ABSTRACT Millions of people worldwide suffer with dementia, a complex and debilitating brain disorder. Dementia has significant impacts on cognitive functioning and general wellbeing, resulting in loss of social engagement, isolation, and withdrawal. To address the impact of cognitive deterioration, interventions are aimed at supporting social interaction and enhancing cognitive stimulation. One such intervention is book clubs, which offer both social interaction and cognitive stimulation, designed especially for people living with dementia. The purpose of this brief commentary is to describe and reflect on a clinical social work practice example of a book club group therapy intervention with residential dementia patients in Australia. This commentary discusses the choice of book, facilitation strategies, and beneficial outcomes of the book club. It was observed that residents with severe dementia demonstrated cognitive, social, and emotional benefits from participating in the book club. It is recommended that social workers and social work students can use book clubs as a proactive, targeted therapeutic intervention with people living with dementia. IMPLICATIONS Book clubs can provide cognitive, social and emotional benefits for people living with dementia. Social work students and practitioners can use targeted book clubs as an intervention for cognitive stimulation, social interaction, and emotional wellbeing.

ABSTRACT Despite the burgeoning interest in eco-social work, there is a dearth of publications exploring eco-social work practice with children and young people who experience violence, abuse, and neglect. Social workers are committed to service delivery to children and young people and, as such, are ideally placed to create and expand on eco-social work practice. The authors argue that therapeutic gardening groups with children and young people who have experienced abuse and violence deserve a place in the eco-social work field. This article describes an established gardening program that successfully ran for five years. In this article we summarise the group work program, illuminate children's and young people's experiences of the groups, and share insights and reflections from the facilitators of these groups. Finally, the authors impress upon readers the need for researchers and practitioners to contribute to this growing body of social work knowledge. IMPLICATIONS Gardening is a potential place of healing for children and young people who have experienced violence, exploitation abuse, and neglect. Gardening is a site for creative eco-social work practice. Further research is needed to explore the use of gardening as a therapeutic intervention.

ABSTRACT The study reported here investigated what enables emergency department (ED) staff to support domestic violence victim-survivors of strangulation, which poses potentially life-threatening medical and psychosocial risks. Informed by Appreciative Inquiry, interviews were conducted with twelve staff from eight emergency departments in New South Wales, Australia. Doctors, nurses, and social workers with experience in supporting victim-survivors of domestic violence-related strangulation were interviewed. De-identified transcripts were analysed using inductive thematic analysis. Themes identified from the data were the importance of recognising strangulation injuries, that understanding experiences of violence improves ED staff’s responses to victim-survivors of strangulation, the value of social work in multidisciplinary response, and that informal support sustains staff in this work. These themes highlight the need for emergency department staff education in identifying and responding to domestic violence and strangulation, which enables informed responses, positive patient engagement, and effective multidisciplinary care. IMPLICATIONS Multidisciplinary care for health and safety assessments are essential for domestic violence victim-survivors of strangulation presenting to emergency departments. 24-hour access to social workers in emergency departments facilitates safety planning and may mitigate the risks of escalating violence. Strangulation and domestic violence education is essential for emergency department staff. There is an evident need for increased social work roles in EDs, especially in rural hospitals, to support victim-survivors and to apply a social work approach to train ED staff to respond appropriately. Formalising supportive structures through enhancing social work and domestic violence education in emergency departments whilst encouraging informal support networks for staff may enhance safety for victims-survivors and maximise staff emotional wellbeing.

ABSTRACT Lived experience education occupies an increasingly important space in mental health education for social workers. Despite being plagued by practices that continue to be discriminating and exclusionary, the mental health policy and practice context demand robust attention to the meaningful inclusion of service users and their families to achieve genuine partnership, reciprocity, and equality in mental health service provision. For social work educators, lived experience education is now an indispensable component of a critically informed mental health curriculum and pedagogy. Framed within an appeal for epistemic justice, this article reports on qualitative survey data from social work students who experienced teaching from people with lived experience. Findings show that students greatly valued lived experience education, as it created opportunities for authentic and more diverse understandings of mental health that fostered critical reflection. A curriculum that supports epistemic equality and a social justice agenda would help scaffold lived experience expertise for student learning. IMPLICATIONS Mental health lived experience education positively impacts social work students’ values and attitudes towards mental health service users. Lived experience education supports social work students to expand their understandings of mental health and recovery beyond dominant biomedical perspectives. Genuine valuing of lived experience knowledge and expertise in social work education helps address epistemic injustice.

ABSTRACT This article critically examines safety and innovation in out-of-home care, with a particular focus on addressing the entrenched overrepresentation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children and young people in the child welfare system. Grounded in the practical insights of safe house workers and managers, the purpose of this article is to share an innovative practice case study—the Tangentyere Safe House in Alice Springs, Northern Territory, Australia. As a case study within an Aboriginal Community-Controlled Organisation, Tangentyere Safe House emerges as a site for understanding the confluence of cultural safety, familial connections, and strategies to mitigate overrepresentation. Key themes explored include promoting cultural safety and supporting connections with the family of origin. Through a methodological lens that privileges practice-based knowledge, this article captured the on-the-ground experiences of those actively engaged in child safety. The findings underscore the innovative practices employed by Tangentyere Safe House in navigating out-of-home care within an Indigenous context to argue for a holistic and culturally informed approach to child protection interventions, drawing attention to the practical strategies employed by safe house workers. The article showcases the central role of Aboriginal Community-Controlled Organisations in providing care alongside families in out-of-home care. IMPLICATIONS The innovative approach of the Tangentyere Safe House highlights the importance and unique role of Aboriginal Community-Controlled Organisations in out-of-home care. The role of Aboriginal Community-Controlled Organisations should be formally recognised in the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Child Placement Principle hierarchy. Frontline safe house workers’ knowledge and expertise regarding Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children in out-of-home care can inform all stakeholder involvement including police interventions.

ABSTRACT Children and young people in Australian foster or kinship care are separated from their siblings for a range of reasons. These may include issues that are behavioural, sibling-related, the capacity of carers to host multiple children, or policies that enforce a one-child-per-bedroom rule. This study investigated strategies enhancing stability and meaningful connections among siblings within the Mockingbird Family, a social network model of foster and kinship caring. Case examples, network mapping, and visualisation of the Mockingbird Family networks are presented alongside results from thematic analysis of qualitative data. The findings suggest that the Mockingbird Family facilitates meaningful contact and sibling connections, even when coplacement was not possible. Sibling coplacement and contact provide crucial benefits such as emotional support, stability, shared experiences, and a sense of belonging, contributing to children’s and young people’s development, healing from trauma, and overall wellbeing. IMPLICATIONS Keeping sibling groups connected and in contact can reduce placement breakdown and contribute to their overall wellbeing. The Mockingbird Family model of foster care provides a range of options for keeping siblings meaningfully connected through coplacement within the same constellation and opportunities for other siblings to join in Mockingbird Family activities.

ABSTRACT Young people in residential care in Australia have generally experienced significant childhood trauma and neglect. Consequently, they present with a range of complex and challenging behaviours that pose a risk to themselves and others. Numerous reports have emphasised the need for trauma therapy for children; however, young people in residential care frequently do not access effective therapeutic services. In this article, the authors detail and reflect on the implementation of a treatment package of the Sleeping Dogs method plus Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing (EMDR) to engage young people living in residential care in EMDR therapy to process their complex trauma. IMPLICATIONS An integrated treatment package of Sleeping Dogs method with intensive EMDR can overcome the barriers to the successful implementation of evidence-based trauma treatment with young people living in residential care. Implementation requires collaboration between all systems surrounding the young person and compassionate engagement with families and carers.