Educating for critical social work practice in mental health

ABSTRACT

Practising critically in medically dominated settings has been identified as a radical challenge for social work. While commonly acknowledged that the biomedical model dominates most mental health settings, social workers continue to try to carve out a more distinctive role for our profession that aligns with the values of social justice. This paper explores how social work education (specifically critically reflective pedagogies and methodologies), can support transformative learning that, at least in this case, generated possibilities for critical practice in mental health. It articulates a co-constructed process in which the educator (Author One) and the student (Author Two) use critical reflection to unearth opportunities for mental health social workers to practise critically. This paper discusses the broader implications for social work education and practice, thus generating practice-based evidence that extends current theorising and social work practice in mental health.

KEYWORDS:

• Mental health
• critical social work
• critical reflection
• professional identity
• student learning

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. Medicare is a publically funded scheme that provides Australian residents access to health care.

2. Jane is a pseudonym adopted to protect this woman’s identity.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Christine Morley

Christine Morley BSW (Hons) PhD is Professor and Head of the Social Work and Human Services Discipline in the School of Public Health and Social Work at Queensland University of Technology, and Adjunct Professor at the University of the Sunshine Coast, Australia. She has published extensively on critical social work education and practice including books 'Practising Critical Reflection to Develop Emancipatory Change' (Routledge, 2014), 'Engaging with Social Work: A Critical Introduction,' (with P. Ablett & S. Macfarlane, Cambridge, 2019, 2nd edition), and 'The Routledge Handbook of Critical Pedagogies for Social Work' (editor with P. Ablett, C. Noble & S. Cowden, Routldge, 2020).

Kate Stenhouse

Kate Stenhouse BSc(Psych), MSW (Q) is a sessional tutor in the Social Work and Human Services Discipline, School of Public Health and Social Work at Queensland University of Technology, Australia, and a Mental Health Clinician, Queensland Health, Australia.