Celebrating Social Work Week – March 3rd to 9th 2013

Social Workers in Vancouver & British Columbia: Celebrating the Past, Present and Future 

By Tracey Young, MSW, RSW, March 4, 2013, BC Social Workers.

Ask many people what a social worker does and you will receive a variety of responses, some negative and some positive.  It is easy to understand the confusion about the profession because individual social workers provide services in a variety of jobs, and environments, and to a wide range of clients. 

Media reports often present a negative, or controversial, image of social workers, particularly those working in the area of child protection.  Social workers aren’t generally found in the spotlight because the work they undertake with individuals and families is personal, confidential and often occurs when people are in crisis. 

Social workers are employed in the public sector, in child welfare and community support services. They work in community and hospital settings in health and mental health care, and in community and non-profit agencies. An increasing trend is for social workers to be providing services in their own private practices, offering a range of expertise and services including counselling, coaching and consulting. 

Social work has a long history in Vancouver and British Columbia. Social work educators and researchers Beverley Scott, Diane Purvey, and Christopher Walmsley, have all written about the history and establishment of the profession in Vancouver and B.C. 

Early practitioners of social work had their start providing support services to children in orphanages and to disadvantaged members of society. In 1895 the Vancouver Friendly Aid Society was founded with the goal to "relieve all who may be found to be in real distress, especially women and children." 

In 1901, the Children's Protection Act of British Columbia was passed and the Children's Aid Society of Vancouver was formed to provide the work of supporting and protecting children. Later, in 1910, B.C. established the first youth courts and detention homes in response to the federal passage of the Juvenile Delinquents Act in 1908. 

In 1927, Laura Holland, recognized as B.C.'s first professional social worker, became the Superintendent of the Children's Aid Society in Vancouver. In 1940 social work courses began to be offered at the University of British Columbia (UBC) and in 1950, U.B.C. founded the School of Social Work.

 

In 1956 Deryck Thomson became the first member and president of the B.C. Association of Social Workers (BCASW). The goal of the BCASW, today based in Vancouver, was to speak with “one voice” about issues that were important to the growing profession. Over time the mandate expanded and today the BCASW works to “support members, strengthen the profession and advocate for social justice.” 

In 1969 the Social Workers Act came into force creating the Board of Registration for Social Workers (BRSW) which had the authority to regulate social workers in matters concerning the public interest. 

In 1996 the BRSW separated from the BCASW, taking on the primary mandate of protecting the public by regulating the profession. The BCASW continued on with a focus on providing advocacy for the profession, and for social justice, via its various practice committees, which include the Child Welfare and Family committee, Health Advocacy committee, the Multi-cultural and Anti-racism committee, the Indigenous Social Work committee, the Mental Health and Addiction practice committee and the Health Practice Enhancement committee. 

In November 2008, the B.C. government amended the Social Workers Act and created the B.C. College of Social Workers (BCCSW) whose primary responsibilities are to protect members of the public from harm while they are interacting with RSW’s, to act as a regulatory body for RSW’s and to establish and monitor a code of ethics and practice standards for the profession in B.C. 

On January 24, 2011 the Honourable Stephen Point, the Lieutenant Governor of British Columbia, proclaimed March 7 to 13^th 2011 Social Work Week, stating, in part, “social work enhances the worth, self-determination and well-being of individuals, families and communities through the promotion of social and economic justice and respect for diversity.” 

Over the decades the practice of social work changed a great deal from its’ grassroots start when social workers began to specialize in different areas of practice such as community development, child protection, medical and mental health care and providing private practice counselling. 

In May 2012 Maryanne Wong, graduated with a Bachelor of Social Work from the University of Victoria. She considered social work a natural fit for due to her previous involvement in social justice advocacy and community building activities with minority groups such as Chinese and LGBTQ communities. 

Wong always had an interest in being a social worker in health care and she currently works as an acute care medical social worker at two large suburban hospitals in the Lower Mainland. In this role she primarily works with elders collaborating, with inter-disciplinary colleagues, on complex patient discharges. This work includes supporting individuals and family members coping with quality of life changes related to illness and aging and assisting patient transitions through the hospital and discharges to the community. She also makes referrals for clients to financial assistance, residential care, conducts adult guardianship investigations into allegations of abuse, neglect, self-neglect and capability and assists clients in making advanced care plans for times when they will be unable to make health care decisions on their own. 

Leanne Harder is a registered social worker in Vancouver. Harder obtained her Bachelor of Social Work from the University of Victoria, via Okanagan College, and later obtained a Masters of Education, specializing in program evaluation, from St. Francis Xavier in Antigonish, Nova Scotia. 

She has worked with marginalized people in need of financial aid, child protection, provided services to people with disabilities and worked in complaints management in the B.C. government. Since leaving the public sector in 2002, Harder has worked in mental health and medical social work and conducted adoption home studies. She also has her own mediation and consulting private practice where she specializes in providing services that include conflict resolution, policy development, program evaluation, and aboriginal child welfare quality assurance and complaints management. 

In November 2012 Harder became the branch representative for the Vancouver-Sea-to-Sky branch of the B.C. Association of Social Workers (BCASW), representing over 250 members on the provincial Board. 

Harder’s career in social work has brought her a great deal of variety and it has been a privilege to “be part of people’s lives in some very difficult situations and to see them through” those times. She has “learned about herself and others and it has really changed her as a person for the better.”  

Florence Flynn, a semi-retired social worker who now resides in Vancouver, B.C. and the Interior, exemplifies the richness of social work practice over a lifetime. She obtained bachelor and master’s degrees in sociology in Manitoba and social work from McGill University in Quebec. She has criss-crossed Canada providing community development expertise, helping create opportunities for self-empowerment and voice for marginalized people through grassroots organizing with diverse people and communities. 

She has helped young people in reform schools in Ontario reunite with their families, was involved in community development work helping create opportunities for empowering marginalized women in Saskatchewan, Manitoba, collaborating with others to establish respite and child care so women could access educational opportunities. 

In the 1980’s Flynn taught in social work and human justice programs in Manitoba. She also worked for the Canadian Mental Health Association with others to create programs to support and empower individuals struggling with mental illness, assisting individuals to access employment, housing and other resources that improved their quality of life. 

Flynn worked in mental health community development in the Eastern Arctic, developing programs to decrease the high rate of youth suicide and family crisis in the region. She has also worked as a social work educator in colleges and universities in northern Canada, on the prairies and in B.C. At one time, Flynn was the only social worker providing mental health and addiction services in Williams Lake, B.C., providing services to clients across the vast rural region of the Cariboo. She has also provided private practice counselling in rural communities in B.C. 

Flynn continues to be member of the Health Advocacy Practice committee of the BCASW, sits on an Integrated Care for Seniors committee and has been involved in the Women Transforming Communities initiative in Vancouver. She is also a participant in the Vancouver Raging Grannies, a group that writes and plays politically-charged songs and wears colourful outfits to political events, using a humorous and fun approach to highlight important socio-political issues that impact communities.  

In describing her social work career, Flynn stated “in all of these jobs that I have done I think I have learned more than I have taught.” Her lifetime of community social work practice has taught her that “if more people are happy, content, fulfilled, feeling powerful, equal and good about life, and themselves, they don’t need the more expensive types of care.” 

In the fall of 2013 a big change will occur for the profession of social work in B.C. when it will be mandatory for all social workers employed in public sector health authorities to be Registered Social Workers (RSW’s) with the B.C. College of Social Workers. 

The contributions of social workers will be celebrated at events around B.C. during the week of March 3^rd to 8th, 2013 and throughout the month of March.