Menka Tsantefski

Biography

I am a social worker with over 15 years of direct practice experience conducting home-visits to children and parents in families where children were at risk of removal due to maltreatment, or were being reunified with parents following placement in out of home care. I also have over thirteen years of teaching and research experience.

Research

My research has been at the forefront of service delivery to children and families affected by problematic parental substance use. In addition, I led the Queensland component of several Category 1 grants funded by Australia's National Research Organisation for Women's Safety (ANROWS) and the Department of Social Services. The projects examined the intersection of child protection concerns, domestic/family violence, parental mental health issues and problematic parental substance use.        

Community engagement

For over ten years, I have provided research and consultancy services to Odyssey House Victoria, a leading alcohol and other drug treatment provider. In this role, I support the agency to examine services and outcomes for children and parents. Currently, I am evaluating a new program designed to improve the capacity of the alcohol and other drug sector to recognise and respond to child sexual abuse. 

Supervision

I am committed to ensuring students have a good experience of research while building the evidence-base for practice. I have supervised honours, masters and PhD students on a broad range of topics including the impact on the family of children's chronic health conditions; the experiences of children affected by problematic parental substance use; the transition to motherhood among women with histories of problematic substance use; the service response to children of prisoners; domestic and family violence; and men's behaviour change programs.

Teaching

I am delivering the following units in 2022:

SWRK6007 - Social Work Field Placement 2

SWRK5001 - Social Work Foundations for Practice

SWRK5003 - Social Policy and Law for Social Work

Other

I am a member of the Editorial Board of Child Care in Practice, an international journal of relevance to all disciplines involved in the delivery of services to children.