Over this past month in Australia I learned much more about Australia’s history, the benefits of a public health care system, and how social workers play into that system. Right from the start of the trip I was challenged, educated, and encouraged by the knowledge of Australia’s history. I knew very little about Australian Aboriginals or how grossly mistreated they were during colonization. I was grieved to learn about the acts of discrimination and persecution that had happened so recently in history.

The more I travel the more I see how similar patterns have played out in history, and the further I am inspired to fight the current destructive patterns for a brighter future. After hearing yet another story of how a few people in power influenced the masses to oppress a smaller group of people, I was ignited to take on the responsibility of reflecting upon my own personal history and question how my ancestors built the community that I was raised in. There are such common themes in the histories of developed nations…genocide, racism, oppression, disregard to human’s basic human and civil rights. Why do we continue to make the same mistakes over and over again? After seeing how Australia finally acknowledged their wrongdoing and wrote an apology to the Aboriginals in 2008, I know that change is possible. As a future social worker, I know that I need to be someone who will actually listen to people’s stories when they are not being heard. When someone in power is belittling a population, we must understand that there are two sides to every story. The Aboriginals had generations of knowledge of how to live off the land; they had a culture rich in traditions and a love of community that few people value today. Everyone has value, and deserves the right to be heard and respected.

Valuing individuals equally is a foundational element behind Australia’s public health care system. I believe health care should be a basic human right, and in Australia people are guaranteed these services. I saw that many of the fears and concerns Americans have about having such a system were honestly not much of an issue there, but there were multiple different factors that need to be taken into account. Australia is unique in the fact that about 85% of the population lives within 50 km (~31 miles) of the coast. This means that Australians are very centralized by living in the few big coastal cities, making access to services extremely easy. Australia also has a much smaller population than America as we have a population of about 319 million and Australia is only home to about 23 million. This is a huge difference and it would be a much larger task to take on to try to serve a population as large as ours the same care as Australia. So although there were many benefits to their health care system, and as much as I would like to see America to eventually follow a similar model of care, it would take a lot of time and improvisation to figure out the logistics of doing so.

Amongst the countless new ideas, programs, and approaches that I learned while abroad, my experience with the Lighthouse Institute stands out the most. I wrote in a previous blog about the radical ways they are changing care for young people in Australia. The way the Lighthouse Institute has seen the need for young adults around the ages of 17 and 18 year olds is so inspiring to me. We have a multitude of resources in America for children and teens, but once they legally become adults…they are on their own and expected to hold their own. The only resource that I am aware of for this age group in America are for teens who have aged out of foster care. However, there are so many young people who were never given the gift of being taught responsibility and basic job skills like interviewing. Just because a child was not in foster care does not mean they were adequately raised with the blessing of affectionate parents who were willing to teach them independent living skills. I think that if there were more programs such as this, we could provide another important net to catch the young people who were not caught earlier by the system. The kids who somehow went through the system and did not have their needs met. It would be one last network to reach out to before adulthood to gain the resources these young people need.

It was also at Lighthouse that I feel like I got a better idea of the theories behind their practice and was given valuable insight into working with children. One of the psychologists talked a lot about how all behavior is a form of communication…so in order to change the behavior you have to understand what is being communicated. No child wants to misbehave simply to cause harm. There is usually an underlying message trying to be communicated, or something that they are gaining from the misbehavior, whether it is attention or whatever else. I know that I will use this insight in working with future families, and it will give me greater compassion for anyone who is treating others unkindly.

Taking into account all of the experiences (both educational and tourist) that we were so lucky to enjoy on our travels, I came back feeling empowered. Traveling to and from Australia, I had bought a separate plane ticket so I got to experience what it was like to travel completely on my own. It was a little intimidating at first, but I made it and now feel confident I could do it again! I came back with a better sense of who I am as an individual, as a social worker, and with a better understanding of the obstacles that I may run into in my future career. I grew in my cultural competency, especially after the visit with VACCA. I learned about how they encouraged the younger generation of aboriginals to embrace their culture. By encouraging young children and teens to value their culture, it gives them a sense of belonging and community from which they can draw strength. It is very important within the Aboriginal community to include the extended family just as much as the nuclear family in discussions and decisions. Aboriginals live as members of the broader community, and this is important to take into account as a social worker. I know there are many other cultures that also have these similar values of communal living and decision making, and it would be important to draw upon that strength with clients if that is important to them.

I also really appreciated how in Australia the holistic approach to care seems to be much more frequented than I have experienced in America. Australia did not seem quite so focused on the use of prescription drugs to solve all problems and were much more open to alternative forms of healing. After talking to many of the social workers, it seems they understood the importance of taking into account the mind, body and spirit when creating interventions for clients. Even outside of the social work setting, we were introduced to holistic care by our tour guide Katie Lucas who took us on our grand adventure around the Great Ocean Road. She called herself the “Holistic Hiker”, and took us on a spiritual journey of meditation on one of the beach stops and in a beautiful field to watch the sunrise. The morning meditation was definitely a highlight of my trip, as it reminded all of us to stop and appreciate exactly where we were. Taking the time to breathe, be thankful, and affirm yourself of your own strength can totally change your perspective positively, and I will always refer to mindfulness as a wonderful tool for my own mental health as well as tool to offer future clients.

I will always look back on this study abroad trip as one of the best decisions I ever made and I hope one day to travel back to explore more of the beautiful country. Australia will  forever have a special place in my heart.

Twelve Apostles, Great Ocean Road

This week we went to many agencies that focused on children and relationships with their caregivers. We learned at lot about the system and how the government is supporting these types of families. We know that healthy relationships and bonds are especially important for children at a young age and this week especially emphasized this.

At Berry Street and the Bouverie center, we were reminded to consider the whole person whenever working with clients. Rather than make any assumptions about why a parent may not be able to care for their child, we have to try to understand the backgrounds that the parents have come from. Berry Street took a unique approach to building relationships between foster carers, the children, and their biological parents by inviting everyone to a playgroup together that meets once a week. Various activities are conducted throughout the day to engage the carers and parents with the kids and provide a framework for the kids to rebuild some of the bonds of attachment that may have been lost. It hasn’t been long that they have integrated both the foster carers and the parents in the same playgroup, but it seems to be going well. We found it especially interesting that in Australia, they refer to the second-carers as foster carers rather than foster parents. This may be why it is a little bit easier to integrate the various family members because the foster carers are coming in as a second support rather than as a replacement parent.

At Vic Seg, we gained insight about children in immigrant families and it was mind-blowing. We got a look into two families’ eyes about being strangers in a new country. They had to start from the ground up and rebuild their lives from nothing. It was emotional especially for me (Vy), but also a couple of our classmates because we have parents that are immigrants and we are immigrants ourselves. While watching the video we were reminded that we all have different beginnings and that you cannot judge someone by the way they speak, look, sound, etc. People are unique and diverse, and that is what makes our world beautiful. We all have different experiences to reflect on and gifts of wisdom to share with one another. The bonds and relationships we form with the people we meet should be appreciated and cherished because that is what makes us vulnerable, relatable, and human.

This week was jam packed with agency visits and an incredible road trip along the Great Ocean Road. One of my favorite agency visits was with the Lighthouse Foundation. They are a privately funded organization focused on supporting homeless youth through providing a home, family, and therapy. The age range of the young people that they work with is from 12 to 18, but the average age is 17. This surprised me at first, as I had assumed there would be a greater amount of younger teens involved in the program, but they specifically target their program to the older group. Seventeen is the age that many people begin to be cut off from support from their families, as kids move away from home for the first time. This is an extremely difficult transition period, and as Lighthouse explained their program, multiple names came to mind that could have benefitted from a supportive home that taught relationship and practical life skills. In America, we have recently recognized the need for support for kids who have aged out of the foster care system, but there are a ton of other kids who are kicked out of/choose to leave the house at 17 or 18, and are left to fend for themselves in a world they are unequipped to take on. Many of the organizations this week were focused on young adults, or had a program specifically tailored to this age group, and I think it is a model that our own country could definitely benefit from. This age group is a vulnerable population, as this is when mental health issues are initially brought out. I believe we should be making it more of a priority to reduce stigma and support this population’s needs, as it would significantly increase the health of our greater society.

(By Rachel Neff)
Finding a good source of funding for any organization can be challenge. In the United States, funding is scarce for almost all human resource branches, whether it be social work, public health, mental health, etc. Altough, it seems like Australia’s government also provides little funding to it’s services. From most of the agencies that our class has visited, that funding is mostly private. However, Australians put a lot of care into the mental health and wellbeing of their young people, perhaps more so than Americans. As social workers, we are taught to fix the problem at the source. Imagine walking through the woods and seeing a river with someone yelling for help. You help them out and another person floats down, and another person after that. Why are all these people floating down this river? You run back to the top and see people leaning on this rail and the rail is broken, which causes people to fall into the river, thus needing help. You fix the rail, which fixes the entire problem. Why not fix the problem “upstream,” rather than, “downstream.” When Instead of continually fixing something at a micro level and it breaking repeatively, we should strive to fix it at a macro level and fix the source of the problem. It is frustrating when there are no resources for the problem to even be fixed.

Funding is important!! How do you buy a house with no money? How do you start a business with no training? How do you drive with no lessons? The basic foundation is missing and that is detrimental to the system, delivery, and logistics.

(By Vy Do)

This past week we have been able to see bits and pieces of the entire city, learn about two local organizations, and taste lots of different food! The first agency we visited was VACCA (Victorian Aboriginal Child Care Agency), and it was an incredible learning experience. None of the people in our group previously knew much about Australia’s Aboriginal history, let alone understand the rich cultural traditions and values of the population.

I (Rachel) was particularly struck by the similarities in how both of our countries glorified colonialism. Australia seems to have done a much better job of recognizing their fault quickly and taking action to preserve the Aboriginal population, but it is still a work in process and both countries have a lot more to do. The stereotypes associated with the Aboriginal population here are similar to the United States view of Native American reservations, assuming that they are all alcoholics and dependent on social welfare…but it’s simply not true. The resilience within this population is truly inspiring. One of my favorite quotes by Helena (one of the speakers from the agency) was, “We need to succeed within these systems that were not designed for us.”

As a social worker, this is such a powerful statement alluding to the oppression that minorities all over the world are facing. The Aboriginals had such a better understanding of the environment…they knew how to work with the land rather than against it. They had a beautiful system of working together and sustainably living off the land without destroying it before the Europeans came, and the country is just now beginning to realize that maybe the native people understood how to live in Australia better than the “civilized” foreigners.  I am intrigued by the wisdom and knowledge that the Aboriginals here and the Native Americans back home have to offer, and as a social worker I hope to fight to find those strengths within whatever population I work with.

From the First Peoples exhibit at the Melbourne Museum:

When we went to the Royal Children’s Hospital on Wednesday May 13^th, many of my classmates got split up. I (Vy) got put into a group with three others and we headed to Gatehouse, a center for sexual assault.

It was fascinating. Gatehouse focuses on children and young people who have been affected by sexual assault. Gatehouse provides many different services. There are counseling services, crisis care, consultations, advocacy, training, and research being conducted. The one thing that blew my mind was that Australia has a totally different system than the United States and I learned that they too are frustrated with their positions and power, or lack there of. Their police system, child protective services, and social workers are separate entities. I could see their perspective on why it was so frustrating working with the system, when it seems like the system is working against them. In Victoria, social workers are not mandated reporters, which means they do not have to report any disclosure of harm to oneself or harm against another person.

It is fascinating to see that one service has all these resources and plans to help a client, but they do not have the power to directly report the issue. They can only refer and recommend to another agency. Social workers in the U.S. have the duty to report and if not, get in trouble. That is a huge difference in the two systems that I found interesting.

After this experience, I can take the information from Gatehouse that I learned and perhaps create a service in the U.S. that incorporates the amazing services Gatehouse provides. We had smaller meetings with social workers that discussed vulnerable children, trauma, and bereavement. Those were interesting as well. We got a lot of information on their legislation and processes the government has been debating on.

Just within the first week, our worldview has been challenged in big ways by seeing a different social system and experiencing another culture.