Social Work Communication: Active Listening and Indigenous Clients

This report explores the crucial role of communication skills, specifically active listening, in social work and human services, with a focus on interactions with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities in Australia. It highlights the importance of cultural responsiveness and the challenges faced by social service providers in adapting Western communication models to align with Indigenous communication styles, which often prioritize indirectness, silence, and non-verbal cues. The report references the AASW Practice Standards and emphasizes the need for social workers to understand historical disadvantages and build relationships based on respect and understanding. Key differences between Western and Indigenous communication models are examined, including preferences for directness, eye contact, and the interpretation of silence. The report concludes with recommendations for social workers at New Journey, a community service organization, urging them to develop skills in interpreting Indigenous clients' responses, addressing complexities, and ensuring that communication leads to beneficial outcomes for these communities. The document provides references to support its analysis and recommendations.

COMMUNICATION SKILLS IN SOCIAL
WORK AND HUMAN SERVICES
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author note:

ACTIVE LISTENING SKILLS
 Success as a practitioner in social services is fundamentally based on
effective communication and listening competencies. Active Listening
skills are abilities which require time as well as patience in order to develop
a constructive ground while offering social services (Luiz et al. 2015).
 In Human Service domain, the active listening method is used as a western
communication in order to enhance interpersonal communication between
social service providers and Indigenous communities seeking humanitarian
services.

ACTIVE LISTENING ABILITY IN COMMUNICATING
WITH INDIGENOUS CLIENTS
 In recent times, Aboriginals
ways of comprehending, being
and executing ways have
attained substantial position in
Australian social work
curriculum (Weger Jr et al.
2014).
 The skills of being culturally
responsive has further been
recognized as a fundamental
determinant of decolonising
the Australian social work
practices and further offer
culturally responsive
humanitarian services.

Bodie et al. (2015) note that the Australian social work education
has been currently experiencing significant modifications for
serving culturally responsive social services to its Aboriginal
communities.
Weger Jr et al. (2014) reveal that in 2012, the AASW, which is
the recognized section for all social degrees have introduced new
program guidelines which state that Aboriginal and Torres Strait
Islanders ways of gathering responses must be taught in wide
ranging specialized social work degrees.
CONTINUATION….

CHALLENGES FOR NEW JOURNEY SOCIAL
CARE PROVIDERS
 Social service providers engaged in New Journey, a
renowned community agency in Australia recently have
been encountering critical challenges and anxieties related
to their ability to respond efficiently and work in
collaboration with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander
peoples (Price 2015).
 This section of people experiencing severe homelessness
typically aims to seek advices and avenues from the
Australian human service providers.

AASW PRACTICE STANDARDS
 The AASW Practice Standards state that the Association is highly
committed to the procedures of reconciliation with Aboriginal and
Torres Islander communities (Aasw.asn.au 2018).
 The human service providers under ASSW primarily acknowledge
the values and ideologies of these communities as the First
Australians whose lands and water are shared by all Australians.

AASW PRACTICE STANDARDS (CONTD..)
 Social service providers of AASW have been entrusted in
acknowledging as well as understanding the historical and existing
disadvantages which are experienced by the Aboriginal and Torres
Islanders (Bennett 2015).
 These accredited social workers have been recognizing the
strengths, competencies and contributions which the Indigenous
communities make in order develop a wider society.

DEVELOPMENT OF KNOWLEDGE AND SKILLS
FOR RELATIONSHIP BUILDING WITH CLIENTS
 Social service providers
fundamentally incorporate skills,
knowledge and understanding of
the crucial communitarian needs
into the field of social work
practices.
 The community social workers
under AASW practice standards
obtained high level of awareness
of the areas of concerns which the
clients have been encountering
within the community.

CONTD
 The community social workers significantly contribute
to the growth and development of social policy which
seeks to address forms of discrimination and other acts
of prejudices against the Aboriginal and Torres Islanders
(Price 2015).
 These practices however are implemented in accordance
to the standards, values and principles stated in AASW
Code of Ethics.

COMMUNICATION AND INTERPERSONAL
SKILLS (AASW PRACTICE STANDARDS)
 Social workers employs appropriate verbal and culturally
responsive communication base with Aboriginal
community members.
 They are appreciated to use conflict management,
conciliation as well as negotiation skills when dealing
with clients who are at the risk of homelessness or have
experienced severe intricacies related to homelessness
(Bennett, Redfern and Zubrzycki 2017).

CONTINUATION…
 These human service providers efficiently contributes to discipline
and values driven social services to understand the issues and
challenges of socially affected Indigenous people.
 Furthermore, effective collaboration and cooperation with other
disciplinary areas are also essential while performing practices to
enhance service provisions.

KEY DIFFERENCES IN WESTERN AND
INDIGENOUS MODEL OF COMMUNICATION
 To Aboriginal and Torrs Islanders, forms of active listening skills
serve a highly determining role whereby they strictly deject any
forms of interruption or obstruction while sharing their concerns
with others.
 If the Aboriginal people tend to look away from the speaker, it
does not imply that they are not being responsive. However, it
further signifies their intention of avoiding eye contact with the
speaker.

CONTINUATION…
 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people furthermore
exhibit a less inclination towards direct approach
towards communication.
 Thus, posing direct questions however is perceived as
highly offensive and confronting to Indigenous people in
comparison to Westerners who on the other hand, highly
appreciate forms of direct communication to avoid any
forms of miscommunication.

ABORIGINAL AND TORRES STRAIT ISLANDER
COMMUNICATION
 Llewellyn, Boon and Lewthwaite (2018) are of the perspective
that though people belonging to Indigenous communities prefer to
pose direct queries in order to extract information about any
individual not belonging to the Torres Islander community.
 Though these communities prefer to choose indirect approach of
communication for seeking personal details of any unknown
individual, the Western model of communication is inclined
towards a continual direct and undemanding communication
process.

CONTINUATION…
 Price (2015) indicate that Aboriginal and Torres Islanders significantly deject
Australians Whites in speaking Aboriginal English or Torres Strait Islander
Creole unless the communicator encounters any issues of interpreting the their
responses.

WESTERN MODEL OF COMMUNICATION
 Furthermore, as per the Western model of communication, the
Whites highly acknowledge foreigners in speaking their language.
 However these Indigenous communities respond to other
speaking Aboriginal English relying on the kind of rapport or
integration they have with the speaker (Bennett, Redfern and
Zubrzycki 2017).

WESTERN CULTURAL PATTERN
 As per the Western Cultural pattern, silence in the
process of communication is viewed as a crucial gap
which requires to be prevented. While, on the other
hand, in the communication aspects of Aboriginal and
Torres Strait Islander societies prolonged periods of
silence are recognized as norms (Llewellyn, Boon and
Lewthwaite 2018).

CONTINUATION
 The Indigenous communities tend to use forms of silence as their
active listening skills and further facilitate high level of
consensus. However, the assertive use of silence must not be
comprehended as a wide gap of efficiently understanding or
conformity (Price 2015).
 Meanwhile Weger Jr et al. (2014) witnessed certain situations
whereby forms of silence requires to be efficiently observed prior
to respond through verbal communication is regarded as an
indicator of dignity and respect for Indigenous communities.

RECOMMENDATIONS FOR NEW JOURNEY SOCIAL
SERVICE WORKERS
 As Aboriginals tend to show their conformity towards people even
if they approve to the ideas or statements, New Journey social
workers must put emphasis on the responses or body language to
seek accurate outcomes.

CONTINUATION
 This community service organization must efficiently
interpret the areas of complexities and issues of the
Indigenous clients.
 Their encounter with critical homelessness or societal
challenges might make them develop a sense of agitation
resulting them in agreeing to the speaker in order to end
any conversation (Bennett, Redfern and Zubrzycki
2017).

CONTINUATION
 Thus, social workers of New Journey community
services must attain adequate knowledge and skills in
explaining relevant information to the Indigenous
clientele base.
 As a result, it is essential for the section of social
workers of New Journey community service
organization to proficiently interpret and make decisions
which would produce beneficial outcomes to the
Indigenous communities.

REFERENCES
 Aasw.asn.au 2018. Home - AASW - Australian Association of Social Workers.
[online] Aasw.asn.au. Available at: https://www.aasw.asn.au/ [Accessed 3 Oct.
2018].
 Bennett, B., 2015. “Stop deploying your white privilege on me!” Aboriginal
and Torres Strait Islander engagement with the Australian Association of Social
Workers. Australian Social Work, 68(1), pp.19-31.
 Bennett, B., Redfern, H. and Zubrzycki, J., 2017. Cultural Responsiveness in
Action: Co-Constructing Social Work Curriculum Resources with Aboriginal
Communities. British Journal of Social Work, 48(3), pp.808-825.
 Bodie, G.D., Vickery, A.J., Cannava, K. and Jones, S.M., 2015. The role of
“active listening” in informal helping conversations: Impact on perceptions of
listener helpfulness, sensitivity, and supportiveness and discloser emotional
improvement. Western Journal of Communication, 79(2), pp.151-173.

REFERENCES
 Llewellyn, L.L., Boon, H.J. and Lewthwaite, B.E., 2018. Effective
Behaviour Management Strategies for Australian Aboriginal and Torres
Strait Islander Students: A Literature Review. Australian Journal of
Teacher Education, 43(1), pp.1-27.
 Luiz Adrian, J.A., Zeszotarski, P. and Ma, C., 2015. Developing
pharmacy student communication skills through role-playing and active
learning. American Journal of Pharmaceutical Education, 79(3), p.44.
 Price, K., 2015. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander education: An
introduction for the teaching profession. Cambridge University Press.
 Weger Jr, H., Castle Bell, G., Minei, E.M. and Robinson, M.C., 2014.
The relative effectiveness of active listening in initial
interactions. International Journal of Listening, 28(1), pp.13-31.