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Unit of Study SWRK3005 - Social Work Practice VII - Social Work in Legal Contexts (2021)

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Unit Snapshot

  • Enrolment information

    N/A

Unit description

Develops students' understanding of the legal context of social work practice. Provides an overview of the Australian legal system and develops skills in operating within statutory roles in areas such as child protection, family and domestic violence and mental health. Implications for social work practice in developing and maintaining appropriate documentation and the provision of evidence are explored.

Unit content

1. Overview of the Australian legal system, federal and state /territory jurisdictions.

2. Social work and the law: child protection and out of home care.

3. Social work and the law: social security and welfare rights.

4. Social work and the law:disability.

5. Social work and the law: youth justice.

6. Social work and the law: family and domestic violence.

7. Social work and the law: mental health.

8. Social work and the law: elder abuse.

9. Social work and the law: refugees and asylum seekers.

10. Multidisciplinary practice with lawyers and social workers.

11. Legal aspects of social work practice: record keeping, ethical issues and evidence. 

Availabilities

Not currently available in 2021

Learning outcomes

Unit Learning Outcomes express learning achievement in terms of what a student should know, understand and be able to do on completion of a unit. These outcomes are aligned with the graduate attributes. The unit learning outcomes and graduate attributes are also the basis of evaluating prior learning.

On completion of this unit, students should be able to:

demonstrate an understanding of the Australian legal system and the role of social work

identify social work practice as grounded in an understanding of individual, family or groups within legal contexts

identify the tensions and opportunities that a multidisciplinary approach offers, and articulate the benefits of an alliance between social work and the law

demonstrate an awareness of and capacity in appropriate record keeping, consideration of ethical issues and evidence in the context of legal proceedings

demonstrate an understanding of social work and the law across a range of contemporary fields of practice including social security, child protection, disability, youth justice, family and domestic violence, mental health, elder abuse and refugees and asylum seekers