Corporate Citizenship: What are the Social Responsibilities of Australian Business? School of Social Work and Applied Human Sciences Occasional Paper Series No. 6

Corporate Citizenship: What are the Social Responsibilities of Australian Business? School of Social Work and Applied Human Sciences Occasional Paper Series No. 6

Contingent on context? Social work and the state in Australia, Britain, and the USA

The notion that social work is an international profession, operating with generally similar goals, methodologies, and common values is considered critically. Examining the political and social contexts of three countries with liberal democratic governments-Australia, Britain and the United States-the role of social work within the welfare processes of each country is compared. While social work as an identifiable professional activity shares some features, it is argued that the idea of its having a core essence needs to be tempered with a realistic assessment of the importance of contextually created difference. Recent and rapid developments in the institutional context, such as those experienced in these three countries, further underscore the limited utility of the notion of a common professional project.

Models of psychological service provision under Australia's better outcomes in mental health care program

The Access to Allied Psychological Services component of Australia's Better Outcomes in Mental Health Care program enables eligible general practitioners to refer consumers to allied health professionals for affordable, evidence-based mental health care, via 108 projects conducted by Divisions of General Practice. The current study profiled the models of service delivery across these projects, and examined whether particular models were associated with differential levels of access to services. We found: 76% of projects were retaining their allied health professionals under contract, 28% via direct employment, and 7% some other way; Allied health professionals were providing services from GPs' rooms in 63% of projects, from their own rooms in 63%, from a third location in 42%; and The referral mechanism of choice was direct referral in 51% of projects, a voucher system in 27%, a brokerage system in 24%, and a register system in 25%. Many of these models were being used in combination. No model was predictive of differential levels of access, suggesting that the approach of adapting models to the local context is proving successful.