Speaker

Alexandrina Vermeulen

Changes through time: A review of the changes in intake statistics at an inpatient treatment centre over a twenty-year period

Abstract Narrative

An exploration into the history of drug use reveals that for thousands of years people have been using mind-altering substances. In some communities the use of substances is part of cultural practices, while in other cultures the use of only certain substances is socially acceptable. However, as time and contexts change, so the types of substances that are available have increased and the trends in substance usage have changed. Furthermore, advancements in the scientific and technological fields have seen an increase in the types of illicit drugs that are available on the market today. Improved global transport and network systems have resulted in the increased availability and variety of numerous illicit substances. South Africa is a country that has undergone rapid political and social changes in the last few decades. However, factors such as poverty, unemployment, broken family systems and limited access to resources, influence and affect the levels of substance use and addiction in communities. Despite many progressive developments and implementation strategies of the government to curtail the problem of substance use in the country, statistics show that the problem of substance use and addiction in South African society has not dissipated and instead is entrenched in the fabric of society. This study explores the changes in the profile and substance use patterns of clients who attended an inpatient treatment programme for their substance use problem. The intake statistics of a substance use treatment centre over a twenty-year period were reviewed to determine changes and similarities in the patterns of substance usage, the types of drugs used as well as the nature of referrals for treatment. The findings showed that while some aspects of substance usage have not changed, there are changes in the types of drugs that are being used as well the profile of those who are seeking treatment for their substance use problems. Incorporating a social development framework, recommendations are made for policy and specific intervention strategies that should be developed to address the needs of vulnerable groups and to help curtail the problem of substance use in society.

Mr Mohammad Mostafizur Rahman Khan
Doctoral Student, And Adjunct Faculty
Indiana University, Usa

Vulnerable and Excluded Groups

Biography

Mohammad Mostafizur Rahman Khan is a social worker, researcher, and development practitioner. His areas of interest include adolescent and youth development, sustainable development goals (SDGs), international social work, social work macro practice, social work research, and social work practice evaluation. Mr. Khan has substantive experience in working with the government, research, and development organizations such as access to information program (a2i) of the Prime Minister’s Office of Bangladesh, UNDP Bangladesh, United Nations Headquarters in New York, BRAC International, and The Population Council. He has a proven track record in leading program development, research design, policy analysis, and providing strategic and development advice to stakeholders. Mr. Khan studied Bachelor & Master of Social Welfare (CSWE accredited) from the University of Dhaka, Bangladesh. He also studied MA in Sustainable International Development from Brandeis University, Massachusetts, USA. Currently, he is pursuing a PhD in Social Work at Indiana University, USA.

Dr Shirin Sultana
Ph.D., Assistant Professor
Department of Social Work, SUNY Brockport

Examining Predictors of Wellbeing among Women Living with HIV/AIDS in Bangladesh: Implications for Social Work Education and Practice

Abstract Narrative

Background/Objective
Gender inequality is pervasive in Bangladesh where women wield considerably less power than men in social and economic spheres (Hossain, 2018; Morshed & Haque, 2015). The existing inequality widens and further alienates women when they are infected with HIV/AIDS, struggle with the HIV-related stigma, and attempt to cope with both the physical disease and its social consequences. Since patriarchal cultural norms dictate many social doctrines (i.e. access to health care, employment, decision making etc.) towards women, Bangladeshi women living with HIV/AIDS (BWLWHA) is hardly different in terms of stigma they encounter in accessing health and mental health care. Several studies in developing countries presented that HIV-related stigma makes women living with HIV/AIDS (WLWHA) vulnerable to severe mental health problems (UNAIDS, 2017). There is barely any study that explores how gender status affects women’s wellbeing in alleviating their HIV-related stigma in Bangladesh.
Methods
A cross-sectional research design was utilized to collect the study data from WLWHA (N=200). A nonprofit organization that provides direct services to the people living with HIV/AIDS was selected to recruit participants. WLWHA were screened against certain inclusion criteria were interviewed. Apart from demographic information, standardized instruments including India HIV-related Stigma Scale (Steward et al., 2008), Social Support (Sherbourne & Stewart, 1991), Beck Depression Inventory (Beck et al., 1961), Rosenberg Self-Esteem (RSE) (Rosenberg, 1979), (Coping Self-Efficacy (Chesney et al., 2006), were utilized to collect the study data.
Results
Most of the participants were between 30 and 39 years old and a majority (60%) had secondary levels of education. The vast majority (87.5%) had a monthly income below US $ 62.5. For them, the levels of social support (r= .34, p <.001), self-esteem (r= -.21, p < .001), knowledge and attitudes (r= -.30, p < .001), and depression (r= -.40, p <.001) were associated with coping strategies. The results of the Canonical Correlation Analysis, specifically, the overall Wilks’ lamba multivariate test of significance showed a statistically significant correlation between the demographic and other factors’ (knowledge and attitudes towards HIV/AIDS, coping strategies and social support) variate and wellbeing (depression and self-esteem) variate (Wilks’ Lambda= .68, (𝐹[𝑑𝑓=8,388], p <.001). The determinants of wellbeing variate accounted for 59.41% of the variance in levels of depression and self-esteem.
The result of the canonical correlation found a statistically significant negative correlation between coping strategies and depression, indicating that participants who had higher levels of coping strategies also had lower levels of depression. This study findings support the broader body of literature (Razurel, Bruchon-Schweitzer, Dupanloup, Irion, & Epiney, 2011; Simbayi et al., 2007). In Bangladesh, WLWHA may access variety of social support from their families, friends and relatives that may enhance their coping with HIV-related stigma. Therefore, it can be said that the participants’ high coping strategies may reduce their levels of depression.

Implications
The study findings add knowledge to social work education and practice on wellbeing of WLWHA. Educational interventions and mental health services (e.g. counseling) might strengthen women’s coping with HIV in Bangladesh.

Biography

Shirin Sultana, Ph.D. is an Assistant Professor at the State University of New York-Brockport Department of Social Work. Her research interests includes: gender and mental/behavioral health emphasizing women’s reproductive health, HIV stigma, resilience, coping, wellbeing. Dr. Sultana continues to publish and present at conferences both nationally and internationally.

Dr Frank Selelo Rapholo
Senior Lecturer
Department of Social Work, University of Limpopo

Perceptions of church leaders on the integration of migrant youth into the welfare services of South Africa: The case of refugees in the refugee shelters managed by churches in Musina

Abstract Narrative

“Southern Africa has a long history of intra-regional migration, dating back to the mid nineteenth century. An increasing number of people have migrated to escape poverty, seek livelihoods or escape from political upheavals and civil strife, such as the Mozambican and Angolan civil wars. The patterns and scale of these population movements across the globe are constantly in flux. In spite of South Africa being a signatory to all African Union and Southern African Development Community protocols, little is achieved with regard to the integration of migrants into mainstream welfare services. Therefore, this qualitative study aimed to explore and describe the perceptions of church leaders on the integration of migrant youth in Musina into the welfare services of South Africa. A descriptive case study design was used to purposively select two church leaders who are the key informants for migrant youth in their churches to participate in this study. Semi-structured interviews with these church leaders were followed and data was analysed thematically. Findings show that many problems migrant youth face start with problems around documentation which as a results leads to their inaccessibility to health care, housing and social services in South Africa. Therefore stakeholders in Musina should be empowered to collaborate their services to address the phenomenon of immigration. Key Words: Church Leader, Integration, Migrant Youth ”

Supporting Document

Biography

Selelo Frank Rapholo is the Senior Lecturer at the University of Limpopo. Dr Rapholo is a registered social worker with the South African Council for Social Service Professions and a researcher in the fields of Child Sexual Abuse, Forensic Social Work, Migration Studies, Spirituality Public Health and Substance Abuse.

Dr Cameron McKenzie
Assistant Professor, Faculty of Social Work
Wilfrid Laurier University

Neoliberal Policy on LGBTQ+ Organizations in Ontario, Canada

Abstract Narrative

LGBTQ+ populations are at a consistently higher risk for suicide, substance abuse, homelessness, and have limited or inappropriate access to health care and social services. However, issues such as HIV and mental health continue to dominate LGBTQ+ health research. Furthermore, literature on sexual orientation and gender identity as a social determinant of health (SDH) approach is extremely limited. Community-based agencies (or third-sector organizations) have argued that they are well positioned to provide culturally appropriate services and influence policy change through their relationships with funders and policy-makers. However, scholars and activists have also observed that government funding has moderated the politics of the LGBTQ+ movement.
This study examines the impact of a neoliberal policy¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬—one that introduces competition for funding and pressure to professionalize and bureaucratize the environment—on the working conditions and precarity of a purposive sample of southern Ontario (Canada) organizations dealing with LGBTQ+ health issues, their funders, and other government policy makers. The possibilities and perils of a population-specific LGBTQ+ health strategy are also explored. Findings from semi-structured qualitative in-depth interviews with 20 community-based organization stakeholders, and government bureaucrats confirmed that the neoliberal policy environment pressures these organizations to professionalize and bureaucratize, while restricting political advocacy. Queer Liberation Theory’s three central tenets of anti-assimilationism, solidarity across movements, and the political economy of queer health under neoliberalism are used to better understand the situation and possible futures for third-sector organizations within the LGBTQ+ movement. This study proposes ways to reframe the discussion on LGBTQ+ health equity using the insights of Queer Liberation Theory.
NOTES: Faculty members in the Hallman Faculty Social Work at Wilfrid Laurier University stand strong in solidarity with Black Lives Matter and in the longstanding fight against anti-Black violence and racism. The murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, Tony McDade, Regis Korchinski-Paquet, D’Andre Campbell, and countless other members of the Black community have occurred, and continue to occur, as a result of state-sanctioned, institutional oppression and violence. The recent events in the United States are abhorrent, and we in Canada would be remiss to think recent displays of police violence and murder are the only examples of how the police state and other systems perpetrate anti-Black racism. Anti-Black racism threatens the lives of Black people in our Ontario communities with the staggering statistic that Black people are 20 times more likely to be killed after an encounter with police than white people (Ontario Human Rights Commission, 2018).

Furthermore, Indigenous people experience violence in disproportionate ways, often ending in tragedy. Recently, Chantal Moore, Colten Boushie, Elishia Hudson, and Greg Ritchie have died at the hands of the very people who are responsible to protect and serve. Additionally, the numerous Missing & Murdered Indigenous Women, including the high profile murders of Tina LaFontaine and Helen Betty Osbourne, continue to be neglected.

We acknowledge the deep-seated historical and current pain experienced by the Black community, whose physical and economic safety is challenged on a daily basis. We express our solidarity, support, and love for you. We know Black, Indigenous, and racialized people have always resisted state-sanctioned violence, in all of its forms, leading liberation movements to end targeted racial, economic, and gender-based violence. We especially want to acknowledge the impacts on Black students, as well as racialized and Indigenous students. Higher education and its institutions are not immune from anti-Black racism and are often sites of harm for students, staff, and faculty who learn and work in these settings. We also see ourselves in the numerous stories, videos, reports, and experiences of anti-Black racism and other forms of hate perpetrated against Black, Brown, Indigenous, and other racialized bodies. We are not just signaling our solidarity, we are signaling our own experiences of anti-Black racism – within the world, our profession, our institution, and our communities.

We are deeply impacted by the state of the world. We call on all people to engage in antiracism work, to stop racialized violence and racial inequity that is experienced by Black, Indigenous, and racialized members in our communities.

We call on those within the WLU Faculty of Social Work, and other programs of Social Work and Social Service Work, who are able to access spaces of White and economic privilege to act in solidarity and not simply declare solidarity.

We, as social workers, have a duty and ethical obligation to uphold social justice and fight for liberation for those who are oppressed, marginalised, and ostracised in our society. This is a critical point in time for social workers and other helping professionals who are pledging to do better. In this moment, social workers need to speak up in support of these social justice movements and speak out against anti-Black racism, all while simultaneously holding a mirror to our own participation in and complicity with systemic anti-Black racism within our own profession. In fact, as members of a Faculty of Social Work, we are embedded within two systems, a professional discipline and post-secondary education, where historical and current anti-Black racism is systemic. Those of us who occupy White spaces and bodies, and benefit from White, colonial, and capitalist systems, cannot pledge solidarity without first doing our own work. Of course, we, as social workers, stand by the values of solidarity, allyship, unity, collectivity, and the power of love over hate, but simply claiming these values is not enough. Performing these values is not enough. We must name and act in solidarity with those leading these movements.

To this end, we, at the Faculty of Social Work at Wilfrid Laurier University, support the joint motion made by the Canadian Association of Social Work Education’s Student Committee and the Racial, Ethnic and Cultural Issues Caucus (RECI), and also pledge to:

• Speak against systemic racism and amplify voices of those who are not provided platforms to be heard;
• Support efforts to end police violence against Black and Indigenous communities;
• Participate in a movement requiring the defunding of policing and the removal of municipal police presence on University campuses;
• Be self-aware and reflexive on our own privilege and inner biases, as well as the anti-Blackness and anti-Indigeneity embedded in our institutions, families, and friends;
• Honour the need to create and hold Black-only, and Indigenous-only, spaces for healing and advocacy work;
• Challenge ourselves to see and acknowledge our own complicities in these oppressions, by refusing to be compliant and refusing to follow the status quo;
• Create safe spaces for students by intentionally hiring Black and Indigenous professors and staff; and
• Honour the Indigenous Principle of All My Relations that teaches us about relational accountability, and upholding values of love, kindness, respect, humility, and bravery to take on injustice.

Supporting Document

Dr Hadijah Mwenyango
Assistant Lecturer
Makerere University

Violence against women and children in refugee settlements: A case study of Nakivale Refugee settlement Uganda

Abstract Narrative

At least half of the world’s refugees are women and children. People living in refugee settings experience poor health because emergencies exacerbate existing violence against vulnerable groups and present new forms thereof. This paper is based on a mixed methodology study of refugee women and children in Nakivale Refugee settlement Uganda. The study used quantitative (a survey of 377 female refugees) and qualitative (69 in-depth interviews with refugee women and men and key informants) methods. The findings show that women and children experience psychological, physical, sexual and social violence. Despite tough commitments related to gender equality and the rights of refugee women and children in refugee situations by UNHCR and International law, their experiences and needs are still not given vital attention in terms of robust responses. I propose the adoption of a comprehensive humanitarian approach comprising sexual and reproductive health services, social and economic responses. With this, they will enjoy their rights, thrive and be transformed.

Biography

Dr. Hadijah Mwenyango (M.Sc. Social Work & Human Rights (The University of Gothenburg, Sweden), PhD Social Work (The University of Edinburgh, UK); is the Coordinator for the International Association of Schools of Social Work (IASSW)—Regional Resource Centre at the Department of Social Work and Social Administration (DSWSA), Makerere University; a member of the Global Refugee Health Research Network (GRHRN) based at the University of Edinburgh UK and an Associate Member at the Centre for Health and Social Economic Improvement (CHASE-i’s) Uganda. Her teaching and research interests include Social Work, Forced Migration and Refugees, Health, Human Rights, Social Services and Social policy. She is the current Course Director for the Master of Social Work (MSW) Course on Human Rights, Ethics and Values in Social Work at DSWSA and offers support for coordination and facilitation of an Online Course on Health and Migration organised by the Center for Health and Migration, Vienna and DSWSA, Makerere University.

Dr Amanuel Tewolde
Post-Doctoral Fellow
CSDA

Theme 1 G

Dr Tehila Refaeli

Senior Lecturer
Spitzer Department of Social Work, Ben- Gurion University of the Negev

Ten years later: Satisfaction with intimate relationships and parenthood of young people aging out of residential care

Abstract Narrative

Background and purpose: While many studies on young people aging out of residential care (care leavers) focus on tangible outcomes such as integration into higher education, relatively fewer studies examine care leavers’ intimate relationships and parenthood. This presentation is based on a longitudinal study that followed Israeli care leavers for ten years after leaving care. We present a model predicting satisfaction with intimate relationships and parenthood based on their background characteristics, personal resources and formal and informal support at several points in time.
Method: There were four waves of data collection. The sample included 276 adolescents during their last year in care (T1), 234 one year later (T2), 220 three years later (T3) and 151 ten years after leaving care (T4). Satisfaction with intimate relationships and parenthood was measured at T4; personal resources (including self-esteem and readiness to leave care) were measured at T1 and T4; informal support, namely support from parents and friends, was measured in all waves; and experiences of traumatic life events, economic difficulties and use of formal support were measured at T4. Two hierarchical regressions were conducted to examine the contribution of background, socio-economic situation, personal resources, and formal and informal support to predict satisfaction with intimate relationships and with parenthood at T4.
Results: Towards the end of their 20’s, 73.4% were either married or had stable intimate relationships and 38.5% were parents. Altogether, the independent variables accounted for 34% of the variance in satisfaction with intimate relationships and 71% of the variance in satisfaction with parenthood.
Satisfaction with intimate relationships was predicted by higher support from the father and peers as reported at the time of leaving care and by fewer traumatic life events. Father’s support ten years after leaving care predicted a higher level of satisfaction with current intimate relationships.
Satisfaction with parenthood was not related to personal and social factors from earlier years. Rather, it was predicted by the young people’s gender (females were more satisfied with parenthood), lower levels of traumatic events throughout their lives and lower levels of mental distress and substance abuse ten years after leaving care. Additionally, higher levels of satisfaction with intimate relationships predicted higher levels of parental satisfaction.
Conclusions and implications: The findings suggest that past traumatic life events greatly contribute to understanding young people’s satisfaction with both intimate relationships and parenthood, indicating that ten years after leaving care, care leavers’ backgrounds still strongly affect their outcomes as adults. Risk factors such as substance abuse and mental distress are especially relevant to the care leavers’ satisfaction as parents. Additionally, current satisfaction with intimate relationships benefits from having support before and after leaving care, and also contributes to parenthood satisfaction. From a practice point of view, it is important to examine why formal supports were not associated with satisfaction from intimate relationships and parenthood. It may be necessary to develop supports for care leavers that target these important areas of life.

Biography

I am the head of the youth studies program and a senior lecturer in the Department of Social Work at the Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, in Israel. My research interests mainly focus on the transition to adulthood among young people aging out of different types of care facilities (kinship, foster and residential care), and challenges in the transition to adulthood of other at-risk groups. Three years ago, I received an Israeli Science Foundation (ISF) grant, with my colleagues, to conduct the 4th wave of our longitudinal study on care leavers. The study uses mixed methods with a longitudinal design to examine differential outcomes for care leavers approximately one decade after leaving care facilities and to predict these outcomes based on their characteristics while in care and over time.