the social work students in that agency would come together every two weeks to have a group supervision, which I think was also very good. So that, I think having a very well-established social work placement program that they developed was really helpful. And I know that oftentimes non-government organizations have a less structured program when it comes to social work placements. So personally I felt that this type of structured program worked well for me. Yeah. And what else do you do that's not in any way nerdy to kind of zone out,

look after yourself? I see you're big into music as well. Oh, yeah, I had to kind of put music on a pause because of union placement. But yes, I love music. I love music. I love writing music, I produce, DJ, sing. I also just love going to music shows. I get so excited, like listening to live music and just hearing different musicians and genres. I also like going to art galleries, museums, so those are probably like my non-social work-related hobbies that, uh, I like to do. And there's a lot of that in Adelaide as well. It's quite arty.

It is. It is really arty. So, yeah, I find that those kind of help me get my mind off of work. It's a really soothing experience going to the art gallery. Yeah. Yeah. If anyone wanted to know a little bit more about the work that you've done or the types of approaches that you use? Did you want to shout out any resources? You mentioned some of the

group facilitation training as well earlier. Yeah, I mean, I can share probably a few books, and I can send this to you as well. There's a book called So You Want to Talk About Race by Ijioma Oluo. It's a kind of a, it's more of a pop book on talking about race, intersectionality. So I feel like it's a good intro book if someone is starting out as social work student or wanting to get into the profession. That's a good starter. I'd also recommend a training called building service capacity to work with LGBTIQ forcibly displaced people. It's an online free training very comprehensive i would say and it really captures well the intersectionality between refugees migrants and LGBTQ people and the unique challenges that they might face so i'll highly

recommend that training i have two more resources i want to share so another one is LGBTQI plus multilingual terminology. So this was a website as well as a resource that was co-designed by multilingual LGBTQ plus people with linguists and translators. It has, I'm pretty sure it has at least seven or eight languages. You can also find LGBTQ plus trained translators and interpreters on that website. So I would highly recommend that resource for social workers who are working with LGBTQ plus people. And then the last resource that I would like to share is a podcast called Stories Untold. And this podcast is by an Aboriginal psychologist.

And she shares a lot about her journey and becoming a psychologist and some of the challenges. and some of the challenges, as well as some stories that she's had, going through her own lived experience, as well as kind of growing up as Aboriginal women. So I really enjoy listening to that podcast. Amazing. Thank you. Those are such great resources. I want to do some of that training as well.

So I'm keen to check that out. Do you watch much media or like is there much of an intersectionality that you've seen between race, ethnicity, social work, LGBTQ issues? Is there anything that really gets it right in your experience? There's not a whole lot, to be honest. And again, it might exist, but just I don't know it, right? But there is the Sydney local radio FBI. They have a show called Race Matters that talks about

talks a lot about social justice and talking about race and kind of that intersectionality between art and social justice. So I could recommend that show if people are interested in more of the media side of things. But I think it's growing, but it's still bit slow. Yeah. There was an incredible series that I watched back in 2016. And it was a television documentary series with Ellen Page, now Elliot Page, and one of her friends in Daniel. And they went to different countries and interviewed people from LGBTIQI backgrounds and also families and just communities and looked at how people were treated.

And they immersed themselves in those communities. There was one in Japan, one in Brazil, one in Jamaica. and one in the US. And then in the second season, they went to some different countries. But yeah, just really, really incredible series, if anyone is interested in that space and just super real and emotional and not pop at all, not cotton candy, not glossed over. It was, this is the real experience and these are the issues that people are having. So I'd highly recommend that as well.

Yeah, thanks for sharing that. And that actually reminds me of another need. media thing. And I'm sure a lot of people know about this series, but it's called You Can't Ask That. It's from ABC. And I think that there's a series on gay men, lesbians, Chinese Australians. And yeah, I find that show quite interesting to watch. Actually, there's many different episodes on different topics. So, like, people living with OCD, intersex people. I really like that series. Yeah. Incredible. I think I'll just put together all of these resources and pop them in the show notes that people can go off and do their own reading and viewing. And I'll send you like links that I have as well. Yeah, beautiful. Thank you. Before we finish up, Victoria, is there anything else about your experience or social work in general that you wanted to chat about? I think before I forget, I think I really want to

highlight that I would love to see more practitioners utilize the social and emotional well-being model when working with Aboriginal and torture people because the social work profession is very medical and clinical and not always culturally responsive so it would be great if people could and myself can be more inclusive and use that type of model more often when working with Aboriginal and Tursa Islander clients, I think. Yeah, good shout out. Well, thank you again so much for your time. I've loved learning a little bit more about your journey and even from the beginning where you really wanted to learn and soak up as much experience as possible and build your own, you were able to build

on your own cultural background and experience to support others where you didn't have that support when you felt you needed it. And in your placements, you've had the opportunity to receive a lot of support, kind of scaffolding in a sense with that multi-supervision approach. And through doing all of that, you've developed capacity to communicate the purpose of a service or a group and building those networks of support of people around you who can help with funds. Dean help with, even if it's just in-kind support, which working in the community is really important and even identifying issues that are out there so that you can help respond to those. But you've just kept yourself open to other opportunities and building on those past experiences

to be able to launch your career from this point. And your passion for walking alongside a client and listening to their stories is really shown through. So it's really lovely to hear. and I think it's going to take you some great places. I look forward to seeing it. Thank you so much. Yeah, I really enjoyed having this chat with you.

Same here. Thank you. Thanks for joining me this week. If you would like to continue this discussion or ask anything of either myself or Victoria, please visit my anchor page at anchor.fm. slash social work spotlight. You can find me on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter,

or you can email SW Spotlight Podcast at gmail. I'd love to hear from you. Please also let me know if there is a particular topic you'd like discussed, or if you or another person you know would like to be featured on the show. Next episode's guest is Monique, a passionate clinical supervisor and trainer who specialises in disability social work under the NDIS funding system. Monique provides therapeutic and capacity building services to the neurodivergent community and professional supervision and training through her private practice, Our Future Focus,

in Brisbane. I release a new episode every two weeks. Please subscribe to my podcast so you're notified when this next episode is available. See you next time.