Dr Philip Mendes

Senior Lecturer

Co-ordinator Undergraduate On Campus Progams

Profile

Dr Mendes, BA Melbourne (1985), BSW Melbourne (1987), and PHD La Trobe (1997) joined the Department of Social Work in 1995 after a number of years of practice in the areas of child protection and income security. He is an acknowledged expert on community welfare lobby groups, having completed his phd on the peak community welfare body, the Australian Council of Social Service(ACOSS).

Philip has also published widely on child abuse and child protection including young people leaving state care, globalisation and the welfare state, neo-liberal think tanks, and illicit drug policies. He is currently a member of the Editorial Committee of Victorian Social Work, a member of the Children’s Welfare Association of Victoria Leaving Care Reference Group, a member of the Jewish Community Council of Victoria Social Justice Committee, Chair of the Faculty of Medicine’s Community Partnerships Program Management Committee, and a reviewer for a number of local and international academic journals including Community Development Journal (UK), Social Policy & Society (UK), Journal of Social Work (UK), Just Policy, Social Alternatives, Australian Social Work, Journal of Australian Political Economy, and Children Australia.

He is the author or co-author of four books including Australia’s Welfare Wars (UNSW Press, 2003), and Harm Minimisation, Zero Tolerance and Beyond: The Politics of Illicit Drugs in Australia (Pearson, 2004)