What does effective allyship between social work and lived experience workers look like in the Australian forensic mental health context?

ABSTRACT

While forensic social work has a long history, it continues to struggle with its identity within a multidisciplinary team environment. Some jurisdictions have witnessed the development of informal partnerships between social work teams and lived experience workers, but little is known about their operation. Against this background, the aim of this project was to explore the presence, nature and operation of these partnerships in forensic mental health services. Social workers and lived experience workers from Australia and New Zealand attended a two-day summit to share practice-based experiences and engage in small group discussions. The Summit identified both a range of service models across forensic mental health services, and a keen interest in amassing practice-based wisdom to enable more formalised partnerships between social work and lived experience workers. Recommendations arising can be used as a platform to shape the future development and directions of allyship in forensic mental health practice.

KEYWORDS:

• Forensic social work
• lived experience workers
• allyship
• partnerships
• practice-based wisdom

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank; David Chon, Paul Clare, Dinah Coleman, Julie Dempsey, Heather Fairfax, Brittany McVeagh, Tamika O’Brien, Kirby Stephens, Amie Warren, Tracey Withers, and Lisa Wright for their ongoing support of this project, and for their contributions to this manuscript.

Disclosure statement

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

Data availability statement

Further details can be requested from the corresponding author.

Additional information

Funding

The costs associated with hosting the Summit were supported by both RMIT University and Forensicare.

Notes on contributors

Caroline Lambert

Caroline Lambert is a Lecturer / Industry Fellow in Social Work and Human Services in the School of Global, Urban and Social Studies at RMIT University, Melbourne, Australia. 

Ronnie Egan

Ronnie Egan is an Associate Professor in Field Education in Social Work and Human Services in the School of Global, Urban and Social Studies at RMIT University, Melbourne, Australia.

Stuart DM Thomas

Stuart Thomas is a Professor of Forensic Mental Health in the School of Global, Urban and Social Studies at RMIT University, Melbourne, Australia.