Part 1 serves as a prerequisite for parts 2 and 3. If able, please commit to engaging in all 3.
Webinar objectives are:
- Exploring the complexity of anti-black racism, and the interconnectedness of oppressions.
- Identifying layers of racism: systemic, cultural, institutional and individual.
- Creating the connections between layers of racism and the manifestations of racism in the lives of black Canadians.
- Learning how to apply this knowledge to your social work practice.
In depth:
This introduction to anti-black racism provides an overview of ABR, and why it is important knowledge for social workers. After peeling back the layers of racism (systemic, cultural, institutional and individual) there is a short case study to examine how these layers impact one of the identified manifestations of racism: employment. Senator Bernard gives suggestions for how to incorporate the knowledge learned in this seminar into a wide range of social work positions: frontline, management, policy and research.
Recent research demonstrates that a distressing number of individuals who disclose experiences of sexual violence to various helping professionals encounter secondary wounding – responses that blame, shame, or further harm the individual seeking support.
This webinar provides an introduction to the concept of secondary wounding as it applies to working with individuals who have experienced sexual violence.
The webinar will describe different types of secondary wounding, the prevalence of secondary wounding, and the possible impacts of secondary wounding on victims of sexual violence.
Drawing on the experiences of the Fredericton Sexual Assault Centre, this webinar will identify common examples of secondary wounding, and it will describe strategies social workers can employ to respond to these experiences.
The main focus of the webinar will be on providing concrete strategies and tools social workers can use to avoid contributing to secondary wounding and to support clients who may be struggling with the impacts associated with secondary wounding.
Presenter Biography:
Dr. Erin Whitmore is the Coordinator of Research & Program Evaluation at the Fredericton Sexual Assault Centre. Erin has contributed to multiple community-based research projects examining the help-seeking experiences of victims of sexual violence in New Brunswick.
She has a PhD in English from the University of New Brunswick, and she is currently completing her MSW at Dalhousie University. Her current research explores how women think about the possibilities their lives hold and the way experiences of sexual violence shape those possibilities.
The Ending or Termination phase of client/social worker relationships tends to be a fairly neglected area in social work literature, relative to beginning phases of professional relationships. There can be emotions commonly experienced, for both the worker and client. “Getting the ending right” has the potential to significantly enhance what has come before this moment in the relationship, or to detract from gains made. This is an area where the worker’s use of self, and awareness of his/her own history and impacts around endings can be especially important in creating the best possible outcomes.
This presentation will briefly explore various ending scenarios, whether contact has been brief, or longer, whether imposed by an agency or Employee Assistance Program, or a more mutual and natural ending, whether client or worker initiated, and will focus on the importance of client engagement, empowerment and ownership of the ‘fruits’ of the time spent together in endings, and/or transfers.
Learning objectives:
• Broaden understanding of potential impacts of loss, and grief, with endings or the termination of a client/worker relationship.
• Reflect on our own experiences of loss and endings and bring greater awareness here
• Offer tools to support laying the foundation, often in a first session, for well supported ending outcomes with the potential to enhance the total relationship experience
Note: webinar is no longer available on demand.
The Muriel McQueen Fergusson Centre for Family Violence Research (MMFC), the Canadian Association of Social Workers, and the New Brunswick Association of Social Workers are pleased to bring you a series of four webinars, two in English and two in French.
Title: Family Violence through a Trauma Informed Approach, January 29 – 12 noon to 1:00 pm
Presenter: Rina Arseneault, C.M., MSW, RSW, Associate Director, Muriel McQueen Fergusson Centre for Family Violence Research
Summary of Presentation: Trauma results from experiences that overwhelm a person’s capacity to cope. Understanding family violence through a trauma informed approach permits us to comprehend better some of the behaviors that individuals may develop trying to cope with the emotional, psychological, and physical pain of the violence. Traumatic experiences shape many aspects of the lives of survivors of violence. When not seen through a trauma lens, these changes can be inappropriately labelled as pathological instead of being seen as a way to adapt to the situation lived.
This presentation will define trauma-informed approach and discuss the importance of integrating knowledge about trauma into policies, processes, and practices. A trauma informed approach actively seek to avoid re-traumatization.
Learning objectives
• To deepen knowledge of how trauma impacts people’s lives.
• To enhance skills for creating appropriate and “trauma-informed” programs and services.
• To reflect on how we can bring this analysis and approach to our daily work with partners and colleagues.
Muriel McQueen Fergusson Centre for Family Violence Research
Muriel McQueen Fergusson Centre for Family Violence Research (MMFC) has a mandate to undertake and to support activities which will contribute to the elimination from our society of family violence and violence against women and children. The MMFC provides a regional and a national focus for academic research in the field of family violence and actively seeks the participation of researchers from across the country in carrying out its mandate. Knowing that education is critical to eradicating intimate partner violence, the MMFC has developed a Family Violence Issues (FVI) Certificate Program at the University of New Brunswick. In the community the MMFC has developed partnerships with provincial and national organizations to develop professional development opportunities which focus on family violence and intimate partner violence.
Rina Arseneault, C.M., MSW, RSW
Rina Arseneault has been the Associate Director of the Muriel McQueen Fergusson Centre for Family Violence Research since November 1993. She has a Masters in Social Work and is a Registered Social Worker. From 2001 to 2003, she worked in the Psychiatry Emergency Services and at the HIV/AIDS Clinic at the Ottawa Hospital.
She is recognized as an activist and educator on women issues. She has organized numerous training opportunities and workshops. Her experience includes extensive work with community - organizations, individual researchers, government agencies, the media and victims of violence.
In 1997, Rina was honoured with the NB Advisory Council on the Status of Women Recognition Award for her contribution to improving the status of women in New Brunswick.
In 2002, she received the Muriel McQueen Fergusson Foundation Award, for her work in violence against women and family violence.
In 2014, Rina was appointed to the Order of Canada. The Order of Canada, one of our country’s highest civilian honours, recognizes outstanding achievement, dedication to the community and service to the nation. She is recognized for her contributions as a researcher, activist, author and educator working to end family violence.
Synopsis: A Primer on Negligence and Documentation for Social Workers
Webinar – Wednesday, March 18, 2015
12:00-1:30pm EST
The first half of the webinar will review the basic principles of law governing a social worker’s potential civil liability in negligence. We will first define the concept of negligence and distinguish it from the concepts of errors in judgment and incompetency. The standard of care expected of social workers in assessing, counselling and supervising clients will then be examined.
The second half of the webinar will begin with a review of the general principles of law governing documentation. We will then review some general guidelines for record keeping. This portion of the webinar will end with a brief discussion of computer records, inclusion of information about third parties, and from third parties, and email communications.
Click here or see below to watch a recording of the presentation on YouTube.
negligence_documentation_-_powerpoint_slides_-_march_2015.pdf
Detailed information on the presenters, Rina Arseneault, C.M., MSW, RSW and Suzanne McKenzie-Mohr, PhD, MSW, RSW follows the below descriptions of the 3 Part Webinar Series.
Webinar 1: Developing Capacity to Respond in Intimate Partner Violence Situations
When: January 30 – 11am to 12:00 noon (Eastern Standard Time)
Presenter: Rina Arseneault, C.M., MSW, RSW, Associate Director, Muriel McQueen Fergusson Centre for Family Violence Research
Summary of Presentation Our professional and personal experiences, in our various communities, confirm every day that we exist in a world where human interaction, social structures and ideologies have a profound impact on all aspects of gender and family life. Violence, including intimate partner violence (IPV), can occur in any family, regardless of ethnicity, social class, age or cultural group. Intervening in IPV situations is one of the most difficult aspects of social work practice, and social workers are often the first persons encountered by victims. Successful interventions rely on effective practices. What are the issues? What intervention strategies should we use? And, what other resources are out there to help? This presentation will focus on the effectiveness of a trauma-informed lens alongside a gender-based analysis to enhance our interventions.
Learning objectives
- To recognize and understand the complexity of the issue.
- To enhance trauma-informed practice skills for responding to IPV
- To ensure that we, as professionals, are accountable for the role we play in intervening in situations of IPV.
Watch Webinar 1 below: Developing Capacity to Respond in Intimate Partner Violence Situations.
Webinar 2: Acting as Allies to Women Counter-Storying their experiences of Sexual Violence
When: February 25, 2015 – 11am to 12:00 noon (Eastern Standard Time)
Presenters:
Rina Arseneault, C.M., MSW, RSW, Associate Director, Muriel McQueen Fergusson Centre for Family Violence Research
Sue McKenzie-Mohr, PhD, MSW, RSW, Associate Professor, School of Social Work, St. Thomas University
Summary of presentation:
How stories inform lives “can be a gift or a danger” (Frank, 2010), and there is no more compelling a case for this assertion than the narratives surrounding women’s experiences of sexual violence. Women’s resistance to harmful master narratives of sexual violence can be crucial to their progress toward living well. In this presentation, we will explore what women are up against as they work to make meaning of their sexual violence experiences and introduce ways that social workers can support women in narrative repair. By drawing upon feminist-narrative practice principles, social workers can assist women to resist harmful societal framings of their experience and subsequently create and exercise new empowering framings. We will highlight specific strategies to act as allies to women as they counter-story their experiences in liberating ways.
Learning objectives:
- To explore the effects of dominant rape and sex scripts in women’s lives;
- To introduce and consider feminist-narrative practice principles and strategies that can support women’s efforts toward living well after experiences of sexual violence (e.g., use of metaphor to create new scripts; use of audience to bolster counter-stories)
Watch Webinar 2 below: Acting as Allies to Women Counter-Storying their experiences of Sexual Violence.
Webinar 3: Nurturing Vicarious Resilience to counteract the challenges of IPV Work in Social Workers’ Lives
When: March 27, 2015 – 11am to 12:00 noon (Eastern Standard Time)
Presenters:
Rina Arseneault, C.M., MSW, RSW, Associate Director, Muriel McQueen Fergusson Centre for Family Violence Research
Sue McKenzie-Mohr, PhD, MSW, RSW, Associate Professor, School of Social Work, St. Thomas University
Summary of presentation:
Intervening in situations of violence is stressful; the experience of hearing about violence against women, witnessing violence, and living in a culture where violence exists has an impact on a person’s life. Social workers cannot be immune from vicarious trauma and compassion fatigue. And yet, alongside the potential negative effects of this work, it can be valuable to also acknowledge ways that our work can deepen our strengths and enhance our lives. These co-existing possibilities, of being both challenged and also enriched through IPV work, are common realities for social workers. What do we know about how to counteract vicarious trauma and transform compassion fatigue? And how can we cultivate vicarious resilience and practice ‘reasonable hope’?
Learning objectives
- To recognize the potential effects of IPV work on social workers’ private and professional lives;
- To explores strategies to strengthen and support our own well-being; and
- To examine critical and collective notions of self-care that highlight work team, institutional and structural change efforts to support the transformation of vicarious trauma and compassion fatigue to resilience and growth in our work lives.
Watch Webinar 3: Nurturing Vicarious Resilience to counteract the challenges of IPV Work in Social Workers’ Lives
Resources:
CASW was pleased to invite all members of CASW Partner Organizations and individual affiliate members of CASW to participate in a National Educational Webcast that served to inform and support your practice. The PDF of the presentation is available at the bottom of this page.
Topic: Vicarious Trauma and Practical Strategies to Decrease Effect
Presenter: Pamela Jackson, MSW
Webcast Details:
Vicarious Trauma is a very real and very normal reaction to working with people who have experienced trauma. Vicarious trauma is defined as a process through which an individual’s inner experience is negatively transformed through empathic engagement with trauma material. This presentation will discuss some of the ways that we may be affected by our work, and some very real and practical strategies that we can implement to decrease this effect.
Presentation Synopsis:
This webcast will explore novel and emerging ethical issues arising out of social workers' growing use of electronic interventions and communications, digital technology, and social media. The presentation will examine ethical issues related to social workers' use of social networking sites, e-therapy, chat rooms, moderated forums, Web-based psychoeducation, selfguided Web-based intervention, video conferencing, telephone therapy, avatar therapy, expert systems, email exchanges, text messages, and client blogs. The webcast will focus on key ethical issues related to privacy, confidentiality, privileged communication, informed consent, boundaries, and documentation, among others. CASW is exceptionally thankful that Dr. Reamer has chosen to make available his depth of knowledge and expertise in these areas to the members of CASW partner organizations and individual affiliate members of CASW.
Webinar link is for members only. Please log in.
Relationships Matter for Youth 'Aging Out' of Care is a collaborative photovoice project led by Melanie Doucet, who is a former youth in care, alongside eight former youth in care between the ages of 19 and 29 from the Greater Vancouver area. Using images captured by the young co-researchers and their accompanying captions, Melanie’s project takes a closer look at meaningful supportive relationships in the lives of young people in and from care, and how those relationships can be developed and nurtured over time.
This webinar is intended to help professionals learn about and engage with:
- 8 of the 12 relationship-related themes emerging from the photography;
- 34 concrete recommendations for improving child welfare policies and practices