Unlikely Sources

I like to follow a lot of blogs.  Over the past couple years, this has become my favourite way to keep up with the world.  While some are fellow social work and mental health types, I also cover a lot of my other interests - feminism, crafts, food, stuff.

Lately I've noticed an interesting trend - proof that mental health affects us ALL.  A number of my favourite bloggers have been posting about anxiety, developmental disorders, depression and the like.  I love reading these posts and commend those who have decided to share their struggles with the blogosphere - it's a big world out there and breaking the culture of silence around mental illness can be scary.

Here are some examples:
Jen over at Epbot blogs about her experience with anxiety disorder
Gail VazOxlade, usually in the business of giving financial advice is sharing chapters of her book A Mind of My Own about raising her son who has autism
Alycia at the Curious Pug posts about using crochet to help keep depression at bay
Caitlin of Fit and Feminist discusses (in this post and others) her experiences with drug addiction, disordered eating, and being an abuse survivor.

Have you  found insightful or inspirational posts such as these in unexpected places?  Do share!

What makes a Social Worker?

I have a confession to make: I am not a social worker.

That is, I don’t have a Bachelor of Social Work (BSW) or a Masters of Social Work (MSW). I’m not even a registered Social Service Worker, which is a two year diploma.

This does not stop my clients, or even friends and family from referring to me as a social worker.

I did go to school. One year of a Bachelor of Fine Arts (dropped out) and a diploma in Assaulted Women and Children’s Counselling and Advocacy (AWCCA). It’s an awkwardly titled and unique program, but I learned more there than in any other school I’ve attended my whole life. And it is in the Community Services department.

I believe in a recovery model of mental health work. Recovery is a word I’ve heard kicked around in mental health departments for a long time, but a lot of the time it seemed to be more of vague notion of an ideal rather than an actual working philosophy or model. It’s only been in the past year or so that I have really learned how the concept of recovery can be used to help clients and improve the work that I do.

I took to the recovery model very quickly, because it jives well with my feminist and anti-oppression perspective. These are things I learned in the good ol’ AWCCA, as well as my life experiences. 

Most of the time, I feel pretty well prepared to handle the work I do. I attribute this to my training, but also to my ‘lived experience’ - the things you don’t get out of a book. The recovery model values this highly. It emphasizes the importance of lived experience and in particular peer-support in doing mental health work.

Meanwhile, the social work sector seems to be headed for increased professionalization. I don’t really have numbers to back this up, but I have certainly noticed it from my constant perusing of job postings. More and more jobs are requiring BSW’s and even MSW’s for community work that has often been done by people like me. While I strongly believe that further education is a good thing, I do question whether this trend can be congruent with the recovery model.

I also would never want to disrespect or devalue the years of effort and hard work that others have put into their professional designations. Goodness knows I was proud when I graduated my program (with honours thankyouverymuch) but is completing a two or four or five year degree the only way to be a Social Worker?

More to come in a new blog series I am going to call Recovery 101.

Politics of Rape

I remember having a conversation with my University roommate once about rape. I don’t remember the details at this point, but somehow through the course of the conversation I know that I made the ridiculous statement that “you can’t be raped!” to my male roommate. He was taken aback, and only had to say “uh, yes I can” to make me realize my stupidity. Despite being a staunch feminist and growing up with a “No means NO” poster in my playroom at home (thanks mom) there were some serious gaps in my knowledge and understanding of rape and sexual assault.

I know I am not the only one who has had this type of misunderstanding. Unfortunately, not everyone is as quick to rethink their definition of rape as I was. Over at the Ms. Magazine blog, there is a campaign going on to change the FBI’s 82-year old definition rape which states that “forcible rape” is “The carnal knowledge of a female forcibly and against her will”. Such a narrow definition means that many victims and survivors are not included on the FBI’s Uniform Crime Report (UCR). The statistics of this report have a direct effect on funding and resources for sexual assault crime investigation.

Here in Canada the Criminal Code criminalizes sexual assault, and defines that as any sexual contact with another person without that person’s consent. While our system of course is not perfect, at least it offers victims a vehicle by which to press charges if they want to. And at least they know that they “count”.

I had my own experience of sexual assault, and it took me a long time to realize that’s what it was. For a long time I had bad feelings whenever I couldn’t push back the memory, was triggered all the time and didn’t know how to deal with it. Naming what happened to me was a huge help to coping and taking back power over my own situation. It helps when society doesn’t dismiss what happened to you either.

Even though it’s not my country, I’ve already signed the Ms. petition at Change.org and urge you to do the same.

Petitions by Change.org|Start a Petition »

IWD 2011

Exactly one year ago I posted Happy International Women's Day with the comment that "our work is never done."  I like this phrase because it seems to speak to both the (often) intense expectations placed on individual women in their daily lives, as well as the larger social work of feminism, specifically ending sexism.

I love the rant below, and although I've been unable to determine it's original source, it can easily be found all over the internet.  Check out the links, I think they show some of the great work women are doing, and how much more we have to go.

*****

Because women's work is never done and is underpaid or unpaid or boring or repetitious and we're the first to get fired and what we look like is more important than what we do and if we get raped it's our fault and if we get beaten we must have provoked it and if we raise our voices we're nagging bitches and if we enjoy sex we're nymphos and if we don't we're frigid and if we love women it's because we can't get a "real" man and if we ask our doctor too many questions we're neurotic and/or pushy and if we expect childcare we're selfish and if we stand up for our rights we're aggressive and "unfeminine" and if we don't we're typical weak females and if we want to get married we're out to trap a man and if we don't we're unnatural and because we still can't get an adequate safe contraceptive but men can walk on the moon and if we can't cope or don't want a pregnancy we're made to feel guilty about abortion and...for lots of other reasons we are part of the women's liberation movement.

National Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence Against Women

December 6. I couldn’t let the whole day go by without remembering that it has been 21 years since the Montreal Massacre at Ecole Polytechnique. Vigils will be held across Canada today to remember the woman who were killed or injured, and to recognize the National Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence Against Women.




Throughout this year the ongoing debate about the long gun registry has reached a fever pitch. The registry was put in place after the events of December 6, 1989 in hopes of preventing future tragedies. I hope this story doesn’t trump important discussions of femicide and violence around this time.



It seems more encouraging to highlight things like the December 6 fund, an initiative of the YWCA offering interest free loans to women leaving violent and abusive homes. We know that finances are one of the major reasons that women may not leave an abusive relationship. Initiatives like this that offer women the opportunity to use their own ideas and skills to create a new life are invaluable. I’ve known a couple women who have benefited from this fund, and they continue to be grateful.



So here’s to an end to all gender-based violence, and a rose to remember the women who have suffered it.

Pause for Thought

Check this out --> Feminist Activists Find Peace in Thailand

I wanted to link to this article for a couple of reasons.  For one, feminism and VAW (violence against women) work are very important to me.  My training background is actually in assaulted women’s counselling, not mental health, although the two have obvious intersections.  I love learning about what feminist activism looks like around the world.

The other reason is that I found as I read this, I was contrasting the “retreat” experience they describe with the professional trainings and workshops I attend here in Canada.  The focus on “self-love and self-worth as an essential part of their work in the world” sounds really in line with my philosophy, but not my practice.  I certainly haven’t had many experiences in my professional life where there is such an emphasis on this sort of thing.  The perks offered to us at trainings usually max out at a free lunch, and possibly getting to go home a bit early. 

I don’t know much about Thai society or the culture of social service work there, so I can’t really comment on whether the needs of these workers would be different than where I am, and what they might make of their retreat experience.  But as the writer says, seeing “15 women grown napping together on the floor of a conference room after a lively plenary” would be “odd” to see in the U.S. (and I’m considering the U.S. and Canada to be more or less the same in this respect). 

It sounds nice.  But would it work?  Would anyone go for it?  I can imagine the mixed reactions of my co-workers – divided between feeling uncomfortable, and griping about how they could be making phone calls or getting assessments done instead.

Is this because we really don’t value self-care?  We talk a lot about avoiding compassion fatigue, but the general consensus seems to often be that we are responsible for this on our own time. 

On the other hand, is it because sleeping or meditating would be considered a private activity, and we would be asked to let our guard down to such a degree in a very public and shared space?  A lot of what they describe would be strikingly different from our typical professional activities and behaviours, and would (I think) demand a lot of openness to the experience.  Would this cross my boundaries?

I don’t know.  But I’m curious.

Has anyone experienced something like this?

Happy International Women's Day!

Our work is never done.

www.internationalwomensday.com