Repositioning social work in the modern workforce: the development of a social work assistant role

This paper reports on a pilot project conducted at a Brisbane hospital to develop a social work assistant (SWA) role designed to support clinical social workers in an acute adult hospital setting. In the context of increasing workload demands, constricting health budgets, and organisational expectations, it details the development of the SWA role and outlines the increased scope and quality of practice afforded social workers through the new model of care. The paper demonstrates that the SWA model has positive outcomes for hospital social workers by allowing them to reclaim their core business in an increasingly bureaucratised and deprofessionalised work environment.