UQ launches new School to address human services problems

In the future social workers and behavioural scientists would need to have more multidisciplinary skills, according to Associate Professor Jill Wilson.

The importance of these skills will be stressed at the launch of The University of Queensland`s new School of Social Work and Applied Human Sciences (SW&AHS) on March 1.

Associate Professor Wilson, who is Acting Head of School, said the School needed to update in order to stay ahead of new problems arising in the human services industry.

"To improve human services, we need a greater understanding of the challenges that face people and the appropriate responses to these challenges," Dr Wilson said.

"The whole area is changing at such a rate that we need people who are multi-skilled and future-oriented. To achieve this we need a multi-faceted academic knowledge base.

"And I believe that this new School will give us the ability to do just this.

"The School continues to address current and future issues in human behaviour and human services. One current focus of attention is education and research in child protection.

"We will continue to adjust course offerings to meet community requirements".

The new School brings together the former UQ School of Social Work and Social Policy and the Behavioural Studies program.

It has 1210 students and 33 academic staff. From a multi-disciplinary base, it specialises in the areas of social policy, human services management, social work, youth studies, community development, justice and criminology and counselling.

The launch will bring together stakeholders from government, industry and academia including the Queensland Minister for Child Safety, Mike Reynolds MP, who is a social work graduate of James Cook University.

The launch of new school will be at the UQ Centre on March 1 at 5pm.

Media: For more information, contact Assoc Prof Jill Wilson (telephone 3365 2507, email j.wilson@social.uq.edu.au) or Cathy Stacey (telephone 0438 339 538) or David Ashkanasy (telephone 3365 2619 or email d.ashkanasy@uq.edu.au).