Some Impending Legal Problems for Social Workers

Many areas of the law with which social workers are required to deal are particularly dynamic and, in order to meet the challenges they present, it is necessary to look ahead. Developments in the United States often provide a useful means of predicting developments in Australia. The paper examines three areas, proceedings, social security law, and mental health – where change is becoming, or likely to become, apparent, in the first topic, there has been a marked change in both the issues with which the courts have had to deal and the methodology which they have adopted to attempt to resolve them. In social security law, decisions of the Administrative Tribunal have illustrated anomalies and deficiencies in the legislation, and social workers in their daily practice may notice others. All of that might well lead to a necessary review of the legislation. In the area of mental health legislation, a draft bill in Victoria contains a number of disquieting features which should cause social workers, as well as lawyers, concern. The paper concludes by noting that the legal relationship between social workers and the law has never been more subject to scrutiny in a wide variety of situations, and mutual respect between the two disciplines must continue to increase.