Social workers back on the front line in Christchurch

Today is World Social Work Day (19 March 2019). While it should be a time of celebration for the profession, this year it will be a time of action, reflection and mobilisation as we respond to the terrorist act in Christchurch on 15 March.

In the coming months, social workers in that beleaguered city will once again be called upon, and will respond valiantly to the trauma that confronts every person living in their city and beyond.

Social workers will be helping people on numerous professional levels. In the first instance, social workers in hospitals and in the community will be ready to deal with the immediate aftermath of the tragedy by mobilising material and practical supports and responding to people’s immediate physical needs.

Social workers in schools will address the impact on children who may have witnessed or been impacted by the violence. They will also be involved in helping individuals and families within the Muslim community, and outside of it, to deal psychologically with the trauma.

From the Christchurch earthquake experiences we know people will be in shock for a time, but then grief, anxiety, anger and depression will follow. Mental health services are likely to once again feel the impact of prolonged responses to this tragedy. Social workers will be supporting communities to harness their cultural and spiritual capital to find the strength and resources to sustain or rebuild their sense of security and wellbeing. They will likely have to do this while simultaneously dealing with their own grief and responses to this tragedy.

While social workers in Christchurch have probably become accustomed to working within these trauma frameworks, for the first time they will be responding to one that has come directly from human hands and been inspired by hate.

Social workers in other parts of the world have often been involved on the front line of violence and human rights abuses. In many countries right now, such as the Philippines and China, speaking out against injustice is an extremely dangerous activity. We are fortunate in Aotearoa to have a democratic system and leadership that values diversity and recognises the need for governments to be held accountable.
 

In the third reading of the Social Workers Registration Legislation Bill on February 21, 2019, Parliamentary Under-Secretary for Justice Jan Logie demonstrated her understanding of the importance of advocacy by social workers, saying:

“I do just want to re-emphasise the important role that social workers play in our country of supporting individuals and whānau and challenging us in Government to make sure that we get the policies right to give individuals and whānau and families the best chance possible to thrive in this country.”

Social work values play a large role in this accountability process. As more details emerge about the background to this terrorist act, it will be easy for us to blame this on the crazed actions of a few people, and as something apart from us.

At one level this is true: As the Prime Minister acknowledged in her media conference on the evening of the tragedy, as a nation we espouse the values of kindness, compassion and valuing diversity. It will be important for us to demonstrate these right now.

We don’t need to scratch very far below the surface however, to see that sometimes the ideologies that fuel such attacks are not too far away from ‘being us’ rather than wholly coming from some ‘other’. In New Zealand, members of the Muslim community have been the targets of ongoing threats, Jewish cemeteries have been desecrated, gay men have been beaten on our streets, women have been raped and murdered in their homes and we have one of the highest rates of child abuse in the world. Talk back radio and social media provide us with a daily litany of views that would support any of these actions.

While most people associate social work with areas of need such as child protection, the main tenets of social work, which distinguish it from other helping professions, are those of fighting for social justice and human rights for all people. This is reflected in the Global Definition of Social Work, adopted in 2014, which states that ‘Principles of social justice, human rights, collective responsibility and respect for diversities are central to social work.’

Within our region specifically, the 2016 Asia-Pacific Amplification of the Global Definition states that the practice of social work here has an emphasis on “recognising the importance of faith, spirituality and/or religion in people’s lives and holding respect for varying belief systems and the celebration of diversity and peaceful negotiation of conflict”.

As we move beyond the immediate crisis, social workers will need to be involved in calling us all back to look at ourselves as a country. While social workers are often ridiculed for their ‘political correctness’, their advocacy and attention to the underlying causes of violence, inequality and injustice serve an important function in reminding us that preventing such senseless acts is the responsibility of every one of us.