Hello friends!

As you may be aware, it’s been pretty quiet of late on the podcast, sorry about that. It’s not because I haven’t been interviewing people, because I promise I have, and that there’s lots of interesting social work research conversations coming your way throughout the year, but more excitingly its been because quite a lot of time has been spent with my friends and podcast collaborators at our sister podcast, the Social Work Stories podcast. There are some really exciting things coming out this year on the Social Work Stories podcast, as well as some amazing new series’ soon to be launched by us. So, keep your ears tuned for more info soon! If you want to find out more about the Social Work Stories podcast, be sure to follow us on twitter @SOWKStoriesPod or check out our website socialworkstories.com. 

As for Social Work Discoveries, the social work research conversations are getting super interesting! In late 2022, myself, and the team from our sister podcast Social Work Stories, travelled to Melbourne, located on the lands of the Kulin Nation, and attended the Australian & New Zealand Social Work, Welfare Education, and Research Symposium, otherwise called ANZSWWER. At this Symposium, our team managed to sit down and record a number of research conversations for Social Work Discoveries, as well as perform our first live Social Work Stories show, which we’re super excited to release for all our listeners, very soon. 

Today’s conversation was recorded at the ANZSWWER Symposium, and my guest was Dr Sarah Wayland from the University of New England (Australia). Sarah is a Senior Lecturer Social Work in the School of Health at UNE in Armidale, New South Wales, Australia. For more than 20 years, Sarah’s frontline work and research has focused on trauma and loss, with a particular emphasis on understanding the needs of missing people and their families, as well as suicide bereavement and prevention. Dr Wayland is involved in several projects examining workforce responses to suicide attempting, trauma exposure and the needs of carers. Her current focus remains on authentically including the voices of those with lived experience to better inform suicide policy, research and practice developments. She is a regular speaker, to mainstream media, about the impacts of being left behind when a person is missing. 

Cheers, Ben.

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Things to check out:

https://www.une.edu.au/staff-profiles/health/sarah-wayland

https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Sarah-Wayland

Welcome to Australian & New Zealand Social Work & Welfare Education & Research (ANZSWWER)

https://socialworkstories.com/

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Sarah’s Contact Information:

Sarah Wayland, PhD BSW (she/her)

Associate Professor | Discipline Lead – Social Work | HDR Co-ordinator (Health) | Mid Career Researcher – Manna Institute

University of New England

Email: swaylan2@une.edu.au | Twitter: @sarahlwayland