Social Work Commons^™

Constructed Identity, Subjective Identity And Inter-Subjective Transformation: An Exploration By Way Of Motherhood And Canadian Maternity Benefits, Patricia Van Katwyk

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

When identity is conceptualized as a fluid and ongoing process that is mutually influenced by subjective and constructed experience, an interplay can occur that engenders and signifies collective life. With an acknowledgement of motherhood as a politically and emotionally charged identity experience, and asserting the capacity of social policy to sustain a constructed ideology, this paper explores a conversation that occurred between 28 mothers in Canada. The site of this conversation was an on-line journal (blog). Using a participatory narrative action method of research, the mothers participated as co-researchers, conducting a narrative analysis of one another’s narratives and a policy …

Institutional Analysis Of Integrated Treatment For Co-Occurring Mental Health, Substance Use And Gambling Problems In Ontario: A Case Study, Gabriela Novotná

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

This dissertation explores the institutionalized response of the mental health and addiction sectors in Ontario to the pervasive demand for integrated services for people with concurrent disorders. Building on neo-institutional theory, I argue that despite the fact that different stakeholders on multiple levels—provincial governments, service providers, and clients—have called for the integration of treatment for concurrent disorders, this integrated treatment is implemented as a rationalized myth and adopted only ceremonially.

This is demonstrated through a case study of two treatment programs that provide services to populations with concurrent mental health and substance use problems and gambling problems. Both programs are …

Exploring The Experience Of University Students Coping With Acquired Or Traumatic Brain Injury, Halina Kay Lin Haag

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Mild to moderate brain injury (MBI) can be a complex condition resulting in diffuse impairments that require flexible and creative supportive interventions for university students living with MBI. This study sought to increase awareness and understanding of MBI, enrich the body of lived experience research, amplify the voices of the participants and create a catalyst for change. The participants’ lived experience of the role of the negative social perception of impairment within an organizational context and the individual’s internalization of this social construct into chronic shame are critically examined. The study utilizes a multimethod approach that is influenced by the …

Exploring Newcomer Settlement And Integration Supports In Brantford, And Brant-Haldimand-Norfolk Counties: Community-Based Participatory Research, Bharati Sethi

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Much of the literature on recent immigrants focuses on a needs analysis from a deficit model where primarily formal services and programs related to employment issues are analyzed from a post-positivist or interpretivist framework. Using a strength-based approach this study examined other settlement issues including employment that are vital to the long-term viability of newcomers and the host society such as access to education, training (language and/or vocational), health care, and social network. Using Community Based Participatory Research (CBPR) philosophical framework and methodology, data were generated from various sources—quantitative and qualitative text in the survey questionnaire (service providers and newcomers), …

Keeping Kids Safe In Custody: Youths’ Perception Of Safety While Incarcerated In Canada, Judy Finlay

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Keeping Kids Safe (KKS) is a study that presents an integrated model to demonstrate that the interaction between the predisposition of the youth and the institutional environment acts to promote or deter safety among incarcerated youth. The study illustrates that the peer subculture that produces a spectrum of violence within the institution is dependent on both the extra-custody attributes of the youth that affect his attitudes, beliefs and behaviours and on the critical influence of institutional attributes like program resources, staff/youth interactions and practices of social control. A predisposition that includes child maltreatment and exposure to domestic violence was used …

Moving Beyond The Surface: Ethics Education In Canadian Social Work Bachelor Programs, Susan Lynn Hardie

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

This thesis is an exploratory analysis of: “How Canadian schools offering bachelor programs attend to social work ethics education in the 21st century?” A concurrent triangulation mixed method research design was chosen to draw upon the strengths of quantitative and qualitative analysis, and minimize the limitations of each method. Deans and Directors at the thirty-two Faculties, Schools and Departments of Social Work with bachelor social work programs in Canada were contacted and requested to identify an expert in social work ethics education to partake in this research. Fifty-three (53%) of the schools had educators either complete the survey and/or engage …

Mothers’ Experiences Of The Care Provided To Their Child With A Life-Limiting Illness, Carolyn Miguelle Ouellet

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

The purpose of this study was to examine mothers’ experiences of the care provided to their child with a life-limiting illness. This study explored mothers’ experiences in finding, accessing, and providing care for their children and their perceptions of gaps, barriers, and strengths in care for their children. As a secondary focus, this study looked at how these mothers understand pediatric palliative care. A qualitative descriptive design was used to explore the experiences of six mothers caring for children with life-limiting illnesses in urban areas of Ontario and Quebec. Mothers shared their experiences through in-person interviews.

Findings revealed that the …

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: 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: 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: 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 …

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.

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 …

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 …

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 …

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.

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 …

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 …

A Workplace Study: Follow-Up Research Report, Deena Mandell, Carol A. Stalker, Cheryl Harvey, Margriet Wright, Karen Frensch

Partnerships for Children and Families Project

In response to the Partnerships for Children and Families Project's study of Canadian child welfare workers that unexpectedly found participants scoring high on a measure of emotional exhaustion (burnout), and at the same time, high on overall job satisfaction, a qualitative study of 25 child welfare workers' experience of emotional exhaustion and job satisfaction was undertaken. This analysis was guided by several key questions including what are the personal qualities, workplace and organizational context, and coping skills that employees identify as being a part of their experiences of emotional exhaustion and job satisfaction?

Ida Accessibility: Learning More About Whether Individual Development Accounts Can Work For Canada’S Poor, Molly Elliott

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Individual Development Accounts (IDAs) or matched saving accounts are programs designed to facilitate the building of capital and assets in low-income households. Based on the model of asset-based welfare policy, these programs propose to combat poverty through inclusion of the poor in asset building opportunities, which traditionally have been available to only middle and upper income households. Described as an anti-poverty strategy, Individual Development Accounts are growing in international popularity with asset-based policies already being included in Canadian income assistance programs. In order to better understand what some of the barriers might be to this anti-poverty program structure, this thesis …

Assessing The Need For And Impact Of An Emotions Regulation Booster Program For Elementary School Aged Children, Angela Hammond

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

K-W Counselling Services has offered emotions management programs to children ages 6-15 in the Waterloo region for the last 10 years. This mixed methods study was conducted in two phases. Phase One explored whether the parents of children who had participated in S.T.E.A.M. or Temper Taming groups three years prior felt there was a need for a “booster program” to help refresh their child’s memory about the concepts. Twenty-two parents were interviewed, two of whom had two children in the programs. This meant that feedback was offered in relation to twenty four children participants. The parents were asked with open …

The Relationship Between Homelessness And Women’S Health, Christine Paramonczyk

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Women are increasingly experiencing poverty in Canada (Townson, 2000). This study seeks to gain an understanding of how women experience an extreme form of poverty—homelessness—within Kitchener, a mid-sized city located within the Waterloo region in southern Ontario, and the relationship of this experience to health.

Employing social determinants of health (SDOH) theory, this study examines the relationship between homelessness in Kitchener and one focus group was held.

This study indicates that homelessness had an all-encompassing influence on women’s health. Women experienced both impeding and promoting factors influecing their access to housing, healthy food, employment, health care, income, and social support, …

An Exploration Of Immigrant Women’S Experiences With Social Service Agencies In The Region Of Waterloo, Gillian Wells

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

The pupose of this qualitative research project is to explore the experiences of immigrant women as they relate to their interactions with social service agencies, in an effort to understand how these women give meaning to their experiences and how those experiences impact their future behaviour. It is hoped that this study will provide an increased understanding of immigrant women’s interactions with service agencies for the benefit of social service providers aiming to apply a best practice approach in their service to newcomers.

This qualitative study consists of semi-structure interviews with 25 women representing 21 different countries. This research was …

“To Thine Own Self Be True”: A Narrative Analysis Of Social Group Disengagement And Associated Identity Implications, Catherine De Boer

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore the experiences of individuals who had voluntarily disengaged from social groups that had once been central to their self-understandings. Theoretical underpinnings of the study proceeded from the distinction made by social psychologists between personal identity, self-definitions derived from an understanding of one’s self as unique, and social identity, self-definitions derived from an understanding and identification of one’s self as a member of social groups. The overarching aims were to: 1) determine if a disengagement process exists, and if so, to discover its defining characteristics and phenomenological aspects; 2) describe the shifts …

Who Has Seen What When? Pornography’S Contribution To The Social Construction Of Sexuality During Childhood And Adolescence, Bente Skau

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Pornography has a ubiquitous place in contemporary Canadian Society. With or without intention, children and youth are frequently exposed to pornographic images and depictions. There is little research detailing the types of exposure that occur and the impact of said exposure on this population. Through a detailed survey administered to approximately 450 first-year college and university students in Ontario, this retrospective and exploratory study answers the query, “when and to what type of pronography are children and young adults exposed and how does this exposure relate to subsequent sexual behaviours and attitudes?” Following a deatiled escription of pornography exposure, indicating …

An Exploration Of Bullying As Experienced By Sudanese Refugee Youths, Aislinn Clancy

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

The purpose of this research is to explore the experience of bullying among Sudanese refugee youths living in Kitchener-Waterloo. Voices in the literature assert that bullying is experienced differently by different social groups. This study proposes to understand the phenomenon of bullying from the unique perspectives of Sudanese refugee youths. As a White middle-class Canadian-born woman, I consider myself a partial outsider to this group. As a partial outsider, I use reflexive strategies to constantly reflect on the impact of my social location on the participants and on the whole research process. To understand how Sudanese youths experienced bullying, I …

A Qualitative Study Of Experiences Of Aboriginal Caregivers Of Children With Developmental Disabilities, Joyce Ellen Clouston

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

A qualitative study of 20 caregivers of Aboriginal children with developmental disabilities revealed that caregivers continue to be guided by values rooted in traditional Aboriginal societies where all children were considered gifts of the Creator. The lives of vulnerable children had purpose, they were treated with respect, and the self-growth of the caregiver was connected to care of the child. The needs of young families were supported within a web of relationships in family and community. Disruptions to traditional family relationships began in the colonial era with the negation of Aboriginal culture and spirituality, and continue in many communities in …

Awakening Social Work To The Human/Nature Relationship: A Proposed University Education Framework, Seth M. Koplowitz

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

The social work profession has traditionally concerned itself with a wide variety of issues pertaining to human health and well-being. However, the importance of the human/nature relationship has long been ignored, despite the field’s purported dual commitment to both ‘person’ and ‘environment.’ While recent literature challenges this tendency, minimal attention focuses on the role of social work university education in making a paradigm shift toward natural-environmental concerns. This thesis is a theoretical examination of how existing social work university education could be re-envisioned to more fully integrate natural-environmental values and issues into its core curriculum and overarching educational philosophy. Several …