Dr Jan Foster
BSocSc(SocWk) Preston.IT, MSocWk Melb., PhD (SocWk) UQ
Position: Program Leader Social Work, Senior Lecturer Social Work
Office: DG.18
Tel: +61 7 5459 4661
Email: jfoster@usc.edu.au
Teaching areas
- Social Work and Human Services Practice
- Ethics
- Practice Frameworks
- Anti-Oppressive Practice
Research areas
- The effects of critical illness on families
- Critical reflection and social work practice
- Ethical practice in aged care and child protection
- Social work practice in health
- Program evaluation
Profile
Dr Jan Foster is head of the Social Work unit at the University of the Sunshine Coast. She has extensive experience as a social worker, administrator, academic and researcher in the area of family and children’s services and community support. She has been involved in direct practice and policy development for young people at risk, income support, the development of locally-based services for children, and community based family support programs. She has worked in local and federal government as well as in community organisations, spanning counselling, development, group work and case work with families, children and young people and has also taught and researched in these areas.
Her research incorporates critical perspectives and inclusionary practices in the social work field, including the implications for patients and families when negotiating the medical system. Her current research centres on program evaluation, developing frameworks for collaborative models of care for young people with complex needs and analysis of protective behaviours programs.
Her program evaluation experience captures multiple fields of practice regarding the impact of programs on clients and in relation to achieving better outcomes for all stakeholders.
Publications
Electronic copies of various academic papers from Dr Jan Foster are available on the USC Coast Research Database website.
Research grants
- Integrated placement support for young people, Jan Foster and Jo Donovan, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, University of the Sunshine Coast, 2007. This seed funding enabled a small literature review to be undertaken in relation to current research in the area of placement support for high needs young people in care. Follow-up research is pending.
- Continuity of care for people with disabilities, Jan Foster, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, University of the Sunshine Coast, 2005. A scoping exercise was undertaken to investigate the issues relating to the issues of continuity of care for people with disabilities when ageing carers can no longer care. Alternative models of care were also canvassed.
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