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Examining Mental Health Social Work: From Power Analysis to Practice
Book chapter

Examining Mental Health Social Work: From Power Analysis to Practice

Louise Whitaker, Katherine Reid, Emma Tseris, Hollie Ballingall, Ashlea Borg, Binti Jones, Alex Olsen, Aimee Pitt and Lisa Thorpy
Social Work in the Mental Health Field: From Power Analysis to Practice, pp.1-18
SpringerBriefs in Social Work Series, Springer, 1st
02/2026
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-032-08306-7_1
Appears in  Recent Faculty of Health Publications

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Abstract

This chapter introduces the research team and our intentions in the book. We came together as a research collective, using a cooperative inquiry approach, which enabled us to theorise from practice. Our aim was to explore the contested space of mental health social work and to discuss alternative approaches beyond the dominant colonial, biomedical, patriarchal, and neoliberal paradigm. Our discussion includes the concept of epistemic injustice, to explore power and oppression in the mental health field and how knowledges that sit outside medicalised and risk-averse paradigms of distress are often concealed and de-valued. Our analysis aims to move beyond the macro–micro binary thinking, instead exploring possibilities for social workers to utilise a power analysis across a broad range of contexts and workplaces. This chapter explores the diverse experiences of the research team, the value of a collaboration that bridges research and practice, and the processes involved in cooperative inquiry research.

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