We are partnering with a group of researchers based at Dalhousie University for a mental health research project. The purpose of this study is to compile a mental health advocacy paper for NSCSW.
Dalhousie is conducting a community consultation through an opinion survey and interviews with individual mental health stakeholders on barriers and access to mental health services. Information related to the social determinants of health and information on the impact of gender, race, class, ability, sexual orientation, education and migration on mental health and well-being will also be examined.
The research will seek to identify feasible and inclusive strategies, distinctive to the social work profession, for Nova Scotian social workers to approach mental health services in the province. It will seek to describe how we as a profession can provide services that are rooted in an expanded critical clinical approach, to supplement and enrich existing medical-based mental health services.
This social work project intends to produce a health care advocacy paper that offers recommendations in the areas of public education, particularly around stigma and diversity, mental health policy, programs and services, training, practice, and the centring of social work in mental health services, with attention to co-existing issues of addiction and trauma.
On behalf of the Dalhousie research team, we are seeking to recruit mental health social workers and mental health service supervisors/administrators to participate in this critical research.
If you require further information on this project or would like to participate, please contact Dr. Catrina Brown at catrina.brown@dal.ca.
Survey link for service providers/supervisors
Please open this link if you wish to participate in the survey. You can stop the survey at any time. It is completely anonymous. Your name will not be attached. At the end of the survey, please click the finish link to confirm your responses and submit them to the researchers.
surveys.dal.ca/opinio/s?s=50528
If you are also interested in participating in an interview, or you require further information on this project, please contact Dr. Catrina Brown at catrina.brown@dal.ca.
What about addictions???
Great question, Blair! The researchers at the Dalhousie School of Social Work intend for their work to include attention to addictions and social determinants of health. If you feel this is something you can speak to from your practice experience, I encourage you to get in touch with them, as they are seeking participants for interviews and focus groups in addition to the online survey linked above.
Hi Thank You…I did an interview & the person conducting it was very good..Getting back to addictions..it is a predictable outcome of the semi merger of mental health & addictions that that entire area seems to have been reduced to just another “disorder” in the new Bible of the DSM…Residential Therapeutic 21//28 day Programs are now a dim memory & Medical Detox/Withdrawal Management Beds have been drastically cut & some detox centers closed… Much has been made of the reduction of wait times for out patient opiod treatment programs..all very nice except it has been a major problem in NS ..depending on where you live for 15-19 years & now recently there was some political & organizational will to finance it….Social Determinants of Health are really old Social Work ,Public Health Nurse & old scholl Family Doctor knowledge…If you have $$$ you can still go to private 28 day programs & there are even private pay medical detox centers now ($ 4—500 day)…