People don’t always let you down

Lauren Kosta, a first-year international student studying for her Masters of Social Work, typifies the growing number of students taking Masters courses in the University of Melbourne’s graduate schools. Having completed her undergraduate studies at the University of Toronto, Ms Kosta took a year off to go backpacking and while in Australia applied for the Masters of Social Work at Melbourne.

“The practical approach to learning is what drew me to the program at the University of Melbourne,” says Ms Kosta, “and I have not been disappointed.”

At the official launch to celebrate the partnership between the University of Melbourne and the North and West Metropolitan Region of the Department of Human Services and the Department of Health, Ms Kosta spoke of her internship as a child protection worker and the benefits resulting from such a partnership.

The University of Melbourne gives prime importance to its relationships with external partners and the wider community. This investment is predicated on the belief that strategic partnerships deliver more benefits for each organisation than can be achieved alone, and that they significantly contribute to the economic, social, environmental and cultural wellbeing of the region in which they operate. Furthermore, the University believes working with other organisations can be more innovative, more creative, and of more practical benefit.

The Hon Lisa Neville MP, Minister for Community Services who officially launched the new partnership with the state government departments, concurs. “Partnership with the University of Melbourne promises to deliver so much for vulnerable families in Melbourne’s northern and western suburbs,” she says. “Making structural and cultural changes are not things government can do alone. Partnership is essential if we are to effectively improve our responses.”

“That’s why the Departments of Health and Human Services, and the University of Melbourne, have taken the initiative to develop this partnership – and it is already proving to be successful.

Professor Jim Angus, Dean of the Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health Sciences, endorses the Minister’s comments. “None of us can do this alone…such connections ensure the relevance of research while at the same time linking practitioners and policy-makers to the latest developments in research locally and internationally.”

The University and government partners have worked together to develop a practical approach to the Masters of Social Work so students become work-ready for a human services career, while the Department of Social Work has introduced guest lecturers from the Department of Human Services.

The Department of Health has commissioned the University to develop a 2-day short course on Population Health to improve the skills of service planners and agencies in the region, and planning is under way to increase the experience of medical and allied health students in community health settings in addition to their experience in acute settings.

Key child protection and mental health workforce improvements are also anticipated as a result of the partnership with projects to improve the profile, capacities and retention of practitioners in these areas.

 “These are all practical, sensible, meaningful initiatives which will boost the quality of our workforce in both the medium and long term,” Ms Neville says.

“It is indescribable, that sense of realisation when you see theories you have read about for years come into play in front of you for the first time,” says Ms Kosta of her placement as a child protection worker. “And then there is that essential relationship – where your studies inform your practice but still your practice informs your future studies. There’s nothing more exciting for a student who has just finished their first term than encountering the intangible client they’ve only read about in books,” she said.

The clients Ms Kosta encountered in the course of her internship included some with seemingly intractable issues commonly highlighted in the media. “The reports we were given access to outlined not only the immediate issue we had to deal with,” says Ms Kosta, “but the history of disadvantage and difficulties these families had had to confront over many years. Very often, reaction to child protection workers was understandably negative – sometimes abusive – as a result.”

Ms Kosta reports examples of trauma and loss, extreme family violence, and removal of children from families suffering significant and disturbing difficulties.

The obvious question was one Ms Kosta often asked herself: “How do you work with families who have experienced such pain?”

The answer was provided by what she had already learned in the course of her studies, combined with the practical experience learned on the job. “There is something to be said for the people who work in child protection,” Ms Kosta says. “Sadly it is a high turnover job. It is stressful and the workers seldom hear the thanks they deserve from anyone outside the field. But it is also a field where you will find some of the most dedicated people you could imagine.”

At the end of Ms Kosta’s work placement, she was able to report on some positive results not generally heard outside the field. “Would you believe me if I told you that on one of our closure visits my supervisor and I each got a hug from the client we’d been working with?” Ms Kosta asked the audience at the partnership launch. “We were thanked for listening to her, for believing, for our support, and for showing her child that people don’t always let you down.”

http//: knowledgepartnerships.unimelb.edu.au