Rural and Remote Practice

Abstract

Rural and remote practice is shaped by the community's unique geographic, economic, political and social characteristics. Practising effectively with, and within, these communities entails working in a community-embedded manner that respects, embraces, utilises, and fosters local values and capabilities. This chapter examines a conceptual framework for understanding the special characteristics, contexts and issues that practice in these locations involves, and outline best practice approaches. Social workers and human service workers use various definitions of 'rural' and 'remote' practice, but all tend to entail a notion of small community practice that is geographically distant and isolated from urban centres. No definition of either 'rural' or 'remote' is universally accepted, but remote communities are generally seen as having a smaller population (fewer than 2500 people) and significant disadvantage due to poor access to services, resources and political influence (Cheers, 1998; Pugh and Cheers, 2010; Wakerman, 2004). These definitions affect decision-making about social policy, planning and resource allocation for the roughly one-third of Australians living there (Wakerman, 2004).