ABSTRACT
This chapter examines how rural contexts affect social care practice. All the knowledge, theory and skills documented in mainstream literature and taught in generic education programs are available for use in rural practice. Community-oriented practice is an attitude which a practitioner has towards living and working in a rural community. Social care is viewed as an expression of community. In community-oriented practice, the practitioner is part of the comprehensive network of mutuality which binds a community together. In rural practice, boundaries between practitioners and clients become blurred and even reversed. Principles of community-oriented practice have entered professional knowledge primarily as documented practice wisdom rather than as conclusions of systematic research. Localised practice responds to local needs, priorities and circumstances. Rural practice should also be indigenous, or individualised to the cultural and linguistic characteristics of the person or people with whom the practitioner is working.
