Social Work Commons^™

Working Report #4: Range Of Services (Service Provider Perspectives), Lirondel Hazineh, Gary Cameron

Partnerships for Children and Families Project

This working report examines the differences in range of services across central, integrated, and school/community based sites including referrals to other services, direct support, advocacy, and collaborative efforts to provide services to families. Which models provide the most service options for families? How do service providers view the service options available to them in their work with families? How helpful are services to families?

The range of services available within agency based settings seemed the narrowest in comparison to other types of service delivery settings. Integrated service models appeared to increase the range and access to many formal services. Community …

Life Domain Research Report Series: Youth And Parent Health And Well Being (2010 Update), Michele Preyde, Karen Frensch, Gary Cameron, Lirondel Hazineh

Partnerships for Children and Families Project

Children and youth who have participated in children’s mental health services often continue to live with a variety of emotional and behavioural challenges after service involvement has ended (Cameron, de Boer, Frensch, & Adams, 2003). A key consideration in understanding the long term community adaptation of these children and youth is the ongoing management of emotional and behavioural challenges and the impact these challenges have in the daily lives of youth and their families. Several standardized measures of mental health, physical health, stress, and quality of life were used to assess parental and youth functioning in the life domain of …

Working Report #7: Helping Relationships In Child Welfare (Parent Perspectives), Lirondel Hazineh, Gary Cameron, Karen Frensch

Partnerships for Children and Families Project

This report examines the nature of first contacts in child welfare, the level of contact between families and service providers, and the quality of relationships over time across central, integrated, and accessible service delivery models.

I. First Contacts Clarity, consultation, use of power, and positive shifts in perception were central issues identified by parents when discussing their experiences of first contacts with child welfare. More parents in accessible sites had experiences with workers who were clear and provided a sense that they would be supported. Within the accessible sites a strong philosophy of collaboration emerged between worker and participant. Participants …

Working Report #5: Child Welfare Jobs (Service Provider Perspectives), Gary Cameron, Lirondel Hazineh, Karen Frensch

Partnerships for Children and Families Project

This report compares how service providers experience their employment realities across central, integrated, and accessible service models. Differences in job satisfaction, worker retention, and feelings about the work itself are examined.

Life Domain Research Report Series: Family (2010 Update), Gary Cameron, Lirondel Hazineh, Karen Frensch, Michele Preyde

Partnerships for Children and Families Project

A key consideration in understanding the long term community adaptation of children and youth involved with residential treatment or intensive family services is the role that family plays in sustaining or eroding gains made by children and youth in treatment (Frensch & Cameron, 2002). This report includes a summary of family descriptive information, the nature of family relationships, and indicators of family functioning for children and youth who have participated in children’s mental health services.

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

Working Report #2: Client And Community Relations (Service Provider Perspectives), Lirondel Hazineh, Gary Cameron

Partnerships for Children and Families Project

This report addresses two important questions: how much emphasis is placed on building positive relationships with families and communities across agency based, integrated service, and community and school based models of service delivery? And, how successful is each model at building relationships, minimizing stigma for families, and improving the image of child welfare in the community?

Educating clients and the community about child welfare services was identified as an important role for workers in some sites and not in others. While families’ fears of child protection services were a concern, some workers also expressed a fear of their clients and …

Working Report #1: Service Model Accessibility (Service Provider Perspectives), Lirondel Hazineh, Gary Cameron

Partnerships for Children and Families Project

This report examines the differences in service accessibility across central, integrated, and school/community based child welfare service delivery models including geographic proximity to families, acceptability of the setting to families, and accessibility expectations of service providers. Results suggest that accessibility characteristics of the model can make a significant difference to front-line service delivery from the perspective of front-line protection workers.

A defining feature of the community and school based child welfare models was increased accessibility for families and workers. Through making themselves more accessible, the community and school based settings had some significant service delivery advantages including more regular, varied, …

Working Report #3: Use Of Legal Measures And Formal Authority (Service Provider Perspectives), Lirondel Hazineh, Gary Cameron

Partnerships for Children and Families Project

The focus of this report is, across service delivery models, how front-line protection workers viewed their formal authority role and the extent to which they relied on legal measures in order to achieve protection goals. The analysis is guided by several overarching questions including (1) how does each model view the use of legal measures and formal authority? (2) How does each model impact service providers’ actual use of legal measures? (3) What value do workers place on the authority figure role? And (4) how effective is the use of formal authority in reaching child protection goals?

Type of program …

Life Domain Research Report Series: Social Connections And Community Conduct (2010 Update), Lirondel Hazineh, Karen Frensch, Michele Preyde, Gary Cameron

Partnerships for Children and Families Project

Understanding how youth participate in social networks with peers and friends, engage in social or leisure activities, and more generally forge healthy relationships with others are key considerations in assessing overall well being of youth. 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 were collected about youth who had been involved with children’s mental health residential treatment (RT) or intensive family service programs (IFS), designed as an alternative to …

Life Domain Research Report Series: School And Employment (2010 Update), Karen Frensch, Lirondel Hazineh, Gary Cameron, Michele Preyde

Partnerships for Children and Families Project

Earlier research by the Partnerships for Children and Families Project on the daily living realities of youth and children involved with mental health services, particularly residential treatment, revealed the ongoing and pervasive nature of difficulties youth and children experienced in their academic functioning (Cameron, de Boer, Frensch, & Adams, 2003). As the education experience is such a large part of youth and children’s lives, we sought to better document how children and youth were performing in school in the current study.

Data were collected about youth who had been involved with children’s mental health residential treatment (RT) or intensive family …

Transforming Front Line Child Welfare Practice: The Impacts Of Institutional Settings On Services, Employment Environments, Children, And Families, Non-Retrospective Technical Report: Accessible Program And Agency Based Program Parent Survey Results From Case Opening And Follow Up, Karen Frensch, Gary Cameron, Lirondel Hazineh

Partnerships for Children and Families Project

Outcomes of accessible and central service models are assessed in this non-retrospective technical report using three criteria: (1) impacts on parent, child and family functioning; (2) impacts on system functioning (e.g. child placements, court involvements); and (3) impacts on parent and community attitudes towards child protection organizations.

Retrospective Technical Report: Accessible Program Parent Survey Results From Case Opening And Follow Up (Using Retrospective Data), Karen Frensch

Partnerships for Children and Families Project

This retrospective technical report supports the summary of outcomes of accessible and central child protection service delivery as found in the Synthesis Report (Cameron, Hazineh & Frensch, 2010): Transforming Front-Line Child Welfare Practice: The Impacts of Institutional Settings on Services, Employment Environments, Children, and Families. The focus of this and other working reports is on the inclusion of all information relevant to the specific topic of investigation. The intent of working reports is to inform the synthesis report and include more information than what appears in the synthesis report. Less emphasis, however, is placed in the working reports on style …

Fathers And Child Welfare: Fathers' Service Experiences With The Child Welfare System, Nick Coady

Partnerships for Children and Families Project

This research report provides an overview of the findings about 18 men’s experiences of service involvement with a Children’s Aid Society in Southern Ontario. The data reported here are part of a larger study that also focused on these men’s daily living realities. Themes discussed in this report include positive aspects of men’s child welfare involvement such as worker characteristics men appreciated, as well as, negative aspects of services including formulaic interventions and anti-male biases. Service implications are discussed. This document is intended as both a standalone document and a companion report to the Father's Life Experiences report. This report …

Fathers And Child Welfare: Stories Of Men’S Everyday Lives And Service Experiences, Gary Cameron

Partnerships for Children and Families Project

This volume of stories from fathers involved with child welfare services acts as both a stand-alone document and a companion document to the research reports on father’s life experiences and child welfare service experiences. This volume is intended for multiple audiences including child welfare service providers, community organizations working with men, students and instructors interested in men’s issues, and fathers. This volume of stories may be useful for teaching purposes, service provision decisions, and general interest.

Mothers And Child Welfare: Stories Of Women’S Everyday Lives And Service Experiences (Story Volume), Gary Cameron

Partnerships for Children and Families Project

This volume of stories from mothers involved with child welfare services acts as both a stand-alone document and a companion document to the research report on mothers’ experiences of child welfare services entitled Stories of Mothers and Child Welfare. This volume is intended for multiple audiences including child welfare service providers, community organizations working with women, students and instructors interested in women’s issues, and mothers. This volume of stories may be useful for teaching purposes, service provision decisions, and general interest.

Handbook On Sensitive Practice For Health Care Practitioners: Lessons From Adult Survivors Of Childhood Sexual Abuse, Candice L. Schachter, Carol A. Stalker, Eli Teram, Gerri C. Lasiuk, Alanna Danilkewich

Lyle S. Hallman Social Work Faculty Publications

This handbook is the culmination of a multiphase, multidisciplinary research project that used grounded theory and participatory action research to illuminate ways that healthcare providers can work sensitively (in a trauma-informed way) with adult survivors of childhood sexual abuse.

The research identified nine Principles of Sensitive Practice: respect, rapport, taking time, sharing information and control, respecting boundaries, fostering mutual learning, understanding non-linear healing and demonstrating an understanding of trauma to patients. Specific guidelines were developed for a wide variety of issues pertinent to clinical practice such as, removal of clothing, touch, responding to disclosures of abuse, managing triggers among others. …

The Experiences Of Minority Immigrant Families Receiving Child Welfare Services: Seeking To Understand How To Reduce Risk And Increase Protective Factors, Sarah Maiter, Carol A. Stalker, Ramona Alaggia

Lyle S. Hallman Social Work Faculty Publications

Wide recognition that families in the child welfare system experience multiple stressors has resulted in the development of a range of prevention and intervention strategies at individual, family, and policy levels.1 This article reports on a research study with minority immigrant families. The aim was to understand stressors they perceived as contributing to child welfare interventions, and services they found helpful or unhelpful. Using the conservation of resource (COR) theory, the findings highlight the erosion of resources that increases their vulnerability. Themes that emerged were: loneliness, betrayal, hopelessness, and financial and language struggles. Application of the COR theory combined with …

Getting The Bug: Exploring Running Group Therapy For Youth With Affective Disorders, Jamie Lee Bell

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Mental health problems in adolescents place them on a trajectory for ongoing difficulties into adulthood. Treating youth with affective disorders using conventional interventions such as medication and talk therapy can be problematic. Important questions have been raised about the efficacy and safety of medications and some youths’ willingness to engage in counseling. There is, therefore, a need for constant attention to innovative and youth focused treatment options.

Since 2006, Credit Valley Hospital in Mississauga, Ontario, Canada has offered youth diagnosed primarily with depression and anxiety an opportunity to address their mental illness with the alternative treatment of running. The purpose …

Exploring The Nature Of Collaboration Between Organizations Assisting Persons Experiencing Poverty In The Region Of Waterloo, Ontario, Morgan E. Braganza

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

The current study was designed to examine the experiences of organizations assisting individuals who are economically vulnerable in Waterloo Region through interorganizational collaboration. Several questions were explored in order to gain a deeper understanding of the definition of collaboration, for whom collaboration is useful, how often and with whom organizations collaborate, techniques used during collaboration, and whether collaboration should be increased and improved. Twenty Executive Directors from organizations most strongly involved in the assistance of those experiencing poverty were asked to participate in face-to-face interviews where they were asked questions based on the above mentioned questions. Qualitative analysis of the …

Exploring A Sense Of Canadianess: Canadian Muslims In Kitchener-Waterloo (Ontario), Soha Elsayed

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Despite the fact that Muslims have been part of Canada’s population for decades, there is a current lack of literature pertaining specifically to them. This qualitative study explores how Muslim Canadians living in Kitchener-Waterloo make sense of their Canadianess. I have selected two dimensions of citizenship#8212;rights-based and sense-of-belonging#8212;in which the former is categorized as the objective dimension and the latter as the subjective dimension. In this respect, subjectivity pertains to how people make sense of and understand their citizenship. This study used the interpretive critical approach; interpretive strategies were employed to unravel the deeper meanings the participants made of their …

Including Spirituality: A Means To Cope With Cancer And Recommendations For Health Care Professionals, Lisa Green

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Although psychosocial oncology is gaining in popularity as more research is conducted to support its inclusion in health care, there is still a lack of incorporation of spirituality in health care. The purpose of this study is to answer the following research questions: 1) How do participants use spirituality to aid in their healing? 2) How would participants like their health care professionals, specifically social workers, to incorporate spirituality into their formal care?

A qualitative, phenomenological methodology was selected for this investigation in an effort to gain an understanding of the lived experiences of people with cancer. Semi-structured interviews were …

Secondary Traumatic Stress: The Hidden Trauma In Child And Youth Counsellors, Michelle Linda Bloom

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

The current research study was conducted to establish evidence based research identifying Secondary Traumatic Stress (STS) in Child and Youth Counsellors (CYCs). 161 CYCs participated in an online survey responding to both demographic questions and Bride’s (1999) Secondary Traumatic Stress Scale (STSS). Data analysis included both descriptive and inferential testing. Scoring of the STSS revealed that 66.1% of the CYCs sampled experienced some level of STS. The overall mean score is 33.65 suggesting that CYCs experienced a mild level of STS. An independent group t-test indicated that CYC’s who were exposed to children and youth’s traumatic experience 1 to 3 …

Exploring The Reintegration Process For Child Soldiers: A Case Study Of Young Women And Their Children In Northern Uganda, Allison N. Martin

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Child soldiering has occurred throughout history in the never-ending battle over land, resources and human rights. The earliest mention of minors in war comes from antiquity however it was not until the 1970s that the first international convention came into effect in an attempt to limit the participation of children in armed conflict (Wikipedia, 2009b). Unfortunately, children remain active in armed conflicts around the world as combatants, porters, spies, messengers, sex slaves and human shields. Human Rights Watch (2007) estimates that 200,000 to 300,000 children are currently serving in rebel and government forces in over 20 countries around the world. …

Non-Biological Caregivers’ Experiences Of Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (Fasd) Support Groups, Sharon Porty

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Caregivers of children with Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) are an extremely valuable resource, and supporting a stable and nurturing home environment may be the most achievable intervention to improve the child’s prognosis. Very little research has been done to explore effective interventions that focus on the FASD caregiver, rather than the child, for the purposes of preventing caregiver burnout and placement breakdown. The central purpose of this study is to explore non-biological parent caregivers’ experiences of FASD caregiver support groups in order to capture a better understanding of the value of this resource as one part of a continuum …

A Systems Theory Examination Of Factors Related To Inclusive Attitudes Towards Newcomers And Racial Minorities, Shannon A. Veurink

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between certain social aspects of education and community experiences and how they relate to inclusive attitudes towards ethnic and racial minorities. A self-report, internet hosted survey was administered (N=672) in order to assess participants’ Attitudese Towards Immigration and Tolerance, as well as their educational and community-based experiences. Correlation and regression testing was completed to examine the relationships between education and community system experiences and inclusiveness. The findings of this study support the notio that experiences occurring within various social systems relate differently with inclusive attitudes. Implications and future research directions …

Voices Of Anorexia Uncovered: The Healing Journey Unveiled, Elisha Van Harte

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Eating disorders have the highest mortality rate of any psychiatric illness. The current rate of anorexia nervosa is 1% in North America, representing approximately three million cases. Consequently, this illness has attracted a growing body of research and treatment. Current research in the field has focused primarily on the etiology of the illness. Furthermore, outcome studies are primarily quantitative in nature and have indicated that there is no treatment modality that consistently results in longitudinal recovery. What appears to be absent from the literature is the exploration of the recovery process from the perspective of those who have recovered. The …

The Sexual Health Education Experiences And Needs Of Immigrant Women In Kitchener-Waterloo, Stefani Burosch

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

In Canada, the sexual health education needs of individuals beyond their adolescent years are often overlooked. For immigrant women, silences around issues of adult sexual health are compounded by the perception of mystery and taboos surrounding minority women and sexuality. In exploring the experiences and needs of adult immigrant women related to sexuality and sexual health education in Kitchener-Waterloo—two mid-size cities located within the Waterloo Region in southern Ontario—this study sought to create space for dialogue and to bridge the perceived cultural divide on issues of sexual health that often arises between individuals from different cultural backgrounds.

Using a qualitative …

Assessing Tangible Support Efforts In English Canadian Christian Church Communities, Dana M. Friesen

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

This thesis was inspired by one family’s need for support and how it came to be expressed and negotiated within their faith community. The purpose of this study was to survey English-speaking, Christian congregations across Canada in order to discover the range of tangible social supports available to congregants. Tangible supports were defined as practical (i.e. acts of service), material, and social/emotional support. An important component in this study was to identify strengths and gaps in the development and mobilization of congregational supports, as expressed by church leaders. Another important aspect included the exploration of church leaders’ and their congregations’ …

Personal Growth In Couples Caring For A Child With A Life-Threatening Illness, Kimberly Kennedy

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Little is known about the potential for positive outcomes in couples who have a child with a life-threatening illness. The current study was a secondary analysis of demographics and personal growth data of 34 couples actively caring for children with various life-threatening conditions. There were three overarching goals in this research: (a) to examine differences in Posttraumatic Growth Inventory scores (PTGI) of mothers and fathers, (b) to examine the relationship between demographic variables and PTGI scores of mothers and fathers, and (c) to measure level of congruency in couple-dyad scores and test if partners’ growth scores are predictive of one …

The Paradox Of Exclusion Within Equity: Interrogating Discourse At The Canadian Human Rights Tribunal, Delores V. Mullings

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Employment discrimination has been a challenge in Canada for many groups and for government agencies who propose to adhere to a human rights agenda. To address this concern, the federal government initiated various anti-discriminatory policies and programs to counteract employment discrimination for four designated groups: Aboriginal people, “visible minorities,” women, and people with disabilities. The Employment Equity Act and the Canadian Human Rights Act were the legislation, and the Canadian Human Rights Commission and the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal the institutions designed to deal with employment discrimination for federal employees. When employees file a claim, it is initially processed at …