DrAndrew Brown

I am a Lecturer in Social Work at Deakin University. My teaching and research apply systems thinking across social work and public health, with a focus on how communities, practitioners, organisations and researchers can understand complex problems and act on them.

I primarily draw on community-based system dynamics, including group model building and simulation modelling. In practice, this means working with communities and organisations to co-create systems maps and models that represent problems they are trying to understand, such as food systems, community engagement, family violence prevention, mental health, and community-based prevention. I am particularly interested in the point where systems thinking becomes useful in practice: when it helps people build shared language, strengthen relationships, identify possible action, and carry that action into policy, service design, community development or health promotion work. 

Across my career, I have delivered more than 55 group model building workshops in 38 locations on 32 issues, and more than 30 trainings on systems thinking and group model building for over 500 people across Australia, New Zealand, Europe and Asia. These workshops and trainings have involved community members, practitioners, local governments, health promotion agencies, health services, researchers and other partner organisations. Outputs from this work have informed municipal health and wellbeing planning, community-led prevention initiatives, research partnerships, publications, consultancies and grant development.