In 2018, the Ontario College of Social Workers and Social Service Workers (OCSWSSW) implemented an additional screening question for prospective social workers registering with the College, requiring applicants to indicate if there is any sign they have a physical or mental condition or disorder that “could affect [their] ability to practice social work in a safe manner.” This Health Declaration policy was created within a broader context of increasing surveillance and punishment of social workers conducted by the College, on the grounds that fitness to practice social work is a bio-moral-medical quintessence that some possess and others lack, and which social work elites must identify in order to “protect the public.” This thesis undertakes a critical discourse analysis of publicly available documents provided by the College. I draw from critical disability studies, anti-colonial scholarship, and postmodern work to establish the College as an organ of the Canadian settler colonial project. I use the term “safe-ability” – distilling the Health Declaration’s language and that of their other rules, communications, and decisions – calling attention to ideological fiction operating within ableist/sanist and colonial logics, the basis of its authority to punish social workers and “protect” the public. The College uses terms like unfit, incapacity, and incompetence to conjure threat of risk throughout their documentation, showing significant investment in broadcasting lies about disabled people. College disciplinary documents show that social workers have been found to be unfit on the basis of statements about their health, inherent abilities, mental/physical examinations, and even charges of unfit conduct outside the scope of their duties as social workers. Legal and medical discourse is invoked to give the appearance of objectivity and to authorize power. I show that the OCSWSSW perpetrates abuses under cover of the fictitious entity “safe-ability” – a colonist ableist/sanist fabrication used to justify and valorize such professionalizing institutions that ought to be abolished. / Thesis / Master of Social Work (MSW)

This autoethnography uses narrative inquiry within an anticolonial theoretical framework. As a White Italian male settler living on Turtle Island, I bring survivor experience to psychiatric definitions of “psychosis,” or what I call psychosic narrative, and to broader literatures for the purpose of decolonizing “mental” relations. Using reflexive critiques, including feminist antiracism, I question my own privileges as I consider the possibilities of Mad culture to disturb authorizations of practices like forced electroshock and drugging. Using journals, salient themes of experience are identified, including “delusion,” “psychosis,” “madness,” and “illness,” especially as they appear in texts about politics, culture, and theory. A temporally rigorous narrative approach to my readings allows for a self-reflexive writing on such themes in relation with antiracist anticolonial resistance. Thus a White psychiatric survivor resistance to psychiatry and its social (local) history is related to the problematic of global Western neoliberal heteropatriarchy in psychological institutional texts. Survivor testimonies bring critical madness and disability theories as they pertain to racialization and constructions of sex/uality and gender. Rather than present a comprehensive analysis, this narrative inquiry is generated from the process of research as it was experienced in order to represent and question its epistemological grounds.

This autoethnography uses narrative inquiry within an anticolonial theoretical framework. As a White Italian male settler living on Turtle Island, I bring survivor experience to psychiatric definitions of “psychosis,” or what I call psychosic narrative, and to broader literatures for the purpose of decolonizing “mental” relations. Using reflexive critiques, including feminist antiracism, I question my own privileges as I consider the possibilities of Mad culture to disturb authorizations of practices like forced electroshock and drugging. Using journals, salient themes of experience are identified, including “delusion,” “psychosis,” “madness,” and “illness,” especially as they appear in texts about politics, culture, and theory. A temporally rigorous narrative approach to my readings allows for a self-reflexive writing on such themes in relation with antiracist anticolonial resistance. Thus a White psychiatric survivor resistance to psychiatry and its social (local) history is related to the problematic of global Western neoliberal heteropatriarchy in psychological institutional texts. Survivor testimonies bring critical madness and disability theories as they pertain to racialization and constructions of sex/uality and gender. Rather than present a comprehensive analysis, this narrative inquiry is generated from the process of research as it was experienced in order to represent and question its epistemological grounds.

Abstract This dissertation reports on the findings of a study that set out to examine how discourses of ableism, racism and colonialism shape Canadian immigration policies, and settlement practices. This research examined how these discourses contribute to constructing immigration applicants with disabilities as an inadmissible social group. With a focus directed to the application process as a key knowledge gap in the intersection of disability and immigration, I launched this study with the aim of answering the following main research question: “How do discourses of ableism, racism and colonialism construct immigration applicants with disabilities? Through a critical discourse analysis study of official Citizenship and Immigration documents as well as episodic interviews with 23 participants (immigrants with disabilities, family members, and service providers), findings demonstrate the importance of understanding immigration as a continuum from pre-application to settlement. I argue that the immigration process is shaped and defined by central discourses that construct immigration as an opportunity for a better life through which ableist, racist and colonial discourses are reflected and reinforced. Social workers and other helping professionals involved in settlement services for immigrants with disabilities play significant roles in how discourses of opportunity are actualized and materialized. The dissertation ends with implications for critical research, theory and social work practice. / Thesis / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) / Lay Abstract This study looked at the ways in which immigration and disability intersect and what this means for social work practice, policy and research. Through a Critical Discourse Analysis of official immigration documents and interviews with immigrants with disabilities, family members and service providers, the study examined the pre-application and application stages of immigration, as well as settlement issues. The main finding of the study is that discourses of opportunity are central in shaping these stages, while reinforcing ableism, racism and colonialism. Implications for future research, policy and practice are laid out to push for a social work role that moves beyond applying oppressive policies and practices to being more in line with principles of social justice.

The aim of this study is to explore the research question “Can the Research through Design (RtD) critical note-taking guidelines be utilized in the pre-production and design of a video game trailer to combat sanism?”. To achieve this, the research involved gathering previous studies on representing mental illness, as well as examining fictional and non-fictional experiences of depression depicted in games, journals, and books. These sources serve as anchors, as described by Sadokierski (2019), while also utilizing parts of Sadokierski’s critical journaling guidelines for note-taking. Drawing inspiration from the gathered material, the study focuses on designing the character, game and narrative before proceeding to create a rough draft. The findings from the trailer’s design process indicate that Sanism can be addressed by challenging negative stereotypes and avoiding their perpetuation. This study demonstrates an example of how actively avoiding stereotypes, drawing inspiration from first-hand experiences, and incorporating metaphors may combat Sanism and foster a more positive outlook on mental illness through a video game trailer. Thus, while we perceived that the utilization of the critical note-taking guidelines in the pre-production and design of the trailer were useful, the results of the study were not conclusive since it requires testing and evaluation in future studies. Therefore, it is recommended that further research be conducted in order to explore to what extent utilizing the RtD critical note-taking guidelines, in the design process, may aid in avoiding the perpetuation of stereotypes and reduction of stereotyping by actively challenging them.