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Unit of Study SWRK3005 - Social Work Practice VII - Social Work in Legal Contexts (2023)

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Unit Snapshot

  • Unit type

    UG Coursework Unit

  • Credit points

    12

  • Faculty/College

    Faculty of Health

  • Placement

    No

  • Enrolment information

    All students are required to meet participation requirements comprising 42 hours of compulsory attendance at either on-campus tutorials. (GC students) or an on-campus residential (online students)

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 2023

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:

identify social work practice with individuals, groups and communities within legal contexts

critically analyse alliances between social work and the law

demonstrate 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