Tasmanian Social Worker September 2012

AASW, T asma nia Newsletter Date 2012 Tasmanian Social Worker September 2012 Contributions welcome Message from the Branch President We would love to hear from you! Send in your news item or photos for Lots has been happening since our last newsletter! publication in the newsletter. Jpeg The election process has resulted in the following results for Tasmanian social format for photos and Word format workers: for text is preferred. 1. Carol Dorgelo re-elected as Branch President ****************************** 2. Anthea Vreugdenhil elected to the vice-president position 3. David Gould elected as a committee member 4. Barbara Moerd elected as a national AASW Board member. Contents My congratulations and gratitude go to each of these members who have taken on new roles. It is very much appreciated by all. President’s Report 1 The Tasmanian Branch is still seeking more members to join the committee. So if you are interested and would like to know more please contact any of the current committee to talk it over. In Memory 2 The current Branch Committee members are: Report on World Conference 4 Carol Dorgelo, community health social worker, Nubeena Anthea Vreugdenhil, lecturer, UTAS Launceston Southern Private Practice Group 6 Ally Smith, social worker, Centacare Devonport Anne Coleman, lecturer UTAS Hobart North West Regional Group 6 Liz Little, manager Sexual Assault Service, Hobart Tony Howe, private practice Hobart Launceston Networking Group 6 David Gould, social worker RHH, Hobart Social Advocacy Survey 7 Ann Hughes, Anglicare Hobart Anna Lovitt, community health social worker, Campbell Town Ethics Forum 8 However, regretfully Ann Hughes and Anna Lovitt will be required to shortly step down from the committee as they have served three consecutive terms totalling six years each. I know that both Ann Other Events 9 and Anna will continue to be involved in AASW activities. Anna is continuing as national convenor of the Continuing Professional Education committee. I would like to sincerely thank them for their dedication Supervision Register 9 to AASW and to the social work profession. The Tasmanian branch currently is involved in: AICD Scholarship 10 Supervising two social work students on placement in Hobart Organising an Ethics Forum at UTAS Launceston on 22 October Resources 11 Being involved in the registration campaign Planning the Social Advocacy Forum and AGM for 23 November in Hobart Branch Committee Contacts 11 I look forward to meeting you in the coming months at one of our regular events for social workers. Carol Dorgelo AASW Tasmanian Branch President [email protected] 6250 3042 (home) P age 2 Tasmanian Social Worker 2 01 2 In Memory VALE RUTH ERREY Ruth Errey arrived in Tasmania in 1974 and became quickly known and respected as a social worker in this State between 1974 and 1981, during and slightly beyond the period that her husband, Adam Jamrozik, established and headed up the fledgeling Social Work course at the Tasmanian College of Advanced Education. Ruth came to social work as a second profession, after nursing – she and Adam met when Ruth was matron of the Leigh Creek Hospital in South Australia and Adam was a recently-arrived migrant. Ruth's first position in Tasmania was as social worker in a primary school, located in a disadvantaged area. Noticing the poor quality of the children’s oral health, she managed to obtain six hundred toothbrushes and boxes of apples – tooth cleaning became a compulsory activity at the first lesson break! Ruth chose to work in public housing areas on Hobart's eastern shore, broadacre and semi-isolated developments whose marginalisation was intensified following the rupture of the Tasman Bridge in January 1975. Ruth felt this fact deeply affected eastern shore residents, particularly those in settlements away from the river. One resident of Clarendon Vale letterboxed houses with the note “If we are going mad, we may as well go mad together – come to my place on Tuesday morning.” The establishment of the State's first Neighbourhood House (in Clarendon Vale) grew from this: TAFE funded a part-time facilitator for six months, who set about distilling the aims of this 'kitchen' group which now met weekly, getting the women to set goals. The group was philosophically opposed to being seen as a 'welfare group'. The group first sought a notice board, a mail box and some public transport – they learned to run a survey to establish need, followed up suggested funding sources, challenged authorities on their responsibility to provide services... The social worker (Ruth) was asked to provide transport for a trip to meet with people in a similar situation in Bridgewater: this established the social worker's usefulness and bona fides with the group and Ruth was invited to attend the group's weekly meetings – but the lounge room could no longer contain the group and its numerous pre-school children in tow, so the Housing Department was approached to supply a house – the challenge was accepted and a home was specially modified and made available, with the assistance of the local council to help with business aspects. Clarendon Vale Neighbourhood House became the model for initiatives in other public housing subdivisions around the State and within twelve months it offered occasional child care, ante-natal classes, a baby clinic, part-time GP clinic, sessions on women's health, yoga/relaxation, church on Sundays; later, school holiday activities, a youth club, driving lessons, and a childcare group as women attended the Rosny College 'New Horizons' course – many proceeded from there to obtain TAFE qualifications. The woman who'd initiated the 'let's-go-mad-together' gathering in her home became the House's first full-time Co-ordinator, remaining in that role for seven years. Ruth played a significant role in this triumph over adversity! Excerpts from contributions she made to the AASW Tasmanian Branch Newsletter in January 1978 include: “BEHIND THE SCENES – The Great Rokeby Child Management Seminar The two social workers based at Rokeby – Jenny McAuley at the School, and Ruth Errey at the Health Centre – finding themselves inundated with requests for help in the management of young children, decided to look for some added wisdom. [an 'expert' panel was arranged, it was decided the Seminar would be held in the school gym. and the social workers turned to] – the more pedestrian bits of organisation... The Police Academy was MOST helpful. “We could lend you one thousand and eighteen chairs... but the man who drives the truck is off on a month's leave”... [a Sandford vegetable grower agreed his truck could be used and his employees would load/unload the chairs, local teenagers would mind the children...] - only the accommodation of bottoms was keeping the social workers awake at night.... On the day, the mothers, and some fathers, poured into the gym. [Panel members] rubbed their eyes as the numbers grew... it is hoped that similar meetings can be held at intervals and that on the next occasion there will not be singing practices in the other half of the gym!” In May 1978 Ruth concluded a contribution to the Newsletter with “So what is my contribution (as social worker at the Rokeby Health Centre) to all of this? A finger at varying depths in most pies, I guess one would have to say. (In jargon terms I would be called a resource person). At present I'm actively involved in running fortnightly 'health education' evenings at the Rokeby Health Centre, and supporting Rosemary Knox's convening of 'Free and easy talks about kids' (a parenting skills course) which is being held in the Rokeby Community Centre on Tuesday mornings.” More recently, Ruth reflected that “in Rokeby the social worker's orientation was towards community development. [You] saw community health in broad terms”. Tasmanian Social Worker 2 01 2 P age 3 In Memory A former social work student-on-placement with Ruth as supervisor wrote recently “I well remember her 'hands-off' approach to supervision and her letting me do all the driving!” At the Surprise Farewell Party for Adam and Ruth at the end of 1980, Dorothy Pearce (then Senior Social Worker at the Royal Hobart Hospital) remarked “I first became conscious of Ruth's strength and commitment when she was working in the Education Department and I knew she was just the person we needed to work in Rokeby. Rokeby will never be the same again. She has brought to her work at the Community Health Centre there not only her professional skills but the basic human qualities that the area needed, compassion, common sense and toughness. Hers will be a hard act to follow, except with Ruth it is no act....” Around this time some ground-breaking work was being done by (the late) Fonda Arnold of the Rokeby Christian Care Centre, focusing on low income living and budgeting in particular. Ruth and Fon worked tirelessly to make known the hardships, dilemmas and needs of people caught in this life situation and push for change at government/policy and professional as well as public opinion levels. Band-aiding was no solution! Through this involvement, Ruth developed a research approach; these women drove home the realities of the world about them, publishing About Poverty, Cat and Fiddle Press, Hobart, in 1981. Adam (followed by Ruth) moved to Sydney from Tasmania, where Ruth remained very actively immersed in a number of social issues: together with Carole Baker and Sarah Fox, Ruth conducted an extensive research project on Community Care of the Aged, published by the Social Welfare Research Centre, 1986. Ruth and Adam later re-located to Ruth's native Adelaide. In recent years, Ruth's physical health deteriorated, and Adam assumed the role of tireless primary carer, with assistance from family members and others.

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