Ruth Matchett describes her education at St Aidan's Anglican Girls School at Corinda and gaining an honours degree in Social Work from UQ. Upon graduation she took up a position as social worker with the Ipswich Community Health Service. These community health services were an initiative of the Whitlam Government set up as multi-disciplinary teams. Federally funded but state run, the community centres were different in Queensland as they did not contain primary health care.