No abstract

Living apart together (LAT) is the relationship term used to describe those couples who are in a committed, intimate relationship with someone who lives in another household. LAT for those who have chosen this relationship form is a political act that subverts and transforms the gendered norms of cohabitation. This paper presents the findings of the first qualitative study of LAT conducted in Australia, reporting on the private and public implications of LAT for the women in this study. The findings give added meaning to why, for the cohort of women over 45 who have chosen to live apart together, they make the choice to LAT, their LAT relationships tend to last longer than the younger cohorts of LATs and their motivations for being in a LAT relationship differ from the younger cohorts. Situated within a feminist discourse, the study demonstrates that LAT has the potential to change women's lives for the better.

Purpose -The employment of mental health consumers as peer support workers (PSWs) to provide support to other consumers is gaining momentum around the world. The purpose of this paper is to explore the tensions and dilemmas for a social worker in developing a peer support programme at an inpatient psychiatric service in Australia. The author draws on her experience of embedding a peer support programme providing an insight into the difficulties experienced and strategies used which supported the embedding of PSWs. The discipline of social work has complimentary values to the philosophy of peer support as well as the skills to manage the broad range of activities and tasks associated with developing a new programme. Due to the profession's underlying knowledges and values social work is able to act as a bridge between mental health professionals such as doctors and nurses and PSWs giving social workers the ability to "interpret" the divergent languages, values, beliefs and practices. Design/methodology/approach -A retrospective analysis of peer support programme implementation using social work values as a point of reference. Findings -The author draws on her experience of embedding a peer support programme providing an insight into the difficulties experienced and strategies used which supported the embedding of PSWs. Due to the profession's underlying knowledges and values social work is able to act as a bridge between mental health professionals such as doctors and nurses and PSWs giving social workers the ability to "interpret" the divergent languages, values, beliefs and practices. Social implications -This paper arose out of a conference presentation and author's Master's Dissertation, for which she received honours marks. During the period she was implementing the peer support programme, there was a dearth of local (Australian) literature about peer support programme development; this paper is a response to that need as the author would have greatly appreciated some local wisdom about embedding peer support programmes. Originality/value -The authors believe this is a unique approach to a journal paper; certainly the authors have not discovered anything of its ilk previously. There is a lot of material available now about peer support, its benefits and challenges, and many are written by social work, psychology, psychiatric and nursing academics but without overt statement of the professional values which inform their practice.

Writing for publication is both a skill and an art that requires time, energy, discipline, a potential audience, and something to write about. For many post-graduate students it is a new stage in their professional development. To provide structure for this development and to manifest the prerequisite qualities, a group of post-graduate students in the Discipline of Social Work and Social Policy at the University of Western Australia created The Writers' Circle. In this article we report on unexpected discoveries that contributed to our success. We review the structure and commitments of the group that led to us fulfilling our aim of each member submitting an article for publication to a peer-reviewed journal. In this article we provide suggestions on how others might establish an effective and emotionally safe writers' circle. Drawing Out the Purpose of the CircleThe Writers' Circle was initiated following informal discussions among a group of post-graduate students concerning the challenges of progressing from writing for their thesis to writing for publication. These challenges included acquiring knowledge of how to get started, adapting writing styles to meet the requirements of particular journals, staying on task, and having access

No abstract