Stories of Celebrations Across Canada

Social Work Week Celebration at the University of Alberta Hospital


This year’s Social Work Week celebration at the University of Alberta/Stollery Children’s Hospital and the Mazankowski Heart Institute was sponsored by the University of Alberta and Stollery Children’s Hospital’s management. We also received gift prizes from the Alberta College of Social Workers (ACSW) and the Canadian Association of Social Workers (CASW).

Our Social work week celebration started with a display of tent cards on all of the cafeteria tables informing patrons of Social work week activities, as well as to create an opportunity for discussion of Social workers roles within the hospital. We also had a display booth within the Hospital’s main foyer showcasing various Social work teams and activities, as well as to create an opportunity for visitors, staff and volunteers of the hospital to know about the important services that Social workers provide in the hospital.  In addition to the tent cards and booth, we invited more than ten community organizations for a two-day community fair. The purpose of the community fair was to bridge the gap between Social workers in the hospital and the community, as partners in patient care.

As part of our Social work week celebration, we had three professional development seminars in two days. The first professional development seminar was led by Prof. Avery Calhoun and her colleagues (Prof. Rick Enns and David Nicholas) from the University of Calgary School of Social Work – Edmonton Division. Their presentation “Academic as Allies” focused on bridging the gap between the university and community-based social work professionals to engage in empirically evidenced-based research, knowledge and skills. The presentation also highlighted the work that the Edmonton Division Faculty members are doing in a variety of community projects and called on medical Social work practitioners to do the same.

Following the presentation from the University of Calgary Faculty, we had two other presentations on the following day (March 7), “The biology and classification of Hoarding and the bio-psycho-social treatment of hoarding” led by Dr. Stephanie Magnan and Dr. Saleem Al-Nuaimi of the faculty of psychiatry, the University of Alberta. Their presentation was followed by a presentation (“Hoarding: Lessons from learned from practice”) led by Doneka Simmons and Tracee Whitford of the Seniors Association of Edmonton (SAGE).  These two presentations were overwhelmingly popular with the Social workers here at the hospital as well as other Social workers within the province. It was also relayed live around the province via tele-health.

In addition to all of the above events, we had a tea in honor of all the Social workers where we invited all of the unit and patient care managers and the three hospitals’ site directors.  To climax the week’s activities and celebration, we had a potluck luncheon for all of the Social workers where some of our Social workers won various draw prizes. All Social workers who attended the luncheon also received a tote bag donated by CASW.