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Browsing Social Work by Subject "Canada"
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Item Open Access A Phenomenological Study Exploring the Lived Mental Health Experiences of Afro-Caribbean Canadian Youth Utilizing Mental Health Services(2025-04-10) Edwards, Fiona Chrislyn; Matsuko, AtsukoLittle is known about the mental health experiences of Black youth, especially those from the Afro-Caribbean community, due to a paucity of studies within the Canadian context and a lack of Black youth mental health perspectives. To respond to this gap, this study explored the lived mental health experiences of Afro-Caribbean Canadian youth (ACCY) aged 16–18 who use mental health services. This helped gain their perspectives on their mental health experiences in Southern Ontario urban areas. This study was informed by post-colonial theory and critical race theory (CRT) and the concept of anti-Black racism (ABR). An interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA) rooted in Heideggerian hermeneutic was utilized to respond to the main research question and three sub-questions. Data were collected from 13 participants comprising four groups: six ACCY; three faith-based leaders; two mental health workers; and two parents. Overall, 10 females and three males participated in the study; the three males were all ACCY. One of the significant findings from this study revealed that ACCY understand their mental health experiences as an invalidation of their knowledge, feelings, and emotions and who they are as Black youth. ACCY reported that they were invalidated within key institutions and in their home environment, which negatively impacted their mental health and well-being. However, the adult participants understood the mental health experiences of ACCY differently from the youth. They understood that ACCY’s mental health experiences were misunderstood as deviant behaviours and ACCY’s behaviours were criminalized rather than recognized as mental health issues to be addressed. This study found that the invalidation and misunderstanding of the mental health experience of ACCY within dominant institutions were race-based and resulted from experiences of systemic and pervasive ABR. I argue that systemic ABR is the root cause of the mental health experiences of ACCY being invalidated. In terms of ACCY’s access to and use of mental health services, the study identified a dual pipeline: a school-to-mental health pipeline and a prison-to-mental health pipeline. ACCY prefer to access mental health services from Black mental health workers who understand them and can validate their lived experiences with systemic ABR and identity as Black youth. This dissertation concludes with recommendations for social work and restructuring the key institutions by addressing pervasive ABR within them to centre Black youth’s mental health, give them the opportunity to voice, help them affirm racial pride, and include them in full participation in Canadian life by nurturing a sense of belonging.Item Open Access Surviving Racist Culture: Strategies of Managing Racism among Gay Men of Colour - An Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis(2017-07-27) Giwa, Sulaimon; Razack, NardaRacism, a unique source of stress, occupies a peripheral point of analysis in the literature on gay, lesbian, and bisexual (GLB) health research. Canadian investigators have not examined the coping strategies that non-White gay men use. Lacking knowledge of the groups coping responses overlooks the dynamics of resistance and prevents interventions for addressing racism from being developed. The current studys aims were to explore the contexts in which gay men of colour experienced gay-specific racism; to investigate their understanding of factors contributing to the experience of racism; and to examine strategies they used to manage the stress of racism. Foregrounding issues of White supremacy and racial oppression, the study used frameworks from critical race and queer theories and minority stress theory, integrating insights from the psychological model of stress and coping. Data were collected in Ottawa, Canada, employing focus groups and in-depth interviews with 13 gay men who identified as Black, East Asian, South Asian, and Arab/Middle Eastern. Using interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA), the study concluded that racism was pervasive in Ottawas GLB community, at individual, institutional, and cultural levels. Racial-cultural socialization processes were found to influence racist attitudes and practices. Racisms subtle, insidious forms undermined discrimination claims by gay men of colour, in that White gay men denied any racist attitudes and actions. In general, participants used problem- and emotion-focused coping techniques to moderate the impact of racism. The value of social support for coping with the stress of racism was highlighted, revealing a vacuum of care in public health and social work practice with gay men of colour. Social workers and allied health professionals should neither view the experiences of gay men of colour through the lens of sexual orientation alone, nor focus solely on sexual behaviours that place them at risk of HIV/AIDS. In doing so, they would risk not only discounting the complexities of the mens lives, but also sustaining and perpetuating a life without potentialities beyond deficit. The implications and limitations as well as recommendations for future study are discussed.Item Open Access The Social Organization of South Asian Immigrant Women's Mothering in Canada(2016-09-20) Ferzana Chaze; Susan Lee McGrathThis research examines the social organization of newcomer South Asian womens mothering work. It explicates the processes that contribute to South Asian women making changes to their mothering work after immigrating to Canada despite having reservations about the same. Data for this research was collected through interviews with 20 South Asian immigrant mothers who were raising school aged children in Canada and had been in the country for less than five years. Eight key informant interviews were conducted with persons who engaged with immigrant families in their work on an ongoing basis for insights into how their work connected to the work of the South Asian mothers. Government policies, websites and newspaper reports also form important data sources for this study. Using Institutional Ethnography, the research shows the disjuncture between the mothering work of the South Asian immigrant woman and institutionally backed neoliberal discourses in Canada around mothering, schooling and immigrant employment. The research shows the manner in which the settlement experiences for South Asian immigrant women became stressful and complicated by the changes they needed to make to their lives to coordinate with these institutional discourses. The study explicates how the work of immigrant mother in the settlement process in the home, in relation to the school, and in relation to her own employment changes over time as she participates in social relations that require her to raise her children as autonomous responsible persons/citizens who can participate in a neoliberal economy characterised by precarious work. The study throws light on the complexity of settlement work for South Asian immigrant women and on the manner in which South Asian immigrant mothers values/priorities in relation to raising children become subordinate to more dominant set of values driven by global neoliberal influences that stress autonomy. The study has implications for the social work profession that is connected in many ways to the settlement experiences of immigrant women.