Social Work Commons^™

Paediatric Palliative Care Research In Canada: Development And Progress Of A New Emerging Team, Lynn Straatman, Susan Cadell, Betty Davies, Harold Siden, Rose Steele

Lyle S. Hallman Social Work Faculty Publications

Paediatric pallative care is a field distinct from adult palliative care, although there are many overlaps in language, approach and philosophy. Several features, however, distinguish paediatric palliative care. The illnesses that affect children are different from those that are most predominant in the adult population. In addition, the role and involvement of the family, while always important in palliative care generally, is heightened in paediatric palliative care. In this new and growing interdisciplinary speciality, paediatric palliative care professionals recognize that children exist within a family system, with individual members making up the components (1). These distinguishing characteristics mean that we …

Life Domain Research Report Series: School And Employment, Karen Frensch, Lirondel Hazineh, Gary Cameron, Michele Preyde

Partnerships for Children and Families Project

The Life Domain Series describes the community adaptation of children and youth graduating from residential and intensive family service children’s mental health programs in multiple life domains (education and work, social involvements, family and health). This full length report presents evidence from the first and second phases of longitudinal research about how children who were involved with residential and intensive family service mental health programs are doing in school and at work.

Life Domain Research Report Series: Family, Gary Cameron, Lirondel Hazineh, Karen Frensch, Michele Preyde

Partnerships for Children and Families Project

The Life Domain Series describes the community adaptation of children and youth graduating from residential and intensive family service children’s mental health programs in multiple life domains (education and work, social involvements, family and health). This full length report presents evidence from the first and second phases of longitudinal research about how children who were involved with residential and intensive family service mental health programs are doing in school and at work.

Life Domain Research Report Series: Youth And Parent Health And Well Being, Michele Preyde, Karen Frensch, Gary Cameron, Lirondel Hazineh

Partnerships for Children and Families Project

The Life Domain Series describes the community adaptation of children and youth graduating from residential and intensive family service children’s mental health programs in multiple life domains (education and work, social involvements, family and health). This full length report presents evidence from the first and second phases of longitudinal research about how children who were involved with residential and intensive family service mental health programs are doing in school and at work.

Life Domain Research Report Series: Social Connections And Community Conduct, Lirondel Hazineh, Karen Frensch, Michele Preyde, Gary Cameron

Partnerships for Children and Families Project

Integral to formulating a picture of youth overall well being is to understand how youth participate in social networks with peers and friends, engage in social or leisure activities, and more generally forge healthy relationships with others. Among a variety of emotional and behavioural challenges faced by children and youth involved with residential treatment or intensive family services may be their ability to negotiate relationships within social contexts (Cameron, de Boer, Frensch, & Adams, 2003).

Data was collected about youth who had been involved with children’s mental health residential treatment (RT) or intensive family service programs (IFS), designed as an …

Aging With Dementia And An Intellectual Disability: A Case Study Of Supported Empowerment In A Community Living Home, Shehenaz Manji

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

This case study explores the qualitative experience of 4 consumers with a dual disability living in a home specializing in dementia support. Drawing insights from participant observation, daily living log notes, and interviews with 4 each of family/friend caregivers, direct-care staff, and administrators, the study has 3 main goals: (i) to understand how the onset of dementia in people with an intellectual disability changes their needs, what adjustments have to be made in the support practices, and what service barriers and successes are experienced; (ii) to understand how people with dual disabilities experience living in a home specializing in dementia …

The Story Of South African Child Welfare: A History Of The Present, Jeanette Elizabeth Schmid

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Though significant transformation has occurred in post-apartheid South Africa, extensive poverty, AIDS and violence present major challenges. The capacity of families and local networks, undermined by apartheid policies, continue to be depleted, leaving children vulnerable. During the apartheid era, the child welfare sector, despite its intention of supporting children and families, utilized interventions that failed to address the needs of the majority and weakened family life. Post-apartheid, government has presented Developmental Social Welfare—with its family-centered, rights-oriented, community-based, participatory, generalist and intersectoral approach—as an indigenous correction to the previous expert-driven, pathologizing, individualistic, discriminatory and costly approaches.

Employing a Foucauldian genealogy or …

Critical Approaches To Clinical Social Work Practice: Considerations From Contemporary Relational Psychoanalytic Theory, Christopher Trevelyan

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Critical social workers now contend that an individual’s everyday living both shapes and is shaped by overarching social structures and discourses. As such, the subjectivity of the individual is considered an axis on which the existing social order can be either perpetuated or transformed. Transformations on the level of the individual are therefore argued to contribute to transformations on the levels of larger societal arrangements. For this reason, many critical social work theorists today argue that clinical social work practice with individuals is an essential component of effecting egalitarian forms of social change. Yet, critical social workers also widely acknowledge …

Living Out: A Study Exploring The Experience Of Live Out Assistants In L’Arche, Jennifer Christine Elkins

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

The purpose of this research project was to qualitatively explore the experiences of live-out assistants in two L’Arche communities in order to better understand what these staff members perceived to be the benefits and challenges of community life in L’Arche. Live-out assistants support individuals with developmental disabilities in L’Arche communities, but do not live in a L’Arche home. This study incorporates theories related to the role of core values in uniting intentional communities and organizational change. Intentional communities face an ongoing challenge of adapting to internal and external changes, while retaining core values and a common purpose. An empowerment approach …

Assessment Of Unit Scale: An Innovative Counselling Tool For Assessing The Relationships Of Couples Facing Infertility, Reina Zatylny

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

No abstract provided.

Perspectives On The Post-Degree Supervision Needs Of Ontario Social Workers, Heather Jane Hair

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

The dominant contemporary post-degree supervision literature reflects a long held belief that social workers employed in various practice settings need a combination of further education, support, and administrative guidance from someone more expert than themselves. In spite of these claims, a noticeable gap in knowledge is learning what, if anything, social workers need from supervision to help them provide effective services.

My particular interest is post-degree supervision within the social work landscape of Canada. I chose to focus this research project on the supervision needs of social workers in Ontario, the province where I have spent many years working as …

Understanding Indigenous Canadian Traditional Health And Healing, (Gus) Louis Paul Hill

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

This qualitative research study is situated within an Indigenous research methodology. The goal of the research was to develop an in-depth understanding of traditional healing from the perspectives of practitioners of traditional healing. It was important to explore the experiences of practitioners of traditional healing because there continues to be a lack of literature on this subject, as well as a significant lack of understanding and awareness about traditional healing and Indigenous Canadian people in mainstream society. The theoretical underpinnings of this research are holism and the four aspects of the self, visually represented in the Anishnaabe medicine wheel.

In-depth …

Challenges Of Volunteerism Within A Cultural Community: Case Study Of Young Hmong Adults In Kitchener-Waterloo, Melanie Heu

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Volunteering is an act of civic participation where members of a community engage in a social process of performing activities to assist in achieving a certain goal. This study looks at volunteerism in the context of a cultural voluntary organization within the Hmong community in Southern Ontario. The study presents findings of a case study conducted with young Hmong adult members about their perspectives of volunteering within a non-profit organization, which incorporates three generations of members. The study reveals intergenerational and cross-cultural challenges and discusses how these challenges impact the volunteer experiences of the participants. The study advances our knowledge …