Dr Tejaswini Patil is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Social Work. Her research and teaching interests are in the following areas:

• Social policy and culture: tackling stigma and discrimination of drug dependence with special emphasis on regional/rural contexts; 
• Documenting lived experiences of people experiencing drug dependence;
• Applying reflective practice in social and health care settings to train allied health workforce;
• Regional migration, social identities and social inclusion; and
• Professional Identity and the role of reflective practises in inter-professional settings.

She has conducted research that has policy and practice implications through developing strong and ongoing collaborations with government and non-government partners with special emphasis on regional/rural contexts. She has experience in conducting research documenting lived experiences of people experiencing opioid dependence and/or on opioid treatments. Her current research uses reflective practice tools to train allied health professionals involved in the care and delivery of opioid dependence treatments.

Other ongoing research projects include combining lived experiences with an analysis of programs/policies catered to increase social inclusion of multicultural communities in regional/rural contexts in Australia. She has also published on pedagogies of diversity in the context of social work education.

She is currently teaching and/or coordinating into core and elective social work units, namely social work practice and Alcohol and Other Drugs (AOD), social work capstone and working with communities.