Transcript for
How a social worker can support your family

Narrator (00:02): 

Welcome to the Emerging Minds Families podcast. 

Nadia Rossi (Host) (00:06): 

Hi. I’m Nadia Rossi and you’re listening to an Emerging Minds Families podcast. Before we start today’s episode, we would like to pay respect to the traditional custodians of the land on which this podcast is recorded, the Kaurna people of the Adelaide Plains. We also pay respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, their ancestors, and Elders past, present, and emerging from the different First Nations across Australia. 

(00:35): 

In this episode, we are asking a simple but important question, what is a social worker? Many of you listening today might have heard of the term, but few truly understand the depth and breadth of what social workers do. Today, Chantelle Towers will help us unpack the role of a social worker, what it involves, how they support children and families, and when it’s beneficial to see one. 

(00:58): 

Chantelle, thank you for joining me today to chat all things social work. Like I mentioned earlier, I’m joining from Kaurna Country, and I was just wondering if you’d like to acknowledge where you’re joining from today. 

Chantelle Towers (Guest) (01:08): 

Yeah. I’m talking from Darkinjung Country on the Central Coast in New South Wales. 

Nadia Rossi (Host) (01:13): 

Thank you so much. Chantelle, I think the best question to start with today is what is a social worker? 

Chantelle Towers (Guest) (01:19): 

You know what’s so funny is this is probably one of the hardest questions that social workers get asked, and it’s literally about our identity and our profession, which I find really funny. The reason is because social work is such a broad profession. It really depends on where you’re accessing the social worker in terms of how they would describe what social work is. So I’m going to try and not be super philosophical and broad in the way that I describe what a social worker is, but essentially a social worker is a person who supports someone’s wellbeing. And wellbeing in itself, again, is another really broad concept, but social workers exist at every level of the system. 

(02:00): 

We have social workers that provide therapeutic support, social workers that exist in education systems, health systems, justice systems. Well, actually I’m not going to call them justice systems. I’m going to call them legal systems. Social workers are practical supports, emotional supports, psychological supports. We’re really just there to provide empowerment and hope to people who are really struggling within the circumstances of their life. 

Nadia Rossi (Host) (02:26): 

And to know that wherever you are in a system or service and you’re needing maybe a bit more support that you could access a social worker, that they are a profession that is there for you to support wellbeing. 

Chantelle Towers (Guest) (02:38): 

Yeah. Well, I created a little bit of an analogy to help describe what social workers is. It’s a bit of a visual, but I’ll try my best to talk through it and I promise it will make sense. I describe social workers describing a fish in a fishbowl. When a social worker is supporting someone, that person being the fish in this analogy, social workers look at more than just the person. We look at the circumstances that surround that person. 

(03:02): 

If we look at that analogy, social workers are looking at how that fish feels, thinks, behaves. And then we’re also looking at, are there other fish in the fishbowl? What does the environment of the tank look like? Is the water filtered? Is there things in there to stimulate the fish and create fun and joy, or are there things in there that are predators to harm the fish? 

(03:23): 

And then we look at, say, the glass. We look at the tank. What’s the quality? Are they in a glass tank? Does the tank get cleaned? They’re more of our family or our support systems. So who makes up the environment of where that fish is living? And then we have more of our systems, which is the things outside of the fish tank, which we have no control over. So where’s the fish positioned? Is it in darkness? Is it in light? Do people come and talk to the fish through the fish tank? 

(03:52): 

So I’ll send through my visual that goes along with that because I think that’s what’s really great about social work professionals is that we’re not just looking at the circumstances relating to the one person. We’re taking in the entire system that surrounds that person. That’s what makes social workers so well-placed to understand complexity, to understand the diverse needs of humans. 

Nadia Rossi (Host) (04:16): 

Thank you for that. I love a visual and so we’ll absolutely put that in the show notes. I find that so comforting if someone was not fully aware of what social workers as professionals offer, how wonderful to know that you are actually taking in everything and you’re not just going to be focusing on the one thing. 

Chantelle Towers (Guest) (04:35): 

Exactly. Yeah. We really do take in the whole story and I think we have a good way of understanding even the things that aren’t talked about because we are humans as well and we experience the system and we experience politics and stereotypes and discrimination. I think there’s that really good quality awareness of humans. I find that really enriching part of social work practise. 

(04:58): 

The other thing I wanted to share too is that a part of social work practise is accredited mental health social workers as well. I’m an accredited mental health social worker, and it’s a little bit different from standard social work in that it just symbolises that accredited mental health social worker has an additional two years knowledge and experience in working specifically with mental health. And so it means that we’re able to go on to provide therapeutic mental health support to families, children, individuals, providing a Medicare rebate as well. So there’s a whole other little part of social work practise as well that I think is really important to mention. 

Nadia Rossi (Host) (05:36): 

I love that you said you look at the whole story. I think that’s a really great analogy as well to hold onto. Chantelle, in your practise, what are the most common challenges that you’re finding parents and children come to see a social worker about? 

Chantelle Towers (Guest) (05:50): 

In my practise, I work across the lifespan, but a big part of my work is working with children. I would say at the moment, parents are finding emotion regulation to be one of the biggest hopes of families presenting to see me as an accredited mental health social worker working in the mental health space, and a lot of contributing factors to that. 

(06:10): 

So lots of children who have experienced trauma, children who have experienced family challenges like divorce, separation, relationship challenges, self-esteem challenges. I’m also seeing a lot of children that are neurodivergent as well and just helping them to understand themselves, understand how they relate to others and their environment. But predominantly, I’m working a lot in the trauma space for children and really helping them to understand their emotions and work through the whole spectrum of emotion in a really safe and supported way. 

Nadia Rossi (Host) (06:43): 

How wonderful to have you there for that, because I can only imagine how difficult that would be for a child to try and reconcile and understand, and it’s supporting the family as well. 

Chantelle Towers (Guest) (06:53): 

Yeah. Absolutely. I guess one of the things that come up a lot in my practise, and I imagine a lot of people can relate to this. Again, there’s another visual that I really love, but essentially it’s a picture of these two hearts and their parents, and they’re pushing a pram with a little baby heart in it. The parents are having a bit of an argument back and forth saying, “You should go to therapy. No, you should go to therapy.” And the little baby in the pram says, “Why do I get the feeling that I’m going to be the first one that goes to therapy?” 

(07:22): 

I see that a lot, and I think that’s really profound in that children in family systems are often the first one brought to therapy. While that’s needed and important, I think it’s really important that parents are able to reflect on their own circumstances and access their own supports alongside of the child or even before children access therapy. I think we put a lot of responsibility on children to create change in their family system, which is a very big system. And so my hope is that families feel that they can access supports, whether it’s whole family support or it’s parent support and child support happening alongside of one another as well. 

Nadia Rossi (Host) (08:00): 

It’s so important to also let parents know that they can take time out to get support as well, and that that will in turn help them be a better parent. 

(08:10): 

I was just wondering what signs a parent can look out for that their child may need a bit more support and that a social worker would be a right person to see. 

Chantelle Towers (Guest) (08:19): 

Yeah. Yeah. Most of the time behaviour is that outward expression of change. It’s usually the thing that we can see quite clearly. So if you do notice a rapid change in behaviour, I get a lot of parents say all of a sudden they seem to be a lot more upset all the time or withdrawn or clingy. Usually if something happens suddenly, that’s a pretty good sign to say, “Hey, something may have changed.” Whether that’s externally, there’s been something that’s happened or it’s an internal thing that’s happening for that child as well. So behavioural signs are always something to keep an eye on. 

(08:55): 

Parents also have a pretty good gut feeling as well. There’s just this unspoken, but there’s this feeling that there just doesn’t seem to be something that’s sitting right. Maybe there’s been an appetite shift or the sleep has changed. Maybe they’ve regressed in terms of skills that they’ve not been able to do recently or friendships that are really challenging or transitions that they’re finding really hard. 

(09:18): 

They’re usually the things that I would encourage someone to keep an eye out for because it’s really, it’s hard. Kids aren’t going to come up to parents and say … Oh, I mean, it has happened a few times, but rarely will a child come up and say, “Hey, I’m having a really tough time with this thing. I might want to talk to someone about it.” 

(09:36): 

Also, keeping really well-connected with other supports in that child’s life as well. So keeping connected to teachers, doctors, paediatricians, other people that can help to make sense of what’s going on for that child in different environments as well that you as a parent might not be exposed to necessarily. 

Nadia Rossi (Host) (09:54): 

If you are noticing those signs, how would a family access social work services? Do you need a referral? Can you just call up a social worker you find on the internet? 

Chantelle Towers (Guest) (10:05): 

Yeah. This one, there’s a lot of different options. Like I said before, social workers exist in lots of different places that you might not even realise. For example, if we’re looking at an accredited mental health social worker or a social worker who works privately in a clinic, then you would be looking at a GP referral for a mental health treatment plan. That can just be accessed through a GP. Usually a GP will provide some options around where you can find some people. 

(10:33): 

Social work is still working on their being recognised in that mental health space as well. We come up against a system that’s known for psychology practise, but social workers, like I said, we have such a deep understanding of all of the whole picture for families that we are very well positioned to provide mental health support for children. 

(10:54): 

If you’re looking at an education setting, I supervise lots of social workers that work in school systems. They are working as school counsellors, school wellbeing officers, school learning support officers, or school social workers. Social workers aren’t always titled “social worker” as well, which can be a little bit tricky. So yeah, we exist everywhere. 

(11:12): 

In a health setting, so if you’re in a hospital, you can ask to see a social worker if you want some social supports or practical supports while a young person might be receiving healthcare as well. There are also organisations in the community that provide funded programs for mental health support as well. You can do that through Google searching. You can do that through talking to your doctor as well about if there’s any funded programs that provide support to families. There are some directories online where you can search for mental health support. I think Ask Izzy might be one where you can access different supports within the community. 

(11:53): 

The other place that a lot of people are starting to go to is social media as well. Lots of social workers are very active on social media and using it as a space to market their services as well. I would always encourage people too that you actually get to have a look at the person that you might be accessing through another lens. You’re not just relying on a website that says, “I do all of these things and here’s a picture of me.” You actually have some really quality videos, posts, things that you can almost get a bit of a sense of who they are beforehand as well. That’s also another avenue. 

Nadia Rossi (Host) (12:29): 

Yes. Social media is how we found you. It’s such a new way of doing things, but I think it’s totally beneficial and gives such an insight to that professional. 

(12:38): 

Once we’ve got the referral or we’ve accessed a social worker through a hospital or a school as a parent, do you feel that it’s helpful to introduce the idea to a child that they will be seeing a social worker before the first session? How do you recommend a parent do that that’s in a supportive way for the child to understand? 

Chantelle Towers (Guest) (12:59): 

When we’re accessing a social worker, I’m going to kind of niche it into accessing a social worker for therapeutic support, whether that’s through a community service or a private social worker. Absolutely where possible, so important to let a child know that they’re coming to see a social worker or any professional. I have worked with people in the past that haven’t known how to describe what they are themselves, so they kind of leave it in the social worker’s hand to describe it, which I absolutely can understand. But I think just explaining that we’re going to meet someone who’s here to help you with your tricky feelings or who’s going to be there to support you with all of those feelings that you’ve been having, and they’re going to do that in a really fun way, or they just want to come and get to know you so that they can understand how to support you. 

(13:47): 

Just keeping it nice and broad, keeping it around wanting to support you, wanting to help you, wanting to listen to you, and understand your experience. They’re some of the words that I really like to encourage parents to use with children. We don’t focus it on wanting to fix them or wanting to help them stop doing something. We want to keep that language to the side. We want to keep it nice and gentle and open because until a social worker talks to a child, we never truly understand exactly what the goals of support is going to be. A parent can come with ideas around what they want the child to work on or what they want to see changed or be made different, but a social worker really wants to hear from the child about what they want different in their life. So keeping it broad. 

Nadia Rossi (Host) (14:31): 

That is so helpful. Even the language suggestions that you’ve offered as well. I think parents, you can get tongue-tied or worried about how you’re wording things to your child because you want them to go to the session and you want them to feel like this is going to be helpful for them. So you want to be able to, using the right language, it’s not going to scare them or worry them too much. So just providing those helpful tips there, Chantelle, is just wonderful. Thank you so much. What can families expect from their first session? 

Chantelle Towers (Guest) (14:59): 

Again, this will differ from profession to profession and even different approaches from one social worker to another. I consider myself to be a highly creative social worker. I love to use lots of play and toys and resources and games to help engage children. 

(15:20): 

Usually, you would have a session with a parent first, and that would be just ascertaining the circumstances of what’s going on for the family and the child. We do what’s called a biopsychosocial assessment. It’s just another way of saying we’re looking at the whole picture. We’re going to be asking a few questions about the circumstances of the child, the other people involved in the family, the strengths of the family. It’s not a deficit problem-based assessment. It’s a conversation to talk about what’s working well as well. Because if we’re talking about what’s working well, we want to enhance and strengthen that part. 

(15:57): 

I think a lot of families come and see a social worker because they want to make the hard part smaller. The best way to make a hard part smaller is to increase what’s working well. If we focus on this little bit here, we’re missing the story of what’s happening over here as well. If we can expand on what’s working well, over time, that’s naturally going to start helping with what’s been quite challenging. 

(16:22): 

We do that with the parent. And then with the child, the primary focus of that first session is I always say that the biggest goal of the first session is getting a child to feel comfortable to come back. That is my only goal of that first session. I’m going to be focusing on building safety, trust, creating a safe environment for them because we can’t access conversation with a child unless they feel physically safe in their environment, unless they feel somewhat or safe enough within themselves and a connection is formed with the person as well. I focus on that doing lots of really fun stuff. 

Nadia Rossi (Host) (16:59): 

I think a parent is also wanting their child to want to go back. You’ve done everything to get there and you hope that the child is happy and safe and comfortable enough to come back. But I wanted to go back to preparation. I mean, I didn’t know that a parent went in first or that a parent might be seen first. How can a parent prepare for their first session with the social worker? And then also, what’s the best way to prepare your child for that first session? Is there anything they can think about or do prior? 

Chantelle Towers (Guest) (17:26): 

Yeah. So two parts. The parent preparation is, it’s always best if we can see all parents and carers where possible. I do find that I’m usually seeing parents independently, but where possible, it’s great to have all identified parents or carers as part of the process from the beginning. The preparation is really just more so just openness. Rarely, I mean, unless there’s a mental health treatment plan, sometimes the preparation may need to be that you bring the referral with you, or if it’s through NDIS, you’re bringing NDIS paperwork with you. But separate to that, you just want openness around the experience of the child, the experience of the family in the conversation that we’re going to be having. 

(18:08): 

A question that I will usually ask a parent that seems to take them off guard a little bit, so it might be helpful to start thinking about this is, if you were to put yourself in your child’s shoes, what do you think they worry about the most? Because it just starts to get them to think about perspective. We often come with our adult ideas of what we think children are experiencing. Even just trying to encourage a parent to think about, yeah, what are my child’s biggest worries? If I was to put myself into their lifestyle, what do you think is really sitting on their heart or sitting on their mind? I feel like that really opens up a lot of conversation. 

(18:42): 

The other thing that I also encourage too is to think about what has worked well as well so that the conversation doesn’t feel so deficit focused and that parents can walk away. My biggest goal in those first sessions is that they walk away feeling a sense of hope for the future. That’s usually how I’d like to prepare them. 

Nadia Rossi (Host) (19:01): 

I love that you have such a strengths-based focus. You want to talk about what is working well because as a family going into that, you’re so focused on why you’re there and the behavioural change or the trauma or whatever has occurred. And so it’s so wonderful to have that opportunity to think about what is going well or the strengths. And then also that shift of perspective into what your child may be worried about. 

Chantelle Towers (Guest) (19:25): 

I have a lot of parents actually that will say, “I think they’re worried about us. I think my kid’s worried about us.” You almost see them have this light bulb moment of, “I’m so worried about them. They’re so worried about me.” It kind of goes back to that family approach or them accessing their own support alongside of as well. 

(19:44): 

So yeah, it can be pretty profound. But I think too, when we talk about strengths-based approach, it’s really important that we’re not moving into that toxic positivity of, “Oh, my child’s really suffering with all of this and a social worker’s just going to come in and do the whole, oh, but at least it’s this, this, and this, and let’s just try and rethink about it like this.” There’s such a difference in being able to build on what’s working well to support the challenges. 

(20:11): 

We’re not disregarding challenges. We are absolutely focusing on it. We just want to do it in a really balanced way because we want to maintain that sense of hope as well. When we’re so deficit focused, that’s when that hopeless and helpless feeling can really take over. I hope I can just make a little bit more sense of what that strengths-based approach really looks like. 

Nadia Rossi (Host) (20:31): 

Thank you for clarifying that. Chantelle, now that we’re, say we’re in sessions and the child is comfortable coming back and at home I’m thinking about and what parents can do to support their child once they’ve started the sessions. 

Chantelle Towers (Guest) (20:45): 

In a lot of practise, social workers may give some activities or little experiments to try at home. I don’t love using the word homework. I feel like there’s too much of a negative a connotation attached to that word now. So I’ll say, “Want you to try a little experiment at home.” It’s really important that parents take it on board and give things a go at home more than once, more than three times. 

(21:08): 

I think giving something a go consistently rather than a one-off try is really helpful. So whether that be a strategy or an approach or a ritual that I’ve suggested. By a ritual, I mean something like that we play a game after dinner every night. That’s establishing a family ritual. That’s one thing that I would encourage families to do. 

(21:30): 

I also encourage families to play together as well, which might sound really simple, but play can be really challenging for adults, particularly too because for whatever reason, at some point in our life, we start to lose the playful part of ourselves. And so children are so good at reinvigorating that in our adult selves. So playing with children in lots of different ways. More structured play through use of games, some more back and forth turn-taking games. This is with children, adolescents, play games. Games are so much fun and there are games at every developmental level. I mean, I’m still playing with my clients who are in their 60s. So it’s very, very helpful, really, really beautiful nervous system regulator. 

(22:17): 

And then I would also encourage for some of the younger children as well that to play games that they can lead. Just to joy and delight in your child and just really observe and watch them as they’re playing, try not to be too directive with them. Don’t give any rules or regulations, just let them do their thing. And then with some older children, I would really encourage to become curious in what they’re playing, become curious in their life. A lot of people say that their children lock themselves away and playing games. Just be curious, ask them questions about their game. Just literally be curious about your children and delight in their skills and their competencies and their joys and interests. That’s my long answer for that. 

Nadia Rossi (Host) (23:01): 

Perfect answer. I also find with games, even at every age, even when I play car game with my husband, you open up conversation. It takes the pressure off. And so I think even for teenagers, especially where they feel like they may not respond if you’re directly asking them a question, even younger children, but if you’re maybe playing a game together, then that opens up conversation and everyone gets comfortable with each other and you’re in this playful mode, so it’s kind of everyone’s feeling a bit comfortable and relaxed. 

Chantelle Towers (Guest) (23:31): 

Even when we think about teenagers, even just proximity with a teenager, like playing a game you know or just being physically close to a teenager in itself is therapeutic when they’re working on independence and they’re really coming into themselves as individuals. Just like having proximity in family space and things like that. Again, conversation’s such a beautiful thing that can come from playing games, but there are so many little micro skills that are happening. When we’re playing, when we’re turn-taking, we’re mastering something. So our self-esteem is feeling good, we’re bantering, we’re learning how to win and lose, we’re collaborating. There’s just so much that goes into game playing. It is such an underused tool. 

Nadia Rossi (Host) (24:14): 

And even I love what you said about letting them take the lead. I know my daughter’s just delight in doing that because I think they’re just so used to you instructing them throughout life that both my children are under the age of eight and they just, “Can we play a game and you go over here and no, now you take this.” And you go with it and you just see, like you said, they just get so empowered by it. So joyful. 

Chantelle Towers (Guest) (24:39): 

Absolutely. 

Nadia Rossi (Host) (24:40): 

Chantelle, I wanted to ask a bit of a different question here about misconceptions. Are there any misconceptions about social workers that you’ve encountered? 

Chantelle Towers (Guest) (24:49): 

Oh, so many misconceptions about social workers. I’m going to start with the first one, which is probably the biggest one is that when people say social work, I think the first assumption that’s made is that social workers only work in child protection or in child protection systems or child services. Different states refer to child safety, child services, child protection. 

(25:11): 

Social workers do and have played a very big role in child protection for the history that it’s existed. I think it’s really important that we acknowledge the role that social work plays there, but it’s not the only place that social workers exist. Like I said, we exist in so many parts of the system. Literally from death to birth, you will have access to a social worker in your lifetime. It’s one of the very few professions that work across that spectrum of life. 

(25:41): 

The fact that the misconception that social workers just exist to remove children is a stereotype that we’ve been working at trying to help people to understand that, yes, we absolutely have played a role and continue to play a role in that, but it’s not the only function of a social worker. That’s the biggest one. 

(26:02): 

The other ones is that a lot of people don’t recognise that social workers work in therapy, that we provide therapeutic support. I think a lot of people assume that social workers are there for crisis support and that we’re practical caseworkers. Again, lots of incredible social workers work in case management. I have a history of working in case management myself, such a great skill of social work practise. But as social work’s evolving, we are really moving into a therapeutic position as social workers providing therapy to people who are experiencing mental health as well. 

(26:35): 

So yeah, they’re probably the two misconceptions about social workers, unless you’ve heard any other misconceptions that I can debunk on the spot. 

Nadia Rossi (Host) (26:44): 

No. No. You clarified them so well. It is a supportive profession that when you find a great social worker, they can be with you for as long as you need. 

Chantelle Towers (Guest) (26:53): 

Yep. I guess the tricky thing with social workers too is that a person can have maybe have seen three social workers in their lifetime. They might’ve seen a social worker when they’re at the hospital and they were needing lots of practical supports while they were there and they saw a social worker for two hours, and that was the only time that they saw them in the hospital. And the social worker walked them out to their car and said, “Have a beautiful life.” Then they see another social worker who is their therapist working as a social work therapist, and then perhaps they’ll see a social worker for their student when they’ve been finding it hard to attend school and the social worker is a part of their return to school plan. So those three social workers are going to have completely different ways of working with that family. 

(27:37): 

I can understand why it’s a little bit confusing. If someone saw a psychologist, typically there’s a broader knowledge of what to expect with that, but how cool that you could have seen three different social workers at three different pivotal moments in your life that had three different ways of working. It’s a pretty exceptional profession. 

Nadia Rossi (Host) (27:55): 

I was just thinking that. What a wonderful profession that you’re supporting the community. Thank you for clarifying those misconceptions. 

(28:03): 

When we do support a child to get extra support from a social worker, how do you feel that that supports their overall mental health and wellbeing? 

Chantelle Towers (Guest) (28:11): 

In a therapeutic sense of social work, so with what I’m doing in my profession of therapy and play therapy and things like that, again, I feel like I’m really honing in on this point. I feel like social work has such a beautiful way of helping children not feel like they are the complete part of this story, that they’re not in a position where they have to be completely responsible for the mental health of themselves and their family. 

(28:38): 

Social workers have such a beautiful way of having a holistic view of children and their experiences and have a really nice way of advocating for children’s needs, whether that’s with schools, education systems, health systems, family systems, really advocating for what the child needs in that moment as well. Not only are we able to provide more of those standard strategies around emotion regulation, relationships, working through trauma, things like that, we just have such a great way of understanding the context of the environment that they exist in, of understanding that strategy’s going to be really hard because your family are currently homeless or that strategy’s really hard because you’re having all of these challenges at school. 

(29:21): 

We don’t push past those environmental factors and just hope that they can just do the thing. We actually take into consideration all of those external things that a young person or a child is experiencing, help them make sense of that, help them feel some sense of safety within themselves and their environment before we actually move on to more of those standard mental health approaches. Does that make sense? 

Nadia Rossi (Host) (29:45): 

Absolutely. Yeah, absolutely. So reassuring to hear that, so thank you. We have one last question, Chantelle, which I would love to ask you, which is if you could leave our audience with some final thoughts to remember from our chat today, what would they be? 

Chantelle Towers (Guest) (30:02): 

I have two points that I’m going to share. Again, that would’ve already have been in here somewhere, but I’m reiterating. The first is to understand that when you’re seeing a social worker for therapeutic support and you have that mental health plan, or traditionally people are saying that they’re looking for a counsellor or a therapist, they’re looking for someone for mental health support. When you see social worker next to someone’s name, I want you to understand that that social worker very likely hasn’t just gone from university straight into private practise, that that social worker has likely gone and worked within multiple systems that humans come into contact with. They’ve maybe worked on the ground, grassroots, charity organisations, non-government organisations, where we are working with some of the most vulnerable people in our community. 

(30:52): 

Social workers have such a broad understanding of complexities that make up family systems and that contribute to the mental health and wellbeing of children and people. We’re not just looking at a person’s brain, we’re not just looking at a person’s behaviour. We really are looking at all of the parts that make the story of that family. And so when you’re accessing a social worker, you’re accessing someone who truly gets all of those moving parts. That is what I love about social work practise, particularly in that therapeutic sense. 

(31:26): 

That’s the first thing I really want people to do is look out for the people who are social workers working in mental health. And then the second one is for parents to access your own support before or alongside of your child accessing support. I really can’t embed that enough. Children just can’t be responsible to create change in their family system. Responsibility for change has to be shared and parents, siblings, everyone plays a role in change within families as well. Hopefully social workers coming in and advocating for that can make families safer and hold onto a little bit more hope for their future as well. 

Nadia Rossi (Host) (32:06): 

Thank you. They are some wonderful final thoughts to leave us with, Chantelle, and thank you for taking the time today to fully help us understand what a social worker does and what social work is and how you do help us to see the whole story of a child and support them in their mental wellbeing for them and their family. So thank you so much. 

Chantelle Towers (Guest) (32:26): 

Oh, thank you. Honestly, such a privilege and such an honour. I really, really can’t thank you enough. It’s been so special. So thank you. 

Nadia Rossi (Host) (32:35): 

Thank you for joining us for today’s episode. If you would like to keep up to date with our latest conversations, we’d love it if you liked and subscribed to our Emerging Minds Families podcast channel. You can also find us on Instagram, @emergingmindsau, or on Facebook at Emerging Minds Families. 

Narrator (32:53): 

Visit our website at www.emergingminds.com.au/families for a wide range of free information and resources to help support child and family mental health. Emerging Minds leads the National Workforce Centre for Child Mental Health. The centre is funded by the Australian Government Department of Health under the National Support for Child and Youth Mental Health Program.