Social Work in Australia
Aug 8th 2018, 8:58 pm
#91
Just Joined
Joined: Jan 2018
Posts: 8
Re: Social Work in Australia
How are you getting on? Just had acceptance of a positive assessment by the AASW after waiting since Dec 2017 to be processed 7 + months, 3 months longer than the 20 weeks stated. Good news though. IELTS booked for next week so hopefully gain enough points then to start the visa process!
Quite exhausting the whole ordeal. They were very rigorous, even called my HR dept. at what would have been middle of the night for them, to verify the officer who had emailed them my job spec!!
Quite exhausting the whole ordeal. They were very rigorous, even called my HR dept. at what would have been middle of the night for them, to verify the officer who had emailed them my job spec!!
Aug 8th 2018, 9:52 pm
#92
Forum Regular
Thread Starter
Joined: May 2016
Posts: 57
Re: Social Work in Australia
Congrats on the positive assessment Amber! I believe AASW have changed the way they do assessments now and it’s taking much longer than it used to.
I arrived in Australia a month ago and been in Brisbane for the past three weeks (living with friends for now). I had a job interview (over Skype from a Cambodian island!) for a community mental health team about 2 months ago. I didn’t get that job but was ‘merit listed’, which has resulted in me being offered a job this week! Start date is 27th August. So I’m pretty excited about it.
From what I can tell, statutory adult services jobs are working for hospital and health services (HHS). So in my case the overall employer is Queensland Health but I’m employed by a HHS into their mental health service. There are 16 HHS in Queensland and each cover a pretty massive geographical area. I’m not sure how childrens works but I think they seem to do more of a rolling recruitment. I found about 10 appropriate jobs to apply for over the last two months or so in adults (just in the Brisbane and Gold Coast regions) so there is work available.
I love living in Australia so far. It’s a fantastic place and I’m looking forward to getting stuck into work. By the time I start my job it will be 1 year and 9 months since I started the whole emigration process by sending the IQA form to my university. It’s worth the wait and all the hassle of gathering documents!
I arrived in Australia a month ago and been in Brisbane for the past three weeks (living with friends for now). I had a job interview (over Skype from a Cambodian island!) for a community mental health team about 2 months ago. I didn’t get that job but was ‘merit listed’, which has resulted in me being offered a job this week! Start date is 27th August. So I’m pretty excited about it.
From what I can tell, statutory adult services jobs are working for hospital and health services (HHS). So in my case the overall employer is Queensland Health but I’m employed by a HHS into their mental health service. There are 16 HHS in Queensland and each cover a pretty massive geographical area. I’m not sure how childrens works but I think they seem to do more of a rolling recruitment. I found about 10 appropriate jobs to apply for over the last two months or so in adults (just in the Brisbane and Gold Coast regions) so there is work available.
I love living in Australia so far. It’s a fantastic place and I’m looking forward to getting stuck into work. By the time I start my job it will be 1 year and 9 months since I started the whole emigration process by sending the IQA form to my university. It’s worth the wait and all the hassle of gathering documents!
Aug 19th 2018, 6:57 pm
#93
Just Joined
Joined: Jan 2018
Posts: 8
Re: Social Work in Australia
Hi Jack, Great news for you there. I have always worked in Adult social work so would be looking specifically at work with adults in Australia. Just a question, I am a registered AMHP in the UK. There are a number of mental health jobs asking for a Mental Health qualification, and I guess my AMHP would not count. Any idea how much a drawback it would be not having the AU equivalent under my belt when looking at mental health jobs there?
Thanks
Thanks
Aug 20th 2018, 1:43 am
#94
Forum Regular
Thread Starter
Joined: May 2016
Posts: 57
Re: Social Work in Australia
Hi Jack, Great news for you there. I have always worked in Adult social work so would be looking specifically at work with adults in Australia. Just a question, I am a registered AMHP in the UK. There are a number of mental health jobs asking for a Mental Health qualification, and I guess my AMHP would not count. Any idea how much a drawback it would be not having the AU equivalent under my belt when looking at mental health jobs there?
Thanks
Thanks
Just to confuse things, there is a role of Accredited Mental Health Social Worker (AMHSW), which you have to go through AASW to get. Being an AMHSW enables you to apply for a Medicare provider number. I think this seems to be more for jobs where you might be providing direct assessment and treatment (such as CBT or counselling maybe). A few of the jobs I applied for (with non-government organisations) had this as a requirement. But luckily I got my job so don't need to bother with this.
Aug 20th 2018, 5:55 pm
#95
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Joined: Jan 2018
Posts: 8
Re: Social Work in Australia
I don't think it would be a problem Amber. They have an equivalent role here in Australia (also AMHP - Authorised Mental Health Practitioner) but none of the jobs I applied for had it as a requirement. Most of them just asked for willingness to train for that role. I'm not AMHP trained in the U.K. and managed to get a job in mental health so it can't be prohibitive to not have the equivalent. I applied for an HP3 role, which is the starting grade for my (government) organisation, but they've started me a few points up the pay scale to take into account my experience. HP4 jobs seem to be senior roles and management positions.
Just to confuse things, there is a role of Accredited Mental Health Social Worker (AMHSW), which you have to go through AASW to get. Being an AMHSW enables you to apply for a Medicare provider number. I think this seems to be more for jobs where you might be providing direct assessment and treatment (such as CBT or counselling maybe). A few of the jobs I applied for (with non-government organisations) had this as a requirement. But luckily I got my job so don't need to bother with this.
Just to confuse things, there is a role of Accredited Mental Health Social Worker (AMHSW), which you have to go through AASW to get. Being an AMHSW enables you to apply for a Medicare provider number. I think this seems to be more for jobs where you might be providing direct assessment and treatment (such as CBT or counselling maybe). A few of the jobs I applied for (with non-government organisations) had this as a requirement. But luckily I got my job so don't need to bother with this.
Last edited by Amber2019; Aug 20th 2018 at 5:59 pm.
Oct 12th 2018, 9:06 pm
#96
Just Joined
Joined: Oct 2018
Posts: 1
Re: Social Work in Australia
Hi everyone
I am moving to Aus on a working holiday visa at the end of this month. I submitted my application for the August AASW processing time, I realise that it won’t be back before I go but does anyone have any advice on how / if it can be processed any quicker?
Also any advice or recommendations on what agencies are good for social work in Sydney? I have 8 years experience as a social worker in adults, mainly mental health social work and I am a qualified AMHP with 3 years experience.
Thanks, Lara
I am moving to Aus on a working holiday visa at the end of this month. I submitted my application for the August AASW processing time, I realise that it won’t be back before I go but does anyone have any advice on how / if it can be processed any quicker?
Also any advice or recommendations on what agencies are good for social work in Sydney? I have 8 years experience as a social worker in adults, mainly mental health social work and I am a qualified AMHP with 3 years experience.
Thanks, Lara
Dec 23rd 2018, 6:48 pm
#97
Just Joined
Joined: Dec 2018
Posts: 4
Re: Social Work in Australia
Hey did you move in the end ?
