Social work as a profession is under-recognised within the disaster sector.
Social work practice is multi-faceted, with a commitment to individual and community self-determination, compassion, social justice, human rights and relationality, drawing upon strengths-based and solution-focused approaches. Social work expertise should be further recognised within the disaster sector to help contribute to better outcomes for disaster impacted communities.
This paper summarises the different modes of social work practice and outlines the professional mandate as articulated through the Australian Association of Social Workers Code of Ethics (AASW 2020b). This paper considers selected research that has suggested why social work as a profession is undervalued in the disaster sector, and reflects on what a social work enhanced disaster sector in Australia could look like.
The conclusion provides suggestions for how social work could be better positioned through mitigation, preparation, response and recovery.
