Belinda Cash

Profile

Belinda is a social worker with a passion for understanding and addressing issues of social justice and inequality.

Before her move to academia, Belinda practiced as a social worker in clinical mental health and disability service settings in rural and regional areas.  The structural challenges and inequalities inherent to providing health and welfare supports in rural areas remains an ongoing focus in her current work.

While focusing on advanced and clinical practice focus during her Masters in Mental Health, she undertook her first venture into research.  This study explored the translation of recovery oriented principles into mental health practice, which sparked her interest in research and education as tools for social change.

Since moving to academia in 2009, Belinda has pursued her teaching and research interests, which include mental health, ageing, social policy, service provision in rural areas and informal caregiving.  These were reflected in the focus of her PhD, which critically explored the impacts of policy, practice and wider sociological changes on the experiences of spousal caregivers in rural areas.

Belinda is passionate about mentoring and supporting research students and had the opportunity to develop these skills over several years as a national leader in the Australian Association of Gerontology.  She pursues this interest through the supervision of research students and regular guest presentations to student and early career researchers.

Belinda is also an academic leader of international student travel programs and remains actively involved in supporting students undertaking social work placements in the field.  She is currently working full time at CSU, teaching in the social work and gerontology programs.

Teaching

Belinda teaches into the social work and gerontology programs at CSU.  Her teaching interests are around social gerontology, mental health and social research methods, though she has taught into a broad range of subjects within social work and gerontology both at CSU and previously at La Trobe University.

Belinda is also involved in the supervision of Honours and Masters research students in social work and gerontology and ongoing academic liaison for students completing field education placements.

She is also involved as an academic lead for student travel programs, which provide opportunities for CSU students to explore social work in international contexts.

Research

Belinda's research interests include mental health, ageing, social policy, service provision in rural areas and informal caregiving.  Her PhD explored the experience of choice for older spousal caregivers, by drawing on a critical and systems based approach to understanding how wider systems of culture, policy and practice impact on the experience of informal care.

Publications

• Cash, B. (2017). Family relationships and informal care. In M. Bernoth, & D.Winkler (Eds), Healthy Ageing and Aged Care (pp. 99-116). Australia: Oxford University Press.
• Cash, B. (2017) A transformative approach to systems theory in caregiving research. Qualitative Social Work.
• Guest blog on the Research Whisperer: Cash, B. (2016) An open letter to the ultimate imposter https://theresearchwhisperer.wordpress.com/tag/belinda-cash/
• Cash, B., Hodgkin, S., & Warburton, J. (2013)  Till Death Us Do Part? A Critical Analysis of Obligation and Choice for Spousal Caregivers. Journal of Gerontological Social Work.
  doi: 10.1080/01634372.2013.823472
• Cash, B. and Warburton, J. (2013) The changing arena of ageing: Using critical discourse methods to analyse current policy directions. Emerging Researchers in Ageing: Enabling Active Ageing, Conference Paper http://www.era.edu.au/ERA+2013
• Cash, B. (2010) From Paradigm to Practice: Incorporating recovery-oriented principles through organisational and practice change. Newparadigm, the Australian Journal on Psychosocial Rehabilitation, Autumn 2010, pp 30-34.
• Cash, B. (2009) Recovery: From Paradigm to Practice. (Unpublished Masters Thesis), NSW Institute of Psychiatry, Parramatta NSW

Professional activities

• National President, Australian Association of Gerontology Student and Early Career Group (2013-2017)
• Co-ordinator, Social Work Interest Group Albury-Wodonga
• Member of the Australian Association of Gerontology