Category: Blog

In social work practice, social workers place professional service before personal goals or advantage and strive for impartiality in their professional practice. They must refrain from imposing their personal values, views, preferences, stereotypes/assumptions on clients and seek to understand the lived experiences of those whom they serve. It is the responsibility of social workers to establish the tone of their professional relationship with clients, and others to whom they have a professional duty, and to maintain professional boundaries.

National Social Work Month is an opportunity to reflect on how we enact the values of our profession within the communities where we live and practice. This month, the Nova Scotia College of Social Workers, in partnership with the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives-Nova Scotia (CCPA-NS), released a new report titled “Creating the future we all deserve: A social policy framework for Nova Scotia.”

On Tuesday February 25 2020 the Nova Scotia government tabled what they claimed to be a balanced budget: a budget that lowered corporate taxes and reduced per capita social expenditures. The theme of this budget is “Better Together,” which promotes the idea that a collective response to our current struggles is needed. The content of the budget has incremental changes in that direction, but ultimately falls short of that promise.

Confidentiality is a cornerstone of the professional relationship. Social workers are expected to demonstrate respect for the trust and confidence placed in them by clients, communities and other professionals by protecting the privacy and respecting the client’s right to control when or whether this information will be shared with third parties.

The 2020 African Heritage Month theme, The Ties that Bind: Faith, Family and Community, recognizes the essential traits that sustain the strength, resiliency and togetherness of the African Nova Scotian community. For social workers, African Heritage Month is also an important time to reflect on the urgent and continued work that is needed to create full inclusion and belonging in Nova Scotia.

This week the Nova Scotia branch of the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives released a new report about child and family poverty in our province. Nova Scotia has reduced child poverty less than 1% from 1989 levels. If we are to alleviate the stress that poverty puts on our well-being, our economy and our political system, we must collectively shift our ideology regarding the market and the role of government.

We’re delighted to announce that we now provide optional mentorship training for members of the College who are interested in becoming candidacy mentors.

As election day quickly approaches, although there has been much talk about how the Canada Child Benefit has lifted children out of poverty elsewhere in the country, there has been little attention paid to how benefit policies unintentionally deepen poverty when children are temporarily taken into care by a child welfare agency.

The province announced this week that they plan to create a committee to conduct reviews of unexpected deaths of children under the age of 19 who have died while in provincial care.

Ethical behaviour is at the core of social work practice. It guides our actions and is part of everyday decision-making.

All social workers associated with the Nova Scotia College of Social Workers must complete five hours of professional development in social work ethics over a five year period.