SOCIAL WORK RESEARCH PARTICIPATION

BCASW supports studies and research in issues and topics relevant to the knowledge and practice of the social work profession. If you meet the eligibility requirements, please consider requests for research participants below. Participants should read the research request carefully and be fully informed before participating in any research. Participants understand that they are assuming full liability for participating in the research.

BCASW posts research study requests for participants that are of interest to social work professionals. BCASW does not endorse any of the research featured and is not responsible for any claim(s) or offers made in these posts. BCASW reserves the right to decline a request to post research studies. 

Are you a BC healthcare worker that has been affected by your experiences of the COVID-19 pandemic and the ongoing health human resource crisis in BC healthcare?

If so, you may be interested in our study: The Trust Initiative is a collaborative research project on the topic of healthcare worker trust in the healthcare system. The aim is to find fact, not fault, to identify system-wide recommendations, and to support healthcare workers and leaders in providing the highest standard of care across our province. Click here for more information 

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Understanding the professional development and support needs and preferences of social workers practicing in rural and/or remote settings

Researchers at Portage College in Alberta are conducting a survey to understand the professional development and support needs and preferences of social workers practicing in rural and/or remote settings.  They aim to develop an understanding of the perceptions of social workers in rural and remote areas toward current training, supports, and professional development opportunities.  The survey also explores social worker’s preferences for future supports and resources.  The goal is to use this information to develop a rural and remote social work practice network.  Survey results may also be used to inform future research about social workers practicing in rural and remote areas. 

Social workers practicing in rural and/remote areas are invited to participate in the survey, it should take approximately 10-15 minutes to complete.  The survey will be open until March 31st, 2025.

Survey: https://www.surveymonkey.ca/r/portagecollegeruralremotesocialworksurvey

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

The Influence of Gender at the Intersections of Cognitive, Social, and Sensory Vulnerability: Perspectives of Home Care Providers

The University of Alberta is inviting registered professional who work in a home care setting to join this study. Click here for more information. 

 Abstract

 There are many interrelated factors that are associated with cognitive performance decline among older adults. For example, past research has highlighted increased risk of cognitive decline among women, those who are isolated or lonely and those with sensory impairments. While we know about many individual factors that can influence risk, we cannot always prevent cognitive decline, and it is important to find ways to support people to live well with cognitive decline. We know little about how well-known risk factors, like gender, social and sensory vulnerabilities, may interrelate to influence experiences of living well once someone already has cognitive decline. The proposed work will explore home care providers’ perspectives of how social (e.g., social activity engagement, social support), sensory (e.g., hearing impairment), and cognitive characteristics present in home care clients who are men and women, how different combinations of these client factors influence the care of home care clients, and how information from a new prediction tool regarding cognitive performance decline could be used with different types of home care clients. We aim to recruit 15 to 25 regulated clinicians to participate in 90-minute focus groups (3 to 5 participants per group, for a maximum of 6 focus groups). Regulated clinicians providing care to individuals receiving home care services in Canada (e.g., nurses, allied health providers, physicians, and nurse practitioners) will be recruited from community-based organizations across all Canadian provinces and invited to participate in focus group interviews conducted via Zoom.

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Invitation to Participate - Moral Courage in Social Work

The purpose of this study is to explore the experiences of acting with moral courage in the social work field. Moral Courage is described as doing the right thing even when there may be negative consequences to you personally.

Please consider participating in this exciting research. Participation includes: Approx. 1hr Virtual Interview, Demographic Questionnaire (during interview), Questions will be provided in advance.

For More Information Contact: Sonja Stone, Research Assistant stones1@myumanitoba.ca Principal Researcher: Jennifer Hedges, RSW, MSW, PhD Faculty of Social Work Jennifer.Hedges@umanitoba.ca

Download the poster here. 

This research has been approved by the Research Ethics Board at the University of Manitoba, Fort Garry campus_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Seeking Clinician Perspectives

Attention All Clinicians and Healthcare Providers in Canada!

Do you work in healthcare with a pediatric population that includes bilingual or multilingual patients/clients?

The Bilingual and Multilingual Developmental Lab at the Temerty Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto, is seeking participants for a research study. The study aims to investigate the perspectives of a range of clinicians in the healthcare sector who work with bilingual and multilingual children in Canada.

Participants will be asked to complete a short questionnaire and take part in a 45-60 minute online interview. As a token of our appreciation, participants will receive a $15 gift card of their choice.

Your clinical viewpoint is crucial to help us advance research in this area!

If you are interested in participating, please visit https://redcap.utoronto.ca/surveys/?s=LCCHCAFPRE8KT4LF or contact us from more details (e-mail: kaiian.leung@mail.utoronto.ca)

Promoting Responsive Interventions for Adolescents with Persistent and Severe Disruptive Behaviors

The purpose of the research is to inform the development of interventions tailored to youths with disruptive behaviors and callous-unemotional (CU) traits. Although youths with CU traits demonstrate improvements in disruptive behaviours through treatment, they tend to continue to show elevated disruptive behaviours after treatment. Furthermore, most treatments do not effectively reduce CU traits themselves (Perlstein et al., 2023). Research is increasingly focusing on how to adapt or enhance treatments for youths with CU traits. The current study seeks to survey researchers, providers, and caregivers on the perceived treatment needs of youths with disruptive behaviors and CU traits.

Researcher:
Joyce H. L. Lui, Ph.D. (joyce.lui@concordia.ca)
Assistant Professor
Department of Psychology

For more information, click here. For ethics approval certificate, click here. 

Learning and Teaching Social (in)justice in Online Social Work Education

My name is Rose, and I am a PhD candidate in the School of Social Work at Memorial University. As part of my doctoral dissertation, I am conducting research under the supervision of Dr. Sulaimon Giwa. My doctoral dissertation research is entitled “Learning and teaching social (in)justice in online social work education” and is supported in part by funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council. This research aims to contribute to the knowledge base on social justice in online social work education, highlight pedagogical practices, and ways to improve learning and teaching social justice in fully online, asynchronous social work courses in Canada.

To be eligible to participate, you must have either taken or taught in the last two years (winter 2022 to present) a fully online asynchronous social work course in Canada with social justice in the title and/or course description. Any current or former counselling clients I have worked with and current or former students I have taught are ineligible and cannot participate in this study.

There are two parts to this study that follow the online informed consent form. The first part is an online questionnaire in which you will be asked questions related to the study, social work education, your sociodemographic information and positionality. The second part involves sharing your digital story on learning and/or teaching social justice in asynchronous online social work courses. Participation will require approximately forty-five to sixty minutes of your time in total. You will receive an e-gift card as an appreciation of your time.

To learn more or to participate, please click on this link or copy and paste this Qualtrics URL into your internet browser. https://mun.az1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_8qu4Nfz8mWDSBfM

The proposal for this research has been reviewed by the Interdisciplinary Committee on Ethics in Human Research and found to be in compliance with Memorial University’s ethics policy. If you have ethical concerns about the research, such as your rights as a participant, you may contact the Chairperson of the ICEHR at icehr.chair@mun.ca or by telephone at 709-864-2861.

Exploring How White Settler Social Workers Can Engage in Anti-racism and Decolonizing Crisis Support

The study will explore the question of how white social workers deliver unstructured crisis support with a focus on how knowledge of anti-racist and decolonizing practices are applied within the unstructured crisis response settings. Current literature offers a wide exploration of the importance of centering decolonial and anti-racist practices within social service fields, and showcases how many agencies have applied this knowledge within different areas of their practice. The literature does not clearly address how social services engage a decolonial and anti-racist framework within unstructured crisis response settings, and this study seeks to learn from social workers engaged in this area of social support. 

In this study I am exploring unstructured crisis support services as situations where social workers enter a crisis, with limited knowledge of the person accessing support, limited time and available resources and must navigate their response to the situation and person.
 
I am seeking your assistance to distribute the attached participant recruitment poster to your employees and/or volunteers. For this study, I am looking to speak with individuals that self-identify as white, completed social work education (BSW, MSW), two or more years of experience providing unstructured crisis support, live on Lekwungen territories (Greater Victoria), are 19 years of age or older, and speak English. 

A one-time $30 visa gift card will be provided to recognize your time, knowledge and energy offered through participating. 

Anyone with questions or interested in participating are invited to contact me directly. 
 
Contact Information
 Researcher: Amanda Chidwick, Masters of Social Work student at the University of Victoria.  School of Social Work. Contact: achidwick@uvic.ca
 
Supervisor: Dr. V.C. Rhonda Hackett, School of Social Work at the University of Victoria. Contact: rhackett@uvic.ca  

Approved by the University of Victoria Ethics Board # 22-0449 Human Research Ethics Office: University of Victoria, (250) 472-4545 ethics@uvic.ca

South Asian Children Exposed to Intimate Partner Violence: Exploring the unique needs and responses of children exposed to IPV

Manroop Maan, a doctoral student in a Clinical Psychology program at Adler University- Vancouver Campus has designed a study as part of their degree. The study is looking at the unique responses and specific needs of South Asian children exposed to intimate partner violence. The research is conducted under the supervision of Dr. Guirguis-Younger.  

Eligibility criteria for participants in this study are as follows: 

  • Are you a practicing registered social worker (RSW), registered clinical counsellor (RCC), Canadian certified counsellor (CCC), or registered psychologist (R. Psych)?
  • Are you currently registered as part of a licensing body within B.C and in good standing?
  • Have you worked directly with Immigrant and/or Canadian born South Asian children (birth to 18 years of age) exposed to intimate partner violence? 
  • Do you have two or more years of experience working with this population? 
  • Do you work in the Metro-Vancouver region?  
  • Do you feel comfortable speaking in general about your professional experience in terms of how IPV exposure impacts South Asian children? 
  • Are you comfortable being interviewed in English? 
  • Do you have 60-90 minutes to talk with me about your experience?  
  • Do you have access to the internet, and are willing to use Microsoft Teams video software?  

    For more information: Dissertation Recruitment Poster.pdf 

Oncology social workers' experiences and knowledge of patient care for sexually and gender-diverse (SGD) patients affected by cancer

My name is Kyla Mitchell-Marquis and I am an undergraduate student in the Department of Psychology at the University of the Fraser Valley and a student researcher for Queering Cancer. I am also the Primary Investigator of a research study under the supervision of Dr. Evan Taylor, an Assistant Professor in the School of Social Work and Human Services at the University of Fraser Valley and a co-founder of Queering Cancer.  

The purpose of this project is to interview oncology social workers' and explore their experiences and knowledge of patient care for sexually and gender-diverse (SGD) patients affected by cancer. 

Potential Benefits  
By participating in this interview and sharing your experiences as an oncology social worker, you will help advance understanding of the knowledge your profession has in adequately caring for SGD patients affected by cancer. Any gaps in knowledge identified may also aid in changes to the social work curricula. The LGBTQ2+ community will also benefit from the study as aspects of the findings may inform oncology healthcare providers on how to minimize and mitigate the stark health inequities these patients face. 
 
Commitment and Confidentiality 
 If you decide that you want to be a part of this study, you will be asked to participate in a maximum one hour-long interview with me via Zoom. Audio will be recorded and transcribed, and you may choose to keep your camera on or off during the interview. Your participation is completely voluntary, meaning that you are free to skip any questions that make you uncomfortable or withdraw from the study entirely at any time. To protect your confidentiality all identifying information (e.g., names, location, place of work etc.) will be redacted from the transcripts and pseudonyms will be used for all participants.  

If you wish to participate, please contact me at kyla.mitchell-marquis@student.ufv.ca. I will send you a mandatory letter of informed consent that must be signed and sent back to me before we conduct our interview. Along with your confirmation to participate, please send a selection of dates and times for the next two weeks that work with your schedule.   

Research Ethics & Standards

The BCCSW Standards of Practice indicate, among other considerations, that the research participant is to be considered as a client, that social work includes the conduct of research, that data collected is to be considered as part of the social work record, and that the standards for disclosure of information apply to data collected. The following statement from: 

Tri-Council Policy Statement: Ethical Conduct for Research Involving Humans (TCPS 2) and Introducing the Tri-Council Policy Statement: Ethical Conduct for Research Involving Humans – TCPS 2 (2022) are helpful resources for social work researchers.

Statistics Canada

 Stay informed with Statistics Canada which has data and analyses on virtually every aspect of Canada's society and economy.