Aboriginal Social Work Cadet

Location: Melbourne | Northern Metropolitan

Job type: Part time

Organisation: The Royal Women's Hospital

**Salary**: Salary not specified

Occupation: Administration/Secretarial, Health and Allied Health, Other

Reference: 25059

**Social Work Cadet - Aboriginal Health**

**Fixed term - **Over a period of 8 weeks [or up to 40 shifts]**

**Allied Health Assistant Grade 1 (IN28 - IN29)**

**The Royal Women’s Hospital**

The Royal Women’s Hospital is Australia’s first and largest specialist hospital dedicated to improving the health and wellbeing of newborns and women of all ages. To join the Women’s is to be instrumental in forging progress towards health equity for women from ground-breaking research through to the bedside delivery of multi-disciplinary clinical care.

Creating exceptional experiences is at the heart of everything we do for our patients, their families, and our people across our specialised services within maternity, neonatal and women’s health.

**Organisational Context**

The Women’s Social Model of Health Division is a newly formed function that reinforces our commitment to the social determinants of health. Whilst all services at the Women’s ensure health equity for all women, the Social Model of Health Division brings together our services and programs that specialise in providing care to women facing challenges that may adversely affect their health. The Social Model of Health Division at the Women’s has responsibility for ensuring the hospital’s clinical and social support services are coordinated, aligned and leveraged to provide wrap around care for the women who need it most. In particular, the division has a focus on ensuring a woman’s social, economic, cultural, environmental, geographic, and other factors are taken into account in her care plan with the overall aim of reducing health inequalities and addressing systemic inadequacies that affect health access and outcomes.

**Department and Position Overview**

Social Work at The Women’s aims to improve the psychosocial health and well-being of women and babies attending The Women’s. Our Social Workers offer support to women through their maternity, neonatal, gynaecological and oncology experiences. Social Work embraces a view of women’s health that is holistic and considers women’s social, physical, emotional and cultural wellbeing.

This position will work closely with the Baggarrook Yurrongi team which offers Caseload midwifery care to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander patients and babies, the Women’s Drug and Alcohol Service [WADS] who provide medical care, counselling and support to women with complex substance use and dependence, Social Work and Badjurr-Bulok Wilam. The team of Aboriginal Hospital Liaison Officers provide support and advocacy for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander patients and their families receiving care at the Women’s as well as raising the profile of issues impacting upon the health of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander patients and the broader community.

In addition, this position will also work closely other members of multi-disciplinary teams across the hospital ensuring that we are providing high quality and culturally safe care to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander patients and their families aligned with our commitment to Closing the Gap.

**Your contribution**

In collaboration with and under the guidance, direction and supervision of Allied Health Clinicians the cadet will undertake the following:

- Learn about as well as provide quality patient focused care to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander patients and their families as well as non-Aboriginal patients and their families attending the Women’s
- Work closely with the Baggarrook Yurrongi Midwifery team, Badjurr-Bulok Wilam team of Aboriginal Hospital Liaison Officers and Social Workers including the Aboriginal Health Social Worker to offer and support culturally safe, evidence based care that involves Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander patients, carers and significant others in medical treatment decision making, care planning, treatment goal setting and discharge planning
- Learn how to provide a high quality, evidence-based Social Work service to patients and their families, including undertaking psychosocial assessments, crisis intervention, short term counselling, advocacy, community liaison and referral, casework and discharge planning, gradually increasing independence in practice
- Learn how to provide social work interventions, in line with professional standards, organisational guidelines and time-frames within the Social Work Department
- Experience working in a multidisciplinary team environment, developing emerging skills in working collaboratively and flexibly in different settings while taking a continuous care approach tailored each woman’s clinical presentation and social circumstance
- Participate in care planning meetings, discharge planning meeting’s and other mee