Working with Families Experiencing Vulnerability

Vulnerability is not a fixed state; people and families can move in and out of experiencing vulnerability throughout their lives. All families are at risk of experiencing vulnerability at some point, which means that social workers and other professionals must be equipped with the skills to effectively provide them with support. Working with Families Experiencing Vulnerability: A Partnership Approach provides a comprehensive, evidence-based guide to family-centred practice for the social work, human services, health and education professions. This edition has been comprehensively revised and features new chapters on working with families affected by natural disasters, families experiencing poverty, Māori families, LGBTQIA+ families and families where a parent has an intellectual disability. Emphasis is placed on promoting a rights-based, relational approach to working with children and young people, who are most at risk of experiencing vulnerability. Each chapter includes case studies, reflective questions and activities.

About the Authors

Susan Heward-Belle is an Associate Professor of Social Work at the University of Sydney. Her teaching and sustained program of original research focuses on driving change to create socially just gender transformative strategies to prevent and address domestic and family violence. Her cutting-edge research, particularly with men who perpetrate violence against women and children, aims to counter dominant paradigms that offer gender biased responses, particularly by institutions of the state such as statutory child protection services, police, and the courts. She contributes to knowledge, which informs public policy and professional practices, that ultimately prevent inter-personal violence. Moreover, her research focuses on developing and promoting dignity-based policy and practice.

Menka Tsantefski is an academic in the School of Social Work and Community Welfare, Faculty of Health, Southern Cross University, and a researcher in the Faculty's Centre for Children and Young People. Menka's research has examined the transition to motherhood among women with histories of problematic substance use, the experiences of children affected by parental substance use, and all-of-family approaches at the intersection of alcohol and other drugs, mental health, domestic/family violence and child protection concerns. Her work, which is cross-sectoral and multi-disciplinary, has been at the forefront of service delivery. She has built evidence for interventions, designed and implemented projects for children, led developments in child-aware practice in adult services, increased collaboration between service sectors, and influenced policy and practice at the national level.