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Dr Philip Mendes

Senior Lecturer

Co-ordinator Undergraduate On Campus Progams

Telephone:

+61 3 9903 1132

Facsimile:

+61 3 9903 1141

Email:

 Philip.Mendes@med.monash.edu.au

Profile

Dr Philip Mendes is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Social Work, Faculty of Medicine at Monash University. He teaches the three Social Policy & Community Development subjects, and is also coordinator for the on-campus undergraduate Bachelor of Social Work. He is an acknowledged expert on community welfare lobby groups, having completed his PhD on the peak community welfare lobby body, the Australian Council of Social Service (ACOSS). He has also published widely on a range of social policy and community development debates including young people leaving state out of home care, globalisation and the welfare state, neo-liberal think tanks, and illicit drug policies.

Philip is currently a member of the Editorial Committee of Victorian Social Work, Chair of the Faculty of Medicine’s Community Partnerships Strategic Planning Committee, and a member of the Editorial Advisory Board for a number of academic journals including Community Development Journal (UK), International Journal of Social Welfare (Sweden), and Social Alternatives. He is also a reviewer for International Social Work (UK), Journal of Social Work (UK), Just Policy, Australian Social Work, Journal of Australian Political Economy and Children Australia.

He has published widely in peer reviewed academic journals (over 80 publications in total), and is the author or co-author of six books including Australia’s Welfare Wars (UNSW Press 2003), Harm Minimisation, Zero Tolerance and Beyond: The Politics of Illicit Drugs in Australia (Pearson, 2004), Inside the Welfare Lobby: A history of the Australian Council of Social Service (ACOSS) (Sussex Academic Press, 2006), and Australia’s Welfare Wars Revisited (UNSW Press, 2008).

For the last ten years, he has been engaged in ongoing research on leaving care policy and practice. The research has included a comparison of the leaving care supports available in Australian States (particularly Victoria and New South Wales), and also a comparison of Australia with the USA, UK and New Zealand. He is currently a researcher on two leaving care projects funded respectively by the Helen Macpherson Smith Trust, and the Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute. His research has arguably contributed to leaving care becoming a source of national policy and political debate.

His most recent publications include:

  • “Tracing the origins of critical social work practice” in June Allan, Linda Briskman & Bob Pease (eds.)  Critical Social Work: an introduction to theories and practices . Allen & Unwin, Crows Nest, 2009, pp.17-29.
  • “Young people transitioning from out-of-home care: A critical analysis of Australian and international policy and practice”, Australian Social Work, Volume 62, No.3, 2009, pp.389-403.
  • “Mentoring for care leavers” in Developing Practice, Number 23, 2009, pp.36-44.