The problem is colonialism, a condition that permeates every part of Australian societyand that includes our profession and the manner in which we exist and operate. Histori-cally and currently Australian social work has moved between and been a mix of Englishand American social work. It must be noted at this point that America was also a Britishcolony and is still rooted in colonialism. What we call Australian social work today has itsfoundations in colonisation and is still embedded in colonialism. This colonialism isevident today in the way in which social work is practised, its relationship with Aboriginalpeople and communities, the appropriation of Indigenous knowledges, and the position-ing of Aboriginal social workers. Furthermore, this colonialism is evident in the reaction toAboriginal social workers when they speak out about the problems within our professionand the resulting white fragility that sadly happens more than it doesn’t.

Perhaps less obvious than the global governmental and corporate colonial collusionwith the genocide is organized social work’s collusion. I use the word “collusion”intentionally to bring attention to the conscious and unconscious manifestations ofsocial work participation in systems of colonial violence including the zionist project.I use the term “organized social work” because many individual social workers andinformal social work networks have participated in protests, campaigns, teach-ins, andwebinars engaged in organizing and action for Palestinian liberation. My commentsabout social work collusion largely focus on social work organizations, journals, boards,and professional leadership that has chosen silence, repression and false equivalenciesas noted by Suslovic et al (2024).

Given the extensive exposure to violence and ongoing conflict inPalestinian communities, evidence-based trauma-focused inter-ventions are essential for addressing the significant mental healthburden. Most existing research on psychosocial interventions inPalestinian communities has focused on cognitive-behavioralapproaches, trauma-focused therapies or community-based psy-chosocial support programs, which have demonstrated effective-ness for symptom reduction. Key approaches studied includeTeaching Recovery Techniques (TRT), a trauma-focused cognitivebehavioral therapy (CBT) approach showing effectiveness in mul-tiple randomized controlled trials (RCTs) with Palestinian childrenand adolescents (Barron et al., 2013; Diab et al., 2015); NarrativeExposure Therapy (NET), which differs from narrative therapy andhas been studied in some Middle East and North African (MENA)regions but not specifically with Palestinian populations (Husseinet al., 2020); and various group crisis interventions and psycho-social support programs implemented during conflict periods(Thabet and Vostanis, 2005)

A developmental psychopathology lens underscores that what is being destroyed in Gaza is not only current wellbeing but the developmental scaffolding needed for healthy futures

This aligns with UNICEF's warnings that Gaza represents one of the few places where an entire generation's mental health is at risk of permanent impairment.

In contrast, interventions implemented by international agencies often showed limited efficacy, constrained by insecurity, staff turnover, and their reliance on externally designed protocols (Aqtam, Citation2025).

Humanitarian mental health interventions remain largely grounded in Western diagnostic frameworks, emphasizing individual pathology, symptom reduction, and short-term psychosocial support (Mills, Citation2014; Watters, Citation2010). While these approaches can be valuable, they often risk depoliticizing and pathologizing survival by individualizing distress rather than recognizing it as a predictable consequence of chronic exposure to coercive contexts - occupation, dispossession, and collective loss - that define everyday life (Kohrt & Mendenhall, Citation2016; Summerfield, Citation2004). Liberation psychology and decolonial mental health frameworks argue that psychological wellbeing cannot be disentangled from the realities and structural conditions that produce harm (Helbich & Jabr, Citation2022; Martín-Baró, Citation1996). In the Palestinian context, this means acknowledging how instability, movement restrictions, fragmentation, loss, lack of protection and safety, and systemic precarity shape emotional and social worlds. The rapidly shifting structural and social landscape in Palestine further constrains data collection, reducing the capacity of research to fully capture the breadth and complexity of these intersecting determinants.

In Australia it is the leading cause of death ofpeople between 15 and 44 years and affects men two to three times more than women.

have often seen my place as a social worker within mental health to be an advocate in supportingmy clients/consumers to have their voice heard, be included in their care and treatment, and reducethe power imbalance between clients and clinicians. Social workers advocate for individuals to seekthe support they deserve in a system that is often confusing, chaotic, overwhelming and filled withbarriers to accessing services. This includes liaising with government services, referrals to non-government organisations, support with federal systems, such as Centrelink and National DisabilityInsurance Scheme, and advocating to assist in overcoming discrimination of those with mental healthdifficulties that are entrenched in social systems.

Our social welfare is completely floating on emergencies and relief. If we add long-term perspective in our social welfare sector we can extend it to social develop-ment. So we have to change the approach and we must add some new ideas insocial welfare for the country to progress.

When a single patient comes to us we study his whole history. He tells and shareseach and every problem (i.e., economic or social problem), and our institution triesto solve not only the patient’s problem but we also try to make solutions for hisfamily as much as our institution can solve.

But I think the main purpose of social welfare is to help others. Our people areused to helping others in the specific tones of Zakat or Fitrana (religious charity)etc., but social work is to help the poor and deserving people. The concept of help-ing others in our society is by charity or donation. Islam mentions the rights ofwidows, orphans, and neighbours etc. but unfortunately, we’ve made this concepta western concept. Scientific social work is actually the study of people whetherthey deserve it or not.

Specifically, first, the researchers readthrough all the transcribed material with the objective of identifyingcommon themes; second, the themes were coded; third, data weresearched for similar instances of the same phenomenon, so cate-gories of behavioural and interaction patterns could be identified;and fourth, data were translated into working hypotheses thatwere refined continuously until all instances of contradictions, simi-larities and differences were explained (thus increasing the depend-ability of the findings)

The International Federation of Social Workers (IFSW) acknowl-edges the role of local knowledge, and emphasizes the understandingof local and cultural context in relation to social work practice(IFSW, 2000a)

improving student behavior

If the participant does become upset or affected by their participation in the interview we may help facilitate their connection with appropriate supportive services to address this, such as counseling or crisis numbers (and indeed, this is our ethical obligation as a competent and caring researcher), however counseling and treatment is not our responsibility and we should be very careful not to confuse it as such.

you may choose to meet at your office

Al-Anon

that

By failing to address this, the inadvertent exclusion of older adult voices from your data could be disempowering for this subgroup

Latin American