All Webinars

Disasters are a social work issue, and practitioners, researchers, students, and academics should not think otherwise. We live in an increasingly fragile world, and much of this fragility can be laid at the door of an indifferent humanity whose relationship with Mother Earth has been one of exploitation which has often left poor and marginalised people in both the Global South and the Global North behind.

Join The Honourable Senator Wanda Thomas Bernard and Dr. Lena Dominelli for a spirited conversation that will challenge social workers and social work educators to rise above indifference and restore healthy relationships between peoples, plants, animals, and our beautiful planet.

Senator Bernard and Dr. Dominelli will draw upon green social work perspectives and argue for transdisciplinary approaches to be used to address disaster challenges which are part of the climate crisis.

For those who wish to intervene by adopting a duty of care for our physical environment and all it contains, examples will be shared on how to do this. Canada’s First Nations and Inuit peoples, for example, have much to offer in this regard if we listen to their teachings and enact them. We can follow the teachings of indigenous peoples and their guidance to act as custodians of the Earth and leave it as sustainable in perpetuity.

Value 2: Promoting Social Justice

This webinar focuses on the principles of social justice that are the underpinnings of the social work profession. The webinar discusses social workers’ ethical responsibilities to uphold the rights of service users to have equitable access to services and opportunities, to have meaningful participation in services including receiving services in their preferred language and to be free of oppression, racism, and discrimination. The webinar highlights social workers’ responsibility to support the stewardship and protection of the environment, to understand that climate change disproportionately impacts vulnerable people, and to advocate for policies and programs that support the common good of all people.

Valeur 2 : Promouvoir la justice sociale

Ce webinaire se concentre sur les principes de justice sociale, essentiels en travail social. Il explore les responsabilités éthiques des travailleuses et travailleurs sociaux, notamment la défense d’un accès équitable aux services et aux opportunités. Les participants apprendront l’importance d’une participation significative des utilisateurs aux services, y compris le droit de recevoir des services dans leur langue de prédilection. Le webinaire souligne aussi la nécessité d’être libre d’oppression, de racisme et de discrimination. En outre, il met en lumière la responsabilité des travailleuses et travailleurs sociaux dans la protection de l’environnement. Ces derniers doivent comprendre l’impact disproportionné du changement climatique sur les personnes vulnérables. Bref le webinaire encourage les travailleuses et travailleurs sociaux à défendre des politiques et des programmes qui favorisent le bien commun.

The COVID-19 pandemic has escalated health care social workers’ professional responsibilities and obligations, complicated goals of care, and restricted hospice and palliative care decision-making at end-of-life. Consequently, social workers’ roles are shifting as they encounter complex medical and ethical scenarios that have heightened experiences of moral distress. Encounters of moral distress arise when institutional or individual factors constrain an individual from executing a plan they identify as ethically justifiable; they are tasked with having to act in a way that conflicts with their personal and/or professional values and ethics. The implications of moral distress are far-reaching and have long-term effects on providers’ mental health and well-being. Yet, the impacts of COVID-19 have centered largely on nurses and physicians, hands-on direct care medical providers. This two-part presentation will start with a focus on the triggers and consequences of moral distress for health care social workers and conclude with strategies to reduce moral distress, identify self-care practices, and foster moral resilience, professional efficacy, and wellness. 

Part 2:   
- To describe individual self-care strategies that are rooted in social work practice discourses 
- To identify interpersonal approaches to reduce moral distress, including examining mentoring and supervisory relationships, interdisciplinary team-based communication, and continuing education. 
-  To support institutional/organizational change that considers how culture and climate, including hospital hierarchies, need to implement effective strategies to address moral distress and place value on mental health and well-being.

The most recent warnings of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change are clear.   The time to work together to end fossil fuel emissions of greenhouse gases is now. As professionals we can respond to the human behaviors that are undermining the earth’s ability to sustain and support our lives. The technologies to accomplish this task exist, but human systems are not responding to the crisis with their full capacity, in fact they are, by force of habit, exacerbating the problem.   

The general social narrative continues to be stuck, afraid of change and uncertain. The story is similar to the stories of segregation, apartheid, women’s rights, nuclear contamination and the need for a nuclear freeze. But in these instances, the narrative changed and we were able to respond in productive ways.  Social workers played a central role in all these cases.  Can we do the same for climate change?

Social workers, doctors, teachers, planners, architects, theologians and many others ought to add their perspectives to the overriding and real urgency of global warming. Social work, through its humane focus and multi-generational roles of promoting understanding between people and communities, and advancing humane care for everyone, can contribute to a new hopeful and inclusive narrative.  How can we do this, and what special insights and capacities can we contribute through our professional knowledge and experiences?   Would our understanding of the psychosocial consequences of stress on communities and families help broaden the conversation about the dangers of the moment?  Would our experience of the importance of community participation, and our abilities to listen to and help others be critical at this time?  Can social workers’ thoughtful participation and concerted action contribute to the global tasks at hand in a way that leaves no one out?

Webinar key learnings:

• A brief presentation of the October 2018 UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report and other warnings about the immediate need to address global warming. 

• A brief overview of the off-the-shelf technological solutions that could respond to the IPCC recommendations for action.

• The need to broaden the social narrative and take action – when has that worked in the past and why? 

• How has denial and despair been overcome?
• Do we feel despair?  Can we help professionally with denial and despair?

• How can social workers contribute through our professional capacities to broadening the conversation and contributing to concerted actions?
  •   How can social workers support each other and the community at large during this era of “eco-anxiety”?

Note that this webinar is scheduled in Atlantic Time. Here is a simple tool that allows you to enter and compare your time zone to Atlantic time. 

Please note that this webinar will be presented in English.

This webinar will draw attention to the full implications that engagement with environmentalism has for the social work profession. While there has been considerable scholarship attempting to provide direction to social work’s response to climate change and environmental devastation, the scholarship and the impact of the actions proposed have been constrained by the profession’s foundational values and the limits they impose on effective action toward sustainability. A full engagement with the environment exposes both problems with the core values upon which the profession has been developed, and the need to transition to a different theoretical foundation that has the potential to both transform our relationship with each other and the Earth, and bring us closer to a sustainable future. The webinar includes:

• brief overview of ecology and social work
• outline of social work’s embeddedness in modernity
• review of core values of modernity and their limitations
• present core values of Ecosocial Worldview and their opportunities
• discuss implications of this transformative shift

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Ce webinaire attirera l’attention sur toutes les implications de l’engagement envers l’environnementalisme pour la profession du travail social. Bien qu’il y ait eu beaucoup d’études visant à orienter la réponse des travailleurs sociaux au changement climatique et à la dévastation de l’environnement, l’étude et l’impact des mesures proposées ont été restreints par les valeurs fondamentales de la profession et les limites qu’elles imposent à une action efficace en faveur du développement durable. Un engagement total à l’égard de l’environnement expose à la fois les problèmes liés aux valeurs fondamentales sur lesquelles la profession s’est développée et la nécessité de passer à un fondement théorique différent qui a le potentiel de transformer nos relations entre nous et avec la Terre, et de nous rapprocher d’un avenir durable. Le webinaire comprend :

• un aperçu de l’écologie et du travail social
• un aperçu de l’ancrage du travail social dans la modernité
• un examen des valeurs fondamentales de la modernité et de leurs limites
• les valeurs fondamentales actuelles de la vision écologique et sociale
• une élaboration sur les conséquences de cette transformation.