Social Work Spotlight - Episode 38: Lauren

Episode Date: September 3, 2021

In this episode I speak with Lauren who has had over 10 years experience in social work with a diverse career history, including working in remote Aboriginal communities, and in one of Australia's largest children's hospitals. Currently she practices as a school counsellor in Western Sydney. Lauren has a lifelong interest in social justice and advocacy which has led her to an interesting personal and professional life.Links to resources mentioned in this week’s episode:Bessel van der Kolk’s The Body Keeps the Score - https://www.besselvanderkolk.com/resources/the-body-keeps-the-scoreCircle of Security training - https://www.circleofsecurityinternational.com/trainings/register-for-a-training/Half the Sky Movement - http://www.halftheskymovement.org/pages/book.htmlAASW Scope of Practice in schools - https://www.aasw.asn.au/document/item/8308Bruce Perry’s What Happened to You? - https://static.macmillan.com/static/fib/what-happened-to-you/This episode's transcript can be viewed here:https://docs.google.com/document/d/1-KholkYHNdFqm2q4QtiVj0P0w74G9MJ0Wg9DPDPnP6g/edit?usp=sharingThanks to Kevin Macleod of incompetech.com for our theme music.

Hi and welcome to Social Work Spotlight where I showcase different areas of the profession each episode. I'm your host, Yasmin McKee Wright, and today's guest is Lauren. Lauren has had over 10 years experience in social work with a diverse career history, including working in remote Aboriginal communities and in one of Australia's largest children's hospitals. Currently, she practices as a school counsellor in Western Sydney. Lauren has a lifelong interest in social justice and advocacy, which has led her to an interesting personal and professional life. Thank you so much, Lauren, for coming on to the podcast.

Really happy to have you here to talk about your experience in social work so far. Thanks for having me. Pleasure. When did you start as a social worker and what drew you to the profession? So I started in 2011. That's when I graduated my Bachelor of Social Work. And I didn't really know originally what I wanted to do. and I kind of sort of fell across social worker.

I actually didn't really know what a social worker did. I had heard about them, but in terms of the day-to-day job role, I didn't really know what they did. And randomly at high school, I went to a information day on like healthcare and it was nurses, OTs, physios and social work. And it was just a bit of like to know what each role does. And yeah, I was really drawn to the social work aspect. And what I learned in that day,

kind of went home and I was like, I'm going to be a social worker. And I haven't looked back since, so that's a good sign. Yeah. It's really interesting because some people have such a huge experience of it growing up, whether it's through family members or themselves and other people just kind of hear about the ethos of what it is or what we can do potentially as social workers and just feel like, yes, I didn't know that that's what I wanted to do, but now I really do. Yeah. My passion for it kind of just grew from there, I think, I've always, sort of had an interest in humans and their behaviours and things like that, but particularly around social justice issues in my early 20s. I consider myself quite an advocate for different sort of

topics and interests. And from there, I think that passion fed into social work as well. So even with my day-to-day social work career and job roles, I've also had a few things on the side that I've worked on and supported too. So that social social. justice element of social work was a real big drawcard to having a career as a social worker. Yeah. And in that 10-year period, you've had quite a lot of experience in varied areas. What's kind of developed your career so far? How have you gotten to this point? Yeah, so I have had quite a wide range of experiences. And I put that down to sort of just taking opportunities and when the door opens, go through it. And when I finished university,

I made a phone call to someone in Darwin in Northern Territory and basically got a contract job the next day and flew out 24 hours later, which I never had been to the Northern Territory. And I was like, okay, I'm doing this. So yeah, that was sort of my first thing. And I worked up there for the federal government and then ended up working in remote Aboriginal communities up there, which ended up being started as a contract for six months. but then ended up being about four and a half years that I was up there for and really loved the work, the environment, also the people I've met, but the things that I learnt from, I think, our First Nation people have stayed with me throughout my career and also my personal life as well. So that was a really big turning point in my career, I guess I say, and that was really early on.

and from four and a half years there, I then returned to Sydney and worked at the Children's Hospital, Westmead, as a social worker in a couple of various roles, neuroancology, neuromuscular, and also doing on-call work in the emergency department. So it gave me a really good health system and the previous to that, the federal government policy sort of system and implementing policy with First Nations people and then working in that healthcare sector with the some of our most vulnerable sort of populations. And now I've changed about a year ago and now I'm a school counsellor. And is that one of the student support officer roles or is it a pure counselling role? It's actually a pure counselling role and my role is a wellbeing counsellor and it's a

school counsellor role which I think areas of New South Wales particularly at the moment are hiring social workers and I think they're seeing the need for social workers and psychologists. So there's a bit of a mix between having psychologists and social workers as those well-being counsellors. So that role is something that when I very first started out as a social worker and even throughout the 10 years, I did not think I'd be able to get into the school system. And now I'm here and it's a really rewarding job. And I think having my background and having the different experiences that I've had and bringing those skills into this role, as I'm something that I value quite a lot now. It's interesting you say that I spoke with Scott in episode

10 and he is a lovely gentleman up at the University of New England, Armadale. And he actually was one of the main forces behind the social work in schools program. And he's still part of that project now. So if anyone is interested in social work in schools program, go back and have a listen to that one. but it's really interesting with the counselling role. I imagine that would give you an opportunity to have a whole of school approach and kind of maybe even impact on the culture of the school because that would be something I imagine as a school counselor could be incredibly challenging because you're not only dealing with the individual

but you're dealing with the school as a community. Yeah, that's right. So I think with school counselling, there's a variety of factors and you're kind of dealing with a whole range of issues as well. So you have the parents, you've got the teachers, and then the students, and also, like, I guess, the support staff in the schools. And part of that well-being role is obviously primarily for the students and to support their needs and that one-on-one intervention of counselling.

But there's also a lot of other various factors. So supporting teacher stress and obviously during COVID times and things like that about supporting that wider school community. So I work in a couple of different schools in Western Sydney, and they do have, I would say, a low socio-economic. And so the poverty and other issues that come with that are quite prevalent. So having that wellbeing counsellor there to support the school, but also working with that relationship with the parents to support then the students. So some things that we look at all we see is a lot of trauma. So our school currently is going through using trauma-informed and trauma awareness.

the teachers and also the staff. And I guess now we're looking at a phase of introducing that to parents as well and giving that psychoeducation to parents about how trauma affects children. So there's that psychoeducation element and that support element, but also changing that culture of the school and the environment and that community that the school is in as well. So obviously very different work to what I have done before, but at the same time the skills and the different, I guess,

social work issues that I'm working with are quite the same. So we see, you know, the domestic violence, the mental health, the anxiety and mental health, self-harm with students and sort of all those issues, you know, they're still prevalent in our community. And sometimes I think working as school counsellor, you have, you are at the front line where it's happening and they may or have gone to hospitals or Centrelink or services like that. At other times, you're that first point of call, but being in the community and noticing patterns of school attendance and things like that, you can really understand sort of the poverty or the low socioeconomic issues that are in those communities.

And are you able to comment on how you feel your background and experience as a social worker set you apart from other types of school counsellors? because I imagine a lot of your role is not just addressing distress within the children, but also, I guess, addressing barriers, inequality barriers within that person's system. Yeah, so definitely. So my work with the Aboriginal communities in the Northern Territory has given me the skills, experience and knowledge to be able to work in this cohort of Sydney as well because there is a higher indigenous population there.

there's also a high migrant population too. So dealing with sort of those migrant issues coming to Australia and having that sort of knowledge of what's going on. So that background of working with the Indigenous people and being able to use those skills in this current role, identifying some of those issues. And I guess like the Northern Territory is very different in terms of the First Nation people up there to what it is in Sydney.

But there are some skills like that colonialisation of what's happened in Australia and understanding the trauma or generational trauma that impacts the children. And, you know, even as simple as attendance issues, I was working in the Northern Territory around attendance issues and why their children weren't coming to school. And that sort of carries on even in Sydney, which can be surprising to a few people that, you know, we've got those similar sort of issues, but it is happening Australia-wide. And now I'm just working in a different pocket and having those skills behind me. to be able to work as school council has really sort of helped.

And did they provide a lot of training? I'm just thinking for anyone wanting to bite the bullet and just go out on a limb and feel really out of their comfort zone and gain some incredible experience, going up to Darwin and being part of those indigenous communities, very diverse communities, I would imagine. Did you get a lot of training or is it the sort of thing where you have to learn on the fly and just be really mindful of your positionality in that? Yeah, so I consider myself quite lucky that I had a fellow colleague who was Indigenous as well,

who sort of became my mentor out there. And there was a buddy system when you went to the remote communities for the first few times as sort of training. But a lot of that is also learning on the fly and learning as you go. My mentor told me a few things. And part of that first six to 12 months was going to these communities and sit back and learn, sit back and listen and sit back and watch. And I think my nature isn't someone who pushes themselves in the middle of situations or, you know, comes in with an agenda and gets

it done. I sort of sit back naturally anyway. So that sort of characteristic helped. But yeah, so I was taught just to learn about the community that I was in, learn about the people, learn about the history, learn about what's happening, listen to the people, consult with the people, talk to the people on the ground. But that was also for myself, but also for the members of the community too. I'm this young, white, female, blonde hair coming into the community. You know, there is a kind of a stereotype and there's a history there and I was very aware of my position in these communities. And so building those connections with the people and learning and hearing their voices was integral to sort of my long-term social work role there on the community.

And then to go from that very different world into Sydney fast-paced neuroancology, which is, I guess, what, brain and spinal tumours and pediatric neuromuscular diseases as well. So that's things like, well, any impairment of the muscles or nerves throughout the body, sometimes they can be congenital, sometimes degenerative. that would have been a very different skill set that you'd have to bring to that area. How did you adjust or kind of pick all that up as you went along? Because you'd have to develop quite a good understanding of the different illnesses and how it affects people.

Yeah, so I came pretty quickly from the Northern Territory back into Sydney where I had originally grown up. And it took an adjustment for me personally coming back to Sydney, but as well as professionally. So it wasn't that I kind of left all my skills and all my knowledge. there. It was taking that with me and now starting another, as you say, sort of fast pace, one of the biggest children's hospitals in Australia and, you know, a sole focus and a sole role of neuromuscular and neuroancology eventually. Yeah, so neuromuscular was a role that I kind of stayed in quite long term. And this was really important because the parents at diagnosis,

this might happen when the child's five to ten years old. And their diagnosis is quite long. So working with these parents around the adjustment to diagnosis and then working with what their life is going to look like now because the life that they had for their child is no longer what they expected. So that support and advocacy for these parents for their child was a really important role there. And then into neuroancology as well, the brain-inspiring tumours. Obviously, when people think of childhood cancer,

it's something that creates a lot of sympathy and empathy into people. And it was a hard role. It was a role where death was quite a common thing that we saw and we had to deal with and had to support the families. So coming from Northern Territory and having that kind of slow pace to then coming into the Children's Hospital, which was a very fast pace and also long-term support, dealing with death, dying and illness was definitely an adjustment

and something that I had to be very mindful of my own self-care practices and things like that. But on top of that, we also did on-call work and that crisis work where you're coming in at 2 or 3 am in the morning and there's been a road accident and you're not really sure of the information and you just get there and adrenaline's rushing. And I think that ability to be able to think on the spot to know what you're doing and have that confidence in yourself, but also have those boundaries and really good self-care qualities set up. kind of made the time in the hospital a lot more manageable and a lot more job satisfaction as well. So, yeah, it was, I felt like I had a bit of a mix.

I had the long-term sort of patients and the families, but also had that crisis. So I really liked having a bit of both. For me personally, I thought having just crisis all the time would be something that would wear me down, but working with these families long term and going through the ups and downs of treatment and illness and getting to know the families. and the children and the siblings that come in was really important. And the other thing that I really respected and really enjoyed as part of the hospital was being in the forefront of research and being the forefront of information that was coming through,

especially in terms of neuromuscular. My time there was throughout, you know, a certain treatment that was trialled for spinal muscular atrophy patients and being part of that updates and figuring out what was going to happen and child patients and parents and working with families as to whether they were going to go on the trial and what that meant meant that for me it was also taking in a lot of that knowledge for myself. I had to know about the trials, I had to know about the research as well as supporting and advocating and ensuring that parents and the patient had a voice. Just as you're talking, it really reminded me of the term social work practice in the sense that you don't know everything

as you run into that on-call scenario, you trust that your experience and training is going to serve you well at that crisis point. You don't know what you're coming into. You don't know how you're going to respond because it so much depends on what is the crisis and who are the players when you actually get into that scenario. And so much of social work from what you're saying

and from my experience is actually reflecting on what did we do and why did we do it at that point. So it's so important to have, and it sounds as though you had really good supervision and support where you were to be able to come down from that adrenaline, think about what happened and reflect on what went well, what could I do better next time? What was the supervision like for you when you were in that sort of crisis experience mode? So I guess, you know, especially the ones that were in the middle of the night and on call, there wasn't that much support. It was probably the nursing staff. and the people that were on dealing with that trauma at that time. But the colleagues in the social work department,

because it was a fairly big social work department, were the ones that kind of get you through. And at times we used to say, you know, this department or this hospital should be a reality TV show because of the stuff we see or hear and the things that are happening. And I think humour was a very big part of the way that we coped and adjusted and for myself as well. And I used to say things like,

I think I'm going to go a little bit insane in here. And, you know, I saw this last night and I'm rattled or I saw this and I can't believe this happened. And just being able to debrief with colleagues and people that you trust was very important. And I think that, you know, in all hospitals settings, because you don't, at first you don't know what you're seeing. And then when you come in there and it is trauma and everything's very rushed, there can be up to 15 people in a room doing CPR and a young child.

and it is very traumatic. And I think as social workers, we're trained to be calm, figure out what supports are needed, what your role is in that situation. And a lot of the time for social work, that was supporting the parents as the medical staff were supporting the child. And there was numerous times

where I would be picking moms or dads up off the emergency department floor and having them cry on me. And some of those boundaries of, you know, touch and things like that went out the window because we're dealing with this crisis and this trauma and you go with your intuition, you go with this skills, your social work practice, what you've learned in the past and what you need to do in that moment to support that family. And then once that sort of adrenaline and that crisis disperses a little bit, you come in with another different role about information or support or guidance and follow that family through

until maybe the next morning and hand over to colleagues. And you do go home and I remember going home in the early hours in the morning and laying in bed going, oh, well, I can't sleep now. I've had all this adrenaline. How does my body expect me to now sleep? Yeah. So a part of my sort of boundaries and self-care was to go over that and have that critical reflection to myself as well,

especially because I don't have someone else there in the middle of the night that might be social work supervision or supervisor or colleague. But to critically reflect myself, what worked, what went wrong, what did I feel a bit uncomfortable about, what could I have done better, what's the plan for tomorrow? And that can be very quick and sometimes it could be in the car, journey home or just before I go to sleep. So that was sort of my strategy that I put in place and then coming back into work to be able to do it again or to hand it over to someone else or pick up my normal social work

role. So yeah, it did take some practice in learning, but I think with having a really good framework and that critical reflection that we're all taught in social work, it is vital to be able to go back and do it this time and time again. I'm curious how, because obviously having professional colleagues to debrief with is wonderful. Do you find it easier or harder or just different trying to explain what you do to the average person who might not particularly get it. I know sometimes I benefited from just talking about the weird and wacky things that would happen for someone to go, yeah, wow, how, how did you, I can't even imagine? How did you find that process?

I think there was a time probably maybe five or six years into my career, I think around the transition from after the Northern Territory work and then coming into the hospital. that had this sort of light bulb moment that I realized no one is really going to understand the work that we do and see day in, day out. And sometimes when you're in the middle of the night and you're seeing a trauma at the hospital or you've just dealt with a family that have said their last goodbye is true, a child in bedside, you can't explain that, you can't go home and explain that. That's what I did today.

You can't, you know, tell your parents, you can't have dinner. on Friday night with friends and they say, how's work? How's work going? Oh, yeah, it's great. Like, it was fine this week. Like, of course it's fine. But at the same time, no one's really going to understand that unless you've done it, unless you've experienced that unless you're working in that setting. I think obviously social workers are going to understand it best and social workers that work in the hospital, work in the Northern Territory and in the settings are going to understand it best. So those colleagues that you do work with become sort of the second family of being able to understand what you experience. And there's times that we would go into each other's

office and cry for a little bit and they would do the same to me. And it was okay to cry. It was okay to just say, I just need to let you know what just happened or what I just saw or what I just experienced and have that person say, okay, yep, that was really hard. How are you feeling now and you say yeah I'm good I just needed to talk and and then out the door and on to the next one so those colleagues again became that family and and sometimes your supervisors aren't always around sometimes they're not there when you actually need them and yes you can debrief with them when your supervision is scheduled but sometimes especially in a hospital setting you just need to talk about it then and there like straight from coming down from the ward and what you experience

grab someone and say, hey, can I just talk to you? I just saw this. And that kind of became the norm and it became okay. And I think without doing that, the job and the role would have had a higher burnout or a higher increase issue with self-care and boundaries and things like that. So you kind of get in the groove of what's going to work. But most of the time, that was how the other social workers and myself was able to kind of deal with what we saw and what we heard. And yet, Yeah, you're right. So your family members or people that you're close to, you know, you can't really explain what you're experiencing or what you see and what you hear. And you don't really want to either because that's sort of part of the privilege and the honour of being a social

worker too. I've always said that to be part of someone's life in their worst stage of their life or their crisis of their life is an honour. It's a privilege. And yeah, and to hear their stories and like these stories are woven into people's souls and to be able to hear those and be part of that helping journey, whether it's for a short time or a long time, is a privilege. Yeah, and it's like you can't say this is a child who has such and such and be able to define them by that. So each person comes with their context, their family, their history and their own interpretation of what that diagnosis might mean to them. Yeah, yeah. And there's no one Like, for example, a new diagnosis, there was no one new diagnosis meeting.

Your child has cancer or your child has a neuromuscular condition that was the same as the next. And I think seeing that human nature and seeing grief at its rourous form is something that I'll never really be able to explain to other people. I've been in the room and kind of encouraged to pick up the paces of families that have told their child's going to die in a couple of weeks. and you can't explain that to anyone. And sometimes you don't have the words to help at that moment and sometimes just saying that this is really sucky is what was needed as well. Yeah, that moment when the doctor and the rest of the team walk out of the family conference and you're left there with exactly as you said to pick up the pieces.

Yeah. It's a very unique position to be put in. Yeah, and I think the medical staff are very good at giving and talking about the diagnosis and what that means. And I think social workers are very good at sitting in silence and sitting with trauma and sitting in crises and holding space for people. And basically they walk out and we hold that space

and try to go to the next step or the next step of support or what we can do and a lot of that's here and now and sort of meeting Maslow's basic hierarchy of needs in that moment. You've spoken quite a bit about the challenges in your new role and the most recent one, but what would you say is your least favourite thing about the work you're doing? I think my least favourite thing about the work I'm doing is probably the ongoing demands of the job. So, and that doesn't mean what I do day to day, but it means that there's not enough space or not enough time, I guess, to put into that self-care, to put into that supervision and reflection or critical reflection

and practice. Sometimes I think, especially when working hospital or busy school environments or, you know, federal government, there's demands, there's paperwork, there's red tape, there's all those things that need to be done that take away from what's important. And there was sort of a mentality that patients come first, which is true. But so does the social worker to be able to give to that profound. or give to that patient. And I think more often than not it was, there's another patient needs to be seen. There's another crisis needs to be seen.

Like the expectation to pick yourself up and continue was higher than looking after the social worker itself and that person. And I think sometimes I wish that the emphasis was put on being able to look after the self-care or look after the social worker to be able to continue and meet the needs of the patients as well. So juggling those demands, I think especially in these big sort of settings like health and the government policy kind of settings, the work is always going to be there. And it's about sort of putting those boundaries in that self-care in place. And you mentioned the COVID shutdowns earlier. And in Sydney, we've just gone into another two weeks of lockdown.

How does that affect your ability to support the children at school? So right now, it's timely that the lockdown started on the first. day of school holidays. So I think at the moment it's watch and wait. So for the next two weeks of our lockdown is school holidays. But coming back after that or if it's extended, I think we look at whether we're allowed to be on site or whether that's sort of virtual support. I'm already thinking about who and what the need is and know of families and children that would be sort of experiencing more anxiety or having more sort of issues at home and being in, into that lockdown and confined space. So yes, it's holidays and we're meant to sort of be switching off

a little bit and looking after our self-care. But at the same time, Sydney's in lockdown and there's going to be work to do probably more so than ever. And we just have to be very creative in the way that we do that, whether it's phone calls or the Zoom or virtual creative approaches, sending the parents things to work with their children on and supporting that. So yeah, it's interesting in times that we're living in. And you said you work at a number of different schools. How do you divide your time and how do you make sure that you are allocating effectively? Yeah, so I have two days at one school and three days and another.

And that depends on the need and that's been allocated on the needs basis and also the number of students that are in that school and also the population of that school and the community. So, but yeah, there's students on each school at the moment that I'd be thinking would be struggling and it's sort of prioritising, I guess, who is the most vulnerable, who is the most need and then going through that sort of support. Yeah, and delegating sort of tasks that, you know, could wait for the afternoon or the next day or what needs to happen straight away for that family or that student. So, yeah, so sometimes that is a bit of a juggle because you're going into different environments, you're going from one school and then to the next school. And every

school in every community has its different sort of culture. So yeah, that ability to be flexible and to adjust is a sort of another skill that you have to be sort of comfortable with. I imagine the funding for your position would come from schools identifying that a certain number of children within the school population require support because of whatever's happening for them, be it a disability or a learning need or an individual socioeconomic. as you were saying, how does that then translate into you being able to provide the school with feedback as to, yes, this is sufficient or no, we need to be looking out for something more and how do you provide education to the school around identifying issues?

Yeah, so I think it's down to really good communication and good structures that are already in place. I think the schools are looking at finding out a way to capture that data, but also to have their ability to feedback their data. So at least a couple of times a year we're talking about what's the workload, what's the caseload like? Are we seeing increases or decreases? Is there a need for more allocation of counsellors in this area or in their school? One of my schools had an increase of allocation last year, which meant I was able to go to this school as well. So there was more of a need there, even though it was a low, you know, there's only a couple of hundred students compared to some schools which have eight or 900.

It's not based on, I guess, the population of the school. It's based of the needs and what's on councillor's caseload. And what are the issues with sort of tackling or supporting at those schools? So it can vary a lot and different schools can be completely different day and day out in terms of your counsellor role and issues that you're seeing. And some schools are a lot quieter than others. And I think I was attracted to a school that has. had a little bit more of a fast pace coming from the hospital, which was probably extremely

fast pace. I was attracted to having a school that had issues where I was comfortable with and also could kind of work with and was quite busy. But at the same time, this is what's right for me now in my life. And it doesn't mean that that's going to be what I need or can have in the future. But right now my job satisfaction is coming from that sort of fast pace and that busyness and dealing with quite a high level of social work issues. And I love that there's been such a greater acknowledgement more recently, and that's quantified by the increase in funding recently for some of these programs, and that's New South Wales government funding with expanding the workforce,

especially in 2020. But every social worker's favourite piece of equipment is a magic wand. If you had a perfect scenario, where do you see social work making an impact? even further in this area of social work in schools and school counselling. I would love every school to have at least access to social work support. So I know that not every school in Sydney or New South Wales has a psychologist or social worker. And so even having access to one, whether that's they come once a week to the school or being able to consult with social work at the very least, that would be.

my sort of magic wand. And I think slowly the government and people in a position are seeing the need for social work, not only just psychologists, but social workers too because they do have a different lens and framework. And they can work complementary to each other as well. So I think a lot in the public setting, they're still employee psychologists,

but to be able to have that access to social work and have that lens that's part of the students like long-term schooling for six years or however it is primary to high school, I think that would be really important and what I'd love to see going into the future. Are there any other areas of social work practice that interest you for future? I feel like every time I have a little bit of a career change or a role change, I always say that I kind of stumbled into it and I didn't plan on it or I didn't expect it. it wasn't like I had been thinking about I wanted to be a school council or wanted to work at

the children's hospital or wanted to work in remote communities. I think I said before, like when a door opens, I kind of just step through it all. If I've seen a job advertised that interest me, I'm like, oh, that'd be a great job. And prior to this, I didn't even know that social work was in school counselling. So until a few years ago, that was something that was like, oh, I'd like to give that a go. But these are all very kind of recent sort of discoveries all thoughts. So for my future, I don't know. I'm really happy with where I am now and a bit of a change of pace and a different sort of cohort of social work. So I see myself staying within school counselling for a while because I also see that there's definitely growth in this area too.

Like there's a lot happening and a lot of need. And I think working in my career, I've mostly worked with children or children have been a big part of that. So sticking with that area is something that I foresee my long-term career being. You mentioned when you worked in the hospital you had an opportunity to be part of programs or research projects. Is there anything similar in this area? Do you get to be part of anything like that? Yeah, I guess there's definitely room for that sort of research or even sort of data

encapsulating and analysing is something that I'm looking at the moment just on the school, one of the schools I'm working in is you do have a lot of, creativity and flexibility and how you run your counselling service or the day to day. And that's something that I've really enjoyed. And as you know, like every social worker brings a different school set. And I consider myself to be quite a creative social worker. And that's probably in practice as well as behind the scenes. So developing different programs and whether that be social skills programs or taking away data and analysing that. And there's definitely room for projects or parent support programs and trainings and things like that. So there's, there's a lot of room

for flexibility and variation in terms of your practice and going down different fields of like the research or data analysing. I've had a lot of people say to me in the past that they're really interested in getting into social work in remote communities. Do you have any advice, any connections, any way that people, if they were interested in that sort of field work, what's the first step? So the first step would be to talk to someone that's had the experience. I think remote social work is definitely not for everybody. And there's been people that have come thinking, you know, I wanted a remote social work and then have gone, I can't do this, is not for me. And so my first step would be to really sort of reflect on what are your reasons why you want

to do remote social work and are they for you professionally personally and also the impact that you're going to have on community we don't want it to be a tokenistic sort of white policy thing that we're going into communities i always say when i'm on community and especially to the first nation people that you should have my job i shouldn't be here i don't want to be here i want you to be a social worker in your own community i want you to be the teachers at the schools so being really aware of, I guess, your own intercultural mindset as well. So what you're bringing and who you are and those impacts. I think it takes a bit of inner work and thinking about the reasons going into

remote communities. But once you've kind of gone through that process and you've spoken to someone that's gone into remote communities and have done that work and is still feeling like, yep, this is for me, then I'd reach out to those organisations that work on the ground. in there and speak to them about what's needed and what might be the next step and maybe that might be a little bit of training or that might be coming up and having a bit more experience or social work behind you or yeah so it's really about who you know as well but also building those connections and having a bit of that experience behind you whether that's personally or professionally

and if anyone wants to know more about social work in this field where would you direct them. Is there any good reading, good resources? I'd say a lot of good resources of reading is around trauma and that can be, you know, trauma of First Nations people, but also as human. So I really like the body keeps the score. It's a book. And also, I think there's a recent, a really new book by Bruce Perry called What Happened to You. So asking that question, what happened to you, which are two really good sort of books around trauma and the body, but also sort of looking at what trauma might mean generationally, especially going into remote communities and when they experience generational trauma. So having that really good understanding of the impacts of trauma. And another really good

training that you can do is the Circle Security training. I found that as a really good resource through my career. It's around sort of the attachment with children and infants. And I can attachment model and I think that's really integral in every single role I've had and especially now working with parents and students and being able to kind of reteach those learnings as well. And I think, you know, if you're looking for something that you just want to be uplifted or want to empower yourself and you don't want to get too bogged down in all sort of the trauma and attachment and all the, I guess, the sad things that are happening in the world, A really good book that I love is half the sky, and it's how to change the world, half the sky.

And it's basically about things that are happening around the world and how people have empowered themselves to change and what that looks like. And it's a really good read and to reinforce why you're in social work and why you're doing this sort of practice. No, that's wonderful. There's also the ASW has a scope of practice in schools, which might be helpful. helpful for people to have a read of if they're interested in working in schools. And I can track down all of those resources and put them in the show notes so people can go off and do some reading

if they're interested. Are there any other things that you wanted to chat about in relation to the work that you've done in schools or any words of advice for people who are interested in getting into this area specifically? No, I just think, you know, keep your networks open. Don't be afraid to reach out and ask questions. Most people aren't scary. that will answer any questions you have, and especially if you're a fellow social worker, I think we're always willing to help our other social workers and answer any questions and try and guide them or mentor them. And I wish that there was more sort of social work mentor programs out there to be able to navigate this because the best thing about the

social work career or having been a social worker is the flexibility in different roles that you can have. But at times that also can be very confusing about how do I get into that area. So when a door opens, go through it and when you need to ask questions, ask those questions. Yeah, that's really helpful advice. I love your approach to the fast-paced sort of thing, but also the sitting in crisis. So so much of your work has been, as you said, holding space for people and helping them to progress to the next stage of whatever's happening for them. And I can really hear in what you're saying, there's a real fight for change and social justice and being able to demonstrate the way that you're having an impact in creative ways.

And you've said a couple of times taking any opportunity that comes your way. So just not being afraid to think creatively about how social work can be developed in an area if it's something that's lesser known or you don't expect to find a social worker in that specific space, but also just as you said, reach out to other people because there is a wealth of knowledge and they might not directly work in that area, but they have experience that's translatable, that can help you, or they might have a really good connection

that they can hook you up with. So I really thank you for your time. It's been incredibly interesting for me to hear. I love that you've worked in remote communities, and that was your first job, so incredibly brave, I think, of you, just putting yourself out there and really putting yourself in an area

where it would have been incredibly uncomfortable for you, but you thought this is probably the best way to learn. and let's just, you know, jump in the deep end a little bit. Yeah. So it's all really inspiring for me to hear, and I'm sure other people will feel the same. Yeah, thank you. And I'm happy to, you know, if anyone wants to reach out

and ask any questions about any of the sort of experiences that I've had all the different areas, I'm happy to, you know, have a chat anytime. Wonderful. Thank you so much for your time. I really appreciate it. Thank you. Thanks for joining me this week. if you would like to continue this discussion or ask anything of either myself or Lauren,

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 Spotlightpodcast at gmail.com. 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 Scarlett, who started her career in the drug and alcohol field, before moving into acute hospital work. She currently works in the intensive care unit and emergency department of a busy Sydney hospital. Scarlett has previously worked as the general manager of two homelessness drug and alcohol NGOs in Sydney

and in the juvenile justice field. I release a new episode every two weeks. Please subscribe to my podcast so you will notify when this next episode is available. See you next time.