A Critical Analysis of Australian Rural and Urban Social Work

This report critically examines Australian rural and urban social work practices, highlighting their similarities and differences. It explores how rural social work, characterized by smaller networks and unique challenges, contrasts with urban social work, which benefits from more extensive resources and diverse support systems. The analysis considers factors such as community collaboration, income levels, unemployment rates, and the impact of social exclusion in both environments. The report emphasizes the importance of interdisciplinary approaches and sensitivity to political and economic influences in delivering effective social work services. Drawing on academic literature, the report underscores the distinct contexts and requirements of social work in rural versus urban Australia, providing valuable insights into service delivery and community needs.

Running head: AUSTRALIAN SOCIAL WORK
Australian Social work
Name of the student
Name of the University
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1AUSTRALIAN SOCIAL WORK
Social work refers to academic discipline that deals with the individuals, families
along with the groups that helps in enhancing the social functioning. Social functioning is
indicative of the manner by which the people perform the social roles. This essay throws light
on the Australian rural social work and how it is distinct from the urban social work of
Australia.
Rural community of Australia needs the innovative skills that can exploit the
knowledge that is gained from community with the help of a dynamic process (Crisp 2016).
Interdisciplinary community collaboration can help in bringing about positive change in the
rural areas of Australia. The interdisciplinary collaboration in between the medical sector and
the health care sector can help in improving delivery of the quality of the health care. It can
be useful in addressing the health along with the social service needs in relation to the rural
population. The social workers should be sensitive to the political along with the economic
flux that can help in the facilitation of the social work in Australia. The rural areas of
Australia have low income and the level of unemployment is high in the rural areas of
Australia. The rural communities is dependent on narrow range of the industries. Financial
uncertainty along with the drought prevailing in the rural areas of Australia paves the path for
the poor health along with the low financial outcome for the rural people living in Australia
(Hughes, Bigby and Tilbury 2018). There occurs dramatic job loss within the rural areas
owing to the exposures to the mine. It has a detrimental effect on the services relating to
family relationship in Australia. It places additional pressure on the organisations along with
the staff who are working with the arena of rural work in Australia.
The social work in the urban areas of Australia is more widespread as compared to the
rural areas of Australia. There are various kinds of networks in urban Australia that aids the
social workers working in the urban sector of Australia. The people have high income in the
urban areas and this helps the social workers within the urban areas to take recourse to

2AUSTRALIAN SOCIAL WORK
various kind of social support services. The governmental along with the non-governmental
social service provider can offer essential help to the people living in poverty within the
urban areas as they have the requisite amount of resources that helps them in the delivery of
the efficient service. The resources that the social workers in the urban areas have pertain to
the network of the social workers and the superior use of the technology that greatly assists
the social workers working in the urban areas. They can make use of the applications that can
help them in finding the distressed people in the urban areas. This makes the social work in
the urban areas different from the social work within the rural areas (Fox and Hugman 2018).
The suburban tracts within the cities that have poverty rate are proximate to the service
providers in Australia that helps in the proper delivery of the various kinds of services. The
poverty is also centralized in the cities of Australia that makes it convenient for the social
workers of Australia. Larger urban scale refers to element in relation to urban context that is
different in the case of the rural communities (Lawrence 2016). The cities have different
kinds of social problem like poverty, unemployment along with the drug abuse that are
concentrated within the deprived neighbourhoods. It causes social exclusion of inhabitants.
There are complex networks in that of urban social work that acts like a challenge in relation
to conducting of social work (Healy, Harrison and Foster 2015).
Social work is indicative of academic discipline that can help in the social functioning
of the individuals in the society. The social workers living in the rural areas have smaller
networks that necessitates a large amount of the knowledge. There exists a large number of
the networks that helps the social workers living in urban areas of Australia. People possess
high level of income within urban areas that makes them take recourse to social support
services. Urban lifestyle has an effect on social networks of Australia. The social exclusion of
the inhabitants takes place in the urban areas of Australia.

3AUSTRALIAN SOCIAL WORK
References
Crisp, B.R., 2016. Spirituality and social work. Routledge.
Fox, M. and Hugman, R., 2018. International field placements: The models Australian social
work programmes are currently using. International Social Work, p.0020872818767252.
Healy, K., Harrison, G. and Foster, M., 2015. Job satisfaction and workforce retention of
newly qualified social work and community services workers: An Australian pilot
study. Advances in Social Work and Welfare Education, 17(1), p.8.
Hughes, M., Bigby, C. and Tilbury, C., 2018. Australian social work research on ageing and
aged care: A scoping review. Journal of Social Work, 18(4), pp.431-450.
Lawrence, R.J., 2016. Professional social work in Australia. ANU Press.