While I am not studying in the physical health field, I am studying in the emotional health, mental health and social health field as a social worker.   Once I have finished my degree I want to be able to build therapeutic relationships with my people. I want to be able to advocate and stand n the void for all Indigenous people and families that feel they are not being heard.

I want to be able to work with individuals and families to assist in identifying the environmental factors that may be impacting or hindering their life and work with them about bringing about change.  I want to be able to empower, teach, support, work with, walk with and learn from all Indigenous communities.   i would also like to be able to be a role model for all Indigenous people, that no matter your up bringing, your background or circumstances you can do anything you put your mind to, that you are not alone and you can do this.   I believe in doing this I will be able to have a positive impact on the improvement in health and wellbeing for Indigenous people.

This semester I studied four subjects in total. The first was Health and wellbeing of people with developmental disabilities, in this subject we were introduced to people with developmental disabilities and heard directly from them in mini videos about their lives, we learnt about them as individuals, about their experiences, and we developed an understanding of the roles played by health and human services professionals in supporting their health, wellbeing and social inclusion.

The next subject was Introductory psychology: People and culture, we discussed the psychology of individuals in a diverse context to understand how personal experiences, including emotions, motivation, intimacy with others, and health behaviours, are shaped by cultural understanding and social expectations. Social Work in a political context was one of the subjects that I found a little changeling as I didn’t think that I was very political and throughout my life have never been interested in politics but in this subject  I realised that  it was important for me to have an understanding so I am able to advocate and lobby for my future clients so that their needs can be met.

The last subject was reflective communication and social work, this subject was one of my favourite subjects. As future Social workers we aim to empower others and to help create and establish conditions for people to thrive in. This involves working for a socially just and equitable society, while also helping people to better manage the day to day challenges they inevitably confront in their lives. Yet we all experience challenges in life and there will be times we need to deal with problems that seem overwhelming and outside our control. This subject brings an awareness that to work to help other people involves first understanding ourselves and building self-awareness and personal skills to deal with our own life situations.

We were introduced to the concept of empowerment and the role that is plays in enabling health and wellbeing even in the most challenging and difficult situations. The subject drew from an evidence based First Nations Family Wellbeing empowerment program that has been integrated within a wide range of health human services across Australia we had the opportunity over the courser of the semester too experience the program as both a participant and a facilitator. While the content of this semester was very informative It was all online via zoom which I struggled with, not having other students to bounce ideas off was a challenge.

Things in my personal life had also changed this semester. I was able to self-evaluate my future career plans and with support I have decided to return to complete my Bachelor of Nursing at La Trobe Mildura. I will enter into second year nursing through the graduate entry pathway. The content I have learnt over this year will not be wasted though, as I would like to do my Post Grad in Mental Health Nursing in future, and I truly believe that is year has given me extra skills that will only aid in my nursing career.

I want to thank you again for your support.