Best practice in counselling and mediation services: A collaborative case study of Uniting

Last year Tamara Blakemore and I completed a project with Uniting NSW exploring best practice in post-separation counselling and mediation, and the summary report has just made available on the Uniting webpage. The full report—Best practice and trends in counselling and mediation services in NSW: A collaborative case study of Uniting—is available here.

The project involved  a rapid review, interviews with 30 Uniting staff, a survey of people who had used Uniting counselling and mediation services and a review of Uniting’s counselling and mediation policy and practice documents.

The following is a brief overview of the report. You can download the formatted version, find it on  Pages 4-5 of the full report or read the text below the image.

Uniting values a culture of evidence for, and from, practice and has a long tradition of supporting family wellbeing through their post-separation counselling and mediation services.  Together with a team from the University of Newcastle, Uniting have undertaken an extended program of collaborative research exploring best practice in post-separation counselling and mediation.

What does existing evidence identify as best practice in post-separation counselling and mediation services?

Rapid review of the available evidence identifies the following best practice principles for post-separation counselling and mediation services:

• Best practice is flexible, facilitative and fit for purpose
• Practitioners are critical for best practice outcomes
• Best practice requires appreciation of factors that frame client’s experiences and likely outcomes (i.e., it is responsive to context and complexity)
• Best practice meets multiple and often conflicting aims & objectives of diverse populations of clients.

People who don’t respect other people aren’t welcome on my blog

I’m quite angry. I don’t like it when other people try to share a message of exclusion and hate (although they would disagree) through my blog.

In 2013, I shared the image above with the following comment

This is a very powerful image – thanks to The Other 98% (Facebook and webpage) for creating a great message about the human cost of seeing lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people as the OTHER. 

Today, Marilyn, added the following comment to my post.

Hi Graeme,
I have been reading posts regarding this topic and this post is one of the most interesting and informative one I have read. Thank you for this!
I can’t simply go without leaving a comment. This post is a great read. I hope you can take the time to read my post as well. [A link was provide here that I have deleted.]
Thanks,

I thought her comment was pretty strange because, while I love the graphic, it was quite over the top to call it “one of the most interesting and informative one I have read”. When I followed the link Marilyn provided it went to a blog post that was essentially saying that LGBTQ are “sinners,” are “sexually perverse” and practice “unnatural sex.” She went on to say that when Jesus comes again “His truth will end the bondage of sin” and nobody will be left behind as heaven comes to the world.   

There can be little doubt that Marilyn’s comment about my post was not only misleading, but was quite untruthful. I do not believe that she thought my post is a great read (I mean I don’t think it is a good read, it was a great image but not a good read) and I’m sure she only left a comment in the hope that others would come and read her post. .In a way I think her deception on my blog gives an indication of how much we should trust her blog.

Postcards from Practice: Initial Learnings from the Name.Narrate.Navigate Program

I’ve been part of a practice/research project, Name.Narrate.Navigate (NNN), a program exploring trauma-informed, culturally-sensitive responses to family and domestic violence by young people. NNN, works with young people who have committed family and domestic violence; are identified at risk of coming into contact with the justice system for the same; or who live in family and community contexts with high rates of family and domestic violence. The program also works to upskill practitioners in a range of sectors to work with these young people in ways that address the spectrum of violence, abuse and trauma from victimisation through perpetration.

We have just published a summary of some of our initial learnings. The report is freely available in two formats from https://nova.newcastle.edu.au/vital/access/manager/Repository/uon:37573

1. Single page to a page (better for reading online)
2. Two pages to a page (possibly better for printing.

As the project included photovoice activities, our graphic designer (Louie Hahn who used to work at the Family Action Centre) was able to include lots of photos. It is amazing the difference the good layout can make to a report.

Following is the abstract of the report and some pages from the report.

Executive summary

NNN is a preventive intervention program focused on psychoeducation and skill development for young people at increased risk of using violence, those already using violence in their interpersonal, family and domestic relationships, and the cross-sector workers who support them.

It aims to increase knowledge and skills, strengthen adaptive behaviour and build connections for greater confidence and coping.

NNN was developed and is continuously improved by a program of community-based participatory research involving Aboriginal elders, community members, practitioners, peak bodies and young people. It is distinct from other preventive intervention initiatives in its dual focus on working with young people and practitioners.

Updating “About Me”

 

I am a passionate about helping create a just, inclusive, and nonviolent world where individuals and families are cherished and supported, and communities are vibrant and resilient. In the society I want to help create, we will live sustainably having recognised we need to live in harmony with the Earth’s environment, and there will no longer be such an unfair distribution of the world’s wealth and resources.

Even though I sometimes feel an overwhelming sense of despair when I look at what needs to change, I still believe change is possible and that it is vital we do what we can to contribute to a better world. This blog is one small way I can contribute to creating change.

In the blog I mainly discuss strengths-based approaches to working with families and communities, but also touch on environmental issues, share an occasional song or write about other things that interest me. The main audience I have in my mind as I write are practitioner and university, college or vocational education students. This means that I usually:

• ensure my statements are backed up by evidence (defined very broadly)
• acknowledge my sources through referencing
• come from a strong value base but still try to remain fairly objective
• try to write in a clear, easy-to-understand style.

Although I am in a period of transition, I write as a lecturer (based at the Family Action Centre [FAC] at the University of Newcastle), a practitioner, and father (my partner and I have two wonderful daughters aged 20 and 17).

List of 2020 posts

(Created with Wordle)

Here is a list of all my posts from 2020 with the number of views they received as at the end of December 2020

• 3 January 2020 — Blog statistics for 2019 (Transparency report) (62 views)
• 3 January 2020 — List of 2019 posts (56 views)
• 19 January 2020 — Special days and dates for the environment – 2020 (7657 views)
• 19 January 2020 — Special days and dates for families and communities – 2020 (391 views)
• 15 February 2020 — My current projects (February 2020) (135 views)
• 19 February 2020 — Uni4You: A case study of a community-based University widening participation program promoting lifelong learning (92 views)
• 21 February 2020 — Alternatives to Violence Project (AVP), social capital & people from refugee backgrounds (98 views)
• 22 February 2020 — Promoting Nonviolent Relationships: Alternatives to Violence Project Workshops with Parents (81 views)
• 25 February 2020 — Name.Narrate.Navigate: a program for young people who use violence in their families (270 views)
• 28 February 2020 — Evidence-Informed Practice and the Integration of Research, Policy, Teaching and Practice in Family Services (209 views)
• 4 March 2020 — The challenge of how to describe program participants (137 views)
• 12 March 2020 — What is praxis? (1684 views)
• 16 April 2020 — 7 tips for dealing with conflict while having to stay home (353 views)
• 2 May 2020 — Creating a safe space for a workshop on Zoom (956 views)
• 18 May 2020 — Reflections halfway into our first online AVP workshop (598 views)
• 2 June 2020 — More reflections from our first AVP online workshop (328 views)
• 7 June 2020 — 20 tips for an online workshop (353 views)
• 7 June 2020 — Agenda and resources from our first AVP online workshop (534 views)
• 9 June 2020 — Broken Squares online (932 views)
• 19 July 2020 — Song for Sunday – Heal Together (156 views)
• 26 July 2020 — Song for Sunday – Sing Gently (209 views)
• 2 August 2020 — Song for Sunday – Times like these (193 views)
• 12 September 2020 — Off-topic posts in a LinkedIn community engagement discussion group (131 views)
• 26 September 2020 — At your door: a climate change art work (173 views)
• 13 December 2020 — Special (Song for Sunday) (88 views)
• 19 December 2020 — “Course optimisation” and the end of my time at the Family Action Centre (153 views)

As you can see, quite a lot of my posts don’t get that many views. It is great when a post does get widely read (suggesting it is useful to quite a lot of people) but getting lots of views is not my aim. For example, Even though it will be of interest to a much smaller audience, I will be writing more about Alternatives to Violence Project (AVP) because I am passionate about our work and I hope the posts will be useful to other AVP facilitators.

There are more 2020 stats about my blog here.

If you liked this post please follow my blog, and you might like to look at:

1. Blog statistics for 2020
2. “Course optimisation” and the end of my time at the Family Action Centre
3. Blogging as an academic
4. Creating a safe space for a workshop on Zoom
5. Name.Narrate.Navigate: a program for young people who use violence in their families
6. What are Alternatives to Violence Project (AVP) workshops?

If you find any problems with the blog, (e.g., broken links or typos) I’d love to hear about them. You can either add a comment below or contact me via the Contact page.

Blog statistics for 2020 (Transparency report)

Total monthly blog views to end of 2020

Each year I provide an overview of my blog statistics in case they are helpful or of interest to anybody else. I know when I started I had no idea what to expect in terms of number of views, so I try to be open about what is happening with my blog. As you can see from the graph above, it was a few years before I built up any real audience.

I still don’t devote as much time to the blog as I could. Last year I blogged 26 times (Here’s a list of posts for the year and the number of views they received.)

I don’t make any money from the blog, and don’t want to. The following stats are based on those available through a free WordPress blog (with the “no ads” upgrade).

Key statistics for 2020

• Total views in 2020—400,492 (347,260 in 2019)
• Total views for the life of the blog to the end of 2020—1,697,196
• Average of 1094 views/day in 2020 (951 in 2019)
• Total visitors in 2020—271,703 (219,692 in 2019)
• Total likes in 2020—74 (84 in 2019)
• Total comments in 2020—106 (106 in 2019 also)
• Total shares in 2020—9,664 (861 in 2019)
• Total followers of blog—1310 (1178 at end of 2019)
• Total Twitter followers—620 (611 at end of 2019)
• Total Blog Facebook page followers—544 (516 at end of 2019)

As you can see, I don’t have lots of followers so most of my views come from internet searches.

Top posts for 2020

Zero Gravity by Kate Millder-Heidke (A Song for Sunday)

We’ve just got back from Bushtime at Woodford. Normally between Christmas and New Year there is a large music festival with around 130,000 people at Woodford. This year, because of COVID, there was a much smaller event with only around 1250 people. It was a very different to the normal festival, but still great.

One of the highlights was seeing Kate Miller-Heidke perform. So good.

This video is from her performance of Zero Gravity at the 2019 Eurovision Song Contest. For those who don’t know, the Eurovision Song Contest has almost a cult following in Australia (my family normally has a party with friends to watch it) which led to Australia (to the disgust of geography teachers around the world) being part of Europe’s biggest song contest.

Zero Gravity is a song about post-natal depression. According to an Australian Story episode about Miller-Heidke:

“Zero Gravity” is about the feeling that you get when you shake off depression, when you finally wake up one morning and when you realise that it’s not there today, it’s like sort of floating up into the air.

It is an powerful song, with an amazing performance.

If you liked this post please follow my blog, and you might like to look at:

1. All the songs
2. “Special” by LP
3. “Heal Together” by Christine Anu, Philly, Mindy Kwanten and Radical Son
4. “This Machine” by FourPlay
5. “Shine” by Vanessa Amorosi
6. “Luka” by Suzanne Vega

If you find any problems with the blog, (e.g., broken links or typos) I’d love to hear about them. You can either add a comment below or contact me via the Contact page.

The AVP Transforming Power Mandala in Pieces

When we ran our first Alternatives to Violence Project (AVP) basic online, I created a copy of the Transforming Power mandala that allows the pieces to be moved around. It is a bit rough, and one day I hope to improve it (or somebody else might) but I thought I would still share it so other AVP facilitators can use it if they want. I created it using Google Drawing.

Note: These instructions are for a PC so it might be slightly different on a Mac or tablet. (e.g., with a Mac, instead of right clicking, you need to hold down the Control [Ctrl] key on your keyboard when you click the mouse button.)

To save a copy

“Course optimisation” and the end of my time at the Family Action Centre

Last week I received a “Notice Invoking Contingency.” It started:

I write to advise that [your] position of Lecturer, Family Action Centre, can no longer be supported financially by the School of Health Sciences.

It was officially informing me that from January 2021 I will be working two-days per week, and then my position will finish at the end of October.

So after almost 18 years, my work at the Family Action Center will be over.

The University has been going through a “course optimisation” process and around 25% of the Uni’s courses (or subjects) have been “consolidated or discontinued”. This affects  530 courses. In addition, the Uni is discontinuing 8 undergraduate and 14 postgraduate degree programs, and “suspending” 4 postgraduate programs.

All the courses and degrees offered through the Family Action Centre (FAC) have been discontinued: the Graduate Certificate and Master of Family Studies will no longer be offered. Fortunately the family and community programs run by the FAC (e.g., the Hunter Outreach Program and SNUG) and much of our research, are safe.

Technically currently enrolled students can complete their degree, although in reality there will be very few relevant subjects for them to study. The five undergraduate courses we teach are all being discontinued:

• Working with Men and Boys in Human Services
• Foundations of Strong Families – Capable Communities
• Prevention and Early Intervention in Family and Community Services
• Integrated Practises in Addressing Vulnerability in Families and Communities
• Family and community engagement: An introduction (which inspired this blog).

While some courses and degrees are being replaced or combined with others, some are are simply being axed, including our two degrees (as well as the Bachelor of Creative Industries and the Bachelor of Fine Arts). I find it ironic (and quite disturbing) that degrees and courses focusing on families and communities are being axed during a time that has clearly demonstrated the importance of families and social connections.

When I heard the number of courses to be axed, I felt very nervous about our courses and degrees. The academic work of the FAC is identified as the discipline of Family Studies. For a number of historical reasons, we are in the School of Health Sciences (SHS) in the Faculty of Health and Medicine (FHEAM) rather than the School of Social Science in the Faculty of Education and Arts. We are therefore not with other social sciences or social work.

Special (Song for Sunday)

I’ve decided to get back to my blog more seriously and as a way of easing my way in, decided to find a great song to warm me up. I recently came across Special by LP (Laura Pergolizzi) when a friend was playing it, and later discovered I had another of her songs (Lost on You) in my Spotify liked songs. I now know she has many other great songs.

But it was only when I was learning a bit more about LP for this post, that I discovered that my assumption that she was male was wrong. I had only seen her album cover, and with very little conscious thought, I had jumped to the conclusion that the cover showed a male. It was like an automatic reaction to fit her into a binary notion of gender. The person had to be male or female.