<p>In 1998, the Government of Ontario passed legislation requiring social workers and social service workers to become registered. As a result, the Ontario College of Social Workers and Social Service Workers was created, yet regulation was opposed by a number of social workers and related groups. Therefore it seems there remain proponents and opponents of regulation. As registration carries implications for all practicing Ontarian social workers, this research explored the views of non-registered and registered social workers, about regulation. Through a qualitative analysis of the information compiled from ten participant interviews, six themes emerged: When Regulation Met Practice; Accountability: To Whom?; The Reciprocal Relationship of Power; The Protection Factor; Developing the Regulated Social Work Identity and Future Knowledge Building. Demonstrating the complexity of regulation, many uncertainties, confusions, concerns and ideological differences arose. Calls by participants for amendments to the current regulatory body reflect the diversity of those regulated and served, and emphasize a need for regulation to remain true to the values and advocacy roots of the profession. It is proposed that the College expand its role to include advocacy and education functions, as well as providing a more supportive and informed relationship with members, potential members and the public. Achieving these expectations amounts to creating a reflexive and inclusive entity. Although breaking the regulatory body molds, these suggestions are not viewed as the result of weaknesses in the profession or of regulation. Instead, recommended changes emulate a fluid, distinct, and diverse profession, requiring an atypical regulatory body.</p> / Master of Arts (MA)

<p>Using an interpretive, narrative approach this research study examined the perceived needs that same-sex couples expected if relocating to a long-term care facility. This exploratory study engaged couples in dialogue on their experiences with homophobia and heterosexism in society and within health care institutions. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with four same-:sex couples. Results indicated participants were concerned that 1) homophobia and heterosexism would present barriers if moving into long-term care; 2) sensitivity and diversity training should be a mandatory practice in long-term care; and 3) participants found little difference between differential treatments they would expect compared to heterosexual couples. All of the participants expected to be treated with compassion, respect and professionalism that met their health care needs and their same-sex relationship and/or sexual identity should not compromise these needs. These findings suggested a need for 1ong-term care facilities to examine and evaluate their current climate in order to provide services which are inclusive toward same-sex couples.</p> / Master of Social Work (MSW)

<p>Front-line child protection workers are professionally socialized to practice within dynamic child welfare conditions which are defined and influenced by the current socio-political climate. Sandwiched between an anti-oppressive practice framework and insufficient resources, child protection workers are often scapegoated for the deficiencies in an increasingly inadequate system. The front-line child protection worker often endures direct (i.e., aggression) or indirect (i.e., death of a child on a caseload) critical incident stressors, or traumatic incidents from service users. These incidents may cause post traumatic stress. This stress may negatively impact the worker, which in turn may affect the worker's ability to relate to the service user and, ultimately, protect the child or children at risk. In this study, six, in-depth, semi-structured interviews were conducted. These interviews focused on how the front-line child protection worker defined critical incident stressors, how they responded to such stressors, how they utilized various coping methods, and how effective these methods were to the worker. While it became evident that all study participants may have exhibited some characteristics of post traumatic stress, it is neither known how transitory nor significant these characteristics might be in the workers' lives. Research to saturation needs to be conducted on this subject in order to discover how post traumatic stress might affect the front-line child protection worker.</p> / Master of Social Work (MSW)

<p>The last century has seen significant changes in how people experience death. There has been a growing discourse about end of life issues and how they affect people. Death and dying are no doubt difficult issues for people to contemplate, including professionals who work in end of life care, however research is beginning to explore how people manage the end of life and what societal issues influence it.<br /> The purpose of this research study is to gain a deeper understanding of the values and beliefs of end of life care social workers regarding death and dying, how their experiences may affect their work with clients who are dying, as well as the supports they have access to in order to manage the challenging work they do. This study explored the experiences of six hospital social workers who work with people who are dying and their families. Qualitative research methods were utilized so that participants could fully share their unique experiences. <br /> The findings highlighted that end of life social work is challenging, complex and fraught with tensions that can lead to frustration and stress. The narratives indicated that high value is placed on a positive dying experience, but due to certain barriers there are struggles in achieving this. Further challenges came from competing demands, such as meeting the needs of staff as well as clients. The value of the social work role was found to be a point of contention for the participants, as they struggled with power imbalances and often fought to have their professional voice heard. Finally, the interviews pointed out that social workers must manage these challenges with few formal supports. This study offers an in-depth exploration of these issues, how they have and effect on social works' involvement with people at the end of life, and what needs to change to ensure social worker's in end of life care are supported.</p> / Master of Social Work (MSW)

<p>The debate regarding the tensions between the lack of an integrated system of community based mental health care, compulsory care, and individual rights and freedoms in the context of serious and persistent mental illness, is not new. lt contains a delicate and changing balance of rights and obligations. Valid arguments can be made on both sides of the protection balance - protection of a common sense of the social good and protection of the rights of individuals needing mental health treatment. The evolution of the Ontario Mental Health Act (R.S.O. 1990) (MHA) is discussed and situated in the Canadian context to illustrate how our current mental health system came to exist and unwell forensic clients reside in communities. Deficiencies are highlighted in applying mental health legislation to situations of persons with persistent psychosis, who are chronically interacting with the criminal justice system, treatment non-collaborative, and lack insight into their own behaviour and its consequences -- a symptom often associated with psychosis.</p> <p>The Government of Ontario has funded initiatives to attempt to monitor the safety/risk of forensic clients. An inter-ministerial initiative - Human Services and Justice Coordinating Committees (HSJCC) is the focus of research. This unique convergence of healthcare, the criminal justice system, community service providers, and stakeholders have been mandated to meet to discuss their common forensic clients with a mission toward prevention, system designs, crisis and community intervention planning, court assessments, and case management. Latent consequences of the diverse convergence of policies guiding individual HSJCC members are discussed. Confusion about the protocols for sharing needed information within meetings and with identified community stakeholders to plan for client management and potential Committee member self-preservation were the primary findings. The potential impacts of the findings and how these might impede HSJCCs from realizing their potential are highlighted. Promotion of simplified education in privacy policies to enhance the important work of the Committees is proposed.</p> / Master of Social Work (MSW)

<p>Sole support mothers have received considerable attention by the federal government over the past 20 years, as they have been perceived as a burden on the social welfare system. Employment-related support programs have been designed to help single mothers transition into the workplace in order to become economically self-reliant and less dependent on the state. This feminist qualitative research study explored the barriers single-parent mothers experienced and the strengths they possessed in their attempts at re-entering the workforce 4 months after graduating from a Career Explorations program. The findings revealed that sole support mothers encounter multiple barriers upon entering the job market including: difficulty with balancing family life responsibilities with obtaining an income, negative attitudes and stigma held by society and employers towards single mothers, lack of recognition of job skills, low wages and ethnic discrimination. A positive attitude, spiritual faith and the ability to perform one's job well were factors that contributed to the women's efforts and resiliency at securing work. Both study participants expressed their views regarding single mothers as being a "unique group of individuals" with "specialized needs." Recommendations for programs included the development of a "coffee house" designed specifically for single mothers where they can gain support and learn from the successes of other single mothers. The study concludes with a review of the implications for social work practice and possibilities for future research.</p> / Master of Social Work (MSW)

<p>This study aims to illuminate the ways that gender, race, and class are experienced and socially constructed on interdisciplinary health teams. The study involves four in-depth qualitative interviews with social workers who are employed members of interdisciplinary health teams within a medium sized city in south-western Ontario. The study documents three levels of inquiry. Initially, it explores social workers' understandings of how gender, race, and class affect interdisciplinary team dynamics. Next, a discourse analysis ofthe interviewees' accounts reveals how some conceptualizations of gender, race, and class are potentially limiting and at times reinforces the status quo. Lastly, it traces invisible relations of domination and subordination conveyed through the social organization of knowledge around interdisciplinary teams.</p> <p>The study offers insight into the ways that interdisciplinary health teams are thought to both promote and undermine cultural competency initiatives. It also reveals how gender, race, and class issues on interdisciplinary teams are conceptualized in ways that preserve the status quo. However, the study challenges the notion that education and exposure to difference and diversity alone will foster cultural competency skills. The study concludes that both cognitive and material shifts in power are necessary in order to achieve an effective redistribution ofpower within interdisciplinary teams.</p> / Master of Social Work (MSW)

<p>Children diagnosed with Tourette Spectrum Disorders (TSD) have multifaceted needs. Dwindling resources in children's mental health services have lead to decreased services and increased wait times. Children with complex mental health needs and their families are greatly impacted. This paper looks at the difficulties associated with TSD, and reports on parents' views of service needs for families of children diagnosed with TSD. Five mothers of children diagnosed with TSD were interviewed in an exploratory, qualitative study to learn what parents say about service needs. The findings indicate that easy access to complete information, getting a diagnosis, and comprehensive treatments to cope with TSD are their priority service needs. Difficulties accessing needed services are highlighted.</p> / Master of Social Work (MSW)

<p>The job of a frontline child protection worker is highly demanding and very emotional. Issues of job-related stress have become an inevitable part of child welfare practice. The majority of research that attempts to understand the stress experienced by child protection workers perpetuates a larger held belief that places the responsibility of managing stress upon the individual worker. This body of research also offers micro-level strategies for alleviating the stress experienced by workers.</p> <p>This research project sets out to understand the issue from a broader perspective and to consider socio-economic factors as central to the critical analysis. The purpose of this research project is to engage in conversations with frontline child protection workers in order to build a sense of the context in which these workers experience job-related stress. A contextual framework is missing from most of the research that has attempted to understand the experience of job-related stress of frontline child protection workers.</p> <p>The two themes that connected all the research participants was the degree to which their agencies acknowledged stress as an issue and the strength of supportive networks within their work environments. From the responses of the workers it was apparent that their work environments do not necessarily provide a safe haven for them to acknowledge the emotional impact of their job and to simply think about the work they do. The author suggests that further research that challenges the structure of broader systemic issues will be the best path to begin developing strategies to alleviate the stress experienced by child protection workers and to retain experienced, educated and dedicated workers who are committed to ensuring the safety of children.</p> / Master of Social Work (MSW)

<p>Research over the last thirty years has focused on the increased risk that youth in care are predisposed to becoming involved in juvenile delinquency (Ryan, 2007). According to some reports, for youth who have at least one substantiated report of maltreatment, delinquency rates are upwards of 47% higher than youth who have no substantiated maltreatment histories (Ryan & Testa, 2005).</p> <p>This research project focuses on the behaviour management strategies of Direct Care Workers (DCWs), who work with youth in the care of the Children's Aid Society (CAS), within a residential group home setting. This research project also looks at the behaviour management strategies of foster parents and will explore any differences of behaviour management strategies between these two caregiver types. One of the primary differences in the care giving roles that face Direct Care Workers (herein after referred to as DCWs) and foster parents is that DCWs work with youth on a shift basis for a period of eight or more hours per day, while foster parents live with the youth in care, within their own home environment on a 24/7 basis.</p> <p>A predominant difference for youth residing in these two settings is that youth placed in a foster home have to deal with one or two primary caregivers and perhaps the biological children of their foster parents (if they have any), in addition to a maximum number of four foster children placed in a home according to Ontario's legislation governed by the Ministry of Family and Children's Services (MFCS). Meanwhile, the youth residing within a group home setting have numerous staff that they are required to develop relationships with, in addition to upwards of nine (and sometimes more) umelated youth, who also reside in the group and/or treatment facility, as mandated by the MFCS.</p> <p>The youth who are placed within group and/or treatment homes tend to be the youth in CAS care who present and manifest with the most challenging behaviours, though this is not necessarily always the case scenario. Unfortunately, sometimes due to a shortage of suitable foster home availability, youth may also be placed within a group home. Many times, youth that have had prior foster home placements which have been terminated due to behavioural issues and foster parent inability to manage or lack of tolerance of said behavioural issues will also be placed in group and/or treatment homes.</p> <p>This study will explore the different behaviour management strategies that DCW s and foster parents use in their day-to-day interactions with the youth in their care. This study is predominantly interested in focusing on the use of police in behaviour management strategies used by DCW's and foster parents, as youth in CAS care have acknowledged that "calling the police was the only real power available to staff' according to one study (Taylor, 2003, p. 245).</p> / Master of Social Work (MSW)