Supervision Found Wanting: Experiences of Health and Social Workers in Non-Government Organisations Working with Refugees and Asylum Seekers

Abstract

This paper explores the role and function of supervision, a neglected topic in research on social work with refugees and asylum seekers. Using semistructured interviews with health and social workers, supervision arrangements in non-government organisations (NGOs) in Australia and the UK are examined in the context of entitlement reductions and restricted access to services and support for service users. The comparative research highlights the demanding and ethically challenging nature of the work, and the impact on health and social workers of exposure to the narratives of refugees and asylum seekers subject to human rights abuses. Overall, there was found to be an inconsistent approach to supervision across the NGOs in the study, which failed to adequately address the demanding nature of the work. Where supervision was not provided, it placed the well-being of health and social workers at risk and reduced the effectiveness of their interventions. In conclusion, the paper develops an agenda for improving the support of health and social workers working with refugees and asylum seekers in NGOs in Australia and the UK.

“This Isn’t Just about Things, It’s about People and Their Future”: A Qualitative Analysis of the Working Conditions and Strains of Social Workers in Refugee and Homeless Aid

“…This was especially the case among respondents suffering from resultant psychological strain. Supervision is an important tool in examining one’s own approach to work and stress, and can help to protect the health of social workers [43]. The study results might lead to the assumption that a lack of such support offers could even have a negative impact on worker health.…”

Psychological Services for Asylum Seekers in the Community: Challenges and Solutions

“…Reflexivity was acknowledged by the authors (Robinson, ). The first author was a culturally and linguistically diverse migrant with the experience of working with refugees and asylum seekers in a clinical and research setting.…”

“…Although these adaptations are considered important for the services offered to culturally diverse individuals, there are still practitioners who are not adequately prepared for this clientele. Practitioners typically receive limited training to work with asylum seekers (Robinson, ), and there is limited research on how to work effectively with this population (Masocha & Simpson, ). Irrespective of the fact that practitioners need to be able to work with cultural diversity, there are still significant variations in training programmes addressing cultural competence, and many of the textbooks and training materials available reflect specific cultural contexts and may not be appropriate for different settings (Kirmayer, ).…”

Supervision, support and professional development for newly qualified social workers in Aotearoa New Zealand

“…Supervisory support has been found to be positively linked to job satisfaction, particularly in child welfare social work (Burns, 2010), retention (Chen & Scannapieco, 2010;Dickinson & Painter, 2009), stress levels (Engstrom, 2017), developing professional identity (Moorhead, Bell, & Bowles, 2016) and greater perceptions of wellbeing (Mänttäri-van der Kuip, 2014). While licensing or full registration of social workers frequently mandates minimum hours of supervision, research demonstrates that compliance with such expectations can be patchy, as research in both Australia and England reported that practitioners did not receive regular supervision (Baginsky et al, 2010;Egan, 2012;Robinson, 2013;Turner-Daly & Jack, 2014). An English study explored the content and purpose of supervision for beginning practitioners (Manthorpe, Moriarty, Hussein, Stevens, & Sharpe, 2013) seeking the views of NQSWs and their managers on various elements of their support and development in their jobs.…”