Perspectives of Ecosocial Practice in Human Services: An International Comparison between Finland and Australia

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Noejd, Taija
Boetto, Heather
Bowles, Wendy
Naerhi, Kati
Cordoba, Pushkar Sebastian
Ramsay, Sylvia
Shephard, Monique
Kannasoja, Sirpa
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2024
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Abstract

This article reports on research in Finland and Australia exploring the similarities and differences between Finnish and Australian human service professionals’ perspectives about ecosocial practice. Surveys consisting of quantitative questions were conducted in both countries, recruiting 542 Finnish participants and 277 Australian participants. Data from each country were analysed descriptively using SPSS software, and the results were compared. Findings indicated that participants in both countries believed that the natural environment and climate change are important at a personal level. However, differences emerged between countries at the professional level, with a higher proportion of Australian participants connecting environmental concerns with human services. Higher proportions of Australian participants also reported adverse impacts of climate change on the well-being of clients or service users. Similarly, Australian participants engaged with clients about ecosocial matters more often. In both countries, participants experienced a lack of support from organisations to facilitate ecosocial practice. These results indicate that, in Australia, a region particularly prone to environmental disasters, participants were more actively engaged in ecosocial practice. Regardless of the different social service systems, the need to challenge neoliberalism through structural reform within organisational, professional and policy domains is essential for enabling ecosocial practice.

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The British Journal of Social Work

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© The Author(s) 2024. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of The British Association of Social Workers. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted reuse, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

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This publication has been entered in Griffith Research Online as an advance online version.

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Social work

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Noejd, T; Boetto, H; Bowles, W; Naerhi, K; Cordoba, PS; Ramsay, S; Shephard, M; Kannasoja, S, Perspectives of Ecosocial Practice in Human Services: An International Comparison between Finland and Australia, The British Journal of Social Work, 2024

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