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 13th
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 3rd to 8th,
2013 and throughout the month of March.
