Janette White

Janette White, a Review Officer with WorkCover Queensland, began her studies to become a social worker at a very young age. At only 16 years of age and straight out of boarding school, Janette enrolled in The University of Queensland's Department of Social Work and Social Policy (then called Social Studies).

Someone once told me that I was in fact the youngest graduate ever in Social Studies at UQ, but I don't know if that is still the case," Janette said. "I was absolutely rapt in the course. I was a girl from the bush, where we had no school (my primary schooling was by correspondence), no electricity apart from a 32 volt generator, no TV, mail only twice a week and a very erratic party telephone line and apart from my 4 years at boarding school I had very limited knowledge of the wider world. I was the product of a very close, self-sufficient and supportive rural community.

The Social Work Course was so broad and introduced me to so many different aspects of learning?it was a real eye-opener. My results, unfortunately, did not always reflect my enthusiasm for the course?the social life at UQ was too good and I REALLY loved that refectory- more so than the library," she said.

In 1969, after graduation, Janette began her first social work position at the State Health Department, Division of Geriatrics. She was the first social worker to be employed in the Community Home Care Service (now called Community Medicine).

"It was a great first job, as the push at that time, which was quite innovative, was to maintain the disabled and elderly in their own homes rather than the alternative of nursing homes/institutions. "Consequently there was lots of liaison with medical and community services and the job was extremely rewarding, " she said.

Janette has worked in a number of different social work positions. She worked in the Professorial Unit at the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital in Sydney, and she coordinated the Adult Literacy Project at SPELD Queensland where she expanded special literacy classes and volunteer tutor programmes for adults with reading difficulties.

She also worked as a social worker with Court Services (Department of Family Services), and has been a member of the Panel of Private Social Workers for Legal Aid Queensland, preparing Family Reports for the Courts and co-chairing Alternate Dispute Resolution sessions (known as Legal Aid Conferences) in relation to custody and access issues.

Janette has most recently been a Rehabilitation Counsellor and Case Manager with the claims section of WorkCover Queensland. In an injury management role for several years, she coordinated rehabilitation and return to work programmes for injured workers or, for the seriously injured, rehabilitation to achieve maximum independence.

She is currently a Review Officer with WorkCover Queensland where she reviews long term claims and makes recommendations for case management. "Every client is a unique and interesting individual. I never weary of the work because of the immense variety and still get a real buzz out of watching a client move down that path towards independence. I also get to work with interesting colleagues and my goal is always to learn a million new things every single day," she said.

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